Hebrews: One Sacrifice Of Christ Is Sufficient, A New And Living Way, Christ Or Judgment (Chapter 10)

Not only is Jesus the mediator of a better covenant, He offered Himself as the only sacrifice that was able to take away sin.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

You're listening to Teach Me the Bible podcast, where we unpack the meaning of books, passages and themes from Scripture. Join us each week as Dr David Klingler walks us through God's Word and teaches the Bible. Each episode has a study guide available in the show notes. This is Teach Me the Bible podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:31

Hey everybody, welcome back to Teach Me the Bible. We are in the book of Hebrews and we're all the way to chapter 10 today, and so we've been following this argument where he's telling these Jewish believers not to go back. They've believed, don't go back to the old, to the partial, to the copy of what was just looking forward to the full, which is Christ, and he's kind of explained that in multiple ways using multiple illustrations from the Old Testament, and so we've kind of been building this language and so we're going to kind of pick that argument up in chapter 10. So if you want to kind of take us away and help us, yeah, I'm reminded of an exchange between Jesus and Peter.

Speaker 3: 1:21

And Jesus is teaching this difficult teaching and all the disciples are leaving the Lord. And he turns to the 12 and says are you going to, are you leaving to? And Peter's response is where else will we go? Only you have the words of eternal life. And really that's where the author of Hebrews is trying to get these people to recognize. There's nothing to go back to, there's nowhere to go. There's only eternal life here, there's only hope of what was promised here in the Christ, not in the partials but in the full.

Speaker 3: 1:57

And so he continues in chapter 10 for the law, since it has only a shadow of good things to come and not the very form of the things, can never by the same sacrifices year by year. So, talking about these sacrifices that were offered by the high priest year by year, which they continually make perfect those who draw near, in other words, they would have not ceased to be offered because the worshipers, having a once been cleanse, no longer have a consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there was a remainder of sins, year after year. In other words, the payment never fixed the conscience, it never satisfied, it was never once for all, because it was impossible. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. I'm reminded when Jesus is coming and John the Baptist sees him and he says behold the Lamb of God who covers up sin that's not what he says who takes away the sin of the world. They've been covered year after year after year, but they're looking for one to come and take it away, and this is the one, and the blood of bulls and goats could never do it. Or when he says when he comes into the world, he says sacrifice and offering you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you have taken no pleasure. Then he said behold, I have come in the role of the book. It is written of me to do thy will, o God. In other words, he came to offer himself as a sacrifice, a payment for sin After these things. In other words, he came not only as the priest but as the sacrifice, and the sacrifice was himself, his own blood. And after saying the above sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you have not desired, you haven't taken no pleasure in them, which is offered according to the law. Then he said behold, I have come to do your will. He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus, the Christ, once for all.

Speaker 3: 4:20

For every high priest stands daily ministering and offering, time after time, the same sacrifices which can never take away sin. But he says having offered one sacrifice for the sin once for all, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from the time onward until his enemies are a footstool for his feet. This is important to stop here and to make sure that we don't miss this point. He's still working with Psalm 110. He's been dealing with Psalm chapter 40, but now it's the Psalm 110, sit in my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. And so the author's point here is that the sit in my right hand happens after he makes the sacrifice. He's made the sacrifice and now he sits and he waits.

Speaker 3: 5:14

The sin has been taken away, the payment once for all has been offered. There's no more work to be done for this high priest. He has made the satisfactory sacrifice, the one that satisfies the Lord, and he has sat down, and now we wait. We wait until his enemies will be made a footstool for his feet. And the point to the reader is you're in the until time. You're in between Christ's death, burial, resurrection, ascension, payment for sin and sitting down and his return. And so we wait, we endure and you're in need of endurance.

Speaker 3: 5:57

And that's what he's gonna say, for by one offering, he has perfected for all time those who were sanctified in the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us saying this is the covenant that I will make with them. After those days, I will put my law in their heart and upon their mind. I will write it. Then, he says and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer an offering for sins. Since, therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the Holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart, in assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water, and let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering. And that's the problem they're wavering and they're not supposed to, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and to good needs, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near, what day? The day of the return of Christ, the day of when the enemies are made a footstool for his feet.

Speaker 3: 7:29

For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of truth, now what would that go on sinning willfully, what does that look like? There is no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. The sinning willfully is in the Old Testament. They were sinning, the payments were made, they covered year after year, the conscience was never dealt with. But now this one has made the payment once for all and the forgiveness has been given. There's no longer necessary or needed an offering for sin to reject and to go back to this sin. And the payment for sin and all that stuff would be sinning willfully and therefore receiving after receiving the knowledge of the truth. There no longer remains a sacrifice for sin. All of those Old Testament partials that never worked, were looking towards this one event, this one act of the Christ to offer himself and to sit down. And if you reject that and go back to the sin and the covering, there's no hope. There is no longer. There no longer remains any sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment instead and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.

Speaker 3: 9:04

Now, anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy. Right, that was the judgment. On the testimony of two or three witnesses. It goes back to the Old Testament. You set aside the law of Moses, you reject the law of Moses. You were laid low on the wilderness or the testimony of two or three witnesses, you are killed.

Speaker 3: 9:24

How much you think it won't go better If you set aside the old law, the old covenant, and you were put to death? You think it will go better if you set aside the new covenant? This is not. This is the logic of the argument. How much severe a punishment do you think he deserves who's trampled underfoot, the Son of God, and is regarded as unclean, the blood of the covenant by which you were sanctified, by the blood of the new covenant, and has insulted the spirit of grace, for we know him who said vengeance is mine, I will repay and again, the Lord will judge his people. If that's old covenant language, you think it will go better to reject the promised new covenant that was looked forward to because the old covenant failed?

Speaker 2: 10:17

I love this argumentation. It's not just that Christ is better than the old. He renders the old obsolete in a way right, and if you go back which he's already said it's like you're crucifying Christ all over again. That's a really severe accusation against them and I just think there's such a brilliant argument, and the rejection of the old led to judgment.

Speaker 3: 10:43

the rejection of the new will lead to more judgment, for it is a terrifying thing to fall on the hands of a living God.

Speaker 3: 10:51

There's that fall word again, but remember the former days when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of suffering, partly by being made a public spectacle through approaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming shares with those who were so treated, for you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession, and a lasting one, an abiding one. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence. He doesn't say throw away your salvation. Don't throw away your confidence, which has a great reward, for you are in need of endurance so that, when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. They were to be a witness, a testimony to their brethren, and they were enduring and reminded of Peter writing also to believers, and they were undergoing suffering. And Peter says you undergo suffering. This was the whole point, right, that Christ suffered. You were to suffer for you were called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example to follow in steps, an example to the fellow brethren who are unbelievers, the Jewish unbeliever and so if you go back, you're being persecuted by them. You go back and now you're gonna be wiped out by the Lord, fall into the hands of a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of a living God and lose your confidence. That's not what we're wanting to do here. Remember how you started. Don't throw away your confidence. Your reward is great. The Lord is coming. But you're in need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. Yet for a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteousness, my righteous one, shall live by faith. He who is righteous shall live future tense by faith. And if he shrinks away, my soul has no pleasure in him. It's not talking about. He does not say did the Lord take pleasure in the people when they rebelled against him and rebelled against the old covenant? No, will he take pleasure with his people if they rebelled against the new covenant? No, right. So verse 39,. But we are not those who shrink back to destruction, but those who have faith to the preserving of our soul. Right, I'll shrink back to destruction. We're not destined for destruction, but for salvation. And so don't allow yourself to fall in the hands of a living God who will discipline you. So he's introduced this judgment, this discipline, for those who trample underfoot the new covenant, who rebel against the old covenant and the new, and he's going to go back to that in chapter 12.

Speaker 3: 14:09

So next time we're gonna pick it up in chapter 11, but his point in chapter 11 is to illustrate all those who also had endurance. They had faith, they did not shrink back, they had endurance and the Lord was pleased with them. Right, and all of these having gained approval through their faith, the Lord was pleased with them. He wasn't disappointed with them. He took pleasure in them. It's not that he had no pleasure in them. He had pleasure in them, even though they were persecuted and suffered and never received what was promised. And so he's gonna use chapter 11 to continue the point that he's introduced in chapter 10, at the end of chapter 10, and walk us right into chapter 12. You're in need of endurance and so actually these aren't chapters, as we've talked about so many times. It's still the same logic train that he's gone down the tracks on. So don't separate chapter 10 from 11, from 12. In your mind, it's all a unified argument.

Speaker 2: 15:11

That's good, and one of the things that strikes me as we go through this argument, every time I read Psalm 10 in particular, is how important that word until is, because you can almost hear the bad guys, the antagonists, and well, christ is so great, where's he at Yep? Now that seems to have changed, so I can hear Old Testament's still continuing on as oh.

Speaker 2: 15:34

why should we listen? Well, because that word until he's sitting at the right hand, he's coming back, and when he does, it's not gonna go. So therefore, that's the main point you have need to endure because we're in that until.

Speaker 3: 15:49

And we still are in the until time.

Speaker 3: 15:52

Exactly right. Listen to these words, and this is out of second Peter. Know this first of all. Then, in the last days, mockers will come with their mockies and following their own lust, and they will say just what you were talking about. Where is the promise of his coming? Forever. Since the father's fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation. And Peter says but when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that he's already wiped out humanity once with the flood and the world's being preserved for fire again. So don't let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, the Lord is not slow about his judgment, as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing for any to perish.

Speaker 2: 16:37

And the other Hebrews will add in and he wiped out a whole generation of Israel. Yes, yeah.

Speaker 3: 16:43

And so the Lord has always been disciplining, judging for disobedience, and so the theology of the Bible doesn't change. So, whether it's the writer of Hebrews, or James, or Peter or John, or whoever it is, they're all saying the same thing. They're all singing the same song. They're all singing the song of Moses, and they're calling the people to know the song of Moses, to know the story of the Bible, song of Moses Derbent, jeremy 32, which walks through the story of the Bible. So know the story of the Bible and remain steadfast to it, and you may suffer probably will for it. But it's better to suffer at the hands of a wicked world than to be disciplined by the hands of a living God. To follow in the hands of a living God, that's not what you want. You are called to be a representative, so don't go back on your confidence. Endure, the King is coming, that's good.

Speaker 3: 17:42

And so that's the theology that drives through Paul, that drives through all of this exhortation of believers throughout the whole New Testament.

Speaker 2: 17:49

That's great. All right, well, I'm looking forward to getting into this next chapter and finishing out this book and just seeing the practical implications of this argument that he's been developing all through these first 10 chapters. And so join us next week for chapter 11 as we continue on and approach the end of the book of Hebrews. We'll see you then.

Speaker 1: 18:12

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