The book of Hebrews explains that Jesus Christ is the perfect priest and the perfect sacrifice. Chapter 10 discusses the perfect results of Jesus' priestly work.
Verse 1 begins with a conclusion: "The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming--not the realities themselves." Chapter 9 had sketched the Levitical rituals and said that Jesus did far better, offering a perfect sacrifice (himself) in a perfect place (heaven). The Levitical rituals had to be repeated again and again, but Jesus' sacrifice was completely effective.
Just as the tabernacle was a copy of the holy place in heaven (8:5), so also the rituals were copies or shadows of the real sacrifice, Jesus Christ. The tabernacle and rituals (included in the word law) represented good things, but could not bring them about. The law talked about cleansing and forgiveness, but could not cleanse or forgive.
Christ is the "high priest of the good things that are already here" (9:11). Forgiveness, cleansing and relationship with God are already possible through Jesus Christ. The law is only a shadow, not the reality. "For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship" (10:1). No matter how many animals were killed, the law could never achieve the forgiveness that the new covenant now offers.
The new covenant does not make us morally perfect, but it makes us ritually perfect--completely forgiven, perfectly qualified to approach God and have a relationship with him. Our sins are removed (v. 4) and our guilt is eliminated (v. 2). The law could not do this.
If the sacrifices could achieve what they pictured, "would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins" (v. 2). The logic is this: If the sacrifices really prepared people for relationship with God, then further sacrifices would not be needed. Moreover, now that Jesus has completely qualified us, sacrifices should be stopped.
The new covenant gives what the old could not: a cleansed conscience. Through faith in the effectiveness of Christ's sacrifice, we feel forgiven, cleansed and accepted by God. We are invited into the holy place.
The author then clinches the argument against the old covenant: The sacrifices, instead of cleansing people, "are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins" (vs. 3-4). A physical substance such as blood cannot remove a spiritual stain. The old covenant was designed to picture forgiveness, but not to bring it.
The Old Testament saints were forgiven their sins, of course, but it was done on the basis of faith and grace, not because of killed animals.
The author begins verse 5 with the word therefore, meaning "because of what I have just said." In this case, it means, "Because the old covenant could not bring forgiveness, Christ came into the world and said...," and then follows a quote from the Greek version of Psalm 40:6-8: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, `Here I am--it is written about me in the scroll--I have come to do your will, O God'" (Heb. 10:5-7).
This psalm is one of several Old Testament passages that foreshadow the end of the sacrificial system. Our author quotes it and then rephrases it, giving the label "first" to a point that he will come back to shortly: "First he said, `Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them.' "
He adds this comment: "Although the law required them to be made" (v. 8). What the law required is not what God ultimately wanted. (Jeremiah 7:22-23 has a similar contrast.) God gave the law not as a permanent goal, but as a temporary system that would prepare the way for Christ.
What did God want? Verse 9 says, "Here I am, I have come to do your will." God wanted the people to obey him--but only Christ did it perfectly. Jesus fulfilled the words of this psalm in a way that no one else could.
Then comes a conclusion: "He sets aside the first to establish the second" (v. 9). What is the "first"? The sacrifices and offerings--but Hebrews also uses the word first to refer to the Sinai covenant. It and its sacrifices and rituals have been set aside.
And what has been established? God's will. The word second was also used for the new covenant (8:7). Our author is using Psalm 40 as a miniature picture of the change in covenants.
Because the old covenant could not bring forgiveness, Christ said, Out with the old, and in with the new! The new covenant has been established by the obedience of Jesus Christ. He is the answer to the deficiencies of the old covenant.
It is by God's will that "we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (v. 10). This is another way of describing the results of the new covenant. Our sins are removed, our conscience is cleared and we are made holy, so we can approach God to worship. How is all this done? Through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We do God's will when we accept him as our means of sanctification.
Jesus bridges the gap between heaven and earth, between spirit and matter. His flesh was ordinary flesh, but his sacrifice was effective for us because he did God's will perfectly--a spiritual quality. A physical body had to be given, because the spiritual sacrifice had to be expressed in the physical world. He willingly gave himself for us, and his sacrifice was fully effective, once for all time.
Our acceptance by God does not depend on the performance of rituals--it depends on something Christ has already done, and it is therefore guaranteed.
This is contrasted with the ineffective work of the old covenant priests: "Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins" (v. 11).
"But when this priest [Christ] had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God" (v. 12). The Levitical priests stood while they worked; Christ is able to sit (figuratively speaking) because his work is now done.
"By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy" (v. 14). Christ is working in our lives, and the work is based on the sacrifice he did once for all time. He has completely cleansed us, made us qualified to be in God's presence.
Jeremiah 31:33 is then quoted: "This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds" (Heb. 10:16). This is the work being done as we "are being made holy."
Then our author skips down to the last part of Jeremiah 31:34: "Then he adds: `Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more' " (Heb. 10:17). And he draws this conclusion: "And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin" (v. 18).
This is the grand finale of the argument: Our sins are forgiven, so sin sacrifices are not necessary. To us, this might look like an anticlimax, something we take for granted. But to our author, this is a major point, the point he has been hammering away at for four chapters. The sacrificial system is not needed any more. The old covenant has been set aside. It never was effective, and Christ has set us free from it.
Why did our author stress this point so much? Apparently the audience of Hebrews found the sacrificial system attractive. It was a God-given pattern of worship, and even if God allowed other forms of worship, wouldn't it be better to stick to the original plan? Wouldn't this assure us that we were doing something that God likes?
No, our author is explaining. God is not pleased by those worship rules, even though he commanded them. He didn't like it in Jeremiah's day, or when Psalm 40 was written. The law was appointed for a time, but its time is past.
In the early church, when Jewish people first believed in Jesus as the Messiah, many of them continued to participate in the temple rituals, either in person or through offerings given in the synagogues. At first this seemed harmless, and the people were allowed to continue their customs.
However, as time went on, it became evident that the rituals were a competitor to Christ. People were looking to the rituals for assurance, rather than to Christ. In their minds, their relationship with God was based partly on their participation in the rituals. They may have thought, Even if these laws are optional, wouldn't it be better to continue them?
So our author argues, chapter after chapter, that the rituals are obsolete imitations. This is not the better way--this is the inferior way. Throughout the book, Christ is compared to various aspects of the old covenant, and Christ is always better. Old covenant rituals are inferior. They do not achieve anything. Our standing with God is based on what Christ has done, and he has set aside the old covenant.
Does our author want his people to participate in the sacrifices and rituals? No. Does he command them to quit? No, not directly, but he probably wants them to come to that decision themselves.
What he commands them is, Look to Jesus. Old covenant rituals are ineffective shadows. Jesus is the reality, and he is fully effective. There is no need for obsolete rituals. They are not a badge of better Christianity--they are an unnecessary burden that can block our view of Christ.
A longer version of this article, including comments on verses 19-25, may be found at www.wcg.org/lit/ bible/heb10.htm
Michael Morrison
Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 2000