Today’s passage is simply frightening; there is no way to soften it. It is sort of the spiritual equivalent of being told by the doctor that there is nothing else that can be done to save a person’s life. This is the end of the road.

This section is one of several warning passages in Hebrews, and they are difficult to teach and explain easily and clearly. But as always with this letter, remember the situation of the readers – people being warned not to throw off the Christian faith to return to an easier life of convenience.

The previous passage ended with a thought about the approaching day of the Lord and the end of time. Peace and stability in this life is great, but to trade off the truth for such would be to make a pretty stupid deal. And beyond ignorant, it put a person in a place of terrible judgment as an enemy of God. There were no sacrifices for such an apostasy.

The Old Testament Scripture being referenced was one that talked about the judgment that fell upon someone who embraced idolatry. How much more severe judgment would surely therefore befall someone who walked away, not merely from the shadow of things in the OT system, but actually from the fulfilled reality of redemption in the person and work of Jesus Christ. If you reject the final payment, there is no other payment in the pipeline.

These verses also picture more than a merely mild decision. The “trampling” verb used in this verse is one that means to stomp all over and trample completely under foot. This level of apostasy would only be done by one who never really had received and fully trusted in the truth of Christ to begin with.

26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.”  31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

So how do we apply such a passage as this to our lives? Our current circumstances don’t quite match up in a one-to-one way with these original readers. However, a day may come when it is more like what they faced. It is a common theme of discussion in our country right now about the increasing pressure upon Christians and societal disdain for our values. The future may be more difficult for living for Christ in an open way.

At the very end of Paul’s writings, at a time when his own martyrdom was fast approaching … of being “poured out,” he said, “everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”  The abnormal thing is to not be persecuted.

The Christian life can be very difficult in a hostile and secular culture, but there is no other place to go.

Probably more than a couple of you reading this have no memory of a silly but popular TV game show in the 60s and 70s called “Let’s Make a Deal.”  People from the audience became “traders” and were given a prize for being selected that was of some moderate value – like a television. They were then offered the opportunity to either take the prize and be content with what they had, or to trade it for something unseen and unknown, often hidden behind one of three curtains. It could be something of truly great value, or something absolutely ridiculous and worthless.

The Hebrews were essentially on the edge of – from the writer’s perspective – making a terrible deal. They were ready to keep the familiar old thing that they knew (the earthly, visible, Levitical system of sacrifices) rather than trading it for something of inestimable and eternal value (Christ and the New Covenant).

But here was the deal for them: what was behind the curtain was not unknowable. The curtain was open to see what was there – literally, it was. The curtain spoken of in our passage today was that one that prevented access to the Most Holy Place in the temple – the one that only the high priest went behind on one day of each year.

Recall though what had happened at the moment of Christ’s death. There was an earthquake that caused this huge, thick, heavy curtain to rip from top to the bottom. The result was that the most holy place was open for view. And of course this all symbolized that an entirely new day had arrived with a final sacrifice for sin. The old system was now obsolete.

Details about this work of Christ as the ultimate high priest have been the theme of our most recent chapters. The way was now open. Jesus is our high priest at the right hand of God. There is open and confident access to the very presence of God – what the passage today calls “a new and living way.”  The Law of the Old Testament, with its limited access to God’s presence said, “Danger, stay away, judgment awaits any who dare to enter the holy place.”  But the New Testament message of the Gospel says rather, “Come to God through the blood of Christ; judgment has already been made and the price paid.”

There are three practical applications, set off by three “let us …” statements …

1. We can confidently draw near to God. What a wonderful truth this is. The creator God wants us who know him as our Lord and Savior to enter right into his royal presence without any fear of judgment. Amazing truth.
2. We have a hope to hold onto in any and every circumstance. This is because of God’s faithfulness. There is nothing that happens outside of that.
3. We should serve one another by being faithful to be together. When you don’t do this, you hurt both yourself and other people. We need each other. None of us have everything that we need to any extent that we can make it by ourselves. Is there an application out of this verse that missing church should be far more rare than common? Yep! God said it, not me! See you Sunday, if not before.

19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

There are very few of us alive in America now who can remember what it was like to live in an era without electrical or indoor plumbing utilities. Life was much harder without these conveniences, and gaining them was a great relief.

I don’t remember such a time, but I grew up with parents who did.

I do remember when I was in 3^rd grade that we had a well drilled in our yard, just outside the dining room windows. I recall becoming buddies with the well-drilling guy – can still remember his name to this day! I thought it was really fascinating, and for a while, that is what I wanted to do in life!

My father was so excited about this for another reason that I did not really understand at the time. He was looking toward to the relief of not having to deal with the work of a constant water supply concern. Prior to the well, the water in our country house was from a cistern. There were valves on all the downspouts from the house and garage that would direct rain water from those roofs either into the cistern or out onto the ground. I recall my dad going out into the rain to make sure they were either on or off, depending upon the need. He had to try to keep the supply in the tank full, yet if he was not watching carefully enough, an oversupply would cause it to overflow and flood the basement.

But there was a worse time in his life. He grew up on a farm in the early 1900s … far from electrical supply, and long before plumbing. Water had to be carried from a springhouse at the bottom of the hillside. It was one of his chores as a boy. Light was provided by kerosene heaters; and heat came from a pot-bellied woodstove in the kitchen – which honestly only heated the kitchen. Snow would blow through the window frame cracks, and at 5:00 in the morning when he awoke to milk the cows, he might find small snow drifts on his bed sheets.

So my dad never really got over the amazement of indoor plumbing and electricity. He was profoundly thankful and believed himself to be living in the ultimate modern age. The work of carrying water and lanterns was done. He could flip a switch or turn on a faucet, and everything he needed was right there.

Our passage today talks about the ongoing work of the system of the old covenant – one where the Levitical priests had endless work. It was a career with job security. People sinned continuously, they needed their sins dealt with continuously, and so there was an endless parade of sacrifices and a literal river of blood … there really was! Ancient writers talked about what the Temple area was like on the occasions of the major feasts, such as Passover. Over a quarter-million sacrifices were made for over two million people. Holes and channels in the floor area of sacrifices carried the blood out to the Kidron stream – which flowed red like the river in Chicago flows green on St. Patrick’s Day.

Imagine the sights and sounds of this! Consider the mess … the carcasses of the animals. The entire scene pictured what a terrible mess was the issue of sin, while also illustrating the price of covering it … but it wasn’t really covered! Not permanently. The repetitious nature of it illustrated that the Levitical system was insufficient and inferior.

But, as the writer has indicated, there came an entirely new priest of a new order. This priest – Jesus Christ – was also at once the sacrifice as well. Entering one time into the true tabernacle – not the shadowy one of the Levitical system – with his own blood he made a once and for all, final, sacrificially-sufficient payment for all sin of all time.

Illustrating the permanence of this sacrifice, the writer says that this priest “sat down” at the right hand of God. The work was done. There is no more need for sacrifice or a system that was endless in operation. And what were the last words of Christ?  “It is finished.”

Man, that is awesome! We don’t have to do something like bring animals for some intermediary spiritual personage to sacrifice for our sins. Those sins have been paid for already. What we do regularly is memorialize and remember the one who paid that price for us. And that is what we do with communion.

And oh what a relief it is to have the payment made once and for all.

Christ’s Sacrifice Once for All

10:1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2 Otherwise, 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. 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; 6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. 7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, my God.’”

8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. 9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

11 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. 12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. 14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: 16 “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.”

17 Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”

18 And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.

Yesterday we talked about how the Old Testament sacrificial system was sort of like a credit card system. When you purchase something with a credit card, it is good enough to secure the transaction. It is a real purchase. But a day will have to come when a final and perfect transaction takes place with real money from an account that possesses the proper currency for there to be a final consummation of the transfer.

So it was with the Levitical system. The blood of bulls and goats was sufficient for the remission of sins, though they always looked forward to an actual and final payment – a payment in time by the blood of Christ on the cross. All of this will yet be elaborated upon in greater detail in upcoming chapters.

Now in chapter 8, the former system will be called the old covenant, whereas Christ will be spoken of as initiating a new covenant.

A covenant is essentially an agreement—a “promise” made between two parties. In the OT, God was always the initiator of that promise, but if man wanted to experience the blessings of that promise, he would need to abide by the stipulations of the covenant—that is, Israelite Law. And that was the problem and the challenge. Man could never live up to it. We could say that the Law revealed sin and the sinful condition, and it gave remedies that when trusted in faith were temporarily sufficient – though always looking toward a permanent solution yet to come.

Jesus, and his priestly work and sacrifice, was that solution; and it was therefore superior, as was written in 8:6 – But in fact the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises.

The writer is arguing that God anticipated all of this. It is not as if Jesus was a surprise, and now his followers were claiming, “Hey look, this is better; join us!”  No, it was anticipated as something to someday arrive and written about in the Jewish Scriptures by the prophet Jeremiah – who is quoted in verses 8-12 …

8:7 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. 8 But God found fault with the people and said:

“The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. 9 It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. 10 This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 11 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

13 By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.

Jeremiah served and wrote in a difficult time in Israel’s history. The northern kingdom had been taken into captivity, and the southern kingdom of Judah would soon fall to the Babylonians. Jeremiah would personally witness all of this. And he writes to the people to tell them that there will be a better day … a day when Israel would be God’s people again in a true and better way.

But you might say, that is for Israel, so what has that got to do with me today? Well, the full answer to that is a theologically complicated one about which volumes have been written.

Condensing it to a paragraph, it means that there will be a national day of salvation (eschatologically) for the nation of Israel, that, until that time yet comes and since Christ has paid the price, others may spiritually experience it in grace through faith in the once-for-all work of Christ. This is the fulfillment of the universal promise to Abraham that all of the world would be blessed through his offspring – specifically through the blood of Christ. And in the time from Pentecost until the coming of Christ for his own, this is called The Church.

Yes – The Church Age – this is the big thing that God is doing in the world right now; he is building it to completion as the bride of Christ. And just as the Hebrews were encouraged to not be stupid and toss off the real work of God for the obsolete former and temporal order of things, we should be challenged to not forsake the very program and institution that God is working through in the world today. There is nothing temporal, nothing of this world, that is greater than the building of the church.

Do you believe that? Do you flesh that out in the values system of your life? The writer is going to challenge this very subject in chapter 10 as well.

The presidential election cycle truly kicked off this week with the first announcement of one who is going to seek the highest office in the land. This is a selection process that ends with the one person who will represent all of us before the other nations of the world. If we don’t like the person who gets this job, we can complain and be sad about it, but after eight years at the most, he will be gone and another will take his place. It is all a big deal; we desire the very best representative.

And so it makes sense that we should desire the very best representative before the Creator God of the universe.

There was an old covenant, or agreement, between God and man that set up a system of priests to represent mankind before God. But, like presidents, these guys came and went. It would certainly be better to have a less transitional, changing and imperfect system than this! How much better it would be to have a permanent system with a perfect priest who never dies! And beyond that, how much superior it would be if this priest were not “far” from God on the earth, but rather with God in heaven itself! Now that would be cool!

And so the author, in setting up this entire argument and scenario begins in chapter 8 of Hebrews by saying that such a priest in such a system and in such a place truly does exist …

The High Priest of a New Covenant

8 Now the main point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,2 and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by a mere human being.

3 Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer. 4 If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already priests who offer the gifts prescribed by the law. 5 They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” 6 But in fact the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises.

As we preach and teach through these and other passages, you surely note a pattern of conversation from us where we say that something is the “true” this, or the “true and better” that. Well, you can see that this phraseology comes from the Scriptures as in verse 2 today … “the true tabernacle.”

We tend to think that this life is the real world, the real life – that which casts shadows into eternity. In fact, it is the other way around. Eternal life is real; God’s work is the true reality, and it casts shadows into the earthly realm.

The entire earthly tabernacle / temple system was a shadow of the true tabernacle = the intercessional ministry of Christ in the presence of God in heaven. Moses was given commands to be very precise in the way he constructed the tabernacle, because it taught eternal truths in

every last detail.

Everything about the work of Christ is superior to the familiar experience of the readers of this letter, who, by the way, could still go to the temple and see the high priest doing his endless deeds. The temple had not yet been destroyed by the Romans, as it would be in 70 A.D.

Illustrations of these sorts of truths are always a bit shallow, but let me try this…

I am not a car guy. I dislike cars. I don’t care what they look like or if they are new or old, I just want them to work. I despise anything to do with repairs and maintenance. And getting gas, along with being a nuisance and annoyance, is simply terribly expensive.

But there comes a point where turning up the radio in the hopes that the clickity sound in the engine will fix itself becomes a lost cause, and I have to get the dumb thing to a garage. And after a while (in my case like 250,000+ miles), the car simply has to be replaced.

So imagine there was a car that you could receive freely at no cost to yourself, one that recharged itself freely on daylight. Beyond that, it never breaks down and needs repair. And it never gets old and needs to be replaced. Wow, who wouldn’t want that!

Jesus was like this new and better vehicle – a truly dependable priest in the very place to “truly meet our needs” (7:27). This too is the resource we have in Christ, and tomorrow we will talk about the terms of this new, true and better covenant.

Those of you who know my family and my sons know that one of them owns a landscaping company. I help him by doing much of his bookkeeping and that sort of thing. It is a dirty business – literally, it is. Not much about it is clean, but rather it involves dirt, rocks, sand, mulch, etc.

Ben has a lot of problems with keeping his credit cards functional. They are constantly exposed to all the abrasive ingredients of his business, and before long, they won’t work anymore when swiped. We are forever ordering replacements. In fact, a new one came in the mail today.

The sacrificial system of the Old Testament Law was a lot like this. It constantly had to be repeated over and over. The sacrifices were seemingly endless. There were the daily sacrifices, and of course the one big event on the Day of Atonement (check in Friday for Chris’ article on this). It was a dirty and bloody business.

And not only that, there was the issue that the priests themselves were as sinful as the people whom they represented before God. Before they could do the job for others, they had to offer sacrifices for their own sins. As proof that they were not categorically any better, they kept dying off and others had to take their place. This was repeated for centuries.

There will be more detailed discussions on this theme later in the letter, but the writer closes the Melchizedek section with these summary thoughts …

23 Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; 24 but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

26 Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. 27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. 28 For the law appoints as high priests men in all their weakness; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.

Let me ask you this:  What would you rather have, an endless supply of credit cards that demand continuous payment of the debts you run up on them, or an inherited custodial account of limitless positive credits to cover your debts? Well, of course you would choose the latter. (And of course this does not mean that it is right to sin that grace may abound! That’s a Roman’s discussion and devotional for another time.)

And that is what we have in the work of Christ. Jesus was a better priest from a superior order. He was permanent and therefore does not need to be replaced. His payment was a once and for all final payment. And his eternal life with the Father positions him to intercede for us and guarantee our presence with God forever … saving us completely as we have come to God through him.

So if you were a recipient of this letter and read this argument, would you want to go back to the Levitical system of sacrifice?

And as a modern-day reader of this letter, seeing what God has done for those who trust in Him through Christ, why would you want to trust in anything else? And why would you not be daily grateful for the debt of sin being paid on your behalf, even before you were born?