So far in Hebrews we have been learning the doctrines of our salvation through Jesus Christ. And to that end, we have seen that Jesus is superior to the prophets of old, He is superior to the old priesthood in that He is our great high priest of a different order, an eternal order since He forever lives to make intercession for us. And as our great high priest He ministers in a better sanctuary in heaven, a spiritual sanctuary of which the temple on earth was only a copy. And as our high priest He mediates a new covenant, having replaced the old covenant with something better.

Now today, we are going to examine the superior sacrifice that Jesus offered as our High Priest. And to do that, the author of Hebrews begins by making a familiar comparison, at least it’s familiar if you have been following us in this book. The comparison is to the old covenant, and all the attendant elements of that. And what he tells us in vs one is that it was an inferior covenant because it was only intended to be a shadow.

A shadow refers to what we might call a type, or a symbol, or a picture of something still in the future. If you could imagine a timeline starting with Moses and going to today, you would have approximately 4000 years represented on that timeline. And right in the middle, at ground zero, so to speak, is the cross. And the cross is casting it’s shadow back over the time period to Moses. Under the law, the Jews could not see the cross clearly, but it’s purpose was foreshadowed in the sacrificial system which was given to teach them of it’s future reality.

So when the author speaks in vs 1 of the law being only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very image, or form of things, then we can recognize that in the old covenant, in the sacrificial system under the law, the Jews saw an outline of atonement, an outline of redemption, a symbol of redemption, but not the actual image of atonement. Just as you might see your shadow on a sunny day, and you can see certain features that are true to life there, but for the most part you only see an outline, or a silhouette. The details are not filled in.

Even when the old covenant was well in effect, the Jews knew that there was a new covenant which was promised in the future. Jeremiah prophesied about this new covenant in Jeremiah 31:31-33 saying “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

So the Jews knew that the covenant they were under was due to one day be changed. The old covenant was weak, not because of some fault in the law, but because of the weakness of man on whom it was dependent to observe. Yet they found comfort in the rituals and ceremonies, and they mistakenly put their trust in keeping them, rather than their faith in God for forgiveness and righteousness. And not only is that true of the Jews in that day, but it is true of professing Christians in our day as well. Many people go to church every week, or even several times a week, to reenact rituals and ceremonies which they believe will absolve them of their sin, and yet there can be no forgiveness through rituals, or even through sacrifices of bulls and goats. But as Paul said in Phil. 3:9 “[that we] may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of our own derived from [the] Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which [comes] from God on the basis of faith.”

The old covenant then, was a system of sacrificial shadows. And as a shadow, it lacked the substance in itself to take away sin. Notice what it says in vs1, “since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form or image of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.”

Now please understand that this word perfect refers to completeness. It carries with it the sense of accomplishment or finishing. The fufillment of it’s intended purpose. So in that sense, in vs 2, he says that if it could accomplish completion of their atonement, then it would have ceased to be offered. If the blood of bulls and goats actually completed atonement, then it would not need to be done again and again.

What the sacrifices did in a technical sense was express confession and repentance of your sin, and offered a token sacrifice of an animal’s life as a covering for sin. You remember when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden, and they hid from God because they recognized their sin, then God killed an animal, or animals, and made coverings for them. So the sacrifice of animals indicated a covering for sin. But even more to the point, such sacrifices foreshadowed a future sacrifice which would cleanse completely from sin. 1John 1:7, 9 “but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. … 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

But complete atonement was not appropriated under the old system, for it says in vs3, that “in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year.” Every year they had to go through the Day of Atonement again, because once again their sinful nature had caused them to sin against God. So the old covenant actually served as a reminder of their fallen nature, of their hopeless situation to live as God required. As Paul said in Gal. 3:24 “Therefore the Law has become our tutor [to lead us] to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.” The daily offerings for sin and the yearly offerings on the Day of Atonement served to remind them of their hopelessness to be freed from sin.

So every year there was more animals killed, and more blood poured over the altar, and then the next year it had to happen again, year after year. And what became apparent was that according to vs4, “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” The sacrificial system was only a shadow of what was yet to come.

That’s why the author called it the good things to come in vs 1. Because it was a great day when that imperfect system would be superseded by a superior sacrifice. God never delighted in the death of bulls and goats. I was talking to someone the other day about how that in the book of Jonah, God speaks with compassion about the livestock of the Ninevites. And He spoke of wanting to spare them, because they too are His creation to which He gave life. That’s at least a part of what He is talking about in vs 6, when He says, while quoting from Psalm 40, “IN WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND [sacrifices] FOR SIN YOU HAVE TAKEN NO PLEASURE.” But in total, He says such sacrifices do not satisfy God.

So the old covenantal system was only a shadow of the sacrifice that God desired. And so God prepared a superior sacrifice. And we read of that in vs. 5 and 6, which is a quote from the Septuagint translation of the Psalms, chapter 40, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew text. And what the author of Hebrews recognizes in that passage, is that it is referring to the Messiah, who is Jesus Christ.

And what he is saying is that the superior sacrifice, offered by the great High Priest of the new covenant, is the offering of Himself. Let’s look at the quote from Ps.40, Therefore, 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 I SAID, ‘BEHOLD, I HAVE COME (IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME) TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.'”

Notice first that it says when He comes into the world. This speaks of the incarnation of Jesus Christ, when according to John 1:14 “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” What God desired was not the bodies of bulls and goats, but the body of a person. The bulls and goats were only intended to be a temporary picture of the person that was to come, and that person was Jesus Christ.

And let’s understand something; Jesus came to offer Himself as a guilt offering for us. Isaiah 53 makes that clear. Isaiah 53:10-12 But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting [Him] to grief; If He would render Himself [as] a guilt offering, He will see [His] offspring, He will prolong [His] days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see [it and] be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.”

What Jesus did was voluntary. He poured out Himself to death; He offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sins to satisfy the judgment of God upon sinners. Make sure you understand that. The blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin, because the penalty for sin was man’s death. That was promised at creation, that if they ate of the tree they would die. Romans tells us that the wages of sin is death. The death of a lamb or a goat never took away sin. It merely provided a temporary covering, pointing to the day of God’s full atonement when He would appoint His only begotten Son to come to earth, to take on flesh, to bear our sin, to die in our place, so that we might be spared eternal death. Christ came to do for sinners what sinners could never do for themselves. We could never offer a sacrifice that would take away the penalty for our sin. But Christ could and He gave up His life for our sakes. As John said when he saw Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

So not only does Psalm 40 say Jesus had come to do the Father’s will, but He conformed His will to the Father. He desired to do His will. And the will of God was that a person would die for his sin. That was God’s standard, God’s law. And God would not be so unjust as to deny His law. But in His grace to us, God designed a way to fulfill the requirement of the law, but do it through a substitute.

Notice especially the phrase; “Behold, I have come to do your will.” What the old covenant could not do, Christ has done in the new covenant. He kept the law to perfection. He kept the eternal council of God in redemption. He did what the Father told him to do and said what the Father told him to say. He kept the law because we could not keep the law. The grounds for the new covenant is based on what Jesus did, not on what we must do. What the priests did day after day and year after year was the basis for the old covenant. They themselves however were sinners, offering sacrifices first for themselves and then for the others. But Christ, as the superior sacrifice, had no need to offer a sacrifice for Himself, as He perfectly kept God’s will, and He completed what they could only point to. And as such, according to vs 9, “He takes away the first in order to establish the second.” When the fullness of the type was manifested, the first became obsolete and as such is done away with.

When I first was married, I worked as a manager in a hotel downtown. And I kept a picture of my wife on my desk. But after work, when I finally made it home, I did not need to look at a picture anymore. I enjoyed the reality of my wife. And in a similar way, when Jesus had come as the superior sacrifice, there was no more need of the picture presented in the old covenant.

So the will of God was that Christ would offer Himself as the complete offering for sin, once for all. We have looked at the sacrificial shadows, we’ve looked at the superior sacrifice, now last point, let’s consider the sanctifying sacrifice. The sacrifice of Christ as our High Priest is superior not only because it is sufficient to pay the penalty of sin, which is death, but it is sufficient to provide the reward of righteousness, which is life. In other words, Christ’s sacrifice not only justifies sinners, it sanctifies sinners.

Sanctified is one of those church words we throw around that perhaps a lot of people don’t know what it means. What sanctified means is to set apart, to consecrate for holiness. In the temple service when the tabernacle was being built, they made vessels for use in the temple. And they were different than ordinary cups and bowls you might use in your house. They were made of gold or silver or brass for use only in the tabernacle. And to show that they were set apart for holy use, they were sprinkled with the blood of a sacrifice that they might be useful in the temple. Now that was another picture, a picture of sanctification, that we might be set apart in our salvation for good works, and then useful to God in service to Him.

So Jesus’s sacrifice accomplished both of those things. Vs 14 says by one offering he has completed both of these things. He saved us from the penalty of death, and gave us a new life, made a new creation, and set us apart for holiness unto the Lord to be useful to Him. He uses us as we yield to the Holy Spirit. And that continual usage and obedience to His will is the process of sanctification.

Now notice two types of sanctification are mentioned here. In vs 10 he says, “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” So Jesus’ obedience to the Father’s will by offering himself as a sacrifice for our sins, sanctified us. That means positionally, He transferred us from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of light. We now belong to God, made holy by the righteousness of Jesus Christ, set apart from the world.

But then having been set apart for holiness, having been set apart for good works, now we ARE BEING sanctified, according to vs.14, “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” The tense of that word means continual. We are sanctified past tense in vs10, and are being sanctified present tense in vs14 in one offering. In other words it’s a process. Whereby we are continually offering up to God the service of our lives.

Romans 12:1,2 says that this acceptable service is nothing less than the sacrifice of our body, even as Christ laid down His body. Romans 12:1-2 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, [which is] your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Listen, Romans just gave us the secret to being sanctified. It’s renewing your mind. That’s the other benefit of Christ’s sacrifice – beyond just forgiveness, its’ the ability to be free of sin, not only free of the penalty of sin, but free from the power of sin. Sin no longer has dominion over us.

Rom 6:5-9, 12 says, “For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be [in the likeness] of [His] resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with [Him], that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. … 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

Now the secret, like I said, to this sanctifying process is found in renewing the mind. And just as our sacrifice was not something we could do, neither is our sanctification something we can do all by ourselves. But Christ does it for us through the sanctifying work of the Spirit. And He does that by renewing our mind. And our new mind, the mind of Christ comes through our willingness to crucify our will, to lay down our life, that we might do His will.

Notice in our text in vs16 is a quote from Jeremiah 31 which speaks of this new mind that we are given by Christ. ““THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THEM AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS UPON THEIR HEART, AND ON THEIR MIND I WILL WRITE THEM,” He then says, “AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE.”

Another Old Testament passage in Ezekiel 36:26,27 says practically the same thing. “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.” He’s speaking of the new covenant.

The Spirit of Christ renovates our minds and our hearts, so that we might have new desires. And so the sanctifying work of the Spirit is to renew our minds, through the washing of the word of God, that we might desire to do things which are pleasing to Him, and then He gives us the strength of the Holy Spirit to fulfill that desire, so that we might do the things which God desires. That’s the purpose of the Holy Spirit; to equip you to do the will of God.

The gospel say that when Jesus came up out of the water of baptism He was filled with the Spirit and was being led by the Spirit, and in the power of the Spirit began to preach and do might works. That is the template for us as well. We must like Christ, submit to the Father’s will, laying down our lives for His sake, and being raised to new life, now to live for Him through the power of the Spirit in obedience to the word of God.

Let me just say one last thing in closing by way of practical application. This renewing our mind is not a once and done thing. Our justification was once and done. Jesus’s sacrifice was once for all as it says in our text. But our sanctification is a process. And when we slip up and fall back into sin, when we become mired once again in the world, we contaminate our minds, our consciences become corrupted. We begin to think like the world. We begin to listen to the world and believe the lies of the devil. And so when God as our Heavenly Father brings correction and discipline to our lives to bring us back, we can confess and repent and God will forgive us. But we need to ask Him to renew our mind. We need to get on our knees and implore God to do a supernatural restoration of our minds once again, that we might have the mind of Christ, that we might have the desires of God.

David was a man after God’s own heart. He wrote scripture which Christ and the apostles quoted from extensively. He was God’s anointed. And yet he sinned, not just once, but many times. And in Psalm 51 we find there a template of how we need to approach God after such corruption has entered into our hearts and implore Him to renew our minds and create a right spirit within us. Listen to David’s prayer and if necessary, make it your own.

I’ll just read a few excerpts from Psalm 51 in closing.
“Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom. Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. … Hide Your face from my sins And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. … Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit. … For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.