HEBREWS: THE INFINITE SUPREMACY AND SUFFICIENCY OF JESUS CHRIST

XIV. The Superior Result Of Christ's Priestly Ministry

(Hebrews 10:1-18)

I. Introduction

A. We live in an era of great need for an encouraging word amid man's discouraging spiritual failure, so a word from God on the infinite supremacy and sufficiency of His Son Jesus Christ is both desirable and fitting.

B. The Epistle of Hebrews offers it, and Hebrews 10:1-18 clarifies the superior result of Christ's priestly ministry as compared to the ministry of any other priest, so we view the passage for our insight and edification:

II. The Superior Result Of Christ's Priestly Ministry, Hebrews 10:1-18.

A. The priestly ministry of the Mosaic Law was unable spiritually to perfect the worshippers, Hebrews 10:1-4:

1. The Mosaic Law, being but a shadow of good things to come, not the true form of those future realities, could not by its sacrifices that were repeatedly offered perfect worshippers, Hebrews 10:1 ESV.

2. Otherwise, had the sacrifices provided such perfection, they would have ceased to be offered since the worshippers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sin, Heb. 10:2 ESV.

3. The fact that these sacrifices were offered every year reminded the people of the unsolved problem of their sin, teaching that the blood of bulls and of goats could not take away sins, Hebrews 10:3-4.

B. For this reason, when Christ came into the world, as predicted in Psalm 40:6-8, He told God the Father, "Sacrifices and offerings You have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings You have taken no pleasure. Then I said, Behold, I have come to do you will, O God, as it is written of Me in the scroll of the book," Hebrews 10:5-7; Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 803.

C. The author of Hebrews commented on this quotation, claiming that when Christ said that the Father had not taken pleasure in sacrifices offered under the Mosaic Law only to add that He had come to do the Father's will, He implied that He was abolishing the first arrangement of the sacrificial system of the Mosaic Law to establish a second arrangement, the offering His own body on the cross, Hebrews 10:8-9; Ibid.

D. By that will of the Father, we believers in Christ in the dispensation of the Church have been sanctified through the body of Christ with His sacrifice for sin on the cross "once for all" (ephapax, Arndt & Gingrich, A Grk.-Eng. Lex. of the N. T., 1967, p. 330), Hebrews 10:10.

E. Every priest under the Mosaic Law would stand daily at his service, repeatedly offering the same sacrifices that could never take away sins (Hebrews 10:11), but in contrast, when Christ had offered "one" (mia, Ibid., p. 229-231; U. B. S. Grk. N. T., 1966, p. 766; The Analyt. Grk. Lex. (Zon.), 1972, p. 269) sacrifice for sins "for uninterrupted time, forever" (dienekes, Ibid., Arndt & Gingrich, p. 194), the sacrifice of His own body, He sat down at the right hand of God the Father to await the time when the Father would make His enemies a footstool for His feet in fulfillment of Psalm 110:1. (Hebrews 10:12-13)

F. For by "one" (mia again, Ibid., U. B. S. Grk. N. T., p. 767) offering has He "permanently perfected" (teteleioken, the perfect tense of teleoo, "perfect," Ibid., Arndt & Gingrich, p. 817-818; Ibid., The Analyt. Grk. Lex., p. 402) "for uninterrupted time, forever" (dienekes again, Ibid., Arndt & Gingrich, p. 194) them who "are being sanctified" (hagiazomenous, present passive participle of hagiazo, "sanctify," Ibid., U. B. S. Grk. N. T.; Ibid., The Analyt. Grk. Lex., p. 3) [by God], Hebrews 10:14.

G. The author of Hebrews then claimed that the Holy Spirit bore witness to this truth in Jeremiah 31:33-34, for after saying in Jeremiah 31:33, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds," He added in Jeremiah 31:34, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more," Hebrews 10:15-17 ESV.

H. Thus, where there is forgiveness of sins, there is no longer any need of an offering for sin, Hebrews 10:18.

Lesson: In infinite superiority over the Aaronic priestly ministrations with their constant repetition of sacrifices for sin with the blood of animals that could not take away sin, Christ's priestly ministry in His single offering of Himself on the cross for sin totally and forever positionally perfects the believer, who now has God's law written on his heart and on his mind, with God positionally no longer remembering his sins.

Application: (1) May we rejoice in the eternal benefits of spiritual positional perfection we enjoy in Christ on the forgiveness of sins. (2) May we rest in the sufficiency of Christ's once-for-all sacrifice on the cross so fully and eternally to atone for sin that we not yield to the errors of transubstantiation, consubstantiation or receptionism in observing the Lord's Table, but that we observe it in memory of Christ's FINISHED work for us on the cross.