The Cross Is the Ultimate Sacrifice

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I'd like for you to turn with me to Hebrews Chapter 10. We've looked at Hebrews Chapter 10 in the past in several different contexts, but I want to look at it a little differently than we have before this morning.

I think I had mentioned to you in the past that in 1996 I had the opportunity to travel to India. The most indelible memory of that entire trip to India still stays embedded in my mind as a trip to the temple of Kali. Now Kali is one of the chief gods in the millions of gods in Hinduism. And just as we exited that ungodly place, the temple itself, and we walked into the adjoining courtyard, a couple came wanting Kali to curse an enemy of theirs. So, they bought a temple goat from the temple there (as in Israel, it was sort of a racket as well; a way to extort money from the people) at an exaggerated price to offer for sacrifice. And I stood there not six feet away from this priest as he took a large knife and slit the throat of that goat and then called on Kali to curse the enemies of this man and woman. It was a bloody mess and, according to Paul, it was the sacrifice to a demon. But as I watched that spectacle unfold my mind went back to the Old Testament; back to when animal sacrifices were a crucial part of the true worship of the true God.

Because animal sacrifice has been a part of most of the religions of the world, some skeptics like to argue that Israel merely copied its neighbors in its sacrificial system. The truth is, just as most cultures in the world have a flood story that traces its way back to the genuine and authentic event recorded in Genesis Chapter 6 thru 9, in the same way, those pagan animal sacrifices that happen in other religions are merely faint echoes of the sacrifices that God has required from the very beginning of all who would come to worship Him. God demands sacrifice from every person. You will remember that in the Pentateuch (those first five books written by Moses, given to him by God at Sinai), Moses records in the first sixteen chapters of Leviticus that they can only approach the holy God that is their God with sacrifice. In fact, in Leviticus 1 through 7, five different sacrifices are outlined and all five of those were to be a part of every Israelite's worship every year. In addition to that, in Numbers Chapters 28 and 29, an elaborate system of national sacrifices is prescribed, in which four of the five in Leviticus 1 to 7 are required nationally as well.

Now the doctrinal realities that undergirded that very complicated sacrificial system are three. God is holy; man is sinful; and man can only approach God through sacrifice. Long before Sinai, long before the first five books of the Old Testament were penned, God had made it clear to man that this was the only way to approach Him. Go all the way back to the very beginning (back to Adam and Eve) and in Genesis Chapter 3 after the first sin of Adam and Eve, a preincarnate appearance of Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Trinity, takes with His own hand as it were and slays an animal in order to use the skins to cover Adam and Eve. Here's the point. Through the complex sacrificial system, God was making it clear to everyone that the only way anyone can ever approach Him is on His own terms, and His own terms are always sacrifice. Now lest you think that times have changed, you need to plug this away in your mind – that is absolutely still true today. God is still holy. We are still sinful. And it is still part of the fabric of God's moral universe that we can only approach Him through sacrifice. The great difference is that no longer do we approach Him through the sacrifice of animals, but rather, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. That is the message of Hebrews Chapter 10, where I want us to look this morning.

Now as we approach this monumental text, it's important for us to understand the author's flow of thought. At the end of Chapter 9, beginning in Verse 23 through Verse 28, the writer of Hebrews has just proven that as Christ died on the cross, He was the ultimate perfect sacrifice; that He is the reality of which all those Old Testament sacrifices were merely pictures. And then in Chapter 10, Verses 1 through 18, the writer tells us why and he contrasts the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ with the ultimate Old Testament sacrifice which happened on the Day of Atonement. That was what the Jewish people would have considered to be the ultimate sacrifice, on that special day when the sacrifices were made and the high priest went into the Holy of Holies. So, he contrasts the sacrifice of Christ with that great sacrifice of an animal. And he argues here that there are three great reasons that Jesus' death on the cross was the ultimate sacrifice. Let's look at those three reasons together this morning.

First of all, the first reason that the cross is the ultimate sacrifice is that it is a complete satisfaction – a complete satisfaction. You know, foundational to an understanding of the Old Testament sacrificial system is the fact that the required sacrifice was always for God, not for the worshiper. Moses explains this repeatedly in Leviticus 1 to 7. Constantly in Leviticus 1 we find this phrase "you're to offer the sacrifice as a soothing aroma to the Lord." The same expression is used of the national sacrifices in Numbers 28 and 29 where He lists all of those national sacrifices that are to be offered daily, and on every Sabbath, and on every New Moon, and at all the annual festivals. Listen to what Numbers 28:2 says as it provides the reason, "You shall be careful to present my offering of a soothing aroma to Me." The phrase that defines the purpose of all the Old Testament sacrifices is that little phrase "a soothing aroma to me." It occurs over and over and over again in the sacrificial system. In fact, it occurs 42 times throughout the Old Testament in the context of instructions about sacrifice. It literally means a smell of satisfaction. That's what it means. Offer the sacrifices to me as a smell of satisfaction; an aroma that calms or soothes my wrath. Now that's difficult to hear because there's a lot behind that statement. Implied in the statement that "the sacrifice soothes my wrath" is the reality that man's sin has greatly offended God and has stirred up His wrath; not just man's sin – your sin and my sin. It's a frightening thought, isn't it? That our sin takes as it were and reaches inside the Person of God and stirs up His anger against us. And that must be propitiated. He must have His wrath satisfied. That is the lesson. All the Old Testament sacrifices and their ultimate fulfillment, the sacrifice of Christ, were for God to satisfy His holy wrath against our sin.

Now look at Hebrews Chapter 10:1. Here the writer tells us of the complete satisfaction by contrasting the ultimate sacrifice of Christ with the Day of Atonement. "For the law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near." He's saying the laws of Old Testament sacrifice were only a shadow – not the image, or literally, not the icon, not the reality – of the good things to come. Think for a moment about your shadow. It isn't you. And it only gives a vague sense (to those who don't see you but only your shadow) of all that you are. In the same way the sacrificial system in the law was the shadow, but the reality is the spiritual blessings that come from Christ and His cross. Because those Old Testament sacrifices could not fully satisfy God's wrath against sin. They could never make perfect. They could never give us the right standing before God. So, they had to keep being offered because they were no lasting solution. Verse 2: "Otherwise, would not they have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins?" Now don't misunderstand this verse. The Old Testament believer was in fact forgiven, and he did have a sense of forgiveness. But at the same time, he knew that his sins were not objectively dealt with because he knew that an animal's death could never do that. So, he had what the writer of Hebrews calls "a consciousness of sins"; literally a lingering sense of his own guilt for sin. Verse 3: "But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year."

When you look at the sacrifices required by Israel the list is absolutely exhausting and exhaustive. Just the national sacrifices totaled about 1,200 animals a year, plus all of the ones offered by individuals. Some ancient historians estimate that as many as 200,000 animals were sacrificed at the annual feast of Passover alone. But once all those were made for the year, the entire process began again with the new year. What was the Old Testament believer to learn from the fact that he had to continually offer all these sacrifices? The writer of Hebrews says they served as a reminder of sin. Think about it for a moment. On that great day, the Day of Atonement, as the high priest took the blood from the sacrifice and he entered into the Holy of Holies with that blood, it reminded all the people that their sin separated them from the presence of God because only one man and only once a year could he enter that place. It represented the presence of God. All the animal sacrifices could do was remind the worshiper of his sin. And they reminded him as well that someday there would have to be a true substitute; an ultimate sacrifice that would not merely be a picture, not a shadow; but the icon, the reality.

Why was the constant repetition necessary? Because animal blood cannot expiate sin. Look at Verse 4: "For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin." Think about it for a moment. An animal can never be an adequate substitute for a human being made in the image of God. Many people have a serious misunderstanding about the nature of Old Testament sacrifice. They think that somehow there was a direct connection between that believer's forgiveness and the sacrifice itself. Listen, God did not declare Old Testament believers righteous because they offered sacrifices. Paul tells us that Old Testament believers were declared righteous because of their faith in God, from Abraham on. Sacrifices at their root were merely an external expression of an internal reality. You remember when Jesus tells the parable of the two men that went up to the temple to pray in Luke 18? In Verse 13 we learn that that tax collector, that most despised of the culture – he refused to even lift up his eyes to heaven, but instead he lowered his head, he beat on his chest, and he said, "God, be merciful to me, the sinner." There's so much in that verse because he was at the temple almost certainly at the one of two times that people went to the temple each day, which was the time of morning prayer or the time of afternoon prayer. And at both of those times, sacrifices were made inside at the altar. And so, as this man prayed, essentially this is what he prayed, "God, be propitiated to me, a sinner. May your wrath against me be satisfied. Just as you're accepting that animal as a substitute, may you really accept an ultimate substitute on my behalf."

The Old Testament believer was to see in each of those sacrifices for sin the satisfaction of God's wrath on his behalf. But there was no real relationship between a person's sin and the animal sacrifice. It was only symbolic or typical. Their faith was not in the death of an animal. It was in the fact that one day God would provide a Person that would forever deal with sin. How do I know that? Well as far back as Genesis Chapter 3, they knew God was going to send a Person that would deal with sin and crush Satan, right? Genesis 3:15 – the seed of the woman will bruise the head of the serpent. But think about the most blatant Old Testament sin by a believer. What was it? It was David. It was David's murder of Uriah and his adultery with Bathsheba, Uriah's wife. In his repentance for those sins in Psalm 51, listen to what David writes, "You, God, do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering." Now obviously God had commanded offerings. That isn't what David was saying. David was making a much larger point. He understood that an animal sacrifice could never truly deal with his sin. Because it can't deal with anyone's sin. Now, the implication throughout that passage, Verses 1 to 4, is that what the Old Testament sacrifices did not accomplish, Christ's sacrifice on the cross did accomplish. Consider for a moment what it accomplished. Verse 2 – if you're in Christ, the cross and the work of Christ on the cross has cleansed you. The Old Testament sacrifice couldn't do that, but Christ's sacrifice has. I'm reminded when I think of that of John 13:10 where Jesus says, "You've all had your hearts take permanent baths." Your hearts I have permanently bathed, He says. In Acts 15:9, the Apostle Paul says, "God has cleansed your hearts by faith." Think about that. What the Old Testament sacrifice could never do, God has done for you. He has cleansed your heart as far as He is concerned. But He has also removed your constant sense of guilt.

Look at Verse 2 again. The Old Testament believer had that consciousness of sins. This has to do with emotions; it has to do with conscience; it has to do with a feeling of guilt. Because of the cross, you no longer have to have a consciousness of, or a guilt for, sins that you have confessed and forsaken. They've been erased in the mind of God. They can be erased from your mind and memory as well. It also means that Christ has provided you with a perfect standing before God. Look at Verse 1 – those sacrifices could never make perfect those who draw near. Christ's sacrifice, on the other hand, has. Verse 14: "For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified." This has to do not with something subjective inside of you, but with something objective outside of you. In God's sight, in God's presence – your status, your standing, is perfect. It's as perfect as His own Son. This is the beautiful truth of justification. God now sees you through the righteousness of His Son. And if you're in Christ, your sins are gone. In the words of Isaac Watts, a magnificent old hymn, "Not all the blood of beasts on Jewish altars slain could give the guilty conscience peace or wash away the stain. But Christ, the heavenly Lamb, takes all our sins away – a sacrifice of nobler name and richer blood than they." The first reason that the cross was the ultimate sacrifice is that it was a complete satisfaction.

The second reason the writer of Hebrews identifies is that the cross is a perfect substitution. The Old Testament sacrifice was at its heart substitutionary. And back in Leviticus Chapter 1 through 7 one thing stands out. The Israelite offered the sacrifice in his place. If you had been living in Old Testament times, if you'd been an Old Testament Israelite and you wanted to offer a sin offering in obedience to what God had commanded, you would have brought (at the time you could come to the temple) a physically perfect animal to the forecourt of the tabernacle or temple. You then would have laid your hands upon that offering with the implication that you are transferring as it were your guilt to this animal. This animal is now becoming my representative. In a very formal transaction, you would have placed your hands on the head of that animal. Then you would have taken the knife and slaughtered that animal with your own hand. And as the blood poured out, the priest would have caught the blood in a bowl and then he would have taken it to the altar and he would have splattered that bowl of blood across the altar. Then the priest would have taken the specified part of the animal, and he would have laid it on the altar to burn. You see, the point of the entire process – and especially the laying of the worshiper's hands on the head of the animal – made it clear that this animal was dying in his place. The guilty worshiper actually killed the animal as his own substitute for sin. It was crystal clear that that innocent animal had died in the place of the sinner who really deserved to die. The sacrifice was always substitutionary. But here's the catch. Ultimately God is only satisfied with a perfect voluntary human sacrifice. Let me say that again. Ultimately God is only truly satisfied with a voluntary perfect human sacrifice.

Perhaps you read the story a few days ago (I believe it was in the paper) – just within the last week police in eastern India have arrested a couple who sacrificed their two boys; seven and nine. The intention of the sacrifice was to please their gods and to bring luck and prosperity to their family. You know, when you read that or when you hear about that, you and I are understandably, rightfully repulsed by the concept of human sacrifice. But the concept of human sacrifice is not repulsive to God. That's exactly what He demanded of Christ, His own Son. What is repulsive to God is when human beings disregard His plan to offer only the perfect God-man as a sacrifice and instead try to appease their own gods, their false gods, by offering themselves or their children. God forbids all such human sinful sacrifice. It's repulsive, and it's clearly forbidden.

But (and here's what you have to remember) God fully intended that the sacrifice of His Son as a human being would perfectly fulfill and replace all of the animal sacrifices. Look at Verse 5:

Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says [and here you have a quotation from Psalm 40:6-8 as the words of the Incarnate Christ when He, that is Christ, comes into the world, this is what He says], "Sacrifices and offerings 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 that is written of me), to do your will, O God.'"

That quotation mentions four of the five Old Testament sacrifices. Notice Verse 5 – God didn't desire them. Verse 6 – He's not taking pleasure in them. But note the contrast with those animal sacrifices. Verse 5 – "a body You have prepared me." Christ's own body would be the sacrifice that would please God. Verse 7 – "I have come to do Your will." Christ's perfect obedience made Him the perfect sacrifice. Now in Verses 8 through 10, the writer of Hebrews gives us a commentary on that quotation from Psalm 40. Look at Verse 9. After he requotes what he said after saying these things, then he said, "Behold, I have come to do your will." He takes away the first in order to establish the second. Look carefully at that last statement. He takes away the first; that's a reference to the entire Levitical sacrificial system. He takes away the first in order to establish the second; the new sacrifice; the body of Jesus Christ. That is a monumental statement of divine fulfillment. The sacrifice of Christ was the ultimate end-all sacrifice as to which all of those others pointed. And when He died, the rest of that was wiped away.

The New Testament everywhere agrees that Christ and His death are the perfect fulfillment of all of those Old Testament sacrifices. John 1:29 – you remember John the Baptist sees Jesus coming and he says, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" 1 Corinthians 5:7: "Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed." Ephesians 5:2: "Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God" (listen to this) "as a fragrant aroma." There's that phrase; as the satisfaction of the wrath of God. 1 Peter 1:18: "you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ." Now look back at Verse 10: "By this will" (What will? God's decision to offer Christ as the suitable sacrifice for sins). By God's decision "we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ once for all." Now the sanctified here isn't talking about the process of being made holy. Instead, it's the once for all change in our standing before God. We've had a once for all change in our standing and how has that change been effected? Or accomplished? Through the sacrifice of the body of Christ, once for all.

Now listen carefully because the contrast here is clear. The Old Testament sacrifice was the unwilling death of an irrational animal at the hands of man. The cross was the voluntary death of a perfect, rational, obedient God-man at the hands of God. Why did Jesus have to die? We all know the answer, the word is sin; but the question is, what's the relationship between sin and the death of Christ? You can answer in one word; the word substitution; substitution – the act of taking the place of another. It was impossible that an irrational animal could substitute for a man or a woman made in the image of God. There instead it had to be a suitable sacrifice, a perfect substitute.

In October I was in Italy as you know, and when I was there, I heard the news from the U.S. story of that shooting in the Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania. I mentioned this to you several months ago, but I was struck with that story. And I'm still captivated by it because it's a tragic story of human sin. And yet it's one of the most contemporary examples of this very principle of substitution. One of the older girls took a heroic action. Two of the survivors of that shooting told their parents after it was all done that Marian Fisher, a 13-year-old student, asked her captor to be shot first, apparently hoping that the younger girls would be released. She walked right up to the gunman in the midst of the turmoil of that scene and begged, "Shoot me and leave the other ones loose." She was shot and killed. As I think about that story, I realize that that is exactly what Christ did for us. He volunteered to be our substitute. He said to the Father, "Let Me die for his sin. Let Me die for her sin. And let them go free." As the perfect Son of God, unlike the animals of the Old Testament system, Jesus Christ was sinless and voluntary in His substitution. He was the perfect substitute.

Third and final reason that the cross is the ultimate sacrifice is not only that it was an absolutely complete satisfaction; not only that it was a perfect substitution; but finally, it was a permanent solution. Here's the author of Hebrews conclusion. Verse 11:

Every priest stands daily ministering an offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He [that is Christ], having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet.

Now there's an obvious contrast here in this verse between standing, which is what the high priest always did; and he had to do it because he was always working. It implied that his work was never finished; that it was never adequately done. But Christ on the other hand, in Verses 12 and 13, is sitting, which implies that Christ has completely dealt with sin. You see the priests of Israel offered literally hundreds of thousands of animal sacrifices, but never one time did the death of one of those animals ever take away anybody's sins. The death of an animal could never appease the offended justice of a holy God. But notice Verse 14: "For by one offering Jesus Christ has perfected for all time those who are sanctified." Christ satisfied the wrath of God for every sin of every person who will ever believe for all time through one sacrifice. And in so doing, Christ has provided final and permanent forgiveness for every one of your sins. In case that sounds too good to be true, notice that the Holy Spirit has confirmed that permanent forgiveness in what the Bible calls the new covenant. He quotes then from Jeremiah 31. Notice Verse 15:

The Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their hearts and upon their minds I will write them," He then says, "and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."

According to the prophet Jeremiah, God has made a new legally binding promise to you if you're a believer in Jesus Christ. If you will repent and believe or if you have repented and believed, God will change your heart. He will give you a new power to obey. He will forgive your sin forever. What an amazing promise. Think about that for a moment. You will never face your sin again. If you're in Christ, it's done. The sacrifice has been made. It's complete. Where there's that kind of forgiveness, the Old Testament sacrifices are unnecessary and even obsolete.

Verse 18: "Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any need for a sacrifice for sin." Maybe you really know your own heart this morning and you realize that you may be part of the church, you may be part of a church somewhere else, you may have grown up in the church, but you realize in the deep heart of hearts you know that you have merely been swept along by the spirituality of others. You've always had the same depraved heart, and you continue to feed it whatever it wants. The writer of Hebrews would tell you this morning if he were here that there's hope for you. The only hope that you ever have of approaching God is through sacrifice, and by God's grace and by His mercy that sacrifice has been made. It's the sacrifice of Jesus Christ at the cross. And if you will turn from your sin, if you will turn from your own way, and if you will confess Jesus Christ as Lord and as Savior, He will cleanse you. He will forgive you. And He will treat you forever as if you were as righteous as His own Son.

Perhaps this morning you know you're in Christ, you know that you're a Christian, but you have to admit that you've neglected the means of grace God has given us; the means of spiritual growth. You've fallen on your face and you haven't gotten up. You've given in to some of the temptations that are a part of the old life; what you used to be. You've sinned against your Lord and His sacrifice for sin. The writer of Hebrews would tell you this morning if he were here that there's hope for you at the cross as well. There's always forgiveness if you will turn back from your sin to Christ.

Perhaps this morning you're a believer in Christ and your sins are confessed, and you're living in obedience to the Lord. This is for your encouragement. Jesus Christ is the ultimate sacrifice. Nothing else is ever needed. God is fully satisfied. He has cleansed your heart. He has forgiven your sin. And He has made you forever perfect before Him. Nothing can change that reality.

In July of 1941 a man escaped from Bunker number 12 at Auschwitz, the infamous German prison camp. The remaining men of Bunker 12, those who survived to tell us, were led out and for an entire day they were made to stand in the sun without food and without water. But the escapee was not found. This was really bad news for the rest of those men because in order to discourage escapes, Auschwitz had a rule that if one man escaped ten other men would die in retaliation. Eyewitnesses reported that Karl Fritz, the commandant, screamed these words, "The fugitive has not been found. You will all pay for this. Ten of you will be locked in the starvation bunker without food or water until you die." A guard called out the names of ten men who had been chosen to die because of the escape. One of these men was a Polish sergeant who had been in prison for helping the Polish resistance. As his name was called, he couldn't help but sort of cry of anguish, and it's reported that he cried out, "My poor wife. My poor children. What will they do?" Suddenly, another prisoner silently stepped forward and took off his cap, stood before the commandant and said, "Let me take his place. I'm old. He has a wife and children." To everyone's amazement, the commandant agreed and accepted the offer. Maximilian, as he was called, and nine others were sent to starve to death. Within two weeks their bodies were thrown in a heap and burned. The sergeant whose life was spared later wrote these words, "I could only thank him with my eyes. I was stunned and could hardly grasp what was going on; the immensity of it. I, the condemned, and to live; and someone else willingly and voluntarily offers his life for me, a stranger. I was saved." In 1995 that Polish sergeant whose life was spared celebrated his 95^th birthday. For over fifty years, every morning he opened his eyes, he was confronted with the reality that he was alive because someone else volunteered to take his place.

The Old Testament sacrificial system reminds each of us that our names were on the divine list of those appointed to eternal punishment. And our only hope was for a substitute; someone to step forward and voluntarily take the wrath of God in our place. And folks, everyday from now to eternity you and I should be confronted with the reality that we live because the eternal Son of God volunteered to take our place. Do you really understand what was happening that day outside the walls of Jerusalem? Jesus offered the sacrifice to God to end all sacrifices. He laid down His life for us. The Great High Priest willingly became the sacrifice. And it wasn't just any sacrifice. It was the ultimate sacrifice because it was a complete satisfaction of the justice and wrath of God. He was the perfect substitute, a voluntary human being in our place. And it was a permanent solution never to be redone again. Let's pray together.

Our Father, we thank you for such an amazing picture of grace. Lord, we thank you for that system that was part of the Old Testament that so clearly presented the reality of sin, and the reality of substitution, and the reality of forgiveness. Father we thank you that that system is done. That you've put away the first – all of that sacrificial system, in order to establish the second – the sacrifice of the body of Christ forever. For all of time. For everyone who will repent and believe. Father how could we ever thank you enough for such amazing love? Amazing love! How can it be, that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Father help us who know you, who have come to know you through Your Son, may our love for Christ be reignited. May our devotion to Him and willingness to obey Him be stirred by these things. And Father I do pray, undoubtedly there's someone here this morning, perhaps raised in the church, perhaps new to it, who has never come to benefit from the sacrifice of Christ. Father help that person to see that if they cling to their sin, if they refuse to turn in faith and repentance to Jesus Christ, that they will pay eternally. I pray that even today they would receive Christ as Lord and as Savior. I pray all of this in Jesus' Name, for His sake, Amen.