"To Do Your Will" Sermon: Hebrews 10:1-10

“To Do Your Will”

[Hebrews 10:1-10]

May 19, 2013 Second Reformed Church

            Last week we began by reviewing verse twenty-two of chapter nine, and it may prove helpful to review it once again: “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22, ESV).

            We noted that this verse tells us two things:  first, it tells us that under the Sacrificial Law, most things were purified through shedding blood, but there were other methods of purification, including offering up other, non-bloody, items for sacrifice, and through baptism.

Second, it tells us that the only way sin can be forgiven is through the shedding of blood.  It is absolutely impossible for sin to be forgiven unless there is the shedding of blood.  If there is no shedding of blood, God will not and cannot forgive sin.

We went on to see that Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament Sacrificial System, especially in that, as the God-Man, He could live a perfect life under the Law, choose to be our Substitute in the reception of God’s Wrath for our sin, and physically rise from the dead.  To this end:  our sins are forgiven – past, present, and future, we are free from slavery to sin, we have had Christ’s Righteousness imputed to us, so that we are now seen as righteous, and through the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit, we are striving towards holiness.

And so, we turn to our text for this morning:

            “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.”

            The author of Hebrews again tells us that the repeated offering of sacrifices are not enough to make us perfect – to pay the debt for sin and free us from slavery to sin – for reasons we have already discussed:  if the offerings had to be repeated, they were not effective to pay the debt for sin and free us from slavery to sin, and, the offerings were of goats and bulls, which could not be adequate substitutes for humans – even if you were to catch a unicorn or a leviathan – it would not be enough, only a human can take the place of a human in paying the debt owed to God.

            But the author of Hebrews gives us another reason why the offering up of animals would not be enough to pay our debt and free us from slavery:  “the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities.”

            Here, the author of Hebrews uses language from the art world:  the “shadow” is like the sketch an artist makes before commencing to paint his picture, whereas the “true form” is the painting in living color.  If any of us have taken art classes in school or tried our hand at art on our own, we know that the sketch we being with is not what we want to end up with – it looks forward to what we want to end up with – one can look at it and imagine what the final product will look like, but it is not the final product.  It is only when the artwork is fully painted, fully colored and “living” that it is finished – it has fulfilled the artist’s intentions.

            The same thing is true here:  the Old Testament Law – and especially the Sacrificial Law, is a “shadow” – a sketch of the painting that was to be painted, whereas the “true form” is the fullness of that good thing which was to come.  And this is the point that the author of Hebrews is making:  Christ Jesus is the true form of the shadows of the Old Testament Sacrifices – Christ Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament Sacrifices through the good things which were to come – His Incarnation, Life, Death, Resurrection, and bodily Ascension.

“Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”

            If the animal sacrifices had been enough – if it were possible for a person to offer up enough animal sacrifices that he would be cleansed – that he would no longer have guilt for his sin – that his conscience would be appeased – that all of his sin past, present, and future were forgiven and paid for, then people would stop making animal sacrifices – and, eventually, there would be no more animal sacrifices.  But – at the time of the author of Hebrews’ writing, the sacrifices had not ended – people were still falsely looking for forgiveness and freedom in the offering up of sacrifices – in the shadows and sketches – rather than in the true form – Christ Jesus. (This, as we have noted, proves that the book of Hebrews was written before 70 A.D. when the Temple was destroyed, and animal sacrifices came to an end.)

            Moses records what happened under the First Covenant:  “And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness” (Leviticus 16:21, ESV).

            Animal sacrifices continued year after year, and the guilt of the offerers was not removed – the consciences of the offerers were not appeased.  Anyone who was putting their hopes in animal sacrifices was under the Wrath of God.  Only those who looked forward and believed in the Savior Who was to come – and Him when He did come – found freedom from guilt and an appeased conscience.  Only through Jesus and His Sacrifice and believing in His Work, do we find ourselves at peace with God and with hope for the future.

            And some of you might be saying, “Well, this has nothing to do with us – we have never offered sacrifices of animals, so what’s the point of this all?”

            It’s true that most of us have never offered up animal sacrifices – certainly not in the Temple in Jerusalem, but have we ever clung to other shadows and sketches and thought them “good enough” – that Jesus Alone was not necessary?  Perhaps, though, we have heard people say they are “good enough” to be received into the Kingdom, no matter what they believe.  Perhaps we have heard people say they are “better than most,” that the give to this and that, or volunteer for this and that.  Is there really that much difference between offering up animals as sacrifices and our works – or goodness – as sacrifices – at least in the sense that they will never be enough?  Not to mention, they lack the blood necessary for forgiveness.

            And again, some of you may be thinking, “But, if I am forgiven, why do I need to confess my sin?  Why do I feel guilty for sin?  Why am I disturbed when I sin?  -- if the debt for it is paid and have been freed from the guilt of sin, as you have said?”

            The guilt of a non-believer for sin is a damning guilt; the guilt of a believer for sin is the Holy Spirit working within us.   If we sin – shall I say “when” we sin – we ought to find ourselves moved towards confession, because that will keep us from being prideful – we will be humble – and not say anything as foolish as, “I am good enough.”  Confession also helps us to look out for temptation – to recognize it and avoid sin in the future, to glorify God for what He has done in us through Christ Jesus, to thank Him for His Mercy and Grace, and to freshly apply to ourselves those good things which were to come and which have now come in the Sacrifice of Jesus.

            So, we understand that the Sacrificial Law with its repeated sacrificing of animals could never utterly forgive us of sin and free us from slavery to sin.  The Sacrificial Law was never and could never be a way to be right with God, but pointed to the Only Way in which a person may be right with God – through the Salvation provided through Jesus Alone as the fulfillment of the Old Testament Sacrificial Law.

            The author of Hebrews continues:  “Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, ‘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 your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”

            The first question that ought to strike our minds upon reading the author of Hebrews here – saying that Christ said these words after the Incarnation – is, “When?”  When did Jesus say these words?  And the answer is that there is no record of Jesus ever saying these words.  Now, before we get concerned about that – we ought to get concerned when something doesn’t seem right in the Scripture – there are two possible answers: 

First, Jesus said it but it is not recorded.  That is possible – most of the Gospels is the record of the last week of Jesus’ Life – and even that is only highlights.

But a second possibility is that Jesus said these words from Psalm 40 through His Life – through His Actions – through what He did.

In either case, we have no reason to doubt that Jesus, the Incarnate God, said these words, so let us consider what they mean:

“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,”

Why would Christ say that God does not desire animal sacrifices and offerings when the whole First Covenant is based around sacrifices and offerings?  The answer is in what the author of Hebrews has been addressing:  people had wrongly understood the First Covenant to be a way of salvation, when that was never the purpose of the First Covenant.  As we have seen, one of the purposes of the First Covenant was to point to the coming of the Christ and to show that salvation is only possible through Him Alone.  So, we can understand Jesus to be saying that God never desired sacrifices and offerings to be the way of reconciling people to Himself – we have sinned against the One Holy God and He desires faith and belief in the Savior He was, and now has, sent, not sacrifices and offerings.  God never meant – nor desired – animal sacrifices and offerings to be a way for people to be right with Him.

No, rather, Jesus says, “but a body have you prepared for me;” – we talked about this recently:  when did God prepare a body for the Christ?

We read in the response to Mary’s question:  “And the angel answered her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God’” (Luke 1:35, ESV).

God created a body for the Christ when the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary and caused the body of Jesus to form in her womb without male participation.  God caused Mary to be with child apart from the normal means of procreation – this was God’s creation of the body of the Christ Who incarnated into Mary’s womb.  God created a body in Mary – without a man’s participation – so the God-Man would be born from her.

Why is the virgin conception and birth mentioned here after Jesus says that it is not through the sacrifice and offering of animals that a person may be forgiven for his sins?  This implication is that the sacrifice and offering that can deliver a person from his sins is the body of the God-Man, Christ Jesus, Whom God created in the womb of Mary.  It is only through the blood sacrifice of Jesus that a person can be right with God, forgiven for sin, and delivered from slavery to sin.

And, in case we are not sure that this is what the sacrifice and offering of animals refers to, Jesus is more explicit, saying, “in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.”

People recognized that they were sinners – do you? – they understood that they were at odds with God – that His Wrath was against them unless something or someone put them right with God again – if their sins could be covered – forgiven.  So the people looked at the Law which required animals to be offer when they sinned.  And they brought their sheep, and their bulls, and they offered them up, understanding that sin is only forgive through the shedding of blood, but they missed the point that the blood of animals, though mercifully received by God for their sin, forgave them in the moment – it didn’t forgive all of the sins past, present, and future, and it did not free them from slavery to sin.  As we said earlier – not even a unicorn or a leviathan would be enough, because an animal is not a human.

What hope is there for humans?  Jesus tells us:  “Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.”

            What is Jesus referring to?  What is the Will of God that the Christ came to do which is written of Him in the scroll of the book – that is, the Scripture?

            The Gospel!  Do you remember the short form of the Gospel we learned a little over a year ago?  Do you remember that sentence we are telling our friends who ask what we believe?  God came to earth in the Person of Jesus, lived a perfect life under God’s Law, died for the sins of everyone who would ever believe, and physically rose from the dead and ascended back to His throne.

            The first time we hear the Gospel is in God’s handing out punishment after the sin of our first parents:  God told the serpent:  “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15, ESV).

            Christ Jesus came to do the Will of the Father – that which was written about Him in the Scripture.  The Son incarnated to be the offspring of Eve – to allow Himself to be put to death – as the author of Hebrews wrote:  “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,” (Hebrews 2:14, ESV).

            When the time came, Jesus, knowing the horrors that awaited Him, prayed:  “Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, ‘My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done’” (Matthew 26:42, ESV).

            This is why Jesus quotes Psalm 40 – to show what they should have understood through the Sacrifices:  there is no salvation through the blood of animals.  There is only salvation through Jesus Alone – the Incarnate Son of God Who came to fulfill His Father’s Will and save a people for Himself through the Sacrifice of Himself.

            The author of Hebrews adds some commentary:  “When he said above, ‘You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings’ (these are offered according to the law), then he added, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will.’ He does away with the first in order to establish the second.”           

            Jesus, in bringing the Second Covenant – the Gospel – has done away with the First Covenant – in its Sacrificial Laws.  As we saw last week – since Christ is the God-Man, He only needed to be sacrificed once to pay the debt for all of the sins of all of those who would ever believe, free them from slavery to sin, and impute to them – credit them – with His Righteousness.

            Just like the artist we talked about to begin with who makes a sketch and then paints his painting over it, Jesus has done away with the Old Testament Sacrificial Law by fulfilling it in Himself and by Himself.  No sacrifice is ever needed again because Christ obeyed the Will of the Father.

            We do not have to offer up the blood of animals, or try to be good enough, or anything else – Christ has done everything necessary in obeying His Father to save all those who will ever believe in Him.  Christ has paid the debt to God for our sins, credited us with His Righteousness, and freed us from slavery to sin.

            As John Owen puts it:  “In this state of things, when the fullness of time was come, the glorious counsels of God, namely, of the Father, Son, and Spirit, brake forth with light, like the sun in its strength from under a cloud, in the tender made of himself by Jesus Christ unto the Father, ‘Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.’  This, this is the way, the only way, whereby the will of God might be accomplished.  Herein we have the riches of divine wisdom displayed, all the treasured of grace laid open, all shadows and clouds dispelled, and the open door of salvation evidenced unto all” (Owen, Hebrews, vol. 6, 471).  

            “And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

            Because Christ has obeyed the Will of the Father, by which He has done away with the Sacrificial System and the shadows which pointed to the coming of Christ, we who believe in Him have been sanctified.  We who believe in Jesus Alone for salvation are holy.

            How can that be?

            “For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,” (Hebrews 2:10-11, ESV).

            All those who believe in Jesus Alone for salvation are in Him – we are counted with Him – righteous, holy, glorified – right now – in Him.  Yet, what the reality will be has not fully come.  It will come when Jesus returns.  We have the hope and the promise that that is how we are seen, yet, at the same time, it is not yet how we are.

            On this Pentecost Sunday, we remember that – just as Jesus promised – those first believers were indwelled by God the Holy Spirit – and every Christian since then has been indwelled by God the Holy Spirit.  And Jesus promised:  “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (John 16:13-15, ESV).

            The Holy Spirit will lead us into becoming what we are not yet.  The Holy Spirit will lead us and empower us to do the Will of the Father – which, if you open your Bibles, you will find.  The first and foremost being that we proclaim the Gospel.

            As we take comfort in knowing that Jesus Alone saves us without any help from us and that we are indwelled by God the Holy Spirit Who is making us into the Image of Jesus, Who did the Will of the Father, let us not think that we can lay back and let God work.

            No, Paul wrote, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13, ESV).

            We have hard work before us – we who believe in the Gospel – work that will keep us busy and fill us with joy for a lifetime.  Hold fast to the Work and Obedience of Jesus.  Hold fast to the promise and the guidance of God the Holy Spirit.  And in the light of that truth, seek to do the Will of our Heavenly Father.

            Let us pray:

            Almighty God, we thank You for sending Your Son to be the fulfillment of the Old Testament Sacrificial System.  We thank You for making clear the shadows and showing us the true form of joy in salvation through Jesus Alone.  We thank You that Jesus was obedient to Your Will.  We thank You for the gift of the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit.  We thank You that You are working in us, making us into the Image of Your Son.  And we ask that You would train our eyes on You – that we would seek to do Your Will with everything that we are, that You would be glorified.  For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.