Let’s take our Bibles together and turn to the Book of Hebrews. We come today to a passage that emphasizes the “once for all time” goodness of Christ’s sacrificial death. Not “one for all and all for one.” That’s different. But once for all. That’s the title of the message this morning: “Once for all.” 

And let’s just do a thought experiment as we start this morning. Most of you are used to brushing your teeth once or twice a day. Now what if I invented something that was so potent and so sufficient that you only had to brush your teeth one time in your entire life and then you were done? If I did invent that, I would be the richest man in the world pretty quickly, because that would sell like hot cakes. 

Or let me suggest this. Some of you in this room like to work out. You like to lift weights and keep in shape. Well what if I invented something that allowed you to work out only once in your life and then you would be in shape the rest of your life? And it wasn’t steroids or something dangerous like that. It was just a simple exercise done with a machine that so refined your muscles and elevated your conditioning that you would be set for life after one work out. I promise you that would sell. 

Well something like that is at work in what the author of Hebrews is writing about today. And I don’t know if we grasp how much of a gamechanger this is. And that’s because we don’t do regular animal sacrifices like the Hebrews of the OT, or the Hebrews of the NT for that matter. The author of Hebrews is saying, “Christ is the ‘once-for-all-time’ sacrifice for us. There’s no need for anything else. He’s that superior.”

Several months ago, when we began this series, I entitled it, “Christ Supreme in All Things.” Well Christ’s supremacy will be on full display this morning in our text. Let me show you four ways. 

1) Christ’s supremacy is seen in the shadow (10:1-4)

The author of Hebrews says this in verse 1,

1 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 says, “The law has but a shadow of the good things to come.” It is but a shadow. Hebrews is using the term law here generally for the OT Scriptures, or more particularly the Torah, the first five books of the OT. And as part of the Torah, there is the provision of animal sacrifices. Therefore the law, the Torah, has, in those OT sacrifices, a “shadow of the good things to come.” 

Why are they just a shadow? Well shadow is a great term. It’s the right term. Because a shadow has the form of a person, but not the substance. If I walk by you and the sun catches my form, it casts a shadow on the wall. And that shadow is me. It’s my form, but it’s not the true form. It’s me, but it’s not me. It lacks my substance, my essence.

In that way, the OT sacrificial system “foreshadows” Christ. Those sacrifices had elements of substitutionary atonement, but not the substance. They were like what we have in Christ. It was a shadow, but it’s not the substance. 

And that’s for two reasons: 

1) Look at the end of verse 1: “It [the law] can never …make perfect those who draw near.” It can cover sin, but it can’t permanently atone for sin. A bull or a goat or a lamb can’t impute righteousness to us. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake he made [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” An animal sacrifice can become sin for us, but it cannot help us become the righteousness of God. It’s just a “shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities.”

2) And the second reason has to do with the repetitiveness of the OT sacrifices. Look again at the end of verse 1. “It [the law] can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.” Another bull. Another goat. Another lamb. Another sacrifice. Another day of atonement. Another Passover lamb. Year after year after year. Even if you had a million sacrifices like that, they never stop. You can stack up the shadows all day long, you’ll never get the true form of these realities. You’ve got to keep making sacrifices over and over again. 

And follow the argument here. Look at verse 2.

2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? 

The reason you need to keep offering sacrifices is because the offerer is never fully cleansed. His conscience isn’t dealt with. By the way, the word “consciousness” here in the ESV is the same word “conscience” in chapter 9. It’s the Greek word συνείδησις. We looked at that word several times already. And I want to clarify here that the author isn’t saying that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ removes our consciousness of sin. When we get saved, it’s not like, “Wow, I’m not aware of my sinfulness anymore.” It’s not like the Lord does a frontal lobotomy on you and removes your memories. No, we’re aware! In some ways, we are more aware than before we got saved. 

No, this statement in verse 2 has to do with our conscience, in the sense that we are conscious of our guilt before a holy God. Without Christ, we are conscious of the fact that our sins still hang over us. With Christ, that consciousness is alleviated. Our guilt is assuaged, so that we can have fellowship with God. 

In the OT world, the problem of a guilty conscience persisted, so they had to keep offering sacrifices. I heard a pastor say this last week that the OT equivalent to “Jesus loves me” was… 

“I’m a sinner, this I know, 

because the sacrifices tell me so.”

That’s what the sacrifices reminded the people. If those sacrifices had been truly efficacious… if they had been more than shadows… then we would no longer need anything else. And our sins wouldn’t hang over us. 

But look at verse 3.

3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 

“I’m a sinner, this I know, 

because the sacrifices tell me so.”

Every year. Every Yom Kippur. Every Passover. Another bull. Another goat. Another lamb. And yet, look at verse 4. This is a shocking admission for a Jewish person. 

4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 

The issue here isn’t futility, it’s finality. Those sacrifices weren’t futile. They had a purpose. But they weren’t final. That’s the issue. They couldn’t permanently and irreversibly remove sin.

By the way, that’s a key statement right there in verse 4. That statement is epic. Imagine if that verse was in the OT? Imagine if this statement was in the book of Leviticus? Or Deuteronomy? I wonder if the Israelites would have been tempted to give up. “Why are we even doing this? I could use that bull. I could use that goat for food.” 

Why did they do it anyway? Why did God require that of them? Well, because it was a costly act of worship. That’s something. But also, the shadow was important to God. He wanted the future death of his innocent Son on the cross foreshadowed in those sacrifices. That’s something too. God wanted the supremacy of Christ to shine and be seen when he eventually came and said, “[I] came not to be served but to serve, and to give [my] life as a ransom for many” (Matt 20:28). 

Paul says this in Ephesians 5:2. There’s great applicational freight with this statement. He says, “And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Speaking of Christ’s sacrifice, write this down as #2. Christ’s supremacy is seen in the shadow. But also…

2) Christ’s supremacy is seen in his sacrifice (10:5-10)

Look at verse 5 with me.

5 Consequently, 

Now that’s an important transitional word right there—consequently. This is a link to the previous statement about the impossibility of the blood of bulls and goats taking away sin. Their blood isn’t sufficient for that. Christ’s blood, on the other hand… 

5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; 6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. 7 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.’”

By the way, just a nota bene here. The author of Hebrews is quoting Psalm 40:6-8 in this passage. In fact, he is putting the text of that psalm into the mouth of Jesus. And that’s because, either he’s reading this passage as a prophecy spoken and fulfilled mysteriously in Jesus. Or he has special access to words that Jesus spoke in this world, that we don’t have in our Gospels. Most commentators think that this is in fact a preincarnate conversation between God the Father and God the Son, recorded here by God the Spirit! No matter how you take this, it’s not a stretch to connect Jesus’s work with the Psalms. Jesus was often pointing his listeners in the direction of the OT and talking about how they are fulfilled in him. 

And the substance of the statement from the Psalms has to do with the limitations of OT offerings and sacrifices. In fact, the passage mentions four different kinds of sacrifices that are recorded in Leviticus. There are sacrifices, offerings, burnt offerings, and sin offerings. And those aren’t sufficient. Those aren’t satisfactory to the Lord. God asks in Psalm 50:13, “Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?” No! God says in the book of Micah, “Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? (6:7)” No! What God requires as payment for sin is “a body prepared for me.”

Look at verse 8. 

 8 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), 9 then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. 10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 

“We have been sanctified” says Hebrews. We have been “holy-fied”… Anyone in this room been sanctified in Jesus Christ? This is a reference to imputed righteousness. We are not holy in and of ourselves. We borrow Jesus’s holiness. We have his righteousness imputed to us by faith. That’s a good arrangement for us!  

Let’s look at verse 10 again because there’s a lot packed into this verse.

10 And by that will 

That is “the will” of God the Father who sent his Son into this world. God desired a body. And Christ was embodied or incarnated into this world… That’s where the word incarnation comes from. The Latin word carnis means “flesh” or “meat.” When Christ came to our world, he took on human meat. He was enfleshed in this world. And his flesh was whipped and shredded and punctured and crucified as payment for our sin… a permanent payment. A once for all payment! And that was for our sanctification! 

10 And by [God’s] will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ [permanently] once for all. 

No more bulls. No more goats. No more bloodshed at the tabernacle or the temple. No more Passover lambs. Jesus is the great Passover lamb. John the Baptist said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). This is what God requires. This is, in fact, what God demands as payment for sin—the body of the sinless one, his Son, incarnated into human flesh.

Isaiah said it this way in the OT, seven hundred years before Christ came. “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his wounds we are healed” (53:5).

I heard this last week a story about a man named Sir Monier Williams who interviewed an intelligent Sikh from the Punjab province of India. And when asked about his religion, the Sikh replied, “I am no idolator; I believe in One God, and I repeat my prayers to him every morning and evening. These prayers occupy six pages of print, but I can get through them in little more than ten minutes.” 

Williams asked him, “What else does your religion require of you?” The man replied, “I have made one pilgrimage to a holy well near Amritsar. Eighty-five steps lead down to it. I descended and bathed in the sacred pool. Then I ascended one step and repeated my [prayers] with great rapidity. Then I descended again to the pool and bathed again, and ascended to the second step and repeated my [prayers] a second time. Then I descended a third time, and ascended to the third step and repeated my [prayers] a third time, and so on for the whole eighty-five steps, eighty-five bathings and eighty-five repetitions of the same prayers. It took me exactly fourteen hours, from 5pm one evening to 7am the next morning, and I fasted all the time.”

Williams asked him, “What good did you expect by going through this task?” The man said, “I hope I have laid up an abundant store of merit, which will last me for a long time.” 

You know most of the religions of the world boil down to some variation of that story. “I’m storing up merit before God. I’m earning favor with God.” Christianity isn’t like that. There’s no earning of merit. There’s not working. Instead you put your faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. That’s what makes Christ superior.

Write this down as #3. Christ’s supremacy is seen in the shadow. It’s seen in his sacrifice. Also…

3) Christ’s supremacy is seen in his session (10:11-14)

If that’s a new term for you—session—let me define it. When Jesus ascended into heaven forty days after his resurrection, the Bible says that he sat down at the right hand of God the Father. That’s an amazing fulfillment of Psalm 110, which we’ve looked at already in our study of Hebrews. And that sitting down at God’s right hand is referred to theologically as Christ’s “session.” It’s a reference to that place of honor and power where Christ makes “intercession” for us before the Father. This goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway—no animal from the OT sacrifices was resurrected from the dead and sits at God’s right hand offering intercession for us. That’s one of many reasons why Christ is supreme.

The author of Hebrews describes Christ’s session this way. Look at verse 11.

11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 

Standing, standing, standing, ad infinitum. Deuteronomy 18:5 says, “For the Lord your God has chosen him [the Levitical priest] out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the name of the Lord.” Those priests were chosen for standing, not sitting.

Remember the tabernacle? The Levitical priest was walking, walking, walking. Walking in the outer court. Walking into the holy place. Walk to the menorah and stand. Walk to the table of showbread and stand. Walk to the altar of incense and stand. Walk into the holy of holies and stand. Walk to the ark of the covenant and stand. Walking. Standing. Walking. Standing. But there’s no sitting! If there is anyone sitting in the tabernacle, it’s symbolically the Lord sitting on his throne, the mercy seat, on top of the ark of the covenant!

12 But when Christ 

Here’s another one of those great contrasting statements in Hebrews. The author of Hebrews is so good at this. “Old Testament, Old Testament, Old Testament… But when Christ…” Shadow gives way to substance. Type gives way to antetype.  

12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 

There’s the reference to Christ’s session. There’s Psalm 110. Christ sat down. No priest in the OT sits down on the job, even in the tabernacle, let alone next to God the Father on High! But Christ does that. It signifies that the work of atonement is finished. The single sacrifice for sins was accomplished. 

But look at verse 13. There’s an already/not-yet aspect to this verse.

12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting 

Waiting? What’s he waiting for? Are we waiting for something? And Christ is waiting for something too? What’s he waiting for? He’s waiting for people to get saved before he comes and brings judgment.

13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 

When you go and read Psalm 110 from our vantage point, there is an already/not-yet reality to that psalm. From the psalmist’s vantage point, everything was not-yet. That was a thousand years before Christ came. But from our vantage point, three thousand years later, we see that some of that psalm was fulfilled already. But some of it still awaits a future fulfillment. In fact, most of it still awaits future fulfillment. 

For example, the psalmist (David) writes, “The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. He will drink from the brook by the way; therefore he will lift up his head” (Psalm 110:5-7). Nobody puts that OT passage on their Instagram feed. When’s this going to happen? Did Jesus do that at his first coming? No. The disciples thought he would. They were frustrated when he didn’t do that. Peter picked up a sword to help Jesus out a little bit with that (John 18:10-11). But no, that wasn’t part of Christ’s first coming. 

But he’s waiting… He’s waiting at the right hand of God the Father, even now. He’s…

13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

  Now here’s another aspect of the already/not-yet. This is fascinating. Don’t look past verse 14 too quickly. Because in verse 10, the author said, 

10…we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

We “have been” indicates a past tense reality. In Greek, this is a perfect, passive, participle of the verb ἁγιάζω. We “have been sanctified.”

But now in verse 14, with the same Greek word (ἁγιάζω), the author says,  

14…those who are being sanctified.

That’s a present, passive, participle of the verb ἁγιάζω. That indicates a present tense reality. So which is it, author of Hebrews? Have we been sanctified or are we being sanctified? Which is it? 

Let me muddy the waters even more. Even in the same verse, the author mixes past and present tenses. He says in verse 14, 

14 For by a single offering [Jesus] … he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

“Perfected” is the Greek τελειόω. And this is a straight perfect, active, indicative verb indicating a past tense reality. And the author follows that up with a present tense “are being sanctified.” So which is it? Are we perfect or not perfect? Are we perfected already or are we being perfected? Are we sanctified or are we being sanctified? It’s both. It’s both, church. 

Listen, hear me on this. This is going to blow your mind. We, as Christians, are becoming like what we already are! We are becoming more like Christ, and yet at the same time we are already like Christ, in Christ! We are becoming holy, but we are already reckoned holy (i.e. saints) because of our faith in Christ. The author of Hebrews gets this. As Christians maturing in Christ Jesus, we are becoming more and more like what we already are. 

Paul says it this way, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Cor 3:18). In other words, the Holy Spirit inside of us is saying constantly, “Be like Jesus, Be like Jesus, Be like Jesus, Be like Jesus!” And we are like, “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!”  

You know that’s just a sidebar statement here by the author of Hebrews, this talk of sanctification. He’s a really sneaky writer. Because he packs a lot of practical theology in some of his secondary statements. The main point of this passage here is that Jesus’s once for all sacrifice is superior to the OT sacrificial system. But as he’s expounding on that, he says, almost offhandedly, “by the way you are being sanctified to become more like Jesus… don’t forget that!” 

“Yessir, author of Hebrews. I have been sanctified. And at the same time, I am being sanctified.”

Let’s get back to Christ’s supremacy. Go ahead and write this down as #4.

1) Christ’s supremacy is seen in the shadow (10:1-4)

2) Christ’s supremacy is seen in his sacrifice (10:5-10)

3) Christ’s supremacy is seen in his session (10:11-14)

4) Christ’s supremacy is seen in the sufficiency of his work (10:15-18)

The author of Hebrews says this in verse 15,

15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; 

How does the Holy Spirit bear witness to us? Well, the author of Hebrews is about to quote the OT again, namely Jeremiah 31:33. And what we have here is another reference to what we call the dual authorship of Scripture. All Scripture is co-written by the Holy Spirit. Scripture is God-spirited or God-breathed (θεόπνευστος), according to 2 Timothy 3:16. Peter said, “men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). The author of Hebrews is reinforcing that concept here. 

15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, 16 “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,” 

That’s Jeremiah 31. That’s the new covenant in Christ Jesus that we’ve looked at already. And that new covenant was prophesied six hundred years before Christ in the days of the prophet Jeremiah. 

17 then he adds, 

By the way, the “he” in verse 17 is a reference to the Holy Spirit, not Jeremiah. Typically whenever Paul references the OT he emphasizes the human author: Isaiah, David, Jeremiah, etc. When the author of Hebrews references the OT he emphasizes the divine author, the Holy Spirit. 

And just to be clear, the Holy Spirit is a “he.” He’s not an “it.” He’s not like the “force” in Star Wars or something silly like that. There is such a thing as the personhood of the Holy Spirit. He’s a “he.” He’s not an “it!” 

17 then he [the Holy Spirit] adds [in the book of Jeremiah], “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” 

Part of that prophecy in Jeremiah involves a covenant and a sacrifice that will permanently remove sin. That wasn’t possible in the OT world. That wasn’t possible with the blood of bulls and goats. But now we have the blood of a new covenant. Now we have the supremacy and the sufficiency of Christ’s finished work. What Jeremiah saw through his front windshield, we see in our rear view mirror, that is, a permanent sacrifice in Jesus Christ. And with that sacrifice, Christ’s sacrifice, God remembers our sins no more. 

Remember in verse 3. In the OT sacrifices there was a “reminder” of sins every year. Every year, bring another bull. Bring another goat. Your sins can’t be forgiven and forgotten; they can only be covered. In the OT sacrificial system, there wasn’t remission of sins, there were only reminders. 

“I’m a sinner, this I know, 

because the sacrifices tell me so.”

But now, in light of Christ, God says, 

“I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”

God doesn’t forget, not really. He refuses to remember. He remembers you in light of Christ. There’s a word for that in the Bible. It’s called forgiveness. Forgiveness is a kind of refusing to remember. 

And speaking of forgiveness, look at verse 18.

18 Where there is forgiveness of these, 

What are the “these?” Well it’s the “sins” and “lawless deeds” of verse 17. They’ve been forgiven!

18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. 

Christ is sufficient. His offering is a once for all offering. And in light of him, God refuses to remember, i.e. he forgives, our sins. Isn’t that good?

At the turn of the twentieth century, there was a well-known American woman named Clara Barton. Barton became famous as an organizer of the American Red Cross. And she was a person who was known to never harbor a grudge towards anyone else. And on one occasion a friend reminded her about an incident that happened some years before when Clara was wronged. And this friend said to Barton, “Don’t you remember the wrong that was done you?” And Barton replied, “No, I distinctly remember forgetting that.”

“How does God really forgive us, Pastor Tony? How can he forget our sins? He’s omniscient.” Well, here’s how. He distinctly remembers forgetting your sin. He distinctly remembers Christ’s substitutionary atonement as payment for your sin. 

And verse 18.

18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. 

It’s finished, right? His work is finished. No more offering for sin needed.

I’ll close with this. Many years ago, there was a teenage boy whose mother was away on a visit. And he found himself with too much time on his hands, like a lot of teenage boys. And he decided to read a book from his family’s library. And his mother was a devout Christian, so you know this boy knew whatever book he chose, there would be a sermon and some application points. But in between all that there would be an interesting story or two. So he took the chance of reading a book. 

And while reading a particular book, he came across this phrase, “The finished work of Christ.” And it struck him with unusual power. And he kept thinking about that statement: “The finished work of Christ.” “The finished work of Christ.” 

And he wondered to himself, “Why does the author use this expression? Why not say the atoning work of Christ? Or the propitiatory work of Christ?” You see, this teenager had been to church most of his life. And he had heard all those terms before. But for whatever reason, this particular phrase, “The finished work of Christ,” hit him in a way that none of those other phraseologies had hit him. 

And he realized in that moment… he realized for the first time that the work of salvation was accomplished. And he said to himself, “If the whole work was finished and the whole debt was paid what is there left for me to do?” So that teenager fell on his knees to receive his savior and the full forgiveness of his sins.

That teenager’s name was Hudson Taylor. And he founded a missionary agency called China Inland Mission that’s been responsible for countless Chinese and other nationalities coming to Christ in the last century and a half. Thousands, maybe even millions, of people have come to Christ after God got ahold of that teenager’s heart by that little statement, “The finished work of Christ.”

Look, I don’t know if there’s a Hudson Taylor in our midst this morning. Maybe there is? I’m really not concerned about that right now. What I care about more than anything are the souls that are represented here in our church. Do you know Christ? Have you put your faith in the finished work of Jesus? Salvation isn’t a matter of doing a bunch of things or doing a bunch of works. It’s not about doing a bunch of animal sacrifices or other things. You don’t have to be baptized in the river Ganges to be saved. You don’t have to climb Mount Everest to be saved. Christ has done the work for us. It’s finished. 

Your responsibility in light of what the scriptures teach is very simple—faith. We believe in the finished work of Christ, that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and that he rose from the dead as victory over death. That’s our salvation. So, put your faith in Christ if you haven’t done it before today.