Hebrews Lesson 36: The Only Sin Payment God Accepts :: By Sean Gooding

Chapter 10:11-18

¹¹ “And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. ¹² But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, ¹³ from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. ¹⁴ For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. ¹⁵ But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before ¹⁶ ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,’ ¹⁷ then He adds, ‘Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’ ¹⁸ Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.”

Hebrews 10:8-10; “Previously saying, ‘Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them’ (which are offered according to the law), then He said, ‘Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.’ He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.'”

It has been a few weeks since last we were together. Sadly, one of my dear sisters here went home to be with the Lord. I say sad, but we know that the sadness is tempered by the realization that she is home; she is no longer in pain, and cancer can’t get her there. We miss her, but we are not sad for her; we rejoice for her. I pray that you know this kind of hope and that you live in this kind of hope — a hope that transcends the trials, pains, and losses of this life.

At times it may seem that we are repeating ourselves, but we are not. The writer of Hebrews wanted us to be sure beyond any doubt that Jesus was and is the only means of our salvation. Hebrews is the New Testament version of Daniel in a way. In the Old Testament, Daniel was written to the Gentiles primarily in a section of the Bible that was mainly to the Jews and the founding and expansion of Israel.

Daniel lived in a Gentile Kingdom (Babylon), and God told him of the things that would happen to the Gentiles for all eternity right into and past our time if the Lord tarries. Hebrews is written primarily to the Jews in a part of the Bible that is primarily about the Gentile church. This book dispels for the Jews any and all sentiments that may have them believe that salvation comes by keeping the Law.

It is astonishing that there are some sects that still hold to the Law as their means of salvation. They still think that if they keep the Law faithfully, it will be counted to them for righteousness before God. There are still many devout Jews who feel the same way; they see God, acknowledge God, and know the Law but deny and refuse Jesus. John tells us that anyone who denies Jesus does not have God.

1 John 2: 21-23; “I have not written to you because you lack knowledge of the truth, but because you have it, and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar, if it is not the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father, but whoever confesses the Son has the Father as well” (Berean Study Bible).

If you deny that Jesus is the Son of God according to John 5:18, which makes Him equal to God, then you do not have God the Father. These are sobering words to many sects and to many Jews; they are damning words. There will be many who know God but deny the Son, Jesus, and they will die in their sins and spend eternity in Hell. This is why the book of Hebrews was written to dispel any myths and doctrines about being able to be saved by keeping the Law. This passage we will explore is so clear that I do not need to do much explaining at all. I will try to be brief and do all I can to let the simple statements of the Scriptures jump off the page.

• The Rituals of the Laws can NEVER take away our sins, verse 11

This is one of the clearest statements in the Bible. In Romans 3:20 and Galatians 2:16, we are told that a man cannot be justified (declared righteous) by the works of the Law. We have three very clear verses that reinforce this doctrine. There are no persons who have ever walked the planet who are justified by keeping the Law. No one will ever come before the Throne of God and offer obedience to the Law as a reason for being justified and thus being saved from eternal doom. Jesus was never lost; He kept the Law not for himself but for us.

In Galatians 3:24 KJV, Paul tells us the purpose of the Law; please recall that this man was a Pharisee. He kept the Law from the time he was a very young man.

“Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”

The Law, Paul says, was designed to show us we need Jesus to justify us. The Law was never designed to save us but to show us that we need to be saved. Keeping the Law never changes our nature. We are born sinners separated from God forever, but when we are ‘born again, John 3:3, then we have eternal life given to us by faith, and we are saved forever. The Old Testament and New Testament priests had to repeat the ritual of sacrifice over and over, again and again. There were no chairs in the Temple or the Tabernacle because their work was never finished; they never got to sit down while performing the duties of the high priests; their temporary atonements could not save anyone, not even the priests.

• Jesus Sat Down; the Job was Done, verse 12

“It is finished” – only Jesus could make that statement. His sacrifice was the one to end all others. His death was the one to end the sting of death, His resurrection was the one to take away the fear of the grave, and now He is simply waiting to come and get His bride. God is gradually making the enemies of Christ and His bride come to a place where Jesus can come back and deal with them. We, you and I, have the Holy Spirit in us, and God has fulfilled in us, the Gentile Church, the promise of verse 16.

“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds, I will write them” (NKJV).

The Holy Spirit living in us has put God’s law into our hearts and minds, and He is the down payment of our salvation, Ephesian 1:14-16, and we have this even greater promise from verse 17, God does not remember our sins any longer because we are in Jesus and the Holy Spirit in us, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

One day soon, this will also be true for Israel, and the promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will be all fulfilled to their entirety. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

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