Lesson 16: Embodied Obedience
Hebrews 10:1-18
Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who approach. Otherwise, would they not have ceased being offered, since the worshipers, cleansed once for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sin? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin year after year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,
“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
but a body you have prepared for me;
in burnt offerings and sin offerings
you have taken no pleasure.
Then I said, ‘See, God, I have come to do your will, O God’
(in the scroll of the book it is written of me).”
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, “See, I have come to do your will.” He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. And it is by God’s will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
And every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. But when Christa had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, “he sat down at the right hand of God,” and since then has been waiting “until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet.” For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. And 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 in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds,”
he also adds,
“I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
This section from the sermon we call Hebrews is the conclusion of the preacher’s argument for the high priesthood of Jesus the Messiah (begun in 4:14). It has consumed the whole of the second movement of the sermon (4:14-10:18) except for the digression in 5:11-6:20. The argument has progressed along these lines in Hebrews 5:1-10; 7:1-9:28.
- The Son became a human being to qualify for the priesthood.
- Every priest needs to understand human weakness for the sake of mercy.
- The Son was called by God to be a high priest.
- The Son’s priesthood is not based on genealogy but vocational call.
- The priesthood of Jesus is eternal based on his resurrected, indestructible life.
- The Levitical priesthood was weak because of their mortality and sinfulness.
- As priest Jesus serves in the true and original sanctuary in heaven.
- The Levitical priests served in the earthly replica.
- The death of Jesus inaugurated a renewal of God’s covenant with Israel and Judah.
- The original covenant was inaugurated with the death of animals in Exodus 24.
- The resurrected and ascended Jesus offered himself to God in the heavenly sanctuary.
- The Levitical high priest offered the blood of animals in the earthly sanctuary.
- Jesus offered himself only once, and he remains in the Holy of Holies until he returns.
- The Levitical high priest made annual offerings and did not remain in the tent.
As we read in Hebrews 9:26-28, Jesus the Messiah, appeared as a human being once (hapax—only one time), and like all other human beings, died once (hapax). When he died that one time, he bore the sins of many. He suffered the curse of Israel’s broken covenant. But having been resurrected from the dead, Jesus ascended through the heavens and entered the Most Holy Place or Holies of Holies to present himself (in his resurrected body!) in God’s presence.
The climax of the argument is Hebrews 10:1-18. The preacher reintroduces the contrast between the original and the replica, but this time it is a contrast between “good things to come” (heavenly sanctuary and its ministry) and “shadow” of the present form (earthly sanctuary and its ministry). Though the replica was patterned after the original, the replica was also a shadow of what was to come. Those future realities are eschatological, that is, the future promised to God’s people on the basis of the work of the Messiah.
Part of the shadowy nature of the earthly sanctuary was its repetition. In contrast to the Messiah who entered “once” (hapax) into heavenly the Holy of Holies, the high priest “continually” went into the earthly Holy of Holies “year after year.” The Levitical practice, though good and useful, was ineffectual—it could “never . . . perfect those who approach.” The worshippers in Israel under the Levitical priesthood annually remembered their sin on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It did not perfect them so that they no longer remembered their sins. They were reminded of their sins every year!
The promise of the new covenant, which concludes the preacher’s argument (Hebrews 10:17, quoting Jeremiah 31:34), is that God will remember their sins no more, and neither will they! They will no longer break the covenant. They will keep the law because it is written on their hearts. Animal sacrifices, the death of animals who suffer the covenant curse, are insufficient. Rather, Israel must suffer the curse of its disobedience. Animals are no substitute. But the Messiah, who suffered the covenant curse with Israel and for Israel, gives birth to covenant renewal through his death. God renews covenant with Israel through the death of the Messiah.
| Levitical High Priest | Messianic High Priest |
| Shadow of Good Things to Come | The True Reality of Those Good Things |
| Annual Entrance into the Holy of Holies | Once for All Entrance into the Holy of Holies |
| Many Sacrifices Again and Again | One Sacrifice Offered Once for All |
| Ineffectual Sacrifices (No Perfection) | Effective Sacrifice (Perfecting the People) |
| Blood (Death) of Bulls and Goats | The Blood (Death) of the Messiah |
| Continual Reminder of Sin | Cleansed of any Consciousness of Sin |
In his death the Messiah sheds his blood for the life of Israel. He is the suffering servant of Israel (remember Hebrews 9:28 is an echo and allusion to Isaiah 53:12).
This blood (life) was offered to God not only to bear away sin but also to cleanse the people by presenting it in the Holy of Holies. This played out in the earthly sanctuary when the High Priest took the blood of bulls and goats into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled it on the ark of the covenant, God’s footstool. They did it every year, continually reminding Israel of its sin.
At this juncture, the preacher draws on Psalm 40:6-8 to further his argument and bring it to a conclusion. On the one hand, burnt offerings and sin offerings are not what God (ultimately!) requires. To be sure, the Levitical system required these sacrifices as a way of reminding the people of their sin and continuing their relationship with God. Yet, they are not the ultimate remedy and the remembrance of sin is not the ultimate goal.
Instead, drawing from Psalm 40:6-8, the ultimate objective is the obedience of the people whose hearts are inscribed with the law of God. But how can this happen when Israel has broken the covenant, and we continue to break the covenant in the present?
For the preacher, the answer lies in hearing the words of Psalm 40:6-8 on the lips of Jesus the Messiah who came into the world in these last days: “See, God, I have come to do your will, O God.” The Messiah did not come to offer burnt offering and sacrifices, though he participated in those practices as a good Jew. Rather, the Son became incarnate, that is, he became flesh. He came in a body. God prepared a body for the Messiah, and through this body, the Messiah obeyed God and accomplished the will of God. He obeyed, even unto death, and as a result was perfected so that he might become a high priest and the source of eternal salvation (Hebrews 5:8-10). He was raised from the dead in this body, and his body not possesses an indestructible life, an immortal body animated by the Spirit of God who is the “eternal Spirit” (Hebrews 9:14).
Students of Psalm 40:6 will recognize that the Hebrew text says “ear” rather than “body.” So, why does the preacher quote the text as “body”? There is no simple answer to this. Some suggest he is quoting a Greek translation that has the word body instead of ear, and there are manuscripts of the Septuagint that do say “body.” It is probably the Vorlage (the original text the writer may be quoting) of the Septuagint translation. Or, perhaps, the translators expanded the metaphor from “ear” to “body” in order to make plain to their readers its meaning (that is, “ear” refers to listening to and obeying the word of the Lord). Whatever the case, whether Vorlage or an interpretation of “ear,” “body” is the language the preacher uses using a text in front of him. Consequently, the preacher stresses an embodied obedience. The incarnate Son, Jesus the Messiah in the flesh, obeyed and did the will of God, even unto death. It is the obedience of the Messiah that redeems the people of God who follow the Messiah by obeying him (Hebrews 5:8-10).
The use of “body” is important because the summation of the point in Hebrews 10:10 identifies “the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” as that which sanctifies the people of God. It is effective; it forgives sin, cleanses the conscience, and perfects the people.
But what is this offering? Is it the cross alone or primarily? Or, is this offering the presentation of the body in the Holy of Holies once and for all so that there will be no remembrance of sin in the new covenant? In other words, when did Jesus offer this body to God?
There is a sense in which Jesus offered himself to bear the sin of many at the cross (Hebrews 9:28), that is, he gave himself to suffer the covenant curse for Israel. But he was not acting as priest in that moment because he was not a priest; he could not be a priest on the earth. But there is also a further sense in which Jesus offered or presented his body to God in the heavenly sanctuary, in the true Holy of Holies. This is the context of Hebrews 9-10. It is the resurrected Jesus who offers his living (not dead!) body to God in the heavenly sanctuary, and this one offering, offered hapax, is sufficient to perfect all those who are in the process of sanctification or growing in holiness (Hebrews 10:14).
When Jesus offered his body to God, he sat down at the right hand of God as our eternal royal high priest who remains in the Holy of Holies to continually intercede for us.
The Holy Spirit testified about this in Jeremiah 31. It is through the priesthood of the Messiah, his offering at the cross and in the heavenly sanctuary, that the renewal of the broken covenant with Israel and Judah is possible. Because of his eternal priesthood, that is, his once for all presentation of his living body before God and his eternal intercession, God will write the law on our hearts and remember our sins no more. And we will sin no more! This is an eschatological promise; it belongs to our perfection when we follow Jesus into death and then in his resurrection!
And when sin is finally and ultimately forgiven—when it is remembered no more, then there is no longer any need for any offerings for sin because sin is no more!