CHAPTER
1
INTRODUCTION
For believers, the concept of salvation through the blood
sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is familiar and readily
accepted. But, imagine your reaction to
this teaching as if you had never heard it before. It almost sounds mid-evil or mythical. How does blood clean anything? Why did it have to be the blood of God’s
Son? How does the sacrifice of Jesus
provide salvation? Hebrews, the
nineteenth book of the New Testament, provides the answer to these and many
other very intriguing questions regarding Christ’s sacrifice and our salvation.
Before diving into Hebrews, however, it is important to
understand what the Jewish audience of the first century would have already
known when they opened this complex and enlightening letter. This is a key step in the process of establishing
a proper hermeneutical framework.[1] The Jews understood God’s law, His divine
wrath against those who broke that law, and the necessity of the sacrificial
system to appease that wrath. Unless you
are a first century Jew or educated in biblical history, it is doubtful that
you would have such understanding. This
work will seek to bring clarity to these truths in hopes to gain a more
complete perspective on mankind’s salvation by divine sacrifice as taught in
Hebrews.
CHAPTER 2
A DREADFUL THING
There
is a good reason that the Jews of the Old Covenant were sometimes referred to
as “God fearers.” These people were
entrusted with the law of God and thus were aware of His expectations for
humanity and the consequences for disobedience. They not only would have understood the need
of a sacrifice for salvation, but they would have known from what they needed
to be saved.[2] Today, most believers think we are being
saved from sin, hell, or Satan. But,
what power does sin itself actually have?
It is something people do, and though it may have temporal consequences,
it itself has no power. The same is
true of hell in that it is only a place.
It does not reach up and grab anyone to pull them into it’s fiery abyss. Likewise, Satan is a created being whose only
power is granted to him by his Creator.
So, from what are we actually being saved? The writer of Hebrews tells us plainly in
chapter ten:
“If we
deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth,
no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and
of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law
of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man
deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has
treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and
who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, ‘It is mine to avenge;
I will repay,’ and again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands
of the living God.”[3]
Likewise, Paul says, “Since we have now
been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath
through him!”[4] Clearly we are not merely being saved from
sin, hell, or Satan, but from the very wrath of God Himself. Has this foundational truth been lost in the
American church? Can the modern day
believer really grasp the concepts imbedded throughout the work of Hebrews
without fully embracing this divine revelation?
Does salvation through sacrifice even make sense without building upon
this foundational doctrine?
Sin that so Easily Entangles
A solid doctrinal
foundation begins by understanding the biblical concept of sin. Sin, the act of disobeying
God’s law, was understood to be a very serious offense with very serious
results. Today, however, people seem to
view sin as much less significant.
Teachings about the fear of God, His holy nature, and His divine justice
have been replaced with pithy antidotes and humorous, feel-good stories. Many have heard of hell and some even affirm
its existence, but few actually believe they deserve to go there due to their
sin. They feel that God is just too
good to send a ‘decent’ person to a place of eternal torment and separation
from God. Even respected pastors and
authors, such as Rob Bell in his most recent book “Love Wins,” suggests an
eternal Hell is non-existent.[5] A.W. Tozer warned of such trends when he
wrote, “The vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly
has become a deadly opiate for the conscience of million.”[6] Those who deny the eternally severe
consequences of hell have yet to accept the biblical doctrines of God’s
holiness and justice.
Sin is
so serious because God is so holy. In
the human justice system, the seriousness of a crime is measured not only by
the inherent nature of the offense, but also by the one who is offended. For example, siblings caught in a squabble
may resort to throwing shoes at each other and the punishment would be
relatively small. But, if a man threw
his shoes at the President of the United States, as Muntadhar
al-Zaiydi, an Iraqi journalist, did in 2008 he would face up to two years in
prison. The nature of the crime is
identical. Both are merely throwing
shoes in anger at another human being, but the punishment is much more sever in
the latter case due to the nature and status of the one who is offended.
Now, if we can
readily accept the escalation of punishment in our own judicial system based
upon the status and position of the offended party, why are so many tempted to
ignore the status and position of God, who clearly is offended by our sin? Is not God’s nature eternally holy? Is God’s position as our infinitely holy
creator not significant? If God’s holy
nature and status is eternally great, it would bear to reason that an offense
against Him would deserve an eternally severe punishment. Our sins, regardless of how insignificant
they may appear, have offended an infinitely glorious and holy God, and the punishment
must correspond to that offense.
When the angry
journalist offended President Bush many argued that the criminal did not
deserve being sent to prison. In fact,
some argued he deserved to be honored for his actions. This was a direct insult to the President’s
nature and status. By arguing that the
shoe-throwing journalist did not deserve that severe of a punishment, they were
actually impugning the personhood and status of the President of the United
States. Likewise, those who dismiss the
eternally severe punishment of Hell are actually insulting the personhood and
status of the God and Creator of our universe, by suggesting those who offend
Him do not really deserve that severe of a punishment.
The first century
readers of Hebrews would have understood that any sin against an eternal God
must be paid eternally. An infinite Creator
deserves infinite payment for any offense, no matter how small it may appear to
us. There are really only a couple of
options to satisfy this demand. Either a
finite being (man) must pay for his offense for an infinite amount of time, or
an infinite being (Jesus) must pay for it once and for all time.
The Jewish readers
of Hebrews would have approached the letter understanding this truth and
revering God because of it. They would
have known why a blood sacrifice was necessary and thus could better understand
the link with Christ’s work on the cross. The sacrifice of Christ is brought to full
light when viewed from the backdrop of Judaism’s sacrificial system, a topic
for which the audience of Hebrews would have been experts.[7]
Destined to Die
“Just
as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.”[8] “For we know
him who said, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ and again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’"[9] Not only have all men sinned and offended the
infinite glorious nature of God, but they are destined to die and stand before
Him as their judge. According to
scripture, God is a perfect judge who “despises
those who acquit the guilty and condemn the innocent.”[10] So, in addition to being eternally Holy, God
is also perfectly just. In other words,
God always judges correctly. If a man is
guilty of sin, as all men are (Romans 3:23), then God must declare him
guilty. If He does not then He would be
lying, and we know God cannot lie (Titus 1:2).
This is all very bad news for a world filled with guilty sinners
who have offended the infinite holiness of a perfect judge. And it is only in light of this very bad news
that we can begin to appreciate the magnitude of the good news being brought by
the author of the letter of Hebrews. It
is also a necessary backdrop to understand the necessity of a perfect sacrifice
to accomplish salvation for guilty sinners.
CHAPTER
3
THE
NECESSITY OF BLOOD
"Without the shedding of blood there is
no forgiveness of sins."[11] During Yom Kipper, the Jewish Day of Atonement, scholars
estimate that over 100,000 animals were slaughtered in the various Temples. The blood would flow and be splashed against
the base of the altar. The carcasses of the
animals would be cleaned, carved up and burnt on the altar. There was so much blood flowing from Jerusalem
they had specially built gutters for it to stream out of the city and empty
into a brook called Kidron, turning it crimson. The Temple was a slaughterhouse of sorts. But, even with all that killing and all that
blood, it just was not enough. It was not enough to permanently fix the sin
problem and restore us to intimate relationship with our Creator.[12]
From the Garden of Eden the connection
between, sin, death, and a substitute to cover the sins of man is well
established (Genesis 3:21). This
continued through the time of the patriarchs and was then fully established
through Moses (Exodus 12; Lev. 16). The
tenth chapter of Hebrews begins by explaining how the sacrificial system of animals
in the Old Covenant “is only a shadow of the good things that are coming” (vs.
1), and that “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away
sins” (vs. 4). Though the act of
animal sacrifice failed to
provide atonement in God’s eyes, it is clear that God is the one who instituted
the sacrificial system for the forgiveness of sin (Lev. 13).
No work
or obedient act would merit salvation, not even the ritual of animal sacrifice
set up by God Himself. It was never
intended to do so. However, God used the
old system to establish two important truths that would need to be understood
on some level in order to grasp what was to come.
One, it
served as an annual reminder to the people that they are guilty of sin and in
need of atonement. Though the law was
not the remedy for sin, it still served a very good and necessary purpose. It served as a teacher to inform mankind of
their fallen and sinful condition. The
law helped people to understand and accept that they are guilty and that
salvation from God’s wrath is their greatest need.
The second
truth established by the old system was that it proved the shedding of blood is
necessary for the remission of sins (Lev. 17:11). One must first understand that blood
represents life, thus the split blood represents death. A sacrifice, the spilling of blood, was
representative of death, which is the consequence of sin. If one
is to avoid that consequence they must have a substitute. For many generations that substitute was an
animal, such as a lamb, but once the fulfillment of the Old Covenant came as
the “Lamb of God” and offered Himself as a sacrifice, the old passed away and
the new took its place. The difference
in the sacrifice of Christ is that it was offered once and for all. There is no longer the need for an annual
sacrifice now that Christ’s blood has satisfied the wrath of God once and for
all time.[13]
CHAPTER
4
A
BETTER SACRIFICE
Leading
up to chapter 10 the author has already taught that Christ established a better
priesthood (chapter 7), a better covenant (chapter 8), and a better sanctuary
(chapter 9). Now, he is arguing that
Christ has also established a better sacrifice.
It is better because the sacrifices of the Mosaic Law were never able to
atone for sin. Jesus came to fulfill the
demands of the old covenant, establish a new covenant, a better one, and
sacrifice Himself for the salvation of all who believe. His perfect blood is the only sufficient
cover for the believer’s sin. It is only
by the shedding of his innocent blood that believers are made innocent and
saved from God’s judgment.[14]
The
sacrifice of Christ is also better because it demonstrates how strongly God
feels about mankind. The Old Covenant
was based in shame, guilt and fear, but Christ’s sacrifice took on the shame,
removed the guilt, and drives out all fear.
This cannot be accomplished for anyone individually without faith in
Christ, which is why the author of Hebrews goes to such great lengths to bring
the reader to full knowledge of His superiority and love.
Founded on Love
God’s love is demonstrated through sacrifice in order to
provide our salvation. Christ was not
sent to merely live as an example for us to follow, or a teacher from which we
are to
learn. He was sent to be the perfect atoning
sacrifice to appease the demands of the law and demonstrate His unconditional
love for sinful man. This sacrifice was
not given against his will. For the one
giving himself as a sacrifice said, “Here I am, I have come to do you will.”[15] Elsewhere he says, “The reason my
Father loves me is that I lay down my life--only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of
my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up
again.”[16] So, the love being demonstrated is evident
both in the will of the Father and the Son, working as One to make a sacrifice
of love for undeserving people.
Applied through Faith
“And
without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him
must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”[17] After introducing the foundation of gracious
love as God’s motive for salvation, the means through which this salvation is
applied must now be fully established.
The requirement of faith in God’s gracious provision is established in
both the Old and New Testaments. Hebrews
chapter 11 uses the old to establish the new and in doing so introduces for the
readers “a great cloud of witnesses” that have gone before us (Heb. 12:1). These witnesses did not attain righteousness
and thus salvation through keeping the law, but instead by faith in the
revelation of God. They trusted God and
that alone was credited to their accounts as righteousness.[18]
The
expectation for faith in God is nothing new.
The Israelites are reprimanded for their lack of faith in God after
wondering in the wilderness for forty years (Deut. 1:32; 9:23). The king of Judah was called on by the prophet
Isaiah to believe God’s word (Isaiah 7:9) and the Lord, through Habakkuk,
clearly taught, “the righteous will live by his faith” (Hab. 2:4). It is apparent that the basis of salvation
in every generation is faith in God, yet the content of His revelations may be
more complete throughout time. The list
of God’s faithful cloud of witnesses in Hebrews chapter 11 do not necessarily have
a full understanding of Christ and His atoning work, yet clearly their faith,
regardless of how small, was pleasing to God because they “believed he exists
and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”[19] Righteousness was credited to their account
even though the content of their faith was not complete. Grace is even sufficient for incomplete
understanding of God’s redemptive plan and purpose. Does this mean, however, that one may be
saved a part from the atoning work of Christ?
Absolutely not, as it is written, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under
heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”[20] Though someone such a Rahab may not have
understood the prophecies of the One to come, this does not negate the need of
that One’s work of atonement for Rahab’s salvation. She may not have known the name by which she
was saved, but she trusted in the God of salvation and it was credited to her
as righteousness.
CHAPTER 5
APPLICATION
How
does this affect the church today? No
Christian would take issue with the author’s claim that God does not desire
sacrifice or that the blood of animals cannot remove wrath. The entire sacrificial system of the Old
Covenant is foreign to the modern church, so what would they care about how
often sacrifices are to be offered or if they are now declared obsolete? The questions and concerns of the first
century Hebrew are not the same questions and concerns of the typical
churchgoer. However, people today still
must deal with their sin and guilt.
People in the twenty-first century may not use animal sacrifice to appease
their conscience, but many other similar methods have been adopted by those who
have yet to fully trust in the work of Christ on the cross of Calvary.
For
example, some use moral living to earn God’s favor, which is tantamount to the
Pharisaical attempts to earn righteousness through the law. Morality along with effort of abstinence from
certain vices has become the law of the Christian church in the Western
culture. Even church going Christians come
to believe that if they can live a decently moral life, which is typically measured
in contrast to others, then God will accept them and ultimately save them. Their moral codes may not be near as complex
and demanding as the Levitical system, but they are as equally insufficient to
earn salvation.
Others
feel their church attendance or biblical knowledge will suffice. Their weekly “sacrifice” of attending,
giving, and serving at their local congregation is offered up in hopes
to appease God’s anger for their
sin. Learning all about God’s sovereign
attributes and applying scripture to memory can become man’s futile attempts to
do what only Christ can do. It is only
faith in the God of grace that makes these actions truly bare eternal
fruit. People fall into grave error when
they allow such activities and rituals become their own modern day sacrificial
system. Only faith in the “once and for
all” sacrifice of Christ will bring ultimate satisfaction and peace with God. Salvation comes through faith, not
rituals. We are sanctified through
relationship, not religion. The Jews of
the first century, who were prone to turn back to their traditions, teach a
valuable lesson for the Christian today.[21]
WORKS CITED
Akin, Daniel, Bill Curtis, and
Stephen Rummage. Engaging
Exposition. Nashville: B&H
Publishing,
2011.
Allen, David L. Hebrews in
The New American Commentary. Vol. 35. Nashville: B&H
Publishing
Group, 2010.
Bell, Rob. Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and
the Fate of Every Person Who Ever
Lived. New York: HarperCollins, 2011.
Guthrie, George H. Hebrews:
From Biblical Text to Contemporary Life, in The NIV
Application
Commentary. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998.
MacArthur, John. The
MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Hebrews.
Chicago:
Moody
Publishers,
1983.
Morris, Leon. The Expositors Bible Commentary, Vol. 12. Grand
Rapids: Zondervan, 1981.
Stedman, Ray. IMP New Testament
Commentary Series Part 1, Chapters 1-9.
Downer
Grove Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1992; web page,
available from
http://www.raystedman.org/hebrews2/heb2comm1.html;
Internet; accessed 2 May 2012.
Tozer, A.W. The Knowledge of the
Holy. New York: HarperCollins, 1978.
[1]
Daniel
Akin, Bill Curtis, and Stephen Rummage, Engaging Exposition (Nashville:
B&H Publishing, 2011), 15.
[2]
John MacArthur,
The
MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Hebrews (Chicago: Moody Publishers,
1983), 205.
[3]
Hebrews 10:26-31
[NIV].
[4]
Romans 5:9 [NIV].
[5]
Rob Bell, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and
the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. (New York: HarperCollins, 2011),
82-83.
[6]
A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (New York:
HarperCollins, 1978), 89.
[7]
Leon Morris, The Expositors Bible Commentary, Vol. 12 (Grand
Rapids: Zondervan, 1981), 106-108.
[8]
Hebrews 9:27 [NIV].
[9]
Hebrews 10:30 [NIV].
[11]
Hebrews 9:22 [NIV].
[12]
Ray Stedman, IMP New Testament Commentary Series Part 1,
Chapters 1-9 (Downer Grove Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1992), web page,
available from http://www.raystedman.org/hebrews2/heb2comm1.html; Internet;
accessed 2 May 2012.
[14]
George H. Guthrie, The NIV Application
Commentary: Hebrews (Zondervan: Grand Rapids,
1998), 73.
[16]
John 10:17-18 [NIV].
[17]
Hebrews 11:6 [NIV].
[19]
Hebrews 11:6 [NIV].
