by Joshua Whisman
The Restoration Herald - Apr 2025
Background of Text —
Sometimes it can be difficult to understand the significance of the Old Testament. We are New Testament people, after all, and our emphasis is on the finished work of Christ. The death, burial, and resurrection of Christ is the gospel message that saves, and it is in the New Testament, not the Old. However, if we fail to grasp the significance of the sacrificial code of the old covenant, we cannot fully appreciate the importance of the cross and the ultimate sacrifice made at Calvary.
Consider for a moment the Old Testament sin offering. Depending on your financial status, you would have to offer one of five possible sacrifices to atone for your sin: a young bull, a male goat, a dove, a pigeon, or one-tenth of an ephah of flour. Each of these sacrifices had detailed instructions regarding the handling of the meat, the fat, the blood, etc. Our twenty-first century sensibilities would lead us to think the traumatic and bloody experience of butchering just one young bull would surely be sufficient—but once was not enough. Your sins required constant sacrifices, and the priests stayed busy, day after day, year after year, killing animals and spilling blood. It never ended. What’s more, these sacrifices never really liberated you from your sin; they only served as a constant reminder you were a sinner and the blood being shed should be yours.
Into this endless cycle of sin and death entered Jesus Christ, the Messiah. It turned out what everybody had been doing all along never really worked; all those sacrifices were never going to accomplish complete and lasting atonement. You can imagine the shock it must have been to Old Testament minds when the Hebrews writer declared no matter how many sacrifices they offered, “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” The permanent solution to our sin problem was the once-and-for-all sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 10:10). It need not be repeated. For true forgiveness and redemption to take place, it only takes One.
Understanding
The Hebrews writer closes this section on Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice with the simple observation that where there is forgiveness, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 10:18). When Jesus bowed His head and prepared to breathe His last breath, He said, “It is finished.” And it was. The final and all-sufficient sacrifice was made.
Of course, it is not enough to bridge the gap between the Old and New Testaments with regard to the sacrificial system. There is a “therefore” in all of this. We might call Hebrews 10:19-25 the “so what” section of our text. This is where the writer tells us what all of this means for us in our day-to-day lives. Here are three very big takeaways:
Every day, we can draw near to God with complete assurance.
Under the Old Covenant, only the high priest could enter the Most Holy Place in the Temple, and then only once a year. This was where the Ark of the Covenant was located. On top of the Ark was the mercy seat symbolizing the very presence of God. When Jesus died on the cross, the curtain separating this Most Holy Place from the rest of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The significance of this is clear: we now have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 10:19). We can draw near to God in full assurance of faith (Hebrews 10:22).
These are “let us” passages, where the writer indicates this is not merely a suggestion, it is an imperative: “Let us draw near to God.” Through the blood of Christ, we have been given clearance to approach the Creator of the universe. Only a fool would pass up this opportunity. Read and meditate on His Word and talk to Him every day, as though your spiritual life depends upon it … because it does.
Every day, we can hold on to hope.
Of all people, Christians should be the most hopeful and the most optimistic. After all, we have forgiveness, we have access to our Heavenly Father in this life, and we have heaven waiting for us in the life to come. The writer assures us Christ will appear a second time, apart from sin, to “bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him” (Hebrews 9:28). No matter what this world throws at us, no matter how dark things may seem, there is always cause for hope. He is coming back for us. While we wait, we must hold unswervingly to the hope we profess (Hebrews 10:23).
Every day, we can spur each other on to love and good deeds.
We are not meant to live this life in isolation; God created us for community. We work best when we have people in our lives who will encourage us to do the right thing. Sometimes we need cheerleaders to affirm us in our spiritual walk. Other times we actually do need someone to act as a spur in our lives, offering the painful but necessary constructive criticism that will get us moving faster and in the right direction. We need to be cheerleaders and spurs for others as well. It is all for the purpose of spreading the love and good deeds that springs from our living hope.
For a long time, I thought if we were going to sing a “praise” song, it was going to have a speedy tempo and some catchy words to it. Recently I’ve expanded my understanding to include special moments like spectacular sunrises, lunar eclipses, and personal victories. But alas, this Hebrew word (‘hallel”) teaches me a different story. I’m no grammarian and I’m not offering a class in Hebrew vocabulary, I’m seeking transformative truth, and worship that transcends the run of the mill worship experience.
God intends for us to have assurance of His Grace if we are following and trusting Him according to the Scriptures. For Christians, there should be no uncertainty; there should be joy in the journey of the Christian life. We should be able to have confidence in our salvation because it is knowable.
In Matthew 9:9 Jesus told Matthew, “Follow me.” Paul instructs in 1 Cor. 11: 1, “Follow me as I follow Christ.”[1] These seem simple enough, but oftentimes doubt begins to settle in our minds, “Have I done enough?” and “How can I be certain?” Essentially, we’re asking the same question as those in Acts 2:37: “What must I do?” Sadly, many continue asking it long after becoming a Christian.
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