Christ-The Final Sacrifice

​Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering
​of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Heb 10: 5-10

​ ​Lo, I Come

​None but the Son of God could offer unto the Father a sacrifice to please Him, and to reconcile us unto Him in a perfect manner. The burnt-offerings and sin-offerings were ordained merely as shadows and temporary types of that one offering, the self-devotedness of the Son of God to accomplish all the will of God, the counsel of salvation. It is the Divine and eternal offering of Himself unto the Father in which the incarnation and death of the Lord Jesus are rooted; it is the voluntary character of His advent and passion, and it is the Divine dignity of the Mediator, which render His work unique, to which nothing can be compared, and a repetition of which is impossible.
Rise from the river to its source, from the rays of light and love to the eternal origin and fount. See in the life, the obedience, the agony of Jesus, the expression of that free surrender of Himself, and espousal of our cause, which was accomplished in eternity, in His own all-glorious and perfect divinity. Beware lest you see in Him only the faith and obedience, the sufferings and death of the Son of Man; see His eternal divinity shining through and sustaining all His humanity.
This truth is revealed to us, not merely to establish our hearts in peace, and to fill us with adoring gratitude and joy, but here, marvelous to say, is held out to us a model which we are to imitate, a principle of life which we are to adopt. So wondrously are high mysteries and deep doctrines intertwined with daily duties, and the transformation of our character, that the Apostle Paul, when exhorting the Philippians to avoid strife and vain-glory, and have brotherly love and helpfulness, ascends from our lowly earthly path into this highest region of the eternal covenant. As we owe all to Him, let us be not merely debtors, but followers of Him who came, not to do His own will, and to be ministered unto, who came to love and to serve, to give and to bless, to suffer and to die.
[A. Saphir, Lectures on Hebrews, vol. ii., p. 167]​

​Perfect Sanctification

​THE ETERNAL WILL—“By the which wilt we are sanctified.”
1. This will must, first of all, be viewed as the will ordained of old by the Father—the eternal decree of the infinite Jehovah, that a people whom He chose should be sanctified and set apart unto Himself.
2. This wilt by which we are sanctified was performed of the ever blessed Son.
3. This work is applied to us by the Holy Spirit.
THE EFFECTUAL SACRIFICE by which the will of God with regard to the sanctity of His people has been carried out. “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.”
1. This implies, first, His incarnation, which of course includes His eternal Deity. Jesus Christ, very God of very God, did certainly stoop to become such as we are, and was made in the likeness of sinful flesh.
2. All this is implied in the text, because it speaks of the offering of the body of Christ. But why does it specially speak of the body? I think to show us the reality of that offering; His soul suffered, but to make it palpable to you, to record it as a sure historical fact, He mentions that there was an offering of the body of Christ.
3. I take it, however, that the word means the whole of Christ—that there was an offering made of all Christ, the body of Him, or that of which He was constituted.
THE EVERLASTING RESULT.
1. The everlasting result of this effectual carrying out of the will of God is that now God regards His people’s sin as expiated, and their persons as sanctified. Offered, and its efficacy abides for ever.
2. They are reconciled.
3. They are purified. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

​When He Cometh Into the World

​Since the Levitical sacrifices could not cleanse from sin, Christ, the Redeemer from sin, said when he entered upon his mission, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not. Quoted from Psa_40:6-8.
Psa 40:6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.
Psa 40:7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,
Psa 40:8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
​
​Since the sacrifices and offerings of the Jewish altar did not meet God's will.
A body hast thou prepared me for an offering. This is Christ's offering.
In burnt offerings. Burnt offerings were wholly consumed. See Lev_1:17.

​Lev 1:17 And he shall cleave it with the wings thereof, but shall not divide it asunder: and the priest shall burn it upon the altar, upon the wood that is upon the fire: it is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD. ​

Sacrifices for sin. See Lev. 4:1 to 5:13. They were so called because of their special reference to sin. In neither had God pleasure; that is, they did not fully meet his will.
Then said I, Lo, I come. The Psalmist represents Christ, who comes simply to do the will of God, completely surrendered to his will.
In the volume of the book. In the roll of the law it is written of me; that is, there I am predicted.
Then said he. He said, first, "The Levitical sacrifices do not please God;" then he said, second; Lo, I come to do thy will. This is pleasing to God. Hence he taketh away the first, the old covenant with its sacrifices, and establishes the second, the new covenant inaugurated by complete submission to the will of God.
By which will we are sanctified. By this complete submission our sins are removed from us and we are made holy. The meaning of "sanctified" here is remission of sin.
Through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. In Christ's surrender his body was offered on the cross, once for all for sin, and by that offering our sins are remitted. [B.W. Johnson]

​Comments from Adam Clarke: "He taketh away the first - The offerings, sacrifices, burnt-offerings, and sacrifices for sin, which were prescribed by the law.
That he may establish the second - The offering of the body of Jesus once for all. It will make little odds in the meaning if we say, he taketh away the first covenant, that he may establish the second covenant; he takes away the first dispensation, that he may establish the second; he takes away the law, that he may establish the Gospel. In all these cases the sense is nearly the same: I prefer the first."

No More Sacrifices for Sin

​Trace the argument. Those old Jewish sacrifices had no value in themselves. The prophets—especially Isaiah and Hosea—made that quite plain. Their value lay solely in their being a means by which the will of a man was offered to God. When this is taught so as to be fully apprehended, formal sacrifice may cease. It has done its work. The final lesson is the Divine acceptance of the offering of Himself which came to Jesus. Christ’s whole life was His sacrifice. The sacrifice that God wants is the man, not something a man gives. The offering of a man himself is the offering of a life—that alone is the man. This makes Christ’s death the final act, the seal, the perfecting of His sacrifice; because that death completes, rounds off, the life. No life is complete until death seals it. Christ’s death is the great act of surrendered will under the most severe testing-conditions. Dead—human life ended—there is a whole man offered unto God.

That sacrifice—the spiritual sacrifice of the surrendered will—was offered through the body.—Things can have no influence on us that do not come within our range, do not lie in our plane. Moral forces are compelled to use material agencies because we are in material limitations. The surrender of the will of an angel is nothing to us. The surrender of the will of a human being like ourselves is everything to us. Christ became man that He might be able to offer a human sacrifice, because that is precisely what we ought to offer. An angel could not offer our sacrifice: the Son of God, as only Son of God, could not. Christ became representative man that He might offer His sacrifice of Himself in our name, as standing for and pledging us.

That offering satisfies once for all.—Picture-teaching needs repetition, “line upon line, precept upon precept.” The teaching of principles is done once for all. Christ’s sacrifice need not be repeated, because it effected its end--
1. With God. Did this representative offering of the surrendered will meet God’s requirement from us His creatures? The answer is the Resurrection.
2. With men. Was that devotion of Christ to our interests, which led Him to suffer so much in order to secure an acceptable sacrifice for us, such a devotion as could be really persuasive on us? The answer is our experience.

The sacrifice of Christ must not be repeated, even in symbol. To repeat the sacrifice is to remove Christ from His present work of applying the gains of His sacrifice. What then have we to keep in mind? Is it only the medium, the bodily agency of the great sacrifice? Every incident of the Passion is intensely interesting to us. But there is a mystery within it. There is a real spiritual sacrifice. It is a man’s surrendered will. We cannot offer a material sacrifice with Christ. We can offer a spiritual sacrifice with Him. That we will offer it He pledges in our name. But our sacrifice, like His, must be made through our bodies. Our lives, lived unto God, are our sacrifice. [Preacher's Homiletical]

So as Christ has purchased us by His own blood, now we look to Him as our pattern of service, and follow in His steps.
Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Session 6 - A Mystery in the Talmud, and How the Jewish Leaders Confirmed that Jesus is the Messiah.
https://youtu.be/iidMteQtTgA?si=zpxf2bxtnJ1BlTR_
Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the most sacred of Jewish festivals. In ancient times, this was the one day of the year when the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies—the innermost sanctuary of the Temple, where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. But before stepping into that sacred space, the High Priest had to perform a series of sacrifices to cleanse himself of sin, as commanded by God. Once purified, he carried out specific rites to atone for the sins of Israel, interceding on their behalf before the Lord.
This profound ritual continued yearly until AD 70, when the Second Temple was destroyed by the Roman General Titus. Yet, Jewish historical records note something extraordinary: for 40 years before the Temple's destruction, beginning on AD 30, God no longer accepted the Yom Kippur sacrifices.
Why? What happened in AD 30 that caused this shift? Why People are not making the connection? Could it be connected to Isaiah’s prophetic words to Israel?
​
"And He said, 'Go, and tell this people: Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.'” (Isaiah 6:9)

What was God revealing through this?
It is my prayer that many brothers and sisters—both within Israel and beyond—will have their eyes opened and hearts softened to hear and understand, to see and perceive. I pray they recognize that Jesus is the promised Messiah, as confirmed by the words of the prophet Daniel, and beautifully proclaimed in Isaiah 9:6:
"For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called:
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

John's Proclamation

The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world.
This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me. 
And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come
baptizing with water. 
And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove,
and it abode upon him. 
And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which
​baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. 
 And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God. Joh 1:29-34

​​"He seeth Jesus coming and saith, Behold the Lamb - Innocent; to be offered up; prophesied of by Isaiah, Isa 53:7, typified by the paschal lamb, and by the daily sacrifice: The Lamb of God - Whom God gave, approves, accepts of; who taketh away - Atoneth for; the sin - That is, all the sins: of the world - Of all mankind. Sin and the world are of equal extent." (John Wesley)
​
​Isa 53:1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? 
Isa 53:2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 

​​Isa 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. ​
Isa 53:4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 
Isa 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 
Isa 53:6  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. 
Isa 53:7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. 

The Lamb of God

When the great Father came to unveil Himself in the person of His Son, it was a life of Divine gentleness that came to earth. Jesus was the incarnation of gentleness. When He was reviled He reviled not again. There never was a life so mild and yet so firm and strong. Munkacsy, in his famous picture of “Christ before Pilate,” has thrown this Divine trait into the face and figure of Christ. All around is strife, hatred, unrest, but in the centre stands the King of majesty and love with the gentleness of another world upon Him. They spit upon Him, they taunt Him, they crown Him with thorns, but He is still the “Lamb of God.” Even on the cross this greatness abides, as the Savior reaches the sublimest and Divinest moment of His passion with the prayer: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”1 [Note: J. I. Vance, Royal Manhood, 53.]

Christ-Our Atonement

The next day - The day after the Jews made inquiry whether he was the Christ.

Behold the Lamb of God - A “lamb,” among the Jews, was killed and eaten at the Passover to commemorate their deliverance from Egypt, Exo_12:3-11. A lamb was offered in the tabernacle, and afterward in the temple, every morning and evening, as a part of the daily worship, Exo_29:38-39. The Messiah was predicted as a lamb led to the slaughter, to show his patience in his sufferings, and readiness to die for man, Isa_53:7. A lamb, among the Jews, was also an emblem of patience, meekness, gentleness. On “all” these accounts, rather than on any one of them alone, Jesus was called “the Lamb.” He was innocent 1Pe_2:23-25; he was a sacrifice for sin the substance represented by the daily offering of the lamb, and slain at the usual time of the evening sacrifice Luk_23:44-46; and he was what was represented by the Passover, turning away the anger of God, and saving sinners by his blood from vengeance and eternal death, 1Co_5:7.

Of God - Appointed by God, approved by God, and most dear to him; the sacrifice which he chose, and which he approves to save people from death.

Which taketh away - This denotes his “bearing” the sins of the world, or the sufferings which made an atonement for sin. Compare Isa_53:4; 1Jn_3:5; 1Pe_2:24. He takes away sin by “bearing” in his own body the sufferings which God appointed to show his sense of the evil of sin, thus magnifying the law, and rendering it consistent for him to pardon. Rom_3:24-25.

Of the world - Of all mankind, Jew and Gentile. His work was not to be confined to the Jew, but was also to benefit the Gentile; it was not confined to any one part of the world, but was designed to open the way of pardon to all men. He was the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. (Albert Barnes)

​2Co 5:15  And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. 
1Jn 2:2  And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Jesus Christ fulfills all the law, and has become the final sacrifice for sin. All who come to Him, and in repentance seek His forgiveness and mercy, He will in no wise cast out. All who come to Him will find pardon for sin, be born again, and stand in His righteousness-cleansed by His atoning blood.
He waits with open arms, to redeem, save, and heal you. Come to Jesus, and live.
​Lorna Couillard