The Sufficiency of Christ’s Once-for-All-Time Sacrifice

Jesus came into the world to do his Father’s will. This required laying down his life as a sacrifice for sins. This is what verses 5-7 teach. When Christ entered the world, he knew his body would be the sacrifice that pleased God and satisfied his wrath. Old covnenant sacrifices and offerings could not ultimately bring the forgiveness of sins. Even worse, for many who made the offerings, the sacrifices represented nothing more than mere religious ritual. Those people no longer offered up sacrifices in faith and obedience. They were just going through the motions.

The Father did not ask his Son to offer sacrifices. He prepared a body for him and asked him to be the sacrifice. In doing so, the Father was asking the Son for obedience. The Father’s will and the Son’s obedience are precisely what we see described in Isaiah 53. God delights in obedience, not in burnt offerings and sin offerings (1 Sam 15:22-23). This does not mean the old covenant offerings contradicted the will of God in any way. It simply means God is not interested in religious ritual if it is not driven by faith and obedience. Works without faith are meaningless in God’s eyes.

In verse 8 the author of Hebrews gives a brief commentary on the words he attributes to Jesus. He further explains that God did not delight in the sacrifices of the Levitical cult “offered according to the law.” Once again, this highlights the temporary and inadequate nature of the old covenant sacrifices. A greater sacrifice was still to come—a sacrifice in which God would be permanently pleased.

Verse 9 tells us Jesus did away with the old covenant in order to establish the new. This is what Jesus was announcing when he said, “See, I have come to do your will.” These words took away the first and established the second. Therefore, the Old Testament sacrificial system is completed. The author actually uses the Greek word for “abolish” to punctuate the termination of the Old Testament sacrificial system as forcefully as he can. The era of the law is over. Jesus abolishes it. He is why we no longer need to sacrifice bulls and goats. This is good news for bulls and goats, and it is far better news for us.

Verse 10 expands on the supremacy of the second and final sacrifice. In doing so, the author returns to the language of Jesus’s body. Jesus did the will of the Father by offering his body as a once-for-all-time substitute for sin. His willing sacrifice is the final and fully effective one that abolishes the old sacrifices and inaugurates the new covenant. By virtue of their union with Christ and on account of his sacrifice, believers are now in the realm of the holy and purified. They “have been sanctified.”

“Once for all time” is one of the most important phrases in Hebrews. It announces loud and clear that Christ’s sacrifice is definitive and sufficient. No sacrifice ever needs to be made again. God is pleased with Christ’s. The author is speaking emphatically: not just once, but once for all time.

Hebrews 10:11-14

At the heart of these distinctions are two kinds of priests: priests who stand and the priest who sits. Verse 11 details the inadequacy of priests who stand. Under the old covenant, priests stood daily at God’s service, offering the same sacrifices repeatedly. The sacrifices could never take away sins (10:4), yet they continued to offer them. They stood every day because their work was never completed, nor did their work progress. This is why the priests stood each day offering the “same” sacrifices. Their ministry had to be repeated over and over again, generation by generation, and it could not save a single sinner.

Verse 12 details the priest who sits: Jesus Christ. Once Jesus offered a single sacrifice for sins that was sufficient for all time, he sat down at the right hand of God. This is known as the Session of Christ. It means Jesus is seated in authority and power at the right hand of the Father and carries out the ministry of intercession for God’s people there, waiting for the day his enemies are made a footstool for his feet. The priests who stand offer many sacrifices repeatedly. Jesus, however, only offers one sacrifice. His is sufficient to take away sins forever, and its benefits never end. Jesus sits because there’s no need for him to keep standing. His atoning work is complete, and now he intercedes for us.

The anticipation of the time when Jesus’s enemies are made his footrest brings us back to the words of Psalm 110. The psalmist tells us that the Messiah will make his enemies a footstool. This is a reference to Jesus’s second coming. The author of Hebrews has already alluded to the second coming in the previous chapter (9:28). This shows us the return of Christ is at the forefront of the author’s mind. Jesus will return, but he will not come to offer another sacrifice. The priest who sits will return to judge his enemies. Jesus is the priest who sits in power.

Verse 14 reiterates the effectiveness of Jesus’s single offering. By the priestly offering of his own body, Jesus has perfected—not just improved—those who are being sanctified. How many times and in how many ways can the author make this point? Evidently one time is not enough. We need to see this beautiful reality emphasized repeatedly. Jesus has perfected, for all time, those who are being sanctified. His work perfects believers forever. Their perfection is an objective and eschatological reality that will never end.

Hebrews 10:15-18

The author makes another appeal to the Old Testament in verses 15-18. Here he turns to Jeremiah 31:31-34 and the revelation of the new covenant. The Lord promises to put his laws in the hearts of his people and to write them on their minds. Jesus’s final and supreme sacrifice brings the full forgiveness of sins, so an offering for sin is no longer necessary. The new covenant brings a new heart.

The author once again attributes the words of the Old Testament to the Holy Spirit. We have already seen him say the Holy Spirit speaks through the Old Testament in Hebrews 3:7 and 9:8. The new covenant was new, but it was not a new revelation. Jesus’s sacrifice was the fulfillment of an old revelation, the one promised by the prophet Jeremiah through the witness of the Holy Spirit. Notice that the promise was not Jeremiah’s; it was God’s. Through Jeremiah’s prophetic word, the Holy Spirit bears witness to this new covenant.

We have already seen the author reference Jeremiah 31:31-34 in Hebrews 8:8-12. He cites these verses again to tell his readers this new covenant has been made with them, which suggests the author may be conceiving of his readers as the new Israel. Whatever the case, the writer is expressing that the readers of his letter are also the recipients of the new covenant. One of the key features of this new covenant is God’s sovereign grace. God himself writes his laws on the hearts and minds of his people. Their obedience is a result of his sovereign and gracious inscription. The old sacrifices could never accomplish this—only Christ could.

“I will never again remember their sins and their lawless acts” was not a reality under the old covenant. The people of Israel cried out in the knowledge of their sin, especially on the Day of Atonement. God still remembered their sin, even though he did not pour his wrath out on it immediately. But now that Christ has mediated a new and better covenant, God no longer remembers our sins and our lawless deeds. The blood of Jesus blots them out forever.

Verse 18 gives another important component of the forgiveness won by Jesus in the new covenant. If Christ’s blood has truly granted the forgiveness of sins forever, then “there is no longer an offering for sin.” This is why there’s a table for the Lord’s Supper and not an altar for sacrificing animals at the front of our church auditoriums. Christ accomplished everything necessary for the forgiveness of our sins. Because Jesus’s offering for sin was sufficient to forgive our sins once for all time, his offering was sufficient to end all other offerings.