Grace OPC Sewickley PA

Sermon Book: Hebrews

What God Wants

About this sermon

Hebrews 10 teaches that the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins; the yearly sacrifices only reminded worshipers of them. When Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me… I have come to do your will, O God.” God wants obedient hearts, which Christ supplied by offering his body once for all. By that will God sanctifies believers, making them holy so they can have fellowship with God. Christ obeyed not so that his people need not, but to enable them to do God’s will too.

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Sermon transcript

If you would remain standing and turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 10, we’ll be reading verses 1 through 18, looking at that as our passage this morning for our sermon. Hebrews chapter 10, verses 1 through 18. For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities, it can never by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshippers having once been cleansed would no longer have any consciousness of sins. But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every 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 have you prepared for me.

In burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. When he said you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and burnt offerings and sin offerings, these are offered according to the law. Then he added, Behold, I have come to do your will. He does away with the first in order to establish the second, and by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.

For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us. For after saying, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord, I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds. Then he 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. And then let’s pray. Lord in heaven, we ask that you would send your Holy Spirit these living words that sit before us that we have heard, we have written down, would merely be death to us if we do not have your powerful Spirit working in our hearts and minds to give us the light of the knowledge of Christ.

So Lord, we ask that your Spirit would be present in the proclamation and in the hearing and in the believing. Lord, we ask this in Jesus’ name, amen, may we be seated. But why didn’t you obey me? This is the question that little Callie Cleary, future English, found herself being asked repeatedly in middle school by her mom, especially in terms of being picked up after dance and soccer practice. No matter how firm the deadline, how specific the time, set beforehand of where to be and when, other things took priority. It wasn’t that they were bad things. Most often it was different forms of ministry. This friend needed a listening ear, but that friend really needed to be evangelized to. And all other commitments were immediately unimportant. I’m glad you’re trying to minister to your friends at school, but that’s no sanction for disobedience, her mom told her.

I’m your mother and what I want is for you to obey me. You don’t get to independently determine that my commands are suddenly less important than whatever good thing you want to do in the moment. Despite these instructions, middle school Callie continued to struggle to stick to her prior parental instructions. Until she came across the story of the famous president, Abraham Lincoln, from his own childhood. In the story, young Abe went out to the woods with his older sister to try out his new ax on the forest trees. His father had told Abe to look behind him before every swing and only choose a certain species of soft-wooded tree for his first felling. In his excitement and overconfidence, Abe failed to choose the correct tree and to look behind him after his first few swings and inadvertently cut his sister’s leg quite deeply.

In a courageous effort to save his sister, he quickly picked her up and ran barefooted the several miles back to the house. The doctor, when he got there, told Abe that his courage and strength to bring his sister back so quickly had definitely saved her leg and possibly her life. But all Abe could think about was the fact that if it weren’t for his disobedience, his sister wouldn’t be in that position in the first place. For him, it became a lesson that he took into adulthood. For the young Callie, reading about this herself, it became a turning point as well. Observing the devastating consequences of disobedience in Abe’s life helped middle school and later high school Callie to prioritize her own obedience to her mother’s commands, to be at the car for pickup after school at the right time.

Our passage this morning is talking about obedience and sacrifices. The sacrifices were needed because obedience hadn’t happened and it wasn’t happening. But both were lacking in the Old Testament sacrificial system. Something better, or rather someone better, had to come and fix both. This morning we’re looking at the first half of Hebrews chapter 10 and we’ll consider three things that God wants. Number one is obedient sacrifice. Number two, God wants sacrificial obedience. Number three, God wants sanctified fellowship. Number one, obedient sacrifice. Look at verse one, for since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities, it can never by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year make perfect those who draw near. Up to this point, the author of Hebrews has mentioned various aspects of the Old Testament worship, which he said were shadowy sketches, which were effective at pointing ahead to Christ, but were quite ineffective at eradicating sin or achieving atonement.

He mentioned the tabernacle and the sacrifices in chapters eight and nine. But in chapter 10, he turns his attention to the law. He’s already mentioned the law in chapter seven in regard to the priesthood. The law-appointed priests of Aaronic descent from the tribe of Levi have been superseded by the Melchizedekian priest-king who was individually appointed by God’s direct oath. This carries an implication for the law. In chapter seven, verse 12, the author says, for when there is a change in the priesthood, there’s a change in the law as well. The author of Hebrews dismisses the law further in verse 18 of chapter seven. He says, for on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness, for the law made nothing perfect. And we see a return to the ineffectiveness of the law as we begin chapter 10.

In chapter seven, the criticisms were leveled at the priesthood. But in chapter 10, the sacrifices themselves are the target. The change in the law became clear at the change in the priesthood. It’s revealed to impact the sacrifices as well in our passage. We don’t just need a sinless, indestructible high priest who is also a king to offer our sacrifices. We also need him to offer the sacrifices in the heavenly tabernacle, namely God’s very presence. But we don’t just need a better priest and a better tabernacle. We also need a better sacrifice. The law made provisions for, quote, the same sacrifices that are offered every year. The writer of Hebrews says right there, that ought to have been a clue. They weren’t actually doing the job. Look at verses two through four. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshippers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins.

But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of goats and bulls and goats to take away sins. If you ever have had to call a plumber or electrician or an HVAC contractor, you wouldn’t consider it a successful visit if you had to keep calling him back to fix the same issue over and over again. When you’ve called the same guy to fix the problem multiple times, it’s not his ability that you’re assured of. Usually, by the second time, you’re looking for a new technician. The writer of Hebrews is saying the repetition which was baked into the Old Testament sacrifices was not a sign that they were fixing the problem. It was meant to signify their insufficiency. And he’s saying that to a certain extent, the sacrifices which were representing the cleansing of the people ought to have reminded the people just as much of their ongoing sinfulness.

But don’t let this critique by the author of Hebrews make you think that no one in the Old Testament ever realized this. The Psalms and prophetic books are full of references to the inadequacy of sacrifices, even if it wasn’t fully clear what God’s final solution would be. The author of Hebrews portrays Christ as quoting Psalm 40 to make his point, verses five and six. 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. Here’s one of the many hints in the Old Testament that the sacrificial system was ultimately not able to take care, complete the job of taking care of sin. The inspired psalmist says that ultimately the sacrifices God instituted weren’t fully pleasing to him.

And the writer of Hebrews emphasizes this in verse eight. When he said above, you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings, then he adds, these are offered according to the law. Sandwiched in between statements about God’s displeasure with sacrifices, we find the phrase a body you have prepared for me. What may have been obscure to an earlier audience is clear when looking back from our vantage point as a reference to Christ. The problem with the sacrifices was that they weren’t human. One of the reasons that the previous sacrifices were insufficient is that they were not human. It was not animals who sinned, it was man. Yet day after day, month after month, year after year, animals were killed as a substitute for sinful men and women.

This would never do. Now on the one hand, God explicitly forbade human sacrifice and repeatedly reminded Israel how much their infant sacrifices to foreign gods disgusted him. But on the other hand, it wasn’t animals who sinned. Animals are not made in God’s image. They’re not held morally responsible for their thoughts and intentions the way that humans are. Only a human could truly be substituted for another human. Humans have sinned and their atonement must involve a human substitute. But additionally, animals lacked the ability and responsibility for their willing actions. The substitutionary sacrifice must also be voluntary. Look at verse 7 of Hebrews 10. And I said, behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. In the Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis viewed this as a central element of the atonement.

His character, Aslan, upon his resurrection after being sacrificed the night before, explains his actions like this, quote, It means, said Aslan, that though the witch knew the deep magic, there is a deeper magic still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes only back to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a trader’s stead, the table would crack and death itself would start working backwards. Jesus made very clear throughout his ministry that his death was intentional and a purposeful part of his mission. You can look at John chapter 10, verses 17 through 18. In John chapter 10, Jesus goes out of his way to make clear that his death is by his own design.

John 10, verse 17, For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may 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 I have authority to take it up again, and this charge I have received from my Father. No bull, goat, lamb, or dove were asked for their sacrificial cooperation. But not so with Christ. He laid his life down. There was no coercion involved. The one sacrifice that was effectual was performed by a willing victim, a sinless man willingly dying in the place of sinful men and women. Christ’s death was a voluntary sacrifice on his part, but it was an act of obedience towards God as well, which leads us to consider the second thing that God wants.

Number two, sacrificial obedience. We see this in verses 7 through 9. Verse 7, Then I said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. And 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, Behold, I have come to do your will. Christ was given a body for the purpose of doing God’s will, of obedience. As God, Christ owes no one anything. He answers to no one. So he became man, taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul in order to fulfill the righteous requirements of the law. Christ became a man in order to offer to God true obedience as the only being, God, who didn’t owe God anything.

All throughout the gospels, from Jesus’ birth to his death and his resurrection, there’s a constant refrain as it was written. This is not an unconscious fulfillment of prophecy about Jesus’ life either. Jesus repeatedly tells those around him of the necessity of his fulfilling these prophecies concerning himself and his ministry. From the time that John the Baptist tries to refuse baptizing him and Jesus tells him, Let it be, for it is fitting to fulfill all righteousness, to the devil tempting him, to the disciples trying to dissuade him from going to the cross, as Jesus told them, it is necessary that the Son of Man suffer as it was written. Jesus faced opposition to his self-conscious obedience everywhere, yet he never wavered. God was displeased with the sacrifices he instituted because they only pictured cleansing from sin without ever effectuating it fully.

In order for a sacrifice to be effectual, it had to be offered by the right person, in the right place, and most importantly, it had to be the right sacrifice. For the blood to cleanse, it had to be the right blood. And we’ve seen how Christ is the right priest to offer the sacrifice. How he’s in the right place, the heavenly tabernacle, aka God’s presence. Now we’re looking at how he is the right sacrifice. The animal sacrifices had to be a spotless animal because what they were picturing was that the sacrifice needed to be sinless. This means the only man suitable as a sacrifice was a sinless one. He had to be perfectly obedient all of his life. But a perfectly obedient, sinless man could only earn life for himself under God’s conditions with the first man, Adam.

In order to provide life to another sinner, this sinless man would have to positively keep all of God’s commands and then negatively submit to the final obedience required by the sinner, which was death, to pay the penalty obediently for his own sin. For both of these things, Christ needed a human body. He needed to obey positively in all the ways that only a human could. We’ve already seen the writer of Hebrews emphasizing Christ’s full humanity repeatedly. And he was tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. You and I regularly fall to temptation. Sometimes we even run headlong into temptation, letting it lead us down familiar paths, resentment, self-pity, pride, lust, self-centeredness, lying, anger, and all the rest. But Christ repeatedly resisted time after time after time. Every time the temptation was presented by Satan, Christ firmly rejected it.

He was always, every minute of every day of every week of every year, acting, thinking, and speaking in accordance with God’s will. Now you will sometimes hear theologians or read in books or in our own denominational standards, language of Christ’s obedience in two categories, Christ’s active obedience and Christ’s passive obedience. Now these two terms can be confusing if you don’t know where they come from. In this case, active doesn’t mean what Christ actively did to obey God, and passive doesn’t mean what he didn’t do to disobey God. In this case, passive comes from the term passion, which means suffering. You may have heard of the passion of Christ. This doesn’t refer to his emotions or his zeal, it has to do with his suffering, particularly centered on what he suffered on the cross. So Christ’s active obedience is the way that he lived his life at all times and always in accordance with the will of God.

This is what we, as sinners, need positively in order to be viewed by God as righteous. You will sometimes hear the term double imputation in terms of Christ and his righteousness, and that refers to the fact that not only is our sin imputed, counted to Christ’s account, in order for him to receive the punishment that we deserve, but also his righteousness, his active obedience, is counted to our account so that God rewards us with life that Christ deserves. Christ’s passive obedience is his willingness to undergo the suffering, death, and judgment of God for sinners on the cross. Jesus told his disciples in John 14, verse 31, that his death was an act of obedient love for his Father. He said, I do as the Father has commanded me, that the world may know that I love the Father.

Christ’s willingness to do God’s will, his complete obedience, both active and passive, come together in our salvation. Verse 10, and by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Christ’s body, his willing, human, sinless body, was what God wanted. Only the body of Christ was sufficient to cleanse sinners from sin. This idea is reiterated in verse 14 of our passage, for by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. So what Christ accomplishes through the offering of his body once and for all is intimacy with God, which leads us to the third thing that God wants, which is sanctified fellowship. Sanctification in the book of Hebrews is less about progressive improvement of character, what we might call progressive sanctification, but rather consecrated godlikeness, which happens the moment of our salvation facilitates our intimacy with God.

Back in chapter 2 verse 11, he ties it to our brotherhood. He said, for he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers. And then if we look ahead in chapter 12 verse 14, Hebrews says, strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness or sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. The author of Hebrews is not as focused on the progressive aspect of sanctification that other parts of scripture highlight. And while it is true that Christ is perfected for all time, justification, those who are progressively conformed more and more to the image of his son, the progressive sanctification that we often speak of, the author of Hebrews has a slightly different point in view. His point is not that it’s incomplete, but that it is ongoing.

For instance, in chapter 12 verse 10, he says he disciplines for our good that we may share in his holiness. Holiness or sanctification, being sanctified, is a state of being holy, which allows for intimate fellowship with God. God is holy, so in order to have fellowship with God, we must share in his holiness. But that holiness is not divorced from obedience, in fact it produces obedience. Now Christ did not come with a human body to do God’s will in order that we wouldn’t have to, but rather to enable us to do God’s will as well. When I’m sharing the gospel with strangers, especially on the boardwalk, I often explain it in terms of three problems. You have a rebellious heart that’s like a cobra. You have a filthy past that’s like manure and you have a poisonous life.

In order to help people understand how this impacts their relationship with God, I ask them, would you like to have a cobra running around in your house? Would you like me to track manure from my shoes all over your bedroom? Would you like me to put even one drop of poison in your food or drink? Now you can begin to understand why God does not want you in his kingdom the way that you are. This is important because it highlights our need for total transformation. We’re not just good people that need a few things expunged from our record in the past. Our problem starts in our heart. There was only one man who said, behold, I have come to do your will, oh God. And if we’re to have any hope at all, we need deep heart change.

Verse 1 in chapter 10 says, for since the law is but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year make perfect those who draw near. The law was limited in power. It could only condemn the guilty. It couldn’t produce that obedience that was required. The old law couldn’t bring perfection because it came with shadowy sacrifices, but Christ is the true form of those realities that the law pointed to. Only Christ’s obedience is able to both satisfy the requirement for our cleansing from sin and produce whole person transformation. Christ’s obedience doesn’t make our obedience unnecessary. It makes it possible. And this is what we see in verses 15 to 18. The Holy Spirit also bears witness to us, for after saying, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord, I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds.

And then he 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. The new covenant that Christ mediates, effectuates the implantation of God’s will onto the hearts and minds of his people. Obedience for them starts coming from the heart, not merely from external threats of condemnation. And in verse 14 it says, for by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. The wording being sanctified might at first have prompted thoughts of progressing sanctification, which wouldn’t be wrong in general, but I think the author’s real focus is that our sanctified fellowship with God is an ongoing reality. It’s in the present tense in the Greek. That’s what they’re trying to get across with the word being sanctified.

It’s not a past reality, but an ongoing present reality. Rather than stressing that a once for all offering for sin creates a progression of improvement, which it does, the author is instead stressing this new reality in which we are cleansed from sin produces ongoing, holy fellowship with a holy God. The animal sacrifices reminded the people day after day, year after year, the debt wasn’t paid, sin hadn’t been fully atoned for, payment was postponed but not completed. But Christ’s final, once for all, perfect sacrifice offered by the perfect priest himself in the perfect place, God’s presence, brings sanctifying forgiveness for the purpose of holy fellowship with God forever. On January 1, 1937, J. Gresham Machen, the founder of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church who was quite ill and near death, dictated his final words in a telegram to his colleagues John Murray at Westminster, I’m so thankful for the active obedience of Christ.

No hope without it. In Christ’s passive obedience we find our punishment removed and in his active obedience we find ourselves heirs of eternal life and blessed fellowship with God forever. Amen. Let’s pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you that there was one who had come to do your will, that you gave him a body, a fully human body that he might fulfill all the requirements of your law, even the cursed death that we deserve and the perfect active obedience to give us eternal life. We thank you for the obedience of Christ and the way that that empowers and enables us to also live now through Christ in a way that pleases you as well. We thank you for this in Jesus’ name, amen. Well in response let’s turn to hymn 436, my faith has found a resting place.

Let’s stand and sing number 436.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

July 6, 2025
Without the Shedding of Blood

About this sermon

1. Cutting a (v15).
2. Diatheke: A “Will” or a “Covenant”? (v16-17).
“16For where there is a covenant, it is necessary that the death
of the one making it be represented. 17For a covenant is made
legally firm on the basis of dead victims, since it is not valid
while the one making it is alive.” (Sigurd Grindheim)
“16For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be
established. 17For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force
as long as the one who made it is alive.” (ESV)
“For where there is a covenant, it is necessary that the death of the one making it be represented (by sacrifice, in order to demonstrate the curse under which they are placing themselves if they break the covenant). For a covenant is made legally firm on the basis of (a ritual involving) dead victims, since it is not valid while the one making it is alive (that is, unless one’s death is legally represented by the sacrificial animals.” (The Letter to the Hebrews, Sigurd Grindheim)
3. Bloodshed: Convicting or ? (v18-22).

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Sermon transcript

Well, if you’ll remain standing and turn now to our sermon text for this evening is taken from the book of Hebrews, Chapter 9. We’ll be looking this evening at verses 15 through 22. Hebrews, Chapter 9, verses 15 through 22. Therefore, he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not enforced as long as the one who made it is alive. Therefore, not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.

And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Amen. May God add his blessing to the reading of this word. Let’s pray. Our Father in Heaven, we ask that the same Spirit that has inspired the writing of this word, has preserved it throughout the time that we have it even now before us this evening. That same Spirit would be powerfully at work in us as we hear, and in the preaching as well, that you might be honored and glorified, that your people might be fed. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. You may be seated. Now if you don’t have an outline for this evening, we normally provide them, and there are still some on the back table, which you may want before we are done.

This text is a little bit complicated in one of the points. Have you ever signed your name in blood? If you were a teenage boy at one point, you probably at least thought about it. Many a teenage boy has expressed intentions to sign a pact of friendship using their blood as ink. For the less brave and less important agreements, a solemn swapping of palms of spit would probably suffice. Ancient tribal practices all over the world throughout history involve sealing deals or confirming agreements with ceremonial cuts to produce blood to mix from the two parties. While these practices may seem absurd to a civilized society, it reflects a common idea across cultures that agreements required skin in the game. Someone with nothing to lose is much less likely to keep their end of a bargain. Blood is required for life.

And even those who never heard God declare to the Israelites that the life is in the blood, they have understood blood to have great significance. This strange fluid flowing through our bodies is vitally important for our physical lives, and it has added historical weight and importance to documents, alliances, or treaties. To seal a death threat in blood was to increase its threatening effect, but to seal a pact of friendship in blood was an attempt to demonstrate its unbreakableness. Blood plays an important part in the inauguration of God’s covenant with Israel through Moses, as recounted in our passage this evening. As verse 18 says, not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. Blood was the price for inaugurating the covenant, because blood was also the price for the breaking of the covenant. Thus we are told in verse 22, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

And we’re going to look at this passage under three headings this evening. Number one is cutting a covenant. Number two, diatheke, a will or a covenant. And number three, blood, convicting or cleansing. So number one, cutting a covenant. In verse 15 we’re told, therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant. Now this is not the first time that we’ve encountered this language. The author of Hebrews has been talking about Christ as the mediator of a new covenant since chapter seven. And most of chapter eight was devoted to a long quotation about this new covenant. But in our passage this evening he’s talking about the ghastly requirements for covenants. Now anyone who’s spent much time around Christians who believe in Reformed theology will have heard the word covenant more than a few times. Sometimes covenant theology is even used interchangeably with Reformed theology.

But despite its widespread usage, a succinct definition is not always easy to find. Because covenant theology encompasses so many aspects of God’s relationship with his people and touches so many important truths, it often becomes complicated. The bottom line, however, the simplest summary is God’s promise to Abraham all the way through repeated in Revelation. I will be your God and you will be my people. The covenant means God gives structure, definition and security to his relationship with his people. Covenant theology is so named because it sees covenants as one of the most important ways to understand the overarching story of the Bible, particularly two big or main covenants, the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. Very briefly, the covenant of works was what God made with Adam. He told the first man, Adam, obey me and live, disobey me and die.

Now the Westminster Confession of Faith explains this concept in chapter seven. You can find that in the back of your Trinity Psalter hymnal on page 923. The first paragraph of chapter seven says this, The distance between God and the creature is so great that although reasonable creatures do owe to him obedience as their creator, yet they could never have any fruition of him as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary condescension on God’s part, which he has been pleased to express by way of covenant. God didn’t have to create Adam in the first place, so he certainly wasn’t obligated to give Adam life as a reward for obedience. As a creature, Adam owed God perfect obedience already, but God graciously bound himself, saying that he would reward Adam with life if he simply obeyed, but conversely would punish him with death for disobedience.

Paragraph two of the Westminster Confession, chapter seven, The first covenant made with man was a covenant of works wherein life was promised to Adam and in him to his posterity upon condition of perfect and personal obedience. The blessings of the covenant were contingent on Adam’s works, his obedience. Adam was created morally good and capable of obeying God, yet he instead chose to disobey. He broke God’s covenant, as Pastor Jeff was talking about this morning. By rights, God could have said, well, the bargain for death was disobedience. The bargain was death for disobedience and simply given Adam death, pure and simple. Instead, God instituted another covenant, which we call the covenant of grace. Paragraph three of the Westminster Confession, chapter seven, Man by his fall having made himself incapable of life by that covenant, the Lord was pleased to make a second, commonly called the covenant of grace, wherein he freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in him that they may be saved and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto eternal life his Holy Spirit to make them willing and able to believe.

One way to think of it is that receiving the reward of life and escaping the punishment of death isn’t based on our works. It’s based on God’s grace. In this way, it replaces the covenant of works. But in another sense, the covenant of grace fits inside the covenant of works as an alternative fulfillment of it. Based on the covenant of works, all sinners deserve the punishment of death. Yet Christ became a man and obeyed God perfectly. He fulfilled the requirement of the covenant of works and graciously offers sinful men the opportunity to swap out their disobedience for his perfect obedience. Since obeying God perfectly is not an option for sinners like us, the only way to escape eternal death and inherit eternal life is on the gracious merits of another. Both covenants are fundamentally based on obedience to God’s law.

Works. The difference is whether you receive what your works deserve or what Christ’s works deserve. Will your eternal destiny be based on your own disobedience or Christ’s obedience? You’re either relying on your own works or on Christ’s works. As you can see, this is the whole undergirding framework for the Gospel. The covenant of works lays the framework for understanding the paradigm in which we find ourselves. As humans, we’re born into the covenant of works, deserving death for our ancestors’ disobedience as well as our own additions to that ledger. Our only hope is a gracious intervention, which is why we call God’s offer of an alternative fulfillment the covenant of grace. Without understanding this to some degree, it’s hard to understand why Jesus had to die for sins. Now that’s the 30,000-foot view of the covenant of grace, but if we zoom in through the Old Testament, we see God making covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, and then a new covenant in Jesus.

Covenant theology sees all of these smaller specific covenants as pictures and sketches, which were pointing to what Christ was going to do. So they’re all part of one big covenant of grace. And while there are many beautiful aspects to God’s covenants, there’s also some ugly bits, specifically the threat of breaking the covenant, which is represented by animal death. We see this in Abraham’s practice in Genesis 15, verses 8-10. Genesis 15, verses 8-10. But Abraham said, Oh, Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it? God said to him, Bring me a heifer, three years old, a female goat, three years old, a ram, three years old, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon. And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid them over against the other. Skipping to verse 17 and 18, When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.

On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram. The animal pieces were cut to signify the penalty for breaking this covenant. And while this is not spelled out in Genesis 15, if we flip ahead to the prophet Jeremiah and look at Jeremiah chapter 34, we see this threat made very clear, and we understand what was going on. So Jeremiah chapter 34, starting in verse 18. The Lord is speaking, and he says, And the man who transgressed my covenant and did not keep the terms of the covenant that they made with me, I will make them like the calf that they cut in two and passed between its parts. The officials of Judah, the officials of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf.

And I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their lives. Their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth. The normal practice in the ancient Near East was for both parties who were making a covenant to pass between these animal carcasses to demonstrate their obligation to suffer a similar fate if they broke the covenant. The practice was so common and widespread that the way you said make a covenant in Hebrew is actually the verb to cut. You cut a covenant. You don’t create, establish, or make a covenant in Hebrew. You literally cut a covenant. And this symbolic slaughter of animals was meant to represent the threat of death both parties faced for breaking that covenant. Now our passage in Hebrews this evening focuses in on the covenant ceremony that was described in Exodus 24 as we read earlier.

The prominence of blood is unmistakable. Exodus chapter 24 verses 6 through 8 again. And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins. And half of the blood he threw against the altar. And he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, all that the Lord has spoken we will do and we will be obedient. And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, behold, the blood of the covenant that God has made with you in accordance with all these words. It’s a pretty gruesome scene. Basins of blood from slaughtered animals here and there, on the altar, the book of the covenant, even on the people. The inauguration of a covenant was not a neat, tidy affair. The covenant had to be cut.

Blood had to be spilled. Psalm 50 that we read in our call to worship mentions it as a sacrifice in verse 5. Psalm 50 verse 5, gather to me my faithful ones who made a covenant with me by sacrifice. When the author of Hebrews paraphrases Moses’ words in verse 20 of our passage, he says, saying this is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you. The way he phrases it sounds a lot like Jesus’ words found in Matthew 26, 28. When Jesus said, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. This is what’s going on in our passage in verse 15. Therefore, he is the mediator of a new covenant that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

Disobedience made Adam’s offspring ineligible for the promised inheritance, eternal life, and fellowship with God. Abraham’s offspring also broke God’s covenant, as did Israel’s offspring, David’s offspring, and all the rest. The covenant stipulated death, eternal death. But Christ came and inaugurated a new covenant in his blood. His death has been substituted for ours so that we can receive the blessings instead of the curse. Welcome to the covenant of grace. As we move through our passage, we’re confronted with some difficulty in the next two verses, so we’ll spend a little time unraveling a long-standing issue of interpretation. So, number two, diotheke, a will or a covenant. This is looking at verses 16 and 17. Dia what? Diotheke is the Greek word for covenant. We’re going to get a little technical at this point, so you’ll want to have your Bibles in front of you and perhaps your outlines so that you can follow what’s going on.

Now, as we start to look at verses 16 and 17, there’s no question that these are a little challenging to understand. They’re also challenging to translate. The writer of Hebrews is rather brief in his wording, and he leaves a lot to be assumed. Figuring out how these words relate to each other has given translators a bit of difficulty. There are two main ways that these verses are translated. One is the way that you have them in the ESV. And this centers on assuming that the writer of Hebrews is making a wordplay and briefly using the word diotheke in its secular usage, but then switching back to the Biblical use for the rest of the passage. But a minority of Biblical scholars have questioned whether that really makes the most sense of what’s going on. Here’s the background.

The Greek word for covenant, diotheke, means something slightly different in wider Greek culture. To the rest of the Greek-speaking world, a diotheke was a will or a testament. But when the Jews who spoke Greek were looking for a word to use for God’s covenant in the Old Testament and were translating the Hebrew scriptures, they used this word, diotheke. They changed the wider meaning of diotheke by using it in this specific sense. This meant that diotheke had a secular meaning, will, in the culture. But when it was used in the Bible, it always meant covenant. There’s nowhere in the Greek version of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, that they ever use a different word. And they never used diotheke for any other meaning. Despite this, many good Bible scholars believe that the writer of Hebrews is making a reference to the secular meaning of diotheke, a wordplay, as a will in verses 16 and 17.

They look at the reference to the inheritance in verse 15 and think that the next two verses must be an attempt to bring the two meanings of diotheke together. The thinking process of this perspective works like this. Jesus had to die, so the believers who are redeemed could receive salvation, which is called inheritance. That’s sort of like a will, which distributes a person’s property after he dies, the inheritance that he leaves. Perhaps the writer of Hebrews is switching back, making a wordplay, switching back to the secular meaning of diotheke in verses 16 and 17 for a moment, to make a point about how Christ died and that gives us the inheritance of salvation. While this is a cool and interesting idea, which, to be clear, is not out of line with Scripture on the whole, I don’t think that’s what’s actually going on in this passage.

After studying more deeply this week, I’ve become convinced that it’s better to translate diotheke as covenant the whole way through our passage, even verses 16 and 17, and not switch it in the middle. Verse 18, it begins with a strong therefore, a word assuming a tightly coherent argument. But if we translate diotheke as will, that assumes that the argument is rather disjointed. A reference to the secular use of diotheke as will at the exact moment when the author is trying to make a point about the covenant from the Old Testament seems odd. Furthermore, if the author were making a wordplay, as the ESV translates it, the logic of verse 16 and 17 still doesn’t quite make sense. Verses 16 and 17, for where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established.

For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. In Greek and Roman culture, just like our own, a will could be enforced before death. Although death was the usual point at which property was distributed according to a will, it was legally enforced the moment it was drafted and signed. Think of the prodigal son. While his behavior was rude and foolish, we have no indication that it was considered impossible or completely unheard of for a father to distribute inheritance early. So it is strange for verse 17 to insist that a will is not in force while its maker lives. But the biggest challenge to translating diotheke as will comes from the passage as a whole in the Greek. The ESV gives a logical flow in English and makes it sound like will makes sense.

But this only comes by translating some of the Greek words in ways that they’re not normally translated. Now to keep things simple, I’ll point out only one example in each verse, which makes the translation of diotheke as will unlikely. If we look at verse 16, it says must be established. The Greek word translated established doesn’t have that meaning anywhere else it shows up. It normally means to carry like a load or bear like a fruit, either literally or metaphorically. The Greek in verse 16 would more literally read for where there is a covenant or will, it is necessary that the death of the one who made it must be born or represented. Words can have a range of meanings, and this Greek word has a big range. But it doesn’t mean established in any other biblical context that we know of.

This passage would be the first and only place that it means established. Now of course this doesn’t seal the deal by itself. The way we learn the range of a word’s meaning is by looking at all of its uses in context. But the main reason to translate it as established here is because of the assumption that the sentence is talking about a will rather than a covenant. It’s begging the question, which means assuming the position it’s supposed to be trying to argue for. Now in verse 17, we have the word death. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not enforced as long as the one who made it is alive. The word death here is actually plural in Greek. In almost any other context, this word would be translated corpses or dead things.

Things that are dead, more than one. But once again, in order to support the translation of the deotheke as will instead of covenant, this normal plural noun is translated as a singular. It requires a unique translation of this plural noun as a singular in this instance. The bottom line is that when translating this passage from the Greek, in order to try to make the translation of deotheke mean will instead of covenant, it requires translating other words in unusual ways as well. This boils down to the reality that I think makes the most sense to translate it as covenant. In every other passage, in every other instance, the biblical writers all use this same word deotheke exclusively in its technical biblical sense, covenant. So it seems unlikely that the writer is referring to the secular meaning of will instead of sticking with the biblical technical meaning.

Well, what might it sound like if we stuck to the translation of covenant all the way through? Here’s one commentator’s translation. I put it in your outline so that you can follow along. He says, For where there is a covenant, it is necessary that the death of the one making it be represented. For a covenant is made legally firm on the basis of dead victims, since it is not valid while the one making it is alive. You can see that compared with the ESV’s translation below. I don’t want you to lose the big picture here. This position is a minority opinion among good Bible scholars. Most Bible translations translate it as will. So I don’t want to overstate the importance of this difference. Before studying for this sermon, I liked the idea of will. I even wrote a paper on it in seminary.

But I also want to say that ultimately translating it as will instead of covenant, it doesn’t affect any biblical doctrines. I think that the translation of will is well-intended and meant to give clarity. But I still think it is incorrect and less clear. I believe the best to stay consistent with translating Diotheca as covenant in all instances and work out the challenges presented in the passage a different way. Now the commentator that I quoted earlier explains the argument from Hebrews verses 16 and 17 by paraphrasing it this way. Once again, I’ve listed this in your outline to help you follow along. For where there is a covenant, it is necessary that the one making it be represented by sacrifice in order to demonstrate the curse under which they are placing themselves if they break the covenant.

For a covenant is made legally firm on the basis of a ritual involving dead victims. Since it is not valid while the one making it is alive. That is, unless one’s death is legally represented by the sacrificial animals. This would mean that the author of Hebrews is referring to part of the traditional covenant ritual in which animals were cut up. This would form a tight-knit argument with what comes before and what comes after. The cut-up animals representing the participants cutting the covenant and symbolized the potential consequences for breaking it. Although inheritance is mentioned in verse 15, the focus of the whole passage is not on the distribution of possessions to heirs, but on redemption and the establishment of a covenant through blood. In the end, although the translation of Diotheca as well as a popular solution to the challenge of translating verses 16 and 17 doesn’t solve every issue, I think it even creates some new ones.

I think the entire passage makes the most sense when Diotheca is consistently translated as a covenant, which required bloodshed, which leads to our final point. Bloodshed. Convicting or cleansing. The description of the covenantal ceremony in our passage, as we stated before, sounds like a bloody mess. Verses 18 through 21. And sprinkled both the book itself and all the people saying, this is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you. And in the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Blood was spilled and sprinkled on everyone and everything. It can be easy to gloss over these descriptions and sanitize things in our minds. I’m extremely grateful I don’t need to bring butcher knives to worship or to keep bloodstain remover on hand for use after every service.

But for the people in the Old Covenant, blood was a reality of worshiping God. Atonement is not a clean, tidy affair. Forgiveness required more than an apology and a promise to do better next time. The blood would have been a perpetual reminder of what their forgiveness cost. From the first Passover day, they were delivered from the execution of the firstborn in Egypt to Mount Sinai to the daily morning and evening sacrifices. The Israelites were reminded constantly that the favor they enjoyed from God was blood bought. Their safety came at the expense of another’s life. Blood in the Old Covenant was intended to convey cleansing, but also inescapably represented the ever-present threat if they broke the Covenant. Although the Covenant was a part of the Covenant of Grace, representing that same source of salvation, it was an incomplete administration.

The bloody mess was pointing ahead to a time when the true sacrifice would be offered and the people would be clean inside and out. God offers Israel a famous bargain in Isaiah 1 verse 18. He says, It’s an odd picture to suggest that blood can take bright red filth and make it white as snow. To the outsider, the Bible asserts an odd proposition that things can be cleansed with blood. Anyone who’s cared for kids or worked in medical settings would probably suggest the opposite. Blood is what makes things messy. It’s certainly not what you would use to create a clean surface or garment. We try to avoid contact with blood and for good reason. It’s important to remember that sometimes the biblical idea that blood could actually cleanse may not be intuitive to those around us in our culture.

Blood doesn’t cleanse the outside, but our biggest problem is not what’s on the outside. The filth of a sinful soul far surpasses any stain on clothing or skin. The Covenant was inaugurated in blood because it was only through the death of a substitute that the people could have peaceful union with God. The only way for him to be their God and for them to be his people was for another to die for their covenant breaking. For the Israelite, blood was a daily reality. It was a constant reminder of the cost and consequence of sin. Perhaps some more thoughtful Christians might ask, would it be better to have more blood in our worship services to encourage our own awareness of our sin and its penalty? The Roman Catholic Church is one branch of the Christian tradition that leans very heavily in that direction.

While they don’t sacrifice animals or bring in actual blood, they assert that in an undetectable way the bread and wine served in the Lord’s Supper transform into a physical body and physical blood of Christ. And he has sacrificed anew in each service of mass. Not only is this view illogical and wrong on numerous levels, it also misses the point of Christ’s sacrifice, which was meant to be once for all. Our bloodless worship services celebrate the fact that the full price has been fully paid. Death is ended because one has died for all. We’re meant to be distanced from the physical blood, because with Christ’s death, with his bloodshed, we have nothing to fear. The threat of death for our covenant breaking has been carried out against Christ, leaving us with nothing but the benefits of life.

Our bodies are no longer sprinkled with the blood of animals, because our souls have been soaked once for all in the efficacious blood of Jesus Christ the Righteous. We remember the immeasurable price that was paid for us to inherit the blessings instead of the curses, but no longer with actual blood, because the only blood that truly matters has been shed once and for all. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. But with the shedding of blood, the blood of the Son of God, there is complete forgiveness of sins. As we’ll sing in a moment, there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. My favorite verse is the last one. Dear dying lamb, your precious blood shall never lose its power until all the ransomed Church of God are saved to sin no more.

Amen. Let’s pray. Father in Heaven, we thank you for inaugurating covenant, for establishing the covenant of grace built upon the merits of Christ, that you graciously give the benefits of His bloodshed to those that by faith embrace Him. We thank you for that cleansing blood. We thank you that we no longer need to be close to such physical blood, because you have cleansed our souls. You have shed that blood once and for all, and now welcome us into your covenant of grace. We thank you for this, in Jesus’ name. Amen. Let’s turn now in response to sing hymn number 340. Let’s stand as we sing hymn 340. There is a fountain filled with blood.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

June 22, 2025
He Came, He Saw, He Entered

About this sermon

Hebrews 9 says Christ came as high priest of the good things that have come, through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands, the true presence of God. He entered once for all into the holy places, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, securing an eternal redemption. If animal blood purified the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify the conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

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Sermon transcript

Please remain standing and we’ll read from God’s Word. Our passage this evening is taken from Hebrews chapter 9. We’re looking at verses 11 through 14 this evening. Hebrews, the Word of God, Hebrews chapter 9, starting in verse 11, But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of their flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Amen. You may be seated. Let’s pray. Our Father in Heaven, we thank you for sending your Spirit to inspire this very Word so many years ago. We thank you for your preserving it through the centuries that we might have it in our hands today and translate it into our own language. Lord, we ask that you would send to that same Spirit that he might open our ears, that we might hear and believe and obey this Word, that you might be with the preacher, that your Word might be faithfully proclaimed, and that you might be glorified, your people might be fed, and we might be transformed into the image of Christ. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. How do you make an entrance? Depending on the context, that could be a good thing or a bad thing.

In Peter Jackson’s film, The Return of the King, based on JR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings series, there is a scene shortly before the most significant battle in which the heir to the throne, Aragorn, decides to make a detour through an ancient mountain tunnel on his way to the city of Gondor, which is the site of the final conflict. Despite being cautioned against it, Aragorn determines that the benefits outweigh the risks. On the doorway of the mountain tunnel is the warning that the way is shut. It was made by those who were dead, and the dead keep it. No previous travelers had escaped unharmed. Yet Aragorn, as the rightful heir to the throne, expects a different outcome. And while his companions, Legolas and Gimli, stand reading the inscription, Aragorn mutters, I do not fear death, and strides past them into the darkness.

What he finds within the underground cavern is a host of dead men who have been imprisoned under a curse for breaking the covenant that they made with Aragorn’s ancestor, who was king at the time. As they prepare to destroy Aragorn for entering their ghostly dwelling, he produces the reforged sword of his ancestor as irrefutable proof of his royal lineage. He reverses the situation and offers these cursed dead men a chance to be free from their imprisoning curse. He offers them a chance to end their meaningless ghostly existence and fight with him for a new purpose. In the end, they take him up on his offer, and after fighting for Aragorn in the battle, he releases them from their tormented and cursed existence to depart in peace. All this took place because Aragorn dared to enter where no one else could.

Aragorn approached the doorway to the mountain, which said that the way was shut, and he entered. In our passage this evening, Christ came to the place that was shut, and he entered. And my sermon title is, He Came, He Saw, He Entered. And this is, of course, an allusion to the famous saying attributed to Julius Caesar, I came, I saw, I conquered, which is even more poetic in the original Latin, veni, vidi, vici. While Christ certainly conquered in his work of atonement, the focus of our passage this evening is on his entering, which we see in verse 12. Now it stands out in stark contrast in Greek because of the verb tense, but you can see it in English as well. Right there, he entered. The focus of the action is right on that verb, he entered.

When Christ appeared, he entered. Now despite the title, we will deviate it slightly from it slightly in framing our points. We’ll follow the flow of the passage this evening and consider Christ’s actions described in this passage in three ways. Number one, Christ came in order to enter. Number two, Christ entered in order to secure. And by entering, number three, Christ secured our purification. Christ came, Christ entered, and Christ secured. Number one, Christ came. This comes from verse 11. But when Christ appeared, now this Greek word is translated appeared in our passage in the ESV, but almost everywhere else in the New Testament, it is translated as came up or approached, stand beside. Instead of thinking that he appeared out of nowhere, we should think of him coming near, to stand beside. But this subtle word choice is another reminder also from the author of Hebrews that Christ stands beside his people, that he came near.

He came near to us in his humanity. He is fully human, flesh and blood, able completely to identify in our weakness and able to be a suitable substitute. He also came near to God. He is fully divine. The mysterious union between God and man, two distinct natures in one person forever. But verse 11 continues, when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come. High priest of the good things that have come. But before we get to what Christ did, what he does, we want to take a moment to notice who he is. How is he described? A high priest of the good things that have come. Notice the tense, have come versus the good things to come. The Christ, the anointed high priest has come near and he brings his benefits here and now.

Of course he will come again and there will be more to come. But in the already, those in Christ have access to good things. I think the author of Hebrews is wanting his readers to realize that as much as we have to look forward to when Christ returns, there is much that we already have. Our passage in Hebrews 9 doesn’t spell out exactly what he means by the good things that have come. But the Westminster Shorter Catechism gives a Bible-based summary of some of those good things that become available in Christ in this life because of who he is and what he’s done. The big three that often come to mind each get their own question and answer, as we saw earlier. Justification, adoption, and sanctification. But then there’s that follow-up question and answer. What are the benefits?

What are the good things that do either accompany or flow from these three big benefits of salvation in this life? And of course those are assurance of God’s love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Spirit, increase of grace, and perseverance in that grace to the end. I think these are worth a few moments of our consideration. Number one, assurance of God’s love. Assurance of God’s love is an invaluable treasure. To be absolutely confident that the creator of all, the judge of all the earth, the Almighty God loves you. This flows from justification, adoption, and sanctification, and is for those who have Christ as their high priest. Christ intends for you to have complete assurance of God’s love. Christ didn’t die to leave you wondering whether God loves you. Christians are meant to live in the absolutely freeing assurance God loves you now.

Of course the second is peace of conscience. Complete freedom from nagging guilt, constantly worrying if you’re good enough, if you measure up. Now that Christ has come near, entered, and secured purification for your conscience, you can have true peace. Christians are not meant to live in perpetual guilt. While it’s true that as Christians mature and see God better, they often grow more aware of their sin. But that guilt is never meant to be an ongoing reality for the Christian. Godly guilt over sin is meant to lead to repentance and confession of sin, which then brings that peace of conscience because of who Christ is and what he’s done. Of course the next is joy in the Holy Spirit. Happiness is something that all people seek in one way or another, but all other sources of happiness fail to deliver in one way or another.

Joy in the Holy Spirit transcends circumstances because no matter what happens, what you lose in this life, you still have the love of God in Christ, which is everything. So even if everything is taken away in this life, you still have everything left. A Christian’s joy is rooted in God and it reaches higher and deeper. Psalm 16, in God’s presence is fullness of joy. There’s nothing fuller than full. Christians are able to enjoy God and everything else in a way that others could only wish for. Increase of grace. This is not an increase of favor toward believers, since in Christ this is already full. This is an increase in the power to do what is right. The Christian doesn’t stay as he is when he first believes. There’s an increase of that grace which makes him more and more like Christ.

An increase in faith, in obedience, in wisdom, in patience, love, self-control, and all the rest. When you have Christ as your high priest, this is your reality. And an increase, not a decrease, or a plateau of grace. Finally, perseverance of grace, in grace to the end. Tied in with the increase of grace is the assurance that will never run out, or more like you will never run out. When Christ as your high priest, with Christ as your high priest, you continue in grace until the very end. When you’re starting a marathon, you might wonder, will I make it all the way? It’s a lot of miles. You want to know you’ll make it. You won’t quit halfway, or even almost all the way through. You want the assurance that this grace will carry us, carry you, all the way to your death and into glory.

So these are some of the good things that ought to come to mind when we see that Christ is a high priest of the good things that have come. But as we look at verse 11, we see that Christ came near in order to enter. Verses 11 and 12, but when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is not of this creation, He entered once for all into the holy places. Before we consider that He entered, we need to ask what it is that Christ is approaching. What is the author referring to by this greater and perfecter tent? If we were to flip back to chapter 8, verse 2, we see a reference to the true tent, which is where Christ ministers.

This is in contrast to the priests who minister on earth. So the author of Hebrews is returning to the point that he began in chapter 8. When we looked at that a few weeks ago, we saw a contrast between the heavenly and the earthly, which we saw was more of a reference to quality or origin than location. The author of Hebrews is returning that point by filling out his description of the place in which Christ entered. Christ entered the greater and perfecter tent, which is non-handmade, which means not part of this creation. Now the first phrase, greater and perfecter, parallels with the description in chapter 8, verse 2, the true tent. We considered previously how true didn’t mean that the other was false, but that this was the reality that the other was merely a sketch of.

The word more perfect or perfecter carries the connotation of more complete. This is the greater or more complete reality. A second phrase, not made with hands or not handmade, parallels the description in 8, verse 2, which the Lord set up, not man. In chapter 8, verse 2, it speaks of the setting up of the tent, but in chapter 9, verse 11, the greater tent wasn’t even made by hands. Now what is handmade in contrast with? Store-bought? Manufactured? Is a Costco tent better than a handmade one? No, in this case, it’s a reference to human-made. Humans make things with their hands. God makes things with his words. He doesn’t have to use his hands. So this is a tent not only set up by God, but created also by God. But the third descriptor is what’s really important for understanding what Hebrews is talking about here, not part of this creation.

The first two descriptors would have left room for this to be an actual tabernacle that might exist in one location or another. The final description makes it clear that this greater tent is instead meant to be understood not as a literal location, but a metaphorical one. It is described as not of this creation. In the biblical worldview, everything that exists falls into one of two categories, creator and creation. Pantheism and other religions blur these distinctions, but the Bible keeps them separate. Even invisible realities like angels, demons, and the rest, they’re all part of creation. So if the greater and perfecter tent were a literal tent in existence somewhere, it would have to be part of creation. Instead, the writer clarifies this tent is not part of this creation. If it’s not part of this creation, then it must be part of the creator.

It must be what the earthly tabernacle had been meant to represent from the beginning, the true presence of God. Christ came near to the presence of God. And then, as we’ll consider next, he entered that presence. Christ entered. Verse 12. He entered once for all into the holy places. In verse 8 of chapter 9, which we considered last time, it said that by this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened. Now this phrase the holy places is the same thing that Christ entered in verse 12. The tabernacle, which represents the presence of God to the people of Israel, also indicated that the presence of God was restricted. It was closed off. But when Christ came near, he entered. Christ was granted an entrance where others had been forbidden.

This was all based on the all-important reason that he brought different blood. He didn’t just force his way into God’s presence. He was invited in because he brought greater and perfecter blood, which alone was suitable to grant an entrance into God’s presence. The tabernacle, commissioned by God to be built by Moses to facilitate God’s presence with his people, made clear that the way to God was not open. It was shut. All the furnishings, sacrifices, rituals, and priests formed a barrier between God and his people. But as we noted last time, the problem wasn’t primarily within the procedures. It was with the people. Sinful people get incinerated in God’s presence. This is because the presence of God is either dangerous or blessed. One might say that the difference between heaven and hell is not the presence of God but the presence of sin.

Some people think that heaven is just the place where everyone goes when they die. But when I’m sharing the gospel with strangers who don’t understand this, I often explain that being with God is only a good thing if your sin is taken care of. While we can speak of hell as being away from God’s presence in one sense, there’s another sense in which that is not technically correct. In reality, the difference between heaven and hell is not whether God is there. The difference is whether sin is there, whether it is sinners in the presence of God or saints. Hell is God’s response to sin. So those who die in sin will experience the presence of God as excruciating wrath against them, what they’ve done, embraced, and indulged in. When sinners come into God’s presence, they experience his holiness as a burning raging fire because sin is antithetical to God.

Sin is the absolute epitome of everything that God hates with all of his being. It demeans, dishonors, devalues, and threatens everything that he loves with an everlasting love. A spouse’s greatest jealousy or a parent’s greatest protective instinct, they’re only hints and pictures. They don’t even come close to the white hot passion that God has for everything that he loves. The last thing that God ever is, is indifferent. So for those who have embraced, pursued, and indulged in all that God hates, the presence of God is the last thing that they would ever want to experience. It will be a living hell. In contrast, heaven is God’s response to cleansing from sin. When former sinners, turned saints, enter God’s presence, it will be absolute bliss and delight beyond what can be imagined. Heaven is the presence of God for those who are in Christ and have had their sins not only paid for, but completely washed away, making them saints, holy ones.

For the saint, the presence of God is the most blessed thing imaginable. True fellowship with the one who created you, who knows you better than you know yourself, who can give you glimpses of glory and experiences of ecstasy which truly surpass your present limited imagination. The true love of a husband for a wife, a parent for a child, a brother or a sister or a friend only provide the slightest teasers of the pure fellowship of God that awaits former sinners who enter the presence of God through Christ. Because Christ entered God’s presence with his own blood, the only offering potent enough to grant a favorable entrance into God’s presence, he secured an eternal permanent redemption. We might ask, when did Christ do this? When exactly did Christ enter God’s presence with his blood offering? Well, how do you bring your blood?

This isn’t a blood drive donation. Christ’s offering his blood is called a synecdoche, which speaks of one part of something, but means the whole thing. Christ’s blood, of course, means his life. He offered his blood by dying. There’s no need to try to pinpoint Christ’s offering to a time between his death and resurrection, and this is further reinforced by the phrase in verse 14 that says he offered his blood through the eternal spirit. See, not only did Christ offer a different sacrifice in a different tabernacle, he offered it by different means. Here we see a further distinction made between the earthly priests and Christ. Both eternal and spirit are in contrast to temporal or temporary and flesh. Now, this is not to say that Christ was anything less than flesh and blood. He was all that and infinitely more.

Christ’s sacrifice was greater and perfecter. It was once for all, and it was directly to God in a way that no other sacrifice could be. One commentator says this. An analogy may prove illustrative. From an earthly perspective, it looks as if the sun rises every morning and sets every evening. It would appear that the sun revolves around the earth. A more complete perspective reveals that it is the other way around. Similarly, the perspective of the eternal spirit reveals that the earthly perspective is limited. From a limited external point of view, the Mosaic regulations have their value as cleansing rituals. The value of Christ’s work, however, must be observed from God’s vantage point. It offers cleansing on a different level. Christ wasn’t finishing things up in heaven somewhere after he died, trying to make it back down in time for his resurrection.

He set it on the cross. It is finished. Matthew chapter 27 verses 50 and 53 describes some of the other unusual things that happened at that moment of Christ’s death. Matthew 27 verse 50, and Christ cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And the earth shook and the rocks were split and the tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised and coming out of their tombs after his resurrection. They went into the holy city and appeared to many. The curtain was split at the moment of his death. The old covenant, which had been pointing to this moment and when it finally happened, was instantly obsolete. The Holy Spirit was indicating that the way into the presence of God was now open.

The old tabernacle was now a dead end. The way that was open was not the old covenant tabernacle, but instead through the man hanging outside Jerusalem on a cross outside the walls. As Christ suffered outside the city of Jerusalem, he was actually entering the true tent of God’s presence with his own blood. But that’s not the whole story. Christ didn’t just enter to enter. This was a means to an end. He entered the true holy places in order to offer a greater and perfecter sacrifice that would secure an eternal redemption. And so number three, Christ secured. Verse 12 says, thus securing an eternal redemption. And then verse 14 tells us what that redemption does. Purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Christ secured purification. The problem of sin is not just guilt.

The problem of guilt is real. The problem of guilt is real. Sin brings real guilt that must be dealt with. God’s justice demands that he punish law breaking. But what’s in view in this passage is the way that sin makes us unclean. The Old Testament included laws both for sacrifices of guilt of sin as well as required rituals for cleansing from defilement. And we see this in the example in verse 13 where it says, the ashes of a heifer. This comes from the passage that we read earlier in the service, Numbers chapter 19 verses one through 19. This was a ritual for cleansing. This was not a sacrifice for sins. It was a cleansing from defilement. Death, contact with the dead for an Israelite, defile. Verse 11 of Numbers chapter 19, whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days.

Now this was different from being merely guilty. The Israelites were not being charged with a crime here, but they were defiled and they needed cleansing. The charge of guilt would come later if the person did not seek that cleansing. Numbers chapter 19 verse 13, whoever touches a dead person the body of anyone who has died and does not cleanse himself defiles the tabernacle of the Lord and that person shall be cut off from Israel because the water for impurity was not thrown on him. He shall be unclean. His uncleanness is still on him. All kinds of things could make you unclean, but in Numbers 19 the particular uncleanness in view was that of contact with the dead. This was more than a concern over hygiene. It was a ritual on cleanness. Death is not part of this good creation.

It’s a part of God’s curse for man’s sin and in Numbers 19 God gives his people a method of becoming ritually clean after such contact with the dead. A heifer, a young female cow was burned up on the altar and its ashes were saved and mixed with water to provide a cleansing from defilement. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 13, for if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh. It says that this cleansing of the flesh was good as far as it went. It was suitable for the time that was given, but our defilement from sin runs much deeper than that. We need to be cleansed from dead works. What are dead works? Dead works are the only thing that the spiritually dead can do.

Romans chapter 8 verses 5 through 8 describes this same reality, but it uses different terms. It uses the words the flesh versus the spirit to speak about how the spiritually dead can only do dead works. Romans chapter 8 starting verse 5, for those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the spirit is hostile to God, for does not submit to God’s law. Indeed it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Think of zombies. They can’t offer any helpful contributions to society.

They can only spread death and destruction. Everything they touch gets infected and defiled. This is a picture of unbelievers in the sight of God. Even the most outwardly upstanding citizens who hate God in their hearts are actually spiritually dripping with the filth of sin. Unbelievers, sinners who remain in their sin are like spiritual zombies. Now you need to understand this if you’re an unbeliever. You can’t please God in this state at all. Dress a zombie up in nice clothes all you want. You still can’t invite him into your house. Until you are cleansed from your sin you cannot please God. No matter how upstanding you appear to others on the inside in the sight of God you’re filthy. But as believers we need to be reminded about this about unbelievers. Not so that you can look down on them but so that you can properly pity them.

Properly understand what the end for them is. Many unbelievers live outwardly prosperous and successful lives but the Bible is full of warnings about not viewing people only in terms of this life because it’s such a strong temptation. In Psalm 73 Asaph a worship leader in Israel found himself thinking it’s unbelievers who have the good life and nothing to worry about while being a Christian is purely a burden. But then Asaph went into worship and he was reminded of the eternal perspective. These people don’t stand a chance in the end. Without Christ they’re doomed. Everything done without Christ is dead works. But eternal redemption through Christ secures permanent cleansing from dead works. There’s only one way to truly serve God in a way that pleases him. It’s with a purified conscience. Attempting to serve God with dead works is like a child vacuuming all the carpets in your home but with each step tracking the dog poop he just stepped in outside over every square inch he just vacuumed.

It’s difficult to even appreciate the effort and the filth that it leads behind negates anything initially beneficial. God’s not even tempted to give A’s for effort when the effort is done by filthy consciences that haven’t been cleansed from dead works. Conscience that hasn’t been purified from dead works thinks that it can somehow still make it up to God. It will keep trying to earn salvation apart from Christ. There’s people around us every day performing merely dead works. In the parable of the lost and found son the older brother kept up appearances but it turned out he’d been serving his father out of resentment not out of love. And ironically the son in the parable who was able to truly please his father was the son who admitted his sin humbled himself and then accepted his father’s forgiveness.

The older son didn’t think he needed to be forgiven so he stayed away only causing his father more grief not pleasing to his father. The Christian life isn’t about wishing our mistakes away telling ourselves we’ll do better next time. It isn’t even about swearing to obey God for the rest of your life. It’s built upon believing that Christ’s sacrifice can and does apply to you. That despite everything you’ve done you even you can be cleansed and brought into fellowship with God now. If you’re here this evening and you find yourself among those who are doing dead works you realize you’re not pleasing and cannot please God. That you don’t have all those good things that are in Christ. Do you want this? Do you want this cleansing? Those good things like assurance of God’s love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace.

What is keeping you from asking for this cleansing and these good things from Christ now? If you’re here tonight and you are a believer you’ve tasted of these good things that have come in Christ. This assurance, peace, joy, increase of grace and perseverance in it. Don’t settle for a weak assurance of God’s love for a small increase of grace, a tepid joy in the Holy Spirit, an unstable peace of conscience. These things are yours in Christ to be apprehended by faith. If you’ve been settling for less lately start there and ask for a hunger for more. Christ came bringing near good things to us because he entered God’s presence. He secured an eternal redemption, purification from sin down to our very conscience so that we are freed to do that which genuinely pleases God. Amen.

Let’s pray. Father in heaven we thank you that you have sent your son Jesus Christ that he might come near, that he might approach, that he might enter the holy places with his own blood, that he might purify our consciences from dead works to serve the living God. Lord we ask that you would do that, you would purify our consciences, make us clean, make us able to serve you in a way that pleases you by trusting in the merits of Christ and relying on his work. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Let’s turn now to respond with a hymn 509, hymn 509 and let’s stand as we sing 509. The cross is near with its cheer and will never leave me. Make them fall to life’s mournful story. Make a way that we may enter their victory.

Lord, what I shall ever take me to be. How art mine, I was thine, even ere I knew thee. I am thine, for thou hast taught me. Thus I stood, but I walked, preach of eternity. How art mine.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

June 15, 2025
An Illustration of Alienation

About this sermon

Hebrews 9 describes the earthly tabernacle to show how far sinners were from God. Its furnishings were holy but restricted: a curtain closed off the most holy place with the ark and mercy seat. The priests served daily in the first section, but only the high priest entered the second, once a year, with blood for his own sins and the people’s. These mediators were limited, and the gifts and sacrifices could not perfect the worshiper’s conscience. The whole arrangement pointed to the need for a better mediator who could truly cleanse and bring his people near.

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Sermon transcript

Well, if you would turn this morning in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 9, we’ll be reading verses 1 through 10. This is the Word of God from Hebrews chapter 9. Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. Where a tent was prepared, the first section in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the presence, it is called the holy place. Behind the second curtain was a second section called the most holy place, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna and Aaron’s staff that budded and the tablets of the covenant. Of it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section performing their ritual duties. But into the second section only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing, which is symbolic for the present age. According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation. You may be seated. Let’s pray. Our Father in heaven, Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit, we thank you that you have inspired this word many centuries ago, that you have preserved it for us to read and study and find life in.

We need your blessing, your help, Lord, that you might be present in the proclamation of this word, that you might give food to your people. Lord, we ask that you would feed your people, ask that the Spirit might be present in the hearing and the preaching of your word, that you might be glorified and your saints might be built up. We pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Well, the title this morning of this message is An Illustration of Alienation. But first, how do you handle conflict? Now, typically in films, there are two types of responses when a couple has conflict. On the one hand are those that fly into a rage, yelling at each other. On the other are those who become extra polite, even offering to do favors for the other. Now, on the outside, for the naive observer, it might appear as suddenly, there is nothing wrong.

The famous, dangerous, wifely answer, everything’s fine, might be a classic example of this. On the outside, these responses appear to be smoothing over the difficulties, diffusing the situation and diminishing the differences. But to the perceptive viewer, the discerning husband, things are obviously not fine. The polite assertions and interactions serve to solidify the separation, coldly cutting the other off as the words are wielded like walls. And despite appearances, the polite niceties performed perfunctually do not placate the divide between the parties they actually deepen it. As the couple proceeds to politely patch over disagreements with their words, they both know that implicitly the opposite is intended to happen. Now, we’ve become so used to this phenomenon in films that I would guess many of us rarely give it a second thought. Yet isn’t it odd to think that the polite words, assuring the other that everything is fine, actually are sometimes intended to convey and achieve the opposite meaning.

Now, in our passage this morning, we have an irony. The writer declares that the mosaic tabernacle of the Old Covenant, while being in access of accessibility to God, served also as a parable of partition. The tabernacle and all that went along with it, while it was God’s means of dwelling with his people Israel, it was at the same time a proclamation of their distance and their separation. While the stated purpose of the tabernacle was to bring God close to the people of Israel, the author of Hebrews sees it as signifying their separation. By this, the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing. As we look at the passage this morning, we’ll consider three degrees of separation in the Old Covenant, which fade away in the New Covenant.

Number one is physical furnishings. Number two, mandated mediators, and number three, culpable consciences. So number one is physical furnishings. This we see in verses one through five of chapter nine. The physical furnishings of the original tabernacle, while providing a way for God to meet with his people, also highlighted the immense separation that was inevitably present. We find the tabernacle described in verses one through five. Verse one. The first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. In verse one, the author uses two terms which bring out the distance and inferiority of the Old Covenant. Now if you first read that and you thought that regulations for worship sounds more like a procedure than a relationship, you’d be right. The word translated regulations has strong legal connotations. The Old Covenant was established and maintained in a more distant and regulated manner.

The tabernacle procedures which we read in Leviticus 16 already, while graciously given by God, were nonetheless a way of ensuring the people kept their distance from God. Like the fence that Moses put up around Mount Sinai in Exodus 20, the regulations for worship kept the people alive, but they also hindered intimacy. But secondly, the author of Hebrews describes the tabernacle with this term earthly. We saw this contrast when we looked at the previous chapter, chapter eight in verse five, in which Jesus’ work as a high priest is presented as superior because he entered the heavenly tabernacle. Now we noted last time that the heavenly there was used to describe more the quality of the tabernacle than its location. And similarly here, while the Mosaic tabernacle did exist on earth, the writer of Hebrews is not highlighting its location, but its quality.

It’s an earthly tabernacle which cannot fully solve the heavenly problems. Earthly is incomplete. It is meant to sketch out and foreshadow and illustrate true heavenly realities. Now as the author of Hebrews begins to detail the specifics of this earthly place of holiness in our text, he describes it in the order in which you might encounter it if you were walking in. Verse two, for a tent was prepared, the first section in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the presence. It is called the holy place. The tabernacle in the Old Testament was set up in three sections all in all. There was an outer courtyard in which the priests and Levites washed things, cut up animals for sacrifices, and placed them on the large bronze altar. This courtyard was where the Israelites themselves could enter if they were bringing a sacrifice.

They would bring their offering to the priest and participate to a degree in the sacrifices by eating a part of the sacrifice sometimes and participating in other ways. The author of Hebrews skipped right over this outer section, this outer courtyard, and moving past this, he takes us right into the inner tent, which is completely enclosed. This inner tent, as a whole, was called the holy place. As our passage points out, and it contained a few elements of furniture, and we see the lampstand listed, which provided light for this otherwise dark room and a table with fresh bread on it. But verse three is where we get to the author’s main point of this description. The second curtain was a second section called the most holy place. The holy place itself was separated from the rest of the courtyard by a curtain, by a tent all around.

But even the holy place, there was another curtain, a section of separation. Now, technically, the whole tabernacle is a single tent, which is why most translations in ESV say first section and second section. But the word is literally tent that we see in our passage. And you probably have a footnote in your Bibles referencing this. The author of Hebrews is not confused about the number of tents. He knows there’s a single tent, as he references in other places. But he’s emphasizing here the distinction. He’s highlighting the separation between the sections. So he calls each of them separate tents. One tent for the priest to go, another tent for the high priest to go once a year. Passing through this second curtain, the writer of Hebrews draws our attention to what lies in the holy of holies.

Verse four and five. Having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and there in staff that butted, and the tablets of the covenant, and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things, we cannot now speak in detail. We’re struck in the description by the gold everywhere. This was the closest thing on earth to God’s presence within the old covenant. Now in his description, the writer is going back to the ark of the covenant as it was in Moses’ day. The contents of the ark of the covenant represented several aspects of God’s covenant with Israel. The manna was God’s daily provision for Israel in the wilderness. Every morning they woke up to their daily bread, who would be there waiting for them.

No more, no less, just enough for each day, but as reliably present as the sun rising. The second, we see the rod of Aaron. This came about as a direct challenge to Moses and Aaron’s appointment by God. God had told them that he would settle the leadership dispute once and for all by doing a miracle during the night. All the contestants laid their staffs before the Lord, and in the morning, only Aaron’s staff had not only sprouted leaves, but it had flower buds, and some of the buds had bloomed, and some of those flowers had bloomed and produced ripe almonds all in one night. And this rod was placed in the ark of the covenant as a perpetual reminder of God’s appointment of Aaron and his sons to be the priests. Finally we see that the ark contained the two tablets of stone, God’s law summarized into ten commandments and written by his very own finger, the foundation of his covenant with Israel as permanent as stone.

And we could go on and have a whole sermon based on the contents of the ark of the covenant, but as the author of Hebrews says, of these things we cannot now speak in detail. One detail that has puzzled people about this description in Hebrews 9 of the Holy of Holies is that it places the altar of incense as being behind the veil in the section with the ark of the covenant. We know from reading Exodus 30 verse 6 or Leviticus 16 verses 12 and 18 that we read already that this altar was originally placed in front of the veil in the holy place where the lamp stand and the table of the bread were. Some commentators suggest that since the author of Hebrews is thinking especially about the day of atonement, he mentions the altar as behind the curtain.

As we saw by reading Leviticus 16 earlier, on that day not only was incense burned on the altar, like the rest of the year, but the altar was specially cleansed with that blood on that day alone, which was then also sprinkled in front of the ark of the covenant. Combined with the fact that in verse 13 of Leviticus 16, Leviticus 16 13 describes the priest taking the burning incense from the altar to cover the mercy seat with a cloud of smoke. It says, and put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is over the testimony so that the high priest does not die. Now ultimately it’s not fully clear why the author of Hebrews describes the altar behind the curtain when it wasn’t originally there in Moses’ time.

But his main point is clear. There’s several degrees of separation highlighted even by the structure and furniture of the old covenant regulations for worship. But as we continue in our passage, the author then describes the mediators or the liturgists, the priests who serve within this structure. So secondly we see the mandated mediators in verses six through nine. Verse six, these preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section performing their ritual duties. The ongoing nature of the work is quite explicit. The priests go regularly. They keep going and going and going. Here as with the earlier reference to section, the word is literally tent. They go into the first tent. The priests keep going into the first tent over and over. The scene is busy with priests going and coming, back and forth.

And then we have an ironically used word which is translated here as performing, but in other places is often translated as completing. These priests keep on completing their services, their ritual duties. They keep on completing these duties in the earthly tabernacle which cannot bring completion in the heavenly tabernacle. These earthly priests can’t even go into the inner earthly tent, the holy of holies, much less the heavenly tabernacle. This is highlighted in verse seven. But into the second section only the high priest goes and he but once a year and not without taking blood which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. As we step past the busyness of the first section we find a curtain restricting access. The old covenant tabernacle had many restrictions on who could enter where and when and how often and the holy place was completely off limits to any except the priest alone.

But the inner sanctuary, the second tent, the holy of holies behind the curtain was off limits to everyone except the high priest alone and even the high priest was only permitted once a year on the day of atonement. As verse seven reminds us he had to bring blood. Once a year as outlined in Leviticus 16 that we read earlier the high priest is commanded to go into God’s presence with an offering for sin. But as a sinner himself the high priest had to make two sets of sacrifices. Before he could even bring a sacrifice on behalf of the people he had to make a sacrifice for his own sins for himself. Only then could he bring a sacrifice on behalf of the people. And then look at this phrase for the unintentional sins of the people.

Now while this is a common phrase in the Old Testament, Leviticus 4.13 or 5.18 talks about offering sacrifices for the unintentional sins of the people. The word unintentional here could actually be better translated as ignorant. I think the author of Hebrews is bringing out a different aspect. Typically that Greek word translated unintentional sins of the people that’s used in other places is the word involuntary. But the word here in this case that we have is ignorant. The word that we find in our passage is referring to ignorance. And it’s likely the author of Hebrews is making a different point than merely the unintentional sins of the people which the priest regularly offered sacrifices for. And this seems to be another ironic description of the Old Covenant and its procedures. One commentator finds the word choice to be very significant.

He says to be ignorant is to not know God and his wisdom. Ignorance of God’s instructions for life leads to futility and sinful behavior. Idolaters are characterized by their ignorance of God as are those who rebel against God. The author’s choice of this terminology serves as a subtle reminder of the ineffectiveness of the Old Covenant atonement rituals. Despite the performance of the prescribed atonement rituals, the people did not have a genuine fellowship with God. They still did not know him. And we talked about last time in chapter 8 about how the New Covenant it says in verse 11 that they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest and how this New Covenant is more about a genuine fellowship with God. And so here in this verse we have the writer emphasizing the ignorance, the distance.

The people were outside, separated from God, and even the high priest’s work could not fully bridge the gap that remained between the people and God. High priests could enter the veil on their behalf, but he could not tear down the veils. Indeed, if he were to tear down the curtains, it would only be deadly for the people. The curtains, the tents, the sacrifices, the rituals, and the priests were all established by God to keep the people safe. Life in the Old Covenant entailed keeping a safe distance from the Holy God. And fellowship with God was established with strict limits restricted to mandatory channels. Now, if you’ve been keeping up with the news, you might have heard about the United States of America meeting and negotiating with various countries around the world. It’s always a big deal when the top leaders actually meet face to face.

Most often the meetings are held between second, third, or fourth tier leaders of each country. You might send the vice president, or the secretary of state, or even simply a lower level diplomat. They’re often dispatched to make negotiations, settle disputes, or establish a relationship. But when the president of the United States himself meets face to face with a leader of another country, it’s a big deal. In the Old Covenant, direct talks didn’t happen. My people will get in touch with your people was the way things went. Contact with God was mandated through restricted, mandated mediators. This is what we see in verse eight. By this, the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing, which is symbolic for the present age.

He mentions the Holy Spirit. Not only is the Holy Spirit the one who inspired the scriptures, including the Old Testament, but he’s present throughout the Old Testament, although hidden in various ways. But we see him mentioned even in the building of the tabernacle. In Exodus 31, verses one through 11, God tells Moses that the Spirit of God, that is the Holy Spirit, has filled two men who are in charge of designing and crafting the artistic elements of the tabernacle. So all these elaborate furnishings and sacrificial practices were given at the direction of and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And yet we see that the point of all this elaborate furniture, clothing, sacrifice and ceremonies of the Old Covenant, which allowed God to dwell with his people safely, served ultimately to illustrate the people’s distance from God.

Though the tabernacle was made to symbolize God setting his people apart by dwelling with them in their midst, it was also intended by the Holy Spirit to signify their distance and alienation from God. Notice the use of the word way in verse eight. This is a deliberate word choice because it doesn’t show up in any of the Old Testament language used to describe the tabernacle or the day of atonement. But it does resonate with what Jesus said about himself in John 14, six. Well familiar passage, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to me except through, no one comes to the father except through me. And later we’ll see the same thing brought up in Hebrews 10, verse 20. We’ll see the author return to this idea by the new and living way that Jesus opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh.

So here in Hebrews nine, we have the negative. The way to God in the Old Covenant was shut because of the people’s sin. This is why Jesus is absolutely indispensable to the Christian faith. Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, agnostics and cults throughout the ages boil down to human efforts trying to get to God apart from Jesus, which means on your own merits somehow in one way or another. Christian Judaism today, which has rejected Jesus the Messiah, is another attempt to get to God by going down a dead end. As we see with the established tabernacle at God’s directive in the Old Testament, the people’s sin make all roads, all attempts to get to God, dead ends. On their own, they’re all dead ends. The only way to find forgiveness, peace, and fellowship with God is through Jesus.

The language here in verse eight reminds me of a quote from Lord of the Rings. Perhaps you Lord of the Rings fans might remember the quote in Return of the Kings, which resonates. The way is shut was made by those who were dead and the dead keep it. The way is shut. This is what the author of Hebrews is saying, the Holy Spirit is showing us through the establishment of the earthly tabernacle and its priests. But he qualifies this closure. He says as long as the first tent is still standing. Now while this could mean while it exists physically, but if it were to mean that, that would simply mean that destroying this physical tabernacle, as the Babylonians did in 587, or the Romans would later do to the Terrid’s temple in 70 AD, would solve the problem and open up the way.

But this word standing can also refer to legal standing, meaning legally binding in place. While the Old Covenant remains legally binding, access to God is shut, awaiting the new and living way who will open it. The fact is these outward settings and circumstances of physical furniture, mandated mediators as well, we’re really pointing to a deeper reality. The ultimate problem and our third degree of separation that we see in our passage, are culpable consciences. Number three that we see in verses 9 and 10 is our culpable consciences. Perhaps the biggest degree of separation is our culpable consciences, the fact that we are guilty. Verses 9 and 10, according to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper. The deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of Reformation.

The Old Covenant regulations affected the exterior reality, but were ineffective at touching the heavenly reality and relieving the conscience. And we often speak of the conscience as a moral compass, designed by God to correspond to cosmic right and wrong. Compass of course is a small device that sits in your hand, has a small arm which spins on a dial. If working correctly, it will be affected by Earth’s magnetic field running through the earth and will rotate until it lines up with magnetic north. The compass doesn’t determine north, it detects it. And similarly the human conscience is designed to detect right and wrong, not determine them. But the scriptures are under no illusion that the conscience has been unaffected by sin. The fact that people can be said to be dead in sin and yet have any sense of right and wrong is a gracious gift from God that we might call common grace.

But by God’s grace, humans who reject ultimate right and wrong and continue to choose evil also continue to be pricked by their consciences. And yet the conscience, each of our consciences is not immune to acts that violate what it tells us, it dictates. When your conscience tells you something is wrong and you continue to do it, scripture says you’re on a dangerous path. Because as you continue to act against your conscience, you do dead in or harden your conscience so that it’s less and less effective at indicating true right and wrong. What we want ideally is to have consciences which correspond accurately to cosmic morality as prescribed by God. Our consciences can go wrong in two ways. They can tell us things are wrong when they’re actually right, or they can tell us things are right when they’re actually wrong.

And both of these errors require calibration with the word of God, which is why it’s so important to be consistently reading God’s word yourself. But the point that Hebrews chapter 9 verse 10 is emphasizing is that the ineffectiveness of the old covenant at perfecting or completing, or we might say resolving, the conscience of the worshiper. The old obsolete covenant was ineffective at resolving that persistent sense of guilt despite all of the rituals, sacrifices, offerings, and washings. Why is this important? Because despite man’s fallen efforts to distort and suppress the testimony of his own conscience, it continues to speak, declaring his guilt. Current focus of secular psychology is on silencing the negative voices in our heads and replacing them with positive affirmations. Now in the abstract, this is a good thing. Christians often find themselves believing lies about themselves, others, or God.

And they need to accurately receive and believe God’s promises found in his word to combat falsehoods about themselves, others, and God. But the problem for secular psychology comes when these positive affirmations are not rooted in reality. When it is the negative voices which are true, simply reciting positive affirmations doesn’t change anything. If a criminal who’s truly guilty and accurately sentenced, no amount of positive affirmations about his innocence will change his objective reality. We live in a time in which many in our culture have been trying to bend reality to match internal affirmations that people make about themselves, even to such things as basic and immutable as biological sex. While attempting to change your gender by willing yourself to be different is patently ineffective. Less obviously, but no less ineffective, is the effort to absolve cosmic guilt by forgiving yourself or by pushing it out of your mind.

It is like attempting to absolve a massive tax debt to the IRS by neglecting to check your mail. Ignoring the mail won’t make it go away. Forcing yourself not to worry about it is unlikely to last very long once the real world consequences kick in. The IRS has ways of collecting debt which reach far beyond sending threatening letters. Of course, they can withhold tax credits, garnish wages, even confiscate property, and they don’t care about your personal beliefs to the contrary. Another response to cosmic guilt is attempting to earn your way out of it on your own merits. But this is as futile as performing volunteer community service to get the IRS off your back. While community service might get you kudos from neighbors and friends, it carries no monetary value to lessen your debt. What you need in that case is cold, hard cash, and a lot of it probably.

Lending in debt, even if it is legitimate, generates a nagging sense of unsettledness. My wife and I spent a year living on borrowed funds as our house sale dragged on far longer than we anticipated. It didn’t keep us up every night, but we weren’t fully at peace until the house was sold and our debts were paid off. During that period, I looked into the popular option of taking on more debt in one big loan in order to pay off the other loans. While that might make sense in some cases, it doesn’t bring closure to the problem. In many ways, the Old Covenant was providing loan consolidation. The sacrifices, offerings, and washings couldn’t do anything more than kick the can down the road. They were all meant to point ahead to Jesus Christ Himself, who wouldn’t borrow from anyone and wouldn’t give out any loans.

The forgiveness that Jesus gives is paid for by His own blood and backed by His own sinless merit. He doesn’t offer His righteousness on loan either. He gives His righteousness permanently. The only way to find true peace in your conscience is to have your objective guilt dealt with. That way, when Satan tries to bring it back up, or when your own mind starts to play tricks with you, you have something solid to rest on, Jesus’ objective sacrifice, which paid the penalty for your sin and gifted His own merit to your account, counting you as righteous in God’s sight. That phrase at the end of verse 10 in our passage is translated in the ESV as until the time of Reformation, but it could also be translated until when things would be made right. That’s the Christian’s hope.

Things really will be all right one day. It’s not simply a wish or a desire, it’s a confident belief based on God’s own promise that He will make all things right. And it starts with you and me becoming right with God right now. Weekly, even daily, we must get right with God. This path is repentance. Because of Jesus, the way to God is open. Repent of your sin, abandon it, and embrace and pursue Christ. Whether it’s your first time, or your hundredth or thousandth time, repentance remains the pathway to getting right with God, so that when He returns to finally make all things right, it will be all right for you. Amen. Let’s pray. Our Father in Heaven, we thank you that though you gave these symbols and shadows in the Old Covenant, these necessary preparations, regulations for worship, that they were pointing beyond themselves, pointing to our need of the one who would tear down the curtains and give us true access to God.

We thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ, and His sacrifice that we can rest in. Lord, we ask that you would give us the grace to daily repent of our sins, to look to Christ, and not stay distant, alienated, but come close. Find that fellowship with Christ. Lord, we pray all these things in His name. Amen. Well, in response, let’s turn in our hymnals, and let’s rise and sing number 275. Let’s rise and sing 275, arise my soul, arise.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

June 1, 2025
The New Covenant’s Underwriter

About this sermon

Christ was made priest with an oath: “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever.’” That makes Jesus the guarantor, the underwriter, of a better covenant. Earlier priests were many because death prevented them from continuing, but he holds his priesthood permanently. He is the faithful priest God promised in 1 Samuel 2. Because he always lives to make intercession for those who draw near to God through him, he is able to save them to the uttermost. As he told Peter, “I have prayed for you.”

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Sermon transcript

Well, if you would turn in the scriptures to Hebrews, chapter 7. We’re looking at Hebrews, chapter 7, looking particularly at verses 20 through 28. But I’ll begin reading in verse 18, Hebrews, chapter 7, verse 18. For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness, for the law made nothing perfect. But on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God. And it was not without an oath. For those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath. But this one was made a priest with an oath. By the one who said to him, the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever. This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. The former priests were many a number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office.

But he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him. Since he always lives to make intercession for them. For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need like those high priests to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins, and then for those of the people. Since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priest. But the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a son who has been made perfect forever. Amen. You may be seated. Let’s pray. Our Father in heaven, we would ask that you would be with us.

That the same spirit that inspired the writing of this text thousands of years ago, and preserved it that we might read it today. That you might be present as you have promised to be in our worship. Based on the merits, the work of Christ. That that spirit might open this word to our hearts. That you might pierce us with this. That we might be changed. That we might receive the life from your spirit. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Well, I’ve titled the message this morning, The New Covenant’s Underwriter. What is an underwriter? My wife thought maybe a ghostwriter. But an underwriter is a name, another name for Garen Tor. Someone who assumes responsibility for a loan, or perhaps an insurance policy. Jesus is the underwriter of the New and Better Covenant. Any and all cost incurred, injury inflicted, payment required, will be charged to Christ’s account.

God’s sworn oath has solidified and codified this agreement. The previous priests were attempting to pay for something they couldn’t cover. They’re issuing policies which they weren’t able to cover personally. But Christ issues a policy that he personally guarantees. The New Covenant is backed by the account and advocacy of Christ. I’m convinced that we fail to fully appreciate what this means many times. I think we also underestimate the importance of Christ’s intercession and our own need for it. But the title of our message comes from verse 22 of our passage, Hebrews 7-22. This makes Jesus the Garen Tor of a Better Covenant. Jesus brought in the New Covenant. Remember on the night that he was betrayed? He lifted up the cup for the Passover meal and said, this is the New Covenant in my blood. This verse says that Hebrews is the Garen Tor, and of course, as we said, the Garen Tor is another word for underwriter.

An underwriter is someone who assumes that liability. If someone underwrites an insurance policy, they are contractually bound to pay all the costs that may be incurred. If someone underwrites a loan, they’re giving up the cash up front that’s being borrowed. The New Covenant that Jesus inaugurated wasn’t free. It was established at great cost, even infinite cost. But for forgiveness to be offered to the beneficiaries of the New Covenant, the penalty for sin had to be underwritten. Jesus’ installation as the Melchizedekite was the first of the New Covenant. The penalty for sin had to be underwritten. Jesus’ installation as the Melchizedekite high priest of God, his own choosing, made him responsible for shouldering the immense cost of this unbelievable offering of complete coverage for sins with no deductible. There’s nothing for the recipients to pay before the benefits kick in.

As we explore our passage this morning, we’ll see three key aspects of the New Covenant underwriter. First, we’ll examine the underwriter’s legitimacy, how his divine appointment and unchanging nature set him apart from any other. Second, we’ll consider the underwriter’s ability, his power to save completely and forever because he lives to intercede for us. And finally, we’ll reflect on the underwriter’s advocacy, how he stands in our defense, offering mercy and grace as our perfect representative before God. So number one, the underwriter’s legitimacy. As we consider our passage, we see that the writer of Hebrews is intent on demonstrating Jesus’ legitimacy to be the underwriter or the guarantor of a better Covenant. So the first thing we see is that Jesus is sworn in. This gives him even greater legitimacy than the previous priests. Verses 20 and 22 highlight this difference.

The previous priests were dedicated, installed, and ordained by God according to the law. And Hebrews is not suggesting that they were illegitimate, but they didn’t have God’s oath. They weren’t sworn in personally to their office. Why was that? Well, if we look back to Hebrews chapter six, we see that the writer stressed the importance of God’s oath to Abraham. God’s oath doubled up on his promise in order to give extra assurance that it was never going to change, verse 17 of chapter six. The previous priests weren’t sworn in because they were not permanent. Before the people even entered the promised land, Aaron died, and passed the priesthood on to his sons. The Levitical priesthood was initiated on a legal but temporary basis. That’s why although they were made priests according to the law, none of them was ever sworn into their office the way that Christ was.

Christ is sworn into his office as the final priest from the superior order of Melchizedek, because he was taking up a permanent position. Only an eternal being could be installed into an eternal priesthood. To make sure we understood the permanency of Christ’s priesthood, God confirmed his appointment with an oath. The permanency of Christ’s priesthood gives him unparalleled legitimacy. It’s forever unquestionable. But the confirming of Christ’s appointment with an oath links his priesthood uniquely with God’s oath to Abraham, that was highlighted in chapter six of Hebrews. Christ was sworn into his priesthood because his priesthood is indispensable to the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham. God’s promise to bless Abraham and subsequently all the nations through him can only happen through the priesthood of Jesus. That’s why God unchangeably swears that Christ is appointed to an everlasting priesthood.

But the second thing that we see relating to Christ’s legitimacy in verse 26, for it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens. The language it is fitting is describing the rightness, the properness, the deservedness of Christ’s appointment. We’ve seen this language in Hebrews already back in chapter two, verse 10. For it was indeed fitting that he for whom and by whom all things exist in bringing many sons to glory should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. In Hebrews two, the writer was emphasizing the rightness and importance that Christ suffered in his role as priest. He had to be fully man. Priests were called to represent the people they mediated for as well as be able to sympathize with them.

So Christ had to do that for his people. Christ’s legitimacy as underwriter of our salvation required him to pay a great cost of suffering. Salvation may be free for the many sons that he is bringing to glory, but only because the great cost was shouldered by Christ. C.S. Lewis reflecting on this says, God became a man to turn creatures into sons, not simply produce better men of the old kind, but a new kind of man. It’s not like teaching a horse to jump better and better, but like turning a horse into a winged creature. It’s from your Christianity. In Hebrews, chapter seven, however, the emphasis is on the moral quality and inherent value of Christ as priest and sacrifice. Christ had to be fully God, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens.

And as priest, this gives Christ unparalleled right of access to God and his throne. And as a sacrifice for sin, it gives him inestimable right of access to God and his throne. And as a sacrifice for sin, it gives him inestimable value. This is reinforced in verse 28 of our passage. For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath which came later than the law appoints a son who’s been made perfect forever. Mere men are contrasted with God’s son, the second person of the Trinity. Which one has more legitimacy standing before God? Let’s make a comparison. As the son of God has been fully appointed to his permanent priesthood by God’s direct oath, Jesus is confirmed to be phenomenally legitimate. His divine nature as the second person of the Trinity not only positions him to be the most legitimate guarantor of a better covenant, but it also gives him unparalleled ability to fulfill his office.

So secondly, we see the underwriters ability. Jesus everlasting life provided him with unparalleled ability to perform his priestly office. We see this in the first part of verse 25. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him. The word uttermost is literally to the end of the age. It’s very similar to the reassurance that Jesus gave his disciples in Matthew 28 20, commonly called the Great Commission. Where he said, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. In Matthew 28, Jesus was assuring his disciples, they were not alone in their mission to make disciples of all nations, because he would be with them every step of the way, all the way to the very end. And the idea in Hebrews chapter seven is that Jesus is able to save eternally, for all time, once and for all, to the extreme, because he can carry his work all the way through to the end.

He never has to give it up. Related to this is his singularity as priest. Look at verses 23 and 24. The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office. But he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. The Israelites in the Old Testament had to rely on an imperfect, weak, and constantly changing priest. The priests weren’t all the same. Some were better than others. You never knew who you might get. If you’ve ever had to hire an attorney, represent you, you might be able to relate. Not all are equal. We recently had to sell a house. After almost a year of it being on the market, and going through three different realtors, I can tell you not all realtors are the same. Some are better than others.

In first Samuel chapter two, we read of some extremely corrupt priests. Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phineas, were committing fornication with the women serving at the temple, and they weren’t offering the sacrifices according to God’s command. Think about how you would feel as an Israelite trying to bring up your offering, and having to rely on a priest like Hophni to present your offering to God. It was in this context that God sent a prophecy through Samuel. He spoke of the impending deaths of Hophni and Phineas, the wicked priests, and the establishment of a faithful priest in first Samuel chapter two verse 35. God says, and I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and my mind, and I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever.

This promise lay ultimately unfulfilled until Jesus. You want a priest who can do more than just go through the motions. You want a priest who has an utterly blameless life, and who has unparalleled rapport with God. There’s no one like Jesus, no one whom God is more inclined to listen to. There are some traditions within Christianity, like Roman Catholicism, which elevate historic saints and even Jesus’ mother Mary as people who have God’s ear, so to speak. But they miss the fact that if you have Jesus to intercede on your behalf, why would you even think of going anywhere else? There’s no one else with Jesus credentials, connections, character, compassion, or competence as priest. He’s the only one we need, and there’s no one like him. Hebrews chapter 7 verse 26 doesn’t just describe the appropriateness of Jesus to hold his position as priest, but it also is describing his ability.

When it says, it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. Jesus’ holiness gives him the ability to offer the perfect sacrifice for sins. Since it’s only on behalf of the people’s sins. The previous priests had to offer double the number of sacrifices. We saw in Leviticus 9 that Aaron and his sons had to offer sacrifices first for their own sins, and then for those of the people. Jesus is undivided. He’s focused on us and us alone. And Jesus’ innocence makes him the perfect sacrifice to offer as that perfect priest. The previous priests were offering inferior sacrifices. They constantly had to be repeated. Their atoning work was always incomplete. Jesus offers himself as the ultimate sacrifice for all of eternity. His once for all sacrifice reverberates like shockwaves, obliterating a need for any further sacrifices.

His sacrifice was infinitely superior and is sufficient for all sins for all time. His own worth as the most exalted son of God combined with his absolute purity and separation from sin make his sacrifice utterly unequaled. Nothing even comes close to the value of the sacrifice itself or his lack of deserving such a punishment. No one has ever deserved the punishment for sin less than Christ himself. And yet no one ever has or ever will experience more punishment for sin than he. The repeated priests and repeated offerings point at best to their merely partial payment. But the fact that Christ is the last priest and that he offered a once for all sacrifice means that he paid it in full. No one ever has or ever will complete the payment. The sufferings of hell are eternal, partly because the sufferers continue to sin, but also because they can never fully repay their own debt.

Their own sufferings are insufficient to absolve their guilt and thus hell lasts an eternity. Always an incomplete payment. But there’s only one priest and one sacrifice which has the ability to completely propitiate God, satisfy his wrath, and in accord with absolute justice complete the payment for sin. Jesus’ ability to save is unparalleled. He alone has the ability to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him. But this isn’t just because of his uniquely sufficient sacrifice for sins. It’s also because of his unending ability to advocate for us. So we see thirdly the underwriters’ advocacy. The underwriters’ ability is expressed as his ongoing advocacy in verse 25. Consequently he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Now that word make intercession is the same word used in Romans 834. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that who was raised who is at the right hand of God who is indeed interceding for us. The most important thing that Jesus does now on our behalf is advocate for us. Now the Greek word in both Romans 834 and Hebrews 725 implies more than just prayer. One commentator says, Jesus is not merely pleading for his people, he’s representing them. He stands before the Almighty God and allows himself to be held accountable for the people. This is one of the most amazing and precious things about Jesus. No other religion offers comfort that comes anywhere close. That the Almighty, who created all things and upholds the universe by the word of his power, takes up your case before the judgment seat.

His defense is rooted in his own perfect sacrifice and he knows the judge better than anyone. What makes Jesus’ advocacy so comforting is its effectiveness. We could contrast this with Moses’ advocacy in Exodus 32. In Exodus 32 we see Moses intercede on behalf of Israel. You’re welcome to turn there if you would like. When Moses appeals to the oath that God swore he obtains mercy and keeps Israel as a nation from destruction. But verse 11 of Exodus 32 comes on the heels of Israel having just worshiped the golden calf as Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments. God threatens to destroy the nation and make a new nation out of Moses alone. But Moses turns and pleads with God not to destroy Israel. In verse 11 of Exodus 32 where we pick up just a few verses here, Exodus 32 11, but Moses implored the Lord his God and said, O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people whom you have brought from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

Why should the Egyptians say with evil intent did he bring them out to kill them in the mountains consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel your servants to whom you swore by your own self and said to them, I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring and they will inherit it forever. And the Lord relented from the disaster they had spoken of bringing on his people. But if we keep reading but if we keep reading in Exodus 32 we see something different. By appealing to God’s oath to Abraham, Moses is able to save the Israel from obliteration as a nation.

But just a few verses later when Moses tries to offer himself in order to obtain forgiveness for each individual Israelite who sinned he fails. If we look down at verse 30 of Exodus 32 the next day Moses said to the people you have sinned a great sin and now I will go up to the Lord perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. So Moses returned to the Lord and said alas this people have sinned a great sin they have made for themselves gods of gold but now if you will forgive their sin but if not please blot me out of your book that you have written. But the Lord said to Moses whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book. Moses attempts to offer himself in the place of the people but God rejects his offer.

It’s hard to think of anyone in the Old Testament with a closer relationship to God than Moses yet even Moses falls short when he attempts to secure forgiveness for sins. Moses offers himself in the people’s place but he’s rejected because he is a sinner just like them. The question is who would you rather have advocating for you? The result Moses got sinners will still suffer for their own sin. The result that Christ gets is that his plea for forgiveness is heard. He offers himself in our place and his sacrifice is accepted. Christ never fails when he asks for forgiveness it is always granted. That’s why we need a high priest who is holy innocent unstained separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens. When Christ told the paralytic your sins are forgiven it was considered done and this is the confidence available to those who place their trust in Christ.

We need this comfort when we face difficulties in our lives. Recall Jesus’ words to Peter the night before he was crucified in Luke 22 verses 31 and 32. Simon, Simon, behold Satan has demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail and when you have turned again strengthen your brothers. In these two verses we have one of the most bone-chilling statements followed by one of the most comforting things that could ever be said Satan has demanded to have you the lord of all darkness the arch enemy of God and ourselves that being entirely depend intent on destroying our souls has demanded to have you he wants to sift you like wheat sorting through all your thoughts and intentions in order to expose you as a sham but Jesus follows those terrifying words with unspeakable comfort but I have prayed for you.

Robert Murray McShane once said if I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room I would not fear a million enemies. Have you ever been prayed for? Prayer is a regular part of the Christian life. We pray and ask for prayer all the time. We might not always admit it but not all prayers are the same. Every so often you meet a special person who can really pray. They pray with unusual understanding, compassion, and power. I’ve known some people like that in my life. In fact in the short time that I knew him at Grace I would say that Pastor Dan Knox was a powerful prayer. His prayers and prayer meeting always hit right on the target were filled with scripture and biblical truth. Imagine hearing Jesus pray for you. You’ve just lost someone dear to you.

You received a scary diagnosis. You’ve just lost your job. You fall into temptation and let down your friends and family. You’ve had a difficult day at work. You’re thinking of giving up on Christianity. It’s just too hard. You’re thinking of just giving up on life itself but right then Jesus taps you on the shoulder. Do you mind if I pray for you? The previous priest had to go to bed every night right when those doubts are creeping in at night. When the unexpected emergency turns your world upside down, they’re fast asleep. Not Jesus. He’s never tired. He doesn’t take a day off. He’s ready to pray for you before you’re even ready to ask him. Dear saints, this knowledge is meant to be of immense comfort to your souls. God didn’t have to tell you that Jesus was praying for you but he wanted you to know.

Just like he told Peter, he’s telling you, I’m praying for you. Robert Murray McShane also said about prayer, when old companions, old lusts and sins crowd upon you, when you feel that you are ready to sink, what can save you, sinking sinner? This alone, I have a high priest in heaven and he can support in the hour of affliction. This alone can give you peace. I have a high priest in heaven. When you are dying, when friends can do you no good, when sins rise up like specters around your bed, what can give you peace? This. I have a high priest in heaven. Remember, Jesus isn’t advocating for you in heaven based on your merit. Jesus told Peter he was praying for him right before Peter did the most despicable thing in his life. Later that night, Peter would swear up and down that he never knew or had anything to do with his beloved friend and teacher whom he knew to be the messiah of God.

Jesus wasn’t asking God to take into account anything that Peter had done. It was based on what Jesus was about to do for Peter’s sake. Jesus didn’t say to Peter, if you are restored, he said when. When Jesus prays, there’s no question he gets what he asks for. What a precious thing for Peter to hold on to when he had just disowned God himself and was wondering if he could have done anything worse. Jesus prayed for me. Probably made him feel worse at first. While Peter was boasting about his virtue and then cowardly denying that he ever knew Christ, Jesus was enduring the most excruciating pain ever endured and advocating for Peter the whole time. If you are in Christ, your salvation is secure because he will never stop praying for you. This is your better hope through which you draw near to God.

Jesus, appointed as the Melchizedekian high priest of God, is unsurpassed in his legitimacy, ability, and advocacy as the guarantor, the underwriter of God’s superior covenant. He alone is able to shoulder the debt that we owe and endure the punishment that we deserve for sin. So he alone is worthy of our admiration, worship, and trust as the underwriter of our salvation. When Jesus guarantees our salvation, it is certain. He alone can say to the uttermost because he always lives to make intercession for us and advocate on our behalf. All that we deserve he received and all that he deserves we receive. Praise God. Amen. Let’s pray. Our Father in heaven, we come to you and thank you and praise you for telling us that Christ prays for us, that we have a high priest who is advocating for us, not with arguments based on our merit, but arguments based on his, his perfect sacrifice, his perfect priesthood, his perfect offering, his perfect understanding of us and our need.

And so, Father, we thank you for telling us this and we thank you for comforting us with this knowledge, with this truth. Lord, we ask that you would impress upon our hearts that we might live in the light of this comforting truth. We ask this in Jesus’ own name. Amen. Well, let’s respond by turning to hymn 274. Jesus, my great high priest, and let’s stand as we sing hymn 274.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

April 6, 2025
What the Levitical Priesthood Lacked

About this sermon

Hebrews 7 asks why another priest after the order of Melchizedek was needed if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood. That priesthood was limited: its priests were mortal, and Levi himself, still in Abraham’s loins, paid tithes to Melchizedek. Genesis 14 shows Melchizedek’s greatness, but Psalm 110 gives it its significance by declaring the Messiah a priest forever after his order. Christ became priest not by bodily descent under the law but by the power of an indestructible life, so his priesthood accomplishes what the Levitical one could not.

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Sermon transcript

Let’s open our scriptures to the reading of God’s word from Hebrews chapter 7. We’re looking at Hebrews chapter 7 this evening and we’ll be reading verses 4 through 19. Hebrews chapter 7, this is the word of God starting verse 4. See how great this man was to whom Abraham the Patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils. And those descendants of Levi who received the priestly office have a command in the law to take tithes from the people, that is from their brothers, though these also are descended from Abraham. But this man who does not have his descent from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. In the one case tithes are received by mortal men but in the other case by one of whom it is testified that he lives.

One might even say that Levi himself who receives tithes paid tithes through Abraham for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him. Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood for under it the people received the law, what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek rather than one named after the order of Aaron? For when there is a change in the priesthood there is necessarily a change in the law as well. For the one of whom these things are spoken belong to another tribe from which no one has ever served at the altar. For the one for it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests. This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek who has become a priest not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent but by the power of an indestructible life.

For it is witnessed of him you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. On the one hand a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness for the law made nothing perfect but on the other hand a better hope is introduced through which we draw near to God. Amen you may be seated let’s pray. Our Father in heaven we thank you for giving us your word we thank you for your spirit inspiring its writing for its for your preservation of it that we might have it today and we ask now that you would blow that you would give your presence and power so that we might hear it and believe it it might change us that your power might be present in the preaching of your word we ask this for Jesus sake amen.

Why would you change a winning team? That was the question that many fans of the Dallas Mavericks were asking themselves last month when the Mavericks unexpectedly changed the young star Luka Doncic for the older injury-prone Anthony Davis. People are still scratching their heads over what the Mavericks were thinking. They had done very well in the playoffs even though they hadn’t won everything and unfortunately as many would have predicted Anthony Davis got injured almost immediately leaving the Mavericks with their new player sitting on the bench. This is the season that they call March Madness and although I didn’t have a clue of what I just told you about when it happened I’ve been told by disappointed Mavericks fans that it was devastating. If you didn’t follow that that’s okay. The reason this trade was so puzzling was because it’s just common sense that you don’t change a winning team.

If you’re changing things up it ought to be because there’s something wrong with the old one and that’s what we find in our passage this evening. One commentator on our passage says the author of Hebrews pre-supposition may be paraphrased as you don’t change a winning team. If the priesthood is changed there’s a new priest of a completely different order than what was wrong with the old one. When Jesus was declared to be a priest of Melchizedekian order it had significant implications and the writer of Hebrews is adamant that the Levitical priesthood was never able to achieve perfection which is why the Messiah had to come from a superior order which transcends the problems present in the previous priesthood. So this evening we’ll consider what the Levitical priesthood lacked in three ways. Number one the imperfection of the Levitical priesthood but number two the introduction of the Melchizedekian priesthood and number three the immutability of Christ’s eternal priesthood.

Number one the imperfection of the Levitical priesthood. Hebrews chapter 7 11 verse 11 asks now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood for under it the people received the law what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek rather than one named after the order of Aaron. This question gets at the heart of what the author of Hebrews finds so significant about the mention of Melchizedek in Psalm 110 verse 4. It’s a good question why does the messianic prophecy in Psalm 110 mention Melchizedek rather than Aaron. The implications of this deviation are cataclysmic but not without warrant. The Aaronic priesthood was good as far as it went but it ultimately was imperfect. Now in chapters 9 and 10 of Hebrews we’ll see the author more fully delineate what was going wrong with the Aaronic priesthood.

But here in chapter 7 he says he simply says it’s unable to achieve or attain or bestow perfection as verse 19 states for the law made nothing perfect. We’ve seen this word perfect or perfection show up a few times in the book of Hebrews already. If we look at Hebrews 2 verse 10 for is fitting that he for whom and by whom all things exist in bringing many sons to glory should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering or Hebrews chapter 5 9 and 10 and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Now the root of the Greek word that’s used there for perfect speaks of the end or end goal the completion or perfection in chapters 5 and 6 it’s even translated as mature.

The inadequacy of the Levitical priesthood lay chiefly in its inability to take care of sin in a permanent way. The Levitical priesthood along with the rest of the ceremonial law given by Moses was never meant to be the end all be all solution to sin. It was the God appointed means for the people of Israel to deal with sin but it but it’s required repetition pointed to its inability to resolve the problem. It can be helpful to think of the Levitical priesthood and the ceremonial law that went along with that in contrast to Jesus priesthood like the difference between a credit card and a debit card. A credit card is connected to what’s called a line of credit so that when you swipe your card to buy something at Walmart the credit card pays Walmart and then sends you a bill later.

Money doesn’t come out of your bank account right away. A debit card on the other hand is connected directly to your bank and it takes the funds out immediately. The Levitical priesthood offers sacrifices of animals for sins and God accepted it like a credit card. The animals didn’t actually appease God’s wrath for sin but they were like a credit card that covered that sin temporarily. The sin still had to be paid off at some point which is why Jesus had to die. In the New Testament we don’t put things on credit. Jesus has died and so the payment for sins comes directly out of the account like a debit card but you see in both cases sins are paid for by Jesus death and resurrection. In the Old Testament there was a credit of what Jesus was going to do and in the New Testament there’s a debit of what Jesus has already done.

Now this can help us understand why the Levitical priesthood couldn’t ever bring perfection. A credit card can’t pay itself off. It’s got to be paid off with cash. The more you spend on credit the more you owe. The Levitical priesthood could only offer IOUs spiritually speaking. They couldn’t actually settle the debt. They couldn’t close out the account. The Levitical priesthood was important in the history of redemption but it was never the goal. It was never an end in and of itself. It was meant to foreshadow another priest who was to come and for the Levitical priests their own death was the end of their temporary ministry. Instead for Jesus his death was the initiation of a permanent ministry. He was perfected through suffering becoming the source of eternal salvation but another reason the Levitical priesthood was imperfect was because it was inferior before it was even founded.

This is what we have in verses 4 through 10 of chapter 7 of Hebrews. An argument for the Levitical priesthood’s inferiority to Melchizedek. Let’s look at verses 4 through 10 again. See how great a man this was to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils and those descendants of Levi who receive the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people that is from their brothers though these also are descended from Abraham but this man who does not have his descent from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. In the one case tithes are received by mortal men but in the other case by one of whom it is testified that he lives.

One might even say that Levi himself who receives tithes paid tithes through Abraham but he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him. What we see here is the author of Hebrews drawing out the implications from the interaction that Abraham had with Melchizedek in Genesis 14. There’s more going on than meets the eye he’s saying. Abraham is viewed not as an individual but as the ancestor of a people all those who would come after him just as God’s promise to Abraham was repeatedly stated to you and your offspring. The author of Hebrews is considering Abraham with regard to his descendants. Now the particular descendant that Hebrews brings out is Levi because it is from the because it is from Levi that the Israelites who serve in the temple are distinguished from the others.

The tribe of Levi was set apart to serve God generally and it was one particular individual Aaron from the tribe of Levi from whom the priesthood was derived. With this in view the interaction between Abraham and Melchizedek takes on a whole new meaning. Melchizedek who is said to be a priest of God most high acts on behalf of Abraham. He pronounces a blessing on Abraham which is what the priests were instructed to do. We see this in Numbers 6 22 and 27 known as the Aaronic blessing which by the way this is part of the reason that Pastor Jeff pronounces the benediction at the end of each worship service. God instructed his representative to bless the people in his name. Now the blessing by itself would not have implied Melchizedek is Abraham’s priest but combined with what Abraham does in response makes it unmistakable.

Abraham gives a tithe in response. The tithe is what God would later command the Israelites to give to him by giving it to the Levites. Now of course this was not a crude pay-to-play like pagans trying to buy favor with God. Instead the tithe is God calling his people to remember he owns it all and he claims the first 10 percent to be returned to him but by giving this tithe to Melchizedek Abraham is recognizing Melchizedek as his priest. The author of Hebrews is saying when we think about Abraham as representative of his descendants then when Abraham paid a tithe Levi did and this means that the interaction between Abraham and Melchizedek represents the entire Aaronic priesthood paying tithes to Melchizedek. Melchizedek then is the priest’s priest. Melchizedek blesses the entire Levitical priesthood as represented by Abraham their patriarch and the Levitical priesthood through Abraham’s actions responds by tithing as a recognition of Melchizedek as their priest.

The Levitical priesthood was never a permanent solution since it could never provide perfection. It was also imperfect because even before it was founded there was a superior priesthood on the horizon. Sooner or later a change would be needed as foreshadowed in the interaction in Genesis 14 and this interaction between Abraham and Melchizedek was intended to foreshadow a future interaction in which the Levitical priesthood is handed down handed over and even superseded by the introduction of a final priest who’s part of the superior Melchizedekian priesthood. So secondly we see the introduction of the Melchizedekian priesthood in our passage. While the account in Genesis 14 demonstrates the superior the superiority of Melchizedek as an individual without Psalm 110 it would have relatively little significance but once Psalm 110 introduces God’s declaration declaration of the coming Messiah to be a priest after the order of Melchizedek it casts everything in a new light.

The very introduction of a new order of priesthood is extremely significant verse 12. For when there is a change in the priesthood there is necessarily a change in the law as well. This was for two reasons. First the priest taught the people the law. They were the means of transmitting God’s law. That’s why it says under it the people received the law. But second the law stipulated the qualifications for the priesthood. So a new law equals new qualification requirements for priesthood. The arising of a priesthood from a different order isn’t like the various monastic orders that we have today. Today there are monks, monks that follow Augustine, monks that follow Benedict and they all have their different practices but they’re more or less serving in parallel. But this is not the case with the Old Testament priests.

There was more there was no other God appointed means for the people to approach God except as a priest descended from Aaron. The only one authorized to introduce a new priest is God himself which is exactly what happened. Hebrews 5, 5 and 6 the author quotes from Psalm 110 and Psalm 2. He says, So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest but was appointed by him who said to him, Psalm 2, you are my son today I have begotten you. As he also says in another place Psalm 110 verse 4, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And verse 10 he reiterates his point being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Since the law establishing the Levitical priesthood had been given by God directly it was his right alone to change it.

By changing the order of priesthood God was changing other things as well. Not only was the Levitical priesthood integral to the giving and functioning of the Mosaic ceremonial law but there were the stipulations within the law concerning the priestly succession. The law in the Old Testament set up the priesthood in a much less relational and individualized way. The requirements for priesthood were not determined on merit but on descent. Only the sons of Aaron could be priests and unless they had a disfigurement or were immoral they didn’t have a choice. The priesthood wasn’t a career option which was available to the most qualified candidates. It was restricted to biological descent. As Hebrews 7 16 says the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent. We have an example in Ezra of the people in Ezra of the people having to work through this after returning from the exile.

In Ezra chapter 2 verses 59 to 62. Ezra is right after Chronicles if you’re looking for it. In Ezra when the people are coming back from exile they run into a bit of a problem because not all the returning priests are able to prove their genealogy. So we find in Ezra chapter 2 verse 59 the following were those who came up from Telmela, Telharshah, Cherub, Aden, and Imur. Though they could not prove their father’s houses nor their descent whether they belonged to Israel the sons of Deliah, the sons of Tobiah, the sons of Nakoda, 652, also of the sons of the priests, the sons of Habiah, the sons of Haakaz, the sons of Barzilai who had taken a wife from the daughters of Barzilai the Gileadite and was called by their name. These sought their registration among those enrolled in the genealogies but they were not found there so they were excluded from the priesthood as unclean.

Under the Mosaic law the priesthood was based on bodily descent but Psalm 110 prophesies the Messiah will be priest on a different basis. The installation of a priest who does not trace his lineage through Aaron indicates a more pervasive change in how people relate to God. This new priest breaks the mold indicating there’s not just a new priesthood but a new law as well. For when there is a change in the priesthood there is necessarily a change in the law as well. For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe from which no one has ever served at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah and his connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests. The law stipulated priests be descended from Aaron yet the Messiah was prophesied to be David’s descendant.

God told David in 2 Samuel 7 that he would have a son who would sit on his throne forever. That’s why Matthew’s gospel begins with a genealogy demonstrating Jesus’ descent from David. Now some Jews resolved the discrepancy suggesting there would be more than one individual. One would be a priest and one would be a king. If you notice the one time that Jesus goes on the offensive and grills the Pharisees about scripture is in terms of Psalm 110 forcing them to consider if the Messiah is David’s son how is he his Lord? David was going to have a son who would reign as king forever. If we look at the beginning of verse 14 again we see for it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah. Now we see two things first the title Lord which is actually God’s name in the Old Testament and when it is applied to Jesus as it is all over the New Testament it’s reminding us that he is God and second to that word descended in verse 14.

It’s not the usual word to describe descent almost everywhere else this Greek word is translated sprung up or risen like the sun or a plant. Isaiah 60 verse 1 has that exact same word in the phrase arise shine for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. But we see this word all over the place Balaam prophesies a star will arise from Jacob numbers 24. Zechariah 6 that we read earlier prophesies about the branch that will branch out or spring up and of course as we saw in Zechariah 6 a priest will sit on the throne. Malachi 4 2 about the son of righteousness who will arise and many more that we could list. The use of this word would have brought to mind the numerous prophecies about the Messiah about his introduction to the scene and how that would change everything.

What the author of Hebrews is bringing together is that the same qualification for reigning being able to sit on David’s throne forever is the same qualification for the messianic Melchizedekian priesthood. It was patterned after Melchizedek and thus it could only be held by one who could hold it forever. The author of Hebrews bases this on the wording of Psalm 110 which he quotes in verse 17 he says for it is witnessed of him you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. The author of Hebrews is picking up on that word forever the Aaronic priests were all temporary their own mortality limited their ability to continue serving as priest sooner or later they would die. The word forever means that the coming messianic Melchizedekian priest who is prophesied about must not be subject to the inevitable mortality that afflicts the other priests.

The priest of Psalm 110 would never retire which changed the requirement from bodily descent to an indestructible life. The bodily descent of the Messiah had to be established through David but his transcendent priesthood was based on his ability to transcend death. When God introduces a priest who’s connected to a new priesthood changes everything but this disruptive priest brings completely unprecedented stability. So finally we’ll consider the immutability of Christ’s eternal priesthood. Christ’s permanent priesthood is permanent because he is permanent. This concept of a transcendent order of priesthood is very likely what C.S. Lewis was thinking of when he wrote the scene in the lie and the witch in the wardrobe. The white witch has claimed the right to kill Edmund since his original betrayal of his siblings rendered him her property according to the deep magic that’s written on the stone table.

Aslan concedes that she’s correct and allows himself to be killed on the stone table by the white witch in order to redeem Edmund but upon Aslan’s rising again Lucy and Susan ask him what does it mean and here’s where Lewis quote where Lewis lays it out it means said Aslan that though the white witch knew that the deep magic there is a magic deeper still which she did not know her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time but if she could have looked a little further back into the stillness and darkness before time dawned she would have read there a different incantation she would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a trader’s stead the table would crack and death itself would start working backward Aslan’s sacrifice and resurrection meant the reversal of death and in Acts 2 24 Peter in his sermon on Pentecost explains the rationale for Christ’s resurrection as his inability to stay dead.

Acts 2 24 God raised him up loosing the pains of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it. The resurrection of Jesus was an inevitable necessity because of who he is It’s like trying to hold down a beach ball underwater in a pool. It’s only a matter of time before you lose it and it pops back up to the surface. Jesus couldn’t stay dead. How is Jesus qualified to be a Melchizedekian priest? Well as we see in our passage verses 15 and 16 this becomes even more evident when another priest arises and the likeness of Melchizedek. One who has become a priest not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent but by the power of an indestructible life. Let’s look a little more closely at that phrase an indestructible life in verse 16.

The Greek word doesn’t show up anywhere else in the New Testament and it has this idea of being utterly impervious to change or degradation. Christ’s life is endless but not in an impersonal static way but in a dynamic pulsating way that never loses its intensity. This indestructibility of Christ’s life is a quality of his divinity. Only God has life within himself. Only God is what philosophers call a necessary being. This is in contrast to a contingent being which is everything else and all of us. Our existence is completely dependent on all kinds of things. Without food, water, and air for instance you won’t last very long. But God doesn’t rely on anything to exist. Even if everything else stopped existing it wouldn’t have any effect on God’s existence. He can’t help but exist. We’ve seen the writer of Hebrews talk a lot about the importance of Jesus’ humanity, his ability to suffer and die, his weakness as qualifying him for an empathetic and sympathetic priestly role.

But here we have the other side. In order to be a priest according to the order of Melchizedek Christ must be God. He must have the divine power of an indestructible life. He must have the divine power of an indestructible life since the Melchizedekian priesthood is permanent. When I first married Callie we were applying with a mission agency to go to Japan. It didn’t end up working out but at the time it seemed like we might be leaving within a year or less, maybe only a few months. Have you ever tried to apply for a job knowing you’ll only be around for a few months? I made the mistake of being too transparent and telling my employers, my prospective employers of my planned eminent departure and they quickly became uninterested. They were looking for someone who could hold the job permanently, not just a temporary employee for a couple months.

The Aaronic priests were temporary employees. Sooner or later they’d have to move on, in retirement or death. But Jesus, the Melchizedekian priest, holds a permanent position. An indestructible life is an indispensable qualification. Now the Melchizedekian priesthood, this transcends the Aaronic priesthood. Melchizedek’s interaction with Abraham foreshadowed that the messianic Melchizedekian priest would be a priest to the priests. Melchizedek is unrelated to Abraham but he steps in and ministers in a similar way as God. The Christ serves as a priest for the priests who are beset with weakness. But the Melchizedekian priesthood of Christ doesn’t just sit on top of the Aaronic priesthood like an extra tier. Christ’s priesthood transcends and displaces the Aaronic priesthood. Look at verses 18 and 19. For on the one hand a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness, for the law made nothing perfect.

But on the other hand a better hope is introduced through which we draw near to God. Christ’s priesthood provides access for all of God’s people equally. While the tabernacle and the Aaronic priesthood made provision for God to dwell among his people, in comparison to what we have in Christ it looks like an immense distance. The Aaronic priesthood is based upon an individual that stands in between God and the people. There’s God, the priest, and then the people. But in the priesthood of Christ these become united in one person. Christ is God, Christ is the priest, and Christ is man, one of the people. This illustrates the way that Christ’s priesthood is on a whole new level. Christ doesn’t just connect us to God by passing messages or giving us the access code. Christ himself is God.

He said, when you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father. John 14, 9. In Acts 13, verses 38 and 39, Paul sums up the difference of what we have in Christ like this. He says, let it be known to you, brothers, therefore that through this man, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything that you could not be freed from by the law of Moses. The Levitical priesthood was never able to be the ultimate means of having peace with God. It was instituted so that we could see what Christ came to do. The Old Testament ceremonial laws were instituted to break up Christ’s work into little pieces, little bits, so that we might understand the comprehensive nature of what he was doing. But those laws and those practices were never intended to stand by themselves.

They couldn’t make anything perfect because their whole role was to point beyond themselves to the one who would embody everything at once. Christ said he did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. He came to be the reality that they were all pointing to. The object of future expectation is called hope. So when the reality shows up, there’s no point in going back to the shadows. Jesus is our hope, a better hope, the best hope through whom we draw near to God. Let’s pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you that we can draw near to you through the better priest, the ultimate priest, Jesus Christ our Lord. We thank you that he is both man but also God, that he can be our perfect high priest. Lord, we ask that you would draw near to us, that you would cleanse us from our sins, that you would hear his prayer, you would accept us as righteous in Christ, and you would draw us near into your very fellowship and presence.

We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

March 30, 2025
Melchizedek: The Man, The Myth, The Legend

About this sermon

Melchizedek appears briefly in Genesis 14 as a real historical figure, king of Salem and priest of God Most High, who blesses Abraham and receives his tithe. His name means king of righteousness, and Salem means peace. Hebrews notes that Scripture records no father, mother, or genealogy for him, so he resembles the Son of God, who truly has neither beginning nor end. Because the superior blesses the inferior, Melchizedek’s priesthood is greater than Abraham’s descendants, including Levi. He is a type of Christ, whose priesthood surpasses the Levitical order.

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Sermon transcript

We’ll be looking this evening at Hebrews chapter 7. We’ll be reading verses 1 through 3 of Hebrews chapter 7. So we look to hear the preaching of God’s word. Hebrews chapter 7. For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him. And to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness. And then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life. But resembling the Son of God, he continues a priest forever. You may be seated. Let’s pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you that your word is life.

We ask that the same Spirit who inspired this word, that you would give him to us now to open our hearts, that we might hear and know and see, that we might find life for our souls. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Well, have you ever encountered a figure in history or a story who seems almost too extraordinary to be real, someone whose fleeting presence leaves you captivated, wondering about the truth behind the tale? In the pages of scripture we meet such a character, Melchizedek. He steps briefly into the spotlight in Genesis 14, where he blesses Abraham and receives a tithe, only to vanish from the narrative as quickly as he appeared. Yet centuries later, the writer of Hebrews brings him back in chapter 7, verses 1 through 3, painting him as a man shrouded in mystery.

He’s called the King of Righteousness and Peace, with no beginning or end recorded, a priest forever resembling the Son of God. Melchizedek is the man and the myth, a historical figure whose enigmatic qualities spark our imagination. But this isn’t just a curious detour in the Bible. Tonight we’ll see how this legendary priest-king points us to the greatest reality of all, Jesus Christ, the eternal high priest and king, whose life and work surpass every legend, grounding us in the truth that saves. If it weren’t for the book of Hebrews, most Christians would probably not have heard of Melchizedek, and even fewer would consider him significant in redemptive history. But tonight we’ll begin considering what the author of Hebrews finds so significant about this intriguing character. We’ll look at Melchizedek in three ways tonight. Number one, the man, Melchizedek as a historical figure.

Number two, the myth, Melchizedek as a symbolic figure. And number three, the legend, Melchizedek as a type of Christ. So number one, Melchizedek the man, or the man, Melchizedek as a historical figure. Hebrews 7, 1 and 2 says, For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham, returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him. And to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. Melchizedek is truly a mysterious figure. He’s only referenced two times in all of the Old Testament, Genesis 14 and Psalm 110. In Genesis 14 we have the account, as we read earlier, in verses 18 and 20 of Genesis 14, And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abram by God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth.

And blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand. And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. The amount of things that we don’t know about Melchizedek far exceed what we do know about him. In fact, if it weren’t for Psalm 110, and more significantly the Book of Hebrews, taking such an interest in this figure, we probably wouldn’t be talking about him tonight. From the narrative in Genesis alone, most of us would probably never give Melchizedek a second thought. Even the mention that he gets in Psalm 110 probably wouldn’t garner our attention either, if it weren’t for the author of Hebrews making such a big deal out of it. He’s going to spend the whole of chapter 7 talking specifically about Melchizedek. The bottom line is, as we’ll see going forward, the author of Hebrews sees Melchizedek’s priesthood to be the key to the legitimacy and superiority of Christ’s priesthood, based in Psalm 110.

This is why the author has been trying to talk about Melchizedek since chapter 5. If you remember in chapter 5, verses 10 through 11, the author interrupts himself. He says, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek, about this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. And then he digresses into what we’ve just finished dealing with, the depression about apostasy followed by the reassurance of God’s unbreakable commitment to his promise. Now, finally, in chapter 7, the author’s returning to the subject of Melchizedek. As we said, Melchizedek is a mysterious figure, because so much is made of him in Hebrews based on his mention in Psalm 110. There are plenty of speculative theories about who he was. While most mainstream Jewish literature around the time of Christ hardly mentions Melchizedek, there are some Jewish writings from around the time of the writing of Hebrews that saw Melchizedek as a type of messianic or heavenly figure.

You may have heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls. This is a collection of scrolls found in some caves near the Dead Sea in the 1940s and 50s. This was significant because there were scrolls of almost every book in the Old Testament, which were much older than any copy we previously had until that point, and yet they all matched the copies we had completely. But there weren’t just scrolls of the Bible. The Jewish community that was at this place called Qumran was known as the Essenes, and they were a bit like a cult. They had some strange ideas about the Messiah and the end of days, including Melchizedek. They have an entire scroll that we call Melchizedek because it talks so much about him. Some of the scrolls from the Qumran community view him as an angelic or a divine being who gives counsel to Yahweh and even executes judgment on the world.

Another Jewish scroll titled Second Enoch says there will be a second Melchizedek who will emerge in the last generation. They describe him as the head of all, a great archpriest, the word and power of God, starting to sound like Jesus himself. Much later there was a group of heretics in the fourth century who became known as Melchizedekians because they wrongly were elevating Melchizedek above Christ, probably stemming from an abusive reading of Hebrews as well as other Jewish speculation. There are still theories floating around today that speculate that Melchizedek was an angel or even a theophany, which is a manifestation of the pre-incarnate Christ. This would mean that similar to the angel of the Lord who shows up in the Old Testament, Melchizedek was in fact God himself, the second person of the Trinity before he took on a full human nature at his conception and birth.

But the fact that Christ is compared to Melchizedek and Melchizedek compared to Christ undercuts this speculation. Comparison is only possible when the two things are not identical. So drawing comparisons between Christ and Melchizedek as Hebrews does implies that they’re definitely not the same individual. Despite all the speculation, based on the text of scripture, there’s no reason to think that Melchizedek was anything more than an ordinary human who lived in Canaan, ruled a place called Salem, and served as a priest of God in the days of Abraham. The most reliable, unbelieving Jewish historian that we have from around the time of Christ is a man named Josephus, and he doesn’t offer any fancy speculation about Melchizedek being anything more than he appears to be in Genesis 14. He takes the narrative at face value, although he does mention that the Jewish traditions thought that Melchizedek might have been the first one to build a temple in Jerusalem.

But the biblical evidence and narrative does not support this. So although there have always been pockets of speculation, the ordinary view was likely the predominant view within the Jewish community at the time of the writing of Hebrews, and matches what we find in the scriptures. So Melchizedek is said to be a place, king of a place called Salem. So what’s Salem? Well, most scholars believe this is a reference to Jerusalem. From Josephus, we learn that this is a clear tradition in Judaism. But we don’t have to only rely on the Jewish tradition to associate Salem with Jerusalem. If we flip back to Psalm 76, verse 2, in Psalm 76, verse 2, it reads, God’s abode has been established in Salem, his dwelling place in Zion. Salem is mentioned in parallel with Zion. Apparently, it is an older name for Jerusalem.

Now, we don’t know about how long Melchizedek ruled. We don’t know how big his kingdom was or what the city of Jerusalem was like so many centuries before David ousted the Jebusites in 2 Samuel 5 and claimed it as his own capital. In David’s time, we learn that Jerusalem was a formidable city which Joshua and the subsequent generations of Israelites had been unable to conquer until David’s time. But when the Jebusites moved in, we simply don’t know. But it’s interesting that in Abraham’s day, when God is promising him the land of Canaan, Jerusalem is being ruled by a righteous king. But Melchizedek was more than a king. Genesis 14 tells us that Melchizedek was also a priest of God. We don’t know what this involved, how formal the designation was. We do see in Genesis’ narrative Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all acting as informal priests for their households.

And Job is another example of someone who was likely within the same time period acting as a priest for his family. But on the other hand, Melchizedek is specifically described as a priest of the Most High God. But aside from that, the details are sparse. We don’t actually know if Melchizedek ever met Abraham again or if he ever saw him again. But the thing that Melchizedek does that Hebrews highlights is bless Abraham. The author of Hebrews finds this to be extremely important. Not the content of the blessing, so much as what it demonstrates about the relationship between Abraham and Melchizedek. By blessing Abraham, Hebrews 7 is going to go on to argue, Melchizedek demonstrates that he is superior to Abraham in certain respects. And Abraham’s response to Melchizedek’s blessing reinforces this relationship. Abraham gave Melchizedek a tithe, a tenth of all the spoils of the war.

God had granted Abraham the victory, and in response he returned to God a tithe of what he had received by giving it to God’s priest, Melchizedek. So Melchizedek is an enigmatic figure, the source of much biblical speculation. But despite the sparse details of what we have of his origin in life, we have no reason to think that he was other than an ordinary king who lived at the time of Abraham. And yet this ordinary human is far from insignificant. So we’ll consider next the myth, Melchizedek as a symbolic figure. Verse 2 of Hebrews 7. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. As with almost all Hebrew names, we can see there’s significance to be found in Melchizedek. Almost all Hebrew names are words or roots of words that can be translated.

The Hebrew word for king is melek. The way that Hebrew works is the three root consonants carry the heart of the meaning for the word. So it’s those three key consonants, M, L, and CH, that have to do with being a king and ruling. King is melek, queen is melekah, malak is to rule or to reign. You get the picture. So when you have a Hebrew name that includes this M, L, C, it means king something. Melchizedek is a combination of the word for king and the word for righteousness, tzadik. As Hebrews 7 puts it, by translation of his name, Melchizedek is king of righteousness. Now we don’t know how he got his name, but we can assume that he was a righteous king who ruled well and worshiped the living and true God. With a name like king of righteousness, very likely the author of Hebrews, in associating him with Christ, is thinking of the earlier quote in chapter 1 of Hebrews from Psalm 45.

We find in Hebrews 1, 8, and 9, where speaking of Jesus, he says, He says, When we looked at this passage at the start of our series, we noted the significance of Christ, who was described as the one who loved righteousness, unlike anyone before or after him. As the king of God’s people, Christ was the one who was characterized by a love for righteousness, which was also conversely displayed in his hatred of wickedness. But Hebrews doesn’t stop with the translation of Melchizedek’s name. He also notes the significance found in the translation of the name of his kingdom. We already noted how Salem appears to be a reference to the city which was later known as Jerusalem. But as with other Hebrew names, Salem also can be translated. The same principle here regarding the core consonants applies, with the added wrinkle that S or SH in Hebrew look about the same.

If we were saying this city in Hebrew, it would sound more like Shalim. This is very similar. You can hear the similarity in the well-known Hebrew word Shalom. And indeed, it has the same root consonants and the same meaning. Shalom in Hebrew means peace. And this is what the author of Hebrews points out. The author finds it intriguing that not only does Melchizedek’s name mean king of righteousness, but in another sense, he is also the king of peace. If we look ahead to Hebrews chapter 12, verse 11, we find the author combining righteousness and peace again as the result of God’s discipline. Hebrews 12, 11. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant. But later, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Righteousness and peace joined together in the heart of the believer are the result of God’s work in his children’s lives.

How appropriate for the king of righteousness to rule the city of peace. When a righteous king is ruling, there is peace in the city. And you might recall that Christ is famously prophesied from Isaiah 9 to be the prince of peace. As a side note, in case you think that king of peace sounds higher rank than prince of peace, let me reassure you the Hebrew word for prince in that case just means ruler, not necessarily below a king. The emphasis is on peace, which characterizes the rule. But besides the king of righteousness ruling the city of peace, Melchizedek bears another similarity to Christ that we see in verse 3. He is without father or mother or genealogy having neither beginning of days nor end of life. But resembling the son of God, he continues a priest forever.

This verse is probably where the speculation takes off about Melchizedek being other than human. However, the author of Hebrews is not suggesting that Melchizedek was actually created out of nothing as an angelic or divine being. He made the case at the beginning of the book that angels are inferior to Christ. If Melchizedek were an angel, he would be a strange source of Christ’s priesthood. And if Melchizedek were some kind of divinity, he could only be a false one in competition with God, the one true God. Rather, the author is speaking of Melchizedek as we encounter him in the pages of Genesis. Within the biblical narrative, Melchizedek appears without any mention of his genealogy, his birth or his death. The author of Hebrews is picking up on Melchizedek’s literary appearance out of thin air to highlight a further resemblance between him and Christ.

He’s not trying to say that Melchizedek is a separate category of being. The significance that the writer of Hebrews finds in Melchizedek’s obscure beginning and end is that this allows him to appear eternal. But his main point in just a few verses will be that this provides a context for a new order of priesthood, which combines the priest and the king into one person. Which brings us to our third consideration, the legend, Melchizedek as a type of Christ. As Hebrews 7, verse 3 says, The book of Hebrews makes extensive use of a concept we call typology. This has to do with the fact that God, in his wisdom, has revealed his salvation, and especially his son Jesus, in events, objects, people, and practices in the Old Testament, which pointed beyond themselves. The two things are related, like your shadow is related to you.

When you look at your shadow, there’s some similarities to your own appearance, but the differences are also so great that you would never mistake one for the other. We sometimes call it foreshadowing. But going forward, we’re going to see quite a bit of typology in Hebrews, and we’ll talk about it more as we get there. But a quick example is the Passover lamb. When Jesus came to see John the Baptist, John said, Look, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The lamb that God commanded the Jews to kill and eat in Exodus was meant to point beyond itself by picturing a certain aspect of Christ and what he would do. And the author of Hebrews is saying, Melchizedek is such a type of Christ. There are certain aspects about Melchizedek, as he is portrayed in scripture, that are meant to point beyond the event and highlight aspects about Jesus.

The author of Hebrews sees Melchizedek’s name, king of righteousness, his rule, king of peace, and his priesthood combined with his obscure origins as pointing forward to the actual eternal priest king, Jesus Christ. If Jesus walked by the author of Hebrews, he might have said, Behold, the Melchizedekian priest who takes away the sin of the world. Now, one caution is that we’re doing typology, looking for symbolic people or events in the Old Testament, which are meant to point ahead to Jesus and his work of salvation. We do have to be careful that we’re making connections that God intended. There have been periods in church history in which people found meaning in any little detail that they could think of and turned everything into a type of Christ. The red string out of Rahab’s window in Jericho was famously taken to be a symbol of Christ’s death on the cross because it was red.

While a connection sounds interesting, we don’t have any clear indication that the color of the rope was meant to mean this. But in the case of Melchizedek, there’s no question. Let’s look over quickly to Psalm 110, where the writer of Hebrews finds this similarity. In Psalm 110, verses one through four, it reads for us, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies. Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power and holy garments. From the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

This is where the author of Hebrews is getting his idea that Melchizedek is the key to Christ’s priesthood. And we’ll continue to unpack this in the coming weeks. From our perspective, looking at typology, not only do we have Psalm 110, which says that Messiah will be a Melchizedekian priest, but we have this extended discussion in Hebrews itself on the typology of Melchizedek. With inspired precedent, we’re on solid ground to interpret Melchizedek as a type of Christ. So what is so significant about Melchizedek in reference to Christ? Well, as we mentioned earlier, we don’t know much about Melchizedek’s priesthood. He is described as a priest of God Most High. But the scant details are actually helpful in this case. As Hebrews points out, this lack of information allows Melchizedek to better prefigure the eternal Son of God.

Melchizedek, as he appears in Genesis, possesses his priesthood apart from lineage or genealogy. He just has it. And while Christ, the man, does have a traceable genealogy as the second person of the Trinity, Christ has neither beginning of days, nor end of days, nor father, nor mother, nor genealogy. As God, Christ simply is, without beginning and without end in history. Melchizedek’s priesthood is superior to Abraham. This is seen in the fact that Melchizedek blesses Abraham, and Abraham pays ties to Melchizedek. This implies that Melchizedek is superior to Abraham’s descendants, including Levi, which implies that the Melchizedekian priesthood is superior to the Levitical priesthood. This is very important, because there are only two legitimate priesthoods of the one true and living God. The Levitical priest, which was instituted by God through Moses, and the Melchizedekian priesthood.

But they are not completely equal. The Melchizedekian order is better. And we’re going to see Hebrews make this case in the next few weeks. Now what does this have to do with us? All the similarity is cool, but what is the big takeaway? What’s on the line? Well, it turns out, as we’ll continue to see, the priesthood of Christ is on the line. We can sometimes take for granted that Jesus is our priest. By that, I mean that we use the concept without always understanding the basis of Christ’s priesthood. If it weren’t for Melchizedek, Christ would have to have traced his lineage through Aaron. The only other line of legitimate priests is through the line of Aaron. Because of this, the priests and the kings of Israel were permanently separated. Kings came from David’s line in the tribe of Judah, and priests came from Aaron’s line in the tribe of Levi.

The few kings that attempted to usurp the priestly role suffered severe consequences from God directly. King Uzziah, for instance, was struck with leprosy for thinking that he could be a priest as well as a king. And his arrogance was his downfall. But in Melchizedek, we see a king and a priest who is above even Abraham. Abraham, the recipient of God’s covenant promise. Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation. The ancestor of Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, David, and all the rest. Melchizedek is Abraham’s king and Abraham’s priest. To quote from our passage for next time in verse 4 of chapter 7, See how great a man this was, to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils. Melchizedek pronounced the blessing on Abraham, and Abraham paid Melchizedek the tithe as his priest. Christ is the promised Davidic king.

He’s the ultimate king of righteousness and peace. But his role as redeemer required that he do more than conquer our external enemies. Because for us, the enemy is on the inside. It is in our hearts, the sinful nature that we inherited, that fuels our rebellion against God. We break God’s laws most fundamentally and tragically because we want to. And as much as we’d like to blame others for our sin, our rebellious thoughts, words, and actions flow out of our own twisted desire to engage in them. Apart from Christ, our attempts to even reign them in amount to whitewashing tombs, attempting to disguise our appearance before others rather than achieve true righteousness. The root of sin is a rebellious attempt at autonomy, to be lord of our own lives and acknowledge no higher authority. This rebellion doesn’t just hurt us and those around us, but most dangerously, it provokes the wrath of God.

Not as a petty ruler who cannot be challenged, but as the judge of all the earth who must do what is right. The soul who sins must die. So unless there is a priest who can intercede to propitiate God, take away his wrath by offering a sufficient sacrifice, we are doomed. The son of David the Messiah had to be more than a king. He had to have the right and privilege to stand as a priest before God to make such an acceptable offering. Behold, we have such a high priest. The son of David, David’s son yet David’s lord, who has been appointed high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Jesus, high priest of the Melchizedekian order, holds the most superior priesthood of all and the offering he offers is beyond perfect. He offers himself.

As we saw last time, Christ’s superior priesthood reverses the distance and trepidation that was present with the Aaronic priesthood. The anchor that was used to pull the Levitical priests back out of the Holy of Holies pulls us into the presence of God. This is the benefit of having a Melchizedekian high priest. Jesus has superior access to God, and those who put their trust in him gain that superior access to God. If you put your trust in Jesus as your high priest to make atonement for your sins and give you fellowship with God, you find it. Amen. Let’s pray. Father in heaven, we thank you that you have given us a high priest. And you have sworn, you appointed him as a priest after the order of Melchizedek, one who is a priest and a king, who can stand in your presence to offer sacrifice for us and rule us perfectly in righteousness and peace.

We thank you for Jesus, and we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. In response, let’s turn to hymn 277. Let’s sing hymn 277, and let’s stand as we sing.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

March 23, 2025
Anchoring Our Hope

About this sermon

People swear by something greater than themselves, but God, having no one greater, swore by himself to show the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose. By two unchangeable things, his promise and his oath, in which it is impossible for God to lie, those who have fled to him for refuge have strong encouragement to hold fast to their hope. That hope is a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul. It enters behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone ahead as forerunner and high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

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Sermon transcript

Tonight we’ll be considering a passage from Hebrews chapter 6. We’re looking at Hebrews chapter 6 verses 13 through 20 this evening. So give your attention to God’s Word. When God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, Surely I will bless you and multiply you. And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise, the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath. So that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Amen. You may be seated. Let’s pray. Father in heaven, we would ask that you would send your spirit just as you inspired this holy word and preserved it to its current state that we have now. We ask that you would also give your spirit to us that we might understand, hear, apply, cherish, and believe what you have spoken here. We ask that your words might be true even though all men be liars. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Well, I was hoping for the weather to cooperate today, but imagine standing on the deck of a ship caught in a fierce storm like we had this afternoon.

The wind howls, the waves crash, and the vessel is tossed about mercilessly. In that moment, what keeps the ship from being swept away? An anchor, strong, steady, and unmoving. And now consider your own life. There are times when we face storms of our own, trials, uncertainties, challenges, threatened to overwhelm us, and in those moments, what anchors us? What gives us hope and stability when everything else seems to be falling apart? This evening, we’re looking at a passage that speaks directly to this question. Here, the writer of Hebrews reminds us that our hope in God is like an anchor for our souls, firm and secure. This hope is not wishful thinking or a fleeting emotion. It’s grounded in the unchanging character of God and his unbreakable promises. Just as an anchor holds a ship steady in the midst of a storm, so does our hope in Christ keep us steady in the midst of life’s trials.

So this evening, let’s explore together how God’s promise, his oath, and the work of Christ as our forerunner give us a hope that is unshakable no matter what storms we face. We saw last time how hope is required for living an earnest, diligent, intentional, and patient life in the everyday. But the focus was more on the day-to-day earnestness, the patience required to obtain God’s promises. The passage this week is directing our eyes to take a good look at that hope. It’s not enough to say that we should be hoping. We need confidence that this hope is unshakable, and the only way to do that is to spend some time really looking at it. And this is precisely what the author of Hebrews wants his readers to do right here in this passage. As he says in verse 16, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

He wants to give us every reason to hold on to that hope. So we’ll break up our time this evening into three considerations. One, God’s unchanging promise. We see this in verses 13 through 15. And second, God’s unbreakable oath, verses 16 and 18. And three are unshakable hope, verses 19 through 20. First, God’s unchanging promise. Look at verses 13 through 15. The passage opens with God making a promise to Abraham. And we glance down at verse 17 and 18, we find the word unchangeable repeated in reference to God’s promise and purpose. God’s promise is unchanging. The author of Hebrews is referencing a promise that God made to Abraham just after he had tried to offer up his son Isaac on the altar. As we read earlier in Genesis 22, God stopped Abraham and then gave him a ram to offer instead.

God then takes the opportunity to redouble his promise to Abraham of blessing and multiplication. Now there’s something interesting about the wording of this promise that doesn’t necessarily come out very well in the translation. Almost all English translations use the word surely to try to communicate what’s being said. And they have a good reason for doing that. But I’ve always found the literal rendering more powerful. The more awkward literal rendering would be blessing I will bless you and multiplying I will multiply you. This comes from the way that the Hebrew emphasizes a command, a threat, or a promise. They do this by doubling the verb. In Genesis 2, 17, when God told Adam and Eve if they ate the forbidden fruit they would surely die. The Hebrew literally reads dying you will die. We simply don’t have an equivalent in English.

That’s why we use the word surely. And it is a good approximation. But I feel like surely emphasizes the whole phrase while the literal Hebrew focuses on that one verb. In God’s promise to Abraham he doubles both verbs. And this is transferred over from the quote from Hebrew into the Greek as well. So in our passage we have, if you were to read it in Greek, the odd construction of God promising to Abraham literally blessing I will bless you and multiplying I will multiply you. God’s emphasizing that his promise to Abraham is certain. But we also see God’s unchanging promise highlighted by the fact that Abraham doesn’t do anything to receive it. Abraham’s task, his contribution, his means of obtaining God’s promise is to patiently wait. This is something you do when the outcome is uncertain, unchanging.

What do you have to do to get older? Yep, wait. We were just talking about this this afternoon. And so having patiently waited you got older. We looked last time how this patient waiting can be hard just as it was for Abraham and it often is for us. But we can see how this highlights the unchanging character of God’s promise. If God’s promise was always changing, always contingent on something in the recipients, our passage might read something like this. And Abraham, after working hard, obeying God perfectly, showing that he was dedicated or worthy, or convincing God to keep his promise, finally obtained the promise. Instead Abraham, after patiently waiting, obtained the promise. Abraham’s task was to wait on God to do what he had said. Of course we know Abraham’s story and he didn’t always do this perfectly.

He tried to help God out by fathering Ishmael with Hagar, Sarah’s servant. But God reiterated to him that he didn’t need Abraham to help him out. He needed Abraham to trust him. After Isaac was born and Abraham went to sacrifice him on Mount Moriah out of obedience to God, Abraham was finally ready to wait on God. Hebrews 11 tells us that Abraham was willing to wait for God to raise Isaac from the dead if it came to that point. It was then that God provided a substitute and once again Abraham waited on God’s provision. Waiting on God didn’t mean that Abraham became inactive. It meant that his life disposition was oriented differently. Instead of wondering whether God was going to fulfill his promise and acting in such a way as to help him out, just in case, Abraham became someone who believed that God’s promises were certain.

He stopped trying to provide a contingency plan for God’s promises or to advance them at his own pace. Instead he acted in light of his confidence that God’s promises were certain to come to pass. He stopped second-guessing God when he knew that the promises were certain. How about you? I still remember a time in college when I was on a break. I was talking in the car with some of my siblings, expressing my frustration with the lack of missional focus, zeal, and involvement in missions from the larger church in general. This wasn’t the first time I had brought this up and it was becoming a bit of an obsession for me. My sister, who’s six years younger than me, turned to me that night and said, I think God wants you to listen to Psalm 46 10 right now.

I said, okay. She read it to me. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. She said something like, I think you need to take some time to learn what this means. And I thought about it a lot that night and for the next several weeks. Most of the time people just quote the first part of that verse. Be still and know that I am God. It’s a good phrase to remember. But for me I needed to see the connection between the second part of the verse as well. I was getting all agitated thinking it was up to me to exalt God’s name in the earth. It’s not a bad thing to be zealous for God’s glory. There’s nothing better to have as your priority in fact.

But Psalm 46 10 says exalting God’s name is God’s job. He’s not worried. It’s a certain and definite reality that he’s going to ensure takes place. I had to learn to stop acting as though God’s promise is coming true depended on me. My role was to be still and know that God is God. That first night I read it. I felt like God had slapped me in the face. But afterwards I felt more peace than I had felt in a long time. I hadn’t even realized how stressed I had become over something I had no control over. The irony was that it was such a good thing to desire. But my sinful heart had figured out a way to turn even that good desire into sinful self-reliance. God’s promises are unchangeable. They’re as good as done.

When God promises something we can consider it done. But our passage reminds us God’s kindness goes above and beyond to assure us of this. So consider secondly God’s unbreakable oath in verses 16 through 18. We see verses 16 and 17, for people swear by something greater than themselves and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath. God’s motivation in giving this oath is to give overwhelming confirmation of his unchanging intentions. But this section starts in verse 13 stating who God leverages in this oath, whom he swears by. For when God made a promise to Abraham, verse 13, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself.

And we have to turn back to Genesis 22 verse 16 that we read earlier in the service to see precisely what Hebrews is talking about, why he has this question. Here we find the quote, verse 16 of Genesis 22, by myself I have sworn declares the Lord. And then he goes on to say the promise. So the author of Hebrews in our passage is asking the question, what does this mean? Why would God do this? We still practice the swearing of oaths in our culture. When you go into a courtroom especially, if you are being called to testify as a witness, they will ask you if you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And while I’m not sure if it’s practiced commonly today, the question used to conclude with, so help you God.

Humans have long understood that they are fickle, fallible creatures capable of dishonesty and deceit. So in an effort to combat this, we make appeals to higher authority to confirm our integrity. Swearing by Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel was a mark of a faithful Israelite in the Old Testament. The alternative was to swear by a pagan God, indicating that you held this pagan God in higher esteem than Yahweh. But by swearing by Yahweh, a faithful Israelite upheld the worth and the value of God himself. Now out of their fear of speaking God’s name in vain, the Jews began avoiding speaking God’s name at all. But in the New Testament time, when Jesus comes on the scene, things were really getting out of hand with this sort of thing. If we look in Matthew 23, Matthew 23 verses 16 through 22, we see Jesus condemn the Pharisees for the elaborate rules which had allowed them to make deceptive oaths.

If you would like, you can turn over to Matthew 23, 16 to 22 to see this for yourself. Jesus says, the temple that has made the gold sacred. And you say, if anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing. But if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath. You blind men, for which is greater, the gift or the altar which makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar, swears by it and on everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple, swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by him who sits on it. In their effort to provide loopholes for deception and avoid directly referencing or blaspheming Yahweh, they had gotten things laughably backwards.

Jesus points out that their hierarchy of oaths makes no sense. It was the less holy or less important items which supposedly held greater binding power. It’s in response to this kind of abuse that Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 33 through 37, utters his famous prohibition against oaths in general. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. Now it’s a mistake to see Jesus command here as a blanket prohibition against swearing oaths in court or making wedding vows. Jesus wasn’t forbidding the confirming of your word. He was condemning the Jewish deceptive practice, equivalent to secretly crossing your hands, hiding them behind your back to annul whatever you just said. I didn’t swear by that gift on the altar, so I’m okay. Oaths were intended to confirm the honesty and validity of a statement, not become a secret code to mean the opposite of what was said.

This is why Jesus calls the Pharisees out. But when God says something, he means what he says. When God says yes, he means yes. The text says God’s only option for swearing is to swear by himself. Anything else would be a downgrade. He must appeal to an equal or higher authority. If he were to swear by anyone else, it would be like a parent confirming the truth of his statement by just ask my two-year-old. Not very confirming. Remember, there’s no one greater than God. No one more powerful than God. No one who can hold him to account. No one who can ask him to turn over his records, audit his actions, review his intentions. There’s no external checks or balances on God. He has complete and total authority. He cannot be questioned or intimidated or put on trial.

We sometimes say he’s inscrutable. He cannot be put under any scrutiny or a higher authority. He is the Supreme Court, the supreme executive, and the supreme lawgiver. He cannot be worn out or tired. He’s always infinitely energetic and infinitely at peace. He’s never placed in a bind or backed into a corner. He never has to settle for second or third best options. His plans are never thwarted, diverted, or derailed. He is at perfect liberty to execute all of his intentions with perfect judgment and wisdom, and no outcome can surprise him or make him question his means or method. When God swears by himself, it highlights the fact that God is utterly without equal, much less a superior. He stands alone as the very definition of truth, righteousness, and holiness. But the focus of our text in Hebrews 6 is that God’s act of swearing by himself is an act of inexplicable condescension and kindness.

God’s motivation was to cement our trust in his unbreakable commitment to bring about what he has promised. If we look at verse 17 again, so when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath. Notice how it describes the recipients, heirs of the promise. An heir is someone who has an inheritance. He has possessions, titles, and or rights that are his for sure in the future, and yet God desired to show to overwhelm them with assurance. The phrase show more convincingly speaks of presenting evidence of proving your case. The God with no equal wants you to believe him when he tells you he’s got your sins taken care of. He’s got a place in heaven for you right beside him, and he’s working all things for your good.

And I love in verse 18 the description of believers whom he just called heirs of the promise in 17. We who have fled for refuge. I often feel like this as a Christian. Christians are those who have fled to God for refuge. As Proverbs 18 10 says, the name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous runs to it and is safe. Christians are not those who are intellectually superior to others. They’re not even those who always have an obviously morally superior life. They are those who have seen the danger and fled for refuge. As children we find refuge in mommy or daddy when things are difficult or scary. Christians are those who have fled to God for refuge. Life is difficult. We constantly face things that are beyond our ability to control or handle.

We don’t grow out of our need for refuge. We just face different threats and fears. Being left at the grocery store stops being scary after a while, but then facing the loss of a job or a parent or a child or a grandchild or cancer or strife with our spouse or siblings or parents or children. Our lives are filled with uncertainty. This whole world is seeking certainty. Everyone is looking for someone, something that they can take refuge in. Some turn to a spouse, to their kids, to a job, to friends, to money, to a vacation, to a house away from it all. Even trying to take refuge in our own health. In the end it will let you down. Christians are those who maybe they’ve tried everything else or maybe they’ve just tried God and realized nothing else comes close.

You were made to take refuge in your Creator. God’s covenant promise is this, I will be your God and you will be my people. That’s where true refuge can be found in God’s unbreakable oath. We flee to God for safety in all kinds of ways, but of course the most ultimate need for safety is from sin, its power and presence and its deserved punishment. And this brings us to verse 19 and 20 in our third point. Number three, our unshakable hope. Look at verses 19 and 20 again. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus is gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. The author shifts to some pretty vivid imagery, which is rather unique.

God’s assurances of his promise are pictured as an anchor, which instead of sinking down to the bottom of the ocean, sails up into the heavens. Now I’m guessing most of you are familiar with the idea of an anchor in general. It’s traditionally a large piece of metal. It’s extremely heavy and hooked in several directions. It was carried on ships, of course, to keep them from floating away from a position. They would attach very long chains or ropes to the anchor, drop them down into the sea. If it was a big ship, they didn’t use just one. They would use several anchors to secure the ship and keep it from moving. In our passage, it’s called an anchor of the soul. Of course, the soul is just the Bible’s general description of our spiritual selves. It’s hard to nail it down much more than that, since it simply, sometimes it says we are a soul and sometimes it says we have a soul.

The point is, instead of giving security and steadiness to a ship, the anchor in our passage is one that does this for our souls. There’s so much uncertainty in life, so many sources of confusion. It’s easy to doubt and question even things that we thought we knew. We need something solid, something that we can really grasp onto, that won’t shift or slip through our fingers. So the author reminds us, we have a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul. Now the most important thing about an anchor is what it’s attached to. The picture we have in Hebrews is not an anchor that hooks onto the seabed, but it goes into the inner place behind the curtain. Here’s where the imagery might become less familiar to us in the 21st century. The inner place behind the curtain is a reference to the place sometimes called in Exodus the Holy of Holies.

It was the innermost room within the tabernacle that Moses built according to God’s directions. This is where the Ark of the Covenant was kept and no one was allowed to go in there upon pain of death, except for the High Priest and only once a year. This was the place of God’s most intense presence. Once a year on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies to sprinkle blood on the Ark of the Covenant. Since no one was allowed to ever go into the Holy of Holies upon pain of death, it became a Jewish practice to tie a rope around the leg of the High Priest when he went into the Holy of Holies. This way if something went wrong and the High Priest died while he was in there, he could be safely pulled back out to be buried.

Our passage seems to have this in view in verse 19 and 20, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf. The Jewish High Priests were the hope of the people because not only could they take care of people’s sin, because only they could take care of people’s sin problem and take away God’s wrath towards the people. The day known as Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement was the day in which the High Priest would enter God’s very presence to make propitiation for sins. He brought blood to turn away God’s wrath from the people for their sin and he sprinkled it on the mercy seat. Hebrews 6 is picturing our anchor sailing right into the very presence of God to be anchored on the mercy seat itself.

As sinners we exist separated from God’s life-giving presence and deserving of his wrath and punishment for what we have done. Just like the Jews in the Old Testament, we cannot make atonement for sin for ourselves. We require a mediator, someone to approach God on our behalf and offer a sacrifice sufficient to appease God’s wrath so that we might have fellowship with him instead of eternal banishment. This mediator is our only hope. So our passage describes that hope as entering into God’s holy presence to make atonement for sins. This act of atonement is our anchor hooked directly onto the aptly named mercy seat. But there’s a little twist. For the Jews the rope was for them to be able to pull the priest back out from the Holy of Holies should the worst happen. But in this passage the picture shifts to Jesus and it calls him a forerunner.

Now this is another instance of the author of Hebrews using unique vocabulary. This Greek word doesn’t appear anywhere else in the New Testament, but the meaning is clear. Jesus, the embodiment of our hope, enters as high priest into the Holy of Holies. But instead of us waiting on him to come back out from God’s presence, he’s pulling us in. The reason for us to hold on to the anchor is not to keep Jesus safe or for us to be able to pull him back out. We hold on so that we get reeled in. Jesus is a totally unique high priest. When he entered God’s inner most intimate presence with his sacrifice for sin himself, he had no intention of coming back out. Matthew 27 51 says that when Jesus died on the cross the inner curtain of separation keeping the Holy of Holies separate was shredded.

Jesus’ death and resurrection purchased peace with God and made fellowship with God possible. 1st Peter 3 18 says, Christ also suffered for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. Jesus didn’t die on the cross, drink the cup of God’s wrath for you against your sins just to give you a clean slate and send you on your way. He intends to bring you all the way right into the most intimate of all fellowship with God. There are some who want the benefits of salvation like freedom from guilt and shame and shame of sin without fellowship with God, but it doesn’t work that way. When you grab onto that anchor of hope that’s attached to Jesus you’re going to be reeled right into the intimate presence of God. Jesus is the forerunner.

He paved the way for us to be restored to what we were made for. The Apostle Paul says in 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 verses 18 through 20 that the promises of God are embodied in Jesus. They find their yes in him. Listen as the Apostle Paul says, as surely as God is faithful our word to you has not been yes and no. For the Son of God Jesus Christ whom we proclaim to you Sylvainus and Timothy and I, it was not yes and no, but in him it is always yes. For the promises of God find their yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our amen to God for his glory. Jesus is the anchor of our souls because it is only through his work that we can have restored fellowship with God.

Only through Christ can we find refuge from the wrath of God for sin and its power in our lives. Fellowship with God is what Christianity is all about. Fellowship with God is what humans were made for. You weren’t designed to live at enmity with God and fellowship with God is the best and only real refuge that will anchor your soul, give you stability, purpose, and peace. Life in this world is so hard, but when you hold onto the anchor of your soul the waves don’t throw you off quite so much. There’s a lot of storms in store for each one of us, but when you’ve already found refuge from the ultimate storm of God’s judgment against sin nothing else feels quite so threatening. We’ve been given a soul anchor. No matter what happens it is well with your soul.

Amen. Let’s pray. Our Father in heaven we thank you for sending your Son Jesus Christ to make atonement for our sins, to give us a hope that you’ve set before us, that you’ve sworn, doubly confirmed your word, your promise to us, to give us a solid hope to hold on to now that we might be reeled into your very presence and have fellowship with God through our mediator and Savior Jesus Christ, the forerunner who’s gone into your presence before us. Lord, we ask that you would give us that hope as a present reality to hold on to throughout life’s storms. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Well in response, let’s turn in our hymnals to hymn 274. Hymn 274. Let’s stand as we sing Jesus my great high priest.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

March 16, 2025
The Full Assurance of Hope

About this sermon

Hebrews urges believers to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that they are not sluggish but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Believers pass on the faith through discipleship, first from godly parents to their children. Abraham is the model: God swore by himself to bless him, and Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. He did nothing to put God under obligation; he received the promise as a gift. Salvation is by grace, and believers receive it the same way.

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Sermon transcript

Let’s turn now in our copy of God’s Word to Hebrews chapter 6. We’ll be reading verses 9 through 15 this morning. Hebrews chapter 6, verses 9 through 15. This is God’s Word. Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation. For God is not so unjust as to overlook your work, and the love that you have shown for His name in serving the saints as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness, to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish. But imitators of those who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises. For when God made a promise to Abraham, since He had no one greater by whom to swear, He swore by Himself, saying, Surely I will bless you and multiply you.

And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. Amen. Father in heaven, we come to you to bless your name, but also to receive a blessing, to be fed by your Word. Lord, we ask that the same Spirit that inspired these words thousands of years ago might be present with us today, to open our hearts and minds and eyes, to hear and see and understand what you have for us. We ask that you might be present, Holy Spirit, for the glory of Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen. Amen. Have you ever had to do an exercise called six inches? I’m pretty sure anyone who’s spent time in the military knows and perhaps dreads this exercise well. I spent my first year in college in Army ROTC. Three days a week we would show up at six a.m. to work out as a group.

One of the most complained about exercises was something called six inches. The source of the name was simple. It said lie on your back and keep your legs up six inches, no more, no less. While some suppose that the height was determined by what would cause maximum pain, others assured us it was intended to develop maximum abdominal strength. For a few seconds there was no problem. The catch was that you had to hold that position for a minute or two at a time. Not only did it begin taxing the abdominal muscles to maintain this position, but boredom quickly set in as well. With push-ups and sit-ups you could count reps, but with six inches it was just a matter of waiting. One thing that helped was that we always worked out together. So knowing everyone else was facing the same fatigue and pain helped us a little bit.

And if anyone started to dip we would encourage each other to keep going. But what I always found the most helpful was thinking about the goal of getting stronger. Remembering the larger point of what I was doing and putting my momentary experience into that larger perspective is what helped me the most. When I lost that perspective, no amount of encouragement or threatening was able to make me continue. I just gave up. In Hebrews 6, our writer has stated his goal for his readers, to have the full assurance of hope until the end. And he lays out how that works in this passage. We’ve got three important ingredients in our passage for the full assurance of hope. Earnestness, imitation, and patience. I’ve phrased each with a word that begins with the same letter as we consider each one.

We’ll look at number one, the exigency of earnestness. Two, the importance of imitation. And three, the prerequisite of patience. Number one, the exigency of earnestness. Exigen what? Exigency is a word that just means urgency or importance. By the way, I don’t use big words to impress anyone. I like to throw in unusual words in my sermons sometimes because I know we have a lot of smart individuals here at Grace. Some of them are wordsmiths who enjoy learning new words and studying them. But I don’t want anyone to get lost or left behind, so I always try to explain them. Exigency works well here because it starts with an E, just like earnestness. But if it’s easier to remember importance or urgency of earnestness, that’s fine too. Let’s take a look at Hebrews 6-11. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end.

Earnestness and assurance of hope in our passage have a two-way relationship. They both need each other and they both fuel each other. You won’t be able to stay earnest in your faith without the strong hope in God and what’s coming. And you won’t be assured in your hope if you become sluggish in your Christian life. So consider first the way that assurance needs earnestness. So this ties in with what Pastor Jeff has been looking at in this series, Sunday Nights, on 2 Peter. As it says in 2 Peter 1-10, Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election. For if you practice these qualities, you’ll never call. Pastor Jeff talked about what it means to confirm your calling. Or as other translations say, you make your calling sure. While assurance is a gift of God, he comes as we pursue God earnestly.

A sluggish Christian who treats his salvation as an occasional hobby may be able to maintain a false sense of assurance for his own spiritual safety. But this is a far cry from the confidence that believers may have when they earnestly pursue God through prayer, his word, his worship, and his people. And that’s why Peter says to engage, to make every effort, to be diligent, to confirm your calling. If you’re letting sin reign in your life, you should expect to doubt your salvation. Conversely, as you repent and claim to Christ, you should expect to be assured of your salvation. Of course, for every believer, at any given moment, life is not so clean and neat with such a direct correlation. This is the way both believers sometimes go for long periods, struggling with assurance despite their earnestness.

So this leads us to the second way that earnestness and hopeful assurance interact. We’ll look at secondly how earnestness needs hope. By hope, we mean more than simply a rosy outlook on the future. The biblical concept of hope is very closely tied to the idea of faith. When the Bible says that the Christian lived by faith, not by sight, it’s primarily talking about hope. Pastor John Piper describes hope as faith in future grace. Another way to say it is hope is a confident expectation that God will do what he has promised. Hope, faith, future grace. How does this connect to earnestness? Well, consider an analogy from the workplace. Have you ever tried to work on a project or at a company in which the goal was unclear? Either your own personal role was not clearly relevant or useful to the stated goal, or you didn’t even know what the company’s objective was.

It can be frustrating. If it goes on very long, it causes the employees to disengage. Rather than bringing energy, excitement, investment, the employees begin to slack off and do the minimum to get by. And something similar can happen to us in our Christian life when we lose sight of eternity. The things that were once joys become duties or even struggles. Instead of feeling like we’re connected to God, despising our sin, empowered in prayer, passionate in worship, and eager to use our gifts for God’s glory, we start to feel like prayer is too hard. Sin doesn’t quite seem so bad. We just don’t have time to read the Word. Just showing up to worship is the battle, and serving others is the last thing on our mind. But we lose sight of eternity. Where everything is going, sin loses its dangerous edge, and spiritual sluggishness can quickly set in.

In verse 10, we see the author drawing his readers’ attention back to God’s reward. Look at verse 10. For God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and the love which you have shown for his name in serving the sins that you still do. The writer has observed the earnestness displayed in his readers by loving to glorify God’s name by serving the saints. But he wants to make sure this is not confined to a few standouts in the congregation. He says in verse 11, And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness. The language here is of deep desire. The author is passionate about each individual hearer demonstrating earnestness in their Christian faith. Just being part of the group won’t cut it. God’s judgment will be completely individualized. But also every act of love in his name for his glory will be noted.

It is called for his readers to be earnest. He reminds them of the eternal context. The Christian life is a life lived under an eschatological perspective. Eschatology, as most of you know, just comes from the Greek word eschatos, which means last. And together it just means last things. Christians are those who live their lives in the life of the last things. We aren’t going around just trying to make the world a better place. Our modern culture thinks religion is just about helping you feel a little better about your own life. Maybe your beliefs give you some purpose or comfort or answers. But whether or not they’re true is irrelevant. Some people even join Christianity under those assumptions. It’s a pretty good option. It probably will make my life better. While the Bible has much to say about the blessings that God loves to shower his people with in this life, the Christian hope has always looked far beyond anything available in this life.

In fact, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15-19 that if Christianity were confined to this life, we might as well forget it. He says, if in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. If you take out the end game of Christianity, it’s not worth it. Christians are those who have recognized the danger that their sin puts them in. In light of a certain judgment of God in the world, and been given the grace to hate that sin and embrace the mercy of God in Christ, and have an eternal perspective, we’re looking for Jesus to come back. And this gives life its seriousness and earnestness. When you understand that this life is just a prelude to eternity, it imbues life with weight and seriousness, which calls for and fuels earnestness.

But the author of Hebrews doesn’t envision individuals maintain this earnestness by themselves on their own. So secondly, he brings up the importance of imitation. The importance of imitation. Look at verse 12 of Hebrews 6. So that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. It could have just said that he wanted his readers to be those who inherit the promises. Instead he adds, imitators of those who inherit the promises. As we see a little later on, he’s clearly got Abraham in view in our passage. But we also know from the famous Hebrews 11, the hall of faith, that this author is thinking of others as well. He’s highlighting the important reality that Christians need examples to imitate, as well as to be examples worthy of imitation.

The idea of having an example, having a mentor, is not something new. Robert Coleman wrote a book many years ago called The Master Plan of Evangelism. And in it he laid out Jesus’ model of gathering followers who would observe his life and listen to his teaching. People he could mentor. These 12 disciples and others were to find others who would become their disciples. Jesus began a discipleship chain. This is the way Christianity works. This is the way it was designed to work. Jesus told his disciples, after he rose, just before he ascended, as you’re going, make disciples of all nations. This first happens with godly parents to children. The goal of godly parenting is not simply to maximize your children’s potential and make them successful, but to instill godliness. Unlike many other religions, Christianity has always placed a high priority on education.

But as one commentator on this passage says, Christian education is more than theoretical learning. It includes the whole person and entails the formation of ethical, social, and personal qualities. And it takes place through personal fellowship and emulation. It’s in a Christian’s DNA to be a disciple, a follower, of Christ ultimately, but secondly, faithful godly saints as well. But one of the ways that it ties in with earnestness is that it requires intentionality. My wife has always been better at this than I have. At every stage of her life, she was trying to make sure she has at least one older woman who can give her wisdom in one or more aspects of her life. This didn’t mean she had only one person she went to. She often has multiple mentors at any given time who are better equipped to speak into one area of life or another.

And these don’t stay the same. They change throughout her life. But I’ve seen how important this is for her. And I’ve also seen how this isn’t always easy. Relationships like this have to be pursued. They don’t usually fall into your lap. This is an area I’m trying to get better at myself. And as Christians, we ought to have mentors. Now this doesn’t have to be someone you’re meeting with every week, even for hours at a time or every day. It also doesn’t have to be someone that can speak into all areas of your life. Merely someone who’s ahead of you in one or more areas of the Christian life so that they can help you live yours. Someone you can imitate in certain ways. Now while there’s no substitute for living mentors, don’t forget about those that are no longer with us.

I found Christian biographies to be incredibly helpful in my own Christian life. Sometimes the fact that they lived in a different time and a different place can give real insight and encouragement in our walk with the Lord. But of course the flip side of making sure you have a mentor yourself is being one to someone else. Christians are intended to be able to say, as Paul did, Follow me as I follow Christ. If you don’t believe you’re living a life worthy of emulation, what are you doing? This is one of the reasons for joining a faithful church. We take responsibility for being an example and a help to others in the body. Being imitatable, worthy of imitation, involves earnestness, taking our faith seriously. Not only being mindful of your own example generally, but seeking out those who might need guidance, who could benefit from your wisdom, as well as responding favorably when asked about serving as a mentor for someone else.

Earnestness is not something we can maintain on our own. One or two bad students in a class can bring the whole class down. A couple of lazy people on your work team can sap morale from everyone else. That’s why the author of Hebrews is urging his readers to seek out the earnest believers who are actively engaged and imitate them. He wants earnestness to become contagious by imitation fueled by hope. As we look back at our passage, we see that the writer has Abraham in view most immediately. He holds him up as an example worthy of imitation in verse 15. And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise, which brings us to what we are especially to imitate. And we see thirdly, the prerequisite of patience. Prerequisite, by the way, just means something that’s required before something else.

Look at verse 12 and verse 15 again. Verse 12, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Verse 15, and thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. The focus on earnestness might leave us with the impression that the writer intends for his audience to always be busy, living loud, flashy lives. But we see here that the earnestness that he has in mind involves a lot of patience. Patience involves waiting, but it’s not merely waiting. It involves a certain posture towards waiting. If he was going to pick someone to model patience, Abraham is an excellent choice. If you look at Abraham’s accomplishments for his entire life, they pretty much consist of waiting around. He moved around, waited, had a kid, waited, waited some more, and died.

As a kid, I remember questioning why Abraham was so significant as a patriarch. But the author of Hebrews holds up Abraham as an example par excellence, which just means the best example, of patience. One of the reasons is because Abraham had far less revelation to go on. Compared to what you and I can read about in our God and our entire Bibles, Abraham had almost nothing. Yet, he obeyed God. He depended on him, and he trusted him. We find a description of Abraham’s faith in Romans chapter 4, verses 19 through 20. Romans 4, 19. He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead, since he was about a hundred years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God.

But he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness. We find another description in Hebrews chapter 11. We look ahead to Hebrews chapter 11, verse 8. It says, By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out for a place, that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. The bottom line in Hebrews chapter 11 is that none of these believers saw the complete fulfillment of all that God had promised.

They lived their whole lives waiting. Even now they are waiting for the final fulfillment. Notice the themes of inheritance and promise that appear in Hebrews 11 as well as in Hebrews 6. In Hebrews 6, our passage, verse 12, it says, Inherit the promises. And in verse 15, it says, Obtain the promise. Why the difference in wording? In verse 12, what he says, inherit the promises. He’s focusing on the fact that God’s promises are guaranteed. He’s telling his readers, be patient, your inheritance is already secured. You’re already in a position to inherit. You can be assured that God’s promises are locked in, only a matter of time before you possess them. Perhaps some of you have had the opportunity to inherit something from a relative. The act of inheriting is passive. You just receive what’s given to you.

It comes about as a result of a death. The death of the one who’s determined to give it to you. There’s nothing for you to do but wait. The author of Hebrews is going to pick up this idea and expand on it when we get to chapter 9. It has something to do with why we call the two parts of our Bible the Old and New Testaments. We’ll talk about that more when we get there. But as heirs of God’s promised inheritance, it required the death of the testator in order to release the inheritance. This is one of the reasons why Jesus had to die for us to be saved. In order for us to receive God’s inheritance for us, the second part of the Trinity, Jesus had to die. Abraham is a model because he received the promises of God as truth even before they had been fulfilled.

They weren’t fulfilled in Abraham’s lifetime because we who believed are part of God’s promise to Abraham in Galatians 3, 6-9. We have this explanation, Galatians 3, just as Abraham believed God who was counted to him as righteousness. Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. In the scripture, for seeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, In you shall all the nations be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. The bottom line is that Abraham didn’t love Paul that impressive. And that’s the whole point. God doesn’t save the impressive. He saves the undeserving, the helpless. They can’t help themselves. Abraham’s passive role in salvation highlights God’s glory. Puts the spotlight on God right where it should be.

The whole point of the story is that, no, Abraham didn’t do anything to make God obligated to save him. He just said, OK, thank you. And this flies in the face of human pride, which wants to offer God something in exchange for his salvation, to buy it somehow. But God’s salvation is a gift of grace, which is unmeritable by anyone except Christ himself. The writer of Hebrews is calling his readers to imitate Abraham and simply receive God’s promises as a gift. But then in verse 15 of chapter 6, the author uses the word obtain the promise. This word puts the focus on the means and the manner by which believers receive the promise. While inheritance puts the focus on the source, the fact that it’s certain to be ours and completely unmerited by us. Obtain reminds us of our part in this, how we discover it, obtain it, achieve it.

We’ve highlighted Abraham’s passivity in simply receiving the promise. But that’s not the whole picture. Waiting isn’t always easy, especially waiting with patience. Because as wonderful as God’s promises are, he doesn’t give them all at once. Hebrews 11 is rightly known as the hall of faith, but it could also be called the hall of waiting. It ends with verses 39 and 40 of Hebrews 11 go like this. And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised. Since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us, they should not be made perfect. We find a constant refrain of the Psalms. I waited for the Lord, he saved me. We need help. On the one hand, we don’t have a choice. Without God’s help, we don’t have any help. But on the other hand, there’s good ways to wait and bad ways.

The waiting that the Psalms are talking about is the waiting of Abraham. Thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. God’s help is found obtained by those who wait in patience. And this is the way Abraham obtained God’s promises. And it’s the way you and I will obtain the promises of God, by waiting on God. Unlike Abraham, we have the testimony of multitudes relaying their own productive patience as a result of their waiting on God. We can imitate them. Patience is notorious as a dangerous prayer request, since the only way to learn patience is through waiting. Patience can be learned by taking a class, reading an annual, it’s learned one day at a time. Every time God delays an hour, more than you would like him to, is an opportunity to practice patience. You can either respond in anger, distrusting God’s wisdom and or goodness.

Either he’s not aware of how important it is for this to happen on this time table, or he just wants me to be miserable. Or you can ask God to keep your eyes on the prize, on the assurance of hope. What you’re waiting for is worth it. While it may be simple to state, the daily living out of patience is always challenging. One of the key things to remember is that you don’t have all the resources in yourself that you need to be patient. That’s why when you’re waiting on God, you need God to help you wait in patience. You will be pushed past what you think you can endure, because otherwise it wouldn’t require patience. If you try to maintain patience in your own strength, God will push you past your own resources until you start to see how much you need him.

Patience is not about becoming a stoic who’s unaffected by difficulty or calamity. That can be achieved without God’s help. Godly patience is learning to stop leaning on your own resources and understanding, and leaning into God’s, leaning onto his. Patience can be described as waiting in earnest, bringing it back to earnestness. We see that patience is no walk in the park. It requires continual earnest refocusing on God and his promises. Patience doesn’t happen by accident, and it doesn’t show up in connection with sluggishness. But we aren’t alone. There are saints all around us who have gone before us and have earnestly waited on God in patience for him to fulfill his promises. As we imitate Abraham and earnestly wait upon the Lord in faith to fulfill his promises, we become part of God’s fulfilling his promises to Abraham.

Like Abraham, we become those who stop trusting on our own strength, stop looking for assurance inside of ourselves, but lean on God and his promises. Only then can we have the full assurance of hope, faith, and future grace until the end. Amen. Let’s pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you that you desire us to have the full assurance of hope, and you give us in your word this assurance that you will be with us to the end, that you are worth waiting on, waiting for, that you will help us in the delay, that your delay is out of kindness, that you are giving opportunities for repentance. We ask that you give us patience, give us hope, have a full assurance of hope until the end. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. For our response, let’s turn our psalter handles to number 469.

Number 469, who are these like stars appearing? And if you would please stand, we will sing.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

March 2, 2025
The More Enlightened They Are, The Harder They Fall

About this sermon

Hebrews says it is impossible to restore to repentance those who have been enlightened, tasted the goodness of God’s word, and then fallen away. The person least likely to repent is not the one who has never repented but the one who has tasted salvation in the covenant community and rejected it. Such apostasy publicly treats Christ with contempt. The early church misused this passage to refuse those who had renounced Christ under persecution and then sought to return, a reading later abandoned. The warning also holds out hope to those who cling to Christ.

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Sermon transcript

Well, if you would remain standing while we read our text for this evening, we’ll be looking this evening at Hebrews chapter 6, and we’ll be reading verses 4 through 8. Hebrews chapter 6, verses 4 through 8, hear the word of God, for it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift and shared in the Holy Spirit, and tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and have then fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm, and holding Him up to contempt. For land that is drunk, the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God.

But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. Amen. May God add His blessing to that. You may be seated. Let’s pray. Father in heaven, we ask that you would open up your word to our minds and hearts this evening, that your spirit would be present, that you would illuminate this word that you have inspired, and that your servant would proclaim the truth of it faithfully. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen. So I’ve entitled this, The More Enlightened They Are, The Harder They Fall Away. Have you ever gotten stuck in a situation that you couldn’t get out of? Maybe socially you got stuck in a situation that makes you feel obligated to agree to something or affirm something that was said.

Or what about, have you ever made a wrong turn on the interstate and there’s no way to turn around? This happens to me all the time. I get on the interstate, go in the wrong direction, and it’s miles before I can take an exit. Callie and I were traveling to Niagara Falls last week for our anniversary on Valentine’s Day, and our first afternoon there, we were trying to follow signs to the park to see the falls. We were in Canada, so the road signs are a little bit different, so I’m trying to pay attention to a bunch of different things, and I saw a sign for a parking lot. It had some gates, but it didn’t say that it cost anything, so I made a snap decision and turned in the parking lot. The gates went up for us no problem.

However, once we got in, I couldn’t find a way to get out. It was a parking lot for a duty-free store with a one-way exit to the bridge across, back into the United States. I got out, I looked all over, but unless I was willing to smash my car through the gates, we were going to have to cross the international border again. Callie had apparently observed the sign that I missed that said, no re-entrance into Canada. After I admitted my fault, we were forced to go back through that border line that we had just been in a few hours before. Everything turned out okay. We spent a couple hours looking at the falls from New York before crossing back into Canada, which is where we were staying that evening. The truth is, I had seen the signs that warned about no re-entry, but I didn’t fully believe them.

This may be news to Callie. I thought there might be an exception for me. And that reminds me, I think, a bit of what’s happening, what’s being warned against in our passage. The writer of Hebrews is warning his readers not to expect to be able to just turn around once you go down the road of apostasy. It’s a lot more serious than crossing back into the United States. So we’ll look this evening at our passage under three aspects. First is the impossibility of repentance. Second, the presumption of apostasy. But third, the implicit hope that’s held out. So number one, the impossibility of repentance. As we saw last week, this bleak language in our text of impossible to repent is meant to be startling. This warning is meant to strike fear into the hearts of those that hear it.

Now, Hebrews 6 is not quite the anomaly in scripture that it’s sometimes thought of. We saw last time that there’s a precedent set in the Old Testament prophets for this kind of harsh warning that’s intended to provoke godly fear, which will lead to repentance and faith. This evening, I want to highlight another passage in the New Testament where we see slimmer bleak language. A lot of people forget that Jesus spoke this way. You can turn, if you want, into Luke 14, verse 34 and 35. Jesus says this in Luke 14, 34, salt is good. But if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use, either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. And of course, there’s parallel passages in Matthew 5, 13 and Mark 9, 20.

Jesus doesn’t offer possibilities or options for the salt to gain its saltiness. He says once it’s gone, it’s gone. So why does Hebrews 6 say that repentance is impossible in the similar way that Jesus said this? Well, when I was in seminary, one of the professors addressed the class with a very stern warning. This was a class of only male students who were preparing to go into full-time ministry. And he said, I’m not saying everything there is to say on this topic, but you need to hear this warning before you enter the ministry. He said to us, if you ever commit adultery, you are done in the ministry. Your ordained ministry is over. He said, I’m putting this warning ringing in your ears so that if you ever go down the road of temptation far enough that that sin even becomes a prospect in your mind.

That perhaps this thought will be able to hold you back. Now he wasn’t saying this sin was unforgivable or impossible to find healing or restoration from it. As the counseling professor, he was used to counseling singles and couples through very difficult circumstances. And he wasn’t making a ruling on whether it’s possible for a former minister to ever be restored after such an egregious violation of his marriage vows. There may even be some cases in which an individual circumstances allow for extraordinary restoration. But the rule and warning that my professor wanted us to feel was the expectation, if I go forward with this, there’s no coming back. While one’s soul, eternal soul is certainly much more important than a vocation or a job. My professor wanted those intending to go into pastoral ministry to have in our hearts and minds the extra warning that it would permanently disqualify us from the ministry.

And I think something similar is going on in our passage. This is a warning that’s meant to sound definitive in order to impress upon us the seriousness of falling away. It’s not trying to say everything that can be said on this subject. Another example that comes to mind is King David. If we turn to 2 Samuel chapter 12, we find the account of David and Bathsheba. David’s moral failure to the end of his reign is rather infamous. He committed adultery with Bathsheba and then arranged for her husband, his prized fighter, to be killed in battle. And many times this story is used to highlight the grace of God who forgave such atrocities. However, a closer look at the remainder of David’s reign shows that though he was forgiven based on the future work of Christ, David’s sin permanently damaged his family.

It probably ought to be used more often to dissuade men from moral failure. With great privilege comes great responsibility. And David was never his old self after this catastrophic moral failure. We find in 2 Samuel 12, 9 through 14, this warning from the prophet Nathan after he confronts David. Why have you despised the word of the Lord to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with a sword and taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and taken the wife of Uriah to be your wife. Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. I will take your wives from your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this son.

But you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the Son. David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. Nathan said to David, The Lord has put away your sin, you shall not die. Nevertheless, because you have done by this deed of utterly scorn the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die. For the rest of David’s life, his family was never the same. Not only did David’s child die immediately, but later his son Amnon raped his sister and then was killed by his brother Absalom. Absalom then tried to take David’s throne and kill him, but was later killed himself in the civil war that broke out. The rivalry and treason amongst David’s own children continued even after his own death. It ought to have known better.

But notice that David did not repent of his own accord. It was many months, possibly even a year, of remaining in this sin before Nathan finally confronts him on the eve of his child’s birth. By God’s grace, Nathan’s warning prompted David to repent and ask for mercy. But David didn’t just get forgiven by God and live happily ever after with no consequences. He and his family were never the same. And if it weren’t for Nathan’s bold confrontation, David might never have repented at all. So returning to our passage in Hebrews 6, we ask, how is this repentance impossible? That it says it’s impossible. How is it impossible for those who have fallen away? This question can bog people down sometimes. Impossible for whom? Impossible for God, the ones who are trying to restore the apostate, or the apostate themselves.

In the end, each of these have the same result. The apostate is unrepentant, and unrepentant sinners are not pardoned. Whether it is impossible for God, the community, or the individual, they all leave the individual without hope. Since verse 3 of chapter 6 says, this we will do if God permits, for it is impossible, some are inclined to see verses 4 through 8 as speaking to God’s lacking ability, his inability to grant repentance, suggesting that somehow he’s prevented from granting salvation in this case. But this flies in the face of the teaching of the rest of scripture, which teaches that God makes the dead sinners alive. Restoration itself requires God’s sovereign spiritual resurrecting power, which overrides human inability. So as Jesus said to his disciples, what may be impossible with man is possible with God. Luke 18, 27.

Others have picked up on the passive phrase, restore to repentance, in verse 6, to suggest that this is a reference to the community’s inability to bring about restoration. But the reason given in verse 6 as to why repentance is impossible is that it would require re-crucifixion, it’s not a lack of community persuasion. And also the analogy in verses 7 and 8 focus on those who fall away rather than the community’s failure to restore them. The land that is producing bad fruit despite its blessing from God is in a dangerous place. So I think the focus of this passage is on the individual being unable to return simply whenever he wants to. This is not a prohibition of repentance, but a warning that the more you know and experience of God’s salvation and still reject it, the less likely you will be able to repent.

So on the one hand, all sinners, being dead in their sins, completely reliant on the grace of God for salvation, are equally unable to be saved. And yet the scriptures still speak of people being nearer or further from salvation. This is because God works through means. While salvation is supernatural, it cannot happen from God’s intervening grace. It happens through rather ordinary faith through hearing. God’s word is proclaimed, sinners hear and respond in repentance and faith. A cynical professor of religion who’s read the scriptures backwards and forwards without faith is much further from salvation than the child who has never heard the gospel. God builds barriers with whatever is available, whether knowledge, experiences, power, money, or comfort, to guard against the humility of repentance. The least likely person of all to repent is not the one who has never repented, but the one who has embraced faith, intimately engaged with God and the covenant community, tasted the life-giving power of salvation and scorned it all and rejected it.

The only thing more dangerous, our text says, than never repenting is repenting of your previous repenting. Perhaps you can see why the writer of Hebrews would speak of this as impossible. The writer of Hebrews is saying that those who are in faith and leave it behind can never rightly expect to recover what was lost. He’s warning against a perspective that might assume we can just re-repent whenever we want. So we’ll look at, secondly, the presumption of apostasy. The presumption of apostasy, leaving behind the Christian faith after deeply experiencing the genuine reality, involves presumption. Since no one in their right mind would be hoping to suffer for eternity, by leaving, they’re presuming first that there’s an equally effective, preferable means of salvation. And second, if it doesn’t work out, you can always come back. Now there are two passages later in the book of Hebrews, which I think can help us understand the author’s thought process in Hebrews 6 to combat this problematic presumption.

And the first is in Hebrews chapter 10, Hebrews chapter 10, verses 26 through 27. This is widely seen as a somewhat parallel passage to Hebrews 6. Says for if we go on sinning deliberately, after receiving knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. The language of finality here is similar to that of Hebrews 6, but in this case the slightly different phrasing can shed some light on what’s meant in Hebrews 6. The phrase sinning deliberately in chapter 10, after receiving knowledge of the truth, parallels in chapter 6, those who have once been enlightened, if they then fall away. This isn’t just your run-of-the-mill stumbling that Christians normally do this side of glory. It’s walking away from what you know.

And then we see the reason. In chapter 10, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, which parallels in chapter 6, since they are crucifying once again the Lord of glory. Taken together, it looks like his focus, which has been the author’s focus the whole book, is on the fact that salvation is not available outside of Jesus. So if you abandon him, you’re not going to find remission of sins anywhere else. You can’t crucify him again. The binary options for all of us are to die in Christ or in our sins. Now the second passage that can help us is Hebrews chapter 12, verses 16 to 17. Hebrews chapter 12 says this, it’s kind of starting in the middle of a sentence, that see that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.

For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. For he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears. Now we’re not going to get into all the questions that this passage has raised in people’s minds until we get to it later in our series, but the main point is that after rejecting his birthright, which in this example represents salvation, membership in the covenant community. After rejecting that, Esau found that repentance wasn’t as easy as he thought it would be. Repentance wasn’t just something he would have on hand any time he wanted, or something that he could even muster up within himself by himself. So the assumption being made in both Hebrews 6 and Hebrews 12 is that repentance is an indispensable component to salvation, and when a person is born again, this is accompanied by a true repentance for sin, but it’s not something we can just have on hand and do for ourselves.

Esau’s problem was that he took covenant membership, including his repentance, for granted. He thought that he could always just get it back whenever he wanted. He was wrong. Hebrews 6 is warning its readers not to presume on an opportunity to repent. Why do we need this kind of warning? I still remember a young man that I spoke to on the boardwalk in Wildwood, New Jersey in 2013 or 14, who wanted to know if he would be able to repent later if he sold his soul to the devil. He had heard of musicians and other celebrities who had gained talents through pledging themselves to Satan. He seemed to be toying with the idea himself. I told him for starters, Satan’s a liar, and it’s a terrible mistake to make a bargain with him. Then I said, it’s not that God can’t forgive you for that specific sin, but take a moment and look at your situation.

You’re about to spit in God’s face and reject him, whilst trying to simultaneously ask him to take you back. That’s a pretty bold move. You’re going to throw yourself on God’s mercy in a minute after you spit in his face. But the real problem, the real thing Satan lies to everyone about, is that once you’re in, you may not find within yourself the will to repent. Satan tries to use the same type of logic with temptation to any type of sin, not just apostasy. Yeah, it’s wrong, but you can always just repent afterwards. Many a Christian has fallen to this grace-exploiting lie. But is it a lie? Isn’t it true that as 1 John chapter 2 verse 1 says, my little children, I’m writing these things to you that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous.

So where’s the lie in suggesting that you can sin now and repent later? The lie is that while it might be possible to repent after sinning, it becomes less and less likely. The very nature of repentance is to hate sin and love God, and the very essence of choosing to sin is to love sin and hate God. God compares sinning to spiritual adultery. Choosing to sin doesn’t make it more likely that you’ll hate it later, it only makes it less likely. It might even become impossible. And beware, Satan will even use a reformed theology against you. After all, repentance is a free gift from a sovereign God. You only repented because a sovereign God gave you the gift of repentance. So even if you become hardened in your sin, nothing is impossible with God. He can overcome any hardness of heart, so you’ve got nothing to worry about.

Sin yourself silly and God can just bring you back and make it all better. Satan will tell you it’s actually a form of trusting God. I’m going to let God bring me back to repentance if he wants, it’s up to him. Nothing is impossible with God, right? So this is putting God to the test. Attempting to force God’s hand to save you, whether physically or spiritually, is not an act of faith. Satan told Jesus, jump off the temple to see if God will keep you from dying. Force his hand. Putting God to the test is presumption. Instead of humbly asking for God’s undeserved mercy and grace, it demands that undeserved favor be dispensed. It attempts to force God into a corner so that he has to save you. Repentance on the other hand is completely the opposite.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism summarizes in question 87 an answer. What is repentance unto life? Repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience. God only offers salvation to the penitent. Repentance is the only way to access God’s mercy and grace. And this leads us finally to look at the implicit hope that’s held out in our text. So thirdly, the implicit hope held out. Look at Hebrews chapter 6 verses 7 and 8. For land that is drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God.

But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless, and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. Last week we looked at how there’s a very strong word of reassurance in verse 9. But before we even get there, I think there’s even hope in this warning passage in verse 8. First, as we saw last time, the warning itself is a kindness by God, since if he intends to bring judgment, he doesn’t give warnings. And so the warnings serve as a means of offering mercy. But second, we see that in verse 8, look at that little word near. This is a very intentional word. The author could have said, it is already cursed. Instead, he said, it is near to being cursed. The end is to be burned. He doesn’t mince words.

But while there is life, there is hope. Clearly, though he speaks of impossibility, he does not intend it to be taken as a prohibition against repentance. Remember where and when the warning is given. The warning is given on this side of apostasy, before it happens. He assumes he’s speaking to people that this has not happened to yet. God never rejects repentant sinners. The danger is that you will not want to repent. And the further you travel from faith that you once embraced, the longer you prolong your unrepentant rebellion, the harder your heart will grow. The added dimension at play here is that unlike those who have never embraced Christ, those who are part of the Christian community and then leave it are not only failing to take hold of the remedy for sin, but they’re actively rejecting the one and only remedy.

This passage is not a directive for how believers ought to treat those who apostatize. I feel like I have to say this because Christians in early centuries of church history appealed to this passage to warrant a rejection of repentance of those who had under duress of persecution previously renounced Christ, but then sought to return. They sought to use this passage to block them from entrance. Thankfully, that interpretation was eventually abandoned by the church in subsequent centuries. But I know of Christians today who believe that this passage directs us to not expect or even pray for apostates to return. But that’s not the way this passage is intended to be used at all. Not only have we seen in the rest of the passage itself that it’s speaking of allowing back but because the view of this passage in that light would contradict the rest of scripture.

Think for a moment. If we turn to Luke 15, in Luke 15, Jesus speaks of his mission and God’s heart in three tales of a lost and found coin, lost and found sheep, and lost and found son. His story ups the ante and the final story of the lost and found son puts the focus on the son who’s unwilling to accept his brother’s return. In all three cases, the coin, the sheep, and the son start out in the possession of the owner or the father before then becoming lost. This doesn’t sound like someone who was never in the covenant community. So those who find themselves in the position of the lost son ought not doubt the welcome that they will receive if they do turn and in repentance ask for mercy. To drive home this point even further, consider Romans 11 that we read earlier this evening.

There are various views on what exactly Paul has in mind with the restoration of the Jews. But what is clear is that the former members of the covenant community will be more than welcome to rejoin. In fact in Romans 9 and 10 as well, Paul says it’s his constant desire and prayer that the apostate Jewish nation return to Christ. He says it’s even his entire mission to the Gentiles is to ultimately save the Jews by provoking them to jealousy, prompting them to return and repent to their heritage of faith. With these realities in mind, it seems clear that Hebrews 6 is not setting itself up to be a prohibition against prayer for apostates or a reason to forbid the reentry into the covenant community. It’s intended as a guardrail to prevent believers from tumbling to their death.

No warning on a cliff would say, high probability of dying if you fall, but not in absolute certainty. Exceptions exist, but a warning doesn’t need to offer all of those caveats. God’s warnings in scriptures are intended to prevent the outcome they warn of. The author of Hebrews knows the heart of Jesus, which is to welcome back repentant apostates. He doesn’t want his hearers to think that they can presume upon God’s grace, like a safety net that will just always catch them even if they reject it. Walking away from Christ is walking away from life. Consider finally, very briefly, Judas Iscariot. Jesus warned him in Matthew 26, 24. He says, the Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been better for that man if he had never been born.

He was looking Judas in the eyes when he said that. Jesus was warning Judas one last time before he took that last step of apostasy, betraying Jesus himself. But even Judas wasn’t prohibited from repentance. He simply refused to return to the source of salvation, which he had turned his back on. He had remorse after seeing Jesus get arrested and sentenced to crucifixion, and that led him to seek forgiveness. But instead of looking to Jesus, the one he had betrayed, his only hope, he sought forgiveness from the priests, the Pharisees, tried to give back the money to undo what he had done. He didn’t need to ask their forgiveness. He needed to ask forgiveness of the one he had betrayed. Judas should have followed the example of the thief on the cross, and he too would have found mercy.

The warning in this passage centers around the fact that there’s salvation found in no other place. Jesus was crucified once for sins. If you flee from him, you won’t find salvation anywhere else. No one else has paid the price, and no one else has the righteousness that you need. No one else died for your sins, and no one else can give you new life. So no matter where you find yourself, remember that Jesus is the only source of salvation. Abide in him, and the blessings of God will produce a rich crop which abounds to God’s glory. While there’s life, there’s hope, and God will not turn away any repentance sinners. He says, call on him while he may be found, so that you may be found and remain in Christ forever. Amen. Let’s pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for even the difficult warnings that you give to us in your word.

We thank you for the good and wise purpose that you have in them, and we thank you that this is not all you say, but you show us clearly you are a God who welcomes those that do not deserve mercy, because you are a God who is long-suffering and abundant in mercy because of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen. Well, in response, let’s turn to hymn number 480. I have no other comfort, hymn number 480, and if you would please stand as we sing.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

February 23, 2025