But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;
Christ offered one sacrifice for sins that is sufficient forever, in contrast to the repeated offerings of the priests which could never take sins away, and after that single offering He sat down at the right hand of God because His work as the offering for sin was complete. All the former animal sacrifices and daily sanctuary services were types pointing forward to His death as the spotless Lamb, and when type met antitype they were fulfilled and brought to an end, yet this does not abolish the Ten Commandments which remain unchanged and binding. As humanity's substitute and surety He bore the guilt of every age and endured the punishment due for transgression to open the way to immortal life, and His obedience and death established and vindicated the law rather than setting it aside, cleansing the conscience with forgiveness found only through His shed blood which no human gift or work can supplement. Having completed His work on earth He ascended and sits forever as the pure High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, having entered heaven itself with the blood of His own atonement to ever live as Advocate and Mediator, tearing the veil to open a new and living way for all to come to God with boldness. By that one offering He perfects forever those who are sanctified, sustaining the new covenant life in which God's laws are put in hearts and minds, so the repenting sinner is forgiven and clothed with perfect righteousness, draws near with a true heart and holds fast without wavering, and overcomes sin through daily receiving Christ's life.
One Sacrifice Offered Forever
This man offered a single sacrifice for sins that holds good forever, then took His seat at the right hand of God. That one offering stands in direct contrast to the offerings repeatedly made by the priests, which could never take sins away. His sacrifice was complete and sufficient, ending the need for the repeated offerings made by earlier high priests.
His sitting down declares that His work as the offering for sin was finished. After making one offering for sins forever He sat down at God's right hand to wait until His enemies are made His footstool, awaiting their subjection and defeat. As the enduring High Priest He continues to intercede for His people while He waits.
By that one offering He perfects forever those who are being sanctified. The verses that follow explain that this perfecting brings forgiveness with sins and iniquities remembered no more, fulfilling the new covenant in which God's laws are put in hearts and minds. It opens access to God through Christ's continuing priesthood.
The sacrifice was His own life offered as the atonement for sin once for all. It was voluntary and perfect, the true offering to which the Jewish sacrifices pointed, alone meeting the demands of God's law and securing salvation. He willingly gave Himself as a spotless, living self-offering, bearing the world's sin. He was of greater worth than fallen humanity and the sinless Adam, with spotless character and exalted divine office, so His voluntary sacrifice was sufficient to atone for human sin. Its infinite cost and meaning exceed what angels can fully comprehend.
Type Meets Antitype
All the former animal sacrifices, bleeding victims, daily temple offerings that hallowed the temple, and sanctuary services were symbols and types pointing forward to Christ as the spotless Lamb and the reality of His death. His own life was offered as the one sacrifice that makes atonement for sin once for all, fulfilling the meaning of the sacrificial offerings. Every dying victim was appointed to rivet the great truth that His shed blood alone cleanses from all sin, and forgiveness comes only through faith in that cleansing blood, for without shedding of blood there is no remission. That one atoning sacrifice is the center to which all the sacrifices of the Old Testament pointed, and His death fulfilled what they foreshadowed while He took up His ministry as mankind's great High Priest and mediator in the heavenly sanctuary, which is the reality the Jewish priesthood's service had foreshadowed. Through His sacrifice transgressors of God's law may find peace and pardon.
When type met its fulfillment in Christ's death, the ceremonial sacrificial system was fulfilled and brought to an end at His death. The blood of animals and the sacrificial offerings of the Jewish law no longer had value, the ceremonies and sacrifices no longer had value as means of worship, and the value of all those offerings was terminated. To keep performing those sacrifices after Christ had come made them useless, because the Messiah they looked forward to had already come as the Son of God and Saviour of the world. The ritual service was a symbol of Christ, but its ceremonies could not take His place, and relying on the sacrifices and ordinances themselves meant clinging to dead forms instead of resting on Him. Christ observed the law binding upon the Jews to the hour of His death upon the cross, but when type met antitype at His death the offering of the blood of beasts became valueless.
Christ was the originator and foundation of the whole Jewish economy and of all the religion of God's chosen people from Adam's day, the vindicator of truth and fulfiller of all prophecies. His death vindicated His Father's law and fulfilled prophecy when type met antitype. When He came and died those typical sacrifices were fulfilled and their true meaning became clear, and the light of the cross reveals the significance of the Jewish sacrificial system and shows that salvation through Christ is present truth. The ceremonial observances were distinguished from the Decalogue, for those ceremonial types were to pass away at His offering while the Decalogue stands apart from them. He is the Author of faith from the beginning and the Finisher of the faith now made clear.
The laws regulating the Jewish sacrifices and offerings ceased at the death of Christ because Jesus was crucified as the complete and lasting offering and rose again the third day, and Satan could not hinder the plan of salvation. The original law engraved on stone remained unchanged and continued to bind people in every age, and in the Christian age its duties were more clearly defined and the work of giving to support the gospel became more urgent as salvation through Christ was revealed. Jesus did not come to destroy the law but to fulfil it by offering Himself once as the greater and wholly perfect sacrifice for sins forever, and with that one perfect offering the temple sacrifices and services, the handwriting of ordinances, were to cease and were abolished at the cross and nailed to it. His sacrifice declares that God's law is unchangeable and that disobedience cannot be rewarded with eternal life, it does not lessen the duty to obey or bring righteousness to an end, lessen man's obligation to be perfectly obedient, or destroy the validity of the Old Testament Scriptures. Christ came not to release people from the law but to make a way for them to obey it and teach others to do so, and His death did not destroy His Father's law but magnified and honored it and enforced obedience to all its holy precepts. If that law could have been abolished man could have been saved without the death of Jesus, for the hopeless condition of man after the fall moved Jesus to offer to die for transgressors, and Satan's device is to push those who rightly believe the sacrificial laws ended into falsely believing the Ten Commandments also ended.
Israel had made the outward forms all-important while losing the spirit of true worship, had corrupted the services with the traditions and practices of heathenism, and in performing the sacrificial rites did not look beyond the shadow to Christ as the substance. The sacrifices were given to prove and test professed faith and obedience, but multiplying them as a heartless service obscured their purpose and dishonored the One they represented, for they could not replace humble repentance and obedience. The priests and elders valued His blood, soon to be shed for the sins of the world, no more than the blood of the animals they continually offered. When Christ came, the One those sacrifices had been prefiguring, the Jewish nation blinded and deceived by Satan would not receive Him but led Him as a lamb to the slaughter, still clinging to their sacrifices after their meaning had been fulfilled. Continuing in them after Christ had come showed unbelief, a self-chosen standard of virtue and purity of life, refusal to be taught by the Just One, and blindness led by Satan to call Christ an impostor despite sufficient evidence from the prophecies to unprejudiced minds, while Christ had come to limit Satan's power and set free the captives Satan had bound.
When the prophecies of Daniel were given Israel was in captivity with the Temple destroyed and the Temple service suspended, for the ceremonies of the sacrificial system were only the shadow and not the substance, and the substance is Christ the true offering for the sins of men. God brought the people into captivity and suspended the ritual service in order that outward ceremonies might not become the sum-total of religion, that principles and practice might be purged from heathenism, that heart service might be revived, and that with the outward glory removed the spiritual might be revealed. That suspension helped turn them from reliance on ceremonies toward sincere worship from the heart. In the death of the Son of God type met antitype so not one word from the mouth of God became null and void but prophecy became history.
Atonement and Law Vindicated
The single offering for sins forever was made necessary by transgression of God's law, because disobedience carries death as its penalty. Without transgression there would have been no death and no need for such added requirements, and the earlier system of killing beasts kept that death penalty before fallen minds to teach humility over the fallen condition and to lead to repentance and trust in God alone through the promised Redeemer for pardon of past breaking of the law. No righteous acts by Adam after his transgression and no life of long repentance could have obtained God's favor or redeemed man from his Creator's wrath, so God made the great sacrifice because it was the only sacrifice He could accept to save the fallen race. Therefore Christ, the Lord of glory, consented to die, submitting to a life of humiliation, insult, reproach and indignity ending in the painful death of crucifixion, opening a way for fallen people to escape the penalty while keeping the honor of God's law intact.
As humanity's substitute and surety He bore the guilt of every age, was counted a transgressor, and endured the punishment due for iniquity to redeem people from the law's curse. Jesus willingly gave Himself as a spotless, living sacrifice, bearing the world's sin and suffering the punishment for transgression and separation from His Father. His sacrifice expresses His love for humanity, paid the redemption price for the fallen world, and opens the way from death to Paradise and immortal life. As the sin-bearer He entered the grave and opened it for all who accept Him as their personal Saviour, and heaven triumphed.
His life of full obedience and His death did not set aside the law's claims or make them of none effect but established that the law is unchanging. If that law could have been abolished man could have been saved without the death of Jesus, for Jesus and all heaven knew God would not change or abolish His holy law, and the hopeless condition of man after the fall moved Jesus to offer to die for the transgressors of God's holy law. His suffering vindicated God's justice, magnified and honored the law and enforced obedience to all its holy precepts, testifying that it cannot change, and this settled the controversy over the law's character. His one perfect sacrifice fulfilled the purpose of the typical offerings so they were no longer acceptable to God, yet this ending does not bring righteousness to an end, lessen man's obligation to be perfectly obedient, destroy the validity of the Old Testament Scriptures, or reward disobedience and transgression with eternal life. Christ came not to release people from the law or lessen the duty to obey, but to make plain its unchangeable character and to make a way by which men may obey that law and teach others to do the same, declaring that disobedience cannot be rewarded with eternal life. His voluntary, perfect sacrifice alone meets the demands of God's law and secures salvation, opening the way to God for guilty sinners and overcoming the separation caused by sin at infinite cost exceeding what angels can fully comprehend.
The one sacrifice for sins forever means forgiveness comes only through faith in the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ, for without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. God Himself explicitly planned every dying victim and bleeding victim appointed in the Jewish economy as symbols and types to rivet the great truth that the blood of Jesus Christ alone cleanses from all sin for the salvation of the world. His completed sacrifice enabled Him to declare It is finished, cleanses the conscience, and brings eternal redemption. Christ's one sacrifice made atonement for sins and secured the final deliverance of His people foreshadowed by the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and people's salvation depends on the continual application of Christ's cleansing blood to the heart.
Christ was offered on the cross as the sacrifice that makes satisfaction for believers' sins, and pilgrimages, offerings, images, and appeals to saints cannot secure God's grace. His life, mission, and death were the one great sacrifice for sins forever, His blood purchased sinners, and no human gift or sacrifice could save them, for giving all possessions cannot save one soul and even giving one's own life to bring one soul into eternal life would not accomplish it. His once-for-all offering is ample for all who will believe and fulfilled the sacrificial types and rendered what justice required, so entrance into heaven cannot be bought by works and the truth of this salvation is presented as clear, leaving those who reject its gift without excuse. Christ's single, sufficient sacrifice does not need to be supplemented by penance, pilgrimages, gifts, or other human works offered to atone for sin or gain God's favor. A cold, legal religion of self-justifying fastings and prayers, solemn assemblies for worship, rounds of religious ceremony, external humiliation, and imposed sacrifice is loveless and Christless and abominable to God, and its claim to righteousness and title to heaven by rigorous duties is a deception.
Jesus made this offering for both Jews and Gentiles, and both must believe in Him as the only offering for sin and the Saviour of the world, His death ending the need for the temple's sacrifices and ordinances which could no longer be accepted as offerings for sin. By that one suffering and death the wall of partition between Jew and Gentile was removed. Christ's sacrifice is the saving reality to which the Old Testament's religious services and ceremonies pointed, having no value if the Savior they represented is rejected, and the Passover and the bronze serpent both point to Christ and His death on the cross.
Enthroned Priest and Advocate
The true High Priest is pure and undefiled without taint of sin, in stark contrast to the false and corrupted Caiaphas. After His work of humiliation and conflict on earth was completed, He ascended and sat forever at God's right hand as Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Having finished His earthly work by offering one sacrifice for sins forever, He took His place at God's right hand with no further sacrificial offering or priestly service needed on earth.
Having entered not into holy places made with hands but into heaven itself to appear in God's presence for humanity, He obtained eternal redemption without offering Himself often. He took the blood of His own atonement into the holiest of all, sprinkled it there upon the mercy seat and upon His own garments, and blessed the people.
He ever lives as the living Advocate, representative, mediator, and Friend touched with the feeling of human infirmities. His own life was offered as the one sacrifice making atonement for sin once for all, fulfilling the meaning of the sacrificial offerings, and He then took up His ministry as mankind's great High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary, which is the reality the Jewish priesthood's sanctuary service had foreshadowed. As the enduring High Priest He continues to intercede for His people, so that those who come to God through Him may find peace and pardon and be saved to the uttermost. By this one offering He perfected forever those who are being sanctified, ending the need for the repeated offerings made by earlier high priests.
By His suffering and death the Temple veil was torn, marking the end of the old priestly approach. A new and living way was opened through His flesh, with boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, with conscience cleansed and full assurance of faith, for all people to come to God without earthly priest or ruler. His completed sacrifice made further offerings unnecessary and opened the way to God without earthly priests or further sacrificial offerings or priestly service. His heavenly work continued as He sent the Holy Spirit to His disciples, assuring believers that He had not forgotten them.
The same humanity that on earth did not appear in glory but as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief will appear at His descent from heaven robed in glory, triumphant and exalted, revealing His priestly character. Appearing the second time He declares that there is to be no more sacrifice for sin.
Living by the Sacrifice
The verse belongs to instruction given for careful study alongside the record of the faithful, whose example encourages those working for God to act in faith. It sustains the new covenant life in which God's laws are put in hearts and minds and sins and iniquities are remembered no more, for by one offering those who are sanctified are perfected forever while Christ waits until His enemies are made His footstool. It opens boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way through His flesh, with Christ as High Priest over the house of God, so believers draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith with conscience cleansed. They hold fast profession without wavering because God is faithful, and consider one another to provoke love and good works without forsaking assembling together, especially as the day approaches. It sustains a consecrated life spent seeking to save perishing souls in dependence on the Lord, nourished by deep understanding and appropriation of Scripture as spiritual life, growth in grace, and daily conversion to simple obedience.
Those who trust in the great atoning sacrifice need not continue in sin but through prayer may receive grace to overcome. Christ's death was the one complete sacrifice for sins offered once for all, so the sacrifices required under Israel's ceremonies are no longer required because types met their fulfillment in His offering. His followers receive the life He gives by daily taking in His Word and doing His will, and His death on behalf of sinners with His resurrection from the dead gives the promise of eternal life. Salvation by the one perfect sacrifice alone meets the needs of sinful, erring people, for through that sacrifice Jesus is the Sin-bearer, and God forgives the repenting sinner and hides his sin from sight by clothing him with the perfection of righteousness. It requires forming a character like the character of Christ, growing with the Christian life into a deeper and more perfect experience and transformation to the image of God, which brings greater hatred for sin, an outflowing of heavenly love, and work to save the sinner.
The life, mission, and death of Jesus were the one great sacrifice for sins forever, and His blood purchased sinners when no human gift or sacrifice could save them. Contemplating the greatness of what Christ gave with His own blood opens comprehension of the greatness of salvation, for even giving all possessions cannot save one soul and even giving one's own life to bring one soul into eternal life would not accomplish it. Turning untrue to God and the truth insults the Spirit of grace and brings disappointment to Jesus, and because the truth of this ample self-offering that fulfilled the sacrificial types and rendered what justice required is presented as clear, those who reject its gift are without excuse. In the light of the law sinners see themselves as transgressors, die to sin, repent, have faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour, become obedient to the claims of God's law, are baptized, and preach Jesus as Author of faith from the beginning and Finisher of the faith now made clear. He is the originator and foundation of the entire Jewish system of sacrifices and of all the religion of God's chosen people from Adam's day, the vindicator of the truth and the fulfiller of all prophecies, whose death is where type met antitype as the one sacrifice for sins forever, and He did not make of none effect the law of God but came for the express purpose of vindicating His Father's law.
The verse also shows the true High Priest pure and undefiled without taint of sin, in contrast to the false and corrupted Caiaphas, offering one sacrifice for sins forever and then sitting down on the right hand of God. He bore the guilt of every human being, even Caiaphas, not rending His robe but having His soul rent and His garment of human flesh rent on the cross as the sin-bearer of the race. By that one suffering and death a new and living way was opened and the wall of partition between Jew and Gentile was removed, enabling the triumphant cry that the work was finished. Having entered not into holy places made with hands but into heaven itself to appear in the presence of God for humanity, without offering Himself often, He obtained eternal redemption and now ever lives to make intercession, able to save to the uttermost those who come to God by Him as their representative and advocate, a Friend touched with the feeling of their infirmities.
Christ offered one sacrifice for sins that is sufficient forever, in contrast to the repeated offerings of the priests which could never take sins away, and after that single offering He sat down at the right hand of God because His work as the offering for sin was complete. All the former animal sacrifices and daily sanctuary services were types pointing forward to His death as the spotless Lamb, and when type met antitype they were fulfilled and brought to an end, yet this does not abolish the Ten Commandments which remain unchanged and binding. As humanity's substitute and surety He bore the guilt of every age and endured the punishment due for transgression to open the way to immortal life, and His obedience and death established and vindicated the law rather than setting it aside, cleansing the conscience with forgiveness found only through His shed blood which no human gift or work can supplement. Having completed His work on earth He ascended and sits forever as the pure High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, having entered heaven itself with the blood of His own atonement to ever live as Advocate and Mediator, tearing the veil to open a new and living way for all to come to God with boldness. By that one offering He perfects forever those who are sanctified, sustaining the new covenant life in which God's laws are put in hearts and minds, so the repenting sinner is forgiven and clothed with perfect righteousness, draws near with a true heart and holds fast without wavering, and overcomes sin through daily receiving Christ's life.
One Sacrifice Offered Forever
This man offered a single sacrifice for sins that holds good forever, then took His seat at the right hand of God. That one offering stands in direct contrast to the offerings repeatedly made by the priests, which could never take sins away. His sacrifice was complete and sufficient, ending the need for the repeated offerings made by earlier high priests.
His sitting down declares that His work as the offering for sin was finished. After making one offering for sins forever He sat down at God's right hand to wait until His enemies are made His footstool, awaiting their subjection and defeat. As the enduring High Priest He continues to intercede for His people while He waits.
By that one offering He perfects forever those who are being sanctified. The verses that follow explain that this perfecting brings forgiveness with sins and iniquities remembered no more, fulfilling the new covenant in which God's laws are put in hearts and minds. It opens access to God through Christ's continuing priesthood.
The sacrifice was His own life offered as the atonement for sin once for all. It was voluntary and perfect, the true offering to which the Jewish sacrifices pointed, alone meeting the demands of God's law and securing salvation. He willingly gave Himself as a spotless, living self-offering, bearing the world's sin. He was of greater worth than fallen humanity and the sinless Adam, with spotless character and exalted divine office, so His voluntary sacrifice was sufficient to atone for human sin. Its infinite cost and meaning exceed what angels can fully comprehend.
Type Meets Antitype
All the former animal sacrifices, bleeding victims, daily temple offerings that hallowed the temple, and sanctuary services were symbols and types pointing forward to Christ as the spotless Lamb and the reality of His death. His own life was offered as the one sacrifice that makes atonement for sin once for all, fulfilling the meaning of the sacrificial offerings. Every dying victim was appointed to rivet the great truth that His shed blood alone cleanses from all sin, and forgiveness comes only through faith in that cleansing blood, for without shedding of blood there is no remission. That one atoning sacrifice is the center to which all the sacrifices of the Old Testament pointed, and His death fulfilled what they foreshadowed while He took up His ministry as mankind's great High Priest and mediator in the heavenly sanctuary, which is the reality the Jewish priesthood's service had foreshadowed. Through His sacrifice transgressors of God's law may find peace and pardon.
When type met its fulfillment in Christ's death, the ceremonial sacrificial system was fulfilled and brought to an end at His death. The blood of animals and the sacrificial offerings of the Jewish law no longer had value, the ceremonies and sacrifices no longer had value as means of worship, and the value of all those offerings was terminated. To keep performing those sacrifices after Christ had come made them useless, because the Messiah they looked forward to had already come as the Son of God and Saviour of the world. The ritual service was a symbol of Christ, but its ceremonies could not take His place, and relying on the sacrifices and ordinances themselves meant clinging to dead forms instead of resting on Him. Christ observed the law binding upon the Jews to the hour of His death upon the cross, but when type met antitype at His death the offering of the blood of beasts became valueless.
Christ was the originator and foundation of the whole Jewish economy and of all the religion of God's chosen people from Adam's day, the vindicator of truth and fulfiller of all prophecies. His death vindicated His Father's law and fulfilled prophecy when type met antitype. When He came and died those typical sacrifices were fulfilled and their true meaning became clear, and the light of the cross reveals the significance of the Jewish sacrificial system and shows that salvation through Christ is present truth. The ceremonial observances were distinguished from the Decalogue, for those ceremonial types were to pass away at His offering while the Decalogue stands apart from them. He is the Author of faith from the beginning and the Finisher of the faith now made clear.
The laws regulating the Jewish sacrifices and offerings ceased at the death of Christ because Jesus was crucified as the complete and lasting offering and rose again the third day, and Satan could not hinder the plan of salvation. The original law engraved on stone remained unchanged and continued to bind people in every age, and in the Christian age its duties were more clearly defined and the work of giving to support the gospel became more urgent as salvation through Christ was revealed. Jesus did not come to destroy the law but to fulfil it by offering Himself once as the greater and wholly perfect sacrifice for sins forever, and with that one perfect offering the temple sacrifices and services, the handwriting of ordinances, were to cease and were abolished at the cross and nailed to it. His sacrifice declares that God's law is unchangeable and that disobedience cannot be rewarded with eternal life, it does not lessen the duty to obey or bring righteousness to an end, lessen man's obligation to be perfectly obedient, or destroy the validity of the Old Testament Scriptures. Christ came not to release people from the law but to make a way for them to obey it and teach others to do so, and His death did not destroy His Father's law but magnified and honored it and enforced obedience to all its holy precepts. If that law could have been abolished man could have been saved without the death of Jesus, for the hopeless condition of man after the fall moved Jesus to offer to die for transgressors, and Satan's device is to push those who rightly believe the sacrificial laws ended into falsely believing the Ten Commandments also ended.
Israel had made the outward forms all-important while losing the spirit of true worship, had corrupted the services with the traditions and practices of heathenism, and in performing the sacrificial rites did not look beyond the shadow to Christ as the substance. The sacrifices were given to prove and test professed faith and obedience, but multiplying them as a heartless service obscured their purpose and dishonored the One they represented, for they could not replace humble repentance and obedience. The priests and elders valued His blood, soon to be shed for the sins of the world, no more than the blood of the animals they continually offered. When Christ came, the One those sacrifices had been prefiguring, the Jewish nation blinded and deceived by Satan would not receive Him but led Him as a lamb to the slaughter, still clinging to their sacrifices after their meaning had been fulfilled. Continuing in them after Christ had come showed unbelief, a self-chosen standard of virtue and purity of life, refusal to be taught by the Just One, and blindness led by Satan to call Christ an impostor despite sufficient evidence from the prophecies to unprejudiced minds, while Christ had come to limit Satan's power and set free the captives Satan had bound.
When the prophecies of Daniel were given Israel was in captivity with the Temple destroyed and the Temple service suspended, for the ceremonies of the sacrificial system were only the shadow and not the substance, and the substance is Christ the true offering for the sins of men. God brought the people into captivity and suspended the ritual service in order that outward ceremonies might not become the sum-total of religion, that principles and practice might be purged from heathenism, that heart service might be revived, and that with the outward glory removed the spiritual might be revealed. That suspension helped turn them from reliance on ceremonies toward sincere worship from the heart. In the death of the Son of God type met antitype so not one word from the mouth of God became null and void but prophecy became history.
Atonement and Law Vindicated
The single offering for sins forever was made necessary by transgression of God's law, because disobedience carries death as its penalty. Without transgression there would have been no death and no need for such added requirements, and the earlier system of killing beasts kept that death penalty before fallen minds to teach humility over the fallen condition and to lead to repentance and trust in God alone through the promised Redeemer for pardon of past breaking of the law. No righteous acts by Adam after his transgression and no life of long repentance could have obtained God's favor or redeemed man from his Creator's wrath, so God made the great sacrifice because it was the only sacrifice He could accept to save the fallen race. Therefore Christ, the Lord of glory, consented to die, submitting to a life of humiliation, insult, reproach and indignity ending in the painful death of crucifixion, opening a way for fallen people to escape the penalty while keeping the honor of God's law intact.
As humanity's substitute and surety He bore the guilt of every age, was counted a transgressor, and endured the punishment due for iniquity to redeem people from the law's curse. Jesus willingly gave Himself as a spotless, living sacrifice, bearing the world's sin and suffering the punishment for transgression and separation from His Father. His sacrifice expresses His love for humanity, paid the redemption price for the fallen world, and opens the way from death to Paradise and immortal life. As the sin-bearer He entered the grave and opened it for all who accept Him as their personal Saviour, and heaven triumphed.
His life of full obedience and His death did not set aside the law's claims or make them of none effect but established that the law is unchanging. If that law could have been abolished man could have been saved without the death of Jesus, for Jesus and all heaven knew God would not change or abolish His holy law, and the hopeless condition of man after the fall moved Jesus to offer to die for the transgressors of God's holy law. His suffering vindicated God's justice, magnified and honored the law and enforced obedience to all its holy precepts, testifying that it cannot change, and this settled the controversy over the law's character. His one perfect sacrifice fulfilled the purpose of the typical offerings so they were no longer acceptable to God, yet this ending does not bring righteousness to an end, lessen man's obligation to be perfectly obedient, destroy the validity of the Old Testament Scriptures, or reward disobedience and transgression with eternal life. Christ came not to release people from the law or lessen the duty to obey, but to make plain its unchangeable character and to make a way by which men may obey that law and teach others to do the same, declaring that disobedience cannot be rewarded with eternal life. His voluntary, perfect sacrifice alone meets the demands of God's law and secures salvation, opening the way to God for guilty sinners and overcoming the separation caused by sin at infinite cost exceeding what angels can fully comprehend.
The one sacrifice for sins forever means forgiveness comes only through faith in the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ, for without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. God Himself explicitly planned every dying victim and bleeding victim appointed in the Jewish economy as symbols and types to rivet the great truth that the blood of Jesus Christ alone cleanses from all sin for the salvation of the world. His completed sacrifice enabled Him to declare It is finished, cleanses the conscience, and brings eternal redemption. Christ's one sacrifice made atonement for sins and secured the final deliverance of His people foreshadowed by the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and people's salvation depends on the continual application of Christ's cleansing blood to the heart.
Christ was offered on the cross as the sacrifice that makes satisfaction for believers' sins, and pilgrimages, offerings, images, and appeals to saints cannot secure God's grace. His life, mission, and death were the one great sacrifice for sins forever, His blood purchased sinners, and no human gift or sacrifice could save them, for giving all possessions cannot save one soul and even giving one's own life to bring one soul into eternal life would not accomplish it. His once-for-all offering is ample for all who will believe and fulfilled the sacrificial types and rendered what justice required, so entrance into heaven cannot be bought by works and the truth of this salvation is presented as clear, leaving those who reject its gift without excuse. Christ's single, sufficient sacrifice does not need to be supplemented by penance, pilgrimages, gifts, or other human works offered to atone for sin or gain God's favor. A cold, legal religion of self-justifying fastings and prayers, solemn assemblies for worship, rounds of religious ceremony, external humiliation, and imposed sacrifice is loveless and Christless and abominable to God, and its claim to righteousness and title to heaven by rigorous duties is a deception.
Jesus made this offering for both Jews and Gentiles, and both must believe in Him as the only offering for sin and the Saviour of the world, His death ending the need for the temple's sacrifices and ordinances which could no longer be accepted as offerings for sin. By that one suffering and death the wall of partition between Jew and Gentile was removed. Christ's sacrifice is the saving reality to which the Old Testament's religious services and ceremonies pointed, having no value if the Savior they represented is rejected, and the Passover and the bronze serpent both point to Christ and His death on the cross.
Enthroned Priest and Advocate
The true High Priest is pure and undefiled without taint of sin, in stark contrast to the false and corrupted Caiaphas. After His work of humiliation and conflict on earth was completed, He ascended and sat forever at God's right hand as Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Having finished His earthly work by offering one sacrifice for sins forever, He took His place at God's right hand with no further sacrificial offering or priestly service needed on earth.
Having entered not into holy places made with hands but into heaven itself to appear in God's presence for humanity, He obtained eternal redemption without offering Himself often. He took the blood of His own atonement into the holiest of all, sprinkled it there upon the mercy seat and upon His own garments, and blessed the people.
He ever lives as the living Advocate, representative, mediator, and Friend touched with the feeling of human infirmities. His own life was offered as the one sacrifice making atonement for sin once for all, fulfilling the meaning of the sacrificial offerings, and He then took up His ministry as mankind's great High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary, which is the reality the Jewish priesthood's sanctuary service had foreshadowed. As the enduring High Priest He continues to intercede for His people, so that those who come to God through Him may find peace and pardon and be saved to the uttermost. By this one offering He perfected forever those who are being sanctified, ending the need for the repeated offerings made by earlier high priests.
By His suffering and death the Temple veil was torn, marking the end of the old priestly approach. A new and living way was opened through His flesh, with boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, with conscience cleansed and full assurance of faith, for all people to come to God without earthly priest or ruler. His completed sacrifice made further offerings unnecessary and opened the way to God without earthly priests or further sacrificial offerings or priestly service. His heavenly work continued as He sent the Holy Spirit to His disciples, assuring believers that He had not forgotten them.
The same humanity that on earth did not appear in glory but as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief will appear at His descent from heaven robed in glory, triumphant and exalted, revealing His priestly character. Appearing the second time He declares that there is to be no more sacrifice for sin.
Living by the Sacrifice
The verse belongs to instruction given for careful study alongside the record of the faithful, whose example encourages those working for God to act in faith. It sustains the new covenant life in which God's laws are put in hearts and minds and sins and iniquities are remembered no more, for by one offering those who are sanctified are perfected forever while Christ waits until His enemies are made His footstool. It opens boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way through His flesh, with Christ as High Priest over the house of God, so believers draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith with conscience cleansed. They hold fast profession without wavering because God is faithful, and consider one another to provoke love and good works without forsaking assembling together, especially as the day approaches. It sustains a consecrated life spent seeking to save perishing souls in dependence on the Lord, nourished by deep understanding and appropriation of Scripture as spiritual life, growth in grace, and daily conversion to simple obedience.
Those who trust in the great atoning sacrifice need not continue in sin but through prayer may receive grace to overcome. Christ's death was the one complete sacrifice for sins offered once for all, so the sacrifices required under Israel's ceremonies are no longer required because types met their fulfillment in His offering. His followers receive the life He gives by daily taking in His Word and doing His will, and His death on behalf of sinners with His resurrection from the dead gives the promise of eternal life. Salvation by the one perfect sacrifice alone meets the needs of sinful, erring people, for through that sacrifice Jesus is the Sin-bearer, and God forgives the repenting sinner and hides his sin from sight by clothing him with the perfection of righteousness. It requires forming a character like the character of Christ, growing with the Christian life into a deeper and more perfect experience and transformation to the image of God, which brings greater hatred for sin, an outflowing of heavenly love, and work to save the sinner.
The life, mission, and death of Jesus were the one great sacrifice for sins forever, and His blood purchased sinners when no human gift or sacrifice could save them. Contemplating the greatness of what Christ gave with His own blood opens comprehension of the greatness of salvation, for even giving all possessions cannot save one soul and even giving one's own life to bring one soul into eternal life would not accomplish it. Turning untrue to God and the truth insults the Spirit of grace and brings disappointment to Jesus, and because the truth of this ample self-offering that fulfilled the sacrificial types and rendered what justice required is presented as clear, those who reject its gift are without excuse. In the light of the law sinners see themselves as transgressors, die to sin, repent, have faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour, become obedient to the claims of God's law, are baptized, and preach Jesus as Author of faith from the beginning and Finisher of the faith now made clear. He is the originator and foundation of the entire Jewish system of sacrifices and of all the religion of God's chosen people from Adam's day, the vindicator of the truth and the fulfiller of all prophecies, whose death is where type met antitype as the one sacrifice for sins forever, and He did not make of none effect the law of God but came for the express purpose of vindicating His Father's law.
The verse also shows the true High Priest pure and undefiled without taint of sin, in contrast to the false and corrupted Caiaphas, offering one sacrifice for sins forever and then sitting down on the right hand of God. He bore the guilt of every human being, even Caiaphas, not rending His robe but having His soul rent and His garment of human flesh rent on the cross as the sin-bearer of the race. By that one suffering and death a new and living way was opened and the wall of partition between Jew and Gentile was removed, enabling the triumphant cry that the work was finished. Having entered not into holy places made with hands but into heaven itself to appear in the presence of God for humanity, without offering Himself often, He obtained eternal redemption and now ever lives to make intercession, able to save to the uttermost those who come to God by Him as their representative and advocate, a Friend touched with the feeling of their infirmities.