Hebrews 10:2, commentary and pictures

If the sacrifices had once truly cleansed the worshippers they would have ceased to be offered and left no more conscience of sins, so their continual repetition proves they could not permanently cleanse. The blood of animals in itself could not take away sin, because it cannot satisfy the claims of the law and is of no value without true repentance. Instead each repeated offering kept conscience of sins before the worshipper as a perpetual reminder and acknowledgment of guilt. When Christ gave His life as the one spotless offering, type met antitype, the typical sacrifices lost their value and ceased to be acceptable, and His single sacrifice accomplishes the complete cleansing the old offerings could not. That ending abolished the laws regulating sacrifices and temple services at the cross, but it did not end the Ten Commandments, which remain unchanged and binding in every age.

Repetition Shows No Cleansing

The argument turns on repetition: if the offerings had once truly purged the worshippers, they would have ceased to be offered and the worshippers would have had no more conscience of sins, but their continual yearly repetition proves they could not permanently cleanse. Their yearly return instead recalled sins, because animal blood could not take them away, while Christ's body and blood ratified the new covenant and His single offering accomplishes what the old sacrifices could not. The sacrificial system and priesthood represented Christ's death and mediating work and had no saving virtue apart from Him, yet through the offerings people of faith looked forward to Him. Those sacrifices foreshadowed Christ's death, and when He gave His life as the one great offering the animal sacrifices lost their value and their purpose as offerings ended, so the system was to cease at His death. His perfect, once-for-all offering provides the access to God that the ceremonial system could only represent, keeping before the people the separation sin caused between God and humanity and the need for a mediator. Those sacrifices and their regulations ended with Christ's death, but that did not end the Ten Commandments.

Animal blood in itself could not take away sin, for an animal's life was worth less than the life of the sinner and its blood could not satisfy the claims of the law, being acceptable only as a figure pointing to the perfect Offering. The blood flowing continuously for centuries only symbolized the great atonement of the Son of God to be offered for the salvation of man, and the abundant sacrifices of beasts and the blood of bulls and goats could not wash away guilt. Multitudes of offerings without true repentance are of no value in the sight of God and cannot supply the place of true sorrow for sin and obedience to God, while a broken heart and contrite spirit is of far more value. The guilt fastened by rejecting present mercies and warnings cannot be removed by animal blood.

Instead of removing guilt, each repeated offering was a perpetual reminder of guilt and a penitential acknowledgment of sin that recalled sins and kept conscience of sins before the worshipper. The temple sacrifices were types pointing forward to Christ's voluntary death as the Lamb of God, which fulfilled the type and made the temple services and the blood of beasts no longer useful for atoning for sin. Raising the hand to take life, which God alone can give, and looking on the bleeding victim in the agonies of death gave a deeper and more perfect sense of transgression. It showed that if man had remained steadfast to God and true to His holy law there would have been no death of beast nor of man, and that nothing less than the death of God's dear Son could expiate sin. Slaying the innocent victim was like shedding the blood of the Son of God, and looking forward by faith to Him whom the victim prefigured revealed infinite goodness and matchless love in giving such a ransom to save the guilty, pointing to the great and perfect offering as man's sacrifice and giving a star of hope to relieve utter hopelessness and ruin.

Design and Teaching of Sacrifices

The system of sacrificing beasts was established after the fall because transgression of the law brought death, and its repeated offerings kept before fallen humanity that disobedience is punished by death. It could not itself remove the penalty, but was meant to teach humility in view of the fallen condition and to lead to repentance and to trust in God alone through the promised Redeemer for pardon of past transgression. That transgression made it necessary for Christ to die as a sacrifice so that a way of escape from the penalty was opened while the honor of the law was preserved, and if the law had not been transgressed there would have been no death and no need for these added precepts to meet the fallen condition.

God deliberately appointed so many repeated bleeding victims to rivet the great and momentous truth that through the blood of Christ alone there is forgiveness of sins, and that without shedding of blood there is no remission. Every dying victim was a symbol and type of Christ whose blood was shed for the salvation of the world, set forth in solemn sacred ceremony and definitely explained by the priests, yet the blood of Jesus Christ alone cleanses from all sin and the sacrifices themselves did not purge the worshippers' conscience. The solemn service of the sanctuary typified grand truths to be revealed through successive generations, so that through ages of darkness and apostasy faith was kept alive until the advent of the promised Messiah. The cloud of incense ascending with the prayers of Israel represents the righteousness of Christ that alone can make the sinner's prayer acceptable to God, the bleeding victim on the altar testified of a Redeemer to come, and the visible token of the divine presence shining from the holy of holies showed God with His people. The daily offerings hallowed the temple because they prefigured Christ's coming and symbolized His death, yet those who offered them made no preparation to welcome Him, and their acceptance depended on reverence for God and obedience among those serving.

The people had confused the true import of the offerings by mixing heathen traditions with ceremonial worship, so definite directions were given that they might understand them. The sacrificial ordinances were sacred because they pointed forward to the sinless offering of God's Son and to Christ as their great Antitype, and they were to be treated with reverence and to last only until the Lamb of God should be slain. Their typical significance was to be kept often before the minds of children, and those same lessons remain essential in the present time to lay a foundation for prosperous households.

The sacrifices and priesthood had no saving virtue apart from Christ but represented pardon of sins through Jesus Christ the coming Messiah, received by justification by faith in Him and by access to God only through a Mediator because of the lost condition of guilt and sin. Through them people of faith looked forward to Him, while they kept before all the separation that sin caused between God and humanity and the need for mediation, and Christ's perfect once-for-all offering provides the access to God that the ceremonial system could only represent. Religious services and ceremonies apart from Christ could not make worshippers clean, and were valueless if He was rejected. At Sinai these truths were dimly understood by all and had become entirely extinct in the minds of many, for Israel had in great measure lost the knowledge of God and of the only way to approach Him, and had lost nearly all genuine sense of what constitutes sin and what constitutes righteousness.

Type Meets Antitype in Christ

The whole sacrificial system was a shadow pointing forward and not the substance itself, for Christ was its author, foundation and source, and He is the true offering for human sin. Every dying victim was a symbol and type of His shed blood given for the salvation of the world, and the priesthood with its offerings represented His death and mediating work, having no saving virtue apart from Him. Through those pointed-forward offerings people of faith looked to Him, while the rites kept before them the separation sin had caused between God and humanity and the need for a Mediator.

When Christ gave His life as the one great offering, type met antitype in His death. At that point the animal sacrifices lost their value and purpose, their offering of the blood of beasts became valueless, and the value of all the sacrificial offerings was terminated. Thereafter they had no further moral efficacy for atonement and were no longer acceptable to God, so the system of typical offerings ceased as divinely appointed ceremonies for Hebrew worship came to an end. That cessation of the ceremonial system of offerings occurred in A.D. 31, when Christ's sacrifice on Calvary fulfilled what the ceremonial sacrifices had pointed forward to.

The yearly repetition of the old offerings instead recalled sins, because animal blood in itself could not take them away; if they had once truly purged the worshippers, the sacrifices would have stopped and the worshippers would no longer have had a conscience of sins. In contrast, Christ's body and blood ratified the new covenant, and His single offering accomplishes the complete cleansing the old sacrifices could not. His voluntary, spotless self-sacrifice bore the world's sin and the curse of the law, served as the substance of the sacrificial symbols, and vindicated God's just and unchanging law. That contrast between repeated offerings and true cleansing shows sin requires more than outward show and calls for genuine contrition rather than mere outward sorrow.

The old sacrifices centered on Christ as Mediator in the heavenly sanctuary, with His atoning sacrifice and priestly ministry fulfilling the types and shadows of the law. They were symbols pointing to Christ with no saving power apart from Him, keeping before the people the separation caused by sin and the need for mediation, while His perfect, once-for-all offering provides the access to God that the ceremonial system could only represent. Through Him who takes away the sin of the world, breakers of God's law may receive peace and pardon and, by faith, eternal life. The cross reveals the true significance of those sacrifices and gives meaning to the whole Jewish ceremonial system.

Ceremonial End, Moral Law Remains

The laws regulating sacrifices and temple services were typical, prefiguring the death of the Son of God, and were in force only until type met antitype in the greater and wholly perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ as the Lamb without blemish. By the death of Christ type met antitype, and with that perfect offering the sacrificial system ceased, was abolished at the cross, blotted out and nailed to His cross. What God had once specified for Hebrew worship was thus abolished and the divinely appointed ceremonies and sacrifices of the Jewish religion rendered valueless. The restrictions and ceremonies of the Jewish law are therefore not obligatory upon accepting the faith of Christ, and Christianity must not connect itself with the Jewish laws and ceremonies.

That ending was real, but it did not end the law of the Ten Commandments. The repeated Jewish sacrifices could not fully cleanse worshipers from sin or remove their consciousness of sin, for if they had done so the sacrifices would have stopped, and those typical sacrifices ceased at Christ's death while the original law engraved on stone remained unchanged and continued to claim obedience in every age. God's holy law cannot be changed or abolished, and its obligations of perfect obedience to the immutable law remained when type met antitype in the death of the only begotten Son of God and the typical offerings were no longer acceptable to God. If that law could have been abolished, man could have been saved without the death of Jesus, but Christ's death did not destroy His Father's law; it magnified and honored it and enforced obedience to all its holy precepts, saving people from sin and leading them to obey God's law. That which God set apart as sacred must ever be respected as sacred with the difference between the sacred and the common strictly observed, and the lessons of practical obedience given by Christ from the Mount of Blessing remain binding upon modern Israel who have far greater light in both present truth and the instruction given through Moses.

The sacrificial offerings of the Jewish law were types foreshadowing Christ's death, and when type met antitype at His death He made the one great offering by giving His own life, so the offering of the blood of beasts became valueless and the value of all the sacrificial offerings was terminated. Christ's teachings and miracles did not supplant the law, detract from its dignity, or lessen its claims, and His works were in strict accordance with both the moral and the ceremonial law, which while binding upon the Jews He observed to the hour of His death upon the cross. The ceremonial law was given by Christ, and even after it was no longer to be observed it was set before the Jews in its true position and value, showing its place in the plan of redemption and its relation to the work of Christ as glorious and worthy of its divine Originator. The solemn service of the sanctuary typified grand truths to be revealed through successive generations: the cloud of incense ascending with prayer represents Christ's righteousness that alone can make the sinner's prayer acceptable to God, the bleeding victim on the altar testified of a Redeemer to come, and the visible token of the divine presence shining from the holy of holies showed God with His people, so that through age after age of darkness and apostasy faith was kept alive until the advent of the promised Messiah.

Faith, Repentance and True Worship

Multiplying sacrifices without humble repentance, obedience, and a broken and contrite heart turned the symbols into heartless, hollow service that did not honor God, for the blood of bulls and goats flowing continuously for centuries could not wash away guilt nor take the place of true sorrow for sin and obedience to God. If the repeated animal offerings had truly purified the worshippers they would have ceased to be offered and the worshippers would have had no more conscience of sins, but their continuation proved they could not cleanse from sin or remove awareness of guilt. Multitudes of offerings without true repentance are of no value, while a broken heart and contrite spirit is of far more value, and the contrast between repeated offerings and true cleansing underscores that sin calls for genuine contrition and changed life rather than an outward show of sorrow. Guilt fastened by rejecting present mercies and warnings cannot be removed by animal blood, since the system only pointed to Christ's coming single complete sacrifice.

Trusting in ritual forms instead of Christ left a troubled, accusing conscience without rest, because multiplying religious requirements could not give rest. Israel had made outward forms all-important and lost the spirit of true worship, corrupting temple service with heathen traditions and practices and failing to look beyond the shadow to discern Christ the true offering and substance. God brought Babylonian captivity, destroyed the temple and suspended its service to purge principles and practices from heathenism, to keep outward ceremony from becoming the sum-total of religion, to remove outward glory so the spiritual could be revealed, and to cause ritual service to cease in order that heart service might be revived through repentance and turning to the Lord. Even without the outward representation of His presence He manifested Himself to the repentant captives, with light shining into minds and hearts, and gave visions of the future overthrow of oppressors, the coming of the Redeemer, and the establishment of the everlasting kingdom, thereby exposing the limits of outward ceremony and making way for heart worship.

The sacrifices and offerings became useless at the first advent, when Christ came to limit Satan's power and set free the captives Satan had bound, and continuing to perform them while looking for a Messiah already come exposed unbelief and vain worship with the heart far from Him. Those who offered the daily sacrifices made no preparation to welcome the Saviour of the world, though those offerings hallowed the temple because they prefigured His coming and symbolized His death as the Lamb of God and the one perfect Sacrifice illustrating His great atonement. They did not understand their meaning, failed to recognize and receive Christ when He came, rejected the thought that the Messiah should die as too humbling and turned with contempt from the antitype of their own sacrifices, and did not understand that He came to establish a different worship. Christ's teaching made the ceremonies ineffective and the disciples' preaching of the risen Saviour undermined them, since prophecies had given sufficient evidence to unprejudiced minds that Christ is indeed the Son of God and the Saviour of the world, yet unbelief chose a self-made standard of virtue and purity and refused to be taught by the Just One.

The useless sacrifices are compared to prayers offered to the sanctuary apartment Jesus had left, which cannot benefit worshippers or replace receiving His ministry in the Most Holy Place. The rivers of blood that flowed at harvest thanksgiving when sacrifices were offered in such large numbers did not cleanse away sin but were a symbol of the great and complete sacrifice made for the sins of the whole world. They were meant to teach that even the productions of the earth and the bounties provided for sustenance are indebted to the offering of Christ upon Calvary, and that all received from God is the gift of redeeming love. Acceptance of the sanctuary sacrifices also depended on reverence for God and obedience among those serving, for they pointed forward to Christ's sacrifice and kept faith alive in the coming Redeemer until their purpose ended when He fulfilled their meaning as the one effective offering. The ordinance Christ left His disciples turns attention from those ceremonies to Him, awakens the conscience, and calls for recognition of sin and repentance.