Christ's Active Obedience

Hebrews 10 and the Supremacy of Christ in the Sacrificial System

Turn with me once again to the book of Hebrews chapter 10, the book of Hebrews chapter 10. Once again, we look to this tremendous text of scripture and we recognize our need for the Lord's leadership and guidance.

So let us pray for that now. Indeed, Heavenly Father, we ask that by your Spirit you would guide and direct us as we seek to see truly the exaltation of Jesus Christ in this text. We confess we always handle that which is holy when we handle your word, but especially today as we consider the conclusion of the apologetic argument of this text and we see the exaltation of Christ, Lord, that we would see, we would understand, and we would rejoice with the kind of joy that comes from true understanding and embracing the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It is in His name that we pray. There are certain passages of scripture that the people of God recognize have a special standing. When we think of the book of Romans, we think of many tremendous texts, but we see a rising crescendo in the book and we know that when we get to chapter 8, we're truly treading upon holy ground, especially when we get to the golden chain of redemption and those tremendous truths that are enunciated for us there in chapter 8.

And as we have been working through the book of Hebrews, we have been always looking down the road, looking toward some final arguments concerning the perfection of the work of Christ, the supremacy of the work of Christ.

And in both those books, Romans and Hebrews, which just happen to be the two books that Pastor Frye and I are both working out of at the same time, in both of those books, you see a progression, a laying of a theological foundation through chapter 11 in the book of Romans and then beginning in chapter 12, what do you have?

You have the practical exhortations based upon... Now that we know this, this is how we should live in light of that. Practical exhortations based upon the theological foundation that has been laid. So often in modern evangelicalism, we've gotten rid of the need and the work of laying the theological foundation.

We basically bring in a worldly foundation and then try to build some type of Christian ethics or morality upon that and in that process is doomed to failure. Here in the book of Hebrews, we have a very similar situation.

We have theological arguments all the way up through chapter 10, very frequently joined with very strong exhortations to faithfulness in light of what we're seeing in the theological arguments. And we're going to have that at the end of chapter 10 as well.

Then beginning in chapter 11, we have that great faith chapter. That is, you're calling the people of God to be faithful, to remain true to their commitments. Let's look at what God has done with faithful men down through the years.

And then you have the exhortations to godly living that come thereafter based upon those practical theological foundations that have been laid. And so, here we have entered into chapter 10 and on the last Lord's Day, we looked at the first few verses of chapter 10.

I want to look once again at what chapter 10 says for us and then enter into one of the more challenging sections. Yes, this is a high section, tremendous truths about the finished work of Christ, but there's some challenge that we need to work through today as well.

So, let's get the context, Hebrews chapter 10. For the law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very form or substance of those things, can never by the same sacrifices which they offer over and over again, year by year, make perfect the ones drawing near.

Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered? Since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins. But in those, specifically those old sacrifices, there is an anamnesis, a reminder of sins, year by year.

For it is not possible, it is impossible, for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when he comes into the world, he says, Sacrifice an offering you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me.

In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, Behold, I have come in the scroll of the book it is written of me, to do your will, O God. After saying above, Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you have not desired, nor have you taken pleasure in them, which are offered according to the law.

Then he said, Behold, I have come to do your will. He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By this will, we have been sanctified. We have been made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But he, this one, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until his enemies who made a footstool for his feet.

For by one offering, he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us. For after saying, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws upon their hearts and on their mind I will write them.

He then says, And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.

Amen.

The Psalm 40 Citation and the Body Prepared for Christ

Well, it would be so much easier if the argument just went from verse 4 down to verse 10, but our author takes the time to provide a biblical argument that once again presents to us a little bit of a challenge to follow and to understand.

Let's try to work through that first. Then we can start making some of their very important applications. He's just made a very broad statement. It is impossible. Verse 4, It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

And last week we looked at some of the objections the Jews might have had to that. Well, God established these things, but the whole point is that sacrificial system was meant to point us forward to a greater fulfillment.

And then having made this statement, he obviously feels a very strong necessity in light of having made that statement to provide some type of biblical argumentation as substantiation. And he does in a way that we need to follow very carefully.

He does so from the 40th Psalm. Therefore, he says, when he comes into the world, he says. Now, it seems to me that what we have here is the writer is saying that in Christ's incarnation, in Christ coming into the world, these words prophetically uttered in the 40th Psalm are fulfilled.

But it is in his coming that they are fulfilled. There is a time frame involved here. Because the writer is going to say, he takes away the first to establish the second. So, we need to see where this is in time.

So, we have the quote. And once again, the quote is from the version of the Psalms that the people would be reading at that time. That is the Greek Septuagint. Because if you go back and you read Psalm 40 in the Hebrew text, you see that there is one very interesting, not determinative, but very interesting difference between the Hebrew rendering of Psalm 40 and the Greek Septuagint.

What does the text say? Sacrifice, an offering you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me. If you compare that with most renderings of the 40th Psalm, based upon specifically the Hebrew text, it will say something instead of the word body, soma in Greek.

It's otah, ears. Ears you have prepared, or literally, ears you have dug out. But probably, I think I saw, I think it was the ESV that rendered something along the lines of, my ears you have opened, in the sense of being able to hear and understand God's word.

And so, there is a difference. And it would seem that when he says, when he comes into the world, the emphasis is on a body you have prepared for the incarnation. But, I'm not really sure that's what the emphasis is on.

What is it that the psalmist was saying, and what is the fulfillment that the Lord Jesus provides in his life? I think this is important to see. It's important to make this application. I know that a lot of people would say, I don't think this would be the case back in Pastor Fry's covenant, in the old covenant, as he likes to point out.

Not the new covenant. Don't confuse that, that's a seminary, with what we're talking about in Hebrews, okay?

That's a different thing.

But, I know that today, in many, many seminaries and Bible colleges, the way that I'm approaching this text, they would tell you never do it this way.

Never do it this way.

Because I'm bringing up issues that a lot of people would say, you know, is there really anybody in your congregation that would notice the difference between ear and body? And do you really need to bring these things up?

I hope, as we have worked through Hebrews, and I hope as Pastor Fry preaches and I preach, I hope that we provide you an example of the recognition that we don't get to edit what the Holy Spirit has given us.

And when we think we're wise enough to do that, we're in big trouble. And the richness and the fullness of our faith, the richness and the fullness of our confidence in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, will only have its true foundation when we can honestly say, yes, I have worked through the book of Hebrews, and yes, I have listened to what it says, and yes, I do know there are background issues, and we've looked at them, and when we work through them, we can see very clearly the message of the supremacy of Christ.

I honestly think that one of the reasons we see people today who are willing to hold on to such a surface-level view of the work of Christ is because they've never been challenged to do this. And I know it's challenging to work through these things, but I commend you that you've stuck with it.

And I really think that the goal is well worth the effort. Think about what is being said. Sacrifice an offering you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me. In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices of sin you have taken no pleasure.

Now, we clearly have here in the Old Testament text a recognition that there can be an externalism. There can be an idea of, well, I've brought my offerings, and I've killed the bull and the goat and whatever it is, and if there's no change inside, if there's no change in the heart, God takes no pleasure in that.

There needs to be a unity of the broken heart with the offering of the sacrifices for it to actually show what God is going to do in the coming Messiah. But notice, he takes the one text and he says, you have not desired sacrifice and offering, but a body you have prepared for me.

In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices of sin you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, behold, I have come in the scroll of the book it is written of me to do your will, O God. Now, what's the emphasis in verse 7?

I have come, and this coming evidently is prophetic, in the scroll of the book it is written of me. And what has he come to do? To do your will, O God. To do your will, O God. This one who comes accomplishes something.

There is a unity and union between this one's will and the will of God. To do your will, O God. Now, how is that understood then by the writer of the Hebrews? He says, after saying above, sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices of sin you have not desired, nor have you taken pleasure in them.

Then notice, I don't know how your text renders it, but it's good, it's a parenthetical statement, in parentheses in most English translations, which are offered according to the law. You see what he's seeing?

He's seeing that the Old Testament Scriptures themselves point forward, and here's an indication. God says, I don't take pleasure in these things, which are offered by the law. By placing this at the time of the coming of Christ, its fulfillment in the words of Christ, He places Him right in between, at that time of fulfillment.

He's just said at the end of chapter 9, that the consummation of the ages, the pinnacle of time itself, the cross itself, He fulfills all things, and so here Christ comes, doesn't take pleasure in those burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, but now behold, I have come to do your will.

Notice it says, you have not taken pleasure in them, now I've come to do your will. What is his argument? His argument is, it is God's will that it has been this way. It is God's will that He has finished the sacrificial system.

It is God's will that it has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ in the entirety of His life. The entirety of His life. Because notice, look back at what it says. When He comes into the world, He says. When He comes into the world, He says, I have come, it has been written in the scroll, the book is written of Me.

The Scriptures testify of Me. That is the universal confession of the early church. Luke chapter 24. What does Jesus do when He opens their minds to understand the Scriptures? To see how they testify from Moses onward of Him.

And so there is an absolute confidence in the scroll of the book. It is written of Me. I have come to do your will, O God. You cannot help but think of John chapter 5. The exact same statements being made there of the perfect unity between the Father and the Son and the accomplishment of salvation.

John chapter 10. No one can snatch them out of My hand. The Father is great in all.

I and the Father.

What is we hear over and over again? The unity of the Father and the Son. And here you have, in the coming of the Son, I have come to do your will, O God. Why did Jesus have to be a finless, spotless lamb?

Oh, obviously, if He had been under the wrath of God, then He could not have been a fitting sacrifice for anyone, let alone Himself. That's vitally important. But we only get a portion of the fullness of what God has done if we don't see what is being said here.

And there's sadly a lot of leading voices, even in evangelical circles today, that I believe are specifically contradicting what we can see right here in Hebrews chapter 10. What do I refer to? Well, you may have noted, if you've ever done a study, and one of the very, very few people who has stood behind this pulpit is a man by the name of Dr. Jim Renahan.

We help to support Dr. Renahan's work at the Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies over at Westminster Seminary in Escondido. And Dr. Renahan has written much and is really an expert on our confession of faith, and he recently produced a book where you can compare the various statements of faith that preexisted ours and that had an influence upon ours.

Now, in the hymnal in front of you is the Trinity Hymnal, Baptist edition. Believe me that I know some folks that probably think that's a contradiction right there,.

But be that as it may,.

We have the Baptist edition. It has the 1689 London Confession of Faith in it. And if you were to open that up and read the section on justification and righteousness, you would find an interesting difference between our confession of faith and the Westminster Confession of Faith.

The difference is that ours makes specific reference to the active and passive obedience of Christ being imputed to us in regards to our standing before God. The active and passive obedience of Christ.

That's not in the Westminster. There were many people at the Westminster Assembly who believed it. There were others that did not, and therefore, what happens when you have a committee? Well, there's the problem with the committee right there.

Now, why is that important? What is the active and passive obedience of Christ? Well, when we use such language, and there are people today saying, well, this is a later development, and we need to be more biblical, and there are people specifically stating that we should not view it in this way.

Primarily within liberalism.

And within other branches, it's not really a big issue amongst Reformed Baptists. How can it be? Because our confession is very clear on it.

But the idea is this.

The passive obedience of Christ refers to, and in fact, the active and passive distinction refers to two aspects of Christ's work. We understand how in His death, Christ bears the punishment that was due us.

He bears the wrath of God in our place, and there is that righteousness that comes from the forgiveness of our sins. But then the question arises, well, if the death of Christ forgives me of my sins, what about all the positive commands of God's law?

I mean, what's the greatest commandment? You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. How many of us have fulfilled that just so far today?

Well, what about that positive righteousness?

Love your neighbor as yourself. Well, didn't Christ die to atone for the... Yes, but what about the positive righteousness of actually having accomplished that? And so what we're talking about is the fact that Jesus didn't just show up the day before the cross.

He could have done that.

God can do anything. And Jesus could have just all of a sudden.

Appeared as a fully grown man the day before the cross and given His life. Don't know how that would have worked, but that's not what we believe. Christ takes on a human nature. He is one person with two natures.

And you know, the majority of His life at 25 years of age, if tradition is correct, that Jesus' ministry is about between ages 30 and 33 approximately. We don't know that absolutely, but approximately that time frame.

25 years of age. Who knew? The world's going on. There's terrible, horrible things happening and there's sick people all around, but here's Jesus and we think that's God in human flesh. What's He doing?

Why invest 30 years before you finally get around to doing something?

Isn't something else going on?

And you see what we're talking about is that Jesus was the perfect man. And He obeyed God's law. He obeyed God's law at 10, and He obeyed God's law at 15, and at 20, and at 25. He loved God perfectly.

He loved His neighbor as Himself. He gave us an example. Yes, it's wonderful to have all those examples, but there's something more. He lived a perfect life. He has a positive righteousness that can be imputed to those who believe in Him.

And so you see,.

Listen to what it says,.

I have come to do Your will. Was that will fully completed in the cross?

Yes.

Is that a part? Yes. But is that all? I don't think so. He has come to do the will of the Father and He did so. And so there is a fullness of righteousness that is the believers. We're not just brought back to a moral neutral place.

And I'm concerned that in certain segments, even of reformed churches, we're in danger of losing this. We're in danger of people coming along and saying, I think we've gone too far. I think you're stepping back from what we've actually seen in the text.

What does it mean for Jesus to say, behold, I have come to do Your will? What is the point? Notice the application made by our writer. He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By dividing it up, the sacrifices, offerings, whole burnt offerings, offered according to the law, He takes it away.

How does He take it away? Through His death. Why? In order to establish the second, which is the complete fulfillment of the will of the Father. Everything pointed forward to it. Jesus obeys perfectly in His life, His death, His burial, His resurrection, His ascension to heaven.

It's finished.

And what is the whole point of Hebrews we've been emphasizing for over two years now? There's nothing to go back to. You see now the seriousness of the sin that the New Testament says, don't even pray for somebody that does that.

They went out from us. You see, to go back and offer sacrifice after hearing this message is to say what? Christ was nothing. Jesus was not a sacrifice. He was not the Holy Lamb of God.

It was right that He die.

It's going to be described in this very chapter as trampling underfoot the blood of the Son of God. Spitting upon the name of Christ. You see, once you realize that Christ has fulfilled all of this, that the only standing a person can have before God is this perfect righteousness, no other righteousness will avail.

There is no partial righteousness. There is no partly being right with God. When you think of the imputed righteousness of Christ that is given only by faith to those who believe in Him. The book of Hebrews uses the term sanctified to describe the same thing.

I think that's where some of the confusion has come in. We'll talk more about this this evening. But when we look at verse 10, by this will we have been sanctified.

To the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.

We think of our systematic theology words. And we think of sanctification as something different than justification. And we need to make a distinction. There are places where we do need to make that. But we don't need to take our systematic theology and cram it back upon other writings,.

Specifically the New Testament.

In the context of the book of Hebrews, in the context of sacrifice, what is being said, we have been made holy. We have been perfected. We have had that work finished in us so that we can come into the very presence of God.

It is a positional holiness that leads to the practical holiness beginning in chapter 12. But you see, when we have been made holy, this is the only way to enter into the holy of holies. This is the only way to enter into the very presence of God.

There is no other way. There is no other righteousness that will avail. This is why it is so important that we understand what God has done and to give us the standing that we have with God.

So that we will recognize.

The false teachings and the false Gospels and all the ways that man seeks to take away the sole glory of God and find a way to control some of that glory for himself. If we just but understood that the garment we stand in, in the presence of God, is a seamless robe.

It is not something we can add to. We are not given just the basic version and then we spend our lives sewing the frilly stuff on. We don't take the righteousness that we have before God and try to improve it and make it better.

You either have a seamless, spotless robe or you don't have anything at all. Remember the parable Jesus told that causes so many people confusion? Remember, nobody will come to the wedding. They'll go out in the highways and byways and compel them to come in.

But then the Master comes in and you'd think if you went out in the highways and byways and compelled people to come into your wedding, you really wouldn't care so much about what they were wearing. But he finds the guy and he's not wearing a wedding robe.

And what does the guy do? What does the Lord do? He has him bound hand and foot and cast out in the outer darkness.

Why?

Well, because you see, the King, the Lord, the Sovereign had to provide the wedding robes. And if he ain't wearing one, it's because he rejected it. And so he's cast out. You see, the King gets to decide what is acceptable in His presence.

And He provides the perfect garment. It's a seamless robe. There's no place for you and me to add stuff to it. Do you see how reprehensible in the sight of God any works salvation system must be? Think about it.

I provide the perfect robe.

Well, Acts 20 describes the blood of Jesus as the blood of God.

God's own blood.

The incarnate Son of God. I provide the perfect righteousness. It must avail for everyone who wears it.

That means it must be full righteousness.

There's no need to add anything to it. And you come along and you can look at that spotless robe and say, that's nice, but I'm going to do some of these good works over here and put a little patch on over there.

Can you imagine how that would look? Now, we just happen to have two newlywed couples with us today. I think that's wonderful.

And they're both smiling at me now.

One's more worried than the other, however. And that means just within the past couple weeks, both of these young ladies.

Had their wedding dress on.

And they got to pick that garment out. I can guarantee you something, having been the father of the bride, do you know how much influence I had on the picking of that dress? And can you just imagine.

If I came along and said,.

Hey, Summer, I've got a blue and orange thing I'd like to put on your wedding dress. How big that would go over! It wouldn't go over at all. Now, we can sort of laugh at that. But you know, you start thinking about what God has provided.

And God has designed this righteousness. And it's what is exactly pleasing in His sight. No bride, unless they've got all the money in the world, ever gets exactly what they want. Even if they have all the money in the world, even then, well, you know,.

We maybe could have done this.

There's nothing perfect in this world. But God determines what is absolutely perfect in His sight. What is absolutely pleasing in His sight.

And that's Jesus.

What did He Himself say? I always do what is pleasing in Your sight. And so God gets to determine what the wedding garment's going to look like. And what it's going to consist of. And what kind of abject idiocy must it be for mankind to come along and say, well, that's very nice, but I have some improvements to offer.

And what kind of utter lack of self-examination must there be for us to think there's anything we can add.

To the finished work of Christ?

And yet, is that not the very essence of man's religious systems? Even religious systems that call themselves Christian, but say, oh, the death of Christ, vitally important, but you need to do this.

And you need to do that. And you need to add this. And you need to add that.

And we're going to dole out to you grace through this means and that means. He takes away the first. He takes away the sacrifices. He takes away the offerings in which God is no longer taking pleasure.

They're offered according to the law. But now in his coming, behold, I have come to do your will. That's why whether it's ears, open my ears or body, doesn't really matter. I think the writer used what his audience would be reading.

Why doesn't it matter? Because if you read it as ears, it's just simply saying that the psalmist hears perfectly what God's will is, so he acts in accordance with it. Body you've prepared for me. He gives that in sacrifice, living perfectly according to God's will.

It really doesn't change the meaning of the passage one way or the other. The point is that this one fulfills the will of God perfectly and in so doing, takes away the old. He brings in the new. He takes away the first in order to establish the second.

And therefore you have verse 10. I would have to identify verses 10 -14.

As the pinnacle of the book.

We're here.

It was a long climb.

But we're here.

By this will, the will that the Son has perfectly performed,.

God's will,.

I've fulfilled that. By this will, including all that He did, we have been made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. It was God's will what happened upon the cross. It wasn't plan B.

It wasn't plan C. He's the Lamb slain for the foundation of the earth. We have been made holy. We have been sanctified in only one means, in only one way, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.

And does it surprise anybody at this point that the term there is ephahpahx?

Once.

It's not one for all. It is once for all. Temporal adverb, as it's always been all the way through. The writer has repeated it over and over again. The righteousness, the holiness that is ours comes by one sacrifice of Christ.

And if you have a sacrifice, you have to repeat over and over again, you don't have this righteousness. By this will,.

We have been sanctified.

Oh, but doesn't Paul talk about our future sanctification? Yes, he's talking about something else. Here we are talking about the result of the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, and it is our sanctification.

Our being set apart. Our being made holy. And it comes to us from outside. We don't make ourselves. Oh, we should desire to live in a holy way. But what does that desire come from? A changed nature. It is not the origin and source of our sanctification.

It's the result of our sanctification. We have been made holy. The things that the offerings could never accomplish, God has accomplished through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. That body that you've prepared for me, He does use that term.

But the reason it's important is because in that body, He fulfilled the will of the Father. He lived the perfect life. He then gave that perfect life so that all who are united to Him by faith, by that once for all action, we've been made holy.

We've been sanctified. The things that people strive to accomplish through all their works can only be found in one way.

And that is in Jesus Christ.

Why do Christians insist upon preaching Jesus Christ to the world? Because we realize that if what we believe of ourselves is true, everybody else needs to hear about it. What do I mean by that? You see, the world doesn't understand.

The world tries to tell you, just keep your Christianity to yourself. That's fine in your own life, but don't bother others and offend others by talking to them about following Christ. That's just what our society is now telling us.

Why is that a possibility? This tells you why. Because if you recognize that your whole standing before a holy God is based upon what Jesus Christ has done, and that there is no other way of peace before Him, then what's the most important message we have for anyone?

If this is the only way... You see, subtly inserted into the pressure of the world for us to be quiet is the insistence, and you're wrong about that idea. You're wrong about Jesus being the only way. There are lots of ways.

That's why you need to be quiet.

But you see,.

There's no one else who has come to take away the first and establish the second. There's no one else who had a perfect life to give. Anyone following somebody who says they can give them eternal life is following a false teacher.

They'll never know life.

And so, love compels us. Love for God, love for Christ, love for the Gospel, yes. But love for all mankind is what compels Christians to proclaim this message. When you really understand what God has done, you will see we have no...

Is it not something in which we must rejoice this morning? That the only means is such a perfect means? Why do you have peace with God this day? If you have bowed the knee before Jesus Christ, you have peace with God because God is the One who has provided that perfect way.

Of atonement in Jesus Christ.

You have been sanctified. My friend, if you sit here this day and you have not turned to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith, you do not have righteousness before God. And the wrath of God abides upon you.

And if you sit here this day and you have accepted the religions of men, and you have accepted a righteousness that has doled out to you piece by piece.

So that you do not know.

That you have been sanctified, you do not know that you have peace with God, you can now by turning to the only source of true peace.

And that is Jesus Christ.

Let's pray together. Our Triune God, we rejoice in Your Gospel this day. Father, in Your eternal declaration to bring about Your own glory and the salvation of a particular people in Christ Jesus, to You, our Lord and Savior, in having come and provided that perfect redemption and our union with You in Your death, burial and resurrection, in Your perfect life and Holy Spirit in Your having come and made these things true in our hearts, given us understanding,.