Reason 26 – Jesus Came to Die To Bring the Old Testament Priesthood to an End and Become the Eternal High Priest

“One of the greatest phrases of Christian truth is “once for all.” It comes from one Greek word (ephapax) and means “once for all time.” It means that something happened that was decisive. The act accomplished so much that it need never be repeated. Any effort to repeat it would discredit the achievement that happened “once for all.” It was a gloomy reality year after year that the priests in Israel had to offer animal sacrifices for their own sins and the sins of the people. I don’t mean there was no forgiveness. God appointed these sacrifices for the relief of his people. They sinned and needed a substitute to bear their punishment. It was mercy that God accepted the ministry of sinful priests and substitute animals. But there was a dark side to it. It had to be done over and over. The Bible says, “In these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin every year” (Hebrews 10:3). But there was a silver lining around this cloud of priestly insufficiency. If God honored these inadequate things, it must mean that one day he would send a servant qualified to complete what these priests could not perform—to put away sin once for all. That’s who Jesus Christ is. He became the final Priest and the final Sacrifice. Sinless, he did not offer sacrifices for himself. Immortal, he never has to be replaced. Human, he could bear human sins. Therefore he did not offer sacrifices for himself; he offered himself as the final sacrifice. There will never be the need for another. There is one mediator between us and God. One priest. We need no other.”

Reflecting on this I recall how I formerly offered up my own sacrifices to God, on my own behalf. Whether that meant going to church, doing religious things, saying special prayers, abstaining from meat or other things. Believe me, the list was very long! In all of that, I missed the great insight that we are reminded of in the Book of Hebrews, a book not written for “Hebrews” but for Hebrew converts of Christianity. In it the writer encourages these Christians to resist the temptation to return to a system of priestly ritual. He explains to them that any ritual or offerings through a priest are pointless. Why? Because the “priest of all priests” has already offered a perfect sacrifice on their behalf. Any return to a ritual is, in essence, a rejection of that perfect sacrifice. After letting this sink in for years, it changed me forever. I realized that my motive for making my “offerings” was to win favor from God. The Book of Hebrews taught me that Jesus already took care of winning my favor with God. All I needed to do was to believe and live in his obedience by grace.

Questions: Have you considered there is nothing you can do to win favor from God? Have you ever offered sacrifices to God? What are your motives? Why would God accept your imperfect sacrifices over the perfect sacrifice of His Son? If the Bible says that Christ made atonement, once for all time, why would He need to be ritually re-sacrificed?

Dr. Hywel Jones, a great Welsh scholar has an excellent study guide to lead Christians through a study of the Book of Hebrews . It’s called Let’s Study Hebrews, published by Banner of Truth.