Hebrews 10:1-4 (ESV)
For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. [2] Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sin? [3] But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin every year. [4] For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Where there is forgiveness, there must be blood, but not just any old blood. The sacrifices of the Old Testament are kind of funny. I would not say they were merely symbolic. I do think there was something going on there. Yet there was symbolism there, and they were but a shadow of good things to come. They could of course not make perfect those who drew near. Yet this worship was honored by God, and forgiveness of sins, in light of Christ’s sacrifice to come, was communicated through these as means of grace. Those sacrifices could not make perfect. That statement hints at something. It quietly screams, but there is a sacrifice that can! The blood of bulls and goats may not take away sins, but the blood of the Lamb of God certainly does.
4 comments:
I'm curious, do you think OT folks got it that their sacrifices weren't really 'all that'? Where did their righteousness come from--from the promised messiah, or their promise as the chosen nation, or..?
Jonathan,
See that is just it. The sacrifices weren't enough. I think many of them knew something more had to come. But there sacrifices were doing something. It wasn't just a show of pretend. No Jew, and no Christian should ever believe there was nothing but symbolism going on. It is in the realm of the eternal, but these sacrifices gained their efficacy in the future sacrifice of Christ. At least that is how I read it. And they were efficacious to a degree, as they had the word of God. The word of God always being efficacious. How could they not be efficacious?
Yet. I think it is clear from the prophets like Isaiah, that the people knew something more was required, that these would not stand till the end. They also knew it was not a matter of just going through the motions. Nor was it a matter of not going through the motions.
Like Hebrews says, the OT sacrifices had to keep on being repeated year after year, because the sins kept on coming. So they must have known their sacrifices were not completely once for all-atoning.
So when an OT Hebrew dies the day before he can make his next annual sacrifice, on what does he 'hang his hat' when it comes to his inheritence or righteousness? What was that something else, is what I'm wondering. God's word in the promised Messiah or the promise of Israel as God's chosen nation?
As in, 'Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.' Trust in which promise?
Jonathan,
So they expected a Messiah, though what they expected in that Messiah wasn't always anything near what he turned out to be. But in the end I think as clouded as it all may have been their rested their salvation in a loving God who forgives sins.
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