Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. For the law appoints as high priests men in all their weakness; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever. (Hebrews 7:23-28 NIV)
There is something in common among just about every ancient culture in the world. Know what it is? Sacrifices. Even with all the differences of language and location and time, in almost every culture there were priests making sacrifices. If you walk through Incan ruins on the mountains of Peru, or marvel at the pyramids of Teotihuacan in Mexico, or visit the ancient temples of Greece or Rome, in every place you’ll see altars where priests sacrificed to their gods. Why? Because God has written onto human hearts a need—the need to get right with him. And God has placed in every person a conscience—a conscience that feels guilty when we fall short of our perfect God. Whether consciously or not, all people of all time have tried to get rid of their sins.
That’s a need—the need for forgiveness—that God never wants people to forget. God knows that when people forget about their sin, they will forget about him. So God set up a system for his people in the Old Testament so that they would never forget how serious sin is: The sacrifices. Every morning and evening, a priest sacrificed a lamb for the people. Think of what a constant reminder that was. Every morning when they saw the sun rising, they knew a lamb was being sacrificed for their sin. Every evening as they crawled into bed, they knew a lamb was being sacrificed for their sin. Day after day. Week after week. Year after year. Sacrifice after sacrifice.
Just think about the picture that painted for the Israelites. When they went to their church—the tabernacle—know what the first thing they would have seen was? Blood. Blood on the altar. Blood on the ground. The smell of blood. The smell of death. The smell of sin. That was church! And what did God want the people to think? “It should be me! That is what I deserve for my sins!” The Israelites had a constant reminder of their great need—salvation from their sins.
That was especially clear on the Day of Atonement. In addition to all the sacrifices every day, there was one special day each fall called the Day of Atonement. Know how that’s referred to today? Yom Kippur. Have you heard of that? The Day of Atonement was the one day that the high priest got to go into the Most Holy Place. First, he had to sacrifice a bull for his own sins. Then he sacrificed a goat for the sins of the people. Finally, he placed his hands on another goat—the scapegoat—and sent it off into the wilderness to take away the people’s sins.
What was God teaching people through all these priests and sacrifices? It must have been an overwhelming, powerful message: “We need sacrifices to take our sins away. We need priests to go between us and God, because our sin is that serious.” Every animal that was sacrificed: “That’s what I deserve when I sin.” Every scapegoat that was sent away: “That’s what God should do to me when I sin.” Is that still true for us today? Of course it is! We need forgiveness.
But all those priests and all those sacrifices weren’t the real answer, and everybody knew it. Know why? Our lesson from Hebrews points out 3 reasons why they weren’t good enough. First, every priest died. That’s a problem, isn’t it? Every priest died. They kept needing new priests! Second, even the high priest had to offer sacrifices for his own sins. He wasn’t better than anybody else. How could he really save? Third, the sacrifices never ended. Day after day. God wanted people to realize: There’s got to be something more. There’s got to be something better!
Until one day, John the Baptist saw a Man walking toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). And then, three years later, there was a big sacrifice, and that same Man called out, “It is finished” (John 19:30). Who was that Man? Jesus. Where was he? On the cross. Serving as our Priest. I know we don’t think a lot about priests today, but Jesus being our Priest is at the center of the Bible’s message. “Because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him.” Every other priest died. Jesus died too, but then he rose and lives forever. Jesus is the Priest who lives forever. Jesus is the Priest who’s able to save completely.
Because he’s the perfect Priest. “Such a high priest meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.” Jesus didn’t need to offer sacrifices for his own sin. Jesus is holy, just like God is holy. Jesus is blameless and pure. Perfect inside and out. Jesus is set apart from sinners and exalted above the heavens. See how Jesus is so much better than other priests? He came to do what no other priest could do: Take away sin for good.
Because he didn’t offer the sacrifices that they offered—bulls and goats and lambs. What did Jesus offer? Himself. “He sacrificed for their sins once and for all when he offered himself.” All those sacrifices in the Old Testament were pointing ahead to Someone greater. To the Lamb who would take away every sin when he offered himself once and for all. Isn’t that what John the Baptist said, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Jesus is our Lamb and our Priest who offered himself once and for all to take away the sins of the world.
Can you feel the relief? Can you feel the peace? God wants you too. We don’t offer animal sacrifices anymore, but how much of our lives—just like for all people of all time—how much of our lives is spent trying to get rid of sin and guilt? We do good things for others, mostly to feel good about ourselves. We hide our thoughts and deeds from others to keep the truth from coming out. We criticize ourselves in our minds over and over again for all the foolish things we have done. We turn to alcohol or sports or music or TV or travel to numb our minds to reality. But we can stop all that. Why? “He sacrificed for your sins once and for all when he offered himself.”
Those words “once and for all” were written down for you. Every sin was paid for at the cross. Once and for all! Your sin was paid for at the cross. Once and for all! You don’t need to find some person or some thing to give you hope, because you already have the Priest who lives forever. Right now Jesus is interceding for us before God the Father. How could God the Father possibly refuse to hear our Priest, when our Priest is his own Son who died for us? How could God the Father refuse to give us exactly what Jesus asks for us? How could we have any doubts or worries? What’s left for us? Just this: To live for Jesus. Paul wrote, “The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
Have you heard the children’s song, “Mary had a little lamb”? It’s about a little girl whose lamb followed her to school. I never thought about this before, but that phrase—“Mary had a little Lamb”—is what Christmas is all about. Not the following her to school part. But what happened at Christmas? Mary had a little Lamb. That little Lamb was perfect. That little Lamb came to die for us. Once and for all. So that we are forgiven. That’s really what Christmas is all about: Mary had a little Lamb. In a world filled with altars and sacrifices, you have a Priest: Once and for all!