Once For All | Hebrews 10:1-18 | The Law Says Do, the Gospel Says Done

We all know the feeling of looking back with fresh eyes — hindsight has a way of bringing things into focus that we couldn't quite see while we were in the middle of them.

That's exactly the vantage point the author of Hebrews writes from. Having moved into the New Covenant, he looks back on the rituals and sacrifices of the Old Covenant and sees them clearly: those things were never the solution. They were a shadow — real and meaningful, pointing clearly to their source — but a shadow nonetheless.

In this sermon from Hebrews 10:1–18, three truths emerge. The law was never designed to make anyone perfect — its repetition was the reminder that something greater was still needed. Jesus came with a specific mission to sanctify His people through the offering of His own body. And that work is finished — He sat down at the right hand of the Father because there is nothing left to do.

The law says do. The gospel says done.

Watch the sermon below, and may the once-for-all work of Christ bring you rest this week.

📖 Click to Show the Transcript of this Sermon

Isn't it amazing how clearly we see when we move on to the next phase of life? Aren't we unbelievably wise when we've been through something and we can look back on it? I'm sure that wisdom is often annoying to those that we pontificate our knowledge to, But it is a fact that it is much easier to look back on something and understand what was going on. Because our experience gives us wisdom.

We understand what is important about dating once we arrive at marriage. Maybe we get to college and suddenly we figure out what we should have done better in high school. Chances are that I'll experience the same thing when I move from being a parent to being a grandparent. We say hindsight, 20-20.

And while I doubt we have perfect vision as we look at our past, we are able to understand things more clearly when we have moved on from them. And the author of Hebrews is able to do the same thing with the experience that they had in the Old Covenant. Having moved on to the New Covenant, suddenly the rituals, the practices of the past, have come into clear focus. But to have this level of insight would not have been possible when they were participating in these things.

And as we have seen throughout this book of Hebrews, The author is concerned because the people are wanting to go back to those practices, to those sacrifices, to those rituals. And so now we see that he wants his audience to see clearly. He wants them to put on their new covenant glasses so that the old covenant will properly come into focus. The purpose of what they did in the old covenant was to point to Jesus, And so we will see once again today how important this is to how we understand our Christian faith.

And so as we land in the 10th chapter of Hebrews this morning, and we look at these first 18 verses, I have, once again, three main points to help guide us and move us along through them. The first one is that the law shows us that we're sinners and that we could never be perfected by it. And we have seen this unfolding for us throughout the last several weeks. If the rites, if the rituals, if the practices of the old covenant would have been sufficient, we never would have needed the ultimate fulfillment that came in the Lord Jesus.

Instead, the perpetual nature of those sacrifices made the people fully aware that they were sinners and they needed something better. Secondly, we see that Jesus came in order that His people might be set apart. As we've seen, the word holy means to be set apart. You and I are set apart and made holy through the sacrifice of Jesus.

And we see in the verses that we'll be looking at today that this was his mission. As we've seen so many times, Jesus is not merely a guru teaching in the middle of nowhere in the Middle East. He came with a purpose, and that purpose was to die for his people, to set them apart, that they might be holy. And thirdly, We see that what Jesus has done for us is final.

It is finished. It's once, it's for all. There isn't a constant need for sacrifice. Jesus accomplished his work and he sat down at the right hand of the Father.

And because of this, we have the utmost confidence that our sins and evil deeds are remembered no more. And so, we start off and we see a word that you have heard me use many times, shadow. It says here that the law has but a shadow of the good things to come. And as I said, you've heard me talk about the practices of the Old Testament and refer to them as types and shadows of what was to come in Jesus.

And here we see where we get that language from. This is what's being said here. And it's really helpful. It's really helpful.

It's a good way for us to understand what this means. When you look at a shadow, say, of a tree, You can tell it's a tree, right? But you know that that's not the tree itself. Now maybe it's distorted by the angle of the sun, but you can tell it's a tree.

You can see its source. You can see its shape. It's clearly the shadow of the tree. But as I said, it's not the tree itself.

And I'm sure all of us as children, on a bright sunny day, you are walking down the street and you see the shadow of a friend and you start stomping on your head. But we knew, and a lot of you are chuckling, you did that, I'm not the only one, thanks. As we can see here, this is exactly the point. You and I knew that that wasn't actually the person.

We were just joking, but it was just a shadow of the representation of the actual person. And the idea that the author of Hebrews is putting out there for us is that the law is a shadow of the heavenly things. And it's not the actual thing itself. Now, this can be a little confusing for us because when we hear the word law, I know you go the same place that I go.

We automatically go to the moral law. We hear law And we think 10 commandments, moral law, that's it. But that's not what the author of Hebrews is talking about here. He's actually referring to what we would call the ceremonial law, the sacrifices, the ceremonial washings, the incense, the way the priests were required to dress.

That's what's meant here when it says law. And so the idea that is coming to us is that the tabernacle, And all that was done there was like a shadow of the heavenly things. It has the shape of that which is heavenly, but it's just a shadow. It's not the true form of the realities in heaven.

And we've seen in the past weeks how the holy place and the most holy place in the tabernacle and the temple show the realities of God's holiness and His perfect glory and His holiness. But the earthly representations, while they were important in the old covenant, they're nothing compared to the real deal. Again, the idea of them being a shadow really helps us to understand the idea that they're pushing across to us here. And so because of this, even the sacrifices, that part of the law, which seems so important, it isn't enough.

And that's why they're offered over and over again. They aren't what was actually needed. There was no way for a sinner to be made perfect through those things. And if we think about the point that the author of Hebrews is making, it just makes sense.

If they could really, if those sacrifices could really atone for sin, if they could really solve the problem, if they could really give the worshiper a clear conscience, Why would they have had to continue over and over? As I've said many times, the sacrifices were bloody and it was a terrible mess. They weren't making sacrifices because it was a good time. If they could have been done away with, if you could have just had one, they would have wanted it that way.

But they were doing it to atone for sin. But if it really could have purified them perfectly, why would they have had to continue on? And that's exactly the point here. The sacrifices were there to remind them that they were sinners, that their sins were not perfectly atoned for.

The point was not just to have a sacrifice for the sake of having a sacrifice. The sacrifices not only were a payment for sin, but they were that vivid and bloody reminder that blood was being shed for their sin. A life was taken in place of theirs. But as the author of Hebrews says, it was impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin.

And I can imagine that this would have been very hard for the Hebrew ears to hear. I can't even imagine. This was the system they lived in. It was how they operated.

It was what they understood. And now look at what the author of Hebrews is saying, that it can't really do this. This is all that they knew. But it was never enough, and it would never be enough.

And so with that in mind, we move on to our second point, where we see that this was the purpose of Jesus coming. He would offer himself in order to set his people apart. And as we look at this set of verses, We see that the author of Hebrews goes back to the Old Testament again, and he's quoting from Psalm 40. And what the author does here is he draws out the contrast between what God desires and what he does not.

And look at what it says here. In burnt offerings and sin offerings, you have taken no pleasure. And you know, we see language like that throughout the Old Testament. We see it in other places.

You maybe remember the phrase, it's quoted in the New Testament a few times, I believe, where it says, I desire mercy and not sacrifice. And the idea is that God would rather that the people do his will than just show up on the feast days and offer a sacrifice. Because it's pretty easy just to show up with an animal, give it to a priest to sacrifice, and feel like you've done your religious duty. But that's not what God desires.

And you can easily imagine what this must have been like in the Old Covenant. Yeah, I can live however I want. I'll show up with the sacrifice on the day of whatever particular feast, and God and I are good to go. You can see how that would be easy.

But I think you can also easily understand how we're prone to the same thing, right? It's easy for us to think that, well, you know, all I need to do is show up at church at these points. All I need to do is this good work, and then God and I are good to go again. And so we can understand, while it's definitely an old covenant problem, we can see how this is an issue for us and for our hearts too.

You can imagine someone showing up, as I said, with a sacrifice and thinking all was taken care of. It would be really easy to think, that's all I have to do. Have this done, and we're good. But as I said, we are prone to doing the same thing, even though we intellectually know.

We know that we don't earn points with God, that he's not tallying everything up, and if we have a high enough total, we get to go to heaven. We know that's not happening, but we still find ourselves thinking we'd be better Better off with God if we did this or that. We need to do this thing to have God being happy with us. But we know that the truth is that God would much rather that we love him.

He would much rather that we love our neighbor and not just put on a religious show, right? But it's important that we understand that this doesn't mean here that the sacrifices were nothing. As we saw, they reminded the people of their sin. And the issue was not the ritual itself, but it was the heart of the worshiper.

We can sing a song or say a prayer, but if we're not doing it with conviction, then what does any of it mean? And that is why we want to be careful not to just go through the motions as we worship God. May God the Holy Spirit be at work in us. May we hear the Word, whether it's sung or spoken.

May it be convicting us and working in us as we hear and speak the Word of God and as we declare His wondrous work to save us. That's what's meant here, that God takes pleasure in us acknowledging His holiness and His rule in our lives. If we're just going to do something to do it, then it doesn't mean anything. And we see that the author of Hebrews is letting us know that this was the purpose of the work of Jesus for us.

When the one comes who does the will of God, it's to do away with the first covenant and to establish the second. And we see what that is. The body being offered is that of the Lord Jesus, once for all. This sacrifice, the blood of the perfect Lamb of God, who is God the Son, the one who has taken on human flesh for us, is what we needed.

It's the body that was prepared to be the one time and ultimate sacrifice, and it sanctifies us. This means that we're set apart. It means that we are holy to God. And it's because we receive the perfect righteousness of Jesus in place of our unrighteousness.

Because Jesus paid the price for our sin. It's what he did. He sanctified us so that we can be in the presence of God. While Jesus taught us and showed us how to live, his ultimate purpose was not to come and give you a list of ways that you can be a better person and make God happy.

He came to sanctify his people. He came to set us apart as holy. And then from that, we live our lives in such a way that we reflect that great gift that he's given to us. We desire to live as those who have been set apart, as those who are holy, because that is who God made us to be.

It's what He did, it's why He saved us. And so we've seen that the law shows that humans are sinful and that Jesus came to make us holy and set apart and free from sin. And then finally, in the last part of this passage, we see that this is final. It has been done to save us once and for all.

And so the argument that's continuing to unfold here is using imagery that we can understand. We read that priests stand every day and offer repeatedly the same sacrifices. Now, you and I probably would miss the significance of this. Of course, of course a priest was standing.

Is he going to sit down to sacrifice an animal? That's just weird. That's just the point. He wouldn't.

He wouldn't sit down to do a sacrifice. His job was never going to be done if this, the sacrifices, were the only way that sins could be taken care of. The blood of bulls and goats over and over and over again was never gonna take care of our sin. And you can easily imagine the imagery, right?

Hopefully it isn't too gruesome as you think about a priest doing sacrifices. after day after day, sacrifice after sacrifice, but you can still get the imagery, a priest standing at a table, doing sacrifices over and over. He has to stand. And then let's add on, as the book of Hebrews has said, this has been done generation after generation, year after year, Levite after Levite.

They have been slaughtering these animals for sacrifices. It's never gonna be done. They are standing every day in the temple doing it. It would never be done.

It would never end. Because as it says here in verse 11, those sacrifices can never take away sins. But then, we have a contrast. And we see it in what Jesus has done.

He didn't have to make an offering over and over again. Instead, it reminds us that He is seated at the right hand of the Father. And again, I'm going to remind you what I often mention. This phrase, seated at the right hand of the Father, is calling back to Psalm 110, verse 1.

It's a messianic psalm. And it's fulfilled in the ascension of Jesus. And it's the most quoted verse from the Old Testament and the New Testament. And in this use of it here, we get a hint of why He sat down.

It's because His work is done. He isn't offering himself over and over and over again. Instead, Jesus is seated. He's not like the priest standing at the table for generation upon generation, Levite upon Levite, sacrifice on top of sacrifice, blood shed all the time.

He's not standing. He sat down at the right hand of the Father. His work is done. by a single offering we read.

He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. His work is done. His work is done. I've shared before that I've been trying to instill in the catechism students an easy way to remember the difference between the law and the gospel.

And so I decided to boil it down to two words. The law says do, the gospel says done. So as we've seen here, the law says do. Those sacrifices would have had to continually been done over and over again.

It would have been do, do, do. Sacrifice after sacrifice. But the gospel is what Jesus has done. He's done it for us.

And we see here that it is a single offering. And he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified and set apart as holy. It has been done for you. Jesus sat down because his work was finished to make you holy.

And so in Christ, God is not holding your sins against you. Now you and I hold our sins against ourselves. We remember what people have done against us. Sometimes we even say that we have forgiven them, but we hold them, we hold on to them, and we do it with our own sins.

We can't forgive ourselves, right? But God does not hold our sin against us because they have been once and for all paid for. That wasn't something that could be said in the old covenant because the sacrifices were continual. But Jesus isn't a priest who is standing.

He has sat down. He took care of them once and for all. And the author of Hebrews puts an exclamation point on it by offering some commentary there in the last verse that we have up there. It's done.

It's done. It's the gospel. It is done. Why?

Because the sins have actually been atoned for. They've been truly forgiven because the blood that was shed was not the blood of bulls and goats, But instead, it was the precious blood of God the Son in our very own flesh. And so once again, the book of Hebrews unfolds for us the beauty of the gospel. It shows us the foundation of the truths that we cling to.

And from those truths, I want us to pull two points of application out for us to think about this week. Now, the first thing I want us to take home is to prayerfully assess our hearts in relation to worship. We saw today that God took no pleasure in the burnt offerings of the people when they were just using it to check off an obligation. What God desires for us is to worship Him with humble hearts, full of conviction of His holiness, and joyful that we've been rescued by Him.

And the greatest blessing that we have in regard to this is that we have the greatest possible motivation to live in that way. Because He has saved us by His grace. We've been saved to the uttermost. And that is why the Word of God is our primary catalyst in our worship.

It calls us to worship. It calls us to confess our sins. It assures us of our forgiveness. It comforts our hearts and challenges us to turn from our sin and rest in God's grace.

And then at the end, the Word of God sends us out into the world again to serve God and to love our neighbor. And that Word that is proclaimed is used by the Spirit of God to convict us of our sin with the goal of us turning from it and resting in Christ alone to save. And so as we assess our hearts, may we be filled with joy that we're able to worship God and that he has brought us to himself. We can find great peace knowing that even if we find our hearts to be in the wrong place sometimes, God's word will still call us to himself.

The Holy Spirit is indwelling us and will still bring us to that place where he is making us holy. no matter where we're at, no matter what our assessment ends up with, we can trust that the Word of God will do its work because God has made a promise and He will be good to it. Now, I acknowledge that this is a tough assessment to make. You know, I struggle some Sundays.

But if we really believe in the power and in the sufficiency of the Word of God, we can trust that we don't do this on our own. God is at work as he always has been for his people. Secondly, find rest in the truth that God remembers your sins no more. Now this is something that we know to be true, but I think that we struggle to truly believe it.

We sin and we ask for forgiveness, but we can't let it go. We dwell on it. But God has remembered our sin no more. But as I said, sometimes we just can't let it go.

But what do we read here today? We read that what Jesus did is once and for all, and it gives us assurance that our sins are forgiven. And so we can move on in repentance, trusting that we have been forgiven, not because of something that we have done, but we remember that the work of Jesus is final. It is absolute.

And so that should move us and motivate us to live in holiness. We can remember that Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father because his work was complete. And so no matter what we're struggling with, letting go and feeling forgiveness for, Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father because it is forgiven. And so you can live knowing that your sins have been atoned for.

So live in that freedom. May we get up from here today and rest in the awesome once and for all work of Jesus on our behalf. Because that's what gives us peace and that's what gives us hope. And so may the truth of God's word be at work in you this week.

as you bring glory to your Savior with your life that has been set apart to be holy for Him. Amen.

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