Made perfect forever
Hebrews 10

Imagine this: You are out for a walk in the woods. You weren't watching where you were going. So you fall into an old well. The good news: It's dry. The bad news: You've sprained your ankle and there's no way you can get out by yourself. You shout for help. A passerby hears you. He comes to the edge of the well, looks down, and asks what you want. "I want to get out of this well," you say. The passerby pauses, thinks for a while, pulls out a piece of paper and scribbles away. He drops the paper into the well. You pick it up and read: "Ten rules for keeping out of wells."

We've been studying the ten commandments over the last few months, and it should be clear by now that the ten commandments don't really solve any of our problems. They can let us know how we got into the well, but they don't show us the way out.

We just had a friend visiting whose Mom recently discovered she had a growth on her pancreas. She was feeling just fine -- until she visited a relative in Korea. This relative had a clinic with an MRI. So just as a courtesy he did a scan and discovered the growth. Now she has to deal with it. The ten commandments are like that MRI. They are a great diagnostic tool: They reveal the cancerous growth of sin where we might never have noticed it before. But the ten commandments don't solve the problem any more than the MRI cures cancer.

So the ten commandments leave us with a guilt problem. I study the ten commandments and I have to come to terms with the fact that I don't keep them. I act with hatred -- that makes me a murderer. I'm lazy -- that makes me a thief. There's enough in the ten commandments to make me feel guilty for a very long time. So to wind up our series on the ten commandments I want to ask, "What should a Christian do about guilt?" What should we do when we come away from a sermon or a Bible Study feeling guilty?

The Old Testament law anticipates this problem, so let's start there. God give his people commands, then he immediately follows them up with a whole set of instructions on what to do when they disobey those commands. The law sets up a detailed and elaborate system for dealing with guilt. It's worth our while to spend some time looking at it.

Leviticus 4:

1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Say to the Israelites: 'When anyone sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD's commands-- 3 "'If the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people, he must bring to the LORD a young bull without defect as a sin offering for the sin he has committed. 4 He is to present the bull at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting before the LORD. He is to lay his hand on its head and slaughter it before the LORD. 5 Then the anointed priest shall take some of the bull's blood and carry it into the Tent of Meeting. 6 He is to dip his finger into the blood and sprinkle some of it seven times before the LORD, in front of the curtain of the sanctuary. 7 The priest shall then put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense that is before the LORD in the Tent of Meeting. The rest of the bull's blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

13 "'If the whole Israelite community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD's commands, even though the community is unaware of the matter, they are guilty. 14 When they become aware of the sin they committed, the assembly must bring a young bull as a sin offering and present it before the Tent of Meeting. 15 The elders of the community are to lay their hands on the bull's head before the LORD, and the bull shall be slaughtered before the LORD. 16 Then the anointed priest is to take some of the bull's blood into the Tent of Meeting. 17 He shall dip his finger into the blood and sprinkle it before the LORD seven times in front of the curtain.

22 "'When a leader sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the commands of the LORD his God, he is guilty. 23 When he is made aware of the sin he committed, he must bring as his offering a male goat without defect. 24 He is to lay his hand on the goat's head and slaughter it at the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered before the LORD. It is a sin offering.

27 "'If a member of the community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD's commands, he is guilty. 28 When he is made aware of the sin he committed, he must bring as his offering for the sin he committed a female goat without defect.

I'm rather thankful not to have been a priest in ancient Israel. Worship was a messy business. But one thing I can appreciate about all of these rules and sacrifices -- they gave you something practical to DO about your guilt. And people generally seem to have a hunger for some sort of practical outlet to assuage our guilt. If you doubt this, I have a web site to recommend: Confession.com. It is organized according to the ten commandments, and it gives anyone in the world the opportunity to confess their sins publicly for everyone to see. Some people go to confession, some people do penance, some people give to NPR, some people just go to church at every opportunity, but there seems to be a universal need to find practical ways of assuaging guilt. I do something wrong, I feel guilty, I want some practical way of dealing with that guilt.

The Old Testament law provided for that need. If you were an Israelite of the Old Testament, if you sinned, you knew exactly what to do. You had a whole set of rituals and sacrifices to go through. But what exactly did these rituals and accomplish?

Hebrews 10:1-3 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming--not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshippers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Did the sacrifices take care of the guilt? No. Otherwise they wouldn't have had to be repeated. The only thing the sacrifices accomplished was to remind the worshippers over and over again of their sin.

Let me try to put it in more familiar terms. We're not used to the language of blood and sacrifice, but we know the language of money and debt. So let's translate.

Christmas is coming, so all of the credit card companies are sending out these blank checks with invitations to use them. Let's say you start using them (please don't do this in real life.) And let's say there's no credit limit. And you can't stop yourself. You keep buying things and cashing checks. Your a credit junkie. Very soon you have an enormous bill -- and you keep adding to it. Now you feel badly about this -- you want to do something about this problem. So every month you send in a token payment. Of course, the token payment is less than you are adding each month. In fact, it's less than the interest. But at least your doing something!

Does the token payment take care of your debt. No. The debt keeps growing. Your payment doesn't reduce it at all. But one thing the payment does accomplish: It makes you acknowledge the debt. As long as you keep sending in payments, you are recognizing that it is your debt and your responsibility.

That's the way sacrifices worked in the Old Testament. They were token payments against the debt of guilt. Could they pay down the debt? The writer of Hebrews says, "No." They couldn't take care of the guilt -- they could only remind you of it. And the same thing is true of the sort of token payments we might make. Go to formal confession every week? It won't take care of your guilt. It will just remind you of it. Do penance? The guilt will still be there. Give to NPR? Do you think it will make up for all those years you skipped?

The futility of it all comes across in Hebrews 11:11

Day after day every priest stands to perform his religious duties. Again and again he offers sacrifices which can never take away sins.

It sounds a bit like doing laundry: You do it day after day , again and again, but there will still be more dirty laundry in the morning.

Surely there is a better way! Yes, there is, and it is stunningly simple.

Hebrews 10:12-14 But when this priest [that is, Jesus] had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. 13 Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, 14 because by one sacrifice he has made perfect for ever those who are being made holy.

15 *The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: 16 "This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds." 17 Then he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more." 18 And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.

Think for a minute of the impact of these words on an Israelite. You have grown up with a particular way of dealing with guilt. You know what to do. You bring a sacrifice to the temple. And all those sins that you missed, you gather up once a year for a great guilt-fest -- a sort of spring cleaning for guilty consciences -- on the Day of Atonement.

The writer of Hebrews says: "That's all over. You can't do that anymore. No more sacrifices. No more Day of Atonement."

Why?

Because there's no more guilt. Jesus has completely wiped it away with a single sacrifice. To translate this to the language of debt: Jesus has paid our entire debt in a single payment. That's it. No more payments are necessary because there is no more guilt. It's that simple. That is the good news of the Gospel. All you have to do is sign off on it -- accept Jesus payment -- and your debt is gone.

Two things I want you to observe about this transaction:

(1) First, the transaction is finished.

It is not a process, it is an event, and the event is over. This is emphasized in the contrast between the priests in verse 11 and Jesus in verse 12. The priests are standing. Jesus is sitting. Why? Because unlike them, his work is done. He is at rest, simply waiting for the mopping up operations.

The implications for how we deal with guilt are stunning.

The way I normally think about guilt goes something like this. When I come to faith in Jesus, he forgives my sins -- up to that point. But if I sin after that, well that's a new debt. I'm going to have to go back to him and negotiate a new payment to cover that one. You see what is happening? My sin and confession become a version of Old Testament sacrifice. Again and again, day after day I go back to ask for a new sacrifice -- a new payment on the debt.

That's not the Gospel. The Good news of the Gospel is that Jesus paid for all my sin -- past, present and future. He did not just pay the debt for past sins -- he, in effect, set up a trust fund sufficient to cover all future debts as well.

First, the transaction is finished,

(2) Second, we have no active part in the transaction.

There is absolutely nothing left for me to do. I cannot add to, and I cannot subtract form what Jesus has already done.

Let's go back to the debt illustration: Suppose you have an overwhelming debt like the one we talked about earlier. And suppose that I have the resources to pay it off completely. In fact, I go further: I set up a trust account to cover all future debts. Would you continue to send in payments? And if you did, what whould that indicate? It would indicate one of two things: Either you didn't believe that I paid the debt, or you refuse to accept it.

When we try to continue to do things to try to assuage our guilt, it simply indicates that we haven't understood or believed the Gospel. The message of the Gospel is simple: Our guilt is paid for, our sin is removed. Nothing I can do can make that more true. Nothing I can do can make that less true.


So here's the danger and the challenge we face today: As we come to communion, will we come to it as if it was one more payment against our guilt -- something that we are doing to try to get ourselves right with God? That would be treating it like an OT sacrifice -- a reminder of our guilt. A temporary relief until next time. But that is not the Gospel, and that is not what Communion is about. We come to communion to celebrate that our guilt is gone. It is like a party celebrating the anniversary of the burning of your mortgage.

Let us make this Communion a celebration of the Gospel. A celebration of our unhindered access to God.