Perfect

 A series on the book of Hebrews:
The heavenly tabernacle and perfect sacrifice
 (Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Hebrews 9:1-10:18 

[When you first start to follow Christ, often it’s done with great excitement. It’s like falling in love when all you can think about is the other person, and you want to tell everyone you know. But then the day-to-day pressures of living can push out those feelings and dull your enthusiasm. In this series, we will look at how the author of Hebrews tried to counteract falling out of love with Jesus.]

 

Recently, my wife and I took our grandson on a guided tour of Ohio Stadium where the Ohio State Buckeyes play football. It’s a very impressive structure with quite an interesting history. Although the history didn’t really appeal to my grandson.

 

Afterwards, we made a quick stop at the Woody Hayes football building and visited the trophy room which is filled with Heisman Trophies (7) and National Championship trophies (9). While looking at this amazing display of hardware, he commented that the Buckeyes didn’t have that great a season last year.

 

I pointed out that they were 14-2 and won the College Football Playoff National Championship. He thought they should have gone undefeated. Perfection is a hard thing to accomplish in sports, and even more so in life.

 

After explaining in chapter 8 why the new covenant is better, the writer of Hebrews went into greater detail. First, he stated that the Mosaic covenant has “regulations for worship” and “an earthly sanctuary”. He then described the two rooms in the tabernacle – the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place – including their furnishings.

 

Priests entered into the Holy Place on a regular basis, but only the high priest could enter the Most Holy Place. And then only once a year with a blood offering for his sins and the sins of the people.

 

The sacrifices were repeated over and over, year after year, but they couldn’t take away sins. In fact, it’s impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to do anything other than make a person ceremonially clean. The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow of what was to come.

 

Christ changed all of that! As the perfect High Priest, he didn’t offer the blood of animals, but his own blood; he didn’t go into the earthly tabernacle, but into the heavenly one; he didn’t enter the Most Holy Place once a year, but is sitting at the right hand of God; he didn’t cleanse people on the outside, but did on the inside.

 

¹⁴ Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.    NLT

 

Therefore, when Christ lived on this earth, he said that God didn’t want “sacrifice and offering”. Instead, in obedience to his Father, he offered himself as THE sacrifice.

 

¹² But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand. ¹⁴ For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.  NLT

 

The result is that Christ is our mediator. His blood obtained our eternal redemption. And those who have been called will receive “the promised eternal inheritance” of the new covenant.

In the temple in Jerusalem, there was a huge, thick curtain separating the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. When Jesus died on the cross, the curtain was torn in two, from top to bottom. In doing this, he opened the curtain for us to be in the very presence of the Living God. The old was gone and the new has come.

 

Perfect!

 

Copyright 2025 Joseph B Williams

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