The king was furious. He’s just been told about a rich man who’d stolen the only lamb, a dear pet of a poor man, to feed a visitor, rather than use one from his many flocks. “The man deserves to die because he did such a thing and had no pity.” “You are the man!”

With great bravery the prophet Nathan brought home to King David the greatness of his sin, in coveting and stealing another man’s wife,committing adultery with her, and murdering her husband. Sin blinds, and we can be all too unaware how we have offended God, and brought God’s name into contempt before others.

When we come into God’s house – on a Sunday, or perhaps for a wedding – we make sure to put on clean clothes, look and smell our best – don’t we? Our outward appearance may be impeccable – but God sees our hearts and our inmost thoughts. We may not have acted like David – but are we fit to come into God’s presence? We know we are not. Do we care about that? Do we realise how our unclean thoughts, wrong attitudes and unkind words appear to our holy God?

Have we never regretted something we’ve said or done? Even if we apologised, there is no way, we can turn back the clock – we must still live with the consequences – as David had to do, suffering the fallout of sexual sin and murderous discord in his own family, that his example brought forth. Above all, we know that our sin disrupts our relationship with God. “I have sinned against the LORD”, was David’s response. He – and we – know we need God’s forgiveness. (2 Sam 12:1-14)

The Old Testament provision

What remedy was open to David? The elaborate ritual of sacrifice and offering that God had commanded through Moses made it very clear that sinful men and women could not come lightly into God’s presence. Indeed they could not come near him at all – and live – unless their sin had been forgiven. (Exod 33:20; Lev 17:11; Heb 9:22; Rom 6:23; 3:23)

But the levitical sacrifices were only available for sins incurred inadvertently. Sins that had been carried out deliberately – like David’s sins – amounted to defiance and rebellion against God. No remedy was available for that.

All David could do was throw himself on the mercy of God. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. (Ps 51:1-2)

What then, you may ask, was the purpose of the sacred tent – the tabernacle – the priests and the levitical ritual of sacrifice – if it could not deal with deliberate sin? The author of our Letter to the Hebrews was writing to Christian Jews who, because of persecution, were tempted to return to Judaism – or at least a form of it that looked for a restored and purified form of levitical worship. So he was concerned to tell them that, if they did that, they would be abandoning the reality for the shadow. What the Jews had been given by God was only a picture – pointing forward to its perfect fulfillment in Jesus.

In particular, our author reminded these Jews of the ritual of the Day of Atonement – Yom Kippur – that was held, each year, on the tenth day of the seventh month (Lev 16:29) [at the end of our September or beginning of October]. The tent or tabernacle (and the temple built afterwards) was divided into two rooms. None of the ordinary people could ever enter either room – only the outer courtyard. But priests entered the first room every day, to burn incense on a golden altar. That altar stood before the curtain which separated the first room from the inner, Most Holy room.

In this room stood the Ark of the Covenant, symbolising God’s presence among his people. This Ark, was a golden chest containing the two stone tablets, inscribed with the Ten Commandments of God, which his people had promised to obey – in gratitude for his having rescued them from slavery in Egypt.

Only on the Day of Atonement did anyone enter this Most Holy room. Only the High Priest was allowed to do so, officially robed and taking with him some of the blood of a sacrificed bull (to atone for his own sins) and afterwards the blood of a goat (over which he had confessed the sins of all the people).

In an enveloping cloud of incense, he sprinkled the blood on the cover of the chest, so that it came between the Law, which had been broken, and the awesome presence of God’s glory. (Exod 25:22; Lev 16:11-19) This was the mercy seat, the place where sin was covered, and God was propitiated. [These are the meanings of the Hebrew and Greek names for the cover of the chest.] (Rom 3:25; 1 John 2:2)

Now, despite this ritual being God-given, it was clearly imperfect, as our author does not hesitate to emphasize. The way into God’s presence remained cut off from all the people except the High Priest, and he was allowed in only once a year. And this had to be repeated year after year as, of course, were all the daily and other sacrifices, that the Law prescribed.

Although the Law said, Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Heb 9:22; Lev 17:11) – plainly, the blood of bulls and goats – or any other animal – could never be an adequate substitute for a human sinner. The dumb beasts were, of course, never willing sacrifices! Their deaths could never cleanse the consciences of sinners, or change our inner disposition.

There is a hymn, written by Isaac Watts [1674-1748], whose first verse well expresses this truth: Not all the blood of beasts, On Jewish altars slain, Could give the guilty conscience peace, Or wash away its stain. The priests, too, were sinners. They died, and down the years had to be succeeded by other men. The whole system was clearly inadequate.

An objection

Now it may be that someone here is saying to themselves – What has all this Jewish ritual to do with Christians? Why all this talk of blood and sacrifice? That’s so crude and primitive! Jesus taught us God is our Father. What father would demand a bloody sacrifice before he’d forgive his children?

When I became a committed Christian, I had no understanding that Jesus died for my sins! I knew I needed forgiveness and a new beginning. I responded to the text, You must be born again. (John 3:3,7) So it was only when I heard a sermon a few weeks later about the Cross, that I came to appreciate what Jesus had done for me. My background had been that of liberal Christianity, of the kind that would ask the sort of questions I’ve just voiced.

So I’ll spend a moment trying to answer those questions. Jesus did speak of God as our Father – but he was speaking to those who already believed. To those who refused to believe that the Father had sent him, Jesus made it quite plain that God was not their Father, If God were your Father, you would love me.(John 8:42-47) We have to become God’s children – be adopted into his family. We’re not God’s children by natural birth – we need a new birth – by the work of God’s Holy Spirit in our hearts. (Tit 3:3-7; John 3:5-7)

Of course, we’re sickened by the thought of those thousands of lambs, bull and goats slaughtered in the Temple. Do you realise, however, that our sin sickens God? (Hab 1:13a; Isa 64:6) God hates sin, because it ruins our lives – and his world. Since he is holy and just, he cannot overlook sin, and simply forgive it (as we ought to, between ourselves). His Law expresses his own perfect character, and his reaction to our disobedience must express it, too. And by those many sacrifices God was teaching how costly our forgiveness is!

The wonder of the gospel is that God himself has intervened to save us! There is an awful consequence to our sin and rebellious defiance. God’s holy and righteous anger against sin means that our lives are forfeit. (Rom 6:23a; 3:23; John 3:36) We have broken God’s Laws – and, as it were, broken down the bridge between ourselves and God. We are cut off from God, who is the only Source of Life. We need a new bridge back to him – to be

reconciled to a God offended by our sin – and that is exactly what God himself has provided for us! (1 John 4:10)

What Jesus, our High Priest, came to do

So the Old Testament provision was a picture of what Jesus came to do. His was an altogether willing sacrifice of himself. (John 10:17-18) The animals had to be unblemished – Jesus is without sin. He is a perfect man, all that a human being was intended to be, an unmarred image of God, who lived a life fully obedient to God’s Law (John 6:38; 8:29)

But he is also the Son of God. If the fulness of deity had not dwelt in him, if he’d been merely a man, his death could not have taken the place of all those he died for. But, because he is the Lord, the death of Jesus has infinite value, and needs no repetition whatever. He died once for all time, the “one full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice...” (Book of Common Prayer) for all our sin.

In the strong metaphor of Scripture, his blood – which means his sacrificial death – purifies us from all sin. (1 John 1:7) For our forgiveness he entered, not an earthly sanctuary, but heaven itself. Not, of course, taking his shed blood with him – our author says, he entered.. by (means of) his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. (9:12)

The altar of sacrifice was the Cross – there is no possibility of any other altar – it was there Jesus died once for ever, for your sin and mine. It was there he cried, It is finished! (John 19:30) which means, It’s accomplished! or even, It’s paid! The work his Father had sent him to do was completed at his death. (John 4:34; 17:4)

And, although our author doen’t mention it – this was the moment when that curtain of the temple (isolating the Most Holy room) was torn in two from top to bottom. (Matt 27:51) Now, at last, God has opened the way into his holy presence – for all those who will put their trust in Jesus, and commit their lives to him as Lord.

Jesus is truly our High Priest – and our Sacrifice – and those he died for are invited to approach freely God’s throne of grace – for pardon and all the blessings he wants to bestow upon us. (Heb 4:16) We need no other priest – there can be no other priest, no other go-between or intermediary, between ourselves and God, other than Jesus, because what he has done is perfect and final. (Heb 10:14)

What more can we do in response – than bow in adoration and thankfulness – and live henceforth in grateful service to our Lord and Saviour? And that means we too must live sacrificial lives helping and loving others: We love because he first loved us.. whoever loves God must also love his brother. (1John 4:19,21)