Fully Forgiven (Hebrews 10:1-18)
The sermon outline can be found here in the ministry guide.
Have we ever felt guilty? We look back with regret over what we’ve said and done, or what we’ve left unsaid and undone. We’re ashamed of ourselves for falling short, or for hurting someone else. Perhaps we look back on a broken relationship and wish we had done differently. Or maybe we’re sorry for the trouble and pain we’ve caused to ourselves and others. All of us have experienced guilt, because every single one of us has done wrong things and failed to do right things.
How do we deal with our guilt? No one likes to feel guilty, so we look for ways to cope with it. Some try denial. If I can convince myself I’ve not done anything wrong, then maybe my guilty feelings will go away. But what if my guilt is more than merely a feeling? What if I’m objectively guilty, regardless of what I feel or think? For example, a hardened criminal is still guilty even if he doesn’t think he has done anything wrong.
Some try to deal with guilt through escapism. We occupy ourselves with the pressures orpleasures of life, whether it’s work, entertainment, or food. Perhaps if we can distract ourselves enough, then we don’t have to deal with our guilt. But not thinking about it will not make it go away. What if we work harder to do better? Try to be nicer to others; resolve to be more disciplined, moral, or religious. Perhaps, if we do enough good, then that can outweigh the wrong we’ve done and feel better about ourselves. But how much good is enough?
Or, we compare ourselves with others. I’m okay as long as I’m not as bad as those people. Yes, I lose my temper and yell at my kids, but at least I don’t abuse them. Yes, I cut corners at work, but at least I’m not laundering billions. But are we less guilty just because someone else is guilty of more serious wrong? Maybe we just need to forgive ourselves and move on. But if someone has done wrong against us, I doubt we’ll think the matter resolved just because the offending person has forgiven himself or herself.
The truth is that we feel guilty because we actually are guilty. … The guilt we feel is real because we have, in fact,turned away from God, who made us to live according to his ways.
The truth is that we feel guilty because we actually are guilty. Guilt is not merely psychological or emotional, or caused by low self-esteem. In his book Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer insightfully observed: “Worldly wisdom knows what distress and weakness and failure are, but it does not know the godlessness of man. And so it does not know that man is destroyed only by his sin and can be healed only by forgiveness.” The guilt we feel is real because we have, in fact, turned away from God, who made us to live according to his ways. But we have rebelled against God and spurned his ways. The Bible calls this sin. So, we are guilty because we have sinned against the holy God. So, what we really need is not self-forgiveness but God’s forgiveness. But how can a righteous God forgive guilty sinners?
We are fully forgiven through Jesus’ obedient, single sacrifice of Himself.
Our passage in Hebrews wraps up the letter’s main point about how Jesus is the better high priest who establishes a better covenant through his better sacrifice. Why does this matter? It’s so that we trust in Jesus — the only one who can fully and finally remedy our problem of guilt. Without Him, we cannot draw near to the holy God. But the big idea of this passage is good news for us: We are fully forgiven through Jesus’ obedient, single sacrifice of Himself.
We cannot be forgiven through mere religion (Heb 10:1-4)
As we heard from Hebrews 9, the old covenant law set forth a sacrificial system that culminated in the annual Day of Atonement. Once a year on that day, the high priest would enter the tabernacle’s Most Holy Place with the blood of bulls and goats to atone for sin. Then, the high priest would confess the people’s sins over a live goat and send it away into the wilderness. All this was a sign of God forgiving his people’s sins.
But these sacrifices offered under the law were not final. The law itself isn’t bad, just that it was not meant to be ultimate.
But these sacrifices offered under the law were not final. The law itself isn’t bad, just that it was not meant to be ultimate. Hebrews 10:1 says, “The law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities”. The old covenant sacrifices point to something greater as they foreshadow a better sacrifice that will truly atone for sin.
Therefore, the animal sacrifices cannot remove our guilt. It is “impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Heb 10:4), because if these sacrifices were actually effective, then why would they need to be offered again and again every year? Instead, the repetition of the animal sacrifice under the old covenant law was meant to be a constant “reminder of sins every year” (Heb 10:3). The sacrifices highlighted the people’s need for full and final forgiveness. Because the animals sacrifices were unable to cleanse anyone from sin and make them holy, Old Testament Israel lived with the “consciousness of sins” (Heb 10":2). They had no assurance to boldly approach God as his forgiven people. Holy God and sinful man remained separated. They looked forward to a Saviour.
If the rituals of the old covenant law had no power to save, then even more useless are our man-made attempts to be right with God. No amount of good conduct or good works can earn us God’s forgiveness. We cannot draw near to God on our own.
Not what my hands have done
Can save my guilty soul;
Not what my toiling flesh has borne
Can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do
Can give me peace with God;
Not all my prayers,
And sighs and tears
Can bear my awful load.
We are forgiven through Jesus’ obedient sacrifice (Heb 10:5-10)
Therefore, when Jesus came, He did not offer any animal sacrifices. Jesus’ mission was to do the will of God the Father, by laying down His life to save sinners. Quoting the words of David in Psalm 40:5-7, the author of Hebrews says what God truly requires is not animal sacrifices but genuine obedience. King David, unlike his predecessor Saul, was a man after God’s own heart. Because Saul disobeyed, God rejected him from being king. The prophet Samuel said to Saul: “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.” (1 Sam. 15:22)
Even the Old Testament reveals what God requires of us: not religious rituals, but our wholehearted devotion and obedience to him. Because God alone is worthy of our worship, He calls us to love him with our entire being—our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The animal sacrifices were not supposed to be ultimate. Without true obedience from the heart, religious rituals and practices are empty and useless. Do we love and obey God from the heart, or are we just going through the motions? Are we proud and self-righteous because we’re church-going folk who know the Bible well? “It is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.” (Rom 2:13) The truth is that none of us has perfectly obeyed God. We have all fallen short of His glorious holiness and righteousness. Even David sinned against God. What hope do we have of being forgiven and accepted by God?
This is God’s will: To save sinners like us through the sacrificial death of His Son and to make us His holy people.
Our only hope is a Saviour who makes us right with God by obeying God on our behalf. The good news is that God has spoken to us by His Son, Jesus. Unlike David, who failed, Jesus succeeded. He is the promised King who perfectly obeyed God. Jesus came to do God’s will, as Hebrews 10:10 tells us. This is God’s will: To save sinners like us through the sacrificial death of His Son and to make us His holy people.
If we are in Christ, then we have been made holy. Notice how “sanctified” here is in past tense. In the Bible, sanctification doesn’t only refer to the process of growing in holiness. Here, it refers to the fundamental change in our position from darkness to light, from unholy to holy. Jesus has cleansed us from the guilt of sin and set us apart for God. We have a new identity as God’s holy people. Therefore, let’s do God’s will by sharing the gospel with others, that they might also be saved from sin and made holy in Christ.
How deep the Father's love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure
By this we know love: that God sent His Son to the cross to save the guilty and godless. God did not spare His beloved Son but gave Him up for us all. Praise God, for he is the ultimate source of our salvation. Jesus died for us because the Father loves us. Jesus obeyed His Father through pain and sorrow (c.f. Heb 5:8). Jesus obeyed the Father all the way to the cross. Jesus “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8).
Jesus offered Himself freely for the ungodly and ungrateful. He died for sinners who hated Him.
None of the animal sacrifices gave themselves freely as their lives were taken from them against their will. But Jesus offered Himself freely for the ungodly and ungrateful. He died for sinners who hated Him. Through His obedient sacrifice, Jesus “does away with the first” (Heb 10:9), meaning He has fulfilled the law and done away with all the sacrifices under the old covenant. This was “in order to establish the second” (Heb 10:9), which means Jesus has brought us into a new covenant relationship with God. If we believe in Jesus, then we now belong to God because of what Christ has done.
So, why trust in anything or anyone else? If we repent and believe in Jesus, He credits His righteousness to us. Jesus has obeyed for us, that we might be right with God. As God’s word says in Romans 5:19b, “By the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”
Are we filled with regret and shame over sins past and present? Maybe we’ve cherished secret sins that we’re ashamed of. Maybe we’ve hurt our loved ones with our impatience and harsh words. Perhaps we’re struggling with anger, bitterness, and resentment. Or, we might be holding on to unforgiveness. Maybe we’ve been unfaithful, unloving, and unmerciful. Perhaps we’ve lusted after fleshly desires and worldly things. Are we disappointed and ashamed about how often we’ve stumbled and fallen? Lay the burden of our guilt at the cross of Christ.
Come, ye weary, heavy-laden
Lost and ruined by the fall
If you tarry ‘till you’re better
You will never come at all
Trust that God will forgive us because of Jesus’ obedience, not ours. So, come to Jesus now and rest in His finished work. Draw near to God with the full assurance that Jesus has obeyed for us. He has opened the way for us to boldly approach God to receive grace and mercy. Then, having been forgiven by God, let us follow our obedient Saviour by also offering ourselves as a living sacrifice to God, to do His will for His glory.
We are forgiven through Jesus’ single sacrifice (Heb 10:11-18)
We have been cleansed and made holy through Jesus’ sacrifice “once for all” (Heb 10:10b). We are forgiven through Jesus’ single sacrifice. It is sufficient to save— it does not need to be repeated or added to. Jesus is enough.
Having “offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins” (Heb 10:12a), Jesus’ work is done. Beloved, do we realise that we cannot be more forgiven than we are now, for Jesus has really paid it all? Take comfort from the cross. The guilt of all our sins—past, present, and future—has been borne by Christ. It is finished. Therefore, Jesus “sat down at the right hand of God” (Heb 10:12b). This refers to Psalm 110:1, “The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’” Because Jesus obeyed all the way to the cross, God has highly exalted His Son. Jesus is risen and ascended in glory, worthy of all worship. He now prays and advocates for us before God on the basis of His finished work. So let’s arise and go to Christ, our great high priest.
He ever lives above,
For us to intercede.
His all-redeeming love,
His precious blood to plead.
How different it is from the Old Testament priests, who had to stand daily at service because their work was never done. Day after day, month after month, year after year, the priests had to “offer repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins” (Heb 10:11).
But if we are in Christ, there is “no longer any consciousness of sins” (Heb 10:2). This does not mean we are no longer aware of our sinfulness, or that there is no need for us to repent anymore. The Holy Spirit still convicts us of sin and leads us to repentance. But this conviction is not condemnation, for in Christ we are no longer guilty. Through the cross, our consciences are cleansed. We are assured of God’s forgiveness. Therefore, we have the confidence to run to God and not run away from Him when we fall. We confess and repent because God has shown us grace in Christ, not to earn God’s grace.
Biblical confession is not a morbid, overly introspective dwelling on sin … [but we] humbly and honestly acknowledges our sins to God, and also trust Him to show us grace and mercy. It focuses on Christ, not ourselves. Biblical confession is a gracious reminder of our need for Jesus.
Biblical confession is not a morbid, overly introspective dwelling on sin, thinking we can be acceptable to God if we beat ourselves up enough. Biblical confession humbly and honestly acknowledges our sins to God, and also trusts Him to show us grace and mercy. It focuses on Christ, not ourselves. Biblical confession is a gracious reminder of our need for Jesus. In the words of 19th century Scottish pastor Robert Murray McCheyne, “For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ.”
We look to Jesus because of his single, all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins. We look to Jesus because He is coming back. Jesus is “waiting…until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet” (Heb 10:13). Jesus will make all things new. He will right all the wrongs. Jesus has defeated sin and Satan. He will return to complete His victory by judging His enemies and conquering the final enemy—death. Are you Jesus’ friend or enemy? Repent and believe in Him. Don’t reject Him, or you will face His judgment.
But if we belong to Jesus, we look forward with eager longing for His return. We have a sure hope because Jesus has, by a single offering, “perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (Heb 10:14). Therefore, we ought to be holy because we have been made holy. Our resurrection and glory are guaranteed because we are fully forgiven in Christ. We shall be raised with Him, perfectly pure and blameless. Yes, we are still being sanctified. We are still a work in progress, so let’s be patient and bear with one another. We still struggle with sin now, but our victory is certain in Christ. So, press on and don’t give up. Hold fast to our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
The Spirit “bears witness to us” (Heb 10:15), assuring us we are forgiven in Christ. How? By speaking to us through Scripture. What the Bible says, the Spirit says. To be Spirit-filled is to have God’s word dwell in us richly. The Spirit assures us through God’s promise of the new covenant in Jeremiah 31. Our assurance is founded on God’s faithfulness to His word. This doesn’t change, regardless of our feelings or circumstances. Assurance means being assured of what God has done through His Son. If we have trusted in Christ alone, then God reassures us with these wonderful words: “I will remember (your) sins and (your) lawless deeds no more.” (Heb 10:17) Because Jesus paid it all, God no longer holds our sins against us. There is no condemnation if we are in Christ.
Because Jesus paid it all, God no longer holds our sins against us. There is no condemnation if we are in Christ. … Are we still trying to make ourselves acceptable to God through our own efforts? Rest and rejoice in Jesus’ finished work.
“Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.” (Heb 10:18) Beloved, we are finally and fully forgiven in Christ. There is nothing else we can or need to do to be accepted by God. Are we still trying to make ourselves acceptable to God through our own efforts? Rest and rejoice in Jesus’ finished work. Happy is the one whose sin is covered! Speak this good newsgospel to ourselves when we’re tempted by self-righteous pride to rely on our works to gain God’s favour, or when we’re discouraged by our sins.
When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within
Upward I look and see him there
Who made an end to all my sin
Because the sinless Saviour died
My sinful soul is counted free
For God the just is satisfied
To look on him and pardon me
But full and free forgiveness in Christ does not give us a blank cheque to do whatever we want.Not at all, because the blessing of the new covenant is that it transforms us from the inside-out. God has written His laws on our hearts and minds (Heb 10:16), that we might genuinely obey Him from the heart. In Christ, we are a new creation. As our statement of faith says: “Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God's grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. ”Our old, sinful self has been crucified with Christ. We have been raised with Him to new life. Jesus makes us holy.
Therefore, beloved, live as God’s holy people. Since Christ has made an end to sin, don’t live as though sin still controls us. Forgiven people are obedient people. Because Jesus has removed ourburden of guilt, we have true joy and hope. We can forgive others, for God has first forgiven us. Don’t neglect to meet together. Gather regularly to praise God. Encourage one another to cling to Christ and to trust in Him for the forgiveness of our sins. Spur one another on to love and good works. Help one another to persevere in Christ and not drift away. Draw near to God together.