“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 and 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. … we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest [Jesus] had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time He waits for His enemies to be made His footstool, because by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. …” Hebrews 10:1-18
As a “shadow,” the Law is only a pale reflection, a mere outline or silhouette, and is thus unsubstantial. The Ten Commandments, the Book of the Covenant, and the Tabernacle only foreshadow the reality of Christ. And as a shadow, the Law had substantial imperfections, “But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” Of course, the author of Hebrews is not the first to understand that animal blood would not atone for sins. The writers of Scripture had been alert to this for centuries. David’s repentant words head the list: “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” [Psalm 51:16, 17].
Or consider also Samuel’s words to King Saul: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams” [1 Samuel 15:22].
The Lord spoke to Isaiah: “The multitude of your sacrifices – what are they to me? I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings!” [Isaiah 1:11-13].
God said through Hosea, “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings” [Hosea 6:6]. And Amos shared God’s thoughts about wrong-hearted sacrifices: "I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring me choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!" [Amos 5:21-24].
Lastly, we can conclude with the words of Micah: “With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” [Micah 6:6-8].
It is a fact that at the time of Christ many pious Jews honored the sacrificial system and even offered sacrifices, but realized that those sacrifices could not remove sin. This is why, when the Temple was destroyed some thirty years after Jesus’ death, the people so easily adapted. They understood that animal sacrifice was insufficient to obtain forgiveness.
Because the old system could not take away their sin, it produced a second imperfection – a guilty conscience. The result was, as v. 3 points out, that the sacrifices remained as “an annual reminder of sins.” As a matter of fact, the Day of Atonement increased the burden of those with sensitive hearts. The Day’s well-defined ritual was constructed to aggravate one’s conscience. The shadow of the Old Covenant Law and sacrifice inflamed the unrequited need for forgiveness and a clear conscience. The photograph, so to speak, pictured what could be and activated an ache for the reality. The Old Covenant simply could not “make perfect those who draw near to worship” [v. 1]. It was good, as far as it went. But it was frustratingly inadequate.
Of course, the Godhead was not unaware of this, and beginning in v. 5 we have a brief synopsis of the conversation that took place when Jesus elected to come into the world as a man. It is interesting to note that our pre-incarnate Savior quotes Psalm 40 as being prophetic of His thoughts at His human birth. David had spoken it 1000 years earlier, but Christ in Heaven took it and reapplied it, so as to describe His own inner thinking and dialogue with the Father when He came into the world saying in essence: “My Father, the Old Testament sacrifices have proven unsatisfactory, so you have prepared a body for Me, that I might become a pleasing sacrifice.” The fact was that though God had instituted blood animal sacrifices [Exodus 24], He had never been pleased with them and did not see them as ends in themselves. He had established them as object lessons to instruct His people about the sinfulness of their hearts, His hatred of sin, the fact that sin leads to death, the need of an atonement, and His delight in those whose hearts were clean and obedient and faithful. But there was nothing appealing to Him in the sight of a dying animal. God had no pleasure in the moans and death-throes of lambs or bulls. What He did find pleasure in was those who offered a sacrifice with a contrite, obedient heart.
Having verbalized what the Father wanted – Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death – our Lord now states His joyous resolve: “Then I said, ‘Here I am – it is written about me in the scroll – I have come to do Your will, O God” [v. 7]. The great emphasis here is Christ’s exuberant determination and eagerness to obey the Father. He did not obey grudgingly or under duress but with joy! Just two chapters later, the writer tells us that Jesus endured the cross “for the joy set before Him” [12:2]. What is the application for us? Jesus’ joyous resolve to obediently do God’s will is the essence of the true sacrifice and worship that God desires. Jesus does what God desired from every worshipper under the Old Covenant. God did not want animal sacrifices. What He wanted and still wants is obedience! That is the only sacrifice that is acceptable to God.
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