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Teaching Text: Hebrews 10:1–18
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. Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers 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. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
I have come to do your will, my God.’”
First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once 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 had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
“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.”
Then he adds:
“Their sins and lawless acts
I will remember no more.”
And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.
Themes
Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:
Hebrews: A new and Living Way
Once and For All
Formation
Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:
Sermon Summary
“In the running for best 4th of July movie is The Sandlot — it begins with a middle-aged man walking into Dodger Stadium, through the corridors, into the broadcast booth. He takes his place and calls the game. Then he starts narrating the story of his favorite summer — the one where he moved to a new town and fell in love with baseball. By the end, we’re back in the booth, and everything makes sense in light of what came between.”
Hebrews does the same thing. It’s called an inclusio — a storytelling device where the beginning and end bookend everything in between, telling you it’s all one argument.
Hebrews opens with this:
“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”
– Hebrews 1:1–3
HE SAT DOWN.
Twelve weeks and ten chapters later, we land on the same phrase:
“But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”
– Hebrews 10:11–14
HE SAT DOWN.
This Jesus. This Messiah. This High Priest. Sat down.
Everything in between those two bookends is one argument: Jesus is better — better messenger, better expression of humanity, better Moses, better Sabbath, better high priest, better covenant, better sacrifice — and because His work is finished, He sat down.
Hebrews was written to a community under real pressure — resistance, persecution, exhaustion — to help them endure. And the thing that gives them the strength to keep going isn’t a technique. It’s who Jesus is. Chapter 10 pulls the whole inclusio together into four realities.
Your Redemption Has Been Accomplished
Christ sat down because His work is finished. This is why Jesus cries out Tetelestai — it is finished — on the cross. Hebrews is a book about the Atonement, and it hands us more than one picture of it: victory, substitution, ransom, cleansing of the conscience.
Two things make His sacrifice sufficient. His own holiness — no sin of His own to cover, so what He did on the cross stands forever, once for all. His own surrender to the Father’s will in love — not just standing in the gap where our will failed, but actually willing what the Father willed.
As we draw near to Jesus, wholeness and holiness become the same thing — a full, integrated life that is uniquely its own and completely belongs.
The Promises Go Back to the Beginning
This is a story woven together with great care and love. Even our starkest departures from God can still be woven into the tapestry of His redemption.
Whatever you think is too big a barrier — to you being accepted, or to the world being healed — God is able to weave it into the story.
There Is an Already and Not Yet to the Experience
We have been made holy, and we are being made holy — both true, both in Hebrews 10, one verse apart. Justification and sanctification. Adoption, inheritance, maturity. We live into an identity given to us by grace, and we grow into it by grace.
God is faithful to complete the work he has begun in us.
You Are Not Alone
God writes His law on our hearts and minds — not by force of will, but by filling our lives with His life. The Holy Spirit.
So — four realities. Redemption accomplished. Promises stretching back to the beginning. Already and not yet. Not alone.
Therefore, you can have confidence — in your freedom, in the story (the turns in the sandlot), in God’s commitment to your growth, in having what you need in the Spirit.
Pray. Communion.
Direct Quotes
“We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
— Hebrews 10:10
“For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”
— Hebrews 10:14
“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.”
— Hebrews 10:16
Three Questions for Personal Application
Do you actually believe your redemption is finished, or are you still quietly trying to earn what Christ already accomplished? Sit with the difference between resting in a finished work and working to feel worthy of it. Where does that distinction show up in how you pray, or how you talk to yourself after you fail?
Where do you doubt that your story — even your worst departure — can be woven into God’s redemption? Name the thing you think is too big, too far gone, or too shameful for God to use. Ask what it would mean to actually believe He’s still weaving it in.
Are you living in the “already” of who you are in Christ, or are you stuck waiting for the “not yet”? Notice where you feel most impatient with your own growth. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you one place He’s already made you holy, even while you’re still being made holy.
“For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”
— Hebrews 10:14
