3. We have a Redeemer

6. “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 of-fered? 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, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Heb. 10:1-4).

The major points we wish to bring out from this text are:

a. In ancient Israel, animals were sacrificed by the people to cover their sins.
b. The blood of sacrificed animals did not take away the sins of the people.
c. Animal sacrifices were a shadow of good things to come.

7. “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life” (Lev. 17:11).

The reason why the blood of the animal was used in the sacrifices offered by ancient Israel is answered in this verse, “For the life of a creature is in the blood.” Blood is a symbol of life. This point may not seem like much at this time, but its importance will be understood more clearly in a future lesson.

8. Please notice the use of this word atonement in the verse quoted in the preceding paragraph. The blood of sacrificed animals was used to make an “atonement” for the sins of the people of Israel. To “atone’” means to appease or satisfy another who has been wronged. Accord-ing to the Masoretic text, which is the Jewish version of the Old Testament, “atone” means to “reconcile two enemies.” God and mankind were made enemies because of sin. The sac-rifices Israel made were supposed to show they were again “at one” with God. The enemies were reconciled. God was appeased, or satisfied.

9. Hebrews 9:22, referring to Israel’s animal sacrifices, says, “In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no for-giveness.”

10. According to Lev. 16:14, the animal’s blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat by the high priest. In the NIV, this is called an “atonement cover.” The mercy seat was the only place appointed by God from which Israel could gain God’s mercy for its sins.

11. Lev. 4:3,23,28,32 states that the animals used by Israel for sacrifices had to be without defects. In other words, they had to be as close to perfect as could be found.

12. Earlier in this lesson we learned from Heb. 10:1-4 that the sacrifices performed by Israel did not take away the sins from the people, or as stated in those verses, “make perfect those who draw near.” We further learned from this text, “But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins” (vs. 4). The sacrifices by ancient Israel were offered to cover over the sins of the people from year to year. The reason they were never capable of removing the sins is be-cause the life of the animals was not equal to the life that was lost to sin in Eden, namely, the perfect human life of Adam.

13. According to Exodus 21:12,24, God’s just laws required a penalty of equal value to match every crime. This need for equal value was built into all of God’s laws. “Anyone who strikes a man and kills him shall surely be put to death” and “eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot” (NIV) are verses that show equal justice--a “life for a life” (v. 23).

14. Since what was lost in Eden because of sin was a perfect human life, only something of equal value to that perfect human life of Adam could redeem mankind from the death penal-ty. Another perfect human life had to be offered as a sacrifice.

15. We learn from reading Psa. 49:7-9 that no man can redeem his brother from death or offer God a ransom for him. Job 14:4 tells us why: “Who can bring what is pure from the im-pure? No one!”

16. Notice how, in the theme text of this lesson (Heb. 10:1-4), God let the sacrifices of ancient Israel be a “shadow,” or illustration “of the good things that are to come.” It was a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ and his work of redemption on our behalf. You will learn in the next lesson how he was a fulfillment of that “shadow” and how he now offers life through him-self, where once there was but death through Adam.

1. The Bible clearly states that Jesus was a perfect human being while here on earth. He was “....undefiled, separate from sinners” (Heb. 7:26). 1 Peter 1:19,20 declares that at the time of his death, Jesus was as a “lamb without blemish and without defect” (that he had no spots or impurities).

2. Going back to the previous lesson, you will recall how Lev. 4 showed that the animals used in the sacrifices had to be “without defect.” Notice how Jesus was described in the same way in 1 Pet. 1:19.

a. Lev. 4:3,23,28,32: The animals sacrificed had to be without defect.
b. 1 Pet. 1:19: Jesus was as a sacrificial lamb, without blemish or defect (perfect).
c. Heb. 10:1-4: The sacrifices of ancient Israel were as a shadow (illustration) of Jesus and his work of sacrifice on our behalf.

3. It is written of Jesus in Isa. 53:7-10 that “he was led like a lamb to the slaughter....he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken....” In the 10th verse we read how the LORD “made his life a guilt offering.” This last part is rendered “make his soul an offering for sin” in the KJV.

4. On one occasion Jesus spoke of the sacrifice he soon would offer to God when he said, “....the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:51 KJV). We read in 1 Peter 1:18,19 how he stated that Jesus, the “lamb,” was offered as a sacrifice for our sins. By his blood we are redeemed!

5. In the previous lesson, we learned from Heb. 10:1-4 that the blood of bulls and goats used in the sacrifices of ancient Israel could not take away the people’s sins, because the life of an animal was not equal to the perfect human life of Adam, which in Eden became lost through sin. However, the perfect human life of Jesus indeed WAS equal to that which was lost. Since his was a perfect human life, it could and DID take away the people’s sins. “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29 KJV).

6. “Propitiation” is found three times in the KJV of the Bible. Twice it is translated from the Greek word hilasmos, which means “atonement”--that is, an expiator (Rom. 3:25 and 1 John 2:2). In 1 John 4:10 it is translated from the Greek word hilasterion, which means “an expi-atory” (place or thing)--that is to say, an atoning victim, or specifically, the lid of the ark of the covenant in the Most Holy of the Tabernacle. In Heb. 9:5 this latter Greek word is trans-lated “the mercy seat.” In all three verses, “propitiation” is pertaining to the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. Going back to the previous lesson, you will also recall how we learned from Lev. 16:14 that it was the “mercy seat” or atonement cover on which the blood of the sacrificed animals was sprinkled. It represented the place of God’s mercy to Israel for its sins.

7. Jesus, through his death and resurrection, became the propitiation, or mercy seat, the source of God’s mercy to us. This is why he is called the “propitiation” in the New Testment. We read in 1 John 2:2, “And he is the propitiation (he appeases) for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (KJV). In the NIV, this verse is rendered, “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice (propitiation) for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

8. In Rom. 3:25 the Apostle Paul told us that God made Jesus “a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission (forgiveness) of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God” (KJV). The NIV says God made him “a sacrifice of atone-ment.” The word propitiation as used in the KJV means “a place of propitiation.” Jesus is that place, our mercy seat.

9. Earlier in this lesson, we referred you to John 6:51. After reading it again, notice that in verse 53 of the same chapter, Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” His statement was very hard for the listening Jews to understand. Likewise, many people today still find it hard to under-stand and even harder to accept. They fail to comprehend the symbolic meaning of this verse, even though Matthew said of Jesus in 13:34 that he never said anything to the people without using a parable. Accordingly, many are stumbled by that verse. We read in John 6:66 how many who heard Jesus say those words “turned back and no longer followed him.” One reason so many people cannot understand the words Jesus spoke on this subject is be-cause they do not have the spirit of God and cannot elevate their minds and hearts into the spiritual things of God.

10. It is only natural that the people of his day found it hard to understand what Jesus meant, if they didn’t know what was pictured in the parables. In the preceding paragraph, we referred to Matt. 13:34: “Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say any-thing to them without using a parable.” We should try to comprehend the symbolic meaning of what was said in parables. We have the Bible and many other helps today to aid us.

11. The reason Jesus used parables when speaking to the crowds is explained in Matt. 13:10-12. He told his disciples that it was for them, his true followers, to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven; but it was not to be that the others should understand. Since the rest were not ready for the entire message, the less they knew, the less for which they would be held accountable. If we are among those now who have been granted an understanding of the deep things of God’s Word, we must not fall into the trap of attaching literal meanings to any of the things which our Lord spoke to the multitude in parables.

12. The words of Jesus, in reference to eating his flesh and drinking his blood, are easily under-stood when we view them in their proper symbolic perspective. We symbolically eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood by accepting or partaking of, with faith, Christ and his sacrificial work on our behalf. We learn from 1 John 1:7 that the blood of Jesus “pu-rifies us from all sin.” Rev. 1:5 states that Jesus “washed us from our sins in his own blood” (KJV). We also read in Eph. 1:6,7 that we have “redemption” through the blood of Christ and we are now acceptable to God.

13. We should pause here for a moment and reflect on exactly what is symbolized by the blood of Christ. Consider what we learned in the previous lesson about sacrifices, where Lev. 17:11 states, “the life of a creature is in the blood.” Blood is a symbol of life. In respect to Jesus, his blood symbolized his perfect human life which was sacrificed on our behalf. It is his sacrificed life (the blood of Christ) that cleanses or purifies us from our sins (1 John 1:7).

Since Jesus is the only way we can approach the Father in order to gain God’s mercy, we must “drink the blood” of Jesus. We do this by accepting the sacrifice of his life as an atonement for our sins.

14. In the first lesson of this study, we touched briefly on the fact that the only way Israel could approach God was through its high priest, who sprinkled the blood of animals on the mercy seat to cover over the sins of the people from year to year. The high priest in ancient Israel was a shadow or picture of “good things to come.” It was Jesus who became the fulfillment of that shadow and who is now our High Priest.

15. Jesus is by FAR a greater High Priest than any of those who served ancient Israel. Israel had no hope whatsoever of being saved from Adamic death by way of their high priests. Alt-hough their sins were covered over from year to year through animal sacrifices performed by their high priests, the sacrifices were not equal to the perfect human life lost in Eden. The priests, therefore, could not redeem the people from the death penalty passed down since Eden. Only a sacrifice of equal value to Adam’s perfect human life could redeem the human race from death. As you have already learned, only Jesus was able to meet that requirement. The sacrifice of his perfect human life did INDEED redeem mankind from the death penalty.

16. Heb. 10:10 states that Jesus offered himself up “once for all.” No longer was there ever a need of yearly sacrifices. Reading further in this text, in verses 11-21 we find that after Je-sus offered himself up as a sacrifice, he then entered into heaven as our High Priest. Through him, there now exists a High Priest who can offer us something no priest of Israel ever was able to offer--namely, eternal life.

17. “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens (into heav-en), Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin. Let us

then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Heb. 4:14-16). What more could we ask for?

1. When Adam and Eve sinned, God’s law sentenced them to death. Sin and death then con-tinued down through all generations, according to Rom. 5:12. God’s same law, however, provided a way for the human race to be redeemed from the death penalty. The Apostle Paul wrote in Rom. 3:23-26 that God is just and is the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Verse 23 shows that all mankind has sinned and fallen short of God’s righteous laws. However, we are justified through faith in the shed blood of Christ.

2. Before Christ came and paid the price, we had no advocate to appeal to God on our behalf. We stood condemned as sinners. In Eph. 2:3 Paul called us “children (objects) of wrath.” But our Lord Jesus DID come, and he presented his perfect human life as a sacrifice on our behalf. God’s just law was satisfied. It is written of Jesus in 1 Pet. 2:24, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.”

3. The word justified means “to be made right.” We are not justified or made right through our own righteousness, but rather by faith in our Lord Jesus and believing the sacrifice of his perfect human life satisfied God’s just law.

4. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1 KJV). This verse points out that it is faith in our Lord Jesus that justifies us (makes us right) with God.

5. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17 KJV). This verse explains why it is important for each of us to study God’s Word. The only way to be sure our faith is based on truth is to know it is based on God’s Book of Truth, the Bible.

6. “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his phys-ical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by ac-tion, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds.’ Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do” (James 2:14-18).

Though it is faith in Jesus that justifies or makes us right with God, this text points to the fact that good deeds are also important. Anyone who claims to be saved because of his faith in Jesus, yet doesn’t perform the deeds that should always accompany such a faith, doesn’t even understand what the word faith implies. We must be obedient to God and do what He wants us to do.

7. Jesus Christ is our only access to the Father. Not for one moment could we ever hope to stand before God on our own merit, to gain justification. Rather, we must have faith that his sacrifice paid the full price for our sins. The deeds that God expects us to perform serve to prove we have accepted Jesus and his sacrifice on our behalf. Such deeds also help to strengthen and maintain our faith. This bears repeating: “I will show you my faith by what I do,” in obedience to God’s will.

8. “For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you” (John 13:15 KJV). If we indeed believe that Jesus died for

us to pay the debt we owe, what we do in our lifetime will testify to such a belief. In our ac-tions with other people, we must remember these words of Jesus, how his life was an exam-ple to us. We should treat others in the same manner that Jesus treats us.

9. Another work required of us is found in Jude 3, where we are told to “earnestly contend for the faith.” Paul, in 1 Cor. 16:13, tells us to “stand fast (firm) in the faith.” If salvation was guaranteed to us apart from Jesus, it would not be necessary to contend or stand fast.

10. Romans 6:11 & 12 states another work we must perform--our fight against sin. We are sup-posed to be dead to sin.

11. “You were taught with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:22-24). Here we find still another work we must do as new creatures in Christ, if we have that faith. In the KJV, this text tells us to “put on the new man.”

12. According to the Apostle John (17:3), we must perform the work of gaining knowledge of God and Jesus in order to gain eternal life as the bride of Christ, and sit with him on his throne.

13. In the preceding paragraphs, we have related a few of the works (deeds) that must accompa-ny our faith, in order that we be acceptable to God. Please take notice how each of these works involves a personal effort on our part. Our fight for the faith that leads unto salvation is neither effortless nor blind. Even the Apostle Paul told us about the hard fight for the faith he fought all his life. (See 2 Tim. 4:7,8) Yes, Paul had faith in Christ, but he was also aware of the deeds that had to accompany that faith.

14. Paul realized that he could not fight this battle in his own strength. He knew that he needed the power and strength that Jesus would give him. Read Rom. 8:37 and Phil. 4:13.

15. Even though God wants us to mold our characters according to His Word, when we do fall short of His expectations because of our human imperfections, we have Jesus, our High Priest, to intercede on our behalf. “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Heb. 4:14-16).

How thankful we are that God, in His great love and mercy, has provided us with such a glo-rious High Priest, Christ Jesus, our Redeemer!