Hebrews 10:1-4 – The inadequacy of the old rituals

In these verses we see that Christ had not only offered a better sacrifice but also a perfect sacrifice. The author reveals that the people’s sacrifices offered to God were merely outward conformity to the Law with no inward desire to please Him. They were mere acts of worship minus the true willingness of the heart to know Him. The author’s primary concern here was to help his readers to progress from a formal empty religion to a state of genuine union of their wills and faith in God.

We are reminded that the Mosaic Law, being only a shadow, could never possibly bring a person into an intimate relationship with God. The Law only dealt with the external and not the internal. Despite the repeated offering year after year, it still could never bring a person close to God. The two words “make perfect” do not mean to make sinless but rather to make perfect in one’s access to God. The author wanted them to know that their animal sacrifices did not solve their sin problem. Moral defilement could not be removed by mere physical outward means. For that reason, despite their repeated offering of the same sacrifice, they were not liberated from the guilt of their sins.

Asking a rhetorical question in verse 2, the author implied that the animal sacrifices had not been effective. If they were, the people who offered them would no longer be conscious of the guilt of their sins and they would not have to offer anymore sacrifice. The fact that they needed to offer sacrifices again and again proved the inadequacy of their repeated offerings. Verse 3 looks back on the Day of Atonement, where the yearly dramatic exercise of offering animals was carried out with the intention to deal with their sins. Since those sacrifices offered year after year were ineffective, they had become an annual reminder rather than a removal of sins. The author went on to underscore the fact that the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. Thus, the author said that the Old Covenant sacrifices were inadequate.

While the Old Testament rituals indicate a person’s need to deal with his guilt-ridden conscience, they provided no way to bring him into an abiding relationship with God. We can now appreciate all that our Lord went through. He paid an awesome price to make perpetual relationship with God possible. 

What grace is mine, that He who dwells in endless light

Called through the night to find my distant soul

And from His scars poured mercy that would plead for me

That I might live and in His name be known

So I will go wherever He is calling me

I lose my life to find my life in Him

I give my all to gain the hope that never dies

I bow my heart, take up my cross and follow Him!