Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon is the Epistle, which was read earlier.
Trials and temptations are nothing new for the Church. They have been and will always be a struggle for the Church this side of heaven. The devil’s goal is always the same, to lead believers away from pure devotion to Christ. We have seen the struggles with church councils throughout history. We have seen splits and divisions of the Church, time and time again. We have seen doctrine surrendered for numbers and programs. We have seen faithful churches bow to society and forsake God’s Word, all in order to appease man. All of this is Satan’s attempt to, as Luther says, “wrest the kingdom from [God’s] Son and bring to naught all He has done.” This is nothing new; it is Satan’s same bag of tricks. Each time, the Word of God has defeated Satan and it always will. However, that doesn’t stop him from trying to attack the Church.
The one and only answer to Satan’s attacks against the Church is Christ. Jesus came into this sin-filled world in response to the trickery of Satan to Adam and Eve. He lived the sinless life because of our sins. He died once for all to sin so that God’s creation would not die eternally to sin. For us 2000 years removed from Christ, we can understand this, but for those living at the time of Christ or shortly after, this was a hard concept to grasp.
Prior to Christ, man was cleansed from sin by the sacrifices they made and the yearly sacrifice of the high priest on behalf of the people. These sacrifices would make atonement for their sin but only for a time; they were not a once-for-all sacrifice. This is what the people knew and understood. This is what they practiced. This is what they were comfortable with. Now that Christ has come, everything has changed.
In our text for today, the writer to the Hebrews speaks about that which was old and how it has been replaced with that which is new. He speaks of Christ entering “not into holy places made with hands… but into heaven itself.” Instead of the high priests offering a bloody sacrifice for the people, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ has given Himself to be our Sacrifice.
Christ has come to fulfill the Old Covenant and establishes for us a New Covenant, one that is not made by human hands or requires human intervention, as did the Old Covenant. The Old Testament Covenant relied upon action by God and action by man. Man was required to make the sacrifice, either the people themselves or the high priest. Man had to keep the Law of God and keep it perfectly, for that is what God said to do. However, man cannot keep the Law of God in any aspect. There is not a single bit of God’s Law that we can keep because of our sin. In order for the Law to be kept perfectly, something had to change. A new Covenant had to be made. That Covenant was made by Jesus Christ and what He did for us.
The prophet Isaiah declared about the then-future Messiah, “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.” Jesus’ own disciple, St. John, comforted his readers then and us today with the firm pledge that “…the blood of Jesus [God’s] Son cleanses us from all sin.”
Jesus is the fulfillment of God and all that was promised of old, all in order to make good on God’s promise of salvation from so long ago. Instead of the priests of old making sacrifices on behalf of the people, Christ is the Great High Priest making the sacrifice for us, and not only is He the One making the sacrifice, He is the sacrifice. He is the One who gives Himself for God’s creation in order that it would be restored and we would be able to stand before God once again in the way that we were meant to: as God’s holy people and without sin.
So what must we do to become part of the New Covenant which Jesus speaks of? That question is our first mistake, for there is nothing that you or I could do to become part of this New Covenant, for it is Jesus Christ who has established the New Covenant for us. It was established by His life, death, and resurrection. It was established by His enduring death on the cross so we would have eternal life. It was established by Jesus Christ living a life perfectly which we could never do. This New Covenant has been established for you, with you in mind; not because you are a good person or have lived a good life. Rather, it was established for you because of the love which the Father has for His creation. God is not content with seeing His creation living in a world of sin. For that reason, he sent His Son as a sacrifice which no person could make themself, no sacrifice a high priest could ever make. All of this was done “to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.” When Christ our great High Priest entered the sanctuary of heaven, He fulfilled the role of the Old Testament high priest who went every year into the Most Holy Place. The priests of the Old Covenant entered a sanctuary made by human hands.
The reason Christ appeared before our Father in heaven was to show Himself to be the perfect and acceptable sacrifice for our sins. Christ did this once for all, meaning there would be no more need for sacrifices because His sacrifice would be all-sufficient. There would be no more need for Old Testament Law because Christ has fulfilled the Law in our place. That means there will be no more death. Yes, there will be a physical death, but there will no longer be a spiritual death as there was for Adam and Eve because of sin because Christ has died to sin, your sin and mine.
The words of our Lord Jesus Christ call upon His church to face boldly the reality of our own sin, death, judgment, eternity. While the world ignores such talk or pretends that these truths do not exist, we believe and confess that Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many. Whether we want to admit it or not, the many include us. That is why Paul said, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” We are the ungodly. Even though we are the ungodly, Christ died for us. Paul goes on to say, “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Even though we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The New Covenant, established by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, has been done by Him and will bring us to what He has won for us: the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. In Jesus’ name, amen. Now the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, amen.