The sacrificial system had been a part of the worship of the Jews since the time of Moses, and was given to him by the very word of God. How could Christians claim that essentially everything about the worship in the temple was no longer necessary, and in fact had come to an end? Such a radical change in worship! The writer of Hebrews argues that the law was only a hint of the real thing, but Jesus was the reality that the law suggested. The failure of the sacrificial system to remove sin completely was evident in the fact that the sacrifices had to be offered over an over. Most importantly, the blood of bulls and goats failed because they could not silence the accusing voice of the conscience. The blood of Jesus, on the other hand, was able to accomplish perfectly God’s complete and full salvation because 1) the Son came in a human body, 2) He perfectly carried out the will of God, 3) it was God’s will to offerthat body as the supreme substitutionary, atoning sacrifice for sin. So perfect is its working in heaven and earth that we stand blameless before God, and without guilt or blame in our on conscience. The result is radically liberating, as a condemning conscience is at the root of all kinds of human dysfunction. We break free from our human dysfunction as we come to understand how complete and perfect the work of Jesus is, and as His life which is resident in His shed blood operates in us so that we also do God’s will in all of life.
