Hebrews Chapter Ten, Dealing With Impossibilities

 

Hebrews 10:4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.

 

Verse 4 has numerous implications worth consideration. The writer wants us to be assured, “for it is not possible” that the blood shed on Jewish altars could take away sins. The NKJV and KJV render the verse this way, while the NIV, NASB, ESV, HCSB, and RSV simply substitute the word impossible, with various synonyms.

We have entered the realm of impossibility. But what is impossible? Blood shed by men cannot remove the sin we are guilty of. Micah writes, “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” Micah 6:6, 7.

 

Micah labored under the same consideration the writer of Hebrews currently expounds upon. Except the prophet goes further, almost in a state of desperation, seeking how to make amends with an offended, holy God. Micah put forth THOUSANDS of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil, as an offering. Then, going one giant step further, even contemplates the death of his child in his place to atone for the guilt of his sin. But even when asking these questions (rhetorically, of course), Micah reveals the fatal flaw in his thinking. The fruit of his body for the sin of his soul. Nothing fleshly or earthly compares to what is spiritual and eternal. Animal blood and oil cannot cleanse or sanctify spiritual guilt.

 

Jesus told Nicodemus, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit,” John 3:6. Our Lord taught the Pharisee that a man born into this world is physically alive but spiritually dead, unless he is born again. Spiritual life must be bestowed to reach this coveted state. If it is so with the new birth, it is so with how the new birth is affected. Physical things will not have any bearing on spiritual maladies. Only like begets like. That is why Isaiah wrote of Christ, saying that the Father would make His soul an offering for sin. It wasn’t Christ’s physical body and blood that saved us; it was the offering of Himself to God, laying down His life, enduring in Himself the punishment that was our due. His death, or the separation of soul from body, secured our salvation. He suffered separation from the Father so that He might bring us to God.

 

The Biblical concept of life entails a soul dwelling within and giving life to the body. “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being,” Genesis 2:7. Solomon, writing of death, says, “Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it,” Ecclesiastes 12:7. The accounting of our soul to God is between Him and us, Micah’s earnest (or desperate) attempt to offer his child in his place could not be accepted. His child, like Micah (and us) is a sinner, and needs redemption from his own sin. We have no ability to save ourselves, much less anyone else. Solomon discreetly reminds us that God gave us life: “the spirit will return to God who gave it.”

 

All that we have is a gift of divine grace. Therefore nothing we offer could hope to be counted in our favor, since God owns all, including our lives. Only an autonomous man, one who owes no one anything and owns himself and all he has would have any hope of saving himself; but such a man would not need salvation because such a man would not be answerable to anyone. Paul, writing about justification by human effort, states, “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God,” Romans 3:19. The entire world is a broad field, in which every soul without exception is guilty before God. Why? We are not autonomous. Autonomy is a myth; God is the Creator, the Justifier, the Savior of Adam’s race, to whom we all belong.

 

Think of it a different way. Suppose you worked for a prestigious bank, and over the course of time embezzled $100,000. When you were caught, you endeavored to repay the debt with the very money you stole, under the logic that by returning that which didn’t belong to you to begin with, you have made amends. This is why animal sacrifice won’t avail. “For every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills…for the world is Mine, and all its fullness,” Psalm 50:10, 12.

 

Works salvation is what is being addressed in this passage. The Jews believed that their righteousness came rigid obedience. The repetition of the sacrifice disqualified it as being efficacious for what they desired it to do. Such is the point the writer is laboring to make. If you believe in Jesus Christ, you ARE saved immediately and forever. It is once and finished. If you are working to be saved, your work will never end. The priests at the altar always stood, ministering, because their work was never finished. It was indicative that this method, though commanded by God, was not salvific. Unfortunately, this method was taken by the primitive Roman church in the first centuries after Christ and perpetuated to this day. There was never meant to be a clergy/laity separation; nor were there ever meant to be priests ministering daily things that cannot take away sin, insulting the Spirit of grace instead of providing what they promise. Rome (and all who drink from the venomous cup of works salvation) needs to hearken to Hebrews chapters 9 and 10.

 

Temporal things cannot erase sin. It is not possible, NKJV, KJV. It is impossible, NIV, NASB et al. Verse 3 said that such sacrifices, perpetuated as they were, served to remind the worshiper of their sin. That is their purpose. “The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith,” Galatians 3:24. “But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,” Romans 4:5. The impossibility of working to merit life is a folly that followed the Jews past the time of Christ, and infiltrated the church through Rome, under the guise of their bishop’s infallible supremacy, allegedly derived from Peter. But the word of God is clear: human effort does not earn eternal life. It does not pardon guilt; rather, it adds to it, Hebrews 10:3, 26.