Hebrews 9:13–14 — For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Hebrews 10:1–2 — For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins?
Hebrews 10:12–14 — but He [Jesus], having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, 13 waiting from that time onward UNTIL HIS ENEMIES BE MADE A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET. 14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.
We are continuing to see how the Lord's Supper proclaims there can be only one way of salvation. Last time we thought about the fact that the shedding of blood (the giving up of a life) is essential in any plan to save people from the death penalty they deserve on account of their sin. In this meditation, we will see that not just any blood could be shed to save fallen sinners.
The writer to the Hebrews tells us in the first passage above that all the blood of the sacrifices offered under the ceremonial law only made the worshipers outwardly clean - it did nothing to cleanse their consciences from the guilt of their sins. So hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of animals were slain in the Old Testament ceremonies, but their blood did not provide a permanent remedy for sin. All that it did was to supply an outward cleansing so that God could dwell in the midst of His people without His wrath breaking out against their sin.
It is man that has sinned against God, and the blood of animal sacrifices cannot fully cleanse that sin the writer to the Hebrews is indicating. Only the blood of man can make atonement for the sin of man. But now we run into another problem, because all men are sinners before God. Each of us has his own sin that needs to be atoned for - our lifeblood cannot atone for the sins of another man when it is already forfeit on account of our own sin. In fact, even if there was an ordinary man or woman who never sinned at all (and there isn't, because we are all descended from Adam and held accountable for his sin) that man or woman could only give their life in exchange for the life of one other sinner.
In order to save fallen mankind, then, we must find a sinless man (not descended in Adam's line) who lived a perfect life on earth and whose life is of infinite value. Such a man could give his life as a ransom for a countless multitude of sinners. But where shall we find such a man as this? Only the God-man, Christ Jesus, has a life of such value in God's sight, so only His blood can make full atonement for the sins of a countless multitude. That's what the writer to the Hebrews indicates in the passages above.
And so it follows that there really can be no other way of salvation. Our sins are committed against a God of infinite holiness - they are infinite offenses. They can only be cleansed away by a sacrifice of infinite merit. The only sacrifice that qualifies is that of the Lord Jesus Christ, when He laid down His life on the cross, having taken the sins of His people upon Himself. To obtain the cleansing of their consciences, Old Testament worshipers had to look beyond the animal sacrifices to the Perfect Sacrifice they prefigured. They had to put their faith in the Savior Who was to come, in Whose blood there is full atonement.
That is why He said no-one can come to the Father except through Him, and that is why Peter said there is salvation in no other name than that of Jesus. There are no other candidates who come even remotely close to meeting the qualifications that Scripture clearly specifies. Only Jesus can do it. All the other alleged paths to God fail, either because they entail no substitutionary forfeiture of life, or because the savior they put forward does not possess a life of sufficient merit.
When we come to the Lord's Table, we come to a reminder of the one and only way of salvation - of the God man, Christ Jesus, Who laid down His life to pay the penalty for the sins of His people. This should make us long to come and adore Him, marveling at the way the Gospel is so wonderfully tailored to meet our greatest need!
