App
Lyall Johnston—May 24, 2025
- Video - 
- PDF | Audio | [Up]
Last time we were looking at Heb. 10, so let's see what it is about the body of Christ, and why the body of Christ along with the blood of Christ, is just so vitally important to us today. We saw what Jesus is recorded as saying here through the pen of Paul:
Hebrews 10:5: "For this reason, when He comes into the world, He says, 'Sacrifice and offering You… [the Father] …did not desire, but You have prepared a body for Me…. [this is connected to]: …You did not delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin. Then said I, "Lo, I come (as it is written of Me in the Scroll of the Book) to do Your will, O God"'" (vs 5-7).
Does this apply to us? We know also that God has supplied you and me with a body, and what God desires in those whom He has called.
Those whom He has led to repentance have been baptized, have received the Holy Spirit, and are committed to walk in the way of Jesus Christ. In other words, living by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God! That includes the Commandments of God, beginning with the Sabbath Day, which is the test Commandment rejected by this world, but received with open hearts and gladness for those to whom God has called and will call!
Verse 7: "Then said I, 'Lo, I come (as it is written of Me in the Scroll of the Book) to do Your will, O God.'"
Again, God—as Jesus is saying here—was not delighted by the all the sacrifices that were performed under the Old Covenant in ancient Israel. Why? Well, the answer there is because they could never cleanse the conscience! Very important point!
Paul brings out throughout the book of Hebrews, very important point. It's only the sacrifice of the body and the blood of Jesus Christ where there is the remission of sins.
Let's see a little further here about the sacrifice. Just breaking into Paul's closing comments to the Hebrew brethren:
Hebrews 13:20: "And may the God of peace, Who raised our Lord Jesus from among the dead—that great Shepherd of the sheep—through the blood of the everlasting covenant."
Now something's going to be happening and is happening and will continue to happen through the blood of the everlasting covenant! So yes, Jesus was crucified. His blood was shed. That blood has an everlasting effect when Jesus went to appear before the Father as represented in the Wave Sheaf Offering during the week of the Passover.
Jesus Christ went and presented Himself, which was His shed blood, His broken and torn body now resurrected into that immortal, powerful Savior of mankind, the man Jesus Christ, through the blood of the everlasting covenant!. So something is to happen through this.
Verse 21: "Perfect you in every good work…"—which is described in the Scripture, 'not according to men, but according to every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God
"…in order that you may do His will…" (v 21).
Now doesn't that tie back to Heb. 10 when Jesus said, '…You have prepared a body for Me.' He has come in the flesh in the body 'to do Your will, O God!'
That is our calling! Jesus came to show the way and that was by establishing the New Covenant and the New Covenant was established by His shed blood, not the blood of animals. We know under the Old Covenant, the high priest brought in the blood of animals. A goat on the Day of Atonement to represent the sins of all the people.
That was the high priest going into 'the second tabernacle,' which Paul calls it in Hebrews, but it is also the Holy of Holies! So, once a year, a very trepidatious experience for the high priest under the threat of death. If he got it wrong, to go before the Ark of the Covenant, which represented:
- God's Throne
- God's very presence itself
which reflected:
- the heavenly realm
- the heavenly tabernacle where God exists
So that was done on the Day of Atonement!
He took the blood of animals; Jesus did not take the blood of animals. Jesus took His own blood—or the sacrifice that He had made of His body and His blood—before the Throne of God!
So, that's what it's saying "…through the blood of the everlasting covenant" (v 20). Jesus' blood was the seal. It was the ratification of the New Covenant when He took that blood before the Father. So, the New Covenant began at that point in time.
"…the everlasting covenant" for us, the blood of Christ and the body of Christ also, as we will see later,
Verse 21: "Perfect you in every good work in order that you may do His will; accomplishing in you that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to Whom be the glory into the ages of eternity. Amen." That is a very powerful statement!
Verse 8: "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday… [before the ages of eternity] …today… [sitting at the right hand of God the Father] …and forever"—into the ages of eternity!
Verse 9: "Do not be carried about by all kinds of strange doctrines. For it is good for the heart to be confirmed by grace and not by foods, which have brought no spiritual benefit to those who have been preoccupied with them."
This is really in the context of the first tabernacle, as we will see. We have an altar. Now ancient Israel had an altar also, serviced by the Levitical priesthood. But we have an altar from which those who are serving at present—in the days when Paul wrote this—the second temple still existed, and sacrifices were being given by those to that physical temple, the physical altar.
Verse 10: "We have an altar from which those who are serving the present earthly tabernacle do not have authority to eat."
What could that refer to? It refers to the Passover service, the washing of the feet, the eating of the bread—the unleavened bread—which is the body of Christ, God's Word, which is everything that is Jesus Christ. Then, of course, the wine which represents His blood that was shed for the remission of our sins!
So, here's the priesthood. Now, it's interesting. with the third temple, what is in the mind of the Jewish people or those who are planning to build the third temple?
We know the third temple will be built. It must be built to fulfill prophecy. But they have rejected the New Covenant; they've rejected Christ! So, they will continue their sacrifices and what they have in mind is to re-establish the whole kingdom of Israel, thinking that they themselves, that one tribe, are the whole house of Israel; buy they're only one twelfth of all those tribes.
But they want to be bringing back all the ordinances, all the ceremonies of the Old Covenant, which Paul says are now obsolete! So, there's a great awakening waiting for those Jews who have rejected Christ and rejected His Covenant!
It's interesting that God has led you to the New Covenant. He led you to repentance if you have been truly baptized. Through that repentance and through your obedience to the Laws of God and walking in that way and through the possession of God's Spirit, God is now perfecting each one by the blood of Jesus Christ!
But the body also has a part in this, which we will see shortly. So again, we have an altar and that altar is the Passover service. We may observe that if we are scattered and alone by ourselves or with a small group of people, just as Jesus Christ did with His disciples on His very last Passover while He was in the flesh—in His body—just before He died.
We have an altar from which those who are serving at present in the earthly tabernacle do not have authority to eat. When the Jews re-establish their temple, the third temple, they still will not have access to the altar that you have access to, which is the Passover of God. They have got to cross that barrier, the veil, to get into the second temple, which is the Holy of Holies.
They will enact that physically, but not spiritually! They're going to have to come to repentance before that is made available to them.
Verse 11 is talking about the sacrificial animals that were sacrificed under the Old Covenant, and will be sacrificed again at the third temple, still upright and functioning under the Old Covenant system!
Verse 11: "For pertaining to those animals whose blood is brought into the Holy places by the high priest for a sin offering, the bodies of all these are burned outside the camp. For this reason… [under the New Covenant] …Jesus, in order that He might sanctify the people by His own blood…" (vs 11-12).
Jesus entered the heavenly realm, God's throne, not with the blood of a lamb or a goat, but with his own blood. That is the picture.
"…Jesus, in order that He might sanctify the people by His own blood also suffered outside the gate" (v 12).
So then, the message to you, message to me, let us go forward to him outside the camp bearing His reproach. Now, are we a part of this world? Well, Jesus in his prayer to the Father (John 17) says that His disciples were not of this world, and we, having been called by the Father and being perfected by Christ, are not of this world, just as his apostles were not a part of this world! They were strangers and sojourners, as Paul mentions, and as Peter mentions (1-Peter 1), that we're strangers and sojourners.
That's how we look at the world. We're just passing through this world, waiting for the heavenly city built by the hands of God, as Paul explains about all those patriarchs (Heb. 11), that did not become a part of this world. They rejected it because they knew they had a better future ahead! That city was a not built by the hands of man, but by the hands of God!
Verse 14: "For we do not have a continuing city here on earth…"
So, we are strangers and sojourners. Rather, we are seeking the one that is coming, and Paul had already explained that in the 11th chapter, the faith chapter!
Verse 15: "Accordingly, let us offer the sacrifice of praise… [praising God is a sacrifice; it's also an investment] …offer the sacrifice of praise continually to God through Him; that is, with the fruit of our lips openly professing our faith in His name."
Yes, that can be a sacrifice in the end-times. What will happen? We may become martyrs! We may have to lose our lives, and we need to be prepared for that, knowing that God will help us through that time.
So let's see a little bit more about the body of Christ in Heb. 10 where Jesus said that His Father had prepared a body for Him, and that He was prepared in his body to do the Father's will. That's a challenge and an opportunity for all those whom God has called today.
Hebrews 10:9: "Then He said, 'Lo, I come to do Your will, O God.' He takes away the first covenant in order that He may establish the second covenant."
Why would the Jews want to go back and establish the first covenant when it's been done away with, where it is no longer relevant, and not accept the New Covenant, the second covenant.
Verse 10: "By Whose will we are sanctified through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all."
So, there's no need for any sacrifices in the third temple, but prophecy will be fulfilled in all of this.
That means we're being sanctified through the body of Christ by His blood, through the offering of His body!
Verse 10: "By Whose will…[the Father's] …we are sanctified through the offering of the Body…"
That includes the body and the blood, but you can see how they are inextricably bound together, the body and the blood! Very important fact!
Verse 13: "Since that time, He [Christ] is waiting until His enemies are placed as a footstool for His feet. For by one offering He [Christ] has obtained eternal perfection for those who are sanctified."
- Are you sanctified?
- What is this telling us about ourselves?
"…For by one offering He has obtained eternal perfection for those who are sanctified"—eternal perfection!
Now we haven't arrived there, yet. We are working toward that perfection, which Paul talks about continuously throughout the whole book of Hebrews. That will only happen in the resurrection!
But while in the flesh, we accomplish as much as we can to become perfect. God does the final act by taking away from us at death—the sin that dwells within—raised in the new body, no longer any sin dwelling within—perfected—after the image, after the example that we have in Jesus Christ.
Verse 16 talks about the New Covenant. And of course, we have to be committed to that New Covenant. We show our commitment to what God has done by obedience to His Law to the point where even today with those whom God has called, He is giving and inscribing His Laws and Commandments into our heart and mind.
It says the same thing back in Heb. 8:10; that's a wonderful promise.
Hebrews 10:19: "Therefore, brethren, having confidence to enter into the true Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He consecrated for us… [What is that way?] … through the veil (that is, His flesh)" (vs 19-20).
What is Paul saying here? That we know in the previous temples, the first and second, there was a veil that blocked the entrance into the Holy of Holies representing the Throne of God, except to the high priest; who went into that Holy of Holies with the blood of an animal for the remission of the sins of the people that they had committed.
But it was only the sins that purified the flesh, it did not cleansed the conscience! The high priest there was a representative of the One Jesus Christ Who would come in the flesh and would give His life! Then take His own body and blood before the Throne of God for the remission of the sins of all people at all times. If they come to the point of repentance—when God offers that repentance—and they do not rebel.
Verse 19: "Therefore, brethren, having confidence to enter into the true Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He consecrated for us through the veil (that is, His flesh)" (vs 19-20).
We read in the Gospels how that when Christ was crucified, the spear was thrust up into His side, He died. What happened at that time, the curtain in the tabernacle that was protecting the Holy of Holies was torn, it was split from the top down, an act of God to show that God now had opened up the way to salvation.
Of course, that comes in stages, first the Church, then the rest of mankind, after the resurrection and after the return of Jesus Christ.
Verse 22: "Let us approach God with a true heart, with full conviction of faith, our hearts having been purified…[a continual process as we worked toward perfection] …from a wicked conscience, and our bodies having been washed with pure water. Let us hold fast without wavering to the hope that we profess, for He Who promised is faithful" (vs 22-23)—and God cannot lie!
Let's turn now to Heb. 6 and pick up another very important point here as we conclude.
Hebrews 6:18: "So that by two immutable things…"
- the promise that God made to Abraham
- He confirmed that promise by swearing an oath
Those are the two immutable things!
"…in which it was impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to lay hold on the hope that has been set before us; which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both secure and steadfast, and which enters into the sanctuary within the veil" (vs 18-19).
That hope enters into the sanctuary, God's Throne within the veil through Christ's body. The curtain that blocked anyone but the high priest under the Old Covenant has been replaced now by the body of Christ where we, whom God has called, have free access through the body of Christ into the Throne of God where the blood of Christ is waiting there for our repentance! So that we are renewed unto the faith and unto salvation, and God cleanses us willingly, because He desires to see us in His Family.
That's the point that we make, that Jesus Christ is the means! His body is the means by which we pass through having our entrance into the Throne of God and there we have access to the blood 24/7; every moment of every day for as long as we live.
There's another point which we don't cover here but:
- Who is the head of the Body?
- What is that Body?
Christ is the head of the Body, which is the Church!
There's another whole subject on the matter of the importance of the body of Christ along with His blood.
So, as we study God's word these things will become clearer and clearer to us as we are so excited and as we diligently seek from the Word of God His love, his mercy, his patience; we have access to that through His Throne 24/7.
Scriptural References:
- Hebrews 10:5-7
- Hebrews 13:20-21, 8-12, 14-15
- Hebrews 10:9-10, 13, 19-23
- Hebrews 6:18-19
Scriptures referenced, not quoted:
- John 17
- 1-Peter 1
- Hebrews 11; 8:10; 10:16
LJ:bo/po
Transcribed: 5/28/25
Copyright 2025—All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts for review purposes, no part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner. This includes electronic and mechanical photocopying or recording, as well as the use of information storage and retrieval systems.
