A New Altar and a New Way – Hebrews 10:11-25
Have you ever wondered why some churches have altars in their places of worship, while other churches don’t? To understand whether we should incorporate an altar in our worship, we must consider the reason why God’s people used altars in the Old Testament. We also must understand the new altar in the New Testament, as well as the way we ought to worship God due to this new altar (Heb. 13:10).
Hebrews 10:11–25 (NASB95) 11 Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; 12 but He, 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. 15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying, 16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, And on their mind I will write them,” He then says, 17 “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” 18 Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.
19 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;
24 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
The Old Altars
The sacrifices were multiple
Hebrews 10:11 (NASB95) 11 Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins;
The Hebrew word for altar is used over 400 times in the Old Testament, and it’s derived from a word that means “to slaughter. “The first time an “altar” appears in Scripture is in Genesis 8:20, right after Noah and his family exited the ark. The next time we find an altar mentioned in the Bible, is with Abram (was born around 2000 B.C.) who built one while he was at a place called Shechem (Genesis 12:7-8). Not only were these altars places where animal sacrifices were offered, but they also served as memorials of God’s faithfulness to His people (Gen. 33:20, 25:1-7).
If we fast forward to the time of the Exodus, we read about more altars being built. The first one Moses built was after Israel’s victory over the Amalekites (Ex.17 :9-16). And again, throughout the Old Testament you’ll see people like Joshua (Josh. 8:30) building altars out of stone, as well as Gideon (Jg. 6:24) Saul (1 Sam. 14:25), and David (2 Sam. 24:25) and many more building altars to God. But there was a specific time when God began to give more details concerning altars that He wanted His people to build.
One year after the Passover (around 1450 BC), God commanded the Israelites to make a mobile tent where His presence could dwell among them as they journeyed through the wilderness toward the land God had promised to them. Thia tabernacle was a place that would help illustrate God’s relationship to His people. It was a place where God would dwell among His people (Ex. 25:8-9) God also instituted a formal priesthood to serve Him and mediate between Him and the people under the Old Covenant (Num. 3:5-8).
There were many duties the priests had to carry out, but I want to talk about the services relating to the altar. The brazen altar was the place to offer up and burn sacrificed animals. This act demonstrated to the Israelites that the first step for sinful men to approach a holy God was to be cleansed by the blood. But why would God demand the blood of an innocent creature? God says in Leviticus 17:11 (NASB95) 11‘For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.’
Sin leads to physical and spiritual death. But blood is a sign of life. And this is what’s needed for atonement to occur. Atonement is the reconciling of God and man. We can think of atonement as “at-one-ment” with God. From the time that these old covenant blood sacrifices were instituted, until the time the book of Hebrews was written, was about a 1500-year time span. So, imagine the thousands of sacrifices the priests conducted at the tabernacle and later at the temple. But I want you to notice something about how these priests operated.
The priests stood up at the altars
Hebrews 10:11 (NASB95) 11 Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins;
The priests stood constantly going in and out of the tabernacle. There were no seats for them to sit on as they ministered. They never sat down in there, and so we get this picture in our minds that their work was never finished.
The animal sacrifices could not remove sin
Hebrews 10:11 (NASB95) 11 Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins;
If we back up a few verses we see that God says again: Hebrews 10:4 (NASB95) 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. It’s impossible. Yet before that, it is made clear: Hebrews 9:22 (NASB95) 22 And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. How do we make sense of this? The Law showed us two truths according to Hebrews 9:22:
1) All things are cleansed with blood—the place of worship, and the people worshipping must be ceremonially clean to approach God. Yet this leads us to understand that although we can be ceremonially clean on the outside, our consciences need to be cleansed on the inside.
2) Without the shedding of blood, there’s no forgiveness.
We see forgiveness depicted in the once-a-year sacrifice on the day of atonement: The goat and bull are sacrificed on this day. And the high priest sprinkles the blood on the mercy seat—which is the throne of God’s presence (in the holy place—beyond the veil into the holy of holies). So, where the Holy God and sinful man meet, there must be bloodshed. And man’s sin must be transferred to from them to another. Then the high priest then lays his hands on a live goat, symbolizing the transfer of Israel’s sins to the goat, and the goat is sent into the wilderness And then the flesh of the slaughtered bull and goat shall be burned outside the camp of the tabernacle (Lev.16:1-34).This shows us that when the substitute for sin is bearing the fiery wrath of God, our substitute must bear our reproach and be treated as unclean.
But the problem is that these animal substitutes can NEVER take away sins. So what is the purpose of those sacrifices then? How were the people benefitted from this old sacrificial system who needed their sins removed? Hebrews 10:1 (NASB95) 1 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.
You see, the old law/the old system had several purposes. And one of the main purposes was that it was a shadow of the good things to come.This sacrificial system showed the people how defiled and unholy they really were, and it showed them they were in constant need of cleansing. They needed to be cleansed to commune with pure and Holy God. So, these rituals were designed so that they would look forward to the time when a true Savior would arrive to remove their sin once and for all. But animal sacrifices cannot take away human sin.
For the price for human sin to be paid, there needs to be a human substitute for sin. But not just any human—it needs an unblemished, perfect, sinless human. But not only an unblemished, perfect, sinless human, but this substitute must also be God in the flesh. This Substitute must be infinite to bear the infinite penalty of sin in His body for the entire human race. Yet that’s what He did! And not only is He the sacrifice—He’s the scapegoat. He’s the mercy seat—the presence of God where the blood is applied (Rom. 3:25). He’s also the High Priest offering the sacrifice! Hebrews 9:11–12 (NASB95) 11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation;12 and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
The New Altar
As we come out of the old covenant time to the time of Christ, we continue to see the use of altars in different ways. For example, there were Graeco-Roman altars that were built outside the pagan temples of false gods and raised on a platform. Many altars were round with ornate engravings of the deities and of the sacrificial ritual around the side. In the second century, a highly educated man who grew up in a pagan family, named Justin Martyr, later became a Christian. He was one of the great early apologists or defenders of the faith against false religions and false philosophy. There are records of him noting that in the pagan religions there are temples, altars, images, and material sacrifices, but in Christianity there are none of these things.
However, within a hundred years, Cyprian, who was Bishop of Carthage (AD 200-258) and another pagan convert like Justin Martyr, used the language of his pagan religion to describe Christianity. For example, he spoke extensively of pastors as priests, the bread in communion as a sacrifice, and the Lord’s table as an altar. So due to his influence and others like him, this language became more common.
Soon after, Roman Emperor Constantine granted religious toleration to Christianity in 313 AD. Later, Constantine identified with Christianity and therefore wanted to honor his new religion (as the pagan religions were exalted before) by building church buildings in Rome, Jerusalem, and Constantinople. Since the other religions of that time had altars, and that’s the language that was being used within “Christendom,” structures like the sacrificial altar became prominent in the center space for worship in these now legalized Christian church buildings.
While these “Christian” altars were going up, leaders in Christian churches more frequently spoke of the bread of the Lord’s Table celebration becoming Jesus’s body, and the wine literally becoming Jesus’s blood when the priest “consecrates” those elements at the altar. The nature of how this mystery allegedly took place was debated in Monasteries in France and Germany in the 9th century. But it wasn’t until the AD 1215, at the Fourth Council at the Lateran Palace in Rome, called by Pope Innocent III, that this doctrine was formally defined and declared as true by the Roman Catholic Church. This is what we know as the sacrifice of the mass.
Still defending this teaching, the Roman Catholic Church officials stated this at around 1550AD at the Council of Trent:
CANON III. On the Sacrifice of the Mass--If any one saith, that the sacrifice of the mass is only a sacrifice of praise and of thanksgiving; or, that it is a bare commemoration of the sacrifice consummated on the cross, but not a propitiatory sacrifice. . . . let him be anathema.
Now, the word propitiation should be your favorite word. It carries the basic idea of God’s wrath against our sin being appeased so we can be reconciled to Him. It can be translated as mercy seat. Yet this council in 1550 AD taught that if you don’t believe that partaking in the bread of the Lord’s Table during a Christian worship service appeases God’s wrath and is the means by which we can receive God’s mercy and grace—then you’re to be cut off from the Church. You’re to be accursed.
Many Christians (who later became known as the Reformers) questioned the Catholic Church’s ability to define what Christian worship ought to be like. Instead, the Reformers argued that the Bible, not Church Tradition is a Christian’s source of authoritative guidance in these issues. Hence, the phrase hanging from our pulpit at GBC–Sola Scriptura–Scripture alone. When Church Tradition said one thing, and the Bible taught a contradictory concept from that tradition, the Reformers wanted to go with the Bible, and so we want to continue to seek to do this at GBC.
In 1563, the Reformed Heidelberg Catechism stated in (Q/A 80):
“the Mass teaches that the living and the dead do not have their sins forgiven through the suffering of Christ unless Christ is still offered for them daily by the priests. It also teaches that Christ is bodily present in the form of bread and wine where Christ is therefore to be worshiped. Thus the Mass is basically nothing but a denial of the one sacrifice and suffering of Jesus Christ and a condemnable idolatry”
With that, the Reformation churches in Switzerland, Holland, and Scotland set out to remove the ornate "altars" from the places of worship and introduce plain (even removable) communion tables. Why? Reformer John Calvin said, “This is indeed very certain: that the cross of Christ is overthrown, as soon as the altar is set up.”
Instead, the pulpit was now elevated to the center of church buildings, to illustration the centrality of the proclamation of God’s word. Within the next couple hundred years, several Christian denominations emerged. Based on how these churches viewed the Lord’s Supper (e.g., Is it some type of sacrifice? Or is it a memorial of Christ’s sacrifice?) determined whether there was a sacrificial altar up front or not. I grew up within the Lutheran denomination, where Jesus was thought to present within the communion wafer in some way or another. I served as an acolyte (an altar boy) there, and I had to bow whenever I approached the altar. I knew how to carry out the religious ritual, but I did not know Jesus Christ. And I sure did not know the significance of the fact that Jesus died once and His sacrifice will never need to be re-presented again.
Jesus died once
Hebrews 10:11–12 (NASB95) 11 Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; 12 but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time . . .
The author says there is one ultimate sacrifice, and we hear Jesus Himself confirm this while He was on the cross being sacrificed. He said in John 19:30 (NASB95) 30 Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. Jesus does not need to continue to be sacrificed on an altar like the animals. His once-for-all shed blood is valuable enough and even powerful enough to retroactively remove the sins of people before He even came to this earth. For those under the Old Covenant who trusted God’s promises about the coming Savior, Jesus’s one sacrifice for the sins of all time (past, present, future) was of benefit to them.
The book of Hebrews was written to a group of Jewish believers who were being tempted to identity with the worship of Judaism again. One reason they were tempted toe return to Judaism is that it would provide some reprieve of being persecuted for professing Christ publicly. So, rather than persevering in following Christ, they were seeking refuge and rest outside of Christ. But those who seek to return to Old Covenant sacrificial system cannot fully enjoy the benefits of the New Altar. The author of Hebrews says this in Hebrews 13:10 (NASB95) 10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. With certain offerings in the tabernacle, the one carrying out the sacrifice would identify himself with the altar and the sacrifice by eating some of the meat himself. But what is the New Altar the author of Hebrews speaks up? The New Altar is the cross. And so only those who can say with certainty, “Jesus’ once-for-all substitutionary death is enough for me” can spiritually partake of the benefits of the New Altar.
Jesus sat down
Hebrews 10:12–13 (NASB95) 12 but He, 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.
After Jesus resurrected from the dead and ascended into heaven, he didn’t arrive there and sit down because he was tired. He sat down because His offering of Himself was complete. When the devil accuses us of our sins before the Father (Rev. 12:10), Christ doesn’t rush down to earth to sacrifice Himself again.
There’s no need to. Why not? The Father fixates His gaze on His Son and sees how perfectly righteous He is, and therefore how perfectly righteous we are for being united to Him!
Verse 13 of our text is referring to this is the second coming—the time when His enemies will be made a footstool for His feet. It’s a reference to Psalm 110:1. This is affirmed in Hebrews 9:28 (NASB95) 28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him. All of history is moving toward the day when Jesus will come and restore His creation back to its original state. And He will reign as king and His glory will fill the millennial temple, which is described in detail in Ezekiel chapters 40-47. There will be animal sacrifices at the altar there again, but they are for ceremonial cleansing—not forgiveness or redemption. They will not be for taking away the sins of the worshippers.
Jesus’ sacrifice can remove sin
Hebrews 10:14–18 (NASB95) 14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. 15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying, 16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, And on their mind I will write them,” He then says, 17“And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” 18 Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.
Those who are sanctified are those who are set apart by believing in the sufficiency of Jesus’ sacrifice for sin. Sometimes we refer to “sanctification” as the process of growth in which we practically become more like Christ. We sometimes refer to this as “progressive” sanctification. However, the way “sanctified” is used here in v. 14 is as a one-time occurrence, meaning believers who are in Christ are permanently set apart and acceptable to God. This is known as “positional” sanctification. This is seen in Hebrews 10:10 (NASB95) 10 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
In v. 17, we find that God does not remember our lawless deeds. Of course, God can’t literally forget something, since He is all-knowing or Omniscient. But this means He does not hold our sins against us. We are forgiven, and there’s no condemnation in Christ Peter puts it simply: Acts 10:43 (NASB95) 43 “Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.” But just as there are different ways the word “sanctified” is used in the New Testament, so also there are different ways the word “forgiveness” is used. For example we see in 1 John 1:9 (NASB95) 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is talking about believers who are already eternally forgiven and brought into a relationship with God. Notice from Acts 10:43 that the condition for eternal forgiveness is believing in Christ. Yet after we are “in Christ,” a condition for fellowship with Him is confession of sin. If were to were sin against our father (earthly father) and not say sorry or not ask for his forgiveness, it would affect the quality of our relationship. It would affect our fellowship. But it would not change the fact of who our father is no matter what we do. So, in a similar way, our perfect Heavenly Father would never disown His children. Instead, He invites us to confess our sins for us to experience the joy of fellowship again. In fact, this is why John wrote his first epistle: 1 John 1:3–4 (NASB95) 3 what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4 These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.
The we can have fellowship with Christ because He was sacrificed on the cross. We partake in the altar of the cross by believing that Christ died and rose for our sin. So. there is a new way of worship.
The New Way of Worship
The Scriptures we’ve read thus far have demonstrated why it is utterly unnecessary to have a sacrificial altar for the forgiveness of sins. But if you were to read through the Old Testament, some altars weren’t just utilized for animal sacrifices. Some altars were also places to commemorate what God has promised or done. They were places to dedicate oneself to the LORD by calling on Him. And even after the old covenant was instituted, there was an Altar of Incense in the tabernacle (Ex. 30:6-10). What does this incense signify? David prayed: Psalm 141:2 (NASB95) 2 May my prayer be counted as incense before You;The lifting up of my hands as the evening offering. The NIV renders this saying “may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.” Incense symbolizes the sacrifice of prayer. As the incense goes up continually, so ought the prayers of God’s people. And in this age, we can enjoy praying to God and worshipping Him at any time and in any physical place.
Believers can enjoy God’s presence
Hebrews 10:19–20 (NASB95) 19 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,
The moment after Jesus died, we find in Matthew 27:51 (NASB95) 51 And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split. The sin that separated man from God’s presence is no longer a barrier. The torn veil symbolizes Christ’s wounded body on the cross, which opened up our access to God. We can go into His presence whenever we want (as long as we partake of the blood of Christ by faith). And we don’t have to leave quickly either like the high priest did.
Hebrews 10:19–21 (NASB95) 19 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
The altar of incense was situated before the mercy-seat of the ark, where God’s presence resided (Ex. 30:6). This was a picture of Jesus Christ the advocate standing in the presence of the Father, praying and interceding.Who does He intercede for? He intercedes now for the house of God which is mentioned in v. 21.
The house of God is not a building—but a group of people who believe in His Son and are indwelt by His Spirit. I just love Jesus’ high priestly prayer for us in John 17:11 (NASB95) 11 “I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are.
Why are Jesus’s intercessory prayers so important? Well, Satan is our great accuser, pointing out our sin to God the Father (as in Rev. 12:10). But Christ is our great defender, pointing to His blood that He shed for us.When that righteous blood is applied to us through faith, we are just as blameless and pure as Jesus Christ before God the Father. 1 John 2:1 (NASB95) 1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;
Hebrews 7:25 (NASB95) 25 Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. He ALWAYS makes intercession for us.
Hebrews 10:22 (NASB95) 22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
We have every right to have full assurance of faith. When the text indicates that our bodies are washed with pure water in that verse, it’s not referring to the physical water of baptism. Rather, the text is explaining the essence of the New Covenant.
Look back to verses 16-17 in our text, which is quoting from Jeremiah 31:34. “I will put My laws upon their heart” The one who trusts in Jesus for eternal life has his heart cleansed and he or she is made spiritually alive. God gives us new hearts so we can love Him and serve Him. None of us loves Christ perfectly, but we can’t love Him at all unless the Holy Spirit gives us this new heart. God’s people no longer need to be bound by the old religious laws, regulations, and rituals that only reminded them of their sinfulness and inability to save themselves. Those things were only a shadow of the things to come BUT CHRIST is the fulfillment of it all. He’s the reality who comes into our lives now and changes us by His Word so we can do His will freely.
Believers can be living sacrifices
Hebrews 10:23–25 (NASB95) 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; 24 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
Based on everything we talked about this morning, I hope you’re reminded why it’s important that we worship the living God together. Now in one sense, we couldn’t ever repay God in any way. But since Jesus willingly and brutally laid down His life for us, and He never fails to intercede for us, could any sacrifice for Him be too costly for us? Think about the price He paid! When we saturate our minds with the Person and Work of Jesus Christ, we are led to worship Him and serve one another. We don’t try to love others and do good things in order to earn acceptance by God, but rather because we know we are already accepted. After explaining all that God has done, is doing, and will do for those who are saved by the blood of the New Covenant, the apostle Paul concludes: Romans 12:1–2 (NASB95) 1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
It’s completely “reasonable” that we offer all of who we are to God as His instruments to accomplish His perfect purposes. Christian churches attempted to make an illustration of this in the early 1800s, after the Second Great Awakening.
The Methodist denomination and later some Pentecostal and Baptist churches started to place altars in the front of the place of worship, as a place for the sacrifice of prayer or dedication. They weren’t attempting to re-present or even symbolize Christ’s sacrifice as the liturgical churches do. But these prayer altars are to show the sacrifice of the saints in response to the one-time sacrifice of Christ.
Many consider Charles Finney (AD 1792-1875), an ordained Presbyterian, to be the “father” of something called an altar call. I’m sure most of us know what that is, and perhaps some reading this have been saved while responding to an altar call invitation. But in Finney’s version of it, he would usually call sinners to come up to the front and sit on something called the “anxious bench.” Then he would call them to publicly renounce their sin.
Yet many pastors and Christian leaders today critique Finney’s methods and those of his successors, since it often became a way to manipulate people’s emotions in order to try and cause a spiritual revival. From this influence over the last hundred years or so, many people have been deceived thinking that they came to Christ when all they really did was come up to an altar. Some were tricked into thinking there was something they could physically do in order to be accepted by God, such as walking up to this “sacred-like” space up front. Some might also be led to think that God is more likely to answer prayer at these altars, because of the emphasis placed on utilizing them during Sunday morning worship.
So, one reason many Baptist churches today don’t call the front of the sanctuary an altar and don’t call people up to the front to pray at the end of every service, is because they want nothing to do with that legacy of the physical Christian altar. The danger of it is looking at one’s own work at the altar, while neglecting the knowledge of Christ’s finished work.
Now it’s also crucial that you know Romans 12:1-2 isn’t talking about how to become a Christian. Romans 12:1-2 tells us how Christians ought to live in light of the spiritual blessings we’ve received through Christ at the moment of conversion. But to do God’s will every day, we must first be transformed by the renewing of our mind. This is happens by reading, studying, memorizing, and meditating on God’s Word. Acts 17:11 tells us that those who are noble are those who examine the Scriptures. And in the New Testament, we don’t see the body of Christ worshipping around physical altars. That practice developed centuries after. Our High Priest is resurrected in heaven—never to be sacrificed again— and He sent down His Spirit to indwell us all until He calls us up to Him. Until then: Hebrews 13:15 (NASB95) 15 Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.
