Comparing the Old Covenant with the New, the book of Hebrews tells us:
Unlike the [Jewish] high priests, Jesus doesn’t need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his sins, and then for the sins of the people. No, he did this, once for all, when he sacrificed himself. [Hebrews 7:27]
It all came down to Jesus’ once-for-all sacrifice. And if His sacrifice was only done once, for everyone, then He and His sacrifice is our only hope of salvation. God in the flesh, nailed on a cross, suffering the rigors of death, was the price of our salvation.
All along God gave us clues that it would be that way. From our first disobedience in the Garden, to the time when God graciously chose Abraham to be the father of the Savior’s race, the Lord began to reveal, bit by bit, the mystery of our salvation. He told us it would only happen with the shedding of innocent blood.
After our fall into sin, God covered Adam and Eve’s shame with an animal skin. In this way, God began the first animal sacrifice, showing that it took the lifeblood of a guiltless creature to forgive us of our rebellion. God even prophesied that a Descendant of Eve would crush the serpent’s head, but the serpent would first draw some blood from His heel (Genesis 3:15).
Later, God foreshadowed our salvation when He chose the place where blood would spill. Now, this was not Christ’s death on the cross—not yet!—it was another sacrifice. That God told Abraham to sacrifice His son, Isaac, on Mount Moriah was not by coincidence. Centuries later, people would call that mountain, “Golgotha” or “Calvary,” the mountain where Jesus would give His life for our salvation.
God even foreshadowed the identity of the Lamb of God who would, once for all, take away the sins of the world when He told Abraham to sacrifice “your son, your only son . . . whom you love” (Genesis 22:2).
Now, Abraham had more than one son. He had Ishmael through his wife’s servant, Hagar. And yet God called Isaac Abraham’s “only son.” For through Isaac, Jesus in His human lineage would be born. “Only son”; we hear such words describe Jesus and His death to save us. “God loved the world in this way: He gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Later, in the time of Moses, God established His priesthood and chose a high priest to pray for the people and sacrifice for their sins. God’s priest had to offer sacrifices “day after day, first for his sins, and then for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 7:27).
God demanded such animal sacrifices for almost every part of human life. One sacrifice preserved fellowship between God and His people. Another dealt with sins, whether specific or in general. For highborn and poor man alike, for both priest and pauper, for Jews and converts to Judaism, God mandated such blood sacrifices.
No one was exempt. Everyone needed God’s forgiveness. And the only way to have that was through the shedding of innocent blood.
And there hung our Savior, who fulfilled, once for all, the office of high priest. Although Jesus was not from the priestly tribe of Levi, he is still our great High Priest. He did not have to offer sacrifices for His sin because He did not sin.
He prayed from His cross: “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34). For whom was He praying? Was it for the high priests? Yes. But we are also the object of His merciful, compassionate, priestly prayer. Even as His baptized children, we know we need Him to plead for God’s mercy for us sinners.
On Golgotha’s stony slope, our Great High Priest spoke words of love: to His mother, to the repentant thief, to all us fallen sinners. But His love for us did not stop there. He sealed His words of love for us “with His holy and precious blood, and with His innocent suffering and death” (Small Catechism). On the altar of the cross, our Lord Jesus fulfilled once, for all, the office of High Priest and the role of the sacrificial victim.
In that moment, when the eternal God died for our sins, His sacrifice embraced, not only all time, but also eternity! For what we see with Christ on the cross reaches back, beyond the sacrifices that God commanded of His Old-Covenant people, even before God took the animal skins and covered the shame of our first parents.
Jesus’ sacrificial blood reaches back to the moment when God cursed Satan. He told Satan: “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (Genesis 3:15).
Since Jesus’ sacrifice was for all people of all time, it forgives sin and removes damnation, even before those Old-Covenant animal sacrifices were offered. “Once for all”: No more sacrifices are needed! They were shadows pointing forward to the enduring Good-Friday sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
So, why don’t we sacrifice animals on our altar for the sins we’ve committed? Why don’t we pour out, again and again, the blood of innocent victims each time we worship? Why have such sacrifices come to an abrupt halt? It’s because Scripture tells us that Jesus sacrificed for our sins, once for all (Hebrews 7:27, 9:28, 10:12).
What comfort this gives us! At that moment, on the cross, our Lord Jesus embraced every moment of our lives. When regret fills your life over the sins of your past, remember that the crucified Savior washed them away in His blood. When your conscience harangues you for continually falling into the sins that you have renounced a thousand times, “once for all” covers it. When you cower in fear that tomorrow’s sins may draw you into such complacency or despair that Satan may quickly snatch you from your Good Shepherd’s hand, remember the words “once for all.” They remind you that no sin can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.
Jesus even assures you of this from another word He spoke from the cross. He cried out, “It is finished” (John 19:30), as His life ebbed away from Him. Everyone there could see that He was dying. The Holy Spirit didn’t need to waste ink to tell us that.
But Jesus wasn’t just speaking about His life. He was speaking about His mission. “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for the many” (Matthew 20:28). Jesus was saying, “I have offered a sacrifice for the sins of every man, woman, and child since Adam. In its place, I have earned salvation for every one of Adam’s children until the Day I return in glory.”
We can add nothing to this cross without taking away from its glorious, everlasting work. As soon as we make Christ’s sacrifice dependent on our decision to follow Him or proofs of our sincerity, we mess it up. If we see baptism, communion, or hearing God’s Word—not as God’s way for me to receive Jesus’ completed act of salvation—but as me “doing my part,” then I’ve twisted God’s grace into my work for my salvation.
Christ says, “It is finished.” No other sacrifice is needed. And what is needed, God gives you as a gift. From start to end, salvation is all God’s doing. That’s why Jesus says He is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end (Revelation 1:8, 22:13).
But some might think that if Jesus has done everything and we’ve done nothing, then that’s cheap grace and it makes us lazy. Well, look at the repentant thief on the cross. St. Mark wrote about that thief’s original attitude toward Jesus: “Even those who had been crucified with Jesus insulted him” (Mark 15:32). But Luke shows us how our Savior’s words and works later changed his heart:
But the other criminal later spoke harshly to [the one who was mocking Jesus]: “Aren’t you afraid of God, since you’ve also been sentenced to die? Our punishment is fair. We’re getting what we deserve. But this Man has done nothing wrong.” [Luke 23:40-41]
Do you see how the Gospel turned that man’s heart from heaping insults on Jesus to defending Him as someone innocent? And from that same source of faith, he said to Jesus, “Remember me when you enter your kingdom” (Luke 23:42).
Jesus’ once-for-all sacrifice gave the thief his eyes of faith. He could see the gruesome events of that day—not as they seemed—but as they were. This repentant thief saw what the high priests and mockers didn’t see. He embraced the dying Jesus as His savior and king. Did he care if the world around him called Jesus a liar? In his heart, he cried, “God must be true, even if everyone is a liar” (Romans 3:4).
The repentant thief confessed Jesus as he died, before the enemies of Jesus. He cared little for their scorn and, as a dog gets the crumbs that fall from its master’s table, he longed for Jesus’ mercy. He said, “Remember me,” that is, “Have mercy on me! I only long for your saving company! Take me with you!”
Do you think that a man like that considers Christ’s grace as something cheap? Are the words from his lips, is his willing submission to die with Jesus, are they signs of laziness or weakness? No! By God’s grace, may we die with such faith and certainty!
Remembering Jesus’ cross and death on this Good Friday, rejoice that He has also set you free from sin: its guilt, its domination, and its punishment, once for all! Christ’s finished sacrifice will raise you to new life in Him—this day, tomorrow, and even on the Last Day. Amen.
