"But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God" (Hebrews 10:12). A sacrifice is one who dies in the place of others. There is one and only one covenant sacrifice for our sins. Jesus Christ was crucified to take away all our sins (1 John 1:7).
In Bible days, when men entered into covenant, they made promises to each other sworn with an oath. Then, they sacrificed an animal. It was a blood covenant. The animal was cut in half. The men walked between the two halves. Symbolically they were saying, if I keep not my promises, may I be slain as this animal.
Christ was crucified as the sacrifice of the everlasting covenant. He was the covenant sacrifice at the cross. When Jesus died, the veil of the Temple was torn in half, from the top to the bottom (Matthew 27:51). The glory of God departed from the Temple. The old covenant was finished. The new covenant had come (Hebrews 10:9). The resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ proved it. We enter the everlasting covenant by faith in the Gospel of Christ.
The Old Testament sacrifices were offered again and again, year after year (Hebrews 10:11). They pointed toward the one and only sacrifice that takes away sin. They pointed to Christ crucified as the one sacrifice forever. When Jesus was crucified, he said, "It is finished"(John 19:30). The old covenant sacrifices were finished. The new and everlasting covenant sacrifice is forever!
