Hebrews 10:4 Commentary and Bible Study

The practice of animal sacrifice is found in many of the religions of the world. It has surely found its way into so many of man’s rites and ceremonies through what God originally showed to mankind following the fall. In Eden God took the lives of animals to provide skins for Adam and Eve to cover their nakedness, and it is evident from the offering made by Abel that God sanctioned animal sacrifice right from the beginning of human history. By commanding human beings to offer animal sacrifices God taught that he will accept a substitute for the sinner. There must be death, but God allows that the life taken may be that of another in the place of the sinner. Some protest that it is unjust for the guilt of sin to be transferred from one to another; they argue that it contravenes the justice of God for the Son of God to come into the world and take the punishment for our sins, to die on the cross for sins which he did not commit. But the objectors have never understood the principle of sacrifice which God has appointed since the dawn of time. He himself endorses this transfer of guilt, because it is the only way that mercy can be shown to sinners and without it the entire human race would need to be condemned. Why is it impossible for the sacrifice of an animal to purge away human sin? First, because an animal is not capable of committing sin, and therefore it cannot be a real substitute for a human being, and its life cannot pay for human sin. Only man was made in the image of God and no other creature. Part of that image of God is a moral nature which knows the difference between good and evil. Only man received the command of God not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; only man was given the Ten Commandments; only man is born with a conscience. There is no awareness of sin in animals. My dog or my cat may take food off the kitchen table, but I cannot call it stealing; it has no awareness of property – of what belongs to it and what does not. The 8^th commandment was not addressed to animals. All that they find is given to them by the Lord. The birds eat our crops without asking our permission, but we do not consider this stealing. A dog may cringe when it is discovered, but that is because of association with being smacked, not out of guilt.Furthermore, the propitiation required for human sin necessitates human suffering. This means that there must be a sense of eternal loss, of eternal hopelessness, of God’s intractable opposition to our souls, and the door of heaven being closed to us forever. No animal can experience such things for no animal has a sense of eternity, nor can they understand what it is to be under God’s anger since they are not aware of the living God at all. An animal life is not equal to the life of a human being. How could an animal take away the punishment on our behalf? It is impossible: animals have no souls. How can they feel in their souls that terrible awful forsakenness and desolation being cut off from God, which is our penalty eternally? The punishment of hell and the severance from God and all good being withdrawn. That is what I shall feel, racked with pain and agony and hopelessness in my soul for all eternity, if I die unrepentant, unforgiven. How can an animal without a soul bear that, indeed how can a fellow human being bear it without being crushed instantly? The only one who can atone for our sin is the one who is God as well as man, the Lord Jesus Christ. He suffers as a man but he has divinity, a divine nature to sustain him through the suffering. So that he can bear away the punishment that I should have borne eternally, condensed and compressed into the space of six hours while he hung upon the cross. But no animal could be my substitute the animal cannot feel those things and be offered up on my behalf. Nor does the Bible say anything about the resurrection of animals. It is human beings who will be raised at the last, both the righteous and wicked. The righteous will enter heaven for all eternity, and the wicked will enter hell, but no animal will be raised for they have no future reward and no future punishment.