Hebrews: Chapter 9
November 2nd, 2008
Blood in the Temple
Through the majority of the book of Hebrews there is a single dominant theme: the superiority of Christ. Hebrews 1 and 2 Jesus better than the angels, Hebrews 3 Jesus better than the Moses, Hebrews 4 Jesus better than the law, Hebrews 5, 6, and 7 Jesus better than the High Priest and the Levitical priesthood, Hebrews 8 Jesus covenant is better than the old covenant. What we see in Hebrews 9 fits right in with that theme: Jesus blood is better than the blood of sheep and goats.
When you look through the Old Testament one thing you may notice is there’s a lot of blood. The Levitical priests made all these sacrifices and for every animal they killed they would drain the blood and sprinkle it as a form of ceremonial cleansing. There is blood everywhere in the Old Testament. Kill a lamb and spread its blood over your doorway, sprinkle the people of Israel with blood, drain the blood of animals offered for sacrifices. In the Old Covenant blood is everywhere. It plays a significant role in the lives of Israel. There is blood in the temple. Sacrifices are being offered, blood is being sprinkled. The temple was a bloody place. Priests are making all these sacrifices and draining the blood of the animals they kill but why? Why did they drain the blood? Leviticus 17:11 shows us the answer to that question. As part of the covenant God made with Israel they were instructed to avoid blood as we see in verse 11:
Lev 17:11 For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.
The life of a creature is in the blood. Have you ever considered what this means? What is the connection between life and blood? Life is one of those complicated words that you cant really define without using the word. Life is the act of living. Life is being alive. Science doesn’t really have a good description of what life is. There are certain qualifications they have to differentiate between something that is alive and something that is not but for all their efforts they do not have a great definition of life. Consider this: what if life could be defined in the blood? We know that life is in the blood. Not just Biblical as some Spiritual platitude but medically life is in the blood. There are some parts of your body you do not need and some organs you can survive without. Blood however is essential. If every part of your body was in perfect health but you had no blood you would not have life. Blood is the vital transportation system of the body. It delivers minerals, vitamins, nutrients, perhaps most importantly oxygen to your cells and organs. Without blood your body could not get the oxygen it needed and you would die.
Blood is a vital part of life. It helps clean the body by carrying toxins to the liver to be filtered out. It helps keep the body hydrated, fight infections, and to patch up holes that we get from time to time. Blood is useful for cleaning, defending, healing, and giving life to the body. So we see the significance that blood has to life. Blood may not be the best definition for life but it is vital to it. The life of any creature of any living thing is in the blood. Your life, my life, it is in the blood. Life is in the blood. What is truly marvelous about blood though: is that blood can be taken from one person and given to another to keep them alive. You can actually give someone life by giving them blood.
So in Hebrews 9 when the blood of Jesus is compared to the blood of bulls and goats this is a significant comparison. Blood is very important. So let’s look at what Hebrews 9 says about the blood of the covenants starting in verse 13:
Heb 9:13 The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. Heb 9:14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! Heb 9:15 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
The blood of animals was sprinkled on those who were unclean so that they could be outwardly made clean. The problem is that the cleansing is superficial. It is not a real cleansing. The blood of bulls and goats does not clean what really counts. It merely covers over the dirt to hide it for a time. It is sort of like when you are cleaning your room and you don’t really want to clean it you just toss everything in a draw or kick it under the bed. Your room is not really clean what you have done is merely hidden the mess. That is effectively what the blood of animals does. It hides the mess of our lives by making us look clean on the outside. Animals cannot make us truly clean because they are not an adequate sacrifice. An animal cannot pay the penalty for the sins of man because an animal is not a man and so the sacrifice is not adequate. As a result of our sin we need a person to pay the price. Not just any person a pure person. So what about human sacrifice? If animals don’t work couldn’t we just kill the person next to us so we could go to heaven? Sadly no. None of us are pure enough to be an acceptable sacrifice. The other problem is the human being sacrificed is not usually willing. Now what if you had a person who was pure enough to pay the price for your sin and willing to do it for you? The problem then is they could not make pay the price for everyone. As far as sacrifices go we are out of options. There is no sacrifice we can make that is worthy or capable of with our sin problem. We cannot make a sacrifice that is good enough. We need God to pay the price for us. We need a pure, eternal, human being to be the sacrifice for all sin for all man so that we can have an assurance of the promise of life. People can’t cut it. Animals can’t make it righteous. The blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin.
So why then did we bother? If animals could not take away our sin why did God bother with the Old Covenant? Obviously these animals were not going to be good enough so why didn’t God just skip to the New Covenant? We need the Old Covenant not only to reveal to us our sin but to teach us about substitution. Were it not for the sacrifices of the Old Testament we would not be able to understand how our sins could be atoned for through the sacrifice of the New Testament. By seeing this practice of offering animal sacrifice to cover over sin we can understand how the sacrifice of Christ on the cross can take sin away. We can know how God’s salvation works through Christ because we have seen an example of how it works in the sacrificial system of the Old Covenant.
What is important to note here is that there is always blood when a covenant is made because a covenant cannot go into effect without something or someone dying. The Old Covenant was put into effect with the blood of bulls. In Exodus 24 we see the God’s covenant with Israel confirmed. This begins with a sacrifice of bulls. The blood was taken from the sacrifice and mixed with water. Part of the blood was poured out onto the altar of God and part of it was to be used to sprinkle on the people. Moses sprinkles the people with blood. Now I want you to picture this: the nation of Israel is no small nation at this point. We are probably talking about millions of people here. All of them must be sprinkled with blood. So you have millions of people lining up to walk by Moses and get sprinkled with the blood of bulls so that they can be a part of this covenant with God. All of God’s people are splashed with the blood of the covenant in the Old Testament. The law in fact requires that everything be cleansed with blood for without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. In order for a covenant to be put into effect there must first be the shedding of blood. Which is why in verse 18 it says:
Heb 9:18 This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. Heb 9:19 When Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. Heb 9:20 He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.” Heb 9:21 In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. Heb 9:22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Heb 9:23 It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. Heb 9:24 For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. Heb 9:25 Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Heb 9:26 Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Heb 9:27 Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, Heb 9:28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
Do you see the superiority of the blood of Jesus? The Levitical priests offered imperfect sacrifices but Christ brings a perfect one. His blood. He is pure. He is human. He is willing. He is eternal. He is everything we need in a sacrifice. Not only can He pay the price for sin but He can pay the price for all sin. Jesus’ blood does the job. Since animals could not bring real cleaning Jesus becomes a mediator on our behalf and by His blood we are healed. Jesus did not take His sacrifice into some man made temple He takes it into the very throne room of God. Standing in the true temple of God Jesus serving as our High Priest does what no one else can do. He makes us righteous. He is the sacrifice that we need to have life. For He has poured out His blood, He has given His life so that we may live. Just as the Old Covenant was set into effect by the blood of bulls so the New Covenant is set into effect by the blood of the Son of God.
Seeing this gives us a better understanding of the Lord’s Supper. Jesus sits down for a final meal with His disciples and before they ate He took bread and broke it. After giving thanks He said this is my body which is given for you, do this in remembrance of me. An in the same way after the supper He took the cup saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you.” Jesus blood sets in motion the New Covenant. By taking His blood into us we can be made clean. The blood of animals was sprinkled on and made man clean on the surface. The blood of Christ we take into ourselves and make ourselves clean on the inside. Animal blood may have made us ceremonially clean but Jesus blood can make us truly clean. By understanding the power of the blood we can better understand the nature of this New Covenant of salvation that we partake in every week.
There is power in the blood of Jesus Christ, the lamb of God. There is life in His blood. Look at what He says in John 6: Jn 6:53 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. If you do not drink His blood you have no life in you. If life is in the blood then eternal life can be found in only one place: the blood of Jesus Christ. You see the brilliance of this statement. Not only are our bodies on Earth dependent on our blood our eternal life is dependent on His blood. Life really is in the blood and blood really is a good definition of life. For without blood there is no life. Without His blood there is nothing. There is blood in the temple and that blood gives us life. That blood purifies us from sin.
When you consider your life and all the things you have done. When you look at all the mistakes and all the failures do you see what God sees? Do you understand the power that the blood of Christ has in your life? All your sins are not just covered over they are washed away. All failures are forgotten. You are not just cleansed. The blood of Christ gives us the power to resist temptation, the strength to endure hardship, the righteousness to stand before God, and freedom. Once you live chained to your sin living in constant bondage to it. You were nothing more than a slave to your desires and wickedness. The blood of Christ breaks those chains. It heals you from your sinful condition and makes you new. When you take the blood of Christ in you are not just taking it you are taking in His life. Christ brings life to the lifeless, hope to the hopeless, strength to the weak, and healing to the broken all through the power of His blood. Through His sacrifice on the cross you can be saved. Through His death you can have life. For having done His priestly work in the true temple Jesus will return and when He does He will bring salvation with Him. That salvation is not for everyone. All could have it but many reject. The salvation that Jesus brings is for those who are waiting for Him. Believing in Him is not enough. Accepting He is real is not enough. In order to receive the salvation He gives you must be ready and waiting for His return.
