Hebrews 9: 16 – 28
His Blood Cleanses Our Sins – Part B
16 For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. 17 For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives. 18 Therefore not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood. 19 For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 20 saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.” 21 Then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. 22 And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission. 23 Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; 25 not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another— 26 He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.
There is so much good stuff stated in this chapter that I cannot just cover it all in one study. So, here is the continuation of this great word of God.
In our last study we closed at verse 15 which said, ‘And for this cause he is the mediator of a new covenant, that a death having taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, they that have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.’
As a result of His death for us Christ Is now the Mediator of the New Covenant already mentioned (8.8-12). Not only are our sins dealt with but He works in us His perfect work. A mediator is One Who comes on behalf of two parties in order to establish terms with both and arrange all necessary fulfillment of any requirements, in order to bring about between them what is desired. From God’s point of view He recognizes the necessity of the shedding of blood for sin, indeed because of His holiness demands it, while from man’s point of view He offers Himself as a sacrifice as representative Man.
It is because as High Priest He offered Himself to death as an unblemished sacrifice that He Is demonstrated to be the Mediator of the New Covenant. We read in the book of 1 Timothy 2.5-6 "For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, Who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time". And this death took place ‘for the redemption of the transgressions which were under the old covenant’. Without that death we would yet be left in our sins. We could have no part in the covenant. But having been delivered by His covenantal death as Mediator by the shedding of His blood we can now enjoy His life, provided as our inheritance in that new covenant.
The idea of redemption is again prominent here. The idea is of the Kinsman Redeemer who pays off the debts of one of his family (Leviticus 25.47-49), redeeming them from their transgressions under the old covenant by the payment of the required price. Here in Hebrews the idea is that they are ransomed by Him and set free. This then releases them from the old covenant so that they can participate in the new.
But if a ransom is paid, to who is it paid? The final answer is, to God and the requirements that result from what He Is. For man was enslaved by sin, bound by guilt, and was under sentence of death because he had failed to pay his due to God. And this was all owing to what God Is. By His very nature God had to require it of man. So, until God’s sentence on man could be averted by being fully satisfied, man could only remain in that state. Thus the price of sin had to be paid, guilt had to be removed, and the sentence of death satisfied, and then man could be released. Redemption vindicated the moral law, the moral nature of God.
Once the redemption has taken place the ‘called’, those chosen (Ephesians 1.4) and called by God (2 Timothy 1.9), receive the promise of the eternal inheritance, eternal life. To ‘receive the promise’ means to enter into enjoyment of it. In this regard it should be noted that the initial element of this inheritance is received now as well as being enjoyed even more wonderfully in the future in God’s eternal kingdom. Thus it is even now ‘the age to come’. It is the consequence of our eternal redemption.
This use of the idea of inheritance is significant. An inheritance is something that comes to you as a gift. In its basic idea it is not earned, it is not bought, it is not worked for. It comes as a result of the undeserved grace of the giver. It brings out the fact that what God’s people will receive in the future is not their deserts but the giving of blessings by a gracious God.
So the picture is of our great High Priest, our Kinsman Redeemer, Who acting as mediator, and having died for us, applies to us the benefits of His death and grants to us eternal life, the eternal inheritance, which is granted to us by the grace of God, and ‘bought’ for us through His blood.
9.16-17 ‘For where a covenant-testament is, there must of necessity be the death of him that made it. For a testament is of force where there has been death, for it never avails while he who made it is alive.’
Thus having brought out that the new covenant was, as far as God is concerned, a ‘covenant-testament’ he stresses again that it was more than a covenant. It was an unconditional God-to-man covenant, with God the Benefactor and man the beneficiary, because it referred to what God had covenanted to bring about, and it was a testament because from the very beginning its bringing about was, in God’s purposes, linked to the death of the Covenanter. Such a covenant testament thus necessarily involves the death of the One Who made it, without which it could not come into force.
The further implication here is that God has in the covenant given all things to His Son, Who has therefore become the covenanter as well as the mediator, and that He must die in order for the covenant to come into force because of the special nature of the covenant as a covenant-testament. This revelation could be expressed in this way because word used for ‘covenant’ in the New Testament regularly means ‘a will’ in popular Greek usage.
The stress here is thus on what God’s intention in making the new covenant was from the beginning. It was always His direct intention that the fulfillment of the covenant should be dependent on the death of His appointed Benefactor. Thus it was from the beginning also a special kind of covenant, a covenant-will. The making of the covenant and its being acted upon was always in God’s eyes linked to a death, the death of His Son.
He illuminates this further by arguing that where there is a will it is the intention that it will not be enforceable while the testator is alive. So in this case to the application of this solemn covenant-will, made by God, can only take place through Christ’s necessary death, solemnizing the covenant and bringing it into effect, making it ‘of force’. The change in illustration is valid in this case because of the intention of the covenanter. It was He Who in His eternal purposes tied His covenant to a death, because He knew that without it the fulfillment could not take place. And that is what is being indicated here.
We are now looking at the detailed explanation of the question ‘How did the Son make purification of sins?’ By coming as the Christ Messiah and shedding His blood for all who would receive Him. Just as the shedding of blood was central in the old covenant, so it is in the new. Whereas the old required many and continual sacrifices through the centuries, the new required only one sacrifice for sin forever. He was so immense that His once-for-all sacrifice covered the sin of all ages and of all people for all time. All who would might therefore reach out for salvation, receiving it as God’s free gift and being finally saved to the uttermost through Him.
9.18-20 ‘For this reason even the first covenant has not been dedicated without blood. For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded towards you”.’
Now here is a hard and impacting point. Indeed such a death was ever seen as necessary for an important covenant. It sealed it permanently. And it was specifically true of the first covenant. The first idea of the application of blood was that none could withdraw on pain of death. That is why the first covenant, the old covenant, was dedicated with blood and sprinkled on the altar and the people. It bound both parties irrevocably while the conditions were fulfilled. And once the conditions were broken there arose ‘the transgressions which were under the first covenant’, and the parties involved in these were, as a result, doomed to die. Thus any new covenant had also necessarily to take into account the need for atonement. Death must be implicit in any new covenant simply because it was required of those who had broken the old.
The making of the old covenant is now described in detail. Once it had been declared, and Moses had described every commandment in the covenant to all the people (for all were to be involved and must know what they were agreeing to), he carried out ceremonial sacrifices in order to seal the covenant with blood, applying the blood both to the record of the covenant itself, and to all the people (Exodus 24.6-8). By this they were bound to obedience to it on pain of death, and God, as the One To Whom the sacrifices were offered, was equally bound to them while they faithfully kept the covenant.
Yet as the context here makes clear, that blood was not just a symbol of the sacredness of the contract; it was also a requirement because of the sinfulness already present on the part of one of the parties involved. Such a contract could not have been made without cleansing for sin. For there was a past to be atoned for, and as we are shortly to be informed, the main purpose of the shedding of blood is the remission of sin (verse 22). Furthermore the whole context here is of cleansing from sin (verses 12-14, 21-22). Any explanation therefore that lacks that necessity is itself lacking.
So we may undoubtedly recognize here that the shedding of blood, as well as sealing the covenant, also had a cleansing significance, for whenever blood was shed sacrificially in relation to anything connected with God such a meaning was necessarily involved. Because the contract was made with sinners, cleansing must therefore be involved.
The passage in Exodus does not mention the sprinkling of the blood on the book It does, however, bring the book into close connection with the ceremony. The blood there is sprinkled on the specially erected altar and on the people connecting God with His people. The book may well have been placed on the altar in such ceremonies. The writer may well have been writing on the basis of his knowledge of such ceremonies, or of some tradition which drew this out. Nor does the passage mention the method of sprinkling which is described in the detail given here, which is in fact partly similar to that for the sprinkling of the ashes of the heifer (Numbers 19.6). Note how here it is just assumed that these had been used in the sprinkling. It was thus clearly a recognized custom to use scarlet wool and hyssop for sprinkling, as we learn in the book of Leviticus 14.4, 6, 7.
9.21 ‘Moreover the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry he sprinkled in like manner with the blood.’
Not only was blood applied in the covenant ceremony, but later everything connected with the covenant, the Tabernacle and all the vessels of ministry, were sprinkled in the same way with sacrificial blood. This initial sprinkling of blood is not mentioned in the Pentateuch, but it was recognized as being a fact by Josephus, and thus clearly a traditional idea among the Jews. This is entering more deeply into the significance of the shedding of blood. The shedding of blood was essential for the purifying of all that was to be involved in the relationship between God and His people. It was a cleansing necessary as a result of their sinfulness, for all was contaminated by man and his world. Thus the blood not only sealed and solemnized, it also indicated cleansing and purifying.
9.22 ‘And according to the law, I may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and apart from shedding of blood there is no remission.’
Indeed the Law made it quite clear, that ‘apart from the shedding of blood’ there is no cleansing, there ‘is no remission (of sin)’. It tells us that all in the world is seen as tainted by sin, and that this taint of sin can only be dealt with by death, by the shedding of blood. By this, sin is seen as having affected everything that is. It is seen as rampant and the world as therefore cut off from God. And to remedy that requires death, a special death. For the wages of sin is death.
The Law therefore reveals that removal of the taint of sin can only be dealt with by the shedding of blood. It is only by that means that anything, including the tabernacle, and to a lesser degree the camp of Israel, could become holy to Yahweh. It is indeed often asked, why so many sacrifices? And the answer is, because there were so many sins. But all awaited the one great sacrifice for sins, which was once-for-all and would never required to be repeated, for its sufficiency was more than enough for the whole world of all ages. In the end it was without the shedding of that Blood that there was no remission of sins.
Can you now see the significance of Cain and Abel’s sacrifices way back in the book of Genesis? We see the first offspring of Adam and Eve in their approach to God. Remember Cain brought the fruit of the land which was cursed. Abel brought a lamb and sacrificed it to the Lord. We find this out in chapter 4, “Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the LORD.” 2 Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 3 And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the LORD. 4 Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Abel and his offering, 5 but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.6 So the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”
You might ask ‘then where does it say that there was the necessity of death and blood in order to approach our Holy God?’ Look with me at chapter 3 verse 21 where our Lord had to take the life of innocent animals to clothe both Adam and Eve. “Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.”
9.23 ‘It was necessary therefore that the copies of the things in the heavens should be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.’
Thus the copies of heavenly things, all that was involved in the ritual of Israel, had to be cleansed with the shedding of blood. ‘It was necessary’ for it had all been connected with what was sinful and with man in his sinfulness, and sinfulness required death. So if man was to approach God, the means by which he did so must be through the shedding of blood, as he must himself be cleansed by the shedding of blood, for all was connected with sin, and sin demands death. But, because they were only copies, the cleansing could also itself take place through copies and shadows. Those involved were only seeking to enter an earthly Tabernacle, and therefore earthly sacrifices sufficed. Once they sought to enter the heavens it would be a different matter. There was no way of entering Heaven by means of these.
Some might now ask ‘why should cleansing be necessary with regard to ‘heavenly things’? Stop and think. The earth and all that is in it are cursed. How can anything cursed through the darkness of sin enter our Holy Master’s Pure, Perfect, and Holy dwelling place? In 12.23 two of such heavenly things are outlined and directly connected with the mediation of Jesus Christ and the sprinkling of blood (12.24), they are the ‘church of the Firstborn’, and ‘the spirits of just men made perfect’. Without the blood of Jesus they could not have entered Heaven. For all who would enter Heaven from earth require such cleansing, and it was only because of such cleansing that they were able to enter into the presence of God. The copies could be cleansed with animal blood, but not these. Anything earthly which would enter the heavenly sphere required a better sacrifice, a fuller and more complete sacrifice. To enter Heaven there had to be inward cleansing as well as outward.
It is indeed because we have experienced such cleansing that we can even now at the present time enjoy lives in heavenly places (Ephesians 1.3; 2.6). Those who would now in Christ enter ‘the age to come’, and come under the Heavenly Rule of God, and into enjoyment of the Spirit, can only do so because of the shedding of His blood, which not only purifies us but enables us to renew and retain such purity (1 John 1.7) as we live in heavenly places (Ephesians 2.6,) where our citizenship lies (Philippians 3.20), looking not at the things which are seen but at the things that are unseen (2 Corinthians 4.18).
We all need to stop and look with more intensity at the statement ‘With better sacrifices than these.’ Note the plural. Yet we have been told that all was in fact cleansed by the one sacrifice. Why then the plural? Why didn’t the writer just say, ‘a better sacrifice’? The writer possibly has in mind that that the one sacrifice included many sacrifices; there was our Lord Jesus Christ’s humbling of Himself to come into a sinful world, there was His persecution and tribulation within that world, and there were His final sufferings at the cross. All came together in that one sacrifice. Alternately it may be a plural of intensity speaking of something which outdid all other sacrifices, the plural bearing in mind the multiplicity of what it is contrasted with. Just to speak of ‘a better sacrifice’ may have been seen as limiting the comparison. By using the plural he demonstrates that the sacrifice of our Master and King Jesus Christ combines in itself the equivalent of all sacrifices. His sacrifice of Himself was better than all the sacrifices put together.
9.24 ‘For Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, like in pattern to the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us.’
The reason that the better sacrifice is required is precisely because The Messiah Is not entering an earthly tabernacle, one made with human hands and simply a pattern, even though a good pattern, but into Heaven itself. He Is entering the true Holy Place where the High and Holy One sits on His throne in full majesty. And there He will appear before the very face of God for us so that we are personally and continually represented, through His intercession, in the presence of the Most Holy One. This is the great Reality in contrast with the copies and shadows of the old covenant. Temporary holiness might be able to enter the earthly Tabernacle, but that which enters the heavenly Tabernacle must be truly pure and holy through and through.
It was said of Moses in Exodus 33.11 that God spoke with him face to face like a man speaks with his friend But even then all knew that it should not be taken too literally, for God in the fullness of His glory was in Heaven while Moses was on the earth. It is rather saying that he knew God and spoke to God like no other. But here Is One Who appears before the very face of God in Heaven where there are no shadows, only the great Reality. He literally sees God face to face as He Is in Heaven. He sees behind the glory to the very face of God. Here Is One Who Is a greater than Moses, with a ministry more directly carried out before the face of God in Heaven. And whereas for Moses such experiences were temporary, for Christ they are permanent.
Not only did He see God face to face, but all that He was, was known to God. He was laid bare before Him. Not one thing could be shielded from that piercing Eye. And yet approaching in His Manhood He was clearly found completely satisfactory. He was the One Whose ways were totally pleasing to God. For the first time since the days of Adam a Man appeared before God unflinchingly and without fear, in order to represent those who were His. It was the proof of the total restoration of man, for He was and Is there ‘for us’.
9.25-26 ‘Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy place year by year with blood not his own, otherwise must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world. But now once at the end of the ages has he been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.’
Nor was His entry into Heaven one of many such entries which had to be made by Him, as though He had no permanent right there, for His one offering of Himself was sufficient for all sin for all time. Therefore He could be permanently before the face of God. He was not like the High Priests who had to enter to make atonement year by year, offering blood which was not their own, and then had to leave again, for had the effect of His sacrifice been of such a temporary nature He would have had to undergo regular periodic suffering, beginning from the very foundation of the world, when sin first began.. But it was not so. For now, once at the end of the ages, He had been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and He had been wholly successful.
The implication in these words is enormous. Firstly that He has entered into the presence of God and has put away sin once-for-all for all time, reaching right back to the beginning and right on to the end. His sacrifice is sufficient to cover all sin of all ages, and once made does not have to be repeated. For those who are His, sin has been ‘put away’
Secondly this is ‘the end of the ages’. It is now the last age, the promised ‘coming age’ of the prophets, the age of the everlasting kingdom, already here and bound up in Christians, and to be consummated in the eternal Kingdom. There remain no further earthly ages to come.
9.27-28 ‘And inasmuch as it is appointed to men once to die, and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to those who wait for him, to salvation.’
‘It is appointed to men once to die.’ That was the sentence in Eden. It is the continual sentence (Romans 5.12; 6.23). So Christ having been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and having been rejected by the world as a whole, all that now remains for each one in the world that has rejected Him is death and judgment. They do not just die. They are appointed to die. The judge has made his preliminary decision. Note that they are each to ‘die once’, that death being seen as final. That is what is required as the wages of sin (Romans 6.23). After each person’s death will be their judgment, when the sentence will be confirmed. They face eternal death.
And just as it is appointed for such men to die once, so was it appointed for Christ to be offered once, bearing the sins of many (Isaiah 53.12), one death again being all that was required for their sin, for His death was of a sufficiency to cover all. It was the infinite dying for the finite.
All who are His, His one death for all time delivers them from the ‘death resulting in judgment’ that should have been theirs. Death is no longer the wages of sin for them. Not for them the judgment of condemnation. They have been crucified with Christ (Romans 6.6; Galatians 2.20; 3.13), and their sin has therefore been borne in Him as a result of that one sacrificing of Himself, and they thus live through Him.
Note here the deliberate contrast between death followed by judgment and Christ’s offering of Himself, followed, for those who believe, in salvation. The judgment is not emphasized, the emphasis is on Christ as the Savior, but nevertheless the contrast is real. For those who refuse His offering of Himself death awaits, for those who refuse His salvation judgment waits.
So just as the High Priest emerged from the Tabernacle on the Day of Atonement, and thereby triumphantly revealed to the waiting crowds that their temporary atonement had once more been successfully accomplished, so will Christ emerge from Heaven at the end of time, appearing to His own who are waiting for Him (1 Thessalonians 4.13-18), to proclaim that their full, permanent atonement has been satisfactorily achieved in every respect. Because of it they are accepted as holy, and without blame before Him .
How do we His people wait for Him?
1 . By their steadfast faith in His appearing, resting with implicit confidence on His promises in John 14.2- 3.
2 . By having a real love for it, a yearning to see Him (2 Timothy 4.8).
3 . By having an ardent longing for it, so that they cry, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus" (Revelation 22.20).
4 . By patiently waiting for it, in the midst of many discouragements (James 5.7- 8).
5 . By personally preparing themselves for it and living in the light of it (Matthew 25.10, 13-46; Luke 12.35-37).
If we do not recognize in these points our own attitudes we need to be considering our ways. He appears to those who wait for Him.
We need to take another look at the wonderful words, ‘Apart from sin.’ He had been made sin for us (2 Corinthians 5.21) but now that sin has been atoned for by His sacrifice of Himself and He Is therefore once more free from sin, from our sin which He took on Himself. As far as God Is concerned, and as far as those who believe are concerned, sin has therefore been dealt with forever. Their sins are no more. Furthermore their Sanctifier has done His work totally and completely and Is now bringing to its final conclusion His leading of them safe to Heaven (2.10-11).
By these means and arguments therefore has the writer demonstrated to his readers the total superiority of our great High Priest, the total superiority of the sacrifice that He made and the total superiority of the salvation that He offers. He has especially made clear that hope lies finally in the blood of Christ offered for us.
We finish the chapter by considering what Christ did do, and what He did not do, which furthers the writer’s arguments.
• 1). He came as a High Priest of good things to come, ministering to His own all the blessings stored up for them by God (verse 11).
• 2). Having obtained the redemption of the age to come for us, He entered into Heaven ‘by His own blood’, that is, in consequence of the total success and efficacy of His sacrifice of Himself on the cross (verse 12).
• 3). Having through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God He cleanses our consciences from dead works to serve the living God (Verse 14).
• 4). As our Mediator of the new covenant He ensures that we receive the promise of the eternal inheritance (verse 15).
• 5). He has cleansed the spiritual realm, the heavens, and we who enter it, by His better sacrifice of Himself (verse 23).
• 6). He appears before the face of God for us (verse 24).
• 7). He has been manifested to once-for-all put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself (verse 26).
• 8). He has been once offered to bear the sins of many, as the suffering Servant of Isaiah was to do (Isaiah 53.11-12) - verse 28.
• 9). And so He will finally appear in order to finalize His salvation in His own at His second coming (verse 28).
What He did not do compared with what He did do.
• 1). He did not enter through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood (verse 12).
• 2). He did not enter into the Holy Place made with hands, but into Heaven itself (verse 24).
• 3). He did not offer Himself year by year, because He did not need to. His offering of Himself was once-for-all and was completely acceptable, never needing to be repeated (verse 25).
In the light of this fact that He was superior in every way they were to choose which High Priesthood they would follow, the earthly one which dealt with copies and shadows, or the heavenly One Who dealt with the Great Realities.
