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The New Covenant’s Sacrifice Hebrews 9:11–22 (KJV)
High Price: Covenant Created (vv. 15–22)
The preacher of Hebrews compares the covenant to a will in two significant ways. The first is that they both are inaugurated by death. This is especially true in regards to making covenants. The idiom for making covenants in He- brew is “to cut a covenant,” which refers to slaughtering animals to represent the seri- ousness of the commitment.
The second significant comparison is that both wills and covenants link the finality of death with the opening up of new possibilities for living. Often the death of the testator or person leaving the will leads to inheritances, which potentially lead to lifestyle changes for the survivors.
Similarly, Jesus’ sacrifice for the covenant ushers in new relationships with the di- vine for believers. The blood of the covenant is powerful. It grants the believer forgive- ness and release from bondage to dead works (sins) in the past. It also demands that released believers now use their new liberty to follow the path of the one who gave His life.
Conclusion
Good works, church at- tendance, and acts of love do not save us from the penalty of our sins. Only Jesus does that. The new covenant de- mands we acknowledge that outside of Christ, there is no sacrifice for our sins, errors, and failings. We must accept the atoning power of the blood, and allow it to sanctify us, making us into forward- looking agents of God’s vision for the world — willing to give up our lives as Jesus gave up His.
We have been given full access to the Father through Christ. Hallelujah!!
The Scriptures
Hebrews 9:11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;
12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, hav- ing obtained eternal redemp- tion for us.
13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit of- fered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eter- nal inheritance.
16 For where a testa- ment is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.
17 For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.
18 Whereupon neither the first testament was dedi- cated 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 of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,
20 Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.
21 Moreover he sprin- kled with blood both the tab- ernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry.
22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
Background
The book of Hebrews fea- tures 3 important concepts: high priest, covenant and blood.
The early part of Hebrews 9 describes the old covenant sanctuary, tabernacle. This structure and its successor (the temple) provided Israel only limited access to God. Barriers still existed between worshippers and God.
High Priest: Christ Over Calves
(Hebrews 9:11–12)
One of the major distinc- tions between a high priest and the other priests is that the high priest could offer the most solemn sacrifice on the most holy day of the year — the Day of Atonement. On that day, one of the actions of the high priest was to sprinkle the blood of an innocent goat in a room that only he could enter once a year. In that room, called the Most Holy Place, he took the blood and sprinkled it on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant, which was where God dwelt in a most special way. The high priest had to perform this cer- emony every year. The preacher of Hebrews asserts that Christ came as a high priest, but He was qualita- tively and quantitatively dif- ferent than other high priests in terms of the caliber, place, and frequency of offering. Jesus offered His own blood in the heavenly Most Holy Place (not made with human hands) one time for all times.
High Production: Conscience Cleansed (vv. 13-14)
Blood may seem to be a strange cleansing agent. In the ancient world, blood was the detergent that eliminated the stains and defilement that separated people from God. The separation was strongly linked to actions that led to ritual impurity, which was significant because ritual im- purity prevented people from being able to participate in Temple worship. The actions demanded physical purifica- tion by applying innocent blood. The preacher of He- brews does not discredit that logic; instead, the preacher of- fers a comparison. If physi- cally offering the blood of innocent animals can purify flesh, one can only imagine what spiritually offering the blood of the unblemished Christ produces! It does not only remove the external wall that ritually separates people from God, but it eliminates the internal guilt that often creates a barrier for worship- ing God. The blood of dead animals offered by mortal priests made temporary ef- fects, but the blood of the liv- ing Christ offered through the eternal Spirit produces eter- nal redemption.
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