Hebrews Lesson 154 April 2, 2009
NKJ Proverbs 3:6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
We are in Hebrews 9. Now I’m only
going to go to one verse there again as we start. We’ll get there mostly
tonight. I want to go back to John 13. So if you are going to open your Bibles
somewhere, open them to John 13. I wanted to tie together one point I left
loose last time. It’s also important because it really helps us to connect the
dots with what the writer of Hebrews is saying in Hebrews 9.
Now the focal point of what we’re
seeing in the last part of Hebrews 9 is cleansing. That has been a doctrine
that the writer has been talking about. He’s been focusing on ritual cleansing
earlier in chapter 9. Then he goes to the cleansing that occurs at the cross. The
cleansing of sin is only through death.
NKJ Hebrews 9:22 And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and
without shedding of blood there is no remission.
Well, that’s what that means. Apart
from a certain kind of death there is no forgiveness. There is no eternal
forgiveness, judicial forgiveness of sin. We have that in Christ. Hebrews 9 and
10 become the top of the staircase, as it were, that we’ve been climbing since
Hebrews 1. Tonight what I want to do is pull together some of the loose ends,
some of these different strands that we have been focusing on for the last year
as we’ve gone through Hebrews 9.
It has taken a long time to get
through Hebrews 9; but it is built on such a significant understanding of Old
Testament ritual, Old Testament procedures, the Tabernacle, the Temple, the
sacrifices, the priesthood – all of these things that to go back and
study these things as they were originally revealed in the Old Testament and
then tie it together is what we’ve been doing. It shows that Bible study is not
always a real simple procedure. It’s not just superficial. It’s not that you
can’t gain things from just grazing over the surface, but at times we really
need to dig deeply in order to make sure we understand these concepts and the
words that are used.
For example as we get into Hebrews
9:15:
NKJ Hebrews 9:15 And for this reason He is the Mediator
What’s a mediator? How many people
that you talk to on the street know what a mediator is?
of the new
covenant,
What’s a covenant? What’s the New
Covenant? How does the New Covenant relate to the old covenant? How does the
New Covenant relate to the church?
How does the New Covenant relate to the future of Israel?
by means of
death,
What kind of death? – seven
different kinds of death in the Scripture.
for the
redemption
What’s redemption? What does that
mean?
of the
transgressions
What transgressions? What is a transgression?
under the first
covenant,
First covenant – what covenant
is that?
that those who
are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance
What does it mean to be called?
What’s the promise? What’s the eternal inheritance? These are all concepts
we’ve gone through in various ways over the last year. What I just wanted to
point out was that a simple verse like this is loaded with extremely technical
vocabulary that is defined through its introduction in the flow of revelation
starting in Genesis and working all the way through the Bible.
Many people today think, “Well, why
do we even need to study the Old Testament? The Old Testament, well that’s the
old covenant. We’re not under the old covenant; we’re under the New Covenant.
We’re in the Church Age. Let’s not study the Old Testament.”
But what a study of Hebrews shows is
you can’t understand the New Testament and these rich doctrines that the writer
of Hebrews is unpacking for us coming out of the cross, if you don’t understand
the way God set this up in the Old Testament through the pictures and the
images and the foreshadowing from the Old Testament - what we call a type. And
all of this really seems to come together in Hebrews 9 because the focal point
of Hebrews 9 is on the Old Testament ritual related to the Day of Atonement and
how that pictures what Christ accomplished on the cross; what the writer of
Hebrews calls in this chapter “having accomplished eternal redemption.” Past
tense. It is completed.
So we stopped on this term “eternal
inheritance” as we were going through this verse to understand what the New
Testament teaches about inheritance. The last thing we looked at in terms of
inheritance was the emphasis that Jesus gave to cleansing of sin in relation to
having a share of our inheritance in the Millennial Kingdom.
So I wanted to step back a minute
and look at John 13 at a couple of things I did not tie together last time. Then
we’ll get into Hebrews 9.
In John 13:1 we are told:
NKJ John 13:1 Now
before the feast of the Passover,
I announced on Tuesday night that
next Thursday is Passover. April 9th is Passover. I’m going to do
another Passover demonstration here. Now we won’t have communion with it.
Sometimes we do that. But we won’t have communion with it. The Lord’s Table comes
out of the Passover. But I’ll do a full Passover demonstration and then the
following Sunday is of course Resurrection Day and it’s the second Sunday of
the month, which is when we observe the Lord’s Table. So it will help set the
stage for what we’re going to do Sunday morning at the Lord’s Table and the
resurrection. It’s nice how it sort of fits together.
So it’s the time for the feast of
the Passover, the night before the Passover. Jesus is going to sit down with
His disciples and have the Passover meal. The text here in 13:1 says:
when Jesus knew
that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father,
having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
I pointed out last time that this
passage is bracketed by this reference to love. If you go down to the end of
the chapter, you see that in John 13:34-5 Jesus gives a new commandment. He
says:
NKJ John 13:34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I
have loved you, that you also love one another.
NKJ John 13:35 "By this
That is “by this loving one
another.”
all will know
that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
Now what happens in the middle of
this? That’s important. Last time I talked about how Jesus washing of the
disciples’ feet wasn’t a picture of being a servant. That’s not what He’s
emphasizing. You don’t see that word emphasized in here at all. The picture is
something to do with loving one another. The model is “as I have loved you.” So
the standard in this new commandment is not like the Old Testament standard in
Leviticus 18:13 “to love your neighbor as you love yourself.” The standard is
not to love someone as you love yourself but love someone as Christ loved the
church. New standard, a little bit more difficult! We are to love one another
as Christ loved us. What He’s demonstrating there in the foot washing is the
principle of cleansing of sin, which is a picture of forgiveness. The
connection is that Jesus is saying, “As I have forgiven you,” (which is what’s
depicted in the concept of cleansing), you are to do to one another.”
“Forgive one another,” Paul says in
Ephesians 4.
NKJ Ephesians 4:32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just
as God in Christ forgave you.
He uses the same word there he uses
in Colossians which is charizomai. It
has to do with gracing somebody out, being gracious to them despite what they
have done. So the event of the foot washing is bracketed by this emphasis on
love.
Now to remind you of what happened
in the foot washing, Jesus got up from supper, laid aside His garments, wrapped
Himself in a towel so He wouldn’t slosh water all over Himself, poured water in
the basin, began to wash the disciples’ feet.
This was a little too much for
Peter. When He came to Peter, Peter challenged Him and said:
NKJ John 13:8 Peter
said to Him, "You shall never wash my feet!" Jesus answered him,
"If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me."
Basically to paraphrase it: “Peter,
you’re not going to understand the significance of this object lesson now; but
you will in the future when the Holy Spirit gives you precise revelation that
explains this.”
So he’s picturing something. That’s
how we understand abstract doctrine often, is by these pictures that God gives
us in the Scripture.
So Peter said:
NKJ John 13:8 Peter
said to Him, "You shall never wash my feet!"
And Jesus said:
Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you
have no part with Me."
I emphasized two words there. The
word for washing here is the Greek word nipto,
which has to do with only a partial washing. Using the word nipto you’d say, “ I washed my face or
washed my hands or I washed my feet.” But you would use a different word, the
word louo, if you were talking about
taking a full bath.
Now that’s important because the
full bath pictures what we call positional cleansing. Now keep that in mind. There
are two different kinds of cleansing that we see in Scripture. The kind of
cleansing that is full, total and what we call positional because it’s in
Christ that occurs at the instant of salvation. When you believed Jesus died on the cross for your sins, at
that instant you become washed totally. Now the picture of that from the Old
Testament was that when the High Priest was inaugurated into the priesthood; he
took a bath. He’s washed from head to toe. But from that point on he is to wash
his hands and his feet at the laver whenever he goes in to serve the Lord in
the Temple. That’s that picture of that ongoing cleansing.
We’re completely cleansed (legally,
positionally) from our sin at salvation; but experimentally we still sin. Because
we still sin that breaks fellowship with God. It breaks that walk by the Holy
Spirit and so there has to be this experiential cleansing or forgiveness needs
to take place in order for us to recover fellowship and to resume our forward
momentum in the spiritual life. If we don’t do that, we’ll just stop dead in
our tracks. We won’t go forward. If we don’t go forward, the Holy Spirit’s not
working in our lives. He’s not producing the fruit of the Spirit. He’s not
producing spiritual growth. He’s not producing that which is rewardable at the
Judgment Seat of Christ; there is no reward; there is no inheritance. That’s
what this word “part” means. It’s the Greek word meros meaning a share or a portion; that portion of the inheritance
that would go to the heir.
So Jesus says, “If you don’t let me
partially wash you (experiential cleansing, I John 1:9), you’ll have no
inheritance with Me, Peter.”
So Peter goes all the way to the
other extreme. He says:
NKJ John 13:9 Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!"
“Give me a bath,” basically.
Then Jesus says in verse 10:
NKJ John 13:10 Jesus said to him, "He who is bathed
Louo
needs only to
wash
Nipto
his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of
you."
That is that restoration to
fellowship. Now what I want you to pay attention to here is this concept of
cleansing because this is related to forgiveness. We have two kinds of
cleansing. You have positional cleansing that occurs when you’re saved. That’s
the application of Christ’s work on the cross to you as an individual when you
receive the imputation of Christ’s righteous and regeneration.
Then there is ongoing cleansing
experientially when you get out of fellowship. Now with forgiveness we’re going
to see (and we’ve seen in the past) that there are three kinds of forgiveness. I
want to remind you of these as we start connecting a lot of dots tonight.
The first kind of forgiveness is
what I’m going to call legal forgiveness. This is what occurred at the cross
when Christ paid the penalty for everybody’s sin and God is judicially
satisfied (propitiation). Christ pays the penalty for everybody’s sin. That’s
redemption. The result of that is that man is reconciled to God. Those three
things come out of that legal work that Christ does that happened at the
cross.
The problem is everybody’s still
left spiritually dead with unrighteous, –R. They’re not saved. They don’t
have the kind of righteousness that they need to have fellowship with God. That
is what we get when we trust in Christ as our Savior. We’re regenerated. We
receive the imputation of Christ righteous. We’re declared to be just, and then we have eternal life. That
is solved.
From that point on there needs to be
the ongoing washing or experiential cleansing. So we have these two categories
of cleansing, three categories of forgiveness. These are ours in a unique way
in the Church Age because of the completed work of Christ on the cross and are
the application of the New Covenant. Now that in a nutshell is what the writer
of Hebrews has been saying since chapter 7. Chapters 7, 8, and 9 all focus on
the implication of that and what that means for our future destiny with Christ.
Now all of that is simply by way of review.
Now let’s go to Hebrews 9:15.
NKJ Hebrews 9:15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new
covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the
first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the
eternal inheritance.
"For this reason"… the
writer says. This is a phrase in the Greek that indicates that he is drawing a
conclusion and an explanation out from what he has said in the previous verses.
Now in the previous verses…in the paragraph break – The New King James
breaks it between 15 and 16, but the break should come between 14 and 15 for
the paragraph.
In the previous two verses, the contrast
is between the limited ritual cleansing that comes from sprinkling the blood of
the bulls and the goats and the ashes of the heifer and that’s only good for the
purification of the flesh. The point was what? It did something. All of that
sacrifice with the blood did something. It was temporary, and it was for ritual cleansing.
We saw that this whole aspect of
talking about the blood of something, the blood of the goats, Christ’s blood
– all of this blood was really a figure of speech – what Bollinger
calls in his classic work on The Figures
of Speech in the Bible a metalepsis or double metonymy. You have two
symbols actually. The blood represents death. In Hebrews we‘re told that the
life is in the blood. So when the blood is gone, there is no life. So the loss
of blood (the shedding of blood) pictures the loss of life. Genesis 9 in the
Noahic Covenant whenever man sheds man’s blood is talking about murder. You
don’t have to limit murder to just shedding somebody’s physical blood. You can
poison them or strangle them or hit them over the head (blunt force trauma)
– any number of things. There may not be any external bleeding at all. There
may not even be internal bleeding. But there is loss of life. It’s murder. But
it’s depicted in this figure of speech, the shedding of blood. So physical
blood represents physical death.
But physical death in turn
represents a spiritual death. That’s that double metonymy, that double figure
of speech. Blood represents physical death. Physical death represents spiritual death. The spiritual
death is what is accomplished uniquely by Jesus Christ on the cross between 12
noon and 3 pm on the day He’s crucified. That is when the Father imputes to Him
the sins of the world and judicially deals with the sin of the world. That is
when the skies are darkened and Jesus cries out, “My God, My God! Why have You
forsaken Me?”
After those three hours are over with,
Jesus said what? “It’s finished.”
It’s completed. It is over with,
paid in full. Again, it’s an economic term. It is a term a waiter might write
on a bill. Or, after you’ve paid off mortgage they write it on the bottom of
mortgage. Paid in full, complete, nothing more can be added to it. It’s all
done.
Before He died physically, before He
goes to the grave, before He’s resurrected, the saving work of Jesus Christ is
completed on the cross. Everything necessary for our salvation is done at that
time. The burial, the resurrection are significant but not in that aspect of
soteriology, not for justification or forgiveness.
Now let’s stop where we are in 9:15.
We look at this and we bring in concepts of a mediator, a go-between; somebody
who is a go-between between two different people. You talk about when labor and
management are at odds with one another. They bring in someone to help mediate
the contract. Well, this is the same idea. We have a new covenant which is a
new contract that God is going to bring specifically in context the House of
Israel and House of Judah.
Right? Hebrews 8.
So in 9:15 the writer of Hebrews is
going back to chapter 8 and he picks up this thread of mediator. Now he’s going
to pull this in. He picks up the thread of New Covenant which started in
chapter 7 and he’s pulling that thread which he’s hit two or three times now in
chapter 8, chapter 9, and now he ties that together. So he’s going to weave
these two together. Now he pulls in the thread of redemption, which he’s
already introduced in terms of what Christ did on the cross, the picture on the
Day of Atonement.
The transgressions these are these
old transgressions that were committed during the old covenant. The only thing
that dealt with them were the ritual sacrifices, the blood of the bulls and the
goats, etc. So he’s going to tie that together. Then he’s going to point us to
the promise of the eternal inheritance.
So what I want to do now is to take
you back to chapter 7. Let’s just walk our way through what the writer has been
saying. The first point he made back in chapter 7: 1-10 is that Christ is a
superior priest. He represents a superior priesthood. That is the priesthood of
Melchizedek, that somewhat enigmatic Gentile priest-king, the royal priest-king
of Jerusalem at the time of Abraham. He is not Jesus. That is, not a priest
that fits the qualifications for an Aaronic or Levitical priesthood. He’s got a
broader ministry. It’s not just Israel; it is to mankind as a whole. So this is
what the writer is emphasizing in the first ten verses of chapter 7.
From there he’s going to pull in the
next point which means that now that he’s shown us that there’s a change in
priesthood; he says in verse 12 that a change in the priesthood means a change
of the law.
Verse 12 says:
NKJ Hebrews 7:12 For the priesthood being changed,
This word that he uses there is used
many times in this section. He’s showing the logic. He’s drawing logical
conclusions from the statements that he’s making.
of necessity
there is also a change of the law.
The logical force of that means that
the law has to change. If you’re not operating on the Levitical priesthood –
which is inherent to the whole Sinaitic Covenant, the whole Mosaic Covenant –
if that priesthood is no longer valid, then you have to have a whole new
covenant. So 7:12 is a swing principle.
There has to be a change of the law.
Now the third thing that he points
out is in his quote of Psalm 110:4 in v.21, but he actually refers to it
several times in this passage and alludes to it again in 8:1. That is that
Jesus has a universal and eternal priesthood. It’s not like the Levitical
priesthood. That’s temporary. They’re born. They die. They can only serve from
the time that they’re inaugurated in the priesthood until they’re 40 years old.
That’s it. They can’t serve their whole life. It is a limited priesthood.
Not only that, but the Aaronic
priesthood is based on a limited and weak commandment, the former commandment
verse 18. Because of its weakness and unprofitableness, it doesn’t complete
anything. There’s no total forgiveness. There’s no resolution of the sin
problem. So the Aaronic priesthood has limitations. It’s flawed. It’s based on
a limited and weak commandment which made nothing complete. But we have a
better hope.
NKJ Hebrews 7:19 for the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better
hope, through which we draw near to God.
So we have this better hope. Now
this better hope is going to be tied to better promises and a better covenant. Better
hope, better promises, better covenant.
All tie to the New Covenant. We see that Jesus is the guarantee of that
better covenant in verse 22.
NKJ Hebrews 7:22 by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better
covenant.
That will be as we’ll see because of
His death on the cross. So that’s the flow. We’ve got a new priesthood. The new
priesthood means a new law. The old priesthood was flawed and limited and
finite. Jesus is going to guarantee a better covenant because He’s a better
priest.
He’s superior as a priest because He
did not have to die for His own sin.
NKJ Hebrews 7:26 For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens;
The priest had to bring sacrifices
for their sins because they were sinners. But Jesus doesn’t have any sins. He
is impeccable to so He’s superior and He doesn’t have to die for His own sins.
Next he says:
NKJ Hebrews 7:28 For the law
That is, the Mosaic Law.
appoints as high
priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the
law, appoints the Son who has been
perfected forever.
NKJ Psalm 110:4 The LORD has sworn And will not relent, "You are a priest forever According to the
order of Melchizedek."
So the foundation of Jesus’
appointment to His priesthood is this oath by God, not the Mosaic Law
(7:28).
Then as we get into the first part
of chapter 8, there’s a summary of what chapter 7 said and the writer focuses
on Jesus’ superiority now because He is presently seated at the right hand of
the Father in heaven and He is a minister of the heavenly sanctuary.
Now we talked about this along the
way: that in heaven there is the prototype of the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle
really talks about a place where God dwells. The Hebrew word was skene,
which has to do with a dwelling, an inhabitation. So heaven (the throne room of
God) - this is God’s dwelling place.
That’s the heavenly Tabernacle or the heavenly temple. Revelation
depicts that.
What we’re seeing this next Tuesday
night on our study in Revelation. We’ll come to this seeing the Ark of the
Covenant. That’s not the ark that Moses had built. That is the heavenly
prototype that’s in the heavenly temple - the heavenly temple in Revelation. In
Revelation it’s always referred to as the Temple, not the Tabernacle.
So Jesus is now in heaven and
there’s this heavenly sanctuary that is the dwelling place of God, which is
where God sits upon His judicial throne in the heavens. Before Him we know
there’s the altar of incense that’s depicted in Revelation. There is the Ark of
the Covenant. These are present in heaven. So Jesus is now a minister according
to verse 2.
NKJ Hebrews 8:2 a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord
erected, and not man.
So that’s the heavenly tabernacle. As
such He’s there because he offered Himself. Because He’s offering Himself as
the perfect sacrifice, He’s the mediator of this better covenant that has
better promises. This is emphasized in Hebrews 8:6.
NKJ Hebrews 8:6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry,
inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on
better promises.
What ministry is that? That’s the
ministry that is in the sanctuary of the true tabernacle in heaven. Now this is
important because at the end of chapter 9 and in these verses we’re coming to
we go right back to talking about this heavenly tabernacle, again the heavenly
furniture.
Just as a note, in Hebrews 8:5 we
read:
NKJ Hebrews 8:5 who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things,
as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For
He said, "See that you make all
things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain."
Now we’re going to get into this terminology
of type and antitype. Now what that means is a type was a marker or an
impression on something. So it enters into theological vocabulary to describe
shadows or patterns in the Old Testament that specifically depict doctrines,
persons or events related to Christ in the New Testament. The reality is called
an antitype. The shadow is called the type. The earthly tabernacle (and temple)
is a type. It is the shadow. The antitype or the reality is what’s up in
heaven. What we see on earth is merely a shadow or a reflection designed to
teach the ultimate truths of what’s happening before the throne of God, in
God’s presence in this heavenly throne room, which is the courtroom of God
because the transaction that takes place there is this judicial transaction
related to what Christ does on the cross.
NKJ Hebrews 8:6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry,
inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on
better promises.
He’s a mediator of a better
covenant. This word mediator is going to be picked up in Hebrews 9:15. It comes
from Hebrews 8:6. So that’s where the thread starts pulling together.
Now the next thing we see is that we
have an introduction of a better or new covenant which makes the old covenant
obsolete. That’s Hebrews 8:13.
Hebrews 8:8-12 is a quotation of the entire passage from Jeremiah
31:31-33. But he quotes that whole passage simply to draw one point. That is,
because it says the New Covenant that means the old covenant is obsolete. It was
always viewed as temporary. So we have the introduction of a better covenant, which
equals the New Covenant. That makes the old obsolete in 8:13.
Then we got into Hebrews 9. In the
first ten verses of Hebrews 9, the first covenant is described as focusing on
the blood sacrifice rituals, which had only a temporary ritual cleansing value.
The focal point was really that ritual that occurred once a year on the Day of
Atonement. On the Day of Atonement a transaction occurred whereby as the
sacrifice that is without spot or blemish is sacrificed on the brazen altar and
then the blood from that sacrifice was taken into the Holy of Holies and
splattered before the Ark of the Covenant, it is a depiction of the fact that
God is satisfied that the sins have been cleansed from Israel for another year.
Every year they had to do this again. So it’s not permanent, it’s just
temporary. The idea of atonement depicts primarily the idea of judicial
cleansing. So it ties together the doctrines of propitiation, redemption, and
reconciliation, which is what we talked about when we went through a lengthy
analysis of the Day of Atonement.
So the old covenant atonement ritual
could not make the worshipper clean before God; only clean ritually. Remember
the priest may not even be a believer. The only requirement for the priest was
that he had to be physically related to Levi. And he couldn’t have any external
blemishes or health problems. That qualified him to be a priest. It doesn’t say
anything in Leviticus 9 about his spiritual qualifications. So the old covenant
atonement ritual couldn’t make the worshipper clean before God; only clean ritually.
That’s what we come to in Hebrews 9:8.
Now in Hebrews 9:8 what we read is:
NKJ Hebrews 9:8 the Holy Spirit indicating this,
That is, from the Old Testament
sacrifices.
that the way
into the Holiest of All
That is, the way into God’s presence
itself.
was not yet
made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing.
See those sins aren’t truly dealt
with yet. Their conscience isn’t cleansed before the judicial bar of God’s
court. It is symbolic.
NKJ Hebrews 9:9 It was symbolic for the
present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make
him who performed the service perfect
…or complete.
in regard to
the conscience –
So they couldn’t cleanse the
conscience. He’s going to turn right around when we come down to verse 14, that
because of what Christ did on the cross (offered Himself without spot to God), that
will cleanse the conscience from dead works so that we can serve the living
God. So you see there is a contrast between the failure of these Old Testament
sacrifices to truly solve the sin problem, and that Christ’s death on the cross
does truly solve the sin problem.
So that brings us up to where we’ve
been for some time, starting in verse 11.
NKJ Hebrews 9:11 But Christ came as
High Priest of the good things to come,
Notice the focus is on the future.
He came as High Priest. That relates back to First Advent ministry primarily
focusing on His work at the cross, the sacrifice of Himself as the focal point
of His priestly ministry. But it has a future orientation, the good things to
come, which is a term that relates to the Millennial Kingdom blessings.
with the
greater and more perfect tabernacle
That’s the heavenly tabernacle,
which we’ll call the Supreme Court of Heaven. His dwelling place in heaven is
indicated by the Ark of the Covenant, which pictures the satisfaction of His
justice and the altar of incense. Those two were linked together.
not made with
hands, that is, not of this creation.
NKJ Hebrews 9:12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His
own blood He entered the Most Holy Place
Now we stopped. That’s where we did
our study on the meaning of the term blood. We saw this metaphor (this double
metonymy or metalepsis), and we should read this for a correct translation “not
with the death of goats and calves but with His own death.” That’s what blood
stands for. It stands for death. So when we translate the idiom more literally
to get the thrust of it, then we understand the passage a little more
precisely. It wasn’t on the basis of the death of these animals, but with His
own death He entered the most holy place.
Now what most holy place is that? That’s
the heavenly courtroom of God.
once for all,
having obtained eternal redemption.
He’s already accomplished
redemption. Redemption has these two senses. It has this one sense of purchase.
What’s purchased? Or, what is paid? What is paid is the judicial penalty for
sin. That is the objective side of redemption. The subjective side is the
release of the slave from slavery to sin.
But what He’s talking about here isn’t the personal application in the
release from slavery to sin. He’s talking about the payment of the price
demanded by the justice of God. He accomplished that. It’s finished at the
cross.
So this takes us back to what we
studied in Colossians 1 and 2. So we’re going to come to the word aphesis in a minute for forgiveness. But
let me just remind you of what Colossians 2 says:
NKJ Colossians 2:13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the
uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him,
That’s what happened at
regeneration.
having forgiven
you all trespasses,
I’m translating the participle for
you there in a more precise manner as a participle of means.
He graced you out.
When? It occurred at the cross. That’s
what Colossians 1:13 says.
NKJ Colossians 1:13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and
conveyed us into the kingdom of the
Son of His love,
NKJ Colossians 1:14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the
forgiveness of sins.
Aphesis – it has to do with that
objective sense of forgiveness, the cancelling of debt. It is an economic term.
Then Colossians 2:14 explains it in
the same economic way.
NKJ Colossians 2:14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us,
which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it
to the cross
That’s how He forgave us. That’s the
legal or judicial sense of forgiveness. That doesn’t mean it’s applied to you
soteriologically yet, it has to do with the satisfaction of God’s justice, the
payment of the price so that sin is not the issue between man and God any
more.
Does that mean everybody is saved? No,
because everybody is still born spiritually dead, and they’re still born
unrighteous. What it means is God has solved the sin problem so the issue in
evangelism isn’t all the sins you’ve committed and all the terrible things
you’ve done. Now I think you have to understand you’re a sinner under
condemnation because in order to respond to a message of salvation you have to
understand you need to be saved. From what? From condemnation. We are
spiritually dead. We’re born dead in our trespasses and sins. There needs to be
regeneration that comes only through Jesus Christ.
Now let me go back to where we are
in Hebrews 9:15. Let’s go move through this verse again and we’ll go forward.
NKJ Hebrews 9:15 And for this reason
That is, because of what was
accomplished by Jesus Christ on the cross which cleanses our conscience from
dead works…for this reason that we are now cleansed and we can serve the living
God.
He is the
Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death,
See earlier it used the term blood. Now
it’s using the term death. We could paraphrase it if we wanted to.
“He’s the mediator of a new covenant
so that because of His blood" – that’s the purchase price for
redemption.
NKJ 1 Peter 1:18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver
or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers,
NKJ 1 Peter 1:19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot.
See how these terms are used
interchangeably.
NKJ Hebrews 9:15 And for this reason for the redemption of the
transgressions under the first covenant,
That means that their sins are now
taken care of. It was just provisional until the cross.
that those who
are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
So now that sin is dealt with, we
can have that eternal inheritance. Now when we went through this lengthy study
of inheritance in these last few lessons, I pointed out that there are two
kinds of heirs. There’s an heirship that relates to every believer. We’re called
heirs of God in Romans 8:17. That is true for every believer. But there is a second
heirship, which is true of those who suffer with Christ: the joint heir with
Christ. That is only true of those who press on in their spiritual lives and
grow. The focus here, the promise of eternal inheritance, is related to eternal
life. It’s related to that New Covenant. Hebrews 8:6 - He’s the mediator of the
New Covenant that’s enacted on better promises. Notice the connection of
promise and covenant there.
Also when we look at what is said
earlier in this chapter related to the Holy Spirit back where earlier He’s
called the eternal Spirit.
NKJ Hebrews 9:12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He
entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
NKJ Hebrews 9:14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through
the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God,
So we have eternal redemption,
eternal Spirit.
cleanse your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Now we have the eternal inheritance.
So this is talking in verse 15. The promise of eternal inheritance is that
because there is now a full payment of sin and God’s justice is satisfied and
there is true forgiveness at the judicial level. The potential is our future
promise in reception of that eternal inheritance based on faith alone in Christ
alone.
Now we then shift and he does a
little funny thing, a sort of play on words here in verse 16.
NAS Hebrews 9:16 For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the
one who made it.
That’s how it’s translated in the New
American Standard. In the New King James it recognizes that he’s really using
the same word with a different sense.
The New King James translates it:
NKJ Hebrews 9:16 For where there is a
testament,
See the word diatheke is a term that can mean covenant in one context; but in another
context it means a will, just like you have a last will and testament. A will
is the disposition of your earthly possessions when you die. So what the writer
of Hebrews is doing is he’s using this same word but with two different
meanings. In the previous verse it referred to a covenant. But here it refers
to a particular type of contract. That is a will that occurs at the time of
death. So just like an English word “letter”, the English word letter can refer
to a letter in the alphabet or it can refer to correspondence; usually some
sort of epistolary correspondence. So diatheke
is the same kind of thing.
In verse 16 he says:
there must also
of necessity be the death of the testator.
So before the will is enacted,
before the covenant is enacted, the person who made the will has to die. It’s
not until they die that the convent or the will goes into effect. That’s the
point that he’s making in terms of his illustration.
In verse 17:
NKJ Hebrews 9:17 For a testament
That is a will.
is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the
testator lives.
He’s using this as an illustration
to show that there had to be a death in order for this covenant to be
established. The covenants are established and validated on the basis of a
death.
Then He’s going to say in verse 18:
NKJ Hebrews 9:18 Therefore not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood.
That’s double negative. He states it
that way in order to make us stop and think about it. If he had said, “Even the
first covenant was inaugurated with blood,” it wouldn’t cause us to stop and
think about it as much as it does with a double negative. With the double
negative, we have to stop and say, “Well, what is he really saying there?” That’s
what he wants us to do.
He’s pointing out that the first
covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, the old covenant was in inaugurated with blood
and that means what? What word are you going to substitute for blood? Death. The
first covenant was inaugurated with death. There had to be this shedding of
blood. So what he’s going to do in verse 19 is he’s going to start to show from
the Old Testament the shadow image related to cleansing. What did we start off talking about
tonight? Cleansing, and that this
cleansing can only come through what? The sprinkling of blood. It is that
application of a death that makes cleansing possible. That’s what these next verses are going to talk about.
So in verse 19 he says:
NKJ Hebrews 9:19 For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the
people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats,
… that were sacrificed there in the
covenant ceremony that’s described in Exodus 24. He says:
with water,
scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself
That is the law code.
and all the
people,
Then he’s going to go into the
Tabernacle and he’s going to sprinkle everything with blood. Why is he doing
that? Because, they’ve all been affected by sin. Everything is therefore ceremonially
impure and unclean. The way to purify it is to apply death to it – the
blood. What’s it doing? It’s positionally sanctifying, cleansing everything. Does
he have to do this all the time? No. He just had to do this one time with the
nation. When they established the covenant and they affirmed the covenant with
God, that’s the only time he is going to sprinkle everything – I mean
everything – the people, the covenant itself, the Tabernacle, the tent
meeting, the Ark of the Covenant - everything gets splattered with blood. This
is what we read in Exodus 24:3ff. Moses came after he has gone over part of the
Law in chapters 23.
NKJ Exodus 24:3 So Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and all the
judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, "All the
words which the LORD has said we will do."
NKJ Exodus 24:4 And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD. And he
rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and
twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel.
So this is pointing out through the
symbolism here the representation the twelve rocks. The nation is united. They
are all entering in this contract with God.
He says:
NKJ Exodus 24:5 Then he sent young men of the children of Israel, who
offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the LORD.
..because there is this peace
between Israel and God.
NKJ Exodus 24:6 And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood
This was an enormous amount of blood
– gallons!
he sprinkled on
the altar.
This would be the bronze altar out
in front of the Tabernacle.
NKJ Exodus 24:7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant
It’s the whole law.
and read in the
hearing of the people.
You think an hour sermon on Sunday
morning gets long. He read the whole Mosaic Law to them.
And they said,
"All that the LORD has said we will do, and be obedient."
NKJ Exodus 24:8 And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said,
"This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you
according to all these words.
That’s what’s quoted in Hebrews 9:20
NKJ Hebrews 9:20 saying, "This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you."
And verse 21 summarizes these events
in Exodus 24.
NKJ Hebrews 9:21 Then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle
and all the vessels of the ministry.
It’s the ritual cleansing of
everything: the people, the furniture, the Tabernacle, the Law; everything that
has been contaminated by sin or impurity representing the fact that everything
has to now be set apart to the service of God.
The conclusion for this is that the
law is teaching and the ritual is teaching that all things must be cleansed
with blood. That is death because sin has affected everything. The penalty for
sin is death and so everything has to be cleansed by means of death in order
for God’s justice to be satisfied.
Then we go to Hebrews 9:22.
NKJ Hebrews 9:22 And according to the law almost all things are
purified with blood,
Let’s paraphrase that.
“All things are purified or ritually
cleansed with death.”
There has to be the right kind of
death.
and without
shedding of blood
Ie., a death.
there is no
remission.
The word for forgiveness is that
word aphesis which stands for
forgiveness or remission of sin which is the word that’s used in Colossian 1:14
for forgiveness.
NKJ Colossians 1:14 in whom we have redemption
That is the objective payment. Remember
what Hebrews said back in verse 12? Having obtained eternal redemption. He’s
saying the same thing. That eternal redemption, that price, was paid at the
cross. The judicial price was paid through His blood.
through His
blood,
That is His death.
the forgiveness
of sins.
That is the eradication of the debt.
This is the bailout of all bailouts folks. We got bailed out at the cross. There’s
no debt left or the sin penalty because Christ paid it all.
That’s what’s described again in
Colossians 2:14. By cancelling out that certificate of debt that was against us
which was contrary to us, He has taken it out of the way having nailed it to
the cross.
See that’s when it was taken out of
the way: when it was nailed on the cross, not when you trusted Chris as Savior.
So the slate is wiped clean. But it’s not applied in terms of your lack of
righteousness and your spiritual death until you trust Christ as Savior.
Now verse 23 is going to take us to
a new dimension here.
NKJ Hebrews 9:23 Therefore it
was necessary
There’s that same word again –
logical necessity.
that the copies
of the things in the heavens
That is the archetypes in heaven,
the prototypes.
should be
purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices
than these.
So we’ll come back and start to look
at this next time because we have to study these words for copies (hupodeigma), types (tupos) and all this. But what we’re seeing is that this cleansing
in heaven is the acceptance by God of the judicial payment by Christ and that
sin that has had a universal impact (even in heaven) is now dealt with
completely by this better sacrifice of the death of Christ on the cross.
Let’s bow our heads in closing
prayer.