יּקנרק'ד

Hebrews Chapter 9  Verses 11-14

: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, having obtained eternal redemption 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 offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” 

“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;”  One of the main themes of the book of Hebrews is that we have something far better today in this New Testament age.  We have previously been shown that the high priesthood of Christ after the order of Melchisedec is far better than the high priesthood after the order of Aaron.  A comparison is here made between the Old Testament tabernacle and the perfect tabernacle.  Christ compared his body to a temple: John 2:19 “Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. 20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? 21 But he spake of the temple of his body.”  Thus the perfect tabernacle or temple is the body of Christ.  This tabernacle was made without hands thus not the building of the tabernacle in the wilderness or the temple in Jerusalem in that day.  Moreover, Christ came as a high priest of good things to come.  The Old Testament ordinances of worship and service never perfected or cleansed even a single individual.  They did call sin to remembrance and testified of a need for a redeemer.  Christ, in contrast cleansed his people from their sins by his perfect offering to God.  He gave us this precious hope of eternal life that we look forward to.  He intercedes for us to God in his high priestly office.   

“Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.”  The offering of the blood of goats and calves never did away with a single sin, but brought sin to remembrance testifying to us of God’s wrathful judgment of sin.  In contrast, Christ entered into the holy place of heaven one time, having obtained eternal redemption for us.  The high priest under the Old Testament entered into the holiest of all once a year and never obtained eternal redemption for a single individual.  Notice that the phrase “having obtained” is in the past tense.  It is an accomplished fact.  Since it is already obtained, there is nothing for us to do to obtain it. Now we should give praise to the one who obtained it for us.  The blood of goats and calves were not sufficient to satisfy God’s wrathful judgment because of our sins, but the blood of Christ was sufficient and he obtained eternal redemption for us. 

“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 offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”  The blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, ceremoniously sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, but never put away sin.  In contrast the blood of Christ, who offered himself to God, not to man, through the eternal Spirit.  He offered himself without spot to God.  He who knew no sin and had no sin, offered himself without spot to God and the offering was accepted of God and thus he obtained eternal redemption for us.  This wonderful news serves to purge our conscience from dead works (works under the law which are not evil works, but now dead works) as they served their purpose until Christ came and made the perfect offering to God.  Paul is teaching the Hebrew people here that they need to turn from the dead works of the law to worship God in Spirit and truth under the New Testament teachings.  He is saying that the old law service is dead works now that Christ has come and obtained eternal redemption for us. 

Verses 15-17

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 eternal inheritance. 16 For where a testament 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.” 

Four elements of a testament are presented in the above passage.  These four elements are:

                   1.  The testament.

                   2.  The mediator of the testament.

                   3.  The testator.

                   4.  Time that the testament takes force. 

The testament under consideration is the testament spelled out for us in Rom. 8:29, 30: For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.  Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”  The details of this covenant spell out several things to us including: 

1.  The beneficiaries of the testament are those who God foreknew before the foundation of the world. 

2.  The benefits of the testament are that those named beneficiaries are to be finally glorified and conformed to the image of Jesus Christ the Son of God. 

3.  The mediator of this testament is Jesus Christ.  He is the one who calls us and justifies us and glorifies us according to the terms: called; justified; and glorified. 

4.  The testator of this testament is also Jesus Christ the Son of God.   

Next, we notice that once the testament comes into force, it is too late to add names to the testament or remove names from the testament.  When Christ the testator died, the testament came into force.  Now the terms of the testament cannot be changed and the beneficiaries of the testament cannot be changed.  All the labors of all the so-called preachers and all the efforts of man cannot change the beneficiaries by adding or subtracting names to the testament.  They are eternally fixed because the testament is in force.