Jesus was a unique priest. He was both a priest and the sacrifice that the priest offered. His priesthood is from the order of Melchizedek, but His sacrifice is patterned after the annual sacrifice of the Aaronic priesthood on the Day of Atonement. In this section (9:1–10:18), Paul returns to that crucial event of Christ’s “offering up himself” (7:27) on the cross in sacrificial death for mankind. Some might think that this section of the epistle is non-sequitur, or that there is a regression as Paul moves from the eternal priesthood of Jesus back to the historic sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Paul’s logic follows the chronologic sequence of the old covenant narratives – the historic progression from Melchizedek to the Mosaic guidelines of the Aaronic and Levitical priests and their practices in the tabernacle and temple. As Melchizedek predates Moses, so the progression of Paul’s thought moves from the eternal Melchizedekian priesthood to Christ’s historic sacrifice of Himself as the singularly sufficient sinless sacrifice for the sins of mankind. By establishing and reiterating the superiority of Christ’s priesthood and sacrifice, Paul continues to encourage the beleaguered Christians of the Jerusalem church in the middle of the seventh decade of the first century not to succumb to the inferior and antiquated practice of the Jewish religion, as advocated by those who wanted to restore such by ousting the Romans from Palestine. Paul knew it was so important for the Judean Christians, who were socially under siege by their religious kinsmen and nationalistic countrymen to join the insurrection against Rome, to “think outside of the box” – to realize that the objects and practices in the “temple-box” that was still standing in Jerusalem were intended by God to be merely illustrative of the permanent access to God that was effected only in the work of Jesus Christ. Within the context of the “new covenant” (8:8,13; 9:15; 12:24) all of the practices of the old system of Judaic religion became antiquated and obsolete (8:13), displaced and replaced. Perhaps the Christians of Jerusalem were questioning: Why, then, is the temple still standing? Why is the Jewish priesthood still functioning? Why are sacrifices still being offered by the priests in the temple? Paul explained that the Jewish practices were outmoded and in decline, and the entire religious system was “near to disappearing” (8:13) – a rather prophetic anticipation of what would transpire in only a few years when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the “temple-box” in 70 AD. Paul’s objective in this section is to walk his readers through the details of the tabernacle/temple system of sacrificial worship in the old covenant, and to point out the superiority and supersession of such in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. Any thought of returning and reinvolving themselves in the sacrificial practices of the temple and its priesthood would be an unthinkable, abominable reversion to the imperfect and inadequate practices of the old covenant, which were only intended to be provisional and temporary, preliminary to the perfection of forgiveness and access to God afforded by the Son, Jesus Christ. To return to the Judaic worship practices – to consider the temple sacrifices to be of any value – would be to deny all that Jesus accomplished in His priesthood and sacrifice. To engage again in the restricted access of the “temple-box” after Jesus had opened unrestricted access to the Holy of Holies of God’s presence (cf. 10:19) to all Christians would be to try to “put God in the box” again. May it never be! The “place” (cf. Jn. 14:2) that has been prepared for Christians, “near to the heart of God,” has been opened forever in the “new and living way” (10:20) of Jesus Christ in the “new covenant.” By extension we might add that any attempt by Christians in any age to rebuild and reconstruct the Jewish temple, and to restore and reinstitute the cultic activities of Jewish priesthood and sacrifices, would also be an abominable affront to God’s redemptive work in Jesus Christ. Paul tells the Judean Christians of the first century and Christians in every subsequent century that they must never go back to the insufficient objects and practices of the old covenant, having accepted Jesus as “the better sacrifice, sufficient for forgiveness,” allowing for unrestricted eternal access to God. 9:1 Paul lays the groundwork (9:1-10) for emphasizing the all-sufficient sacrifice of Jesus by reviewing the historic and physical details of the tabernacle in the old covenant. The progression of his thought begins with the context of the two chambers of the tabernacle (9:2-5), and moves to the regulated religious activities within those two chambers (9:6,7). First the places, then the practices. First the setting, then the sacrifices. First the logistics, then the liturgy. First the furniture, then the functions. Making a transitional connection, Paul resumes his argument for the superiority of the “new covenant” (8:8,13) by writing, “Indeed, even the first (covenant) had regulations of worship and the holy place of this world.” Though “the first” has no qualifier, the immediate preceding context (8:13) dictates that Paul is referring to the proto-covenant, the first covenant, the old covenant, the Mosaic covenant of Law, and not to “the first tabernacle” as some interpreters have suggested, even though “first covenant” and “first tabernacle” are connected (cf. 9:6) in this paragraph. The paragraph begins and ends with the concept of “regulations” (9:1,10). The old covenant certainly had rules and regulations for the proper administration of all activities in the tabernacle and temple. God had carefully directed (cf. Exodus 25-31; 35-39) the legal guidelines for the “right way” of doing things in the Jewish worship center. There was a proper way to place the furniture and a proper way to engage in every worship practice. The word Paul uses for “worship” conveys the idea of “serving God in subservience.” By referring to the tabernacle as “the holy place of this world,” Paul is indicating that the Jewish worship center was tangible, terrestrial and temporary. It was material and man-made, in contrast to “the perfect tabernacle of God, not made with hands” (8:2; 9:11). The physical tabernacle was earthly and this-worldly in contrast to the heavenly tabernacle (8:1; 9:23,24) which is “not of this creation” (9:11), and served as the pattern from which the earthly was but a picture (8:5). Paul is already alluding to the inferiority and insufficiency of the Jewish “holy place” or worship center, in order to explain its limited significance. 9:2 Beginning his review of the old covenant worship place, Paul wrote, “For there was a tabernacle prepared,…” The precise regulations for the construction of the original worship tent are recorded in Exodus 26. Though Paul uses the word “tent” which indicates a temporary enclosure, his references to the tabernacle as “the holy place of this world” (9:1) is surely inclusive of the more permanent extension of the Jewish worship center in the subsequent constructs of the Jewish temple. Paul refers to the tent of the tabernacle to connect the Jewish worship center to the original establishment of the old covenant and Moses’ instruction for the construction of the portable tabernacle (Exod. 25:40; Heb. 8:5). Solomon’s temple (I Kings 6), the second temple which was rebuilt after the exile (Ezra 3:8–6:15), and Herod’s reconstruction of the temple (John 2:20), though constructed of more permanent materials, were just as temporary as the tabernacle tent when compared to the eternal and heavenly dwelling place of God (8:1,5; 9:11,23,24). Paul wanted the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem to realize that the Jewish worship center of the tabernacle (and its later extension in the temple which still stood in Jerusalem) was temporary and transient, but the heavenly dwelling place of God was eternally opened up for direct access to God in Jesus Christ. In just a few years, in 70 AD, the temporarily of the Jerusalem temple would be made evident when it was totally destroyed by the Roman army. Both the tabernacle and the temple were constructed in a bipartite design with two compartments or chambers. There was “the first one, in which (were) the lampstand and the table and the setting forth of the loaves.” The first room or chamber in the tabernacle/temple housed the lampstand on the south side of the enclosure (cf. Exod. 25:31-39; 26:35; 37:17-24). The menorah (the Hebrew word for the lampstand) was a candelabrum with seven candles, three on each side of a single upright post. Though there was only one menorah in the original tabernacle (Exod. 25:31), there were ten such lampstands in the temple of Solomon (I Kings 7:49), but Josephus mentions only one in the first-century temple (5.216). On the north side of the first chamber of the tabernacle and temple was the table of showbread on which the loaves were displayed (cf. Exod. 25:23-30; 26:35; 37:10-16). The loaves were replaced either daily (cf. II Chron. 13:11) or weekly on the Sabbath (Lev. 24:8). Jesus, the Bread of Life (John 6:35,48), indicated His superiority and divine privilege over the Sabbatarian rules concerning the temple showbread (Matt. 12:4; Mk. 2:26; Lk. 6:4). “This (first chamber) is called the holy place,” Paul explained in his recapitulation of the architecture of the tabernacle (cf. Exod. 26:33). 9:3 “And after the second curtain there was a tent which is called the Holy of Holies,…” At the entrance to the first compartment there was a curtain or veil or screen (cf. Exod 26:36; 36:37) through which the priests passed into the “holy place” (9:6). Between the “holy place” and the second compartment there was a much heavier curtain or veil (cf. Exod 26:31-33; 36:35; 40:3,21) through which only the high priest entered once a year (9:7). Behind the second curtain “there was a tent,” i.e. a temporary enclosure which was the rear chamber of the larger tabernacle-tent. This back-room was called “the Holy of Holies” (cf. Exod 26:33) or “the Most Holy Place” (cf. I Kings 8:6). This was the place where the holy presence of God was thought to be contained in the old covenant worship center of the tabernacle and temple. 9:4 Paul’s list of the objects that were in the Holy of Holies chamber is problematic. He begins by indicating that the Holy of Holies “had a golden altar of incense.” In the Old Testament narratives the altar of incense seems to have been located in the front chamber of the “holy place” in front of the second curtain (cf. Exod 30:1-10; 40:26). When Solomon constructed the temple the altar of incense may have been placed in the inner chamber of the Holy of Holies (cf. I Kings 6:21,22). Since the physical tabernacle was patterned (8:5) after the heavenly sanctuary, it might be noted that John saw “the golden altar before the throne” (Rev. 8:3) in the heavenly dwelling place of God. The centerpiece of the furniture in the Holy of Holies was “the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold…” This was the most important object in the inner chamber. It was a sacred chest made of acacia wood and covered with gold, having rings of gold on each corner so staves could be placed through the rings for transportation (cf. Exod. 25:10-26; 37:1-5). The “ark of the covenant” chest was designed primarily to contain “the tablets of the covenant,” i.e. the “testimony” (Exod 25:16,21) of God, the replaced tablets given to Moses on which were inscribed the Ten Commandments (Exod. 34:28; Deut. 10:1-5). In another variance from the Old Testament accounts, Paul seems to indicate that “a golden jar containing the manna, and Aaron’s rod which budded” were also placed within the sacred box of the “ark of the covenant.” The Mosaic account indicates that a sampling of “the bread from heaven” (Exod. 16:4), the manna provided to Israel in the wilderness, was placed within a jar that was to be placed within the Holy of Holies, but in front of the ark (Exod. 16:31-34) rather than inside of the ark. Likewise, Aaron’s rod which had budded and bore almonds was to have been placed within the Holy of Holies in front of the ark (Numb. 17:1-11), but not within it. Are these variances in the placement of the temple objects to be considered as contradictions in the Scriptures? Not necessarily, for in the long history of the Hebrew people and their worship centers there were no doubt different placements of sacred objects and movements of the furniture. (Cf. diagrams of the tabernacle/temple.) It was noted earlier (9:2), for example, that Solomon had ten lampstands in the “holy place” when he tripled the size of the temple structure. 9:5 Paul continues his brief explanation of the furniture and objects within the Holy of Holies. “And above it (the ark of the covenant) were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat.” The top or lid that covered the ark of the covenant was a golden slab that was called “the mercy seat” (Exod. 25:17-22). It was on this lid covering the chest that the high priest sprinkled the blood of the bull and the goat on the annual Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:14-16), as a “covering” for his own sins and the sins of the Hebrew people. Paul’s argument was that the merciful, propitiatory satisfaction of God had been made once and for all in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ (cf. Rom. 3:25), allowing for an atonement reconciliation between God and man that provided genuine cleansing and eternal forgiveness for sins, rather than just a temporary covering of such. At each end of the mercy seat were “the cherubim of glory.” These were sphinx-like figures, both facing inward with their wings arching over the mercy seat (Exod. 25:18-22). These angelic figures represented God’s heavenly shekinah glory residing above the mercy seat (cf. I Sam 4:4; II Sam. 6:2; II Kings 19:15; I Chron. 13:6; Ps. 80:1; 99:1) in the Holy of Holies. Cutting short his description of tabernacle/temple details in order to proceed to the argument at hand, Paul writes, “but of these things we cannot now speak concerning each piece.” The tabernacle objects and furniture, and their particular placements, were of relative importance to what Paul had to say. They were just the stage setting. And if Paul did not deem it necessary to explain all the details of the usage of each object, and the possible figurative or typological meanings of each piece, neither should we! The two chambers or compartments of the Jewish worship center, and the practices that took place with them, provide the framework for the point that Paul seeks to make. 9:6 “Now these things (the objects of 9:2-5) having been arranged, the priests keep going into the first tent, performing the worship.” The Levitical priests continually entered into the first chamber of the tabernacle and temple to perform and accomplish their subservient service of worship unto God. They trimmed the lamps of the menorah (Exod. 27:20,21), burned incense on the altar (Exod. 30:7,8), and replaced the loaves of bread on the table (Lev. 24:8,9). The present tense verb that the priests “keep going” into the chamber of the “holy place”, likely indicates that this activity was still taking place at the time when this epistle was written. 9:7 “…but into the second (chamber) only the high priest (enters), once a year,…” Contrasting the worship practices in the two compartments of the tabernacle and temple, Paul notes that only the high priest of the Aaronic high priesthood (cf. discussion in the introductory comments to 4:14–5:10) was supposed to enter the Holy of Holies, and that on only one day of the year, the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:3-24). There was an exclusive limitation of entrance into and access unto the presence of God in the Jewish worship practices. Paul will use the singularity of the high priest’s entry on the Day of Atonement to point to the singularity of Christ’s self-sacrifice (7:27; 9:12,26,28; 10:10), providing open access to all who are in Christ into the Holy of Holies of God’s presence (10:19-22). The high priest entered the Holy of Holies annually, but “not without blood, which he offers for himself and for the ignorances of the people.” The purpose of the high priest going into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement was to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat lid of the ark of the covenant. He actually entered the second chamber twice on that day, first to apply the blood of a bull on and before the mercy seat, to cover the sins of himself and his household (Lev. 16:11-14), and second, to sprinkle the blood of a goat on and before the mercy seat to cover and make atonement for the sins of the people of Israel (Lev. 16:15,16). Although the atonement sacrifice was for “all the sins” of Israel (Lev. 16:34), rabbinic interpretation had restricted its application to only unintentional or unknown sins committed in ignorance, allowing no remedy for intentional sins. It is apparently this popular and traditional interpretation that Paul refers to. The sacrifice of an animal in death, and the application of the blood before God, was regarded as having a cleansing and purging effect for the impurities of the people (Lev. 16:16). Paul adroitly refers to the high priest as “offering” the blood, even though the Old Testament refers to “sprinkling” or “applying” the blood, as this corresponds to Christ’s “offering” of Himself (9:14, 25-28; 10:10,12,14) as the sacrifice sufficient for spiritual cleansing and forgiveness. The necessity of blood (cf. 9:18,22) is explained by the need for a counteraction of the death consequences of sin. Can you imagine what the mercy seat, the cover-lid of the ark of the covenant, must have looked like, caked with layer-after-layer of blood year-after-year? Can you imagine how it must have smelled? Can you imagine how the flies and the maggots must have been present in the heat of the desert? Perhaps the burning of incense served another purpose other than just representing reverence and honor unto God, i.e. providing a fragrance to offset the stench. 9:8 Paul now begins to draw his conclusions in this paragraph. Based on the personal revelation of God’s Spirit to Paul, he explains that “The Holy Spirit is signifying this” by the difference between the two chambers of the tabernacle/temple and the worship practices that transpired within them. Paul sees a parallel between the “first chamber” (9:2,6,8) of the tabernacle and the “first covenant” (8:7,13; 9:1,15,18), the “old covenant” (cf. II Cor. 3:14); and between the “second chamber” (9:7) of the tabernacle and the “second covenant” (8:7), or “new covenant” (8:8,13; 9:15; 12:24). The first compartment of the “holy place” was a figure of the temporal, old covenant Jewish religion. The second compartment of the Holy of Holies prefigured the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the new covenant access into the eternal and heavenly presence of God’s glory. Only when the physical, old covenant, Jewish worship center of the temple was destroyed and eliminated would the eternal significance of open access into the Holy of Holies of God’s heavenly presence be fully realized by the Judean Christians who were the recipients of this letter. The spiritual significance, Paul writes, is “that the way into the Holies has not yet appeared while the first tent has standing, which is a parable unto the present time.” Jesus Christ alone is the only “way” into the holy presence of God (John 14:6). But this had not become manifestly apparent to the Christians of Judea. The physical temple was still standing in Jerusalem, claiming to offer an indirect access to God once a year through the high priest’s actions on the Day of Atonement. The Christians in Jerusalem were still tempted to give credence to the Jewish worship practices – to regard them as having status, value and worth. The tabernacle/temple system of the old covenant still had “standing” and respect in the eyes of many of the Jewish Christians. Not until that “first tent,” the physical temple (both the first chamber and the second chamber) was destroyed (as it was in 70 AD) would the insufficiency of Jewish worship become apparent, and the full significance of access into the eternal Holy of Holies be disclosed and revealed to the Christians to whom Paul was writing. So the temple that still stood in Jerusalem, with its two worship chambers, served as a parabolic illustration, a symbolic analogy, for those Christians who were at that “present time,” in the middle of the seventh decade of the first century, the mid 60s, struggling to give full allegiance to Jesus Christ. Paul wanted them to move into the full experience of the “second chamber” within the “second covenant”, i.e. the “new covenant” of Jesus Christ. While the old temple still stood and had “standing” in the minds of the people, the way to God was still pictorially blocked and barricaded by the veil that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross had caused the veil in the temple to be “torn in two from top to bottom” (Matt. 27:51; Mk. 15:38; Lk. 23:45), signifying that the separation of God and man had ended. Those who accepted Christ’s offer of life could “enter within the veil” (6:19), “having confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated through the veil, that is, His flesh” (10:19,20). This is what Paul wanted the Christians in Jerusalem to understand and to live by. 9:9 Paul continues by explaining that, “In accord” with the imperfect symbol of the still-standing temple that still claimed to be the only proper place to worship God, “both gifts and sacrifices are offered which are not able to perfect the conscience of the one worshipping.” In accord with the old covenant worship practices, gifts and sacrifices were still offered in the temple at Jerusalem, but there was no divine dynamic of God grace provision in those “works” activities to bring about the intended objective and purpose of God. “The Law made nothing perfect” (7:19). The legal requirements of Judaic worship were unable to cleanse from sin (9:13,14; 10:2), to effect forgiveness (10:4,11), to make one perfect (10:1), or to provide direct access to God. Those who participated in such religious actions knew in their inner conscience that there was still evil (10:22) and a “consciousness of sins” (10:2) that had not been cleansed (9:14). There was still a haunting emptiness of loneliness and alienation that hindered their “drawing near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith” (10:22). F.F. Bruce remarks, “The really effective barrier to a man’s free access to God is an inward and not a material one; it exists in his conscience. It is only when the conscience is purified that a man is set free to approach God without reservation and offer His acceptable service and worship.”1Paul wanted his Christian kinsmen in Judea to see through and beyond the Jewish worship practices, and to “serve the living God” (9:14) with a clear conscience that allowed them to enter in and worship God directly and intimately in the fullness of His holy presence. 9:10 The gifts and the sacrifices of the old temple worship, and all of the old covenant regulations of Jewish life, “because they are only upon food and drink and various washings, are but regulations of the flesh being imposed until a time of setting things straight.” The peripheral externalities of the right and proper way to do everything that were imposed by the Jewish Law (cf. Lev. 11 for food laws) were but “a shadow of things to come” (Col. 2:17). They were not beneficial to spiritual development (Heb. 13:9), and were “of no value against fleshly indulgence” (Col. 2:23). Jesus had confronted the Jewish leaders about such “food and drink and washings,” referring to their religious regulations as “precepts” and “traditions of men” (Mk. 7:1-15). Paul calls them “regulations of the flesh,” meaning that they pertain to physical matters, but cannot provide any cleansing of the conscience (9:14). Such earthly and human rules and regulations certainly do not effect the heavenly realities that Paul is pointing his readers towards. The Palestinian revolutionaries, who were using religious issues as a rallying cry, were tempting the Judean Christians to put stock in such religious regulations, and this is what Paul wanted to forestall. The temporality, transience, and impermanence of such bodily regulations is evidenced by Paul’s statement that they are only “being imposed until a time of setting things straight.” The old covenant religion was out-dated, antiquated, and obsolete (8:13). Paul anticipated that time when the misunderstanding of worship and behavior in Judaism would be rectified and corrected. He is not referring to a time of “reformation” when Judaism would be “re-formed,” reconstituted, or restored. That was the stated objective of the insurrectionists fomenting war against the Romans. Paul was adamant that Christianity was not a “re-formed” Judaism, but was a radically new reality of the living Lord Jesus in mankind. “The time when things would be set straight” would come in 70 AD when the Christians to whom Paul was writing would realize that all the worship practices and all the behavioral regulations of Judaism were totally defunct, and that Jesus Christ was indeed “the only way into the Holy of Holies” (9:8) of God’s presence for all worship and life. 9:11 This verse commences the second major section (9:11-28) of Paul’s argument concerning Jesus as the better sacrifice (9:1–10:18). The first section (9:1-10) provided the stage-setting of his theme, by considering the two compartments of the Jewish worship center, with their distinct fixtures (9:2-5) and differing functions (9:6,7), followed by an explanation of their significance (9:8-10). This second section (9:11-28) considers both parallels and contrasts between the sacrifices of the Jewish old covenant and the superior Self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It seems to be divided into three subsections or paragraphs: [1] sacrificial blood and cleansing (9:11-14) [2] sacrificial death and covenant (9:15-22) [3] sacrificial singularity and salvation (9:23-28). In the old covenant worship, the high priest arrived at the temple on the Day of Atonement to apply the blood of the representative animal sacrifices in order to cover the sins of himself and the people of Israel (9:7) until the promised fulfillment of all that was yet to come by the action of the Messiah deliverer. Contrasted with this, Paul writes, “But Christ having arrived as High Priest of the good things having come,…” Christ, the promised Messiah, arrived at His heavenly destination (cf. 7:26; 8:2; 9:12,24) as the eternal High Priest after the order of Melchizedek (6:20; 7:1-17). But in likeness with the Aaronic high priests, He entered the Holy of Holies to make a representative sacrificial offering for the sins of the people. As an absolutely unique High Priest, He served as both the priest and the sacrifice. Whereas the Jewish high priests offered sacrifices on the cover of the mercy-seat which were but a temporary covering for impurity, anticipating more permanent “good things to come” in the future, the Messiah-Priest brought those “good things” of God into being in fulfillment of all the promises (cf. II Cor. 1:20). The anticipated “good things to come” are now the completed “good things having come.” This is the difference between Jewish eschatology and Christian eschatology. All that was anticipated and expected in the old covenant has now been made available for viable spiritual experience in the living Lord Jesus. All of the “good things” – all of the “better things” that this epistle points to – have historically (ex. crucifixion, resurrection, ascension) and theologically (ex. Redemption, salvation, sanctification) and personally or experientially (ex. Forgiveness, cleansing, perfection, access to God) been brought into being in Jesus Christ. Christ entered “through” the veil (10:20) and into “the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.” Jesus Christ serves as the High Priest in the heavenly chamber (9:3,6) of God’s presence (cf. 4:14; 8:2; 9:24) – the superior dwelling place of God that achieves the real end-objective of God’s intent for man, i.e. allowing man into His presence, and His presence into man. This worship place is obviously not man-made (cf. Isa. 66:1) of physical materials (cf. Mk. 14:58; Acts 7:48; 17:24; Heb. 9:24), but is “the tabernacle of God” (Rev. 21:3) “pitched by the Lord” (8:2). This dwelling place of God “in heaven itself” (9:24) is “not of this creation,” thus it cannot be identified with any physical temple in Jerusalem, nor can it be identified as the physical body of Jesus (cf. Jn. 1:14). The heaven-chamber is not subject to shaking (12:26-28) or perishing (1:11), for it is not part of the natural creation, and Paul wanted the Jerusalem Christians who were reading this epistle to take their eyes off of the physical temple and its practices which would indeed be shaken and perish in the very near future. 9:12 Jesus Christ, the Messiah-Priest, entered the heaven-chamber of the divine presence “not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood.” The medium of access for the Christic high Priest was not the blood of animals, as it was for the Aaronic high priests (9:7) who offered animal sacrifices annually on the Day of Atonement in the tabernacle in the temple in Jerusalem. Jesus accessed heaven by a unique and superior representative sacrifice, i.e. “through His own blood,” which served as the instrumental means allowing all who accept His representation to enter God’s presence “in Him.” Reference to “the blood of Jesus” (9:12,14) does not necessarily refer to the material substance of plasma, corpuscles or platelets of the human blood of Jesus, but rather to the action of Jesus’ sacrificial death,2 for by His death He counteracted the death that had come upon mankind (2:14), and effected the death of death.3 Reiterating Christ’s access into heaven, Paul writes, “He entered the holy place once for all, having secured the redemption of the ages.” Unlike the Judaic priests who entered the Holy of Holies repetitively once every year (9:7,25), Jesus’ entrance into the heavenly divine presence was singular and final. He had secured the liberation of mankind from the clutch of sin and death, finally and forever by the ransom payment (Matt. 20:28; Mk. 10:45; I Tim. 2:6) of His own death, the perfect price paid (cf. I Cor. 6:20; 7:13; I Pet. 1:18,19; II Pet. 2:1) to free mankind from the slavery of sin. His sacrifice in death is validated as satisfactory and sufficient by the securing of the eschatological redemption and “eternal salvation” (5:9) for mankind, confirming divine acceptance and the fulfillment of all God intended for mankind. 9:13 In antithetical contrast to the finality of Christ’s sacrifice, and to emphasize the insufficiency of the ceremonial cleansings of the old covenant, Paul argues, “For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those having been defiled, sanctified for the cleansing of the flesh,…” Paul is not doubting or questioning the effects of the old covenant sacrifices, but is affirming the limited efficacy of such when compared to the sacrifice of Christ (14). The blood sacrifice of goats and bulls occurred on the Day of Atonement, but Paul seems to generalize in order to include all old covenant sacrifices (cf. Numb. 7:15,16), particularly inclusive of the sin-offering of the red heifer (cf. Numb. 19:1-22). The application of animal blood by sprinkling was regarded as a setting apart of the objects or persons that had been defiled, polluted, or made impure, in order to cleanse them of their physical defilement and make them available for God’s holy purposes. These religious rituals of ceremonial cleansing had limited efficacy, for they were only a temporary and external “cleansing of the flesh,” i.e. of the outward and physical defilement and corruptions, and could not deal with the internal conscience and its consciousness of sin. 9:14 The superior and surpassing efficacy of Christ’s sacrifice is exclaimed, “…how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the Spirit of the ages has offered Himself without defect to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works unto worship of the living God.” The new covenant is not established on the blood of animals, nor even on the blood of a martyr, but on the representative sacrifice of the Messianic Son of God. The “blood of Christ” once again (12) refers not to some mystical efficacy of the material substance of Jesus’ blood, but to the representative death of Jesus. Divinely empowered by the Holy Spirit (cf. Lk. 4:18), “the Spirit of the ages,” Jesus actively, willingly (10:5-10) and obediently (cf. 5:8,9; Phil. 2:8) offered Himself (7:27), serving as both the priest and the sacrifice. His was a voluntary sacrifice (cf. Jn. 19:30), whereas the animals of the old covenant were sacrificed involuntarily and passively. But like the animal sacrifices which were to be without spot, blemish or defect (Lev. 1:3,10; 22:18-25; Numb. 19:2; Deut. 17:1), Jesus was “without sin” (4:15; II Cor. 5:21), “holy, innocent, and undefiled” (7:26), the sinless sacrifice sufficient to deal with the internal and spiritual separation of mankind from God. Whereas the animal sacrifices could only assuage the external defilement in a ceremonial “cleansing of the flesh” (13), the representative death of Jesus can “cleanse your conscience from dead works.” The Jewish rituals could not deal with the internal cleansing or perfecting of the conscience (9:9; 10:2). Sin, and its consequence of death, is much deeper than external defilement and behavioral transgression. Only Jesus’ death can “cleanse the conscience” from the guilt of sin and the condemnation of thinking one has to pay or offer something to appease and please God. Religion, on the other hand, capitalizes on this nagging need of performance “works” to “measure up” and “get right” with God, advocating that their adherents go through the motions of endless rituals and confessional cleansings to feel connected to God. To the Romans, Paul wrote, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). On the basis of Jesus’ death, Christians are reconciled (Rom. 5:10) and have peace with God (Rom. 5:1). The positive side of “cleansing from dead works” is the provision of being “made righteous” (Rom. 5:17,19; II Cor. 5:21) in order to participate in the “good works” that God prepares (Eph. 2:10), equips (Heb. 13:21), and supplies sufficiency for by His grace (II Cor. 9:8). Paul did not want the Hebrew Christians in Jerusalem to be conscientiously bound to their past worship practices, or to revert back to the ineffectual temple rituals of Judaism, which were but the “dead works” of religion. He wanted them to operate out of a cleansed conscience, a “good conscience” (13:18; I Pet. 3:21) that did not wallow in the “consciousness of sins” (10:2). He wanted them to recognize their freedom “to worship the living God” in spiritual worship (cf. Jn. 4:24; Rom. 12:1), accessing the Holy of Holies of God’s presence transcendently and immanently. 9:15 In this second subsection (9:15-22) the sacrificial death of Jesus is connected to the concept of “covenant.” In the previous study of “JESUS: the Better Minister of the New Covenant” (8:1-13), background material was presented concerning the ancient practices of “blood covenants,” and the Hebrew concept (berith) of God’s establishment of unilateral covenants with mankind. Paul took the prophecy of Jeremiah 31 concerning a “new covenant” and explained that this involved an internalization of God’s Law upon the hearts and minds of His people (8:10; 10:16). Consistently, Paul continues his present argument, “Through this,” the death of Jesus that allows for the internal cleansing of the conscience and the positive ramifications of reconciliation, justification and spiritual union, along with experiential peace and assurance, “He is the mediator of a new covenant,…” The old Jewish covenant explained in the Old Testament was obsolete and antiquated (8:13), nullified and abrogated (7:18; 10:9). The new covenant promised through Jeremiah (Jere. 31:31-34) was inaugurated by the death of Jesus, and that is why Jesus explained that the Eucharist observance represented “the new covenant in My blood” (Matt. 26:28; Mk. 14:24; Lk. 22:20; I Cor. 11:25). The new covenant (7:22; 8:6,8; 10:16; 12:24; 13:20) was the new arrangement, agreement, and settlement that God had “put through” in His Son, Jesus Christ, who was the mediator (8:6; 12:24), the one who “stood in the middle” between God and man as the God-man, “the one mediator between God and man” (I Tim. 2:5), to effect and enact what was God’s intent for man from the beginning. The means of Jesus’ mediatorial enactment of a new covenant is explained, “so that a death has occurred for the redemption of the transgressions at the time of the first covenant,…” The inadequate animal sacrifices of the old covenant have been superseded by the historical representative death of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who effected the purchased losing and liberation of redemption (9:12; Eph. 1:7), the buying back of mankind by the price of His own death (I Cor. 6:20; 7:23), even from the consequence of the transgressions that occurred at the time of and under the regulations of the first covenant (cf. Rom. 3:25). The result of Jesus’ mediatorial enactment of a new covenant is explained, so that “those having been called might receive the promised fulfillment of the inheritance of the ages.” The “calling of God” (Rom. 11:29; Eph. 1:18) to Himself is in the Person and work of Jesus Christ, who as “the Elect One” (Lk. 23:35) is the basis and dynamic of the divine effectual calling. “Those having been called” are all those who have responded to God’s calling in Jesus Christ and received Jesus Christ (cf. Jn. 1:12,13), and in so doing may/should receive (not a future tense) the fulfillment of the promises of the eschatological inheritance of all the blessings of the new covenant “in Christ” (cf. Eph. 1:3). This inheriting (1:4) of the “eternal salvation” (5:9) involves becoming heirs that inherit the fulfillment of all God’s prophetic promises in the old covenant (6:12,17), an inheritance that is “imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away” (I Pet. 1:4). This inheritance is not just a future expectation, but is the fullness of Christ experience “already” in the present, with a “not yet” consummation in the future. It is here that we must address the most problematic issue in this passage. Paul’s reference to “covenant” (15,16,17,18,20) has been interpreted in several ways due to the divergent Hebrew and Greek concepts of “covenant” that existed in the first century. The Hebrew word berith was used for both bilateral agreements between persons, and for the unilateral arrangements that God established with man. The Greek language had two separate words: suntheke (“to put together with”) for bilateral agreements, and diatheke (“to put through”) for the unilateral arrangements of a “last will and testament.” Since the Greeks had no theological understanding of divine unilateral arrangements, the word diatheke was never used for such. But when the Jewish people of the Middle East began using the Greek language as their medium of expression, the only viable word for a unilateral arrangement was diatheke, and they employed the word in reference to God’s unilateral covenants. When Jesus, and the subsequent Christian community, began to refer to the “new covenant” in Christ, they also employed the available Greek word diatheke. So, the Jewish and Christians communities were using the word diatheke in a way that it was never used in the Hellenistic community. The question before us is: How did Paul (who grew up as a Jew in the Hellenistic community of Tarsus, and then became a Christian) use the word diatheke in this particular passage of his epistle to the Hebrews? Some have concluded that all references to diatheke in this paragraph refer to the original Greek concept of a “last will and testament.” Others have concluded that all references to diatheke in this paragraph refer to the Jewish concept of a divine unilateral ‘covenant” of God with man. Still others, have concluded that Paul jumps back and forth, switching his meaning from “covenant” (15), to “last will and testament” (16,17), and then back to “covenant” (18,20); or even more ambiguously, integrating the concepts in a merged double entendre. Though the mention of “inheritance” (15) could create a legal connection to the Greek idea of “testament” in the following verses (16,17), it will be our contention in the following comments that Paul, a Hebrew Christian, writing to his fellow Hebrew Christians in Jerusalem, retains a Hebrew concept of berith in his use of the Greek word diatheke, and that the concept of a unilateral “covenant” of God predominates throughout this passage. 9:16 Continuing to explain Jesus as “the mediator of a new covenant” (15) – and let it be noted that mediators were not necessary for a “last will and testament” – Paul writes, “For where there is a covenant a death is necessary to be represented by the one covenanting.” As the ancient covenants were almost exclusively “blood covenants,” usually requiring the death of a sacrificial animal to ratify the agreement, so God’s covenants utilized the confirmation validation of sacrificial death (18). The Hebrew word berith was derived from the word bara, meaning “to cut,” and the one covenanting was regarded as “cutting a covenant,” which involved the cutting and death of a representative sacrifice. A “covenant,” in the Hebrew sense of the word, required a representative death performed by the one cutting the covenant in order to seal the covenant. The Greek concept of “testament” does not make sense here, for the testator’s death was not necessary in order to make a “last will and testament.” 9:17 Explaining a general principle of covenants, Paul continues, “For a covenant is ratified upon corpses, since it is not even binding as long as the one covenanting (allows the sacrifice) to live.” God speaks through the Psalmist, of “those who have made covenant with Me by sacrifice” (Ps. 50:5), thus stating the same covenant principle of sacrifice and representative death. Covenants were ratified and confirmed “upon corpses.” Usage of the Greek term nekrois, “corpses,” had no known usage in reference to “last will and testaments” in Greek literature. Its usage here refers to dead bodies, whether animals or men, but there is nothing in the word itself that requires it to refer to humans. Covenants (bilateral or unilateral) were not regarded by the Hebrews to have any strength for binding enforcement as long as “the one cutting the covenant” allowed the representative sacrifice to live without the cutting that led to blood and death. It must be admitted that in the Greek text the verb “lives” appears to connect with the subject of “the one covenanting,” rather than to the one being sacrificed, which leaves the door open for an interpretation of “testator death” instead of the representative death of a sacrifice. But all the other words and grammar in this paragraph seem to point to the idea of “covenant” rather than “testament.” 9:18 Moving from the general principle (16,17) to the particular of the inauguration of the old covenant, Paul wrote, “This is why the first (covenant) was not initiated without blood.” The first covenant, the “old covenant,” the Mosaic covenant of Law, was not inaugurated, confirmed, validated or ratified, so as to become legally binding, without representative blood sacrifice. The sacrificial blood of a representative death established, confirmed, sealed, and made the covenant agreement effectual. 9:19 The historical occasion of the establishment of the old covenant by sacrificial blood is recorded in Exodus 24:3-8. Paul reviews this, “For when every commandment according to the Law had been spoken by Moses to all the people, taking the blood of calves, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, he sprinkled both the scroll itself and all the people.” The Old Testament text does not mention the blood of goats, only of bulls, and the oldest manuscripts of the Greek text of this epistle (dating to approximately 200 AD) do not contain the word “goats” either. The primary variance, then, is Paul’s addition of applying the blood “with water and scarlet wool and hyssop.” This is not recorded in Exodus 24, but these items were sometimes used for the application of blood sacrifices on other occasions (cf. Lev. 14:4-7, 51,52; Numb. 19:6). Though Exodus does not specifically indicate that the blood of the bulls or calves was applied to the “scroll of the covenant,” this may have been part of Jewish tradition that Paul remembered. 9:20 Upon applying the blood for the initiation of the covenant, Moses “said, ‘This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded towards you.’” Paul is quoting this statement of Moses from Exodus 24:8, made after the Hebrew people had accepted the covenant and promised to abide by it. There does not appear to be any veiled allusion in these words to the word of Jesus when taking the last supper with His disciples. 9:21 Paul’s reiteration of the inauguration of the old covenant with blood sacrifices has additional details not recorded in Exodus 24. “And likewise, he (Moses) had sprinkled both the tent and all the vessels of the tabernacle worship with the blood.” When the tabernacle was later erected there was an anointing of the tent and all its utensils with oil (Exod. 40:9,10), but there is no record of such action when the old covenant was established. These utensils and vessels included the shovels and snuffers, and all of the pots, jars, plates, bowls, basins, spoons, etc., which were utilized in the Jewish worship center (cf. Numb. 4:7-12). 9:22 In summary of his argument of God’s Mosaic covenant inaugurated with blood sacrifices, Paul concludes this subsection paragraph, “And according to Law, almost all things are being cleansed by blood, and without the application of blood nothing is pardoned.” In the limited context of the Law covenant, almost all things (but not all), underwent the ceremonial and ritualistic cleansing by blood to remove contamination and defilement. There were situations, though, where the poor could bring a sin-offering of flour (Lev. 5:11), and when defilement could be cleansed with water (Lev. 15:10-12; Numb. 31:23) or with fire (Numb. 31:23). In contradistinction to “almost all things” being cleansed with blood, Paul notes that “nothing” is pardoned without the application of blood. This part of the summary statement is still qualified by “according to the Law,” and refers to old covenant understanding of the expiatory and propitiatory value of blood sacrifices. It is not the release of blood from the animal in blood-letting or blood-shedding that is being referred to, but the blood-pouring ritual application of the sacrificial blood that was regarded as being efficacious for the discharge, pardon or forgiveness or transgressions (15) or sins. The Hebrew word for this atoning action, kaphar, meant “to cover,” and by figurative theological extension, “to place” or “to appease” God in order that He might be satisfied in order to condone, pardon, or cancel the effects of the sin-offense. In the old Mosaic covenant of Law the application of the blood sacrifice of animals was regarded as efficacious for the release of culpability and liability for transgressions of the Law. Paul’s objective in this reiteration of the old covenant application of blood sacrifices was to set up his argument that “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (10:4), and thus to discourage the Hebrew Christians in Judea from reverting back to their inferior and inadequate worship practices, as were still practiced in the temple in Jerusalem. 9:23 In this third subsection (23-28), Paul returns (cf. 11-14) to the contrasts and parallels between the old covenant sacrifices and the singularly sufficient and final sacrifice of Jesus Christ. “Then, it was necessary for the models of the things in the heavens to be cleansed by these means, but (now) the heavenlies themselves (are accessed) by better sacrifices than these.” Utilizing a “then – but now” contrast, Paul explains that “it was necessary” (cf. 7:12; 9:16), logically, theologically, and particularly legally (22), for the old covenant worship center models or examples (4:11; 8:5) to be cleansed in ceremonial purification from external defilement and contamination, by the means of representative blood sacrifices. The Jewish worship places and practices were but “a copy and show of the heavenly things,” Paul explained previously (8:5), and God told Moses to erect the tabernacle “according to the pattern” (8:5) of the heavenly worship place. For this reason Paul refers to the old covenant worship rooms as “models,” examples, or facsimiles which were both, patterned after the heavenly reality, and prefiguring of the access to heavenly worship in Jesus Christ. The tangible tabernacle and temples were but the temporary, inadequate and imperfect subdemonstration of the heavenly presence and worship of God. The Greek word for “model” or “example” means “to show under,” and could be transliterated as “hypodigmatic.” The “heavenlies,” on the other hand, in contrast to the earthly “models,” are accessed not by ceremonial animal sacrifices, but by the singularly sufficient sacrifice of the representative death of Jesus Christ. The verb action of “cleansing” in the first phrase cannot be inserted as the non-specified verb action of the second phrase in this verse. There is nothing in the heavenlies of God’s presence that requires cleansing, but access to the dwelling place of God did require the cancellation and abolishment of sin by the sacrifice of the Son of God (26). So, the verb action of “entering” access from the following contextual phrase must be supplied as the absent verb in this second phrase. The “better sacrifice” of the death of Christ is the only sacrifice that can “cleanse the conscience” (14) internally, and allow Christians to participate in the “living sacrifice” (12:1) of themselves, and the offering of “the sacrifice of praise” (13:15) for all that was accomplished on our behalf by the Savior. 9:24 Returning to a contrast of the activities of the old covenant Aaronic high priests on the Day of Atonement, Paul explains, “For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, an antitype of the real things,…” Again, Paul indicates that the physical tabernacle and temple that were man-made (9:11), temporary and inferior, were but a copy, representation, reproduction, or “antitype” (Greek word antitypa) of the heavenly realities. The following diagram may assist in understanding Paul’s perspective of the contrasts between the heavenly and earthly worship centers:  The divine-human Jesus never physically entered the Holy Place or the Holy of Holies of the temple in Jerusalem, for He was from the tribe of Judah, not Levi; but that is not the point Paul is making. The contrastual point is, “but (Christ has entered) into the heaven itself, to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.” “Heaven itself” is not a cosmological consideration of a spatial locality, but refers to the presence of God where God can be worshipped face-to-face. The Greek word for “presence,” prosopon, means “before the face.” Jesus Christ, crucified, resurrected and ascended, has entered (the verb is supplied from the previous phrase), and now, in the eschatological period of Christian fulfillment, has been manifested and made apparent in the heavenly and glorified presence of God. Not only does His returning entrance into the presence of God allow Him to intercede “on our behalf” (2:18; 4:15,16; 7:25; Rom. 8:34; I Jn. 2:1) as a mediating High Priest, but is also opens immediate access for all Christians who are “in Christ” to “draw near” to the presence of God (4:16; 6:20; 7:19; 10:19,20) in direct face-to-face worship. F. F. Bruce writes, “His entrance into the presence of God is not a day of soul-affliction and fasting, like the Day of Atonement under the old legislation, but a day of gladness and song, the day when Christians celebrate the ascension of their Priest-King.” 49:25 When Christ entered the Holy of Holies of God’s presence, it was “not in order that He should offer Himself often, even as the high priest enters into the holy place annually with the blood of others.” In contrast to the Aaronic high priests, Jesus does not have to offer Himself as a representative sacrifice over-and-over again in the multiplicity of repetition. Using a present tense verb that may indicate the present continuation of the activity of the high priests in the temple at Jerusalem, Paul notes that the high priest enters the holy place, the Holy of Holies, year-after-year in annual repetition, to sprinkle the blood of slain animals (not his own) serving as representative sacrifice to “cover” the sins of the people. 9:26 Jesus is not like the Aaronic high priests, “Otherwise, it would have been necessary (for Him) to suffer often from the foundation of the world;…” If, as is not the case, Jesus had to make repetitive sacrificial offerings of death, as the Jewish high priests had to do, this would have required Jesus to suffer and die repetitively “from the foundation of the world,” i.e. throughout human history. Underlying this statement of Paul may be a presupposition of Jesus’ preexistence (1:2; Jn. 1:1) “from the foundation of the world,” but nowhere does Scripture indicate that Jesus died before the foundation of the world (despite the mistranslation of Revelation 13:8 in the KJV), or that He died repetitively since the foundation of the world. This is patently impossible, for Jesus, the eternal High Priest, made the historic representative sacrifice of death as a man (2:9-16), and Paul would soon note that a man only dies once (27). The counterbalance to the absurd hypothesis of Jesus’ repetitive dying is, “…but now, once, upon the climax of the ages, for the abolition of sin through the sacrifice of Himself, He (Jesus) has been manifested.” In contrast to any hypothesis of a multiple repetitive dying, Jesus as High Priest offered Himself “once and for all” as the singularly unique and sufficient representative sacrifice for mankind. This served as the completing climax and consummation of the ages, the eschatological fulfillment of “the last days” (1:2; Acts 2:17), the “end of the ages” (Matt. 13:39,40; 24:3; 28:20; I Cor. 10:11), serving in the “fullness of time” (Gal. 4:4) to establish the Christian age, the last age, the new age, and fulfill God’s intent for mankind. The High Priest, the Son of God, voluntarily allowing for the sacrifice of Himself, the Sinless One (4:15; 7:26), in a representative death for all mankind, could do far more than cover up sin, as the Jewish high priests did in their ceremonial sacrifices. Jesus could set aside (7:18) sin, put it away (I Jn. 3:5), cancel it, remove it, abolish it, and absolve it by His own death. The God-man, Priest and sacrifice, did just that when He was historically manifested as a man in the incarnation (Jn. 1:14; Gal. 4:4; I Pet. 1:20), and that for the purpose of dying as a man (Matt. 20:28; Mk. 10:45; Jn. 12:27), a representative death to take upon Himself the death consequences of mankind. 9:27 To show the logical relationship and personal application of these themes, Paul writes, “And accordingly, it is laid upon man to die once, and after this judgment.” Because of the fall of man into sin (Gen. 3:1-7), the death consequences (Gen. 2:17; Rom. 6:23) that came into being through “the one having the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14) have been the common plight of mankind. It is not the particular divinely appointed time of death (cf. Eccl. 3:1,2) that Paul is referring to, but the general inevitability of human death. The mortality of man is universal, and the singularity and finality of physical death necessarily (though not necessarily immediately) leads to a final determination, evaluation and assessment of the life that was lived (Lk. 16:22,23; Jn. 5:28,29; Rom. 2:5-11; II Cor. 5:10). Judgment does not necessarily have a negative connotation of condemnation or damnation. The word “judgment” (Greek word krisis, from which we get the English word “crisis”) does not have positive or negative connotations, but recognizes man’s accountability for the consequences of freedom of choice. “God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it be good or evil” (Eccl. 12:14). It is sin that links death with negative consequences of judgment, but Christ’s removal, abolition and absolution of sin (26) by His own death, allows death for the Christian to be linked to salvation (28) and the confident expectation of hope (3:6; 6:11,18; 7:19). Paul connects the death of Christ to the death of mankind in general, and this is what the Christians in Judea needed to hear as they faced the ominous situation of the possibility of their own deaths in confrontation with the overpowering Roman army. 9:28 Connecting the singularity of human death to the singularity of Christ’s death, Paul continues the sentence, “so Christ having been offered once to have born the sins of many,…” Christ, in conjunction with all humanity, dies once (not repetitively), but His is a representative death whereby He is offered by God (Isa. 53:6,13; Acts 2:23) in the Priestly Self-sacrificing of Himself (7:27; 9:14,26; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 5:2) to vicariously bear the sin consequences for “many.” The “many” for whom Christ has borne the sin-consequences of death, refers to all mankind, not just a few arbitrarily predetermined “elect” as some would have us to believe. Isaiah prophesied that the Suffering Servant would “bear the sins of many” (Isa. 53:12). To the Romans, Paul explained, “the gift of the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to the many” (Rom. 5:15), and “through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5:19). The apostle John wrote, “He Himself is the propitiation for the sins…of the whole world” (I Jn. 2:2). Earlier Paul wrote, “By the grace of God, Jesus tasted death for every one” (Heb. 2:9). This universality of the efficacy of Christ’s death for the sins of all mankind is inclusive of all men other than Himself (7:26,27; 9:7), for He was “without sin” (4:15; II Cor. 5:21), and could thus serve as the sinless representative sacrifice sufficient to remove sin from all the remainder of the human race. This is what Christ accomplished in His first appearance when as the incarnate God-man He put away sin and its death consequences (26), but “He shall be made visible a second time without (reference to) sin, to those eagerly awaiting Him unto salvation.” Jesus was manifested on earth in the incarnation (26), appeared in heaven on our behalf (24), and will be made visible on earth in a second advent. Some would interpret this second appearance of Christ as the coming of divine judgment that was soon to occur in 70 AD (cf. 10:37), but the context of the eternal High Priesthood of Christ seems to indicate a reference to the impending (though not imminent) second physically visible appearance of Jesus Christ on earth, which Christians have expected from the beginning. Since sin and its consequences were removed (26) in the first incarnational coming of Jesus, the second coming of Christ will not pertain to sacrificial atonement for sin and the redemptive efficacy of representative death. The man, Jesus, could only die once (27), and that representative death was totally sufficient to take the death consequences of sin (26). His second coming will serve as the consummation of the salvation made available in the “saving life” of Christ (Rom. 5:10). Christians are already “made safe” from the misused humanity that was enslaved (II Tim. 2:26) by the one having the power of death (2:14), and liberated to function by Christ’s life (Gal. 2:20; Col. 3:4) unto God’s glory, but the removal of all hindrances (Rev. 21:4) to such salvation-living will transpire after Christ’s second advent on earth in the experience of “eternal salvation” (5:9). The eager expectation of Christ’s return can be linked to the return of the high priest on the Day of Atonement. The people of God waited eagerly for the high priest to return from the Holy of Holies, whereupon they were assured that God had accepted the representative sacrifice to cover their sins for another year. Jewish literature records the return of Simon the high priest, “How glorious he was when the people gathered round him as he came out of the inner sanctuary! Like the morning star among the clouds, like the moon when it is full; like the sun shining upon the temple of the Most High, and like the rainbow gleaming in glorious clouds. …Then the sons of Aaron shouted; they sounded the trumpets; they made a great noise to be heard for remembrance before the Most High. Then all the people made haste and fell to the ground upon their faces to worship their Lord, the Almighty, God Most High.” (Sirach 50:5-7, 16,17)In similar manner Christians eagerly await (Rom. 8:25; I Cor. 1:7; Phil. 3:20) the earthly return of the eternal High Priest, Jesus Christ, in glory, already assured of the singular sufficiency of Christ’s representative sacrifice, but desiring to see the completed consummation of salvation unto the ages. By faith they eagerly anticipate “a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (I Pet. 1:5), and the privilege of an eternity of worshipping God (Rev. 22:9). Jesus’ final words were, “Yes, I am coming quickly” (Rev. 22:20). 10:1 The third major section (10:1-18) of Paul’s assertion that Jesus is the better sacrifice, sufficient for forgiveness (9:1–10:18), exposes the inadequacy of the Mosaic covenant of Law to do away with a constant reminder of the consciousness of sins (1-4), explains that Jesus’ physical death in accord with the will of God does away with the old covenant sacrifices (5-10), asserts that Jesus’ priestly sacrifice singularly and finally brought mankind to their intended purpose of holiness (11-14), and concludes that the internal provision of the new covenant does away with sin-consciousness and animal sacrifices (15-18). In these four subsections Paul makes the point that the death of Jesus Christ is the termination of all old covenant sacrifices. Paul reiterates what he wrote earlier (8:3-5; 9:23-26), but makes different points of emphasis. “For the Law, having a shadow of the good things coming, not itself the image of those things,…” It is not to denigrate the Law, but to show its deficiency, that prompts Paul to characterize the Law as but “a shadow of the good things to come.” Previously Paul had written that the priests “offering gifts according to the Law, serve as a copy and show of the heavenly things” (8:5). To the Colossians, he explained that the old covenant food laws and festivals were “a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ” (Col. 2:17). Everything in the old covenant arrangement was insubstantial and temporal (space/time) – an unreal profile or outline that prefigured and foreshadowed the good things yet to come in Jesus Christ. The “good things” expected in Jewish eschatology are the “good things having come” (9:11) in Christian eschatology. Jesus Christ is the essential eschatological fulfillment of all the promises of God (II Cor. 1:20), and the essence of all new covenant realities. The “image” or visible manifestation, the form and reality, the substantive embodiment of all that the old covenant Law foreshadowed is realized in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the new covenant substance that cast the old covenant shadow. Christ is the “image” (II Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15), the visible manifestation of God. All the pragmatic (Greek word pragmatõn) good things (cf. James 1:17) that God intends for man are summed up in Christ (Eph. 1:10), “every spiritual blessing in heavenly places” (Eph. 1:3). Paul is attempting to dissuade the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem from settling for the insubstantial shadows of the old covenant Judaic system. Instead, he wants them to be conformed to the image of the Son” (Rom. 8:29). The Law “by the same sacrifices year-after-year, which they offer repetitively, is never able to make perfect those drawing near.” The old covenant Law and the sacrificial rites mandated by that Law, particularly the repetitive annual sacrifices of the high priest on the Day of Atonement, are ineffectual religious formalities, futile mechanical motions that cannot develop any real personal relationship with God. Those who would “draw near” to the Jewish worship center, sincerely desiring to worship God, can never be “made perfect” by the Jewish sacrifices. They can never be brought to God’s intended objective or end-purpose of bearing His image (Gen. 1:26,27) and glorifying Him (Isa. 43:7) by manifesting His character, apart from Jesus Christ (14). 10:2 “Otherwise” (as is contrary to fact, i.e. the assumption that the old covenant sacrifices were efficacious for perfection), “would not they (the sacrifices) have ceased being offered, because those worshipping would not still have a consciousness of sins, having once been cleansed?” In typical lawyer fashion, Paul asks a rhetorical question which implies and necessitates an affirmative answer, “Yes, of course!” Would not the animal sacrifices have been discontinued as superfluous, their repetition terminated, if they were indeed efficacious to bring mankind into right relationship with God? If you have to do this over and over again, is it really working? The ceremonial sacrifices of the Jewish worship could only cleanse the externalities of flesh (9:13), and could not perfect the internal conscience (9:9). That is why Jewish worshippers continued to have an “evil conscience” (10:22), an on-going consciousness of guilt and shame and condemnation. They continued to have a burdened heart haunted by sin-consciousness. Paul wanted his brethren in Jerusalem to know that their hearts had been cleansed by faith in Jesus Christ (Acts 15:9); their “consciences cleansed from dead works to serve the living God” (9:14). “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). The sin-consciousness of repetitive confessionalism is indicative of Jewish theology and practice, but Christian theology and worship focuses on Jesus (12:2). Jesus said, “This is the new covenant in My blood. Do this in remembrance of Me” (Lk. 22:20; I Cor. 11:25), not in reminder of your sins! “Why would you even consider returned to the Jewish temple practices and their guilt-producing rituals?” Paul is asking the Judean Christians. 10:3 “In fact, (there is) in those (old covenant sacrifices) a reminder of sins year-after-year.” The Day of Atonement included confession of sins (Lev. 16:21) and humbling (Lev. 23:26-32). Other ritual offerings were a “reminder of iniquity” (Numb. 5:15). The repetition of the sacrifices, whether annually (1,3) or daily (11), kept a continual remembrance of sin in the consciousness of the Jewish worshippers. There was no remission in the old covenant system, just reminder that their sins separated them from God. 10:4 “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” This is a concise and succinct denial of the effectiveness of old covenant worship practices. The ritual sacrifices of Judaism offered an external cleansing from contamination, pollution and defilement, but not the internal cleansing and spiritual transformation required to forgives sins and take away sin (10:11). The sacrifices may have provided a temporary and psychological cathartic relief and a religious sense of piety, but only the death of Christ inaugurating the new covenant could “take away sins” (9:26; Rom. 11:27). 10:5 Drawing a conclusion based on the ineffectiveness of the old covenant sacrifices and the sufficiency of the singular sacrifice of Jesus Christ, Paul employs Old Testament scripture as evidence to support his argument. “Therefore, the One coming into the world says,…” Jesus’ “coming into the world” may include a presupposition of His preexistence (1:2; Jn. 1:1), but it is certainly a reference to His incarnational birth (Jn. 1:14), and is a common Johannine expression for such (Jn. 1:9; 6:14; 16:28; 18:37). When writing to Timothy, Paul stated, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (I Tim. 1:5). Using a technique he had utilized earlier (2:12,13), Paul puts Old Testament words into the mouth of Jesus. Since Jesus was instrumental in all Old Testament history and the focal point of all its prefiguring, Paul felt free to project Christ as the implied speaker of the words in Psalm 40:6-8 (quoted again from the Greek translation of the Old Testament [LXX], the Septuagint). His objective is to document and demonstrate that even the Old Testament literature critiques the efficacy of the animal sacrifices. Projecting these words of David into statements of Christ, “He says, ‘SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT WILLED,…” Didn’t God command the sacrifices and offerings of the old covenant? Yes, but as with the entirety of the old covenant, it was provisional to prefigure and foreshadow the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God says, “I did not command your fathers… concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people’”(Jere. 7:21-23). The primary intent of God was for a people who would obey Him and humble themselves before Him. “Does the Lord take delight in thousands of rams? …What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:,7,8). “Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice” (I Sam. 15:22; cf. Mk. 12:33,34). God knew what he was going to do to remedy man’s sin problem. “…BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME,…” In solidarity with humanity (2:14), Jesus was “made in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:7), incarnated in a human body. It was only in a human body that He could be “obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8). A textual problem is evident as the Hebrew text of Psalm 40:6 reads, “You have pierced My ears,” while the Greek translation reads, “You have prepared a body for Me.” How, and why, the text was altered is an open question. What we do know is that Paul quotes from the Greek Septuagint (LXX). 10:6 The quotation of Psalm 40:6 continues, “IN WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND SIN-OFFERINGS YOU HAVE NO PLEASURE.” God is not a “God of gore” who takes delight and pleasure in bloody animal sacrifices. Through Jeremiah, God declares, “Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, and your sacrifices are not pleasing to Me” (Jere. 6:20). Through Isaiah, “I have had enough of burnt offerings… I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats. …Bring your worthless offerings no longer” (Isa. 1:11,13). “Even though you offer Me burnt offerings, I will not accept them” (Amos 5:22). What does God delight and take pleasure in? “I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6; cf. Matt. 9:13; 12:7). The psalmist, David, writes elsewhere, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise” (Ps. 51:17). God’s deepest interest is in the spiritual condition of man, and not in the carcasses and corpses (9:17) of animal sacrifices. 10:7 The quotation from Psalm 40:7,8 is continued as the statement of Jesus, “THEN I SAID, ‘BEHOLD I COME (IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT HAS BEEN WRITTEN OF ME) TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.’” Paul uses these verses to show Jesus became incarnate in accord with the prophecies of the Old Testament. The primary emphasis is on the projected statement of Jesus from Psalm 40:8, “Behold I come to do Your will, O God.” This is always what God wanted from man (I Sam. 15:22; Jere. 7:21-23; Hosea 6:6). God’s will is always that His invisible character might be made visible in the behavior of His human creatures, imaged (Gen. 1:26,27) unto His glory (Isa. 43:7). This was accomplished perfectly in the body of Jesus (Jn. 1:18; II Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15) without sin (4:15; II Cor. 5:21). More specifically, in the God-man, Jesus Christ, God’s will was that the Son should be “obedient unto death” (Phil. 2:8) to be the representative sinless sacrifice, sufficient to remove the sins of all mankind. This was the “will of God” that Jesus came to do. As He approached death, He said, “Not my will, but Thine be done” (Lk. 22:42). 10:8 Paul now dissects the statement from Psalm 40:6-8 into two parts. The first part is the negative comments about the old covenant sacrifices. “After saying above, ‘SACRIFICES AND OFFERINGS AND WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND SIN-OFFERINGS YOU HAVE NOT WILLED, NOR HAVE YOU TAKEN PLEASURE,’ (which are offered according to the Law),…” Paul loosely summarizes Psalm 40:6,7 and lumps together all the various kinds of sacrificial offerings in the old covenant: (1) peace offerings, (2) meal offerings, (3) burnt offerings, and (4) sin offerings, to indicate God’s disdain and rejection of the entire sacrificial system of worship practices, advocated “according to the Law” (9:22; 10:1). Reference to “a body having been prepared” is omitted in this recap, since it will be referred to later (10). 10:9 The second part of the quotation, from Psalm 40:8, is the positive portion that Paul has cast into the Christological context of Christ’s willingness to become the representative sacrifice for mankind. “Then He said, ‘BEHOLD, I COME TO DO YOUR WILL.’” The old covenant animal sacrifices are not in accord with God’s will, but the new covenant sacrifice of Jesus Christ for all mankind is the accomplishment of God’s will. The first and second portions that Paul has divided from the quotation of psalm 40:6-8 are then expanded to apply to the first (8:7,13; 9:1,15,18) and second (8:7) covenants, as a whole. “He takes away the first in order to establish the second.” Paul, the lawyer, chooses his words carefully and deliberately, using juridical language to explain how the first covenant is retracted in order that the second covenant might be enacted. The first is invalidated in order that the second might be validated. The first covenant, the old covenant (8:13), the Law covenant (7:12; 8:4; 9:19,22; 10:1), with all its rules and regulations of external performance “works”, and all its rituals of sacrifices and offerings in the tabernacle/temple worship center, is annulled, abrogated, and abolished. It is taken back, retracted, and done away with, because it served its purpose in planned obsolescence (8:13). The entire Jewish system of religion is displaced, in order to be replaced by the establishment, enactment, and confirmation of the new covenant (8:8,13; 9:15; 12:24) in the representative death of Jesus Christ. In contrast to the first covenant, the second covenant operates by the internal dynamic of God’s grace instead of external Law regulations. The obedience of faith (cf. Rom. 1:5; 16:26) replaces the performance obedience of the works of the Law (Gal. 2:16; 3:5,10). The new worship center allows direct and immediate access to God’s heavenly presence (10:19,20), with the worth-ship of God’s character manifested in human behavior by the grace of God (4:16; 12:15; 13:9,25) to the glory of God (13:21). This is a radical statement that Paul makes. He has jettisoned the entire Jewish religion and replaced it with the eschatological fulfillment of God’s objective in Jesus Christ. What is Paul telling the Christians in Jerusalem? He is categorically asserting that the old covenant and the new covenant are mutually exclusive – antithetical and irreconcilable. There should be no consideration given to returning to the vacuous and worthless practices of Judaism. 10:10 Still emphasizing the second part of the quotation from Psalm 40:8, Paul writes, “By this will we have been sanctified through the once for all offering of the body of Jesus Christ.” Christ’s willingness to be “obedient unto death” (Phil. 2:8) as the representative sacrifice for the sins of mankind allowed for the establishment of the second covenant. The Self-offering (7:27; 9:14) of the physical body (5) of Jesus Christ in sacrificial death was the singular and final (7:27; 9:12) remedial act that removed the sin-consequences from man and ratified the new covenant. Through the death of Jesus atonement for sin has been made, allowing for a reconciled at-one-ment and spiritual union with the Holy God. Christians who have accepted the efficacy of Christ’s death on the cross are “sanctified by faith in Christ” (Acts 26:18). As sanctified “holy ones” or saints (Rom. 8:27; Eph. 1:18; 4:12), they are set apart to function as God intended in the manifestation of His holiness. This sanctification is both an initially received spiritual condition of the Christian (Acts 20:32; I Cor. 6:11), as well as a behavior process of growth in the expression of His Holy character (14; Jn. 17:19; I Thess. 4:3). 10:11 Paul returns to the repetitive and ineffectual sacrifices of the Jewish priest to make a renewed argument for the singularity and finality of Christ’s sacrifice, and its efficacy for the restoration of mankind. “And many a priest indeed has stood day-after-day ministering, and offering the same sacrifices over-and-over again, which are never able to take away sins;…” This initially appears to be a summarizing restatement of 10:1-4, but Paul wanted to emphasize the finished work of the One who was High Priest as well as sacrifice. The Jewish priests stood day-by-day and year-by-year (9:25; 10:3) ministering or liturgizing (Greek word leitourgõn), by offering the same kinds of sacrifices time-after-time. The type of priests (Aaronic or Levitical), and the frequency of their sacrifices (yearly or daily) is not the real issue Paul is addressing; rather, he emphasizes the plurality and repetitiveness of the monotonous sacrifices. The fact that the old covenant priests were standing to do their priestly work will be contrasted with Christ being seated (12). There was no place to sit in the Jewish worship center of tabernacle or temple. Their work was never done, never completed; that because their sacrifices were impotent and ineffective, never able or adequate to take away or cancel sins. Theirs was an exercise in futility, as they calculatingly put the sins of the people in the debit column of last year’s ledger. 10:12 Again, contrasting Jesus to the Jewish priests, Paul writes, “But having offered one sacrifice for sins unto perpetuity, He has sat down at the right hand of God.” As the High Priest in the order of Melchizedek (5:6; 6:20), Jesus offered the sacrifice of Himself (7:27; 9:14). This sinless sacrifice was singularly efficacious as an acceptable expiation and propitiation to remove the sin-consequences of mankind, as well as to perfect and sanctify (14) those receptive to such in order to make them safe from the power of sin. Jesus’ sacrifice in death was singularly efficacious, in contrast to the plurality and repetition of the Jewish sacrifices. Jesus’ sacrifice was efficacious unto perpetuity, in ultimate extension forever, in contrast to the temporality and ineffectiveness of the Jewish sacrifices. The finality and finished work of Jesus’ sacrifice is evidence by the fact that “He sat down at the right hand of God.” As High Priest, Jesus had finished His work (Jn. 19:30) and sat down in the Holy of Holies of God’s presence. This was almost inconceivable to Jewish thinking for they viewed God as an antagonist who was against them because of their sins. They would even tie a rope around the high priest’s leg to pull him out of the Holy of Holies of the tabernacle/temple in case he should die in there while performing his duties on the Day of Atonement. The ever-enduring finished work of Jesus Christ allowed Him to be exalted to the highest place of glory (Phil. 2:9-11) at the “right hand of God” the Father, and to share His authority. Christ is enthroned as the King-Priest in the heavenly sanctuary, an image that Paul uses several times (1:3; 8:1; 12:2; Eph. 1:20; cf. Mk. 16:19). Christians who are “in Christ” are “seated in the heavenlies” (Eph. 1:3; 2:6) with Him, and can likewise “cease from their labors” in order to appreciate God’s “rest” of grace (4:10,11). That is what Paul wanted his readers to understand, appreciate and experience; rather than reengaging in the repetitious, never-ending Jewish practices and causes. 10:13 Thus seated at the right hand of God, our triumphant Lord is “in the meantime waiting, “UNTIL HIS ENEMIES ARE PUT AS A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET.’’ Drawing again (1:3,13; 8:1; 12:2) from Psalm 110:1, Paul emphasized the completion of Christ’s finished work (Jn. 19:30) by noting that it transcends history and awaits ultimate consummation. The triumph of Christus Victor5 is already complete, yet there is the anticipation of the subjugation of all contrary powers and persons under the authority of the triumphant Christ. Writing to the Ephesian Christians, Paul explained that God “raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things…” (Eph. 1:20-22; cf. Col. 2:15). To the Corinthians, Paul noted the yet awaited “end, when He delivers up the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death. FOR HE HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET” (Ps. 8:6) …And when all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, that God may be all in all” (I Cor. 15:24-28). The “already” and the “not yet” of Christ’s triumph must be kept in Scriptural balance. The embattled recipients of this epistle were caught in the enigma of the interim of the victory of Christ. They were being bombarded by the principalities and powers of religious and political dominion and authority. Paul was warning them not to join the “enemies” who would be ultimately defeated at the feet of Jesus Christ, and encouraging them to participate in the peace and rest of the eternally triumphant Lord. 10:14 The finality of Christ’s finished work objectively in history (and beyond) is now applied subjectively in its effects for Christians. “For by one offering He has perfected unto perpetuity those being sanctified.” Whereas Christ “abides as a priest perpetually” (7:3), and “offered one sacrifice for sins unto perpetuity” (12), now the Christian’s perfection in Christ is declared to be “unto perpetuity;’ a permanent result that carries through forever. There was no perfection of man under the law (7:11,19; 10:1), and the old covenant worship could bring no perfection of the conscience (9:9. Mankind can only be brought to God’s intended objective in their lives by the perfect sacrifice of Christ and the indwelling presence of the Perfect One (2:10; 5:9, Jesus Christ. Thus perfected (Phil. 3:15) in spiritual condition, as “the spirits of righteous men made perfect” (12:23), Christians can “press on towards perfection” (6:1) in behavioral expression. Just as there is an “already” and “not yet” in Christ’s triumph, there is an “already” of Christian perfection in spiritual condition, and a “not yet” of perfect in behavioral expression. Likewise, Christians have “already” been sanctified (10) and set apart to function as God intended in holiness, and “yet” are “being sanctified” in the process of the progression of Christian growth (II Pet. 3:18), pursuing sanctification (12:14) in the consistent expression of God’s holy character in their behavior. 10:15 In this final subsection of the paragraph, Paul quotes again (8:7-12) from Jeremiah 31 to connect the internalizing provision of the new covenant with the absence of sin-consciousness (2) and the abolishment of all Jewish sin offerings (18). Adding to his Old Testament citations to document his case for the superiority of the sacrifice of Jesus, Paul writes, “And the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us;…” Believing “all Scripture to be inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (II Tim. 3:16), Paul also understood the Holy Spirit to be the active divine agent who utilized the Scriptures as an instrumental means to provide an evidentiary witness to Christians (3:7; cf. I Thess. 1:5,6). This witness of the written revelation is not the same as the personal revelation of “the Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom. 8:16), but is the witness of the Spirit through Scripture. 10:16 The witness of the Spirit in Scripture is this: “…for after having previously said, ‘THIS IS THE COVENANT I WILL COVENANT TOWARDS THEM AFTER THOSE DAYS SAYS THE LORD: GIVING MY LAWS UPON THEIR HEARTS, I WILL ALSO WRITE THEM UPON THEIR MINDS,…’” Paul again (cf. 16,17) dissects a text into two parts to make his point. The first part is the quotation of Jeremiah 31:33 which explains that the new covenant that will be made with God’s people after the old covenant period, will not be an external codification of regulations on “tablets of stone” (II Cor. 3:3), and contained in external phylacteries (Matt. 23:5) on Jewish foreheads, but God’s law which expressed His character will be subjectively internalized in “human hearts” (II Cor. 3:3). The divine dynamic of God’s grace for manifesting the character expression of law is received by Christians in Christ. What God desires and wills (5) is inscribed in the minds of Christians, for they have “the mind of Christ” (I Cor. 2:16). 10:17 The second part of the sequence, from Jeremiah 31:34, reads, “AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESSNESSES I SHALL NOT AT ALL HAVE REMEMBERED.” In contrast to the constant reminder of sins (3) in the Jewish sacrifices, the new covenant does not foster sin-consciousness (2) and condemnation (Rom. 8:1). The new covenant emphasizes forgiveness and freedom, in a positive focus (12:2) on the Savior, Jesus Christ, rather than on sin. Religious and psychological techniques of introspection to become more conscious of sins and sinfulness have no place in the new covenant experience of Jesus Christ. Yes, there is a proper place for “confession of sin” (I Jn. 1:9) that is brought to our attention by the Holy Spirit, but not for a guilt-producing preoccupation with sins and sinfulness that results in a depressive confessionalism, rather than a vibrant and intimate communion with Christ. How tragic that even in so-called “Christian religion” many revert to wallowing in sin-consciousness, and even accuse those who point to the “finished work” of Christ in the new covenant of a “triumphalism” that is not realistic. 10:18 “Now where there is forgiveness of these things, (there is) no longer (any) offering for sin.” In the inaugurated new covenant there is pardon and release from sins and lawlessnesses (17). The consequences of these are discharged and cancelled, allowing the Christian to operate in freedom and liberty, with bold (Eph. 3:12) and confident (3:6; 4:16; 10:35) access to the presence of God (10:19,20). “There is no longer any offering for sin,” for the offering was made finally and forever in the death of Christ (12). Paul wanted the Hebrew Christians in Jerusalem to know that the repetitive offering of animal sacrifices that were still taking place in the temple there in Jerusalem were monotonous meaninglessness. Even the offering of repetitive confessions for the absolution of sin were of no value. It was extremely important that the Jerusalem Christians repudiate all old covenant practices, for to fail to do so was to deny the efficacy of Christ, and for such apostasy “there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment” (26). Concluding Remarks In this extended passage (9:1 – 10:18) Paul lays out his case for the singularity and finality of the representative sacrifice of Jesus Christ – the only means by which man’s sins are taken away, once-and-for-all. The old covenant, with its sacrificial worship practices, could not forgive sins (10:4,11); could not cleanse a person’s conscience from the consciousness of sin (9:9,10,13; 10:2); could not provide access to God, for such was limited to the high priest once a year (9:7,25); and could not perfect and sanctify man to function as God intended (7:19; 9:9; 10:1). The singularly sufficient sacrifice of Jesus Christ, on the other hand, does effect redemption (9:12,15) and forgiveness of sins (9:26,28; 10:12,18); does cleanse man’s conscience internally (9:14) so that there is no consciousness of sins (10:2,17); does provide free access to God, unrestricted, direct, and immediate (9:12,24; 10:19,20); and does perfect and sanctify the believer (10:10,14) to be all that God intends man to be. The finality of Christ’s sacrificial death signifies the end of all animal sacrifices (10:18). His forgiveness of sins is such that these sins can forever be put out of our remembrance, as they are from His remembrance (10:17). The inauguration of the new covenant signifies the complete abrogation of the old covenant (10:9) – “Christ is the end of the Law” (Romans 10:4) – the shadow gives way to the substance (10:1). Christ’s victorious access to the Holy of Holies of God’s presence evidences that God cannot be confined to any worship-box in any religion, but has an “open-door policy” for all who will approach Him through Christ (10:19). What did this mean for the Hebrew Christians in Jerusalem to whom Paul was writing? It was a direct warning that to return to any involvement in the Jewish worship practices would be a denial of Jesus. It would necessarily indicate the apostasy of “standing away from” Jesus, in repudiation of His singular sufficiency. It would be to say that Jesus – His sacrifice, His life – was not enough. Paul will proceed to explain the dire and terrifying consequences of such a rejection. |
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The Death of Christ Changes Everything: Hebrews 9:15-10:18 What would you consider the greatest turning point in history? Would it be one of history’s great wars, like the American Revolution, the Civil War, or World War I or II? Would it be one of history’s great movements, like the Renaissance, the Reformation, or Islam? Would it be one of history’s great technological advancements, like the invention of the printing press, the industrial revolution, or the invention of telephones, computers, or cell phones? If you were to conduct an Internet search, you would find all of these events and more. You would also see that in most history’s “top ten’s,” Jesus is somewhere in the lineup. But while historians and other writers cannot deny Jesus’ impact on world history, many of them fail to understand just how significant Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection truly are. According to the Bible, the death and resurrection of Jesus is the most important event in history and it changes everything. In Hebrews 9:15-10:18, the author of Hebrews explains why the death of Jesus is the most important event in redemptive history and how it fully and finally redeems the people of God. Is one sense, this is simply the gospel, but in another, the book of Hebrews continues to shows us that the gospel is deeper than any of us could have ever imagined. This book wants us to understand just how significant Jesus’ death was and just how superior He is as our Mediator of the new covenant. It wants us to marvel at what His cross has won. My prayer today is that God would open our eyes and hearts to wonder at the sufficiency of Jesus’ sacrifice in securing our eternal redemption. [15] Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. [16] For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. [17] For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. [18] Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. [19] For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, [20] saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” [21] And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. [22] Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. [23] Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. [24] For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. [25] Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, [26] for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. [27] And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, [28] so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. [10:1] For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. [2] Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? [3] But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. [4] For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. [5] Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; [6] in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. [7] Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’” [8] When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), [9] then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. [10] And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. [11] And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. [12] But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, [13] waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. [14] For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. [15] And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, [16] “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” [17] then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” [18] Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. (Hebrews 9:15-10:18 ESV) The Big Idea: Hebrews 9:15 According to this verse, the purpose of Jesus’ position as the Mediator of the new covenant is to see to it (like an executor of a will) that those who are called receive the promised eternal inheritance (describes as bringing many sons to glory in 2:10; described as a eternal Sabbath rest in 4:9; described as eternal salvation in 5:9; is connected to God’s promise and oath to Abraham in 6:13-20; described as being saved to the uttermost in 7:25; described as an eternal redemption in 9:12; and is described later in Hebrews as the heavenly city, New Jerusalem: 11:10,13-16; 12:22; 13:14). The reason that they can now receive this inheritance is because a significant death has occurred that redeems them (sets them free) from transgressions. This death was so sufficient that it reached back to those under old covenant who died in faith and reached forward to those yet to believe. That is why this death changes everything: because it secures what has been promised to all of God’s people forever. (Last will example…) Intentional, Insufficient Copies As we have been seeing throughout Hebrews so far, the old covenant (arrangement) made with Israel at Mt. Sinai was insufficient, but it was intentionally insufficient in order to serve as a shadow and a copy of greater, ultimate, heavenly realities (10:1). I think this is an important because we could begin to think that the first covenant was a mistake or was bad. This is not how you need to think about it. A copy is not bad because it is not the original. A shadow is not bad because it is not the real thing. It is not supposed to be. Its point is to reflect the original and point to it. That’s why the author of Hebrews says that this picture was “necessary,” in 9:23. The first covenant served as a faithful shadow in two ways. First, it established the truth that without the shedding of blood (without a death), there is no effecting of a covenant (9:16-18). According to this passage, a covenant is likened to a last will and testament. Actually, the same Greek word is used here for both. We know that a will only takes effect upon the death of the person who made it. This was even true of the first covenant (9:18). What is remarkable about the new covenant is that the One who wrote it dies and then becomes the executor of His own will by virtue of His resurrection! What this will says is that those who are called are going to receive their promised eternal inheritance. Second, it established the truth that without the shedding of blood (without a death), there is no forgiveness of sins (9:18-22). The author of Hebrews says that there was a lesson in how nearly everything under the law was purified with blood (9:22). The lesson is that God is absolutely just and holy, and His justice demands that sin be paid for. However, God is also infinitely loving and gracious, and His love desires to forgive our sins. So the first covenant established this idea that people could experience a measure of forgiveness through the shedding of the blood (the death) of a substitute. However, the book of Hebrews wants to make sure we understand that the first covenant cannot provide the forgiveness that we need. Animal sacrifices can never make those who draw near perfect, even though they are offered continually every year (10:1). They do not cleanse the conscience; they only remind people of sins every year (10:2-3). The point is that these sacrifices are insufficient: they can never take away sins (10:11). According to Hebrews 10:5-10 (which quotes Psalm 40:6-8), this insufficiency was evidenced by God’s displeasure with the first arrangement. People were not changed on the inside to do His will by these sacrifices, so Christ came to do the Father’s will and establish a better covenant by a better sacrifice (10:5-10). He did not come to offer animal sacrifices; He came to do God’s will by offering Himself. Folks, the greatest need in your life is to be redeemed from transgressions. This is the biggest need in any of our lives. Piper says, “To be blind or oblivious to this wrath of God against sinners is incredibly dangerous, like not being able to smell the gas leak gathering around the pilot light of your water heater, ready to blow your basement to smithereens and burn your house to the ground. It is so dangerous not be aware of the anger of God against those who turn from him in sin. And the reason it is so dangerous is that, if you are blind to this reality of God’s wrath, you won’t take steps to find a remedy for sin and an escape from God’s anger.”[1] A Better Sacrifice that Secures a Better Redemption According to this passage, Jesus’ death was a better, atoning sacrifice (9:23) that was sufficient “once for all.” It saves all of God’s people from all their sins for all time. It is a single offering that has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified (set apart, made holy). Consider several ways in which Jesus’ better sacrifice secures a better redemption. First, in the first covenant, animal sacrifices were brought into an earthly tent; in the new covenant, a better sacrifice has been brought into into heaven itself (a better tent), into the presence of God on our behalf (9:24). Second, in the first covenant, animal sacrifices were brought into an earthly tent repeatedly (9:25; 10:11); in the new covenant, Christ’s single offering has once for all put away sin (9:26; 10:10-14). The sufficiency of this offering was so superior that it only had to be offered once. This is why He then sat down (10:12-13), because His work was done!!! Thirdly, in the first covenant, animal sacrifices were brought into an earthly tent repeatedly; in the new covenant, a human sacrifice was offered (9:25-26). Also, it was not just any human being. It was the most important human being in the universe who freely offered Himself on your behalf. Fourth, in the first covenant, there was a yearly reminder of sins (10:3); in the new covenant, God remembers our sins no more (10:17). They are put out of God’s mind forever when they are placed upon Christ. This is part of the perfection that was not possible in the first covenant but its now in the new. Now we are fit for God’s presence. Fifth, normal experience is death followed by judgment (9:27); in the new covenant, normal experience is the death of Jesus being counted as our judgment so that we will be saved fully and finally (9:27-28) at His return. This means that Jesus’ death did something that changes what happens to us when we die. His death removes our judgment and makes a way for us to enter heaven and enjoy God forever.
There is a fountain filled with blood
drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
and sinners plunged beneath that flood
lose all their guilty stains.[2]
It is the death of Jesus that makes the new covenant promised in Jeremiah 31:31-34 a reality (10:15-18). Here the author supplies what is implied in Jeremiah’s promise of the new covenant: that a superior atonement will occur in order to remove sins and enact this new, radical covenant. By Jesus’ sacrifice, the sentence for sinners has been served and they, by faith, experience full and final forgiveness and internal, eternal change. His death is totally and finally sufficient, and it forever changes everything. In the new covenant, the death of the one who made it has been established, and so has His resurrection and exaltation to the Father’s right hand. History is moving towards a new creation where all of His enemies will be His footstool (10:13). I hope and pray that you are on His side and have experienced this redemption. Who will Experience this Redemption? Let’s close this morning by considering who will actually experience this redemption and receive the promised eternal inheritance. Those who will are described in four ways in this passage:
E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream
thy flowing wounds supply,
redeeming love has been my theme,
and shall be till I die.[3]
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SalvationRepentanceTo become a Christian doesn’t mean to go through a certain ceremony but it means to be like Christ, to have life like Christ, to have a vision like Christ and goals like Christ.Repentance is a transformation of your thinking, formation of a new vision, a deep regret for committing a sin and complete restoration through Christ. When Isaiah saw God he realized his depravity and he regretted all his sins. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty” (Isaiah6:5). Just like Isaiah, person has to realize all his sins and regret doing them. Regret is not what makes you pure. God puts in our hearts that feeing of regret because he wants us to confess in our sins. "Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?" (Romans 2:4). "Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:38,39). When person confesses in his sins, a big joy and celebration happens in heaven. It is a joy of welcoming a new child of God to the heavenly family because that new person is not a Satan’s slave anymore. "I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:7-10). God does not like when the sinner die. He desires us to be alive and that’s why He gave us eternal life. When someone confesses in his sins God makes him a new creation in Jesus Christ. “Therefore, you Israelites, I will judge each of you according to your own ways, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, people of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!" (Ezekiel 18:30-32) FaithIf you want to be born again you have to let Jesus Christ come to your heart."For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). That’s why the faith in Jesus Christ ( not in confession or church) is necessary for salvation. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:8,9). You need faith if you want to be saved by grace. You need to believe in Jesus Christ and realize that the Son of God has died for you at the cross. Repentance requires two steps - to have faith in your heart; - to accept Christ as your Savior. "If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved" (Romans 10:9,10). The person doesn’t have to reveal all his sins which he had committed before repentance. But he needs to proclaim Jesus as his God and accept Him as your Savior. This is enough to receive salvation and forgiveness. Moreover, it is import to believe that the Holy Bible is a Word from God and you need to start living in the way it is written there. "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16,17). Repentance means to trust your life to God and promise to serve Him. For receiving forgiveness it is enough to say to God these words “ Our Father, I come to you in the name of Jesus. I thank you for Jesus Christ who has died for me and was crucified for my sins . God, i ask you to forgive me all my sins and that I didn’t know You. I believe that Jesus Christ is a Son of God. I believe that He was risen from dead to give me eternal life. I accept Him as my Savior. Father come into my heart and start living there. I thank you God that I am saved now! I am your child ! In the name of Jesus! Amen! Water baptism“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”(Mathew 28:19) Water baptism is an essential part of our repentance. It has meaning only to believers, that is to those who have received Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior. Water baptism is a physical act that expresses spiritual truth, namely: to participation by faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The word “baptism” from the Greek means immersion. In John 3:23 says namely about the immersion: “Now John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there. And they came and were baptized”. Water baptism is a publicly witnessed testimony of dedication yourself to Christ and refusal from sinful life. The person declares this way: “ It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. I live by faith in the Son of God”. In Galatians 2:20 it says: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Water baptism is an agreement with God that person died to sin and now lives in Christ to walk in newness of life. The Blood of JesusThe Bible teaches in Hebrew 9:22 that without shedding of blood there is no remission. That’s why Jesus Himself shed His Blood for us to purify us so that we were able to serve the living God.“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. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:12-14). One can not obtain salvation without faith in the effect of Jesus` Blood. Jesus Christ is the Mediator of the New Testament, which claims our salvation and approved by the Blood of Jesus. It is the covenant based on the Blood of Christ. "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. Saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.” Then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry" (Hebrews 9:15,20,21). At the moment of our redemption Jesus entered into God’s holy place with His Blood to appear in the presence of God for us. “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; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another— 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. And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 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” (Hebrews 9:24-28). The Blood of Jesus is that precious price that was paid for us, for our redemption. ”Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:18-19). Prototype of the effect of Jesus` Blood we find in the Old Testament, in the book of Leviticus. It says: ”For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul” (Leviticus 17:11). Jesus Christ has become a sinless Sacrifice. He died to redeem us from sin. “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13,14). Thanks to the Blood of Jesus we are delivered from curse and now no condemnation to those who are in Jesus Christ. “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit”. (Romans 8:1) The Blood of Jesus has brought us together with God. “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ”. (Ephesians 2:13) "Thanks to His Blood we are justified and our conscience cleansed from dead works and from remembrances of our sins" (Hebrews 9:14) We can experience the effect of the Blood of Jesus in daily protection of our life, because the Blood of Jesus is the price that was paid by God for our redemption. |
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10 Reasons Jesus Came to Die
Why did Jesus Christ suffer and die? I believe that is the
most important question of the twenty-first century. Here are ten
answers from the Bible.
Jesus came to die…#10) To destroy hostility between racesThe suspicion, prejudice, and demeaning attitudes between Jews and non-Jews in Bible times were as serious as the racial, ethnic, and national hostilities today. Jesus died to create a whole new way for races to be reconciled: he “has broken down…the dividing wall of hostility…making peace…through the cross” (Ephesians 2:14-16).It is impossible to build lasting unity among races by saying that all religions can come together as equally valid. God sent his Son into the world as the only means of saving sinners and reconciling races. Only as the races find this reconciliation will they love and enjoy each other. #9) To give marriage its deepest meaningGod’s design was never for marriages to be miserable, yet many are. That’s what sin does…it makes us treat each other badly. Jesus died to change that. He knew that his suffering would make the deepest meaning of marriage plain. That’s why the Bible says, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25).God’s design for marriage is for a husband to love his wife the way Christ loves his people, and for the wife to respond the way Christ’s people should. This kind of love is possible because Christ died for both husband and wife. #8) To absorb the wrath of GodGod’s law demanded, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). But we have all loved other things more. This is what sin is—dishonoring God by preferring other things over him, and acting on those preferences.The seriousness of an insult rises with the dignity of the one insulted. Since our sin is against the Ruler of the Universe, “the wages of [our] sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Not to punish it would be unjust. So God sent his own Son, Jesus, to divert sin’s punishment from us to himself. God “loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation”—the wrath-absorbing substitute—“for our sins” (1 John 4:10). Then God publicly endorsed Christ’s accomplishment by raising him from the dead, proving the success of his suffering and death. #7) So that we would escape the curse of the lawThere was no escape from the curse of God’s law. It was just; we were guilty. There was only one way to be free: someone must pay the penalty. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13).The law’s demands have been fulfilled by Christ’s perfect law-keeping, its penalty fully paid by his death. This is why the Bible teaches that getting right with God is not based on law-keeping: “A person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ” (Galatians 2:16). Our only hope is having the blood and righteousness of Christ credited to our account. #6) To reconcile us to GodThe reconciliation that needs to happen between man and God goes both ways. God’s first act in reconciling us to himself was to remove the obstacle that separated him from us—the guilt of our sin. He took the steps we could not take to remove his own judgment by sending Jesus to suffer in our place: “While we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son” (Romans 5:10). Reconciliation from our side is simply to receive what God has already done, the way we receive an infinitely valuable gift.#5) To show God’s love for sinnersThe measure of God’s love is shown by the degree of his sacrifice in saving us from the penalty of our sins: “he gave his only Son” (John 3:16). When we add the horrific crucifixion that Christ endured, it becomes clear that the sacrifice the Father and the Son made to save us was indescribably great!The measure of his love increases still more when we consider the degree of our unworthiness. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Our debt is so great, only a divine sacrifice could pay it. #4) To show Jesus’ own love for usThe death of Christ is also the supreme expression that he “loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). It is my sin that cuts me off from God. All I can do is plead for mercy.I see Christ suffering and dying “to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). And I ask, am I among the “many”? And I hear the answer, “Whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Jesus paid the highest price possible to give me—personally—the greatest gift possible. #3) To take away our condemnationThe great conclusion to the suffering and death of Christ is this: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). To be “in Christ” means to be in relationship to him by faith. Christ becomes our punishment (which we don’t have to bear) and our worth before God (which we cannot earn).The death of Christ secures freedom from condemnation for those who believe that Christ has served their death sentence. It is as sure that they cannot be condemned as it is sure that Christ died! #2) To bring us to God“Gospel” means “good news,” and it all ends in one thing: God himself. The gospel is the good news that at the cost of his Son’s life, God has done everything necessary to captivate us with what will make us eternally and ever-increasingly happy—namely, himself. “Christ…suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).#1) To give eternal life to all who believe on HimJesus made it plain that rejecting the eternal life he offered would result in the misery of eternity in hell: “Whoever does not believe is condemned already....the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:18, 36).But for those who trust Christ, the best is yet to come. “No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). We will see the all-satisfying glory of God. “This is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). For all these reasons and more, Christ suffered and died. Why would you not embrace him as your Savior from sin and judgment, and live with God eternally? If you are moved to embrace God’s Son in this way, tell God in words like these: Dear God, I’m convinced that Jesus suffered and died for my sins. I gratefully trust in him now as my Lord and my precious Treasure and the only way I’ll ever receive your forgiveness and your promise of eternal life. Amen. "Why did Jesus have to die?"When we ask a question such as this, we must be careful that we are not calling God into question. To wonder why God couldn’t find “another way” to do something is to imply that the way He has chosen is not the best course of action and that some other method would be better. Usually what we perceive as a “better” method is one that seems right to us. Before we can come to grips with anything God does, we have to first acknowledge that His ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts—they are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8). In addition, Deuteronomy 32:4 reminds us that “He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.” Therefore, the plan of salvation He has designed is perfect, just, and upright, and no one could have come up with anything better.The Scripture says, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). Evidence affirms that the sinless Jesus bled and died on a cross. Most importantly, the Bible explains why Jesus’ death and resurrection provide the only entrance to heaven. The punishment for sin is death. God created earth and man perfect. But when Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s commands, He had to punish them. A judge who pardons law-breakers isn’t a righteous judge. Likewise, overlooking sin would make the holy God unjust. Death is God’s just consequence for sin. “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Even good works cannot make up for wrongs against the holy God. Compared to His goodness, “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6b). Ever since Adam’s sin, every human has been guilty of disobeying God’s righteous laws. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Sin is not just big things like murder or blasphemy, but also includes love of money, hatred of enemies, and deceit of tongue and pride. Because of sin, everyone has deserved death – eternal separation from God in hell. The promise required an innocent death. Although God banished Adam and Eve from the garden, He didn’t leave them without hope of reconciliation. He promised He would send a Savior to defeat the serpent (Genesis 3:15). Until then, men would sacrifice innocent lambs, showing their repentance from sin and faith in the future Sacrifice from God who would bear their penalty. God reaffirmed His promise of the Sacrifice with men such as Abraham and Moses. Herein lies the beauty of God’s perfect plan: God Himself provided the only sacrifice (Jesus) who could atone for the sins of His people. God’s perfect Son fulfilled God’s perfect requirement of God’s perfect law. It is perfectly brilliant in its simplicity. “God made Him (Christ), who knew no sin, to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). The prophets foretold Jesus’ death. From Adam to Jesus, God sent prophets to mankind, warning them of sin’s punishment and foretelling the coming Messiah. One prophet, Isaiah, described Him: “Who has believed what they heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:1-12). He likened the coming Sacrifice to a lamb, slaughtered for the sins of others. Hundreds of years later, Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled in the perfect Lord Jesus, born of the virgin Mary. When the prophet John the Baptist saw Him, he cried, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Crowds thronged Him for healing and teaching, but the religious leaders scorned Him. Mobs cried out, “Crucify Him!” Soldiers beat, mocked, and crucified Him. As Isaiah foretold, Jesus was crucified in between two criminals but was buried in a rich man’s tomb. But He didn’t remain in the grave. Because God accepted His Lamb’s sacrifice, He fulfilled another prophecy by raising Jesus from the dead (Psalm 16:10; Isaiah 26:19). Why did Jesus have to die? Remember, the holy God cannot let sin go unpunished. To bear our own sins would be to suffer God’s judgment in the flames of hell. Praise God, He kept His promise to send and sacrifice the perfect Lamb to bear the sins of those who trust in Him. Jesus had to die because He is the only one who can pay the penalty for our sins. If God is showing you your need for the Lamb of God, find out how His sacrificial death can take away your sins |
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Why Did Jesus Die?What was Jesus' death all about? Why did Jesus need to die for us?The religious leaders were crucifying Jesus for blasphemy -- for claiming to be God. They put him to death for it. But, were they really in charge? Many times, prior to his crucifixion, Jesus told his disciples that he was going to be crucified. He said he was doing this willingly…for forgiveness of their sins. Prophets spoke about a Messiah, a Savior would would come. Isaiah wrote this of him: “…he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities [sins]…all we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”1 Each year the Jewish people would sacrifice a lamb as temporary payment for their sin. When Jesus came, John the Baptist correctly said of him, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.”2 Jesus took our sins and died for them, on our behalf. He took our punishment for us. However, Jesus was not merely a prophet, a man who represented humanity. Jesus was very clear about his deity. He said he existed before the creation of the world, that he had power to forgive sins, answer prayer and grant eternal life. Again, this is why the Jewish authorities crucified him…for claiming to be God. Yet Jesus offered uncontested proof. Only weeks before his crucifixion, Jesus' friend Lazarus died. After being dead four days, Jesus publicly brought him back to life. In town after town, Jesus healed every disease, every sickness. Just prior to his crucifixion the religious authorities were saying, "Look, the world has gone after him,"3 and “If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him…”4 Jesus proved he had absolute power. In light of that, the whipping, thorns in his head, nails through his wrists and feet did not kill him. Neither did the slow suffocation on the cross. Jesus could have stepped off the cross at any moment. This was the equivalent of someone bending over and putting their head under water, and choosing to deliberately drown when they had the power to raise their head at any moment. Jesus chose to die. He was very clear about this. Jesus said he was choosing to lay down his life. For us. Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends."5 But, why? Because he looked at our hearts, our actions, and saw us as sick, needy, weak, sinful, blind and lost. This was Jesus' stated view of us, which we don't like. But you also need to see his actions about it. It's not distant judgment or condemnation. It's not uninvolved, nor unsympathetic. Whether you agree with him or not, he saw us as desperately in need. He saw our lives as not working properly. Not living in fullness or living out the goodness he created us for. And, he saw us at risk of dying eternally separated from him. Never to experience eternal life. He saw us as cut off from him by our sin. And he chose to meet our need. Whether we were thankful or not. Whether we saw a need for it, or not. He took the penalty of death, that he thinks we deserve, and took it himself. These are not the actions of someone uncaring. Believing that we needed to be saved, needed to be forgiven, he went to incredible lengths for us. On the cross, Jesus didn't just suffer and die as a symbol of love. It was necessary, in his view. It was either we die--eternally separated from him because of our sin--or he dies, so we wouldn't have to. So we could be forgiven. So we could know him, eternally. In describing this, the Bible says, "...perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die, but God shows his love toward us in this: while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."6 Hours before his crucifixion, fully aware of his imminent crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus stated his intent as he talked to his Father: "that the world [may] know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."7 This brings up the stark question: did we need to be saved? What did Jesus see in us that we don't see? He chose to go to a cross, to be tortured, and die for us. Why was this necessary? Maybe he sees where we fail. Our anger, hatred. Our impatience and hurtful remarks, and actions. We sin against others, and sometimes others sin against us. We don't live up to the goodness God created us for. We don't even live up to our own standards, let alone his. When honest, we even disgust ourselves at times. So what would a perfectly holy God see? And what about our insistence that we don't want a relationship with him and we don't want him intruding in our lives? Why didn't he just walk away from us? Why didn't he turn away? Instead of deserting us, leaving us to the consequences of our sin-- instead, he came toward us. He entered into our world. He took the penalty of our sin and bore our death, himself. "...because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved."8 Couldn't he have merely overlooked our sin, forgiven it with just a word? That seems possible to us, but he said our sin was too severe to merely dismiss it. The seriousness of our sin and his love for us required his action. We all experience the pain that comes with forgiving someone. The greater a person's sin against us, the more painful to forgive that person. Jesus wants to forgive us in an eternally deep way. He wants us to be completely, fully forgiven. He wants us to know that he will fully accept us and our sin no longer needs to be a wall between us. "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."9 He suffered and died over our sin, then rose from the dead three days later, overcoming it all. He is not hindered by sin or death. And he wants us to experience the same through him. It is our decision whether to accept the forgiveness he offers, by moving toward him, asking him to forgive us and enter our lives. John states it well in the Bible, "We have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment."10 Jesus' prayer right before his death: "Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they [Jesus' followers] know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."11 Would you like to invite Jesus Christ into your life right now? Here is how you can. "Jesus, I ask you to come into my life. Forgive my sin. Thank you for dying on the cross for me. Lead my life as you want. Thank you for coming into my life right now and giving me a relationship with you. Amen."
The Importance of the Death of Christ in the Plan of Salvation
Hebrews 2:5-18
The writer of the book of Hebrews begins his argument that the New Testament system of Christ is superior to the Old Testament law of Moses by pointing out in chapter 1 that because Christ is the divine Son of God He is so much better than the angels through whom the Old Testament law was given to Moses. However, in chapter 2, he goes on to point out that this One who was so much better than the angels was made lower than the angels. In verses 5 through 8, he quotes from Psalm 8 that man was made a little lower than the angels, then points out that Christ was also made a little lower than the angels. In other words, He became a man, a human being. Why? "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone" (verse 9). The reason given here is "for the suffering of death." The inspired writer is setting up the basis for his later argument that the sacrifices of animals in the Old Testament were insufficient to forgive sin, so it would take the sacrifice of something greater. Basically saying that Jesus became a man to die for our sins. Thus this passage emphasizes the importance of the death of Christ in the plan of salvation. First, in verse 9, it says that Jesus had to die for everybody, "that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man." Jesus Himself had pointed out that God would give His Son for the whole world, telling Nicodemus, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (Jn. 3:16). Why was this necessary? It was because "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). What makes this fact even worse is that there are severe consequences to sin. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 6:23). Yet, even as Paul mentions the gift of God, the Bible teaches that God loves us enough to have had Jesus lay down His life for the sins of everyone. "By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us..." (1 Jn. 3:16). This is why it was necessary that He by the grace of God should taste death for everyone. Second, in verse 10, the passage says that the aim of making the captain of our salvation perfect through sufferings (referring to His death) was for Him to bring many sons to glory. This may refer to the fact that all human beings are the offspring (sons or children) of God, physically speaking, because He is the Father of our spirits (Acts 17:28, Heb. 12:9). This would mean that God wants to make a way for all His offspring or all human beings to be saved from sin. It might also refer to the fact that those who are saved from sin are born again through the word of God and hence become the spiritual children of God (1 Pet. 1:23, 1 Jn. 3:1-3). However, either way we look at it, we must understand that the death of Jesus Christ was necessary in order for this to happen because it was He who "loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood" (Rev. 1:4-6). Just as one goal of the captain of a ship is to bring the passengers to safety, so Jesus as the captain of our salvation has as His aim to bring many sons to glory. Third, in verse 14, the passage says that through His death, Christ has destroyed him who had the power of death, that is, the devil After Adam and Eve had sinned, it had been prophesied that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent (Gen. 3.16). This has universally been understood as a prophecy of the Messiah who would come to destroy the devil. Jesus Himself understood that His mission involved conquering Satan. In Matt. 12:22-29, He said that His power over the demons demonstrated that He had first bound "strong man." In Lk. 10:17-18, when the seventy returned having cast out demons, Jesus said that He saw Satan falling as lightning from heaven. This was not something that had taken place before the world began but was going on right then as Christ was involved in conquering Satan. Both Jn. 12:27-31 and 16:7-11 also make reference to the casting out or judgment of the prince or ruler of this world that was soon to come. This is exactly what Jesus did "He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil" (1 Jn. 3:8). The devil's power over mankind, which brings the fear of death, is through sin, but by His death Jesus makes possible the forgiveness of sin, thus destroying the power of death and releasing those who receive His forgiveness from the fear of death. Fourth, in verse 17, the passage says that His death has made reconciliation or propitiation for the sins of the people. The verb translated "make reconciliation" in the King James Version or "make propitiation" in the New King James Version was used among the Greeks to mean to make the gods propitious or to appease them, since their good will was not conceived as their natural attitude but something to be earned. This use of the word is foreign to the Bible. In the Old Testament, the concept was related to the atonement that was made for the sins of the people with the animal sacrifices (cf. Lev. 16:8-22). Of course, these sacrifices pointed forward to the time when Christ would come to make complete atonement for the sins of the world. Thus, in the New Testament, the concept of "propitiation" always refers to the fact that God is propitiated through the provision that He made in the sacrifice of Christ to show mercy and make possible the remission of sins. "Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood..." (Rom. 3.24-25). We must conclude, then, that the death of Jesus Christ was what made it possible for the scriptures to call Him "the propitiation for our sins" (1 Jn. 2:1-2, 4:10). Because He made propitiation for our sins, we can have reconciliation with God God created us to be in fellowship with Him, but all of us have sinned and broken that fellowship. Yet, God--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--loved us enough that, even though we deserved eternal punishment for our sins, God sent His Son, who was so much better than the angels, to be made lower than the angels that He might die for our sins, bring us to glory, destroy the power of the devil, and make propitiation with the Father. However, while God's gift of salvation is free in that He does not require us to do anything to make atonement, it is not unconditional. He has revealed certain commands in His word that we must obey to show that we are willing to submit our wills to His in accepting His offer of remission of sins. This is why the Hebrew writer goes on to say about the death of Christ, "Though He was a son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him" (Heb. 5:8-9). Have you obeyed Him? 6 Things Christ Accomplished by His DeathHere’s a very brief summary of the six core things Christ accomplished in his death.1. Expiation Expiation means the removal of our sin and guilt. Christ’s death removes — expiates — our sin and guilt. The guilt of our sin was taken away from us and placed on Christ, who discharged it by his death. Thus, in John 1:29, John the Baptist calls Jesus “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Jesus takes away, that is, expiates, our sins. Likewise, Isaiah 53:6 says, “The Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him,” and Hebrews 9:26 says “He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” 2. Propitiation Whereas expiation refers to the removal of our sins, propitiation refers to the removal of God’s wrath. By dying in our place for our sins, Christ removed the wrath of God that we justly deserved. In fact, it goes even further: a propitiation is not simply a sacrifice that removes wrath, but a sacrifice that removes wrath and turns it into favor. (Note: a propitiation does not turn wrath into love — God already loved us fully, which is the reason he sent Christ to die; it turns his wrath into favor so that his love may realize its purpose of doing good to us every day, in all things, forever, without sacrificing his justice and holiness.) Several passages speak of Christ’s death as a propitiation for our sins. Romans 3:25-26 says that God “displayed [Christ] publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness, because in the forbearance of God he passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration of his righteousness at the present time, that he might be just and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus.” Likewise, Hebrews 2:17 says that Christ made “propitiation for the sins of the people” and 1 John 4:10 says “in this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 3. Reconciliation Whereas expiation refers to the removal of our sins, and propitiation refers to the removal of God’s wrath, reconciliation refers to the removal of our alienation from God. Because of our sins, we were alienated — separated — from God. Christ’s death removed this alienation and thus reconciled us to God. We see this, for example, in Romans 5:10-11: “For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” 4. Redemption Our sins had put us in captivity from which we need to be delivered. The price that is paid to deliver someone from captivity is called a “ransom.” To say that Christ’s death accomplished redemption for us means that it accomplished deliverance from our captivity through the payment of a price. There are three things we had to be released from: the curse of the law, the guilt of sin, and the power of sin. Christ redeemed us from each of these.
5. Defeat of the Powers of Darkness Christ’s death was a defeat of the power of Satan. “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him” (Colossians 3:15). Satan’s only weapon that can ultimately hurt people is unforgiven sin. Christ took this weapon away from him for all who would believe, defeating him and all the powers of darkness in his death by, as the verse right before this says, “having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:13-14). 6. And he Did All of This By Dying As Our Substitute The reality of substitution is at the heart of the atonement. Christ accomplished all of the above benefits for us by dying in our place — that is, by dying instead of us. We deserved to die, and he took our sin upon him and paid the penalty himself. This is what it means that Christ died for us (Romans 5:8) and gave himself for us (Galatians 2:20). As Isaiah says, “he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities . . . the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him” (Isaiah 53:5-6). You see the reality of substitution underlying all of the benefits discussed above, as the means by which Christ accomplished them. For example, substitution is the means by which we were ransomed: “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). Christ’s death was a ransom for us — that is, instead of us. Likewise, Paul writes that “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). Substitution is the means by which we were reconciled: “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). It is the means of expiation: “He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21) and “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24). And by dying in our place, taking the penalty for our sins upon himself, Christ’s death is also the means of propitiation. Five Truths About the Death of Jesus
Moreover, this climactic grace shown at the cross has a specific shape — it has edges. These edges help us see what exactly happened when Jesus died. And it’s important that we see because seeing leads to worship — you can’t worship what you don’t know. So in hopes of more clarity — fuel for worship — here are five biblical truths about what Jesus accomplished on the cross. 1. The death of Jesus was for his enemies.God’s love is different than natural human love. God loves us when we’re utterly unlovable. When Jesus died, he died for the ungodly, for sinners, and for his enemies. Paul gets at how contrary this is to human nature when he writes, “For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare to die, but God shows his love for us in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:7–8).2. The death of Jesus purchased a people.The death of Christ was effective in its purpose. And its goal was not just to purchase the possibility of salvation, but a people for his own possession. Hear Jesus’s words: “All that the Father gives to me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out… And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day” (John 6:36, 39).If we say that Christ only purchased the opportunity of salvation for all men we gut biblical words such as redemption of their meaning. John Murray writes: “It is to beggar the conception of redemption as an effective securement of release by price and power to construe it as anything less than the effectual accomplishment which secures the salvation of those who are its objects. Christ did not come to put men in a redeemable position but to redeem to himself a people” (Redemption Accomplished and Applied, 63). 3. The death of Jesus is on our behalf.Jesus’s death was substitutionary. That is, he died in our place. He died the death that we deserved. He bore the punishment that was justly ours. For everyone who believes in him, Christ took the wrath of God on their behalf. Peter writes, “[Jesus] himself bore our sin in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24).4. The death of Jesus defines love.Jesus’s death wasn’t just an act of love, it defines love. His substitutionary death is the ultimate example of what love means, and Jesus calls those who follow him to walk in the same kind of life-laying-down love. John writes, “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:16). John Piper explains: “Jesus’s death is both guilt-bearing and guidance-giving. It is a death that forgives sin and a death that models love. It is the purchase of our life from perishing and the pattern of a life of love” (What Jesus Demands from the World, 266).5. The death of Jesus reconciles us to God.Justification, propitiation, and redemption — all benefits of Christ’s death — have one great purpose: reconciliation. Jesus’s death enables us to have a joy-filled relationship with God, which is the highest good of the cross. Paul writes, “And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him” (Colossians 1:21–22).Think about how this works in our relationships with other people. When we sin, not only do we hurt the person we sin against, we harm the relationship. It will never be the same until we seek forgiveness. So it is with our relationship with God. We enter this world sinful, and as a result, we’re alienated from God. Only forgiveness — forgiveness which was purchased at the cross — can heal the relationship so that we are able to enjoy fellowship with God. 7 Reasons Christ Suffered and Died
God’s purposes for the world in the death of Jesus are unfathomable, writes John Piper in his latest book, The Passion of Jesus Christ: Fifty Reasons Why He Came to Die.
He adds, “Infinitely more important than who killed Jesus is the
question: What did God achieve for sinners like us in sending His Son to
die?”
How vital it is that we grasp–and share–the sovereignly designed purposes behind the Passion of Jesus Christ. Here are seven of them: 1. To achieve His own resurrection from the dead. The death of Christ did not merely precede His resurrection–it was the price that obtained it. The Bible says He was raised not just after the blood-shedding, but by it. The wrath of God was satisfied with the suffering and death of Jesus. The holy curse against sin was fully absorbed. The price of forgiveness was totally paid. The righteousness of God was completely vindicated. All that was left to accomplish was the public declaration of God’s endorsement. This He gave by raising Jesus from the dead. When the Bible says, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17, ESV*), the point is not that the resurrection is the price paid for our sins. The point is that the resurrection proves that the death of Jesus is an all-sufficient price. 2. To show His own love for us. The death of Christ is not only the demonstration of God’s love (John 3:16), it is also the supreme expression of Christ’s own love for all who receive it as their treasure. The sufferings and death of Christ have to do with me personally. It is my sin that cuts me off from God, not sin in general. I am lost and perishing; all I can do is plead for mercy. Then I see Christ suffering and dying. For whom? Ephesians 5:25 says, “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” And John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.” And Matthew 20:28, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” And I ask, Am I among the “many”? Can I be one of His “friends”? May I belong to the “church”? And I hear the answer, “To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). My heart is swayed, and I embrace the beauty and bounty of Christ as my treasure. And there flows into my heart this great reality–the love of Christ for me. 3. In order to cancel the legal demands of the law against us. What a folly to think that our good deeds may one day outweigh our bad deeds. First, it is not true. Even our good deeds are defective, because we don’t honor God in the way we do them. “Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” Without Christ-exalting faith, our deeds will signify nothing but rebellion. Second, this is simply not the way God saves us. If we are saved from the consequences of our bad deeds, it will not be because they weighed less than our good deeds. There is no salvation by balancing records. There is only salvation by canceling records. The record of our bad deeds (including our defective good deeds), along with the just penalties that each deserves, must be blotted out–not balanced. This is what Christ suffered and died to accomplish (Colossians 2:13). He endured my damnation. He is my only hope. And faith in Him is my only way to God. 4. To provide the basis for our justification and to complete the obedience that becomes our righteousness. To be justified in a courtroom is not the same as being forgiven. Being forgiven implies that I am guilty and my crime is not counted. Being justified implies that I have been tried and found innocent. The verdict of justification does not make a person just. It declares a person just. (The moral change we undergo when we trust Christ is not justification. The Bible usually calls that sanctification–the process of becoming good.) Justification is a declaration that happens in a moment. A verdict: Just! Righteous! In the courtroom of God, we have not kept the law. Therefore, justification, in ordinary terms, is hopeless. Yet, amazingly, because of Christ, the Bible says God “justifies the ungodly” who trust in His grace (Romans 4:5). Christ shed His blood to cancel the guilt of our crime: “We have now been justified by his blood” (Romans 5:9). But canceling our sins is not the same as declaring us righteous. Christ also imputes His righteousness to me. My claim before God is this: “not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ” (Philippians 3:9). Christ fulfilled all righteousness perfectly; and then that righteousness was reckoned to be mine, when I trusted in Him. Christ’s death became the basis for our pardon and our perfection. 5. To obtain for us all things that are good for us. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). I love the logic of this verse. Not because I love logic, but because I love having my real needs met. The two halves of Romans 8:32 have a stupendously important logical connection. The connection between the two halves is meant to make the second half absolutely certain. If God did the hardest thing of all–namely, give up His own Son to suffering and death–then it is certain that He will do the comparatively easy thing, namely, give us all things with Him. God’s total commitment to give us all things is more sure than the sacrifice of His Son. But what does “give us all things” mean? He will give us all things that are good for us. All things that we really need in order to be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). All things we need in order to attain everlasting joy. “In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:12-13, emphasis added). Notice “all things” includes “hungering” and “needing.” God will meet every real need, including the ability to rejoice in suffering when many felt needs do not get met. The suffering and death of Christ guarantee that God will give us all things that we need to do His will and to give Him glory and to attain everlasting joy. 6. To bring us to God. What is the ultimate good in the Good News? God Himself. Salvation is not good news if it only saves from hell and not for God. Forgiveness is not good news if it only gives relief from guilt and doesn’t open the way to God. Justification is not good news if it only makes us legally acceptable to God but doesn’t bring fellowship with God. Redemption is not good news if it only liberates us from bondage but doesn’t bring us to God. Adoption is not good news if it only puts us in the Father’s family but not in His arms. There is no sure evidence that we have a new heart just because we want to escape hell. It doesn’t take a new heart to want the psychological relief of forgiveness, or the removal of God’s wrath, or the inheritance of God’s world. The evidence we have been changed is that we want these things because they bring us to the enjoyment of God. This is the greatest thing Christ died for. “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). We were made to experience full and lasting happiness from seeing and savoring the glory of God. 7. To give us eternal life. In our happiest times we do not want to die. The wish for death rises only when our suffering seems unbearable. What we really want in those times is not death, but relief. We would love for the good times to come again. We would like the pain to go away. We would like to have our loved one back from the grave. The longing of the human heart is to live and to be happy. God made us that way. “He has put eternity into man’s heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). We are created in God’s image, and God loves life and lives forever. We were made to live forever. And we will. The opposite of eternal life is not annihilation. It is hell. Jesus spoke of it more than anybody, and He made plain that rejecting the eternal life He offered would result not in obliteration, but in the misery of God’s wrath: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36). And it remains forever. Jesus said, “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:46). All that is good–all that will bring true and lasting happiness–will be preserved and purified and intensified. We will be changed so that we are capable of dimensions of happiness that were inconceivable to us in this life. “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined … God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). For this Christ suffered and died. Why would we not embrace Him as our treasure, and live? |
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Friday 21 April 2017
Why Christ Died
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