HEBREWS: “A Greater Sacrifice (Hebrews 9)” | 10/29/23
Hebrews 9 | 10/29/23 | Will DuVal
“There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains”
Now, if you just turned to your waitress at lunch today… or walked up to another parent at random out at Thies Farm this afternoon… or stopped a co-worker in your office tomorrow morning… and you simply recited those lyrics we just sang, what kind of RESPONSE do you think you’d get?
SHOCK? “Excuse me, BATHING in a FOUNTAIN of blood??
OFFENSE? “Who are YOU calling a “guilty, stained SINNER”?!”
Probably. But I suspect more than ANYTHING, those lyrics to this once-popular hymn might be met today with genuine CONFUSION:
“What FOUNTAIN?”
“What is an “IMMANUEL”?” And most bewildering of all…
“Why BLOOD? How in the world could bathing in blood wash someone CLEAN?”
Well, I want to try and answer those questions this morning - or better yet, let Hebrews ch9, our text for this morning - address 3 crucial questions that are just assumed in that great hymn but which can no LONGER simply be assumed in 21st c. American society; namely:
1) What is a SACRIFICE?
2) Why do we NEED one? And lastly, where we’ll spend the majority of the morning, in Hebrews 9:
3) What makes JESUS’ sacrifice so GREAT?
Like the author of the hymn, the author of Hebrews just takes for granted that his readers, his congregation know all ABOUT sacrifices and why they NEED them, so he skips straight to question #3 about Jesus’ BETTER sacrifice. But these days, we need to back up and first consider the “what” and the “why” of sacrifices, before we get to the “WHO”, to Jesus.
But FIRST, let’s begin by reading the passage together: Hebrews ch9. If you were here last Sunday, or listened sick from home like me, Pastor Thad did an excellent job walking us through chapter EIGHT and Jesus’ greater COVENANT. So we pick up now in ch9 with the covenants, as the author segue ways into discussing the importance of Christ’s SACRIFICE.
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Would you stand… the word of the Lord:
“Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. 2 For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. 3 Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, 4 having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron's staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. 5 Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.
6 These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, 7 but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. 8 By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing 9 (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, 10 but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.
11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
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.”
[This is the word of God… SEATED…]
So what is a sacrifice, and why do we NEED one? We’ll consider questions 1 and 2 together, and I’ll try to be brief so we can get back to Hebrews 9. But here’s the basic idea:
The Bible says that God created us - created EVERYTHING - for His glory. You and I were made for relationship with God, to WORSHIP Him, to bring Him honor and praise in ALL of our words and thoughts and actions - the Bible says, “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31). According to Jesus, the most important commandment in ALL of God’s word is ““You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt 22:37). God deserves it ALL - our entire LIVES surrendered back to Him in humble obedience and faith, to be used BY God FOR His glory. He is worthy of nothing less.
The PROBLEM is that you and I actually GIVE him FAR less, don’t we? How many of us this morning can say, “I lived 100%, entirely sold OUT for GOD this past week… not a TRACE of selfish, self-centered, self-directed motives mixed in AT ALL.”
NONE of us. The Bible says, “We have ALL fallen SHORT of the glory of God”, of actually bringing God the full GLORY He is due.
And the Bible calls this “SIN”. “Sin” isn’t just the “bad stuff we do”, or maybe even the “REALLY bad stuff that OTHER people do”. The word the Bible uses for sin literally means “to miss the mark”; it was a term used in archery. And it accurately describes everything OTHER than hitting the BULLS-EYE, perfectly. You say, “Well at least I hit the TARGET; THAT guy over there is a MURDERER! He KILLED someone walking across the range with HIS arrow! Me? I just tell white lies every once in a while… just a little gossip… just a little pride… just a little lust… just a little WORRY.
So maybe I don’t trust God perfectly… Sure, I guess I could GIVE a little more, SERVE a little more, pray a little more, evangelize a little more, love a little more… But I’m a good person, relatively speaking… I CAN’T be more than one or two RINGS outside of that bulls-eye...”
And yet JESUS calls BOTH his murder AND your anger… SIN. Both her adultery AND your lust… SIN.
And the Bible says, “the WAGES of sin” - what our sin EARNS us - “is DEATH”. God warned Adam and Eve: “Don’t eat the fruit from THAT tree, cuz if you do, on that very DAY, you will surely…[what?]” DIE!
And DID they die? Well, yes and no. God’s not a liar, so in ONE sense, Adam and Eve DID die. Spiritually, the moment they took that bite, they were separated from perfect relationship with God. But instead of striking them dead PHYSICALLY too, letting Adam & Eve suffer the just punishment for their sin, the Bible says, “God clothed them in ANIMAL skins” (Gen 3:21). God designated an ANIMAL to die in their place; the first ever sacrifice.
We owe God EVERYTHING. We give him LESS than that, LESS than our whole heart, mind, soul, & strength… our whole LIVES. And so each of us has incurred a DEBT - a life debt - and God, in his MERCY, provided a means by which we could REPAY our debt - make up the gap, so to speak; life for life, DEATH… for death. Sin brings death - either MINE, or this animal’s, in my place, thanks to God’s mercy.
In the OT, God had declared “the life of the [animal] is in [its] blood, and I have given it for you [for the ancient Israelites] on the altar to make atonement [repayment] for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the [animal’s] life.” (Lev 17:11)
So that’s the answer to our first two big questions: the WHAT and WHY of sacrifices: A sacrifice is the way we repay our life debt to God by offering another life in our place, something else’s BLOOD instead of my own. And the reason a sacrifice is REQUIRED is because God is perfectly HOLY and perfectly JUST; He cannot - God WILL not - simply turn a blind eye to sin. God made it perfectly CLEAR, with every single OT sacrifice, just how SERIOUSLY He takes our sin: Sin is DEADLY.
So, for thousands of years, MILLIONS of animals were slaughtered, so that thousands of Israelites could repay their life debt to God, under the old covenant, the old sacrificial system.
BUT… and now we’re ready for Hebrews ch9…
The Old Testament sacrifice REGULATIONS reveal the OT sacrifice LIMITATIONS:
FIVE limitations, that the author of Hebrews points out for us here in vv1-10, of the OT sacrificial system. (Your bulletin says SEVEN, but I’m gonna simplify and combine a few of the points.) We’ll try and run through these quickly to save MORE of our time for the GREATER sacrifice. But also because hopefully MOST of you were WITH us last spring and summer for our series through Exodus, and you remember covering these OT sacrifices and priests and the tabernacle in DEPTH. They were…
#1 - EARTHLY (vv1-5)
V1: he says, “Now the first covenant had regulations for worship [that’s what he’s walking us through…] and an earthly place of holiness.” It was called the “tent of MEETING”, Exodus 25-40. The tent, the tabernacle, that God instructed Israel to build, as the place where they could MAKE the sacrifices so that He could meet with them, right here on earth. Which on the one hand is AMAZING - God coming down from heaven to actually MEET with us! - but on the OTHER hand, when you consider all the REGULATIONS that had to be put in place, to PROTECT sinful people like us from God’s sheer HOLINESS - you can’t just casually STROLL into the presence of Almighty God; there were regulations that made this whole OT system extremely LIMITING. In six ways; 6 sub-points now…
First, v2: the TENT had to be “prepared” (v2a). It took Israel between 6 and 9 MONTHS just to build the tent of meeting. The gold alone is estimated at upwards of $40 million. This was no light undertaking! Literally!
Second, the tent had to be maintained, v2b. He reminds us about the golden “lampstand”, and the sacred “table”, for the “bread of the Presence”. All these things required maintenance, remember: the priests had to replenish the OIL in the lamps, bake fresh BREAD every week.
Third, the tent had to be guarded; v2: he reminds us it was a “HOLY place”, sinners beware. And that was before you even GOT, v3 now, “Behind the second curtain [to the] second section called the Most Holy Place”; the HOLY of holies.
Fourth, this earthly tent had to be embellished; he reminds us in v4 of all the GOLD that went into it: the “golden altar”, the “ark covered… with gold”, that held the “golden urn”. And the point of all the gold, all this embellishing, was to try and convey the VALUE, the RICHNESS of God’s presence, to reflect the SPLENDOR and RADIANCE of heaven itself. But that’s all it was: a reflection; v23 calls this tent a “COPY” of the heavenly things; not the true substance.
It served, fifthly, merely to REMIND Israel of the former days, when heaven HAD actually come down and touched earth. When, v4, God HAD sent down “bread from heaven”, manna, in Exodus 16. When God HAD miraculously caused Aaron’s staff to bud, in Numbers 17. When God HAD delivered His commandments on “the tablets of the covenant”, in Exodus 20. So the tent, and later, the Temple, kept Israel looking BACK to God’s past faithfulness, while they still awaited his return in the FULLNESS of His glory.
Sixth, the tent also kept them looking UP (literally and figuratively), because v5, “Above it were the cherubim of glory”, meant to symbolize the heavenly angels that attend God’s heavenly presence, but which simultaneously reminded them once again of the mere EARTHLINESS of THIS tabernacle. It was just a copy. Just a SHADOW.
#2 - This whole OT sacrificial system was ALSO ENDLESS (v6).
V6 says: “These preparations having thus been made” - once they ERECTED the tent of meeting - “the priests [would] go regularly in…”. The better translation of the Greek word “dia” there is “continually”; the priests would enter continually. Literally, the text says, “the priests were ALWAYS going in…”.
Why? Pastor David Guzik explains (“Hebrews 9: Jesus’ Blood”): “If a sacrifice isn’t perfect, it must be continual… The reason why the suffering of Hell goes on forever is because in Hell imperfect people are making an imperfect payment for their sins… If you never pay off the credit card bill [perfectly, fully], how long do you have to pay it? Forever… If a perfect payment was made, then the justice of God could be satisfied… But when a person says, “NO! I don’t want the cross! I’ll bear my sin myself!” …Then they must in all tragedy bear it FOREVER.”
And I know that’s jumping ahead a little, to the PERFECT sacrifice, and the consequences of REJECTING that sacrifice, but the point Guzik is making so well there is that imperfect sacrifices can NEVER stop, cuz they never fully pay off our life debt. There was ALWAYS still a balance remaining.
#3 - the OT sacrifices were EXCLUSIVE (v7a).
Vv6 & 7 remind us: only the PRIESTS were allowed in the “first section”, the “Holy Place”, and “only the high priest” was allowed in the second one, the HOLY of Holies. And even HE was only allowed in, v7, “but once a YEAR”, on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. The other 99.99% of God’s people - the closest they EVER got to God’s presence was to maybe catch a quick glimpse barely inside the tent flap, when the priests would go in or out.
[Cross out #4 in your bulletins; I just combined limitations 3 & 4.]
So we’ll skip to v7C now, old point #5, now limitation #4 - the old sacrifices were FLAWED (v7c). They were flawed in THREE ways; and I’ll actually combine point #6 here as well, vv8 & 9: the OT sacrifices involved a flawed officiant, a flawed offering, and therefore a flawed outcome.
First, they were made by a flawed OFFICIANT. V7 reminds us that every high priest throughout OT history had to “offer [blood] for himself”. He wasn’t just sacrificing on behalf of the PEOPLE; it was HIS sin, HIS guilt that was implicated in that animal’s death as well.
Second, the offerings themselves were flawed. We already recognized that, otherwise they wouldn’t have had to be ENDLESS. But v7 reminds us of just ONE of those flaws: they only covered the “unintentional sins of the people.” The OT, Numbers 15:30, had declared “the person who [sins] with a high hand, [that is, DELIBERATE, conscious, premeditated sin]... he reviles the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from his people.” NO sacrifice existed to cover that kind of WILLFUL rebellion against God. That’s why King David, for instance, was in such a state of CRISIS after his calculated affair with Bathsheeba, his cold-blooded murder of her husband, Uriah. David prayed, “I know my transgressions, my sin is ever before me… you will not delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it; but you will not be pleased with a burnt offering” (Ps 51:3,16). David knew there wasn’t a sacrifice in the WORLD that could FIX it! Rather, he said: “The sacrifices of God are… a broken and contrite heart… Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love… blot out my transgressions.” (vv17, 1) Even in the OLD Testament, true forgiveness was always only EVER a result of God’s undeserved GRACE, mercy and LOVE.
But thirdly, a flawed officiant with flawed offering resulted in a flawed OUTCOME of these OT sacrifices. Namely, v8: “the way into the holy places [was] not yet opened” as long as the tent still stood, the Temple still stood; cuz v9, they’re just SYMBOLIC. Just COPIES of the REAL “holy place”, HEAVEN. And an imperfect priest making imperfect sacrifices won’t get you access to a PERFECT place like HEAVEN. “The way [was] not yet opened”, under the old system.
Lastly, #5 (old point #7; vv9-10): the old sacrifices were just PHYSICAL.
They “deal[t] only with food and drink and washings, regulations for the body” - Sure, you could be made ritually clean. If you had a baby or touched a corpse, by offering a sacrifice. You could be made ceremonially pure, to eat and drink, enjoy Passover, by washing and offering sacrifices. But they couldn’t do ANYTHING, v9, to set your “CONSCIENCE” at ease. To actually REMOVE your guilt and shame. He’s gonna say next week in ch10: “every priest [stood] daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same [old] sacrifices, which [could] never take away sins.” They were just physical; they weren’t SPIRITUAL. All they could do was sweep the dirt under the rug (atonement), they couldn’t actually REMOVE our sin (true FORGIVENESS).
For THAT, friends, we needed a GREATER sacrifice. And the good news is that God has now provided a greater sacrifice for us in offering up His Son JESUS, to DIE on our behalf, for our sins. And HIS sacrifice, CHRIST’s sacrifice, is greater in 7 ways; it BLESSES us with seven greater BENEFITS than the old sacrifices ever did:
#1 - Christ’s sacrifice finally opens up to us that greater MEETING PLACE with God the Father (v11) - HEAVEN.
Whereas Exodus’s tent of meeting was EARTHLY, when CHRIST “appeared as a high priest… then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with [human] hands… not of this creation), he entered… into the holy places”; not just the COPY, not just the SYMBOL, but the REAL THING. Jesus entered into HEAVEN, on our behalf. The HOLIEST of Holies.
And He alone was WORTHY to enter, because he came, v12, “not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood”. The blood of bulls and goats might get you into the COPY, into the “HOLY of holies”, but to get into the “HOLIEST of holies”, into HEAVEN, it took nothing less than the perfect, spotless, precious blood of Christ.
And by SHEDDING his blood, OFFERING his blood for us, as a sacrifice, in our place, Jesus now brings us…
#2 - a greater REDEMPTION (v12).
V12: he “thus secur[ed] an eternal redemption.”
Whereas the old priests had to offer their sacrifices endlessly, Jesus’ sacrifice is efficacious ETERNALLY. It purchases for us eternal REDEMPTION. Redemption - lutrósis, in the Greek - refers to the “ransom price paid to free a slave from imprisonment, especially due to DEBT.” Sound familiar? Remember: sin is the life DEBT we owed God, but could never pay back on our own…
[**SING**] “Jesus paid it ALLLLL…
All to him I OWE…”
Christ’s blood buys us out of slavery to sin, and FREES us to serve and worship and live for God instead.
And then #3 - He doesn’t just free us from prison, but then leave us standing there outside our old cell, poor and dirty, cold and helpless. No, Jesus brings us a greater SANCTIFICATION (vv13-14).
V13 reminds us: “the blood of goats and bulls… sanctif[ied] for the purification of the flesh”, the BODY, physically, but it couldn’t cleanse us SPIRITUALLY. But now, v14, “how much more will the blood of Christ… purify our conscience”.
I sinned yesterday. I was coaching Ellery’s soccer game, in the cold rain, half my team didn’t show up. So we had to play short-handed, 7 on 8, against the best team in the league. They went up 3 goals in the first 10 min of the game, so I turned to their coach and said, “Hey man, would you consider pulling a girl off and playing 7-v-7?” And he said, “Uhhh… WHY? How about you tell your team to actually show up for the games.”
And then I said some stuff I probably SHOULDN’T have. Now, in my defense, I thought it was just us coaches on the sidelines. But then I turned and realized that my assistant coach’s older daughter had walked over and joined us on the bench. So after the game I apologized to her. Then I sent her DAD a text, apologizing to HIM. Polly sent the MOM a text. But they didn’t reply. So the rest of the day I’m checking my phone, checking my phone… waiting for a text back, “Hey, happens to the best of us; all good; all’s forgiven.”
Last month I had my 20-year high school reunion. One of my ulterior motives in attending was to try and get some closure with my high school girlfriend. I was an angry, wounded, insecure, untrusting, self-centered teenager, which made me a controlling, manipulative, wound-ing, USE-ing, emotionally abusive boyfriend. 7 years ago, I sent her a long email finally apologizing for all the ways I’d mistreated her. Then a FB message. But I never heard back.
Friends, do you realize that when it comes to the Almighty God of the UNIVERSE, the one infinitely HOLY, Perfect Being who has EVERY right to make us sweat it out, work it off (our debt), grovel and BEG for mercy, really wallow for a while in our GUILT and SHAME… or worse YET, fire back a text immediately: “NOT FORGIVEN!” This time you’ve finally done it - this sin is beyond the pale, unforgivable.
The One Being whose acceptance and approval should mean EVERYTHING to us, and the One whose acceptance and approval we SHOULD ABSOLUTELY NOT HAVE - God, your perfect heavenly Father has PERFECTLY forgiven every single ONE of your sins - past, present and future - because of the perfect SACRIFICE of His Son JESUS in your place on the cross. You don’t have to keep checking your phone for a text back, checking your email… NO, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn 1:9), because “the blood of Christ… purif[ies] our conscience” COMPLETELY.
“Sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains”!
And therefore we are actually ABLE, #4 - to enjoy Christ’s greater INHERITANCE (vv15-17) that he died to bequeath us.
V15: “[Jesus] is the mediator of a new covenant, SO THAT those who are called [those whom God has called and who have RESPONDED to that call with saving FAITH in Christ] may receive the promised eternal inheritance”.
What IS the inheritance? 1 Peter 1 explains: “According to his great mercy, [God] has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you” (vv3-4). Our inheritance is ETERNAL LIFE, with Christ, IN heaven.
And according to v15, that isn’t just OUR inheritance, by the way; that’s how everyone who lived for thousands of years BEFORE Christ had to be redeemed and let into heaven AS WELL: “a death has occurred [CHRIST’S death] that redeems them from the transgressions committed [even] under the first covenant.” Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father but through ME” (Jn 14:6) - not YOU, not ME, not even father Abraham, or Moses, or King David… NO ONE!
But just like ANY inheritance, v16 says, “where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established.” You don’t collect the inheritance until there’s a DEATH. In order for us to inherit Jesus’ eternal life, he had to DIE.
V18: “For not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.”
And then he describes the events of Exodus 24, when after delivering his law to Moses on Mt. Sinai, God instructed them to make SACRIFICES and then sprinkle some of the blood ON the Book of the Covenant, and on the Israelites themselves, to impress upon them the GRAVITY of the covenant God was forging with them.
“In the same way” - v21 - [Moses] sprinkled with the blood both the tent [of meeting] and all the vessels used in worship”, to CONSECRATE them; set them apart as HOLY unto the Lord.
Because, v22, and now we’re really getting to the HEART of it, what Christ’s sacrifice accomplished for us: “under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”
Now, quick aside, the author says ALMOST everything, because as Kent Hughes explains (239), “exceptions were made - for example, in the case of the poor. If an impoverished Israelite could not afford a lamb or the next best thing, a pair of turtle doves or pigeons, he was permitted to bring a cereal offering for a sin offering (Lev 5:11). This is because it was understood that blood was a SYMBOL, and if the symbol was beyond one’s reach, a secondary, [replacement] symbol would suffice. But the principle remains - “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.””
But conversely, friends, WITH the shedding of blood, there IS! There IS forgiveness of sins available to us today because of Jesus’ shed blood, poured out for us.
“What can wash AWAY my sins? Nothing but the BLOOD of Jesus!”
“Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
“he was pierced for our transgressions…
and by his wounds we are healed…
he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the [sinners];
yet he bore the sin of many,
and he makes intercession for [sinners].” (Isa 53:5,12)
Christ’s sacrifice purchased us, #5 - a greater PURIFICATION (vv18-23) -
“Sin had left a crimson stain / Jesus WASHED it, white as snow”
If under the law virtually EVERYTHING has to be purified with blood, then v23: “it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things [the tent, the book, the priests, the vessels] to be purified with these rites”.
But so TOO, then, does JESUS’ blood, his “better sacrifice”, v23, purify not just the copies, but the “heavenly things themselves”. And what are THEY? The “heavenly things”?
That’s US!! Kent Hughes explains (240): “Just as the tabernacle had to be purified so that God might show his presence there, even so the people of God must be cleansed and sanctified so as to become “a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (as Eph 2:22 calls us). Peter says the same thing: “You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house… to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 2:5). To be this “spiritual house”, [we must] be cleansed… “with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Pet 1:19). [It is] the blood of Christ that makes us acceptable to God.”
And not just “acceptable”, brothers and sisters; we are BELOVED. The Bible says NOTHING can now “separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” It declares “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Rom 8:37-38).
Christ’s sacrifice has WON us, #6 - a greater VICTORY (vv24-26).
And that victory secures for us FOUR blessings, in vv24-26:
A greater HABITATION: HEAVEN; v24: “Christ has entered… into heaven itself”. He said he was going to prepare a PLACE for us, “and I will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (Jn 14:3) What a beautiful promise, ONLY possible through his sacrifice.
A greater RECONCILIATION; v24 says Jesus WENT to heaven “now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.” Remember ch7: Jesus is our full-time defense attorney; “he always lives to make intercession for [us]” (7:25). And His priestly intercession, and the reconciliation it accomplishes for us, with God, is now assured to last us…
…for a greater DURATION; namely, FOREVER! V25: Jesus doesn’t have to “offer himself repeatedly”, like the old high priests, who didn’t actually offer themselves AT ALL; THEY entered the tent “with blood not [their] own”; it didn’t cost them ANYTHING. It costs JESUS… EVERYTHING! But just ONCE. He didn’t “have had to suffer repeatedly”; his blood was INFINITELY powerful, precious, pure. And EFFECTIVE. He “appeared once for all”, to bring us…
A greater ABROGATION (v26b). We are welcomed into a greater HABITATION by virtue of a greater RECONCILIATION that will last us a greater DURATION because of Jesus’ greater ABROGATION. To “abrogate” is “to abolish… to put aside; put an end to.” The OT sacrifices just covered OVER sin; but Jesus has “put away sin,” v26, “by the sacrifice of himself.”
“Thrown into sea without BOTTOM or shore / Our sins they were MANY, but [praise God!] His MERCY is MORE.”
“as far as the east is from the west,
so far does [JESUS] remove our sins from us.” (Ps 103:12)
And because He HAS, friends, we can now enjoy #7 - a greater HOPE (vv27-28).
The author concludes this GLORIOUS chapter by drawing a parallel between the FINALITY of our death, and our subsequent fixed JUDGMENT… and the finality of CHRIST’S death, and then his subsequent fixed RETURN:
“just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin [he did THAT the FIRST time; but rather] to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”
Listen: Hebrews was written to suffering Christians who were tempted to lose HOPE, and fall AWAY from the faith. “All this stuff about sin and sacrifices, it just feels so ABSTRACT. In the meantime, I’ve got REAL problems. Marital problems. Parenting problems. Family problems. Work problems. Health problems. Financial problems… and JESUS doesn’t seem to be HELPING with THOSE!”
Can you RESONATE with that this morning? With wanting to freedom not just from the penalty of your sin, not just from the POWER your sin once held over you… but from the PRESENCE of ALL sin?
Here is the encouragement of Hebrews 9:28 for you this morning: HOLD ON. “Eagerly WAIT.” He who CAME to save us from sin’s penalty and power is FAITHFUL and trustworthy: he WILL return to make ALL things new. We have this as a “sure and steadfast ANCHOR for our souls” - because our hope is in our great Savior, Jesus.