Heb 9:13–28. Proof of and Enlargement on, the “Eternal Redemption” Mentioned in Heb 9:12.

For His blood, offered by Himself, purifies not only outwardly, as the Levitical sacrifices on the day of atonement, but inwardly unto the service of the living God (Heb 9:13, 14). His death is the inaugurating act of the new covenant, and of the heavenly sanctuary (Heb 9:15–23). His entrance into the true Holy of Holies is the consummation of His once-for-all-offered sacrifice of atonement (Heb 9:24, 26); henceforth, His reappearance alone remains to complete our redemption (Heb 9:27, 28).

13. if—as we know is the case; so the Greek indicative means. Argument from the less to the greater. If the blood of mere brutes could purify in any, however small a degree, how much more shall inward purification, and complete and eternal salvation, be wrought by the blood of Christ, in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead?

ashes of an heifer—(Nu 19:16–18). The type is full of comfort for us. The water of separation, made of the ashes of the red heifer, was the provision for removing ceremonial defilement whenever incurred by contact with the dead. As she was slain without the camp, so Christ (compare Heb 13:11; Nu 19:3, 4). The ashes were laid by for constant use; so the continually cleansing effects of Christ’s blood, once for all shed. In our wilderness journey we are continually contracting defilement by contact with the spiritually dead, and with dead works, and need therefore continual application to the antitypical life-giving cleansing blood of Christ, whereby we are afresh restored to peace and living communion with God in the heavenly holy place.

the unclean—Greek, “those defiled” on any particular occasion.

purifying—Greek, “purity.”

the flesh—Their effect in themselves extended no further. The law had a carnal and a spiritual aspect; carnal, as an instrument of the Hebrew polity, God, their King, accepting, in minor offenses, expiatory victims instead of the sinner, otherwise doomed to death; spiritual, as the shadow of good things to come (Heb 10:1). The spiritual Israelite derived, in partaking of these legal rights, spiritual blessings not flowing from them, but from the great antitype. Ceremonial sacrifices released from temporal penalties and ceremonial disqualifications; Christ’s sacrifice releases from everlasting penalties (Heb 9:12), and moral impurities on the conscience disqualifying from access to God (Heb 9:14). The purification of the flesh (the mere outward man) was by “sprinkling”; the washing followed by inseparable connection (Nu 19:19). So justification is followed by renewing.

14. offered himself—The voluntary nature of the offering gives it especial efficacy. He “through the eternal Spirit,” that is, His divine Spirit (Ro 1:4, in contrast to His “flesh,” Heb 9:3; His Godhead, 1 Ti 3:16; 1 Pe 3:18), “His inner personality” [Alford], which gave a free consent to the act, offered Himself. The animals offered had no spirit or will to consent in the act of sacrifice; they were offered according to the law; they had a life neither enduring, nor of any intrinsic efficacy. But He from eternity, with His divine and everlasting Spirit, concurred with the Father’s will of redemption by Him. His offering began on the altar of the cross, and was completed in His entering the holiest place with His blood. The eternity and infinitude of His divine Spirit (compare Heb 7:16) gives eternal (“eternal redemption,” Heb 9:12, also compare Heb 9:15) and infinite merit to His offering, so that not even the infinite justice of God has any exception to take against it. It was “through His most burning love, flowing from His eternal Spirit,” that He offered Himself [Oecolampadius].

without spot—The animal victims had to be without outward blemish; Christ on the cross was a victim inwardly and essentially stainless (1 Pe 1:19).

purge—purify from fear, guilt, alienation from Him, and selfishness, the source of dead works (Heb 9:22, 23).

your—The oldest manuscripts read “our.” The Vulgate, however, supports English Version reading.

conscience—moral religious consciousness.

dead works—All works done in the natural state, which is a state of sin, are dead; for they come not from living faith in, and love to, “the living God” (Heb 11:6). As contact with a dead body defiled ceremonially (compare the allusion, “ashes of an heifer,” Heb 9:13), so dead works defile the inner consciousness spiritually.

to serve—so as to serve. The ceremonially unclean could not serve God in the outward communion of His people; so the unrenewed cannot serve God in spiritual communion. Man’s works before justification, however lifelike they look, are dead, and cannot therefore be accepted before the living God. To have offered a dead animal to God would have been an insult (compare Mal 1:8); much more for a man not justified by Christ’s blood to offer dead works. But those purified by Christ’s blood in living faith do serve (Ro 12:1), and shall more fully serve God (Rev 22:3).

living God—therefore requiring living spiritual service (Jn 4:24).

15. for this cause—Because of the all-cleansing power of His blood, this fits Him to be Mediator (Heb 8:6, ensuring to both parties, God and us, the ratification) of the new covenant, which secures both forgiveness for the sins not covered by the former imperfect covenant or testament, and also an eternal inheritance to the called.

by means of death—rather, as Greek, “death having taken place.” At the moment that His death took place, the necessary effect is, “the called receive the (fulfilment of the) promise” (so Lu 24:49 uses “promise”; Heb 6:15; Ac 1:4); that moment divides the Old from the New Testament. The “called” are the elect “heirs,” “partakers of the heavenly calling” (Heb 3:1).

redemption of … transgressions … under … first testament—the transgressions of all men from Adam to Christ, first against the primitive revelation, then against the revelations to the patriarchs, then against the law given to Israel, the representative people of the world. The “first testament” thus includes the whole period from Adam to Christ, and not merely that of the covenant with Israel, which was a concentrated representation of the covenant made with (or the first testament given to) mankind by sacrifice, down from the fall to redemption. Before the inheritance by the New Testament (for here the idea of the “inheritance,” following as the result of Christ’s “death,” being introduced, requires the Greek to be translated “testament,” as it was before covenant) could come in, there must be redemption of (that is, deliverance from the penalties incurred by) the transgressions committed under the first testament, for the propitiatory sacrifices under the first testament reached only as far as removing outward ceremonial defilement. But in order to obtain the inheritance which is a reality, there must be a real propitiation, since God could not enter into covenant relation with us so long as past sins were unexpiated; Ro 3:24, 25, “a propitiation … His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past.”

might—Greek, “may receive,” which previously they could not (Heb 11:39, 40).

the promise—to Abraham.

16. A general axiomatic truth; it is “a testament”; not the testament. The testator must die before his testament takes effect (Heb 9:17). This is a common meaning of the Greek noun diathece. So in Lu 22:29, “I appoint (by testamentary disposition; the cognate Greek verb diatithemai) unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me.” The need of death before the testamentary appointment takes effect, holds good in Christ’s relation as MAN to us; Of course not in God’s relation to Christ.

be—literally, be borne”: “be involved in the case”; be inferred; or else, “be brought forward in court,” so as to give effect to the will. This sense (testament) of the Greek “diathece” here does not exclude its other secondary senses in the other passages of the New Testament: (1) a covenant between two parties; (2) an arrangement, or disposition, made by God alone in relation to us. Thus, Mt 26:28 may be translated, “Blood of the covenant”; for a testament does not require blood shedding. Compare Ex 24:8 (covenant), which Christ quotes, though it is probable He included in a sense “testament” also under the Greek word diathece (comprehending both meanings, “covenant” and “testament”), as this designation strictly and properly applies to the new dispensation, and is rightly applicable to the old also, not in itself, but when viewed as typifying the new, which is properly a testament. Moses (Ex 24:8) speaks of the same thing as [Christ and] Paul. Moses, by the term “covenant,” does not mean aught save one concerning giving the heavenly inheritance typified by Canaan after the death of the Testator, which he represented by the sprinkling of blood. And Paul, by the term “testament,” does not mean aught save one having conditions attached to it, one which is at the same time a covenant [Poli, Synopsis]; the conditions are fulfilled by Christ, not by us, except that we must believe, but even this God works in His people. Tholuck explains, as elsewhere, “covenant … covenant … mediating victim”; the masculine is used of the victim personified, and regarded as mediator of the covenant; especially as in the new covenant a man (Christ) took the place of the victim. The covenanting parties used to pass between the divided parts of the sacrificed animals; but, without reference to this rite, the need of a sacrifice for establishing a covenant sufficiently explains this verse. Others, also, explaining the Greek as “covenant,” consider that the death of the sacrificial victim represented in all covenants the death of both parties as unalterably bound to the covenant. So in the redemption-covenant, the death of Jesus symbolized the death of God (?) in the person of the mediating victim, and the death of man in the same. But the expression is not “there must be the death of both parties making the covenant,” but singular, “of Him who made (aorist, past time; not ‘of Him making’) the testament.” Also, it is “death,” not “sacrifice” or “slaying.” Plainly, the death is supposed to be past (aorist, “made”); and the fact of the death is brought (Greek) before court to give effect to the will. These requisites of a will, or testament. concur here: (1) a testator; (2) heirs; (3) goods; (4) the death of the testator; (5) the fact of the death brought forward in court. In Mt 26:28 two other requisites appear: witnesses, the disciples; and a seal, the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, the sign of His blood wherewith the testament is primarily sealed. It is true the heir is ordinarily the successor of him who dies and so ceases to have the possession. But in this case Christ comes to life again, and is Himself (including all that He hath), in the power of His now endless life, His people’s inheritance; in His being Heir (Heb 1:2), they are heirs.

17. after—literally, “over,” as we say “upon the death of the testators”; not as Tholuck, “on the condition that slain sacrifices be there,” which the Greek hardly sanctions.

otherwise—“seeing that it is never availing” [Alford]. Bengel and Lachmann read with an interrogation, “Since, is it ever in force (surely not) while the testator liveth?”

18. Whereupon—rather, “Whence.”

dedicated—“inaugurated.” The Old Testament strictly and formally began on that day of inauguration. “Where the disposition, or arrangement, is ratified by the blood of another, namely, of animals, which cannot make a covenant, much less make a testament, it is not strictly a testament, where it is ratified by the death of him that makes the arrangement, it is strictly, Greek ‘diathece,’ Hebrew ‘berith,’ taken in a wider sense, a testament” [Bengel]; thus, in Heb 9:18, referring to the old dispensation, we may translate, “the first (covenant)”: or better, retain “the first (testament),” not that the old dispensation, regarded by itself, is a testament, but it is so when regarded as the typical representative of the new, which is strictly a Testament.

19. For—confirming the general truth, Heb 9:16.

spoken … according to the law—strictly adhering to every direction of “the law of commandments contained in ordinances” (Eph 2:15). Compare Ex 24:3, “Moses told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments; and all the people answered with one voice,” &c.

the blood of calves—Greek, “the calves,” namely, those sacrificed by the “young men” whom he sent to do so (Ex 24:5). The “peace offerings” there mentioned were “of oxen” (Septuagint, “little calves”), and the “burnt offerings” were probably (though this is not specified), as on the day of atonement, goats. The law in Exodus sanctioned formally many sacrificial practices in use by tradition, from the primitive revelation long before.

with water—prescribed, though not in the twenty-fourth chapter of Exodus, yet in other purifications; for example, of the leper, and the water of separation which contained the ashes of the red heifer.

scarlet wool, and hyssop—ordinarily used for purification. Scarlet or crimson, resembling blood: it was thought to be a peculiarly deep, fast dye, whence it typified sin (see on Is 1:18). So Jesus wore a scarlet robe, the emblem of the deep-dyed sins He bore on Him, though He had none in Him. Wool was used as imbibing and retaining water; the hyssop, as a bushy, tufty plant (wrapt round with the scarlet wool), was used for sprinkling it. The wool was also a symbol of purity (Is 1:18). The Hyssopus officinalis grows on walls, with small lancet-formed woolly leaves, an inch long, with blue and white flowers, and a knotty stalk about a foot high.

sprinkled … the book—namely, out of which he had read “every precept”: the book of the testament or covenant. This sprinkling of the book is not mentioned in the twenty-fourth chapter of Exodus. Hence Bengel translates, “And (having taken) the book itself (so Ex 24:7), he both sprinkled all the people, and (Heb 9:21) moreover sprinkled the tabernacle.” But the Greek supports English Version. Paul, by inspiration, supplies the particular specified here, not in Ex 24:7. The sprinkling of the roll (so the Greek for “book”) of the covenant, or testament, as well as of the people, implies that neither can the law be fulfilled, nor the people be purged from their sins, save by the sprinkling of the blood of Christ (1 Pe 1:2). Compare Heb 9:23, which shows that there is something antitypical to the Bible in heaven itself (compare Rev 20:12). The Greek, “itself,” distinguishes the book itself from the “precepts” in it which he “spake.”

20.Ex 24:8, “Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you concerning all these words.” The change is here made to accord with Christ’s inauguration of the new testament, or covenant, as recorded in Lu 22:20, “This cup (is) the new Testament in My blood, which is shed for you”: the only Gospel in which the “is” has to be supplied. Luke was Paul’s companion, which accounts for the correspondence, as here too “is” has to be supplied.

testament—(See on Heb 9:16, 17). The Greek “diathece” means both “testament” and “covenant”: the term “covenant” better suits the old dispensation, though the idea testament is included, for the old was one in its typical relation to the new dispensation, to which the term “testament” is better suited. Christ has sealed the testament with His blood, of which the Lord’s Supper is the sacramental sign. The testator was represented by the animals slain in the old dispensation. In both dispensations the inheritance was bequeathed: in the new by One who has come in person and died; in the old by the same one, only typically and ceremonially present. See Alford’s excellent Note.

enjoined unto you—commissioned me to ratify in relation to you. In the old dispensation the condition to be fulfilled on the people’s part is implied in the words, Ex 24:8, “(Lord made with you) concerning all these words.” But here Paul omits this clause, as he includes the fulfilment of this condition of obedience to “all these words” in the new covenant, as part of God’s promise, in Heb 8:8, 10, 12, whereby Christ fulfils all for our justification, and will enable us by putting His Spirit in us to fulfil all in our now progressive, and finally complete, sanctification.

21. Greek, “And, moreover, in like manner.” The sprinkling of the tabernacle with blood is added by inspiration here to the account in Ex 30:25–30, which mentions only Moses’ anointing the tabernacle and its vessels. In Le 8:10, 15, 30, the sprinkling of blood upon Aaron and his garments. and upon his sons, and upon the altar, is mentioned as well as the anointing, so that we might naturally infer, as Josephus has distinctly stated, that the tabernacle and its vessels were sprinkled with blood as well as being anointed: Le 16:16, 20, 33, virtually sanctions this inference. The tabernacle and its contents needed purification (2 Ch 29:21).

22. almost—to be joined with “all things,” namely almost all things under the old dispensation. The exceptions to all things being purified by blood are, Ex 19:10; Le 15:5, &c., Le 16:26, 28; 22:6; Nu 31:22–24.

without—Greek, “apart from.”

shedding of blood—shed in the slaughter of the victim, and poured out at the altar subsequently. The pouring out of the blood on the altar is the main part of the sacrifice (Le 17:11), and it could not have place apart from the previous shedding of the blood in the slaying. Paul has, perhaps, in mind here, Lu 22:20, “This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.”

is—Greek, “takes place”: comes to pass.

remission—of sins: a favorite expression of Luke, Paul’s companion. Properly used of remitting a debt (Mt 6:12); our sins are debts. On the truth here, compare Le 5:11–13, an exception because of poverty, confirming the general rule.

23. patterns—“the suggestive representations”; the typical copies (see on Heb 8:5).

things in the heavens—the heavenly tabernacle and the things therein.

purified with these—with the blood of bulls and goats.

heavenly things themselves—the archetypes. Man’s sin had introduced an element of disorder into the relations of God and His holy angels in respect to man. The purification removes this element of disorder and changes God’s wrath against man in heaven (designed to be the place of God’s revealing His grace to men and angels) into a smile of reconciliation. Compare “peace in heaven” (Lu 19:38). “The uncreated heaven of God, though in itself Untroubled light, yet needed a purification in so far as the light of love was obscured by the fire of wrath against sinful man” [Delitzsch in Alford]. Contrast Rev 12:7–10. Christ’s atonement had the effect also of casting Satan out of heaven (Lu 10:18; Jn 12:31, compare Heb 2:14). Christ’s body, the true tabernacle (see on Heb 8:2; Heb 9:11), as bearing our imputed sin (2 Co 5:21). was consecrated (Jn 17:17, 19) and purified by the shedding of His blood to be the meeting place of God and man.

sacrifices—The plural is used in expressing the general proposition, though strictly referring to the one sacrifice of Christ once for all. Paul implies that His one sacrifice, by its matchless excellency, is equivalent to the Levitical many sacrifices. It, though but one, is manifold in its effects and applicability to many.

24. Resumption more fully of the thought, “He entered in once into the holy place,” Heb 9:12. He has in Heb 9:13, 14, expanded the words “by his own blood,” Heb 9:12; and in Heb 9:15–23, he has enlarged on “an High Priest of good things to come.”

not … into … holy places made with hands—as was the Holy of Holies in the earthly tabernacle (see on Heb 9:11).

figures—copies “of the true” holiest place, heaven, the original archetype (Heb 8:5).

into heaven itself—the immediate presence of the invisible God beyond all the created heavens, through which latter Jesus passed (see on Heb 4:14; 1 Ti 6:16).

now—ever since His ascension in the present economy (compare Heb 9:26).

to appear—To present Himself; Greek, “to be made to appear.” Mere man may have a vision through a medium, or veil, as Moses had (Ex 33:18, 20–23). Christ alone beholds the Father without a veil, and is His perfect image. Through seeing Him only can we see the Father.

in the presence of God—Greek, “to the face of God.” The saints shall hereafter see God’s face in Christ (Rev 22:4): the earnest of which is now given (2 Co 3:18). Aaron, the Levitical high priest for the people, stood before the ark and only saw the cloud, the symbol of God’s glory (Ex 28:30).

for us—in our behalf as our Advocate and Intercessor (Heb 7:25; Ro 8:34; 1 Jn 2:1). “It is enough that Jesus should show Himself for us to the Father: the sight of Jesus satisfied God in our behalf. He brings before the face of God no offering which has exhausted itself, and, as only sufficing for a time, needs renewal; but He himself is in person, by virtue of the eternal Spirit, that is, the imperishable life of His person, now and for ever freed from death, our eternally present offering before God” [Delitzsch in Alford].

25. As in Heb 9:24, Paul said, it was not into the typical, but the true sanctuary, that Christ is entered; so now he says, that His sacrifice needs not, as the Levitical sacrifices did, to be repeated. Construe, “Nor yet did He enter for this purpose that He may offer Himself often,” that is, “present Himself in the presence of God, as the high priest does (Paul uses the present tense, as the legal service was then existing), year by year, on the day of atonement, entering the Holy of Holies.

with—literally, “in.”

blood of others—not his own, as Christ did.

26. then—in that case.

must … have suffered—rather as Greek, “It would have been necessary for Him often to suffer.” In order to “offer” (Heb 9:25), or present Himself often before God in the heavenly holiest place, like the legal high priests making fresh renewals of this high priestly function. He would have had, and would have often to suffer. His oblation of Himself before God was once for all (that is, the bringing in of His blood into the heavenly Holy of Holies), and therefore the preliminary suffering was once for all.

since the foundation of the world—The continued sins of men, from their first creation, would entail a continual suffering on earth, and consequent oblation of His blood in the heavenly holiest place, since the foundation of the world, if the one oblation “in the fulness of time” were not sufficient. Philo [The Creation of the World, p. 637], shows that the high priest of the Hebrews offered sacrifices for the whole human race. “If there had been greater efficacy in the repetition of the oblation, Christ necessarily would not have been so long promised, but would have been sent immediately after the foundation of the world to suffer, and offer Himself at successive periods” [Grotius].

now—as the case is,

once—for all; without need of renewal. Rome’s fiction of an unbloody sacrifice in the mass, contradicts her assertion that the blood of Christ is present in the wine; and also confutes her assertion that the mass is propitiatory; for, if unbloody, it cannot be propitiatory; for without shedding of blood there is no remission (Heb 9:22). Moreover, the expression “once” for all here, and in Heb 9:28, and Heb 10:10, 12, proves the falsity of her view that there is a continually repeated offering of Christ in the Eucharist or mass. The offering of Christ was a thing once done that it might be thought of for ever (compare Note, see on Heb 10:12).

in the end of the world—Greek, “at the consummation of the ages”; the winding up of all the previous ages from the foundation of the world; to be followed by a new age (Heb 1:1, 2). The last age, beyond which no further age is to be expected before Christ’s speedy second coming, which is the complement of the first coming; literally, “the ends of the ages”; Mt 28:20 is literally, “the consummation of the age,” or world (singular; not as here, plural, ages). Compare “the fulness of times,” Eph 1:10.

appeared—Greek, “been manifested” on earth (1 Ti 3:16; 1 Pe 1:20). English Version has confounded three distinct Greek verbs, by translating all alike, Heb 9:24, 26, 28, “appear.” But, in Heb 9:24, it is “to present Himself,” namely, before God in the heavenly sanctuary; in Heb 9:26, “been manifested” on earth. in Heb 9:28, “shall be seen” by all, and especially believers.

put away—abolish; doing away sin’s power as well by delivering men from its guilt and penalty, so that it should be powerless to condemn men, as also from its yoke, so that they shall at last sin no more.

sin—singular number; all the sins of men of every age are regarded as one mass laid on Christ. He hath not only atoned for all actual sins, but destroyed sin itself. Jn 1:29, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin (not merely the sins: singular, not plural) of the world.”

by the sacrifice of himself—Greek, “by (through) His own sacrifice”; not by “blood of others” (Heb 9:25). Alford loses this contrast in translating, “by His sacrifice.”

27. as—inasmuch as.

it is appointed—Greek, “it is laid up (as our appointed lot),” Col 1:5. The word “appointed” (so Hebrew “seth” means) in the case of man, answers to “anointed” in the case of Jesus; therefore “the Christ,” that is, the anointed, is the title here given designedly. He is the representative man; and there is a strict correspondence between the history of man and that of the Son of man. The two most solemn facts of our being are here connected with the two most gracious truths of our dispensation, our death and judgment answering in parallelism to Christ’s first coming to die for us, and His second coming to consummate our salvation.

once—and no more.

after this the judgment—namely, at Christ’s appearing, to which, in Heb 9:28, “judgment” in this verse is parallel. Not, “after this comes the heavenly glory.” The intermediate state is a state of joyous, or else agonizing and fearful, expectation of “judgment”; after the judgment comes the full and final state of joy, or else woe.

28. Christ—Greek, “the Christ”; the representative Man; representing all men, as the first Adam did.

once offered—not “often,” Heb 9:25; just as “men,” of whom He is the representative Head, are appointed by God once to die. He did not need to die again and again for each individual, or each successive generation of men, for He represents all men of every age, and therefore needed to die but once for all, so as to exhaust the penalty of death incurred by all. He was offered by the Father, His own “eternal Spirit” (Heb 9:14) concurring; as Abraham spared not Isaac, but offered him, the son himself unresistingly submitting to the father’s will (Ge 22:1–24).

to bear the sins—referring to Is 53:12, “He bare the sins of many,” namely, on Himself; so “bear” means, Le 24:15; Nu 5:31; 14:34. The Greek is literally “to bear up” (1 Pe 2:24). “Our sins were laid on Him. When, therefore, He was lifted up on the cross, He bare up our sins along with Him” [Bengel].

many—not opposed to all, but to few. He, the One, was offered for many; and that once for all (compare Mt 20:28).

look for him—with waiting expectation even unto the end (so the Greek). It is translated “wait for” in Ro 8:19, 23; 1 Co 1:7, which see.

appear—rather, as Greek, “be seen.” No longer in the alien “form of a servant,” but in His own proper glory.

without sin—apart from, separate from, sin. Not bearing the sin of many on Him as at His first coming (even then there was no sin in Him). That sin has been at His first coming once for all taken away, so as to need no repetition of His sin offering of Himself (Heb 9:26). At His second coming He shall have no more to do with sin.

unto salvation—to bring in completed salvation; redeeming then the body which is as yet subject to the bondage of corruption. Hence, in Php 3:20 he says, “we look for the Saviour.” Note, Christ’s prophetical office, as the divine Teacher, was especially exercised during His earthly ministry; His priestly is now from His first to His second coming; His kingly office shall be fully manifested at, and after, His second coming.