HEBREWS 9:16-28 -There Must Be Blood

Introduction

It is our practice on the first Sunday of every month to celebrate the Lord’s Supper—the elements have been laid out before us here this morning, a visible reminder of how we will be concluding our worship today. We are instructed in 1 Corinthians 11 that as we celebrate this meal, we “proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes” (1 Cor. 11:26).

The elements of this meal, the bread and the cup, were instituted by Our Lord on the night He was betrayed. And His words describing the bread and wine as His body and blood have been the basis of the world’s misunderstanding and slander since the early days of the church—first century Christians were thought by the Romans to be cannibals that gathered in secret to eat human flesh and drink blood, for instance.

In [Min-OO-see-us] Felix’s Octavius (written sometime in the second or early-third century AD), we gain a glimpse of the wild accusations of cannibalism being levied at Christians—he repeats a slander to the effect that Christian converts are deceived into murdering a newborn infant, after which the assembled congregation was said to drink its blood and tear it limb from limb.

And even though such wild stories are no longer told about Christians, truth be told there is still in many places (shall we say) a certain squeamishness regarding the place of blood in Christianity. Why does everything have to be about blood? We meditate on blood during the Lord’s Supper, we sing about blood during our worship—Nothing But the Blood of Jesus, Are You Washed in the Blood?, The Blood Will Never Lose its Power, Jesus Thy Blood and Righteousness, Alas and Did My Savior Bleed—our faith is simply drenched in references to blood.

But the distaste that our era has for such an emphasis on blood has unfortunately caused many of us to try to distance ourselves from such “bloody” imagery. We try to “tone down” all the references to blood in our hymns or in our teaching or preaching or sharing the Gospel. We gravitate toward describing the Cross as a place where Christ showed His love rather than a place where He shed His blood. We talk less about our transgressions being atoned by the blood of Christ and more about our mistakes or failures being fixed by Christ. He becomes less of a savior and more of a therapist—One Who will fix the failures in our lives rather than the One Who gave His life to protect us from the wrath of God over our sin.

As we move through Hebrews 9, however, we discover that there is in fact no way to remove blood from our faith and have anything left that can be recognized as Christian. What the Book of Hebrews demonstrates for us (and our text this morning in particular shows us) is that

If SIN is to be DEALT with, BLOOD must FLOW

The previous section of Hebrews 9 has already introduced the subject of the blood sacrifices in the Temple, as the writer is building his case to demonstrate the superiority of Christ as Savior over any of the provisions of the Old Testament Law of Moses:

Hebrews 9:11–14 (LSB)

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy places once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Our problem isn’t that we are mistaken; our problem is that we are miserable offenders of God’s righteous Law. The penalty for breaking God’s commands and rebelling against Him is death—pictured in the Old Testament by the death of millions of animals—bulls, goats, calves, pigeons, and so on. But because the readers of this book are toying with the idea of going back to those Old Testament rituals, the author goes to great lengths to show that, while the blood of goats and bulls offered on the Old Testament tabernacle’s altar was a demonstration of the seriousness of our sin, that blood was not able to deal with the extent of our sin. This is why Hebrews 9:15 goes on to say

Hebrews 9:15 (LSB)

And for this reason He [Jesus] is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the trespasses that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

So see here that the blood of Jesus made up for the failure of the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. His death provided the redemption of the sins of all the Old Testament saints throughout history. If sin is to be dealt with, blood must flow—and only the blood of Jesus Christ can deal with our sin.

In our text this morning, we can see at least three reasons why the blood of Christ is absolutely essential for our salvation. First, in verses 16-18, we are told that

I. Blood signals the ENACTING of the PROMISES (Hebrews 9:16-18; cp. Heb 8:10ff)

Look with me at verses 16-18:

Hebrews 9:16–18 (LSB)

For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives. Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.

Back in Hebrews 8, the author quotes from the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah about the New Covenant that Christ inaugurated:

Hebrews 8:10–12 (LSB)

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, And upon their hearts I will write them. And I will be their God, And they shall be My people. “And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, And everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ For all will know Me, From the least to the greatest of them. “For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And I will remember their sins no more.”

But before that covenant could go into effect, it had to be inaugurated with blood. That’s the meaning behind verse 16 of our text:

Hebrews 9:16 (LSB)

For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it.

In other words,

You can’t ENFORCE a will without a DEATH CERTIFICATE

The example that the author of Hebrews uses is of a benefactor writing out his “Last Will and Testament”—he writes down how he wants to dispose of all his money, property, and so forth—but that will doesn’t go into effect until he dies.

In the same way—all of the promises that God made regarding the New Covenant were only promises before Jesus shed His blood on the Cross. The blood of bulls and goats could inaugurate the old shadow covenant of Moses, because that covenant was only a pale imitation of the Real Covenant promised in Christ.

This is why we commonly speak of Christ purchasing our salvation by His blood—because it was His death that turned the promises of salvation into reality! Despite the squeamishness of an age that does not want to hear about the blood of Christ, the Scriptures leave us no room to maneuver around the fact that

Christianity truly is built on a HUMAN SACRIFICE

This is a common accusation flung at Christians by those who reject and hate God—they believe that it casts Christianity as a savage, ignorant superstition—meant to conjure up images of innocent virgins being thrown into a tropical volcano or something: “How can you Christians be so ignorant as to believe something so savage? What kind of monster is your God??”

But see here the clear teaching of God’s Word here in our text—from verse 15-17 it is brought home to us again and again—the only way to bring about our salvation from sin is death:

Hebrews 9:15 (LSB)

... a death has taken place for the redemption of the trespasses that were committed under the first covenant...

Hebrews 9:16 (LSB)

For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it.

Hebrews 9:17 (LSB)

For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives.

And then in verse 18 the author breaks the pattern—instead of saying

Hebrews 9:18 (LSB)

Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without [death]...

he brings in the emphasis of blood:

Hebrews 9:18 (LSB)

Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.

Not only a human sacrifice, but a bloody human sacrifice. The reason that our age does not want to hear about the blood of Jesus Christ is because our age does not want to be confronted with the utter, horrifying seriousness of sin. A nation that has spilled an ocean of innocent blood in the carnage of abortion, for instance, is more than a little eager to distance itself from any discussion of “bloodguilt”.

And so we try to blunt the force of the Scripture’s warnings by treating the word “sin” as a joke: We use the word “sinful” to describe a particularly rich dessert, but the Scriptures tell us that sin is a thing so horrifying, so hideous and vile, a thing that will bring you such agony and terror of damnation by the infinitely holy wrath of Almighty God that you would be willing to drain yourself of blood rather than be touched by it.

If sin is going to be dealt with, blood must flow. Blood signals the enacting of the promises, and

II. Blood brings CLEANSING from DEATH (Hebrews 9:19-22)

Look with me at verses 19-20:

Hebrews 9:19–20 (LSB)

For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the Law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you.”

Notice here the reference to how the blood was applied to the Book of the Law and the people: With water and scarlet wool and hyssop. Once again, dig into that undergraduate degree in Old Testament and you will see the significance of these items. Branches of the hyssop tree were used to apply blood to the doorposts of the Hebrews’ homes in Exodus 12:22, to deliver them from the angel of death:

Exodus 12:22 (LSB)

“And you shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and touch some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts; and none of you shall go outside the doorway of his house until morning.

In Leviticus 14:4 the priests are given instructions on how to cleanse someone from leprosy (death by rotting away):

Leviticus 14:4 (LSB)

then the priest shall give a command to take two live clean birds and cedar wood and a scarlet string and hyssop for the one who is to be cleansed.

And, as we saw previously, when someone was to be cleansed from contact with a dead body, they bathed in the water prepared from the ashes of a red heifer—which was burned along with scarlet thread and hyssop:

Numbers 19:6 (LSB)

‘And the priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet material and cast it into the midst of the burning heifer.

In the Old Covenant, the stain and the impurity of death were washed away by blood applied with water, wool and hyssop. And not only were the people sprinkled, but (as verse 21 tells us)

Hebrews 9:21 (LSB)

And in the same way, both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry he sprinkled with the blood.

As we noted in previous sermons, the tabernacle of the Old Covenant needed to be cleansed from the stain of death because it was continually inhabited by sinful men. And just as the Old Covenant priests’ ministry and worship in the tabernacle could not be free from the stain of death apart from cleansing with blood, Christian, so the blood of Christ is essential for you--

Without it, all your WORSHIP and MINISTRY are DEAD (v. 21)

Consider where Moses applied that blood—to the tabernacle—the place where God met with His people for worship, and the articles of the tabernacle—the altar, table of sacred bread, incense altar, the mercy seat—all the elements of serving God. Christian, there is no way to serve God acceptably apart from the sanctifying work of the blood of Christ. If you have not been cleansed by His blood through repentance and faith for salvation, if you are presuming to serve Him and come before Him in worship without that cleansing, then all you are doing is heaping up death for yourself.

If a priest of the Old Covenant could not come into the presence of YHWH in the earthly tabernacle without being cleansed by blood, then how much more must we who are under the New Covenant be covered by the blood of Jesus Christ as we enter His presence in His body, the Church? This is why we are so committed to regenerate church membership—that those who have committed to being part of the Body of Christ here at Bethel are first of all joined to Christ by faith and have been washed in His blood. Without it, all your worship here, all your ministry here, are nothing but dead works, because

Without it, you cannot ESCAPE the PENALTY of DEATH (vv. 22-23; cp. Heb 9:15)

The author of Hebrews states it as plainly as possible in Hebrews 9:22-23. Verse 22 says:

Hebrews 9:22 (LSB)

And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

In the flow of the author’s argument in this chapter, Verse 22 serves as a transition—everything in the Old Covenant was cleansed with blood. The people themselves, the Book of the Law, the Tabernacle, the furniture in the Tabernacle, the priests and Levites—all of them had to be covered by the blood of a sacrifice that signals that the promises of the covenant had been enacted.

But once again, the author drives home his point that none of the thousands of gallons of blood spilled to cleanse the Old Covenant tabernacle were able to inaugurate the New Covenant:

Hebrews 9:23 (LSB)

Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

The Jewish Christians who were considering going back to Moses’ Law had to understand that those sacrifices could never rescue them from the penalty of death—truth is, those Old Testament sacrifices never actually rescued anybody!

Look back to verse 15 of Hebrews 9-

Hebrews 9:15 (LSB)

And for this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the trespasses that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

Do you see it? The trespasses committed under the Old Covenant were not redeemed by the Old Covenant sacrifices! This is why we say that those bulls and goats and lambs could only cover over those sins—they were not redeemed (paid for, satisfied) until Christ shed His blood!

The death of Christ on the Cross was not just the sacrifice that brought salvation to you and me, but it was the sacrifice that brought salvation to Adam and Noah and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and Moses and Joshua and David and Solomon and Hezekiah and Ezekiel and Isaiah and Daniel and Zerubbabel! The only true escape from the death-penalty of sin is found in the blood of the New Covenant, shed by Jesus Christ!

If sin is to be dealt with, blood must flow—Blood signals the enacting of the promises of the New Covenant; blood brings cleansing from death, and

III. Blood accomplishes FORGIVENESS of TRESPASSES (Hebrews 9:23-28)

The blood of the bulls and goats and lambs offered up in the Old Covenant could not bring redemption from sin, because that covenant was only a shadow of the True Covenant to come—this is what we read earlier in Hebrews 8:5, where the author points to the Levitical priests in the Temple in Jerusalem,

Hebrews 8:5 (LSB)

who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle...

None of the blood offered in that tabernacle could truly take away sin--

The SHADOW priest could only COVER sin (v. 23; cp. Heb. 8:5)

The blood of animals that inaugurated Moses’ Covenant in the tabernacle at Sinai was an example, a signpost pointing ahead to the real atonement that was to come. The High Priest could only enter the Holy of Holies once a year to bring in the blood of an animal he had slaughtered so that the sins of God’s people could be temporarily covered.

Imagine what it would have been like, standing before your tent door on Yom Kippur, watching as the High Priest took the blood of the sacrifice into the Tabernacle—even though you couldn’t see it, your mind’s eye would follow him past the bronze laver and altar of burnt offering, then through the curtain into the inner sanctuary, past the table of bread and candlestick to the altar of incense, where thick billowing clouds of smoke filled the air so that when he entered the pitch black darkness of the Holy of Holies his face would be obscured from view so that he would not accidentally look upon God and die:

Leviticus 16:13 (LSB)

“And he shall put the incense on the fire before Yahweh, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the ark of the testimony, so that he will not die.

And then imagine the mounting tension as you stand there, intently watching the front door of the tabernacle, waiting for the High Priest to re-appear. Did he survive his encounter with YHWH in the Most Holy Place? Was he struck dead because of some tiny imperfection in his behavior or appearance? This is the same God that burned Nadab and Abihu to death because they did not follow His instructions to the letter—what would happen if the High Priest were struck dead in His presence? Would that mean that YHWH had not accepted the sin sacrifice? Would the cloud that rested over the tabernacle turn to flame and suddenly wipe out the entire nation? How desperate you would be to see that priest’s face again, and know by it that your sin had been covered, and you would live to see another day!

The best that the Old shadow Covenant saints could wish for was one more year of mercy, purchased for them by the blood of a slaughtered bull. The shadow priest could only cover sin—but

Christ’s APPEARING dispelled the SHADOW covenant (vv. 24-28)

There are at least three ways the appearing of Christ is described here in these verses (in fact, there are three different Greek words the author uses). First, look with me at verses 24-25:

Hebrews 9:24–25 (LSB)

For Christ did not enter holy places made with hands, mere copies of the true ones, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy places year by year with blood that is not his own.

First notice that, unlike the Levitical priest who had to hide his face Christ did not hide His face from the presence of God when He made His offering, Christ appeared in the presence of God for us! The word for “appear” here is used in connection with an “appearance” in court—an advocate would “appear” before a tribunal to lay out his case for his client. In the same way, Jesus Christ brought His own blood (not the blood of a bull or goat) before the Throne of God (not the shadow copy of the Mercy Seat) not to temporarily cover our sin, but once and for all to atone for it!

The shadow priests of the shadow covenant had to appear over and over again to keep sin covered; the blood of animals could not endure. Verse 26 goes on to say that

Hebrews 9:26 (LSB)

...but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

Here is the second word for Jesus’ appearing— “manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself...” The idea here is that Jesus appeared at just the right time in human history. His coming wasn’t a myth or fable; His incarnation isn’t a mere legend or ancient mystical story—He really did appear in history, and He really did die on that Cross, and He really did rise from the dead three days later! The blood of animals that was spattered on the Mercy Seat in the Tabernacle was real blood; and the blood that ran from our Savior’s wounds on that Cross was real blood. What Moses and the Law could not do, He came to earth from Heaven to do—not to bring animal blood for our atonement but His own blood that put away our sin!

And that sacrifice was a once for all sacrifice! It does not need to be repeated—this is the point of verses 27-28:

Hebrews 9:27–28 (LSB)

And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.

The infallible, inspired Word of God cannot be more clear on this point—Jesus Christ suffered once for sin, He does not need to do it again! The writer of Hebrews is still pressing his point about the superiority of Christ over the Old Testament Law, because his readers are toying with returning to the Levitical system. “Look,” he is saying. “The blood of those sacrifices fades, it wears out, it fails. But the blood of Jesus Christ will never lose its power!

This is one of the most forceful reasons, beloved, that we must reject the Church of Rome’s heresy regarding the Mass, which teaches that the elements become the body and blood of Christ offered again for sin.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states unequivocally:

“... In this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ Who offered Himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and is offered in an unbloody manner… this sacrifice is truly propitiatory.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1367)

On the authority of God’s living, active and supremely authoritative Word, that is a lie. It is idolatry, it is blasphemy, and it is a direct contradiction of the words of Almighty God. Christ died and suffered once. He does not need to suffer again.

And it is here that we find our third reference to Christ’s appearing—He does not appear over and over again in a pagan ritual, but He will appear one more time—He will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him. The word for “appear” there literally means “to become visible”.

Beloved, just as Christ appeared the first time to take away your sin, He is returning someday. Not “spiritually”, not “in our hearts”, not metaphorically or in some abstract way, but He is physically and actually coming again. The day will come when you will look up into the sky and see Him descend. And even if that Day arrives after you are dead and buried, you will still see it because you will be raised up out of your grave to see it! The Day is coming when you will see with your own eyes your High Priest returning from the Heavenly Tabernacle, having taken the offering of His blood to appear before the Most Holy Place at the throne of Almighty God, and returning to tell you that His offering has been accepted!

And when He returns on that Day (may it be soon!!), God’s Word promises us that it will be “for salvation without reference to sin”—in other words, He is not coming to battle with sin anymore, but to finally rescue you from it completely! To rescue you from the constant war with your remaining corruption by sanctifying you completely; to bring with Him that “inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading” (1 Peter 1:4) that will once and for all free you from every last lingering effect of sin! No more sickness or weakness, no more battles with anger or lust or jealousy or laziness or gluttony or bitterness or fear, no more halfhearted worship or cold prayer, no more confusion or distraction when you attend to His Word—when He is manifested on that Day, He will bring with Him your final deliverance!

The only way that sin could be dealt with once and for all is through the blood of Christ that freely flowed on that Cross. And when He appears again it will be for deliverance from sin for those who eagerly await Him.

And so here is the question before you this morning: Are you eagerly awaiting Him? When He appears on that Day, will He come back as your High Priest and Savior to deliver you from the effects of sin once and for all? Will His coming be the greatest sight your eyes will ever behold because it means His Father accepted His blood sacrifice on your behalf? Will you rejoice on that Day because His blood has atoned once and for all for your sin, and has ratified the covenant promises of your salvation and cleansed you from the stain of death that you deserved?

Or will that Day be a day of horror and trembling for you as you see Him appear and immediately know that you have nowhere to hide? All your life you have told yourself that you’re a good person, and that God sees you’re a good person and that when you stand before Him someday He will agree with you and welcome you into eternal life. That you have an impressive track record of religious habits like going to church every week and saying your prayers and giving money to the church and different charities, you volunteer your time and you are kind to everyone you meet and try not to hurt anyone, and that you show how sincere you are by staying away from bad decisions and bad company, that perhaps you sin from time to time but you’re certainly no Charles Manson, and you always try to make it up to people who feel wronged by you, and that God helps you to be a better person and make better choices—but at the moment you see Christ visibly returning, all of that will vanish like a snowflake in a furnace.

Because the problem is not that you make mistakes—the problem is that you are a miserable offender of God’s righteous Law. And when that Day comes and you see the holiness and righteousness and glory of the Son of Man returning to earth you will see just how lost you really are. That nothing you counted on for a good showing before God means anything.

Friend, if that is you, then I want you to see how great the mercy and kindness of God is to you that you are here this morning to hear this Good News—the only way you can be made right before God is through the blood of Jesus Christ! There is nothing else you can bring before Him; there is no other plea, there is no other way. It is only through the blood of Jesus Christ that you can be washed from your sin, that you can be freed from the death-penalty of your guilt, that you can know the promises of God to save you will not fail—come before Him and lay down all your sins before Him, confessing them to Him and pleading for His blood to wash them away, never to condemn you again! He died the death that you deserve, He shed the blood that you owed, and He rose again to give you life that will never end—so come and be washed today in the blood of your Savior, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION:

Ephesians 3:20–21 (LSB)

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or understand, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

FOR FURTHER REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

Write down something you learned from this morning’s message that is new to you, or an insight that you had for the first time about the text? ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Write down a question that you have about the passage that you want to study further or ask for help with: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Write down something that you need to do in your life this week in response to what God has shown you from His Word today: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________