Power in the Blood

A. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 explains that the old way of sacrificing for sins was a temporary measure. It explains that now we are under the New Testament and the Old sacrificial system is gone.

B. Chapter 9:1-10

These initial verses explain that the priest of the Old Testament entering into the Tabernacle to ask God to forgive the people is a foreshadow of what Jesus would do in the heavenly places. He says in v. 5 that he doesn’t want to speak in detail. This is probably because they already knew the details of the Old Testament Tabernacle.

C. Chapter 9:11-28

These verses show us all the reasons why we can walk by faith and not by sight, and it all has to do with the death of the Lord Jesus where He shed His blood to make us clean.

Another theme here is that we are a citizen of two worlds. What tends to happen is we can get the priorities confused if we aren’t paying attention, and start to look to the things of earth to save us instead of the heavenly things.

This is what this Jewish audience was doing. They were holding on to the Old Testament and the Old covenant, and the writer is trying to convince them to embrace the New Testament.

This is another theologically dense section, but it helps us see why the death of the Lord Jesus has made us worthy to enter into the Heavenly places.

Now, when Jesus died on the cross, His blood was spilled. And the Bible says in Hebrews 9:22, “without shedding of blood there is no remission.”

This is why we claim that there is power in the blood. But really, the power comes from His death…the blood just signifies that He died. So, there is power in His blood, because He died a sacrificial death on the cross.

What power does the blood of Jesus have?

I. Its Eternal Power

A. Eternal in its Timing

B. Eternal in its Redemption

The Most Holy Place on earth was there in the inner chamber of what the Old Testament calls the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle was built to God’s specifications, and it was placed in the middle of the camp of the Israelites. Inside of the Tabernacle, behind two curtains, was the place we know as the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies is where the Cloud of glory sat on the mercy seat. When a priest would ask for cleansing for the people, they would enter the Most Holy Place, but not before offering the blood of a goat or a calf to be cleansed of sin.

Now, when Jesus came, He didn’t offer the blood of a calf or a goat, He offered His own blood and now He is always worthy to sit in the Most Holy Place because His blood was sufficient to achieve eternal redemption.

Hebrews 9:12 “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.”

Redemption means to release on receipt of a ransom.

So, when Jesus died and spilled His blood, He paid for our sin in an eternal sense. This was something that the blood of an animal couldn’t do. For a time, the blood of the animals redeemed a priest long enough to enter the Holy of Holies, but now, through the death of the Lord and the spilling of His blood, we have eternal redemption.

Hebrews 10:1–7

That is, every year they offered sacrifices of animals, but this was only for a season. But v. 4 says that the blood of animals wasn’t sufficient, but that only the blood of Jesus was sufficient for forgiveness.

C. Eternal in its Cleansing

The reality of cleansing is different than redemption. Not only were we purchased by God, but our consciences were cleansed. Time and time again I talk about living in the freedom that the Lord Jesus bought for us on the Cross. Well, this is it. That at one time, the ceremonial things we did cleansed the flesh, but the inner working of the Holy Spirit through the death of Christ has cleansed us inwardly.

Hebrews 9:13–14 “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?”

Being cleansed from dead works in order to serve the living God means that we are being transformed. It is that word “sanctification.” That we are now holy and that we are being transformed day by day.

Romans 12:1–2 NKJV

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

The will of God is that you draw near to Him and that you live in His presence. And when Jesus offered His blood through death, He cleansed us for all eternity so that we can walk in confidence and in a transformed life. That is, we don’t have to go back to the old way of living, but now we are a people who walk by faith…knowing that God is producing in us exactly what He said that He would.

D. Eternal in its Promise

Hebrews 9:15 “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.”

The Bible says that He is the Mediator. This means that He is the go-between of a Holy God and of sinful man. When He died on the cross, He removed the barrier between man and God once and for all.

Matthew 27:51 NKJV

Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom;

To get that access to God, a person must believe on the Lord Jesus, that He came, that He died, that He was buried, and that He rose. The death of Christ on the cross is the way that God opened the pathway to Heaven.

Not only does it say in v. 15 that He is our Mediator, it says that He redeemed those under the first covenant as well. This means that people in the Old Testament were saved just like we are saved, by the death of the Lord on the cross. Now, this can get us all torn up…but at the moment that Jesus died for sin, He died for all sin for all of time, and even those under the Old Testament were saved by His death. All of those sacrifices in the Old Testament were pointing to His sacrifice in the New Testament.

II. Its Legal Power

When we think of the goodness of God, we typically associate that with His great care for us and His goodness to us personally. However, God’s goodness means more than He is faithful to take care of us. It also means that He is does everything with goodness, even when it comes to the hard things.

It is because of the goodness of God that Christ Jesus died on the cross. It is because of His holiness that Christ died on the cross. Because God is good, He will not do anything that is evil. And because He is holy, He will not take part in anything that is defiled or dirty.

My point is that Jesus had to die to fulfill the law so that God didn’t do something evil by violating the law. And Jesus had to die to pay for sin so that God didn’t violate His holiness by allowing sin to go unpunished.

A. His Death Activated God’s Will

Heb 9:16-17

This is simple logic, that a will is no good until the one who made the final will and testament dies.

Dad’s Will and Testament

It wasn’t that long ago that my dad and my mom brought me a copy of their will and testament.

Right now, that will and testament is sitting in my house and its basically good for nothing. But, whenever they die, I will have it and it will be enforced by either the executor or the courts.

The point here is that through the death of Jesus, we have inherited a great promise. It is a legal process that we should inherit the riches of heaven and that Christ Jesus should inherit His church.

If you pair this with v. 15, we see why the resurrection is so important in this legal sense, because Jesus is not only the testator who died, He is also the Mediator Who lives! He wrote the will, and He will execute the will!

B. His Death Activated Reconciliation

Hebrews 9:18 “Therefore not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood.”

In other words, there must have been some kind of substitutionary death for cleansing to happen.

We tend to think that our sin isn’t that bad. But sin is so bad that it requires a life so that a person can be cleansed from it.

Hebrews 9:19–22 “For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 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. And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.”

All throughout the Old Testament, we see the theme of blood. and in v. 21, we even see that Moses sprinkled the blood on both the “Tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. This was all a legal process to ensure that everything that would go into the Holy of Holies was relationally acceptable to God.

In terms of relationships, we need to learn the word “reconciliation,” which is what Jesus did when He died, He reconciled us.

2 Corinthians 5:17–19 NKJV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Reconciliation means to make peace; it means to renew a relationship of hostility to a relationship of peace.

Romans 5:8–11 NKJV

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

We were enemies of God. But through the blood of Jesus, which is the result of His death on the cross, we are purified and we are reconciled. At that point, when the priest was purified, and when the tabernacle and the vessels of the ministry were purified, there was a reconciliation that took place.

Well, when we trust in the death of the Lord Jesus and in His resurrection, we are purified, but we are also reconciled, and we are saved. No longer enemies of God, but through blood, we have recieved forgiveness (remission), and are saved from the wrath of God.

III. Its Saving Power

A. Heavenly Salvation

Hebrews 9:23 “Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.”

The reason that we know we can access Heaven even now is because we have been cleansed for Heaven.

Hebrews 10:19–22 NKJV

Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

In order for God to receive us in the heavens, we had to be purified. When the Bible says that “the heavenly things themselves should be purified with better sacrifices than these.” It is talking about God’s people. That we are able to access Heaven because the blood of Jesus has purified us.

B. Sufficient Salvation

Hebrews 9:24–26 “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.”

When we say that the blood of Jesus is “sufficient” we mean that it is all that we need. And Jesus, unlike other High Priests, didn’t need to make many sacrifices, His sacrifice was enough. When the Bible says, “It is finished,” it means it!

Jesus is not in Heaven being recrucified every time you sin. His sacrifice was good for your sin of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. This is in stark contrast to the efforts of earthly things. The things of earth, the animals and the priests made repeated sacrifices, and the Lord made one. The priests of earth used other’s blood, but the Lord used His own. The sacrifice of animals covered sin, but Jesus “put our sin away.”

Psalm 103:12 NKJV

As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

Under the Old Testament, the sacrifice of animals was only for Israel. Now, the blood of Jesus is sufficient for the whole world. Finally, Jesus never leaves the presence of God because of sin like an earthly priest, He is always there to make intercession for us.

Hebrews 7:25 NKJV

Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

That is, we don’t have to wonder if God got our mail. When we pray in faith to the Lord Jesus, it’s getting delievered.

C. Hopeful Salvation

Hebrews 9:27–28 “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.”

The author writes, “it is appointed for men to die once, but after this face judgement.” He is saying that it is illogical to believe that the Son of Man is going to come and be recrucified…that men die once, and the Lord died once.

Finally the author ends by telling us that we should eagerly await for the arrival of our King. This is a final encouragement to those Jewish Christians that are riding the fence and it is an encouragement to us as well. There is no riding the fence in the Christian life. Either we are for the things that are temporary, or we are for the things that are heavenly.

I don’t want you to be distracted and walk by sight, but I want you to walk by faith, keeping your eyes fixed on the Lord Jesus and eagerly awaiting His return. The priests of old would leave the Tabernacles’ Holy of Holies and come to bless the people. Our Lord will come get us and bring us into Heaven’s Holy of Holies because we are purified by the blood of Jesus.

Conclusion

When it comes to the Christian life, we can be torn between earth and Heaven, but we need to remember these things.

(1) Our dwelling place is in Heaven, for Jesus has prepared a place for us.

(2) Our Father is in Heaven and Our Lord Jesus is in Heaven.

(3) Our citizenship is in Heaven and our treasures are in Heaven.

(4) Our hope is in Heaven, and we are to walk by faith and not by sight.

No matter what happens, we can be secure knowing that every issue has already been settled in Heaven.