Hebrews 9 - The Blood of Christ

Let’s Be Honest…We Need Jesus

You must be honest about your situation. If we are not honest about the affairs of our own physical situation, financial situation, marital situation; you will not find the ability to correct the problems. Spiritually we have some real needs (1) sinful nature, (2) sinful disposition, (3) dead consciences, (4) inability to serve God, (5) captivity to the world.

Our Lives are Better Because of the Blood of Jesus

We’ve Been Redeemed!

The 1st benefit that the writer presents to us is the benefit of redemption.

Hebrews 9:11–13 NIV

But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.

The writer’s mention of redemption recalls the slave market. Several years ago, Cindy and I were able to visit Charleston, SC. As we walked the streets, we came across a building that in 1856 was Charleston’s slave market. In the beauty of the southern city was a reminder of the horror of slavery.

When we talk about redemption we don’t often realize the horror of the slavery that we were in, especially when your testimony is not that of being saved in prison, out of drug addict and abuse, or other backgrounds that grab our attention. Maybe this is why the Israelites tended to drift so much when times were peaceful. It seems slavery in Egypt, the vile nations of Canaan, the Philistines, and the Assyrian/Babylonians played such an important role as God continually used them to draw the seed of Abraham back to Himself.

But redemption is no less significant when a child accepts Christ as his/her redeemer. Any lost person who realizes that Jesus died for their sins and accepts Jesus as his/her Savior gains freedom.

Our Conscience is Clear!

I want to spend a bit of time on the issue of the conscience because it can often be confusing, but it is meant to be a great benefit for the Christian:

Hebrews 9:14 NIV

How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

In the NT, “the biblical term syneidēsis, usually translated “conscience,” means the faculty of a human being that is aware of the ethical quality of one’s actions and that internally condemns one’s own wrongdoing.”[1] A conscience can be bad or good. They came with us at birth. We’ve struggled with them but as Christians we are intended to live with clear consciences.

One Bible scholar explains it this way to help us understand:

The writer wants to help the man or woman with a troubled conscience. Under the law one could never be sure of forgiveness. The sacrifices had to be repeated, since they could ‘never take away sins’ in any final sense, but Christ has come to secure for us by his death an eternal redemption (10:11; 9:2). It covers man’s immense needs as a sinner, tomorrow’s sins as well as those of yesterday. In this moment, by virtue of that sacrificial death, the truly penitent person can be saved immediately and eternally. Throughout the years such people have acknowledged their pardon and security with deep thanksgiving, not in a [arrogant] form of spiritual arrogance, but with unspeakable gratitude and a sense of unpayable debt:[2]

In my simple terms, we have clear consciences because Jesus was the perfect and complete sacrifice. The OT believer lived with the expectation that he would sin again and live under condemnation again until the high priest sacrificed again at the yearly Passover. Under the work of Christ, we have access to God AND an ongoing relationship with the Spirit of Christ in us. In sanctification our conscience is continually filtered through the relationship of the Spirit in us and the process of becoming “holy, and He is holy”. [Reference Taylor Simmons message].

We Inherit Eternal Life

Another reason that the Blood of Christ provides A Better Life for us is our divine inheritance.

Hebrews 9:15 NIV

For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

This is a wonderful promise to each of us who have been called into Jesus Christ. You will “receive the promised eternal inheritance”! To drive the point home, the writer provides an iIllustration that makes the case that the covenant, like a will, had to be enacted through the death of Christ.

Hebrews 9:16–20 NIV

In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. When Moses had proclaimed every command of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.”

We have a choice of being eternal damnation in hell or eternal life in heaven. The point of departure is the person of Jesus Christ. If you believe in Him and do what He says (afterall, even the devil and his demons believe in Jesus) you will enjoy eternal life. C.S. Lewis commented on the value of thinking of eternity. I’ve heard portions of this quote but never the entire quote. Listen to this…

Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth “thrown in”: aim at earth and you will get neither.[3]

Brothers and sisters, we are inheriting an eternal reward because of the blood of Christ!

Purified and Forgiven

As we go through another surge of the flu virus we are reminded of the value of disinfecting, washing our hands, and being careful about coming in contact with contamination. In the OT, both people and objects in the tabernacle were sprinkled 7 times on 2 separate occasions (14 times) for purification.

Hebrews 9:21–23 NIV

In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

Charles Spurgeon made this observation:

Twice seven times were the holy place and the tabernacle to be sprinkled with blood, as though to indicate a double perfectness of efficacy of the preparation for God’s dwelling among sinful men. I like that thought. I like to come up to God’s house and say, “Well, I shall worship God today in the power and through the merit of the precious blood. My praises will be poor, feeble things, but then the sweet perfume will go up out of the golden censer, and my praises will be accepted through Jesus Christ. My preaching—oh! How full of faults; how covered over with sins! But then the blood is on it, and because of that, God will not see sin in my ministry, but will accept it because of the sweetness of His Son’s blood.”[4]

My youth pastor taught me a technique to help me accept God’s forgiveness. Whether it was anger, a memory, a mental image, my pride, my lust, or whatever; he taught me to visualize taking a paintbrush dipped into the blood of Jesus and paint over that issue. It became a valuable tool for me because all I began to see was the blood. I didn’t want to sin again, the blood was far too significant.

One man (Westcott) commented:

Purity is not the end but the means of the new life. The end of the restored fellowship is energetic service to Him Who alone lives and gives life. The thought of performing certain actions is replaced by that of fulfilling a personal relation.[5]

How Does This Relate to You?

We have a couple more thoughts but let’s begin to land the plane. Modern man is confronted with the problems of loneliness, sickness, grief, the breakdown of families and marriages, a seemingly bleak future, and more. What does the non-believer have as their hope? Politicians? Government? Science? (SMH – Shaking my head)

You have Jesus. You have redemption. You have clear consciences. You have an eternal inheritance. You have purity and forgiveness. And it is all complete and entire!

This brings us to the final couple verses.

ONCE and FOR All

The expression “once and for all” often means that something happened completely and finally. That certainly applies here but it also applies that Jesus only needed to be sacrificed one and His sacrifice was for ALL.

Hebrews 9:24–28 NIV

For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

At GC George Wood officiated the communion service. He pointed out that the context of what was happening at the last supper was the Passover meal which had been celebrated in the same way since the Law was given in the desert. Normally the family would drink 4 times but as this instance is described they only drink it 3 times. Why? The 4th cup was the Birkat ha-Shir which means, “I will take you to Me”.

The book of Hebrews talks about “better” everything. Redemption, a clear conscience, purity and forgiveness, an eternal inheritance. Jesus gives us everything and only asks for our hearts being submitted to Him. Have you done so? Are you continuing to allow Him room in your life?

[1]McCartney, D. G. (1997). Conscience. In R. P. Martin & P. H. Davids (Eds.), Dictionary of the later New Testament and its developments (electronic ed., p. 241). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. [2]Brown, R. (1988). The message of Hebrews: Christ above all (p. 156). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. [3] C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, Harper edition, 2001), pp. 134-135. [4]Preceptaustin.org. Accessed August 14, 2021. [5]Brown, R. (1988). The message of Hebrews: Christ above all (p. 159). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.