Between You and God

MEMORY SELECTION: “And for this cause he is the mediator of the New Testament [Covenant], that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament [covenant], they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.” —Hebrews 9:15

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Hebrews 9:11-15, 24-28

IN THE ninth chapter of Hebrews, the Apostle Paul has shown how the Day of Atonement sacrifices, carried out under the Law Covenant arrangement, were a picture of the reality, or the real, efficacious sacrifices, that were to be offered for sin during the Gospel Age. In the type, there were two principal sacrifices on that day; the first was a bullock, which was without spot or blemish. It was slain and a censer of its blood was taken by the high priest into the Most Holy and sprinkled upon the propitiatory for the sins of Aaron and his house.—Lev. 16:11-14

The second sacrifice of the day was the Lord’s goat which was slain and a censer of its blood was likewise taken into the Most Holy of the Tabernacle by the high priest. This blood was also sprinkled upon the propitiatory as an atonement for the sins of the people. (Lev. 16:15,16) And so the apostle explains in Hebrews 9:7, “But into the second [the Most Holy] went the high priest alone once every year [the Day of Atonement] not without blood, which he offered for himself and the errors of the people.”

In Hebrews 9:8,9, the apostle tells us that as long as the typical arrangement was functioning as a part of God’s arrangement, the fulfillment of the type could not take place. And as a typical arrangement, the sacrifices offered could never actually take away sins.

But in the 11th and 12th verses he tells us that Christ was the reality and that his sacrifice provided sufficient merit for the atonement of all sin. The text reads: “But Christ being come an High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption.”

There are some interesting points made in this text. The apostle tells us that Christ is the antitypical High Priest, and that he is a priest in a more perfect tabernacle that is not made with hands—it is a spiritual arrangement. Instead of sacrificing bulls and goats he sacrificed himself, and it was his blood that provided eternal redemption.

Then in verse 13 the apostle reminds the Hebrew brethren that under the Law arrangement anyone contaminated by touching the dead had to be purified and this was accomplished by sprinkling the ashes of a heifer with water and hyssop upon the flesh of the contaminated one. (Num. 19:11-22) This is an obvious allusion to the condition of the whole world of mankind who have been contaminated by sin and death. But the apostle continues his thought in verse 14 by saying that if the typical arrangement cleansed the people under those circumstances, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

In verse 15 the apostle states that the great cause or purpose of His death was to become the Mediator of the New Covenant and that it is through this arrangement that the forgiveness of sins is going to be accomplished. The death of Jesus also provided the means—justification—whereby the Lord could call and deal with those who have heard the glad tidings and have the hope of an eternal inheritance.

In the subsequent verses, 16-18, the apostle shows that, in order to fulfill the type, it was necessary for Jesus to die to provide the means for sealing the New Covenant. The text reads as follows from the Diaglott Translation: “For where a covenant exists, the death of that which has ratified it is necessary to be produced; because a covenant is firm over dead victims, since it is never valid when that which ratifies it is alive. Hence not even the first has been instituted without blood.”

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