April 12, 2009

Heb 9:1 - 14
More on the New Covenant

In this discussion we have been comparing the New Covenant with the old. But the comparison isn’t to put down the old covenant, just to say, that as great as the Old covenant was, the New is far superior.

I remember when My wife worked at A Department store one of the co-workers spilled some ink on her red smock. She took it home and washed it but the ink wouldn’t come out, so she covered it up. But it was still visible. Christi said to her ,”Give it to Steve he’ll get it clean.”

I took it home an applied a spot remover I had and the spot came out and the smock was as good as new.

Now, in no way was her soap product no good because it didn’t treat that spot, it did clean the smock, temporarily But the spot remover did the job completely. It did what the old soap couldn’t do.

That is like the comparison (weakly I add) the Holy Spirit is drawing between the old covenant and the new. The Old just couldn’t do what the new could do, provide access to God and completely remove the stain of sin.

To our writer that is a number one, top truth, a simple truth ACCESS TO GOD. And he shows that access to God “salvation to the uttermost” , perfection or completeness, total forgiveness, is impossible without Jesus Christ. He shows us how all Old Testament priests, sacrificed and covenants could not bring man to God, could not give man FULL access to God because no one can come to God except by Jesus Christ. (John 14:6) Jesus states that premise.

So #1, the Holy Spirit presents Christ here in Hebrews as the only access to God. If you do not accept Jesus Christ alone as payment for sin, you can’t get to God. So he shows us Christ is greater than every one or every thing that ever tried to give access to God.. The he moves on to show us 3 things by which Christ has made access possible,

1. By his priesthood, or his divine mediation, once for all (7:27)

2. By his sacrifice. In Chapter 10 Jesus is presented as the final sacrifice. So a new priesthood and a new sacrifice, or divine mediation and divine redemption.

3. A New covenant, divine promises, a greater covenant based on better promises.

The Old Testament was based on 3 things, Priesthood, sacrifices and covenants, and Christ Jesus is shown as meeting and surpassing all of that in chapter 7 and on. Chapter 1-6 show Christ as a better mediator to begin with.

1-6 The preeminence of his person

7 Preeminence of his priesthood and promises. And since Jesus is eternal, then the access he provides to God is eternal as well.

So with this theme the writer must use the Older Testament to prove this point to these Israelis. In chapter 7, he quotes Psalm 110:4 showing that David purported a new priesthood in the Older Testament.

Then, we will see in Chapter 10 quotes form Psalm 40 to show a perfect sacrifice is predicted. Psalm 40 shows that God is not pleased with the Old Sacrificial system.

SO, he goes to the Older Testament to prove a new priesthood and a new sacrifice to show that God never intended the Old priesthood and sacrifice to give complete access to himself.

Then 3^rd He quotes Jeremiah 31 in chapters 8:8 & following to prove that the Older Testament predicted a new covenant. And we saw the New covenant erases the need for the Old one.

So he talks here of three things that are new in Jesus Christ and 8:13 we saw that the New erases the old, and that brings us to chapter 9 where this is discussed.

These Jewish readers might ask”, Are you saying the Old Testament wasn’t good for anything?”

ANSWER: NO! of course it was good, and here in chapter 9 he shows us what purpose it had. And the fact that he asks them to give up the old covenant doesn’t mean it was useless or meaningless, only that it was Old.

In it’s day it was the best thing going but it is a new and better day.

In sharing with a Hebrew, the obstacle is that they failed to see that the law was only a picture of the reality not the reality itself.

If I had a picture of my wife and it reminded me when I was a ay how lovely she is and how much I like being with her, and then when I came home I still just hugged the picture and neglected the relationship, that would not be too bright. And what he is saying here to them is “Put away the picture, the real is here. The Mosaic ritual was good but only background and out of this ritual, this background, emerges Jesus and the real.

So in verses 1-10 we see the Old Covenant, the picture of redemption and in verses 11-14 we see the New Covenant, The reality of redemption.

　

Verse 1: Truly the Old covenant had ordinances of divine service. The Old covenant was not useless, he says, it had meaning, but it was temporary. That showed in it’s temporary sanctuary.

This writer never belittles the Old , he shows Moses in his BEST light and angels ARE exalted because the more exalted they are, the greater Christ is. So Christ is greater than the temporary because he is permanent.

The writer described the sanctuary in detail though these Jews knew it well, but what he wants to do here is show the Old Covenant is not adequate.

In 2-5 we see him describing the earthly sanctuary in every detail. We need to see that the wilderness tent consisted of a courtyard, the outer sanctuary and an inner sanctuary (Holy of Holies) and tough later temples were more elaborate they followed the same pattern.

Here each compartment is called a tent and he mentions some of the furnishings. He avoids some to maybe keep us from reading into this things he isn’t trying to prove. He is saying “This was good, but I have a point to make.” And in verses 6-8 he shows that point as he describes the day of atonement. This is the point: God was inaccessible to men at that time.

Verse 6: Any rank and file priest could serve in the outer courts but only the outer one. This service went on day by day. Incense was burned and every week new show bread was placed on the table and this could be done by any priest.

But look at verse 7: ONLY the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies and then only on one day of the year, Yom Kippur, wearing special clothes of white not his violet robe and accessories.

He went in 2 times, Once with a special sacrifice for himself and his family, then with a goat for Israel.

There is more to the ritual that mentioned here and we will examine this later on, but we need to dwell on the main point and vesre 8 says “The Holy Spirit has a reason for us here.

Heb 9:8 The Holy Spirit is making clear that the way into the holy place had not yet appeared as long as the old tabernacle¹¹ was standing.

The way into the Holiest, access to God was not available NO ONE had unimpeded access to God. Verses 9-10 show us that all of this was a picture to show the tabernacle ministry, great as it was, was ineffective in bringing men to God

Heb 9:9-10 This was a symbol for the time then present, when gifts and sacrifices were offered that could not perfect the conscience of the worshiper. They served only for matters of food and drink and various washings; they are external regulations imposed until the new order came.

It has it’s rituals, shadows of the real, but note: It could not perfect men or eternally forgive sins. So we see that in the Old covenant redemption was pictured. But hang onto your hats folks, in verses 11-14 we see the best news, in the new covenant redemption was not pictured, it was secured.

Look at the reality of redemption.

But now Christ has come as the high priest of the good things to come. He passed through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands, that is, not of this creation,

and he entered once for all into the most holy place not by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood, and so he himself secured eternal redemption.

For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow sprinkled on those who are defiled consecrated them and provided ritual purity, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our consciences from dead works to worship the living God.

Christ is the high priest of good things to come. Same as the time of reformation, the inauguration of a new priesthood after the order of Melchisedec. Christ ministered In a better tent, remember Heaven itself as compared to the shadow. Now look at verse 12

( and he entered once for all into the most holy place not by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood, and so he himself secured eternal redemption.

Calf blood was day after day, week after week, month after month, over and over. But the precious blood of Jesus Christ was sufficient, enough, he did it once.

Where the Old covenant was temporary and repeated, the “ONCE” means Christ did it permanently. (not like a hair perm, have to permanently go back). What the old system was unable to perfect (v9) Christ did. His ONCE sacrifice obtained eternal redemption for us.

Not redemption until we goof up then sacrifice, but saved eternally if we are truly saved. Eternally through Jesus’ Sacrificial death.

Can you see how much greater the New Covenant is?

In verses 13-14 he shows us just how effective this sacrifice of Jesus Christ is.

V 13 -14 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow sprinkled on those who are defiled consecrated them and provided ritual purity, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our consciences from dead works to worship the living God.

If animal sacrifices covered sin and purified the flesh, if they were effective in that….listen, HOW MUCH MORE a spotless sacrifice, Jesus the faultless Son of God, will be effective. Now get this, not to cover sins, but to PURGE YOUR CONSCIENCE from dead works to serve the living God.

Eternal forgiveness, unlimited access to God is accomplished through Jesus Christ. Our sins are washed away.

So lets wrap this up. Old Covenant: limited access to God, earthly sanctuary, animal blood, temporary cleansing, a temporary system.

But in Jesus Christ we have unlimited access to God (4:16), a heavenly sanctuary, perfect blood of Christ, a clean conscience (don’t have to go to bed guilty at night), and permanent cleansing, a permanent system.

And if the Jews had to live holy under a fading system, then much more ought we to live holy because of the New and better system, a new covenant through Jesus Christ.