(11) But Christ being come a 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; (12) 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 for us. (13) For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: (14) 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?
I did not detain the Reader, under the view of the foregoing verses to remark, how blessedly the Holy Ghost, by those shadowing representations, taught the Church, that all pointed to Christ, and in him had their accomplishment; because I knew, that under this paragraph we should be led to the consideration of the subject again, and might therefore enter into it, somewhat more fully. The daily entrance of the Priests into the first tabernacle, and the yearly entrance of the High Priest into the second; were all typical of Christ, Indeed without an eye to Him, the whole had no meaning. For what could those Priests accomplish, or what virtue, or efficacy, could there be in the blood of goats, or calves, to take away sin? But what grace is shewn, in the Holy Ghost to the Church of Jesus to keep up such an unceasing remembrance of sin, and to hold forth, such wonders as were to be manifested, in the Person and work of Christ, by the sacrifice of himself.
Reader! ponder well the subject, for it is for your life. Observe, Christ hath obtained eternal redemption. And he hath entered with it, by his own blood into heaven. He hath carried it up with him there, and on the mercy-seat, the propitiatory, paid it down in the full current coin of heaven. Yea! He offered it, through the eternal Spirit. And he was justified by the Spirit, in the deed, by his resurrection from the dead, 1 Timothy 3:16. And God our Father hath confirmed it still more, as the God of peace, which brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great Shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the everlasting Covenant, Hebrews 13:20. Oh! what strength, and energy, do those united views give, to the faith of the redeemed, when pleading these precious things, before the throne!