Hebrews 9:13,14 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

For if the blood of bulls and of goats,— The legal impurities debarred the Jews from an attendance upon the public service; but they were freed from these bythe sacrifices, washings, and sprinklings appointed by the Mosaic law, which are called carnal ordinances, Hebrews 9:10 and so became qualified again for the public worship; and of this the apostle speaks under the notion of sanctification, as typical of that internal sanctification which he speaks of in Hebrews 9:14. That this sanctification or purifying is to be considered with respect to the divine service, appears from the 14th verse, which is in immediate connection with the 13th, and wherein he represents the advantage that we have by the blood of Christ; namely, to be qualified and privileged to serve the living God. Many understand the words eternal Spirit, of the Logos, or Divine nature of our Lord; and this seems indeed most agreeable to the nature of the apostle's argument, since he is setting forth the intrinsic worth and excellence of his offering; though it must be owned, that agood sense maybe given of the words, when they are interpreted of the Holy Spirit. Bishop Fell so understands them, and particularlymentions Christ's being conceived, proclaimed, anointed, for working miracles, and at last voluntarily laying down and taking up his life by the Spirit; and in this view many receive the present text as a full testimony to the eternity, and consequently the divinity, of the Holy Spirit. Christ is here said to have offered himself: he was to go through life and death too; he was to do his Father's will upon earth during his most sacred ministry; and when he had done all this, he was to offer up himself free from spot or fault in every respect. If his blood only had been mentioned, it would signify no more than his dying, as was determined of him; but the offering himself implies the whole of his life and death too, in all his undertakings for man, from his infinite condescension in becoming incarnate, to his ascension to heaven. Dead works evidently mean all sins, and, in the full sense of the phrase, all works which do not proceed from the fear and love of God, all of which have in them the nature of sin. The blood of Christ is said to purge or purify from these, as it makes atonement for, or obtains the forgiveness of them; the consequence of which is, that the conscience is hereby freed from the distressing sense of guilt, and a person acquires a freedom in the service of God. But this purification of the conscience necessarilyincludes the sanctification of the heart: for "the Blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God cleanseth from all sin," 1 John 1:7 not only from the guilt, but from the power, and, in the faithful soul, from the indwelling of sin. The merit of that blood derives into the souls of the faithful all the regenerating influences of the HolySpirit of God, that are necessary to prepare and mature them for eternal glory.