The rites and bloody sacrifices of the law, far inferior to the dignity and perfection of the blood and sacrifice of Christ.
Anno Domini 63.
TO shew that the Sinaitic covenant was justly laid aside, the apostle judged it necessary to enter into a particular examination of the religious services which it enjoined, and to prove that these were designed, not for cleansing the conscience of the worshippers, but to prefigure the services and blessings of the new or gospel covenant: so that the latter being come, there was no longer occasion for continuing the former, to prefigure them.This chapter, therefore, is an illustration of chap. Hebrews 8:5 where the apostle affirms, that the priests worshipped God in the tabernacle, with the representation and shadow of the heavenly services. And it was proper to explain this matter copiously, because it must have had a great influence, in weaning the Hebrews from the Levitical services, and in reconciling them to the abrogation of a form of worship, which, though of divine appointment, was now become useless, having accomplished its end.
The apostle begins with acknowledging that the covenant made at Sinai, of which the Levitical priests were the ministers, had ordinances of worship appointed by God himself, and a sanctuary made of such materials as this world of ours could furnish out, and the centre of a ritual which contained many institutions comparatively low and carnal, Hebrews 9:1-7. Such was the ritual of Moses; the Holy Spirit, by whom it was prescribed, signifying by the difficulty of entrance into the holy of holies, and the necessity of the incense-cloud, and the atoning blood, that the way into the holiest place, that is, into God's immediate presence, was not yet comparatively made manifest, while the first tabernacle had its continuance, or, in other words, while the Jewish economy lasted, Hebrews 9:8 which, far from being the grand and ultimate scheme, is only a kind of allegorical figure and parable, referringto the glorious displays of the present time; in which, nevertheless, there is hitherto a continuance of the temple service; so that gifts and sacrifices are still offered, which amount not to the real expiation of guilt, but to the averting of some temporal evils which the law denounced on transgressors, Hebrews 9:9. For the Mosaic dispensation reached not to the sublimest means of preparing the soul for another life, but consisted in a variety of ordinances relating to the purification of the flesh, which were to continue in force only till the time of reformation, when things should be put into a better situation by the appearance of the Messiah himself in his church, Hebrews 9:10.—Thus, by the inefficacy of the services performed in the Jewish tabernacles, the Holy Ghost has taught us, that all the rites of atonement, and all the acts of worship which men perform on earth, have no efficacy in the way of merit, to procure for them the pardon of sin, and admission into the presence of God.
Next, in opposition to the ineffectual services performed by the Levitical priests in the holy places on earth, the apostle sets the things whichthey prefigured; namely, the effectual services performed by Christ in the holy places in heaven.—These services he describes as follows: Christ being come into the world, as the High-priest appointed by the oath of God the Father, to procure for us the blessings of pardon and salvation which are to be bestowed through his ministration in the greater tabernacle, Hebrews 9:11.—hath entered into the holy place of that great tabernacle, even into heaven itself, neither by the blood of goats nor of calves, but by his own blood or death; and through the merit of that great sacrifice he hath obtained for every faithful saint an everlasting remission of sin, Hebrews 9:12.—Now, that the shedding of Christ's blood should have this efficacy, is most reasonable. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, did, by the appointment of God, redeem the bodies of the offending Israelites from temporal death, and cleanse them in such a manner as to fit them for the tabernacle-worship, Hebrews 9:13,—how much more reasonable is it, that the shedding of the blood of Christ, who in the whole of his obedience was faultless, and is over all God blessed for ever, (Romans 9:5.), should have merit sufficient to cleanse the conscience of penitent sinners, from the guilt of works which deserve death, and fit them, if faithful, for worshipping God in heaven? Hebrews 9:14.—This passage being a description of Christ's ministry as an High-priest, in the true habitation of God, it may be considered as an illustration of ch. Hebrews 8:2 where Christ is called a minister of the holy places, even of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man.
The apostle had affirmed, ch. Hebrews 8:6 that Jesus is the Mediator or High-priest of a better covenant or dispensation than the law: but theproof of his assertion he deferred to this place, where it naturally comes in. For, having shewed that the death of Christ has sufficient merit to procure for penitent sinners the pardon of sin, he subjoins; for this reason, that his death is so infinitely meritorious, he is appointed by God the Father the Mediator of the new covenant, that by dying to procure the pardon of sin, persevering believers of all ages and nations, the called seed of Abraham, may obtain the eternal inheritance, Hebrews 9:15.— Accordingly, to shew that the new covenant, in which pardon is promised to penitent sinners, is procured by the death of Christ, the apostle observes, that in every case where God entered into a covenant with men, he made the death of an appointed sacrifice necessary to its ratification; to teach sinners, that all his intercourses with them, are founded on the sacrifice of his Son, Hebrews 9:16.—The death of Christ therefore became absolutely necessary according to the previous appointment of God the Father, for the stability of the covenant between God and offending man, as well as for the satisfaction of the justice of God: (however, there is this infinite difference between the God of unerring truth and frail mortals, that his promise implies the absolute certainty of the fulfilment of it on the conditions stated in the covenant; in which sense Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.) Hence we may observe, that not even the covenant at Sinai wasmade without blood, Hebrews 9:17-20.—and hence, likewise, the tabernacles, when set up, and all the vessels of the ministry, were at first consecrated forthe worship of God, by sprinkling them with the blood of the sacrifices, Hebrews 9:21.—and ever after that, all these things were, by appointment of the law, annually cleansed with the blood of the sacrifices offered on the day of expiation. In short, without the shedding of blood, the law allowed no remission on the day of the annual atonement, Hebrews 9:22.—Wherefore, seeing God determined not to pardon sinners, nor to open heaven to them without the shedding of the blood of his Son, it was necessary for shewing this, that the Mosaic tabernacles, which are the figures of the holy places in the heavens, should be cleansed or opened to the worshippers, by the sacrifices of bulls and goats as emblems of the sacrifice of Christ: but heaven itself was to be cleansed, or opened to believers, by the actual offering of that sacrifice, of which the others were the types, Hebrews 9:23.—And, this was the reason that Christ our great High-priest did not enter into the Jewish tabernacles, but into heaven itself, not with the blood of goats and of calves, but with his own blood, now to appear continually, as our High-priest, before the face of God; and by so doing to make continual intercession in behalf of his faithful people, Hebrews 9:24.—To this purpose, however, it was not necessary, that Christ should offer himself often, as the Jewish High priest every year made atonement for the sins of the people, by entering into the earthly holy places, with the blood of the appointed sacrifices, Hebrews 9:25.—For, in that case, Christ must have suffered often since the foundation of the world. But now, at the conclusion of the Mosiac dispensation, he hath appeared on earth to put an end to the typical sin offerings of the law, by the one sacrifice of himself, Hebrews 9:26.—And, to the obtaining of our pardon, his dying once was sufficient. For, since God hath appointed men to die but once, as the punishment of the sin of the first man, and after death to be judged but once for their own sins, Hebrews 9:27.—so Christ being once offered for sin, that one offering is held by God the Father as a sufficient expiation; and by virtue of that one sacrifice, he will, to them who wait for him, appear a second time, without offering any more sacrifice for sin; and he will thus appear, to acquit and save his faithful people by his own sentence as Judge, Hebrews 9:28.