Christ … an High Priest of good things to come
The Lord Jesus as a High Priest
God never destroys for the sake of destroying, nor pulls down the old to leave a void in its place.
The Divine method is to overcome evil by uplifting that which is good, and to remove the good, after it has served its purpose, by introducing that which is more excellent.
I. Jesus Christ as a High Priest much excels in the GREATNESS AND PERFECTNESS OF THE TABERNACLE. Jesus Christ entered “by a greater and more perfect tabernacle.” By the tabernacle here we are to understand, say some, the expanse above, the stellar firmament, through which Christ entered into the holy place. But the ablest commentators understand by it the body of Jesus Christ. And the author of this Epistle furnishes a strong ground for that interpretation in Hebrews 10:20. A hint to the same purport is to be found in the text, for it is averred of this tabernacle that “it is not of this building,” that is, not of this creation. The humanity of the Lord Jesus is the beginning of a new creation. But it is not the visible body in itself that is intended by the tabernacle, as it is not the visible blood in itself that is meant by the “blood”; but human nature in the person of the Son of God, in which the Word has “tabernacled” among us, and by which He is the “beginning of the creation of God.”
II. Jesus Christ as a High Priest much excels in the GREATNESS OF THE HOLY PLACE. There was no need for a special word in this place to denote the greatness of the holy place, as it follows naturally from the preceding words. “Christ, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, entered in once into the holy place”; and if the tabernacle were “greater and more perfect,” it follows of necessity that the holy place was so likewise. The same thought belongs to both. Christ entered through the tabernacle of His untainted humanity to a corresponding holy place; He went into the holy place of the eternal world; He entered into the holy of holies of the universe. But God never does anything hurriedly; so Christ, after receiving the keys of the invisible world, took forty days to appear to His disciples at different times, in order to assure their minds that all power is given unto Him in heaven and on earth, and that a clear way, which no one may block, is opened unto them from earth to heaven. Then He ascended, in quiet unruffled glory, to take His proper place as the minister of the sanctuary, and sat down on the right hand of Majesty on high. There is not a higher place in all heaven than where Jesus Christ is to-day in our nature. He is as high as God Himself could raise Him.
III. Christ as a high priest excels in the PRECIOUSNESS OF THE BLOOD. The worth of the blood was owing to the worth of the life, and the worth of the life to the greatness of the Person. When a man is martyred, the soul does not die; nevertheless, the soul imparts worth to the life of the body, and confers immeasurably more importance on the death of a man than the death of a beast. But notwithstanding the greatness of the difference between man and an animal, it is only a difference of degrees. Man is but a creature as well as the animal. But the difference between man and God is as great as that between a creature and the Creator. And yet, in the person of Jesus Christ, the Creator has come into closer union with humanity than that between our souls and our bodies. Though, perhaps, it be not proper to say that God died, yet the one who died was God. The infinite Person of the Son was in the obedience; the infinite Person was in the suffering; the infinite Person was in the death: imparting boundless worth and merit to all, so as to be a “propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.” Because the Person is so great, the preciousness of the blood has filled all heaven, and has converted the throne of Majesty into a mercy-seat.
IV. Jesus Christ excels as High Priest in the PERFECTNESS OF HIS WORK. The Jewish high priest was obliged to go to the holy place every year, because there was no effectual reconciliation; only the surface was a little washed, only temporal forgiveness was administered. But the sacrifice of Christ effected a thorough reconciliation--there is no need for a second attempt.
V. Jesus Christ excels as High Priest in the NATURE AND EFFICACY OF THE REDEMPTION. He obtained eternal redemption or deliverance for us. This follows necessarily from the other part of the verse. As He went to the holy place in heaven, it must be that the redemption is eternal. There is not a higher court ever to reverse the verdict. The acquittal is from the throne of God Himself. (Lewis Edwards, D. D.)
The superiority of Christ’s priesthood:
The object of right worship has ever been the same, but its mode has undergone two great changes:
1. From no sacrifice to many sacrifices.
2. From many sacrifices to one--from the many mediations of
Moses to the one mediation of Christ.
I. CHRIST INTRODUCED HIGHER THINGS.
1. A higher system of teaching. More spiritual, clear, and diffusive.
2. A higher form of worship. More simple, personal, attractive, and free.
3. A higher state of union. Marked by broader views, higher aims, more expansive benevolence.
II. CHRIST OFFICIATES IN A HIGHER SANCTUARY.
1. Heaven is a more extensive sanctuary. “Greater.” For all kindreds, &c.
2. A more Divine sanctuary. “Not made with hands.”
III. CHRIST PRESENTED A HIGHER SACRIFICE. His own life--the most precious of all.
IV. CHRIST ACCOMPLISHED A HIGHER WORK. “Redemption” of forfeited rights and paralysed powers; redemption from guilt and spiritual influence of sin; impartation of pardon and purity to the condemned and corrupt; and all this eternal. (Homilist.)
The priesthood of Christ
I. CONSIDER THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST IN RELATION TO THE PAST--AND THE RETROSPECTIVE EFFICACY OF HIS WORK IN BEHALF OF THE WORSHIPPERS OF A FORMER AGE. To this view we are led by the whole course of the apostle’s argument in this chapter, and the various allusions to sacrificial rites contained in the Old Testament. The doctrine of propitiation is the harmonising doctrine of the whole Bible. It makes the narrative of patriarchal, Levitical, and prophetical life one history. The men who lived under these dispensations all felt their need of mercy, and with certain differences of outward circumstances, all sought for mercy in the same way. The fundamental articles of religion have been the same in every age of the world. Such is the antiquity of Christ’s priesthood. It reaches far back through all the religious economies under which fallen man has ever lived. Christ is that true Melchisedec who has neither beginning of life nor end of days. “He has obtained for us,” says the apostle, “eternal redemption.” Rolling ages impair not the earnestness of His intercession, nor multitudinous offences the worth of the plea He brings. “He ever liveth.” “He abideth a priest continually.”
II. CONSIDER THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST AS FULFILLING AND ANSWERING THE INDISPENSABLE CONDITIONS IN ORDER TO THE COVENANT OF FORGIVENESS BEING PERFECT. The priest, in the Levitical sense, is a public person who deals with an offended God in the name of the guilty, by offering an appointed sacrifice for sin upon the altar.
1. According to this definition, we see that in order to the desired reconciliation three things are necessary--a priest, a sacrifice, and an altar.
(1) First, there must be a priest. There was no priest under the covenant with Adam upright, for this reason, there was no sacrifice. Man then was dealt with as innocent; he could come to God of himself. But the covenant with man fallen was altogether different; this was entered into with persons in a different moral state, and made for a totally different end. It was a covenant with sinners, with persons who had offended God and cast the words of the first covenant behind them. Hence the design of this new compact was to make peace, to reinstate man in the friendship of his Maker, and to repair the dishonour done to the Divine government. But to give effect to this covenant a mediating party was necessary. The prophet Zechariah expresses this necessity in that fine passage, “He shall be a priest upon His throne, and the council of peace shall be between them both.”
(2) But, secondly, there must in effecting this sublime negotiation be also a sacrifice. “Gather My sons together to Me,” says the Psalmist, “those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.” The importance of this element of the priesthood will appear to you, if you consider that if a sinless mediator had been all that was required, there seems nothing to forbid that our high priest should have been an angel. But this appended condition of sacrifice, the irrevocable necessity of bloodshed in order to remitted guilt made the mediation of angels impossible; for are they not all spirits?--therefore, having no blood to shed. Hence, while there was blood to be shed which shut out angels, it must be sinless blood which shut out men. And yet the dictates of natural equity would suggest that the blood should be that of a man, and that he who should bear the penalties of a broken covenant should be of the same nature with the covenant breaker.
(3) And then, again, in order to a perfect priesthood there must of necessity be an altar--an altar too of such infinite worth and preciousness that it should both sanctify and enhance the gift. Now, considering that the sacrifice offered up was nothing else than the human nature of Christ, consisting of a body rent, broken, and a pure, holy soul, agonised, bruised, smitten of God and afflicted, the only thing there could be to sanctify a gift in itself so sanctified is the Divine nature with which this holy sacrifice was united,
2. Here, then, we have satisfactorily provided for the three pre-requisites for a perfect priesthood, namely, a priest, a sacrifice, and an altar. It should not lessen our confidence in this gospel priesthood, to find that all its constituent elements centre in the same glorious person--that the victim to be sacrificed is Christ, that the altar on which it is laid is Christ, that the priest who is to slay and offer and carry the blood into the most holy place is Christ; for if all these several parts be necessary to a perfect priesthood, how would it have vitiated the whole oblation to have encountered at any stage of its preparation a mixture of infirmity. If, for instance, a perfect sacrifice had been offered on a blemished altar, or if though the altar were unblemished, the offering must pass through the hands of a frail and erring priest. No, Christ will have none to lay hands on His work, none to join Him in it. The wine-press of humiliation shall be trodden by Himself alone. “By one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.”
III. CONSIDER THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST IN RELATION TO ITS MORAL EFFICACY. The apostle, as you perceive, takes as the basis of his comparison the two principal functions of the priestly office under the old economy, namely, the oblation, or the offering of the sacrifice in a part outside the precincts of the temple, and the presentation, or the carrying of blood once a year into the holy of holies to he exhibited and sprinkled upon the mercy-seat. Our Lord suffering without the camp exactly corresponds to the first feature of this Levitical system, whilst His appearing for us continually in the presence of God as plainly answers to the second. And in both, argues the apostle, you cannot fail to discern the measureless superiority of the gospel priesthood. Look at the character of the sacrifice itself. “Not by the blood of goats, but by His own blood.” Two verses further he puts the contrast still more strongly--“If the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling,” &c. The sacrifices of the law had a double use; the one real, and the other typical; the one ceremonial, and the other spiritual; the one actual, as conferring upon the worshipper certain church rights and privileges, the other contingent as requiring a definite act of faith in the promise of the Mediator. Well, the ceremonial efficiency of this it was no part of the apostle’s argument to disparage. While the ancient ritual remained it served useful ends. They did sanctify to the purifying of the flesh. They enabled the excommunicated to join in public worship again, reinstated the sinner into the privileges and immunities of church fellowship, and as types reminded the worshipper of that higher union and fellowship from which he had become excluded by sin, and restoration to which would evidently require a nobler sacrifice and better blood; for how could the blood of bulls and goats ever take away sin? Hence the force of the apostle’s distinction in the text just quoted, between purifying the flesh and purging the conscience. Temple blood may admit you to temple worship, and an outward cleansing may get you an outward interest in the covenant; but if you aspire to peace, to a realised fellowship with God, to anything of the tranquillity or joy of service--in a word, if you desire to get a cleansing and a peace within, any rest for the smitten troubled heart, you will feel that something better than blood of bulls and goats is needed, and with adoring thankfulness will look up to that great High Priest, who, carrying with Him His own all-cleansing blood, hath entered into the most holy place. And this is the second point of contrast on which the apostle insists--on Christ passed into the holy place, that is into heaven, as distinguished from that part of the tabernacle which was within the veil. As one of the patterns of things in the heavens, this inner part into which the priest went was guarded with zealous sacredness. The people were not allowed to follow even with their eyes whilst he was in the act of passing through the veil. Directly he had passed the curtains were drawn as close as possible that even the most curious might not see what was going on within; whilst enshrined in the most sacred part of the holy place itself were preserved time-honoured pledges of the presence and protecting power of God. But Christ, argues the apostle, has passed into a place far holier than your holiest. The curtain which separates Him from human sight is the cloud spread before the eternal throne. Ask we a pledge of the Divine protection--a pledge that He will not forget His holy covenant--a pledge that no penitent and believing sinners are ever to be turned away--we have it in the fact that our Melchisedec stands before the throne, that He combines in Himself all the functions of an everlasting priesthood, being Himself the tabernacle of witness, Himself the altar of sacrifice, Himself the Priest to offer, Himself the Lamb to die; and in the exercise of this priesthood He stands in the midst of the throne, exhibits the sacrificial blood openly that God may see it and pardon, that angels may see it and wonder, that redeemed ones may see it and adore, that the trembling sinner may see it and trust. Consider then, says the apostle, consider Him in all the dignity of His nature, in all the perfections of His sacrifice, in all the mightiness of His pleadings before the everlasting throne, and you will feel that you have, as you ought to have, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, you have, and should feel that you should have, a merciful and faithful High Priest over the house of God, so that if you will draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, in humble but joyous hope, in childlike and tranquil confidence, in and through the merits of the crucified, you shall both obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need: (D. Moore, M. A.)
The high priesthood of Christ
The high priesthood of our Lord is a matter full of important consequences to us relating to His sacred Person and His work in our redemption. Of course the term is one derived from the Jewish ceremonial worship: and it is to the books in which that worship is ordained, that we must look for its explanation. I find the first ordinances respecting the high priest’s office in Exodus 28:1-43. There Moses is ordered to take to him Aaron his brother, and with many prescribed ceremonies and adornments to consecrate him as priest; i.e., as afterwards abundantly appears, as chief, or high priest. We need not follow these prescribed ceremonies, further than to cull out from them the general character of each portion of them, as applying to the office of our blessed Lord. As they were to be without blemish or deformity, as they were to be clothed in holy garments for glory and beauty, as they were not to defile themselves with any uncleanness, so was He, as the very first condition of this His office, holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. They, these priests of Israel, were like their brethren in outward form, but, unlike them, were not to be made unclean by things which rendered others unclean. And so Christ took on Him the likeness of sinful flesh, but did not become sinful: He partook of the infirmities of our nature to the full, but did not partake of its pollution. But, when the high priest is thus constituted and apparelled, what is the first matter of which we read, belonging to his special duty and office? Precious stones are to be taken, two sets: upon both the sets are to be graven the names of the tribes of the children of Israel: once, on two onyx stones, which are to be worn on the shoulders of the high priest: the other time, on twelve separate stones, whose names are specially detailed; and this last tablet is to be worn on his heart. We have here a double-feature of the office. The high priest is judge; the high priest is intercessor. And this too belongs to the reality of the high priesthood of Christ. All judgment is committed to Him. And thus judging, thus ordering His Church, He bears His people written on His heart. He can never forget them, for He represents them, and He loves them as Himself, and He bears them on Himself as a memorial before God continually. The next point which requires our notice is important, as introducing a whole class of duties which mainly constituted the high priest’s office (see Exodus 28:36-38). Here we have the high priest in a new character: that of one bearing the iniquity of others, who are made acceptable to God by that his hearing of their iniquity. The plate of pure gold--the “Holiness of the Lord” inscribed on it--must of course be taken as indicating, in connection with his bearing their iniquity, the acceptance before God, as holy, of the people of the Lord whom he represents. It will be enough at this part to say, that our blessed Redeemer here also fulfils the reality of which these high priests were a shadow. Not only does He carry His people engraven on His heart before God, but He presents them to God as holiness to Him, by virtue of His having Himself borne their iniquities.
Take the apostle’s testimony to this in Ephesians 5:25. Then come, in the book of Exodus, the rites and ceremonies of the consecration, or setting apart of the priests to minister before God. Concerning these, one remark before all is suggested to us by the writer of this Epistle to the Hebrews:--viz., that no man took the office unto himself, but only those who were selected and consecrated by God, as was Aaron. The very name of the Lord by which we call Him, Messiah or Christ, signifies the Anointed. But we now come to that which was by far the larger portion of the duty of the priests of old, and of which we shall have much to say as concerning our great High Priest Himself. “Every high priest,” says our Epistle, “is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices.” This was the priest’s especial office; to minister for the people in the things concerning God, and to offer sacrifices for sin. Now almost every particular is explained by the writer of this Epistle to have immediate reference to our Lord: and of those not so mentioned several are so obvious as to be unmistakable by any intelligent Christian.
1. First of all why all these ordinances of sacrifice at all? Why all this taking away of animal life, and this sprinkling of blood, ceremonies of a kind painful and revolting now to our minds and habits? All these sacrifices, thus divinely appointed, were ordained to signify greater and spiritual truths: “the Holy Ghost thus signifying,” as we have it written here: God having a matter to make known in His good time, which should be no type or shadow, but His own very truth: and that matter being, the death and satisfaction of our blessed Lord, His eternal Son. But let us follow this out, considering Him as our High Priest. “If He be a Priest,” says the writer of our epistle, “He must of necessity have something to offer.” And here we have God’s High Priest, whom He hath consecrated and sent into the world. By what offering shall He propitiate God towards those His people? Who shall shed the blood that may sprinkle our holy things and make them pure? Who shall go far, far away, bearing upon his head the iniquities of us all? Hear His answer--“Lo I come to do Thy will, O God.” He is spotless. He unites in Himself our whole nature: strike Him, and we are stricken: let His sacrifice be accepted, and we are cleared from guilt: let that blood of His be carried into the holy place of God’s presence in heaven, and an atonement is made for us. There are several ether, apparently minor, but really not less interesting points of comparison, between the high priests of old and our blessed High Priest and Redeemer. Their sacrifices were imperfect, and of no intrinsic value or avail. They therefore needed renewing continually, day by day. But His is perfect and all-sufficing. It needs only to be believed in, and applied by the obedience of living faith to the heart., Again: those high priests, by reason of their being mortal men, were continually renewed from time to time. None of them was permanent: they came as shadows, and so departed: theirs was no abiding priesthood, to which all men might look for atonement and acceptance. But the Son of God abideth for ever: “He dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over Him: in that He died, He died for sin once: in that He liveth, He liveth unto God.” For ever does the virtue of His blood endure: for ever does His holy priesthood avail. There is with Him no wearing out, no forgetting, no failure of earnestness, no vacillating affection, no exhausted pleading. He is for all, He is over all, He is sufficient for all, He cares for all. So then, once more--inasmuch as they were human high priests, they were fellows with their brethren. Was then theirs any advantage over Him? In that land of Judaea, under the shade of those walls of Jerusalem, you might perchance see the high priest holding conference with the erring or the penitent: might see the venerable man of God, on whose brow was His anointing, with the hand of the young offender laid in his, pleading eye to eye till the tears chased one another down the cheek glowing with shame: and then might trace the judge of Israel watching, reminding, building up the returning sinner in holiness. Shall we envy them? Were they better off than we? Ah no! The sympathising high priest on earth, what is he to the sympathising High Priest in heaven? Few indeed, and interrupted could be such interviews: narrow indeed and partial such sympathies. But our High Priest is not one who lacks leisure or power to receive all who come to Him at any time. It is for us, for the least among us, that the eternal Son of God is thus constituted a High Priest: for our sins, for our wants, for our daily feeling, and obeying, and approaching to God. It is to purge our conscience from dead works to serve the living God, that His holy blood was offered: to make us pure, upright, clear in purpose, and like to our God and Father. (Dean Alford.)
Good things brought by Christ:
Here we may see what they be that in truth deserve the name and title of good things, Not silver and gold, houses and lands. Christ at His coming brought none of these, yet He brought good things with Him, namely, remission of sins, faith and other graces of the Spirit. These indeed are worthy the name of good things. Forasmuch as our Priest bringeth such excellent things with Him, let Him be most welcome to us. David said of Ahimaaz, “he is a good man, and bringeth good tidings.” Much more let us say of Christ our High Priest, “He is a good man, He bringeth good tidings,” that by the blood of His Cross He hath reconciled us to God the Father, hath obtained a general pardon for all our sins, He hath prepared a place for us in His own kingdom; therefore let us receive Him with all joy. (W. Jones, D. D.)
The body likened to a tabernacle
As Christ’s body is a tabernacle, so is 2 Peter 1:14; 2 Corinthians 5:1).
1. The name of a tent or tabernacle imports warfare. Soldiers have their tents.
2. There is a between a tabernacle and a house; for a house is made of solid matter, wood, stone, &c. A tent is made of old clothes patched together. So our bodies are not made of the sun, of the stars, of the firmament, but of the earth, which is a brittle thing.
3. A tent is weak, easily pierced through. So our body. A knife, a pin may prick it, a fly may choke it. A tent is quickly up and quickly down. So is our body. We come suddenly, and we are gone again in the turning of an hand, though it be the body of a wise Solomon, of a strong Samson, a fair Absolom, yet remember it is but a tent or tabernacle. The time is at hand, says St. Peter, when I must lay down this tabernacle. Now as the tabernacle in the time of the Law was kept neat, clean, and handsome, it might not be polluted with anything. So let us keep our bodies from all pollutions. (W. Jones, D. D.)
He entered in once
Our Lord’s entrance within the veil
I. THE SACRIFICE OF HIS ENTERING.
1. Unique.
2. Substitutionary.
3. Personal.
4. Of transcendent value.
II. THE MANNER OF HIS ENTRANCE.
1. Once.
2. Only once.
3. In the fullest and most complete manner.
III. THE OBJECTS OF HIS ENTRANCE.
1. He made atonement within the veil.
2. He enters there to appear for us.
3. He is there to perfect us.
4. He has entered in once that He may abide there.
5. He is there to admit us to the same nearness.
IV. THE GLORIES OF THIS ENTRANCE. “Having obtained eternal redemption.” When Aaron went in with the blood of bulls and goats, he had not obtained “eternal redemption”; he had only obtained a symbolic and temporary purification for the people, and that was all.
1. Our Lord enters in because His work is all done.
2. That which He had obtained was redemption. We do not fully know what the word “ redemption “ means, for we were born free; but if we could go back a few years, and mix with the negro slaves of America, they could have told us what redemption meant, if ever, by any good fortune, any one of them was able to buy his freedom. You that have groaned under the tyranny of sin, you know what redemption means in its spiritual sense, and you prize the ransom by which you have been made free. We are to-day redeemed from our far-off condition in reference to the Lord God: we do not now stand outside the veil. This is a great redemption. We are also delivered from guilt, for “He hath washed us from our sins in His own blood.” Also from the power of sin, its curse, its bondage, &c.
3. And now think of the nature of that redemption; for here is a grand point. He has obtained “eternal” redemption. If you carefully study the verses around the text, you will find the word “ eternal” three times: there is “eternal redemption,” the “eternal Spirit,” and an “eternal inheritance.” Why is redemption said to be eternal? He has obtained eternal redemption--a redemption which entered into eternal consideration. Redemption isthe drift of creation, and the hinge of providence.
4. When our Lord entered in, He had by His sacrifice also dealt with eternal things, and not with matters of merely passing importance. Sin, death, hell--these are not temporary things: the atonement deals with these, and hence it is an eternal redemption.
5. Now, look forward into eternity. Behold the vista which has no end! Eternal redemption covers all the peril of this mortal life, and every danger beyond, if such there be. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The entrance of Christ into heaven
I. The entrance of our Lord Jesus Christ as our High Priest into heaven, to appear in the presence of God for us, and to save us thereby unto the uttermost, was a thing so great and glorious, As COULD NOT BE ACCOMPLISHED BUT BY HIS OWN BLOOD. No other sacrifice was sufficient unto this end.
II. Whatever difficulties lay in the way of Christ, as unto the accomplishment and perfection of the work of our redemption, HE WOULD NOW DECLINE THEM, NOR DESIST FROM HIS UNDERTAKING, WHATEVER IT COST HIM.
III. THERE WAS A HOLY PLACE MEET TO RECEIVE THE LORD CHRIST, AFTER THE SACRIFICE OF HIMSELF; and a suitable reception for such a person, after so glorious a performance.
IV. If the Lord Christ entered not into the holy place until he had finished His work, WE MAY NOT EXPECT AN ENTRANCE THEREINTO UNTIL WE HAVE FINISHED OURS. He fainted not until all was finished; and it is our duty to arm ourselves with the same mind.
V. IT MUST BE A GLORIOUS EFFECT WHICH HAD SO GLORIOUS A CAUSE; and so it was, even “eternal redemption.”
VI. THE NATURE OF OUR REDEMPTION, THE WAY OF ITS PROCUREMENT, WITH THE DUTIES REQUIRED OF US WITH RESPECT THEREUNTO, ARE GREATLY TO RE CONSIDERED BY US. (John Owen, D. D.)
Christ’s work on earth and in heaven
I. HIS WORK ON EARTH. “He obtained eternal redemption for us.”
1. The blessing in question.
(1) Redemption by our Lord Jesus Christ, or deliverance from the sentence of condemnation.
(2) Redemption by power from the dominion of sin, from the vassalage of the world, and from the power of darkness.
2. The extensiveness of the attribute. “Eternal redemption.”
(1) Completely.
(2) Absolutely.
(3) Emphatically.
3. Eternal in its procuring.
4. Eternity of the benefit.
(1) For men, in distinction from angels.
(2) For believers.
II. His APPEARANCE IN HEAVEN.
1. Where did He enter? “Into the holy place”--heaven.
2. With what did He enter? “With His own blood.
3. How often did He enter? “Once.” (W. Jay.)
Having obtained eternal redemption for us
Redemption by Christ:
Calvary is the central point to which, as all former ages, with a vague expectancy, had looked onward, so all subsequent ages look back, with hearts filled to the full with gratitude and love. In the redemption there won for us there are various points for us to notice.
1. Firstly, it was by His own blood that Christ entered in once into the holy place. It was a sacrifice centring absolutely in Himself. Christ trod the winepress alone. His own blood was shed for the salvation of the world; none other could mingle with it.
2. And Christ entered once into the holy place. We should mark this well. His death was the single act of One who need never repeat it.
3. And the redemption thus won is as eternal for us as it is for Him who won it. This side of the grave we have to struggle, to do battle as soldiers of the Cross, “not as though we had already attained, either were already perfect” (Philippians 3:12). But we may have sure and certain hope of eternal life, and in this confidence may go forth conquering and to conquer. The redemption, as far as Christ’s work is concerned, has been made; and if we will but take the crown from Him who offers it to us, no power of earth, nor of hell, shall be able to wrest it from our keeping without our consent.
4. And, lastly, Christ has obtained this eternal redemption for us. Without boastfulness or self-assertion, we may lay stress on that word, and remember that in it Christ associates with Himself the whole human family. We look back down the stream of time which has flowed on to the present. We think of all the lives that have been for a longer or shorter period borne upon that mighty river--lives known and unknown, a blessing or a curse to their generation. In all of these redemption has played its part. It has had an influence and a power on those lives, whether it has been accepted or not. It has been either their hope and encouragement, or it has been a solemn witness rising up to protest against every deed of sin and shame. Man cannot live in the knowledge and light of immortality won for him by Christ, and be the same as if he knew it not. For that knowledge he must be either infinitely the better or infinitely the worse. And, for our great and endless comfort, let us never forget that the redemption is offered to each individual soul; for Christ by His death made each one of us His own, having paid the price which our salvation costs. And that act of surpassing love has been performed as though no other soul but thine required this tremendous sacrifice. Will you, then, reject so great salvation? will you refuse the eternal redemption Christ has obtained for you? (C. W. H. Kenrick, M. A.)
Our redemption
I. Our redemption from captivity is effected by our Lord in two ways: BY PRICE AND BY POWER. By price paid into the hand of God as the moral Governor; by power exercised on Satan, sin, the world, and death.
II. Our Lord obtained eternal redemption for us BY SACRIFICE. This implies reconciliation (Colossians 1:20-22; 2 Corinthians 5:18-21).
III. Our Lord obtained eternal redemption for us BY SUFFERING PUNISHMENT. This refers to law and justice. (James Kidd, D. D.)
Redemption:
Once when I was revisiting my native village, I was going to a neighbouring town to preach, and saw a young man coming from a house with a waggon, in which was seated an old woman. I felt interested in them, and asked my companion who they were. I was told to look at the adjoining meadow and pasture, and at the great barns that were on the farm, as well as a good house. “Well,” said my companion, “that young man’s father drank that all up, and left his wife in the poorhouse. The young man went away and worked until he had got money enough to redeem that farm, and now it is his own, and he is taking his mother to church.” That is an illustration of redemption. In the first Adam we have lost all, but the second Adam has redeemed everything by His death. (D. L. Moody.)
Release
In the debtors’ prison at Sheffield, Howard found a cutler plying his trade who was in jail for thirty cents. The fees of the court amounted to over a pound, and this sum he had been for several years trying to earn. In another jail there was a man with a wife and five children, confined for court-fees of about five shillings, and jailer’s fees of about eightpence. This man was confined in the same apartment as robbers. All such debtors--and they were numerous in England--Howard released by paying their debts. (Cycloaedia of Biography.)