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?
Offered himself. The voluntariness of the offering gives it its efficacy. He "through the eternal Spirit" - i:e., His Divine Spirit, (Romans 1:4, in contrast to His "flesh," Hebrews 9:3; His Godhead, 1 Timothy 3:16; 1 Peter 3:18), giving free consent to the act-offered Himself. "God is love:" so the Godhead in Him was the impulse to the self-sacrifice. The animals offered had no spirit to consent in the sacrifice: they were offered according to the law: they had a life neither enduring nor of intrinsic efficacy. But He from eternity, with His divine, and everlasting Spirit, concurred with the Father's will of redemption by Him. His offering began on the altar of the cross, and was completed in His entering the Holiest with His blood. The eternity of His Divine Spirit give eternal (Hebrews 9:12; Hebrews 7:16; Hebrews 7:25: cf. Hebrews 9:15) efficacy to His offering, so that not even God's infinite justice has any exception to take against it. It was 'through His most burning love flowing from His eternal Spirit,' that He offered Himself (OEcolampadius). So 'Aleph (') A B. But C Delta f, Vulgate х hagiou (G40) for aiooniou (G166)], 'Holy Spirit' (Isaiah 11:2; Isaiah 61:1; Luke 1:35; Luke 4:14; John 3:34). Christ offered Himself not merely in figure, but really and spiritually for man's spiritual life. The outward bloodshedding is subordinate to the inward offering which preceded it (Hebrews 10:7; John 17:19).
Without spot - the animal victims were without outward blemish: Christ on the cross was a victim inwardly and essentially stainless (1 Peter 1:19).
Purge - purity from fear, guilt, alienation from Him, and selfishness, the source of dead works (Hebrews 9:22-23).
Your. So 'Aleph ('), Vulgate. But A Delta f, 'our.'
Conscience - religious consciousness.
Dead works. All works done in the natural state before justification, however life-like they look, are dead in the sight of "the living God;" for they come not from living faith in, and love to, Him (Hebrews 11:6). As contact with a dead body defiled ceremonially (cf. "ashes ... sprinkling the unclean," Hebrews 9:13), so dead works defile the spiritual consciousness.
To - so as to х eis (G1519) to (G3588)] serve. The ceremonially unclean could not serve God in the outward communion of His people: the unrenewed cannot serve God in spiritual communion. A dead animal offered to God would have been an insult (cf. Malachi 1:8), much more for one not justified by Christ's blood to offer dead works. But those purified by Christ's blood in living faith serve (Romans 12:1), and shall more fully serve, God (Revelation 22:3).
Living God - requiring living spiritual service (John 4:24).