Hebrews 9
9
A Visible Parable
1-5That first plan contained directions for worship, and a specially designed place of worship. A large outer tent was set up. The lampstand, the table, and “the bread of presence” were placed in it. This was called “the Holy Place.” Then a curtain was stretched, and behind it a smaller, inside tent set up. This was called “the Holy of Holies.” In it were placed the gold incense altar and the gold-covered ark of the covenant containing the gold urn of manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, the covenant tablets, and the angel-wing-shadowed mercy seat. But we don’t have time to comment on these now.
6-10After this was set up, the priests went about their duties in the large tent. Only the high priest entered the smaller, inside tent, and then only once a year, offering a blood sacrifice for his own sins and the people’s accumulated sins. This was the Holy Spirit’s way of showing with a visible parable that as long as the large tent stands, people can’t just walk in on God. Under this system, the gifts and sacrifices can’t really get to the heart of the matter, can’t assuage the conscience of the people, but are limited to matters of ritual and behavior. It’s essentially a temporary arrangement until a complete overhaul could be made.
Pointing to the Realities of Heaven
11-15But when the Messiah arrived, high priest of the superior things of this new covenant, he bypassed the old tent and its trappings in this created world and went straight into heaven’s “tent”—the true Holy Place—once and for all. He also bypassed the sacrifices consisting of goat and calf blood, instead using his own blood as the price to set us free once and for all. If that animal blood and the other rituals of purification were effective in cleaning up certain matters of our religion and behavior, think how much more the blood of Christ cleans up our whole lives, inside and out. Through the Spirit, Christ offered himself as an unblemished sacrifice, freeing us from all those dead-end efforts to make ourselves respectable, so that we can live all out for God.
16-17Like a will that takes effect when someone dies, the new covenant was put into action at Jesus’ death. His death marked the transition from the old plan to the new one, canceling the old obligations and accompanying sins, and summoning the heirs to receive the eternal inheritance that was promised them. He brought together God and his people in this new way.
18-22Even the first plan required a death to set it in motion. After Moses had read out all the terms of the plan of the law—God’s “will”—he took the blood of sacrificed animals and, in a solemn ritual, sprinkled the document and the people who were its beneficiaries. And then he attested its validity with the words, “This is the blood of the covenant commanded by God.” He did the same thing with the place of worship and its furniture. Moses said to the people, “This is the blood of the covenant God has established with you.” Practically everything in a will hinges on a death. That’s why blood, the evidence of death, is used so much in our tradition, especially regarding forgiveness of sins.
23-26That accounts for the prominence of blood and death in all these secondary practices that point to the realities of heaven. It also accounts for why, when the real thing takes place, these animal sacrifices aren’t needed anymore, having served their purpose. For Christ didn’t enter the earthly version of the Holy Place; he entered the Place Itself, and offered himself to God as the sacrifice for our sins. He doesn’t do this every year as the high priests did under the old plan with blood that was not their own; if that had been the case, he would have to sacrifice himself repeatedly throughout the course of history. But instead he sacrificed himself once and for all, summing up all the other sacrifices in this sacrifice of himself, the final solution of sin.
27-28Everyone has to die once, then face the consequences. Christ’s death was also a one-time event, but it was a sacrifice that took care of sins forever. And so, when he next appears, the outcome for those eager to greet him is, precisely, salvation.
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Hebrews 9
9
Old Covenant Ministry
1Now the first covenant also had regulations for ministry and an earthly sanctuary. 2For a tabernacle was set up, and in the first room, which is called the holy place, were the lampstand, the table, and the presentation loaves. # Ex 25:8-9,23-39; 26:1; Lv 24:5-8 3Behind the second curtain, the tabernacle was called the most holy place. # Ex 26:31-33; 40:3 4It contained the gold altar of incense and the ark of the covenant, covered with gold on all sides, in which there was a gold jar containing the manna, Aaron’s staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. # Ex 16:33; 25:10,16; 30:1-5; Nm 17:10; Dt 10:2 5The cherubim of glory were above it overshadowing the mercy seat. It is not possible to speak about these things in detail right now. # Ex 25:18-19; Lv 16:2
6With these things set up this way, the priests enter the first room repeatedly, performing their ministry. # Nm 28:3 7But the high priest alone enters the second room, and he does that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance. # Ex 30:10; Lv 16:15,34; Heb 5:3 8The Holy Spirit was making it clear that the way into the most holy place had not yet been disclosed while the first tabernacle was still standing. # Jn 14:6; Heb 10:19-20 9This is a symbol for the present time, during which gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the worshiper’s conscience. # Heb 5:1; 7:19 10They are physical regulations and only deal with food, drink, and various washings imposed until the time of restoration. # Lv 11:2-3; Col 2:16
New Covenant Ministry
11But the Messiah has appeared, high priest of the good things that have come. # Other mss read that are to come In the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands (that is, not of this creation # Heb 2:17; 8:2; 10:1), 12He entered the most holy place once for all, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. # Dn 9:24; Heb 7:27; 10:4 13For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow, sprinkling those who are defiled, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, # Lv 16:14-15; Nm 19:2,9,17-18 14how much more will the blood of the Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit # 1Pt 3:18; 1Jn 1:7 offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse our # Other mss read your consciences from dead works to serve the living God? # Ti 2:14; Heb 6:1; 10:2,22
15Therefore, He is the mediator # 1Tm 2:5; Heb 8:6; 12:24 of a new covenant, # The Gk word used here and in vv. 15-18 can be translated covenant, will, or testament. # Jr 31:31-34; 1Co 11:25; 2Co 3:6; Heb 7:22; 8:8; 13:20 so that those who are called might receive the promise # Gn 12:7; Rm 8:28; Gl 3:19; Heb 4:1 of the eternal inheritance, because a death has taken place for redemption from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. # Rm 3:25; 5:6 16Where a will exists, the death of the one who made it must be established. 17For a will is valid only when people die, since it is never in force while the one who made it is living. 18That is why even the first covenant was inaugurated with blood. 19For when every command had been proclaimed by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, along with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll itself and all the people, # Ex 24:6-8; Lv 14:4-6 20saying, This is the blood of the covenant that God has commanded for you. # Ex 24:8; Mt 26:28 # Ex 24:8 21In the same way, he sprinkled the tabernacle and all the articles of worship with blood. # Ex 29:12; Lv 8:15 22According to the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. # Lv 17:11
23Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves to be purified with better sacrifices than these. # Heb 8:5 24For the Messiah did not enter a sanctuary made with hands (only a model # Or antitype, or figure of the true one) but into heaven itself, so that He might now appear in the presence of God for us. # Rm 8:34; Heb 7:25; 8:2 25He did not do this to offer Himself many times, as the high priest enters the sanctuary yearly with the blood of another. # Heb 9:7; 10:19 26Otherwise, He would have had to suffer many times since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, # Mt 24:3; 28:20; 1Co 10:11 for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of Himself. # Heb 4:3; 7:27 27And just as it is appointed for people to die once — and after this, judgment # Gn 3:19; 2Co 5:10 — 28so also the Messiah, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, # Is 53:12; 1Pt 2:24 will appear a second time, # Mk 8:38; 1Th 4:16 not to bear sin, but # Lit time, apart from sin, to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him. # Mt 26:28; 1Co 1:7; Ti 2:13
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