Hebrews 9:23

‘It was necessary therefore that the copies of the things in the heavens should be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.'

Thus the copies of heavenly things, all that was involved in the ritual of Israel, had to be cleansed with the shedding of blood. ‘It was necessary' for it had all been connected with what was sinful, and with man in his sinfulness, and sinfulness required death. So if man was to approach God, the means by which he did so must be through the shedding of blood, as he must himself be cleansed by the shedding of blood, for all was connected with sin, and sin demands death. But, because they were only copies, the cleansing could also itself take place through copies and shadows. Those involved were only seeking to enter an earthly Tabernacle, and therefore earthly sacrifices sufficed. Once they sought to enter the heavens it would be a different matter. There was no way of entering Heaven by means of these.

‘But the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.' And here is the crunch. Heavenly things could not be cleansed by the old sacrifices and rituals. They only sufficed on earth. Things which were to be in contact with heavenly places required deeper and better cleansing. The earthly sacrifices were of no avail there. However awesome their presentation, earthly sacrifices were useless for any purification connected with ‘the heavens'. For ‘heavenly things' are a part of the greater Reality outside the reach of the mundane. This is not referring to Heaven itself, but to things connected with ‘the heavens' (epourania), especially such as were transferred from earth.

But why should cleansing be necessary with regard to ‘heavenly things'? In Hebrews 12:23 two of such heavenly things are outlined and directly connected with the mediation of Jesus Christ and the sprinkling of blood (Hebrews 12:24), they are the ‘church of the Firstborn', and ‘the spirits of just men made perfect'. Without the blood of Jesus they could not have entered the heavenlies. For all who would enter Heaven from earth require such cleansing, and it was only because of such cleansing that they were able to enter into the presence of God. The copies could be cleansed with animal blood, but not these. Anything earthly which would enter the heavenly sphere required a better sacrifice, a fuller and more complete sacrifice. To enter Heaven there had to be inward cleansing as well as outward.

And it is indeed because we have experienced such cleansing that we can even now at the present time enjoy lives in heavenly places (epourania) (Ephesians 1:3; Ephesians 2:6). Those who would now in Christ enter ‘the age to come', and come under the Heavenly Rule of God, and into enjoyment of the Spirit, can only do so because of the shedding of His blood, which not only purifies us but enables us to renew and retain such purity (1 John 1:7) as we live in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6, compare Hebrews 1:3) where our citizenship lies (Philippians 3:20), looking not at the things which are seen but at the things that are unseen (2 Corinthians 4:18).

Besides, there is also spiritual wickedness in heavenly places, though of course not in Heaven itself. That comes out in Ephesians 6:12. That too had had to be dealt with at the cross (Colossians 2:15). That also was defeated by the shedding of His blood, and the cleansing made as a result, for in the end all has to have been made clean either by blood or by fire. So in mind here in the reference to ‘the heavenlies' is the spiritual sphere that we enter when we become Christians which is a part of ‘the heavenlies', and where the evil forces of the Enemy carry out their main wickedness. Cleansing in that spiritual sphere requires the sprinkling of the blood of Christ. And that cleansing of the heavenlies too is necessary, for all does finally have to be purified, and earthly sacrifices are not enough to purify these heavenly places.

‘With better sacrifices than these.' Note the plural. Yet we have been told that all was in fact cleansed by the one sacrifice. Why then the plural? Why not ‘a better sacrifice'? The writer possibly has in mind that that the one sacrifice included many sacrifices; there was His humbling of Himself to come into a sinful world, there was His persecution and tribulation within that world, and there were His final sufferings at the cross. All came together in that one sacrifice. Alternately it may be a plural of intensity speaking of something which outdid all other sacrifices, the plural bearing in mind the multiplicity of what it is contrasted with. Just to speak of ‘a better sacrifice' may have been seen as limiting the comparison. By using the plural he demonstrates that the sacrifice of Jesus combines in itself the equivalent of all sacrifices. His sacrifice of Himself was better than all the sacrifices put together.