Hebrews 9:13-14

THE ATONEMENT

‘For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 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?’

Hebrews 9:13

These verses bring before us, with singular comprehensiveness and vividness, the parallel which is presented by the sacred writer between the Jewish sacrifices and the sacrifice offered by our Lord, alike in their nature and in their effect.

I. The author accordingly is concerned to enforce in the deepest and most touching manner the profound and perfect character of the sacrifice offered by our Lord. For this purpose he depicts in few, but intensely affecting, words the supreme holiness and graciousness, the Divine perfection of our Saviour’s nature.

II. But pass from the value of that which was offered to the spirit and the manner in which the offering was made. Christ, ‘through the Eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God.’ That is to say, it was by the deliberate action of His eternal spiritual nature, by His Divine, as well as human, will that He made Himself that offering.

III. If we would fully apply the argument to ourselves, we must endeavour to realise the fact that the whole Jewish Ritual we have presented to us, though arbitrary and positive in its particular prescriptions, did but serve to bring into prominence what is the central and most terrible reality of life. The rule that without shedding of blood is no remission is not merely a Jewish ceremonial prescription, but may be regarded as a statement of the chief condition of human progress and life. It is more than strange, it seems like child’s play, that men should sometimes, and too often, be found seriously arguing whether human sin demands an expiation and involves such penalties as the Scriptures speak of. The Scriptures only interpret the penalties; the infliction of them is a mere matter of fact, of constant experience.

IV. But let us, in conclusion, take to heart the application to our own life of the Apostle’s appeal.—‘How much more,’ he says, ‘shall the blood of Christ purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?’ In other words, he seems to say, could we but ‘remember the exceeding great love of our Master and only Saviour, Jesus Christ, thus dying for us,’ could we bear always in mind the precious blood He shed, the fact that His very life blood is eternally sprinkled, as it were, upon all things that are true, just, and pure, then, but not till then, should we possess an adequate motive and an adequate power for resisting those evil desires, those corrupt affections, that lack of patience and humility which are our weakness and our shame, and then would our conscience be purged and stimulated to good works.

Dean Wace.

Illustration

‘According to the law, under which the Jews had lived, and which was to them the first principle of existence, they were dependent on the continual shedding of the blood of bulls and of goats to make atonement for their sins and to qualify them for the service of God. If they contracted any ceremonial defilement, especially by that contact with death which was unavoidable in the circumstances of daily life, they required to be sprinkled with water in which the ashes of a burnt heifer had been mixed before they could re-enter the congregation of God’s people. Artificial as, in some respects, these various ceremonial defilements seemed, they none the less corresponded with a deep natural sense of unworthiness in the presence of a God of perfect holiness; and they had succeeded in stamping upon the minds of the Jews, with extraordinary depth, the necessity for the most absolute and scrupulous purity and righteousness in approaching Him. It will be seen, in the light of these considerations, what an immense weight the sacred writer’s argument must needs attach to the sacrifice and bloodshedding of Christ.’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

THE OFFERING OF CHRIST

Such is the irrefragable conclusion of a sublime argument. Christ had come in the flesh and had offered Himself to God.

I. The sacrifice.—This is thus described—‘the blood of Christ.’ Blood is the life of man. This life man had forfeited by violating the Divine law. Christ offered His own life which had fulfilled and honoured the law in all its inexorable requirements. More than that: He possessed the Divine nature—He was personally and really God; and it is this great fact that gives to His death its immortal significance. No mere human blood could atone for human sin. His sacrifice was that of Incarnate God!

II. Its voluntary nature.—Christ offered Himself entirely through His own Divine personality, conjoined with His assumed humanity; and thus willingly submitted Himself to the full penalty of human sin in obedience to His Father’s will (Psalms 40:6; Php_2:6-11). His consent, therefore, as an eternal omniscient Being constituted His sacrifice a Divine oblation of ineffable worth.

III. Its all-powerful character.—It reconciles God to man and man to God (Ephesians 2:13; 2 Corinthians 5:18). But why is the conscience specially mentioned in this Scripture? Because it is the seat of guilt. How it condemns itself for ‘dead works’ when it is made conscious of them by the Divine Spirit! And how wonderfully it is relieved and cleansed by the blood of Christ! Nor this only: when the conscience is thus blessed the purified one readily engages in the service of his reconciled Father. He enters within the veil, and with the precious blood sprinkled on him approaches the Divine throne, and presents himself a ‘living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God.’

Illustration

‘It is the privilege of Christians—a privilege to be exercised in fear and trembling, but not to be foregone—to sanctify every duty, however humble, to intensify every dictate of the conscience, however slight, to strengthen every spiritual aspiration and resolve, by viewing it as united with the Passion and the Death of Christ. The Apostle’s appeal thus imparts into our moral and spiritual life, into every act and every thought of that life, the most intense and vivid of all natural influences, immeasurably heightened by the Divine character and nature of the person by whom it is exercised. There are, indeed, innumerable influences ever around us, thank God, to recall us from evil and to inspire us to good works. Let us cherish them and be thankful for them all. But if we would realise our highest motives and our fullest powers let us never forget the appeal of the Apostle: “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?” ’