Hebrews 9:14

how much more Again we have the characteristic word the key-note as it were of the Epistle.

the blood of Christ which is typified by "the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness" (Zechariah 13:1).

who through the eternal Spirit If this be the right rendering the reference must be to the fact that Christ was "quickened by the Spirit" (1 Peter 3:18); that "God gave not the Spirit by measure unto Him" (John 3:34); that "the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him" (Luke 4:18); that He "by the Spirit of God" cast out devils (Matthew 12:28). For this view of the meaning see Pearson on the Creed, Art. iii., and it is represented by the reading "Holy" for Eternal in some cursive mss. and some versions. It may however be rendered "by anEternal Spirit," namely by His ownSpirit by that burning love which proceeded from His own Spirit and not by a mere "ordinance of the flesh" (Hebrews 9:10). In the Levitic sacrifices involuntary victims bled; but Christ's sacrifice was offered by the will of His own Eternal Spirit.

without spot Christ had that sinless perfectionwhich was dimly foreshadowed by the unblemished victims which could alone be offered under the Levitic law (1 Peter 1:19).

from dead works See Hebrews 6:1. If sinfulworks are meant, they are represented as affixing a stainto the conscience; they pollute as the touching of a dead thing polluted ceremonially under the Old Law (Numbers 19:11-16). But all works are "dead" which are done without love. It is to be observed that the writer true to the Alexandrian training which instilled an awful reverence respecting Divine things attempts even less than St Paul to explain the modus operandi. He tells us that the Blood of Christ redeems and purifies us as the old sacrifices could not do. Sacrifices removed ceremonial defilement they thus "purified the flesh:" but the Blood of Christ perfects and purifies the conscience (Hebrews 10:22) and so admits us into the Presence of God. The "howcan this be?" belongs to the secret things which God has not revealed; we only know and believe that so it is.

to serve the living God Not to serve "dead works" or a mere material tabernacle, or fleshly ordinances, but to serve the Living God who can only be truly served by those who are "alive from the dead" (Romans 6:13).