Hebrews 9:14

Through the eternal Spirit] So AV and RV, suggesting that the Third Person of the Trinity is referred to. In the original the article is wanting, which emphasises the operation rather than the personal being of the Spirit. The spirit is Christ's own spirit, or the Holy Spirit in Christ, and the closest parallels to the expression used here are in Hebrews 7:16 and 1 Peter 4:6; (see note there). The word 'spirit' is employed to contrast the nature and sphere of the operation of Christ's offering with those of the Levitical sacrifices. The latter operate in the region of the flesh (cp. Hebrews 9:13), and are temporary in their effect (see on Hebrews 9:12); the former belongs to the sphere of the spirit and will, effects an inner cleansing of the conscience, and is eternal. Offered himself] 'Himself' is emphatic, being one of the points of contrast. What He offered was His own body on the Cross: see on Hebrews 10:10. Dead works] see on Hebrews 6:1. To cleanse from dead works is to cleanse from the defilement (and the consequences of it) caused by such works, and so to enable the sinner to engage in the service of God.

15. 'By offering Himself Christ has become the Mediator of a new covenant, in order that those who have been called may receive the eternal inheritance that is promised, and the necessary condition of this was the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant by means of a death.' Christ's sacrifice is here represented as having a retrospective efficacy, operating not merely on the past sins of the Hebrew Christians, but on the sins of the OT. saints who lived under the first covenant, and who could not inherit the promises because the first covenant could not remove their transgressions.