BY THE SACRIFICE OF
HIMSELF
Hebrews 9:15-28*
Key verse 26 b --But now he has appeared once for all at the
end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself
Introduction: In the previous
paragraph, it is concluded that Christ is the mediator of the new covenant: to
receive the eternal inheritance. Here this theme is further developed. The
conclusion is that Jesus’ death provided the power and source of the new
covenant and it affects all human races.
In the previous section, we also discussed
that Jesus entered the heavenly sanctuary with his own blood. His blood is
powerful enough to cleanse our sin. In this way, Jesus has become the mediator
of the new covenant. In this new covenant, the promised inheritance is fully
secured by the power that sets us free from sin.
The claim that Jesus is the
mediator of the new covenant introduces a ray of conflicts and disturbances.
Who was the mediator of the old
covenant? It was Moses. He was the greatest figure in all of Israel’s history.
He led Israel out of slavery in Egypt, received the Law, and gave it to his people.
God’s confidence in his leadership was the best, and God’s authority and power were with him. No one dared to contest his leadership. He
brought Israel to the door of the Promised Land. His mediator-ship was superb; in human history, there is no other
comparison. For Israel, if there was
anyone on whom they could take pride in, it was Moses; they believed the
promise of Moses and in this belief only was hope.
By introducing Jesus as the
mediator of the new Covenant, whatever Moses represented, the Law and
sacrificial system, the leadership, the hope and covenant, was made to be an
old one, a stale, obsolete, and/or outmoded one. Further, the leadership or
mediator-ship was far inferior to Jesus’.
The belief system that had held
up so long and so firmly in the lives of the Israelites would be shattered to
pieces, if it was found to be true that Jesus offered the New Covenant and was
the Mediator of that New Covenant.
Did they then have to trash the old one? What about the belief that
sustained their lives? Did God destroy their faith in the Law of Moses that He had
called for so long? Was God asking them to
discard their long-held belief in order to accept the new? If not, what does it
mean that Jesus is the Mediator of the New Covenant?
What does the Law of Moses
represent? As I mentioned in the previous lesson, Moses’ Law was the most
explicit and detailed description of the injunction given to Adam. To Adam, God
gave a command: “you shall not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
When you eat of it, you will surely die” (Gen 1). Adam disobeyed the word of
God and faced its consequence—death. So it true. God gave Moses the Law for His
people, Israel. To be His people is to keep the Law in every single instance.
If one violated even a single command, he could not be accepted by God. Only
the means by which he could come to God was with blood.
Actually this is not just the
principle of Israel and Moses’ Law. It is the universal law of human being that
sin brings death and must be paid by
death. This applies to every tribe and nation on the earth. In the Muslim faith, the
essence of their teachings is “do good
and then Allah will accept you into the heaven. If not, you will be dammed”.
It is not just in the religion of
Islam; it is the rule of all pagan beliefs. It is in Confucius’ ideas, in
Buddhism, and in all the shamanic faith. In other words, sin shall be punished
by death. The fate man has is the consequence of sin. This is ingrained in the
depth of what makes man. This is the constitution of man in sin. Paul expresses
this well in Romans 2:4-11.
What is my long-held belief about
the life that leads to eternity in peace? What is thesystem that sustained my
life for so long? Do good and you will be OK and accepted to whomever holds eternity! This is the Law of Moses in
principle and the law that sits in the depth of all human beings.
Jesus is the Mediator of the New Covenant.
It makes all covenants of the past old and stale. The long-held beliefs, based
on the old system of sacrifice, must give way to the New Covenant in Jesus, the One who offered
up the best sacrifice, the sacrifice of himself!
1.
The nature of the will and nature of the covenant
– the death of the benefactor must follow the commands provided by God in the Old
Testament, how this death must include
the shedding of blood in order to finalize the covenant (16-18).
Here the first covenant is
compared to a will. A will is made while a person is living; he makes a will so
that he maintains control of his assets according to his desires after his
death. Here are three controlling ideas: one is the assets that he has now and will
affect after his death. Second is the control he wants to exert over his assets,
even after his death. Third is death that makes such a transition.
If a will is compared to Moses’ covenant, how are these three controlling
ideas comparable to a will?
First is the asset. In vs. 15, it
says that there is a promised eternal inheritance, which is the ultimate goal,
according to the Mosaic covenant. This
is the substance of all the laws, regulations, and sacrifices. If this is not
attainable, however good or reasonable the Law of Moses may be, it would have
no value. To Israel, God said that theywould be His treasured possessions, if they
kept the Law. To them He also said that the land He was giving them would be an eternal
possession. Eternal blessing is the asset contained in Moses’ covenant.
Second is the control he wants to
exert over his assets. Since they could not be pure and holy, sin was the
culprit that thwarted this control over
their inheritance, so the resolution of sin must be sought. In other words, sin
must be paid off. It can be done only by the blood of a sacrifice. If there is no
blood, then no inheritance is forth coming.
Third, for the will to take
effect, the death of the benefactor must come first. Who or what is the benefactor? It is the Mosaic system that
sustains the covenant, carries, and finally delivers the eternal hope. Yet by
itself, it does not secure the will for the eternal inheritance. It must end or
die, so as to bring a new one. As long as it is still in force, the will cannot
be effective so the Mosaic system must end in order for the will to be applied
to the beneficiary. It signifies the end of the first covenant.
How about Moses? If this refers to
him, it is not a coincident that he dies just before the Promised Land.
But there might be another, real benefactor The one who will sacrifice according to the
Law of Moses. There is only one who truly meets the demands of the Law. He died,
not with the blood of animal, but with his own blood. The beneficiary of the
will may now have the eternal inheritance.
What do all these things converge
on? All of these things hang on the shedding of blood, that is, death.
This is reflected in the actual
execution of the Law of Moses. For the sake of clarification, the Law can be
divided into two parts: commandments and
temple sacrifices.
•A seal of promise (19-20)
When Moses proclaimed the
commandments, he sprinkled blood on the scroll and all of the people. The
content of the commandments were judgment and promise. If Israel would keep the
commandments, there would be life; if not, there would be death. This was
proclaimed and sealed by blood. The blood was sprinkled on the commandments and
on all the people as well. This was the seal of death, if one violated the Law.
God did not make any mistake to tell them that death was a sure thing for
anyone who took this lightly or violated His commandments. The word given to
Adam, “when you eat of it, you will surely die” also leaves no other
alternative choice but death. Death seals the injunction of God and makes this command
final.
•The consummation of the promise (temple
sacrifice) (21-22)
Apart from the text, I would like
to address a little bit of the Law of Moses. The commandments are composed of
do’s and don’ts to control or govern our lives. This is closely linked to
rewards, either for blessing or for
judgment. These are called directives. There is another set of commandments
that are totally focused on how to serve and meet God. It is about the temple
ceremony. The consummation of the ceremonies was the killing of an animal and
shedding all of its blood for the purpose of purification. This blood was
sprinkled over everything in the temple, especially over all of the articles of
the Most Holy Place, including the priest who goes in. If anyone, even the high
priest, presented himself before God without the shedding of blood, he would
die; there was no exception to this law.
Isn’t it strange that God includes
this ceremonial law in the Law of Moses? Wasn’t the commandment sufficient
enough before God gave this part of the
Law? God knew that it was a sure thing that they would all die, according to
the commandments. He would not or could not let that happen according to His
righteous judgment. If God let it happen as the commandment dictates, all would
die. This is why God included the ceremonial law. In it, God kept a channel open
for sinners to come to Him. This is the remedy for what the commandments could not do: the remedy of blood; no blood, no
forgiveness, and no remedy for sinful men to come to the God of holiness.
Like this, the injunction is
sealed by blood and the remedy for the violation of that injunction is also
sealed by blood. The blood speaks for nothing but the death of a life.
What is the conclusion?
V22. In fact, the law requires
that nearly everything be cleansed with blood and, without the shedding of
blood, there is no forgiveness.
2.
The new covenant, by the nature and quality of
heavenly things (23-25)
In v23, the copy of the heavenly
things is the earthly tabernacle or temple. In the earthly temple, as we
discussed, the sacrifice of life was a must. Likewise, for the heavenly things
also the sacrifice of a life is required. Further, the sacrifice must be better
than animal’s blood, so it was the blood of the Son of God, Jesus, that was
needed. He was innocent, pure, and fully
obedient to the Father, but he gave his life on the cross. It was not in a man-made
temple ; it was on Golgotha, looking
into heavens. On the cross, his blood dripped and dripped on his face, his
shoulder and arms, his body, and his
legs. He shed all of his blood. He did not curse those who crucified him, but rather he
shouted, “my God, my God why have you forsaken me”. Unto the Father who is in
heaven, he sacrificed himself as the ransom for sinners. He is the best
sacrifice because he was sinless, pure,
and fully obedient to the Father. He is the better than an animal because he was clothed in and
shared our flesh and blood.
Was God’s righteousness and
holiness propitiated? In Philippians 2:8-9, we read "And being found in
appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death
on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the
name that is above every name…" God was extremely happy to exalt Jesus to
the highest place. His righteousness and holiness is met fully in Jesus Christ.
How powerful is the blood of
Jesus? How does the blood of Jesus make the new covenant?
3.
The power of Jesus’ sacrifice (26-28)
It is strange that Jesus died on the cross only once and yet
his blood is affecting so many who
believed back then. How about now? His blood, shed on the cross so long ago,
more than 2000 years, is still effective to me as well? If I put my hands on a
lamb and kill it, might it make the death of Jesus who died so long ago more
real for me?
V26b. Now he has appeared - This
means that he has been there along,
patiently waiting for the right time for the work. The time came at the end of
ages. The age was ending and a new age was begun by Jesus’ sacrifice, so it is a
new covenant and a new age. His blood is effective from the age of Adam until the final days of this age.
By his sacrifice, Jesus did away
with sin. Sin, its power, its consequences, is totally nullified and thrown
away. In other words, he redeemed those who believe him thoroughly, completely,
and with finality. This finality of salvation is expressed in John 5:24 - “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word
and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has
crossed over from death to life”.
V27-28. One might raise the
question: how can Jesus’ blood affect me
now after more than 2000 years?
The answer is in the time-line
God gave each human being. All men, without any exceptions, have gone down this
path since Adam. This is the path: life, death, and facing judgment. God made
it this way. No one can live twice, no
one can die twice, and no one shall be judged twice. In Hinduism, life is a
cycle, repeating life-death and coming back to another life and another death.
But God said to Adam, “when you eat of it, you will surely die”, so he died and
faced judgment. Without any exceptions, all human beings follow the same time–line,
a single life, one death, and one judgment. There was a TV series called “One Life
to Live”. The singleness of life is also applied to Jesus; he came once and he
died once for all who live only once and then face judgment. In place of the
single death that each man shall face, in place of the single judgment that all
men shall face, Jesus died and faced judgment; he sacrificed his life only once and faced the
judgment only once. In this singleness of the time-line and the singleness of
how Jesus’ death, the whole human race, from Adam to many yet come, are
redeemed. After all, it is God’s will to do so.
What is the last event of the human
time line? It is judgment; the judgment of either eternal condemnation, or eternal blessing. Jesus’ life will clearly determine
what the outcome shall be of those who trusted him.
V28
Since Jesus is sitting at the
right hand of God, it is clear that we who believe in him shall inherit the eternal
blessing.
How powerful it is, the blood
that Jesus shed on the cross at Golgotha! It is the power of God for all who
believe. It is foolish to deny or
discredit the blood of Jesus.
Jesus, the Son of God, is the
mediator of the new covenant for all human races. His blood sacrifice is
effective to all who believe.
Amen
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