GOD HAS SPOKEN BY HIS SON
Meditations in Hebrews
Hebrews 9:13
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THE next two verses continue the expositions of the eternal redemption Christ has won for his people, and opens up the great blessings it brings for them. Verse 13, by its exposure of the ineffective nature of the Old Testament religion, prepares us for the glorious perfection of the new way in Christ.

We are told that the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctified and cleansed the people outwardly. This is a reference to the economy of sacrificial ritual ordained of God in the Old Testament. It also informs us of the limit of their purpose and efficacy. These sacrifices achieved something, but this was very little compared with what was needed. We sinners need cleansing of soul, and to be washed clean in our inner being of the defilement our many sins have brought on us. We need to be purged clean of sin so that we might receive the pronouncement of God that we are clean in his sight. Instead all that these sacrifices of animals achieved was ceremonial and outward cleansing. These sacrifices only made a person fit to join in the worship of the Old Testament, and to cause God to be merciful for a short period of time, after which the sacrifices, many of them, had to be repeated. The soul was not cleansed and the payment of the debt sin deserved before God remained, and no free entrance could be made by the people into the presence of God.

In this assessment of the Old Testament religion and ritual we come face to face with things that are very important to understand. The point at issue is the question as to what true saving religion is, and the question as to what brings us into a right and safe relationship with God.

God looks for what is described in the Bible as a clean heart. This is not expressing anything about the physical organ that pumps blood around the body, but describes the heart and core of our being. It is here that God requires cleanness, and it is this inner being that is defiled by sin and must be washed from all defilement of sin. The Bible also reveals that such stains of sin on our inner being are not washed away as easily as we imagine.

Human beings find it easy to imagine that outward works of ceremonial religion and outward acts of service to God and to others wash the defilement from our inner being. So attendance on the ordinances of religion with diligence, and the giving of time and energy to the service of God and to charitable actions are engaged in, and by these it is thought acceptance before God and the cleansing of our hearts may be achieved. We venerate as saints those who are most excellent and diligent at these activities, but these outward acts give no real indication of the inward state of the heart, and if a person is relying on these alone for God's acceptance and the forgiveness of sins, then there will be for them a sad disappointment. This does not mean that these things are valueless, or unnecessary, nor does it mean that these actions are not good and what God wants to see in the lives of his servants. All that is being asserted is that these things do not make us right before God because they can't cleanse the inner being from sin.

The extension of this human belief is that religious ceremonial like baptism achieves this inner cleansing by virtue of the priestly action of the priest who performs the sacrament. This is the mistake that the Jews made. God had ordained all the sacrifices of animals which was the substance of their religion, and these sacrifices spoke important truth which needed to be understood and received. However, the Jews came to believe that God accepted them as cleansed from sin just by virtue that they had carried out correctly the religious ceremonial laid down. This was bad enough, but they then went on to imagine that their inner being and thoughts and feelings did not matter. It did not occur to them that God looked for an inner being which sought to obey and love God.

This same folly has been evident in the church all down the ages. Religious ceremonial carried out in the appointed way is seen to be that which secures eternal salvation, but this is not true. The outward physical act of baptism cannot and does not cleanse the soul from sin. It is only an outward sign pointing to inner spiritual reality. It is a seal from God that if the inner spiritual reality is present, then there is true washing. The inner spiritual reality is a dependence on the blood of Christ to cleanse from sin, and wash clean the inner being. Baptism must be engaged in with faith, not in the water sprinkled by the priest, but the blood of Christ sprinkled by the Holy Spirit on the soul, and the heart trusting in this blood of atonement alone.

So we have to understand that religious activity, though good and ordained of God, is merely an outward expression, and can not of itself cleanse the soul and gain God's declaration of acceptance. These things can't cleanse the conscience and give peace. These things are unable to save the soul. True religion is something that is accomplished inwardly by the Holy Spirit, creating repentance towards God, and a deep sense of the unworthiness of our being. Further true religion is that which leads us to Christ outside ourselves as the one who cleanses our inner being, and is a religion that places all trust in Christ and his cleansing blood. The next verse leads us into this wonderful revelation.