GOD HAS SPOKEN BY HIS SON
Meditations in Hebrews
Hebrews 9:16,17
-----

WE come now to two very confusing verses mainly due to the misleading translations given to them. This is specially true of the New International Version translation where what seems to have governed the translation is that of making it fit our human institutions. The NIV translated these two verses in terms of human will making. In fact the apostle had nothing like this in mind, and surely the context would have forced the translators to have rejected this way of translation. The whole passage is about God's covenant with sinners. It is about God's arrangement and agreement with sinners as to how we may be reconciled to himself. The idea of human will making is misleading and unhelpful.

I think it would be helpful here to give a literal translation of the two verses.

"For where there is a covenant death to be offered (offering of death) necessity (is necessary) of making covenant (to ratifying the covenant)."

"for a covenant over dead (ratified by death) is firm, for never has it (the covenant) strength when the making covenant (that which makes or seals the covenant) lives;"

Now the literal translation makes very difficult reading and needs filling out as I have attempted to do in the words printed in brackets, but seen in the context of the argument the apostle is making, a very reasonable understanding can be arrived at, which not only fits the context but enlarges our understanding of the excellence and meaning of Christ's death.

The first thing to establish is that the word translated 'will' in the NIV and 'testament' in the AV is the word used for covenant everywhere else in the Bible, and always in terms of covenant made by God with sinners. This surely establishes the parameters of the apostle's thinking. He is still thinking about God's covenant with sinners - God's arrangement and agreement with sinners as to how they can be reconciled with himself.

Throughout the Bible the principle is set forth that the death of a victim given in sacrifice is the means by which sin is purged in God's eyes, and the sinner accounted righteous before God. When Adam and Eve sinned God covered their nakedness with the skins of animals, and this is a highly symbolic act. The skins of animals pointed to death in Eden which was totally alien to it, and the covering of Adam's nakedness is symbolic of covering his sin, i.e. atonement for his nakedness which revealed his sin and the knowledge of sin he had found, and from this it can be deduced that God killed the animals, whose skins clothed Adam and Eve, as a sacrifice of atonement in order that Adam and Eve may still communicate with God.

Then when we come to Abel and Cain's sacrifice we find Cain's sacrifice of produce from the fields unaccepted, but Abel's blood sacrifice accepted by God so that Abel is able to approach God and know his favour. From here on in the Old Testament sacrifice is set forth as the means by which the sinner is accepted before God, and this establishes the point the apostle is making here.

It is God's covenant with sinners - his agreement and arrangement, that it is only by the death of the one sealing the covenant, that sinners can be forgiven and accepted before God. The death of the one that makes the covenant effective is a necessity. Without death atoning for sin there can be no just cancelling of the sin by God. It is the death of the victim sealing the covenant that makes the covenant firm and gives it strength, that is makes it effective, for the purpose of reconciling the sinner to God.

Throughout the Bible this principle is always seen. We find it difficult to appreciate that God is unable through his holiness and justice to pass over sin. Sin must be punished in order to uphold the sanctity of God's law, and uphold the strict justice of God. As the penalty for sin is death, death for that sin must follow before the sin can be purged. If the sinner had to suffer the just deserving of sin, it would mean eternal death, and this is not salvation; but still the sin must be purged by death, so in God's covenant with sinners, the death of an innocent victim takes the place of the sinner. It should horrify us when we look into the Old Testament and see how many millions of animals had to give their lives for the atonement of the people of Israel. They were not the one sinning, but the penalty for the sin of the sinner was transferred to them and they had to die. This should make us hate our sin with holy hatred, even when we accept the blessing we receive by the sacrifice.

What the apostle is arguing for here is that God's covenant to reconcile sinners to himself cannot be ratified or sealed without death atoning for sin. The fact is that animal sacrifices, even the billions of them, never could atone for the sin of humanity, and this is why a better sacrifice had to be provided. The wonder is that God provided such a sacrifice, and the provision was the life of his only begotten Son. How it should make us hate our sin because our release from its penalty made it necessary for God's Son to take our nature and die in our place and bear all the punishment we deserve.

What amazing grace and love do we see here. How could God so love me so much, a deep dyed sinner, as to give Jesus to take my place and pay price that my sin had and has occurred, and do it so willingly. O the suffering my Saviour endured for me, but what joy that that suffering death sealed up God's covenant for me, and achieved my free forgiveness and the purging of all my sin. This is so for all who are called by God's grace to faith in Christ.