GOD HAS SPOKEN BY HIS SON
Meditations in Hebrews
Hebrews 9:14a
-----

HAVING spoken of the ineffectiveness of ceremonial and outward religion to cleanse the soul and quieten the conscience, the apostle goes on to speak of the perfection of Christ. Here we have more than can properly be considered in one meditation, and so our consideration of verse 14 will be spread over two meditations.

In tackling this verse I feel the most helpful way will be to look at each sentence and phrase before drawing all our thoughts together. In this way we are less likely to miss things that are important, and we will obtain a fuller appreciation of all that is being revealed here.

The first things that is brought forth for consideration is the first three words "How much more". The apostle does not despise the faith of the Old Testament. He does not seek to denigrate something that was given and ordained by God. There is no doubt that the Old Testament economy, properly understood and lived, brought great benefits to the soul. It taught the need of cleansing from sin, and that sin could only be cleansed by life being given in death. It was prophetic in nature pointing forward always to the sacrifice prepared by God for the full purging of sin. So in all this it brought great benefits to the Jews. The tragedy was that the Jews did not benefit as they could and should from what they had been given, and they presumed on the goodness of God, and ignored the fact that the religion given them taught that God required holiness in the inner being. So if the Old Testament religion had so much blessing, the revelation of Christ much more presents the soul with far, far greater blessing.

'The blood of Christ' is the next phrase for our consideration. In the Old Testament we are taught specifically, and symbolically through the sacrificial system, that without the shedding of blood there is no remission or forgiveness of sins. A person can not be made right before God without the shedding of blood in death. This is because we are all sinners and the wages or the punishment of sin is death. The soul that sins must die, unless the sin is purged, because sin deserves death. This is also taught in the account of Adam's sin in the opening chapters of Genesis. Adam was told that if he broke the command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he would suffer death as the penalty. He did disobey, and death followed, not only on Adam but on all his posterity. Death entered the world at that time and has been with us ever since, and if sin is not purged by blood shed in death, then eternal death, which is separation from God and all that is good, will follow.

The blood represents the life of the body and the person. When it is poured out of the body, then death has to follow. So the blood of the sacrifice presented to God, as it was when the High Priest once a year sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice on the mercy seat in the most holy place of the tabernacle, is evidence to God that a death has been suffered in atonement for sin, and on this proof God forgives sin. The blood of animals was not sufficient to permanently atone for sin. It was only a token which God accepted in Old Testament times until the true sacrifice which Christ made was offered. The blood of Christ, therefore, speaks of the death of Christ for the sins of the world. The blood of Christ poured out on the cross is evidence that the ultimate sacrifice has been made, and that a sufficient life has been given up to atone for sin, and meet the just punishment of our holy God upon sin. The blood of Christ is much more valuable than any other blood poured out in sacrifice. The blood of Christ, because it was the blood of the sinless Son of Man, and the blood of the eternal Son of God, is sufficient and totally efficacious to purge the sin of the world. The blood of Christ truly cleanses the believing soul from sin, and causes God to pronounce the sinner to have satisfied the demands of his holy law, and to be righteous in his sight.

This blood of Jesus was offered to God for the sins of the world. We are told here that Christ offered himself unblemished to God. Jesus offered himself as a freewill offering for our sins to God. It is God who has been offended by our sin, and it is God's law that has been broken, so the sacrifice to purge sin must be offered to God. Christ's offering of himself was an unblemished sacrifice, which means that he was a sinless offering, and so could bear the sins of others in their place. The one giving himself as a substitute for the sin of others had to be sinless or unblemished, for only a sinless person could die for the sins of others. If Jesus had sinned just once, he could have only carried the penalty of his own sin, and could not have died for us.

Christ offered himself through the eternal Spirit. This is a peculiar phrase which occurs only here in the Bible. The original does not have the definite article before 'eternal Spirit', and as far as I can judge it is usual in the Bible for the definite article to be used when speaking of the Holy Spirit. There does not seem to be any consensus as to the meaning of this phrase. The way it is printed in our Bibles with the definite article suggests that it is a reference to the Holy Spirit, but it would be only here that the Holy Spirit is referred to as the eternal Spirit. The word eternal is significant in that it is assuring us that the act of atonement for our sins is an eternal operation of the Godhead. It was always the purpose and will of God, Father, Son and Spirit, that the Son should offer himself to the God for the sins of his people.

If the phrase is a reference to the Holy Spirit, then it would suggest that the Holy Spirit was there with Christ to strengthen him for this monumental and terrible task. If the reference is to the Spirit of Christ, it would suggest that it is a reference to his deity, which would give the meaning that the sacrifice of Christ was an offering of the man, Christ, who was divine, and so was of infinite value, and so able to pay the desert of all our sins.

What ever the meaning, from this verse, we still have this wonderful assurance that Christ's sacrifice is an all-sufficient sacrifice and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world, and can take comfort and assurance in our faith in him as Saviour.