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 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

Salvation is a Trinitarian experience. Note how each member of the Godhead is mentioned in this verse. We see God, Christ and the Spirit working in co-operation to make our cleansing possible.

If we ever wonder how Jesus could have gone through all the physical, mental and spiritual anguish of the Cross, the answer is that it was ”through the eternal Spirit”.

This same Spirit lives in every believer and will strengthen us to face each lesser trial. We will never have to go through anything that comes close to what Jesus suffered, but we do walk the way of the Cross. How good to know we are not alone.

 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you (John 14:18).

 But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. ¹² He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. ¹³ The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. ¹⁴ How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

As we have seen before, sin is an ‘inside job’. The problem with the Old Testament sacrifices was that they couldn’t touch the inner life. They could clean up the outside, but not the inside (13,14).

‘What can wash away my stain? Nothing but the blood of Jesus; What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.’ The blood of Jesus is the most powerful cleansing agent in the universe.

Consider how Eugene Peterson renders this wonderful paragraph in ‘The Message’:

But when the Messiah arrived, high priest of the superior things of this new covenant, he bypassed the old tent and its trappings in this created world and went straight into heaven’s “tent”—the true Holy Place—once and for all. He also bypassed the sacrifices consisting of goat and calf blood, instead using his own blood as the price to set us free once and for all. If that animal blood and the other rituals of purification were effective in cleaning up certain matters of our religion and behaviour, think how much more the blood of Christ cleans up our whole lives, inside and out. Through the Spirit, Christ offered himself as an unblemished sacrifice, freeing us from all those dead-end efforts to make ourselves respectable, so that we can live all out for God.

 But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. 

We surely want to thank God for where we live on the prophetic calendar – on this side of the Cross. We are in the days of fulfilment rather than those of expectation. The ”good things” are ”already here”. We are swimming in them; growing in them; inhaling them. They are our ocean, our earth, our atmosphere. We have every spiritual blessing in Christ.

But in another sense we still do live in days of anticipation. The ”good things that are now already here” can be translated as the ”good things that are to come.” Even as we live now in these glorious days of prophetic fulfilment, we know for sure that there’s more to come. With Jesus, the best wine is always kept to the last!

On Monday morning of this week, I switched on the radio just after eight o’clock, and there it was, already playing: the beautiful, soul-stirring music of Sibelius’ ‘Finlandia’. It made me think about the hymn that draws on one of the themes of this piece:

We rest on thee, our Shield and our Defender!
We go not forth alone against the foe;
strong in thy strength, safe in thy keeping tender,
we rest on thee, and in thy name we go;
strong in thy strength, safe in thy keeping tender,
we rest on thee, and in thy name we go.

Yea, in thy name, O Captain of salvation!
In thy dear name, all other names above:
Jesus our righteousness, our sure foundation,
our Prince of glory and our King of love,
Jesus our righteousness, our sure foundation,
our Prince of glory and our King of love.

We go in faith, our own great weakness feeling,
and needing more each day thy grace to know:
yet from our hearts a song of triumph pealing,
“We rest on thee, and in thy name we go”;
yet from our hearts a song of triumph pealing,
“We rest on thee, and in thy name we go.”

We rest on thee, our Shield and our Defender!
Thine is the battle, thine shall be the praise;
when passing through the gates of pearly splendor,
victors, we rest with thee, through endless days;
when passing through the gates of pearly splendor,
victors, we rest with thee, through endless days.

 I always associate these words with Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Peter Fleming, and Roger Youderian, the five young Christian men who were martyred by the Auca Indians, in Ecuador, in January 1956. I believe they sang these words as they prepared to go and meet members of the tribe for the first time. They knew how potentially dangerous their mission was.

It may be that these words today find you at something of a cross-roads. A new beginning lies before you. The prospect may not seem all that threatening, but perhaps the thought of it is daunting? May you find comfort and strength today in the words of Edith Cherry’s wonderful hymn. She said of her verse that it was given to her, and all she had to do was write it down.

 But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. ¹² He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. ¹³ The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. ¹⁴ How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

Isaac Watts took the truth of these verses and expressed them in the lyrics of a wonderful hymn:

Not all the blood of beasts,
  On Jewish altars slain,
Could give the guilty conscience peace,
  Or wash away its stain.

But Christ, the heavenly Lamb,
  Takes all our sins away;
A sacrifice of nobler name,
  And richer blood than they.

My faith would lay her hand
  On that dear head of Thine,
While like a penitent I stand,
  And there confess my sin.

My soul looks back to see
  The burdens Thou didst bear
When hanging on the cursed tree,
  And knows her guilt was there.

Believing, we rejoice
  To see the curse remove;
We bless the Lamb with cheerful voice,
  And sing His bleeding love.

‘The blood of Christ is God’s answer to man’s disturbed conscience. He can be cleansed and know he is forgiven. For all its sophisticated ceremonial rites, first-century Judaism knew no experience of freedom and release from the consciousness of sin.’ Raymond Brown: ‘Christ above all’, p.158.

After this was set up, the priests went about their duties in the large tent. Only the high priest entered the smaller, inside tent, and then only once a year, offering a blood sacrifice for his own sins and the people’s accumulated sins. This was the Holy Spirit’s way of showing with a visible parable that as long as the large tent stands, people can’t just walk in on God. Under this system, the gifts and sacrifices can’t really get to the heart of the matter, can’t assuage the conscience of the people, but are limited to matters of ritual and behaviour. It’s essentially a temporary arrangement until a complete overhaul could be made. The Message.

Under the Old Covenant there was not only (as Raymond Brown says) restricted access to God’s presence, but also partial cleansing and limited pardon. This we see in today’s reading. The sacrificial system couldn’t really touch the inside of a person. Any cleansing was outward and ceremonial.

Also, as the ‘New International version renders verse 7, the sacrifices offered by the high priest were ”for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance.”

The Old Testament law could do nothing for people who are, in P.T. Forsyth’s words: ‘not even stray sheep, or wandering prodigals merely; we are rebels taken with weapons in our hands.’

Our problem is that we have what John Bunyan called ‘a wounded conscience.’ We need a sacrifice that can deal with this. Thank God that in Jesus we have ”a high priest” who ”truly meets our need” (Hebs.7:26a).

‘The sacrifices and offerings of the old covenant could not purify the heart or clear the conscience of the worshiper. Without a clear conscience no one can draw near to God. Only through Christ’s sacrifice and through the Holy Spirit dwelling within us can our consciences be cleared, cleansed.’ Tom Hale: ‘Applied New Testament Commentary’, p.866. (See 10:2, 9:14 and 10:22)

When everything had been arranged like this, the priests entered regularly into the outer room to carry on their ministry. ⁷ But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance.

The reference to the structure and furnishings of the Tabernacle provides a foundation for a description of the annual ‘Day of Atonement.’ For this one day only, each year, only the High Priest could enter the most Holy Place, taking with him the blood of animal sacrifice. (As we have seen previously, he had to sacrifice for his own sins as well as the people’s).

So here we come to the first of three reasons why a better covenant was needed: under the Old Covenant there was limited access to the presence of God.

This was the Holy Spirit’s way of showing with a visible parable that as long as the large tent stands, people can’t just walk in on God. The Message

‘The very presence of that outer tent symbolized the restricted way and limited ministry of the old covenant. A heavy curtain kept ordinary priests out of the inner sanctuary.’ Raymond Brown: ‘Christ above all’, p.153.

May we never lose the sense of wonder and privilege of what Jesus has done for us:

So, friends, we can now—without hesitation—walk right up to God, into “the Holy Place.” Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice, acting as our priest before God. The “curtain” into God’s presence is his body. Hebs.10: 19-21: The Message.

I read an article in which a pastor was saying, ‘In our church I encourage people to gather for prayer, saying, We get to pray!

Perhaps prayer meetings would be more popular if we really understood how remarkable it is to have immediate access to God through the blood of Jesus? Do we just take it for granted?

Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary. ² A tabernacle was set up. In its first room were the lampstand and the table with its consecrated bread; this was called the Holy Place. ³ Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place, ⁴ which had the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark of the covenant. This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. ⁵ Above the ark were the cherubim of the Glory, overshadowing the atonement cover. But we cannot discuss these things in detail now.

Only a few decades ago, it was not unusual for books to be written and sermons to be preached about the various details of the Old Testament tabernacle. These usually came at the subject typologically, demonstrating how Christ fulfilled everything. They were often illuminating, even inspiring. But as Raymond Brown says in his commentary, most interpretations revealed ‘more of the expositor’s ingenuity than the message of Scripture.’

He goes on to quote Calvin:

‘Since nothing is enough for inquisitive men the apostle cuts out any opportunity for subtleties…in case too much discussion of these things might break the thread of his argument…philosophizing beyond reasonable bounds (as some do) is not only futile but also dangerous…we must show discretion and moderation in case we desire to know more than it has pleased God to reveal.’ (‘Christ above all’, p.152).

The comment at the end of verse 5 is quite tantalising. We might wonder what he would have said had he chosen to go into detail. (Rather like we may think, ‘I wish I could have been there for that Bible study Jesus gave the two on the road to Emmaus’: Luke 24: 27&32). But the writer of Hebrews intends to continue with his main aim: to demonstrate the superiority of the substance we have in Christ, over all the Old Testament shadows.

⁷ For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. ⁸ But God found fault with the people and said:

‘The days are coming, declares the Lord,
    when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
    and with the people of Judah.
⁹ It will not be like the covenant
    I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
    to lead them out of Egypt,
because they did not remain faithful to my covenant,
    and I turned away from them,
declares the Lord.
¹⁰ This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel
    after that time, declares the Lord.
I will put my laws in their minds
    and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
    and they will be my people.
¹¹ No longer will they teach their neighbours,
    or say to one another, “Know the Lord,”
because they will all know me,
    from the least of them to the greatest.
¹² For I will forgive their wickedness
    and will remember their sins no more.’

¹³ By calling this covenant ‘new’, he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.

A few years ago my dear Uncle Richard passed away. He was a very influential churchman and lay preacher in the Lancaster area, and a kindly encourager to many. At his funeral service one of my cousins paid a tribute in which he said, ‘My father believed in internal life!’ At least, that’s how I heard it. He obviously meant to say ‘eternal life’, but it came out as ‘internal’. As reflected on this, however, I recognised that it is an appropriate description of the life God gives to His New Covenant people.

What was ”wrong” with the Old Covenant was the people (see verses 7,8). Their hearts were all wrong. They needed internal reconstruction. They required an ‘inside job’. This is what God provided in and through the coming of Jesus. We are no longer a people just trying to keep external laws; we are internally transformed. We are renewed within. We have a new power supply: new appetites, new desires, new ambitions and longings, new abilities. I like to say that the Holy Spirit gives us the want to and the can do.

This is why we can say that in Jesus we have ”a better covenant” (Hebrews 7:22). Jesus is a better Priest, from a better order of Priesthood, and He has inaugurated a better covenant. Why would anyone go back from Him?

‘The old covenant is like the light of a candle; when the sun rises, it is no longer needed.’ Tom Hale: ‘Applied New Testament Commentary’, p.865.