The Perfect Day of Atonement

Hebrews 9:11-21

 

INTRODUCTION:  Spurgeon stated, “Scripture teaches us…that the blood produces life – that life lies in the blood. Blood, therefore , is the mysterious link between matter and spirit. How is it that the soul should in any degree have alliance with matter through blood, we cannot understand; but certain it is that this is the mysterious link which unite these apparently dissimilar things together, so that the soul can inhabit the body, and the life can rest in the blood”

 

The Old Testament and Blood – Some resent as crude or primitive in character – No better symbol of  the principle of life and death than blood.

 

THESIS  Christ’s blood takes away all our sins.  

 

TEXT

  • The letter to the Hebrews was written to show that Jesus is superior to all the Old Testament forms. 
  • 11–12. First, Christ, our Great High Priest  has opened the inner sanctuary of the heavenly tabernacle, quite in contrast to the closed sanctuary of the earthly. The reference in verse 12 to the holy place (Gr ta hagia) needs to be understood as the Holy of Holies.
  • 13–14. For if the blood of bulls … sanctifieth. The total efficacy of Christ’s sacrifice is now demonstrated by the incredible fact that the animal sacrifices effected a cleansing. The blood of bulls and of goats obviously makes reference to the activities within the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement (Lev 16:5ff.), when the high priest sprinkled first the blood of a bull for his sins and then the blood of a goat for the sins of the people. The ashes of a heifer refers to the ceremony involving the red heifer (Num 19). A heifer would be taken outside the camp, killed, and then burned. As it was burning, the priest would throw cedar, hyssop, and scarlet wool upon it. Afterwards, the ashes would be gathered and stored outside the city. Whenever anyone became ceremonially unclean because of contact with a dead body, these ashes would be mixed with water to constitute a “water of separation” or “water for impurity” (NASB) and sprinkled upon this one to the purifying of the flesh. (Kent, p. 172). “Perhaps this particular practice was selected because it illustrates so clearly the largely ceremonial nature of the purity provided by Old Testament sacrifices”
  • How much more shall the blood of Christ … purge your conscience. If the rituals of the Old Testament tabernacle possessed merit, even as an outward, ceremonial cleansing, how much superior the merit of Christ’s shed blood will be!
  • 15. For this cause he is the mediator of the new testament. Because of His blood, His death, Christ has accomplished what the Old Covenant could not.
  • He effectuated the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament. The Old Testament sacrifices could not take away sin (10:4); they merely made an atonement, a covering for sin. Christ’s sacrifice expiated all those past sins that had received atonement. The Old Testament sacrifices might be compared to the writing of a check. The paper upon which it is written is practically worthless. Yet, it is used and accepted in place of money, since it is backed by what has been deposited in the bank. Christ’s death was deposited from the foundation of the world as that which backed the Old Testament sacrifices. With Christ’s death upon the cross, the deposit was released and all the past checks were honored and paid.
  • 16–17. An illustration of a will or testament. The word is the same as that used in 8:6–7, for a covenant (Gr diathēkē), but its usage here is obviously different The usual Greek usage of this word (rare in New Testament usage, however) is that of a will. Such is its usage here, for this testament required the death of its maker.
  • Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood. Verse 18 establishes the thought for the next several verses. Even the Old Covenant was activated by death and the shedding of blood. At the confirmation of the Law, Moses ratified it by sprinkling both the Book of the Covenant and the people with blood, saying, This is the blood of the testament (cf. Ex 24:8; and Christ’s words in establishing the New Testament, Mt 26:28). Likewise, when the tabernacle was finished, both it and its vessels were dedicated by the sprinkling of blood.
  • The law seems to require that everything be purged with blood. And there is no remission (Gr aphesis), forgiveness, without the shedding of blood.

 

 

LET US OBSERVE THAT WE HAVE A BETTER HIGH PRIEST (VERSE 11)

·        Priest to stand between God and Man – Represents Man toward God.

·        Jesus the perfect God – Man stands for us. 

·        Priest had access to the presence of God…Day of Atonement – Jesus opens up heaven for us, not just the holy of holies. 

·        Roman Catholicism - teaches an incomplete atonement.  The believer is left in a state in which it is impossible to have an assurance of salvation….We still need popes and priests to stand for us before God.

·        Murray, 51 - According to Romish theology, all past sins both as respects their eternal and temporal punish­ment are blotted out in baptism and also the eternal punish­ment of the future sins of the faithful. But for the temporal punishment of post-baptismal sins the faithful must make satisfaction either in this life or in purgatory.

·        Hebrews 1:3  And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high; 

·        Romans 8:1   There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 

 

Application:  You can come directly into the presence of the living God today by the work of Jesus Christ…

 

 

SECONDLY, LET US OBSERVE THAT WE HAVE THE PERFECT ATONEMENT IN CHRIST (12-14)

·        OBTAINED “ETERNAL REDEMPTION”  Everlasting redemption – The price for freedom has been paid….

1.     Ephes. 2:4-5  But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,  [5] even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 

2.     6.     Hebrews 5:9  And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, 

3.     7.     Hebrews 10:14   For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. 

4.     8.     1 John 4:9   By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 

·        Dr. Wm. C. Robinson writes (quoted in Bottner, p. 41)  “In the very being of God Himself there are eternal love relationships.  ‘God is love.’  And hence out of that self-moving and self-motivated love ever existing between the Persons of the adorable Trinity love came forth into this world of sin.  Out of God’s great eternal love, out of the heart of the Trinity came the love of Calvary.  Before the foundation of the world He did in love predestinate us unto the adoption of sons through Jesus Christ unto Himself (Eph 1:4-5).  The eternal Son brought the love of heaven into this world of hate, and lited it so high on that hill called a skull that every nation shall behold its light, every age be mellowed by its glow.”

·        Bottner (Atonement, p. 37)  puts it well, “The cross is not a compromise, but a substitution; not a cancellation, but a satisfaction, not a wiping off, but a wiping out in blood and agony and death.  Thus mercy does not cheat justice.  Holiness is rewarded, sin is punished, and the moral order of the universe is maintained in its perfection.”

Application:  Jesus’ blood provides no half way salvation…But full and eternal redemption..

 

THIRDLY,  LET US OBSERVE THAT WE ARE THE HEIRS OF HIS LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT (15-21)

·        Jesus has provide an inheritance for his children… A testament has no force until the testator is dead

·        Romans 5:8-11   But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  [9] Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.  [10] For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.  [11] And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. 

 

Application:  Are you his child, his heir, then live like one who has been purchased, like on bound for heaven.

 

CONCLUSION

Christ’s blood takes away all our sins.   No half way salvation.

 

WE HAVE A BETTER HIGH PRIEST (VERSE 11)

THE PERFECT ATONEMENT IN CHRIST (12-14)

WE ARE THE HEIRS OF HIS LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT (15-21)

 

Fire, sweeping across a grassy field…Firefighters trapped….Can not outrun…One takes a match and turns his back on the approaching fire and lights the grass in front of him….After the grass is burnt they step on it…The approaching inferno from behind stops One place to stand in safety…

 

Jesus is all our hope and life…