stood--consisted in [Alford]; or, "have attached to them" only things which appertain to the use of foods, &c. The rites of meats, &c., go side by side with the sacrifices [Tholuck and Wahl]; compare [Col 2:16].
drinks--([Le 10:9]; ). Usage subsequently to the law added many observances as to meats and drinks.
washings--([Ex 29:4]).
and carnal ordinances--One oldest manuscript, Syriac and Coptic, omit "and." "Carnal ordinances" stand in apposition to "sacrifices" ([He 9:9]). Carnal (outward, affecting only the flesh) is opposed to spiritual. Contrast "flesh" with "conscience" ([He 9:13], ).
imposed--as a burden ([Ac 15:10], ) continually pressing heavy.
until the time of reformation--Greek, "the season of rectification," when the reality should supersede the type ([He 8:8-12]). Compare "better," [He 9:23].
11. But--in contrast to "could not make ... perfect" ([He 9:9]).
Christ--The Messiah, of whom all the prophets foretold; not "Jesus" here. From whom the "reformation" ([He 9:10]), or rectification, emanates, which frees from the yoke of carnal ordinances, and which is being realized gradually now, and shall be perfectly in the consummation of "the age (world) to come." "Christ ... High Priest," exactly answers to [Le 4:5], "the priest that is anointed."
being come an, &c.--rather, "having come forward (compare [He 10:7], a different Greek word, picturesquely presenting Him before us) as High Priest." The Levitical priests must therefore retire. Just as on the day of atonement, no work was done, no sacrifice was offered, or priest was allowed to be in the tabernacle while the high priest went into the holiest place to make atonement ([Le 16:17], ). So not our righteousness, nor any other priest's sacrifice, but Christ alone atones; and as the high priest before offering incense had on common garments of a priest, but after it wore his holy garments of "glory and beauty" ([Ex 28:2], ) in entering the holiest, so Christ entered the heavenly holiest in His glorified body.
good things to come--Greek, "the good things to come," [He 10:1]; "better promises," ([He 8:6]; the "eternal inheritance," [He 9:15]; [1Pe 1:4]; the "things hoped for," [He 11:1]).
by a ... tabernacle--joined with "He entered." Translate, "Through the ... tabernacle" (of which we know) [Alford]. As the Jewish high priest passed through the anterior tabernacle into the holiest place, so Christ passed through heaven into the inner abode of the unseen and unapproachable God. Thus, "the tabernacle" here is the heavens through which He passed (see on [He 4:14]). But "the tabernacle" is also the glorified body of Christ (see on [He 8:2]), "not of this building" (not of the mere natural "creation, but of the spiritual and heavenly, the new creation"), the Head of the mystical body, the Church. Through this glorified body He passes into the heavenly holiest place ([He 9:24]), the immaterial, unapproachable presence of God, where He intercedes for us. His glorified body, as the meeting place of God and all Christ's redeemed, and the angels, answers to the heavens through which He passed, and passes. His body is opposed to the tabernacle, as His blood to the blood of goats, &c.
greater--as contrasted with the small dimensions of the earthly anterior tabernacle.
more perfect--effective in giving pardon, peace, sanctification, and access to closest communion with God (compare [He 9:9]; [He 10:1]).
not made with hands--but by the Lord Himself ([He 8:2]).
12. Neither--"Nor yet."
by--"through"; as the means of His approach.
goats ... calves--not a bullock, such as the Levitical high priest offered for himself, and a goat for the people, on the day of atonement ([Le 16:6], ), year by year, whence the plural is used, goats ... calves. Besides the goat offered for the people the blood of which was sprinkled before the mercy seat, the high priest led forth a second goat, namely, the scapegoat; over it he confessed the people's sins, putting them on the head of the goat, which was sent as the sin-bearer into the wilderness out of sight, implying that the atonement effected by the goat sin offering (of which the ceremony of the scapegoat is a part, and not distinct from the sin offering) consisted in the transfer of the people's sins on the goat, and their consequent removal out of sight. The translation of sins on the victim usual in other expiatory sacrifices being omitted in the case of the slain goat, but employed in the case of the goat sent away, proved the two goats were regarded as one offering [Archbishop Magee]. Christ's death is symbolized by the slain goat; His resurrection to life by the living goat sent away. Modern Jews substitute in some places a cock for the goat as an expiation, the sins of the offerers being transferred to the entrails, and exposed on the housetop for the birds to carry out of sight, as the scapegoat did; the Hebrew for "man" and "cock" being similar, gebher [Buxtorf].
by--"through," as the means of His entrance; the key unlocking the heavenly Holy of Holies to Him. The Greek is forcible, "through THE blood of His own" (compare [He 9:23]).
once--"once for all."
having obtained--having thereby obtained; literally, "found for Himself," as a thing of insuperable difficulty to all save Divine Omnipotence, self-devoting zeal, and love, to find. The access of Christ to the Father was arduous ([He 5:7]). None before had trodden the path.
eternal--The entrance of our Redeemer, once for all, into the heavenly holiest place, secures eternal redemption to us; whereas the Jewish high priest's entrance was repeated year by year, and the effect temporary and partial, "On redemption," compare [Mt 20:28]; [Ep 1:7]; [Col 1:14]; [1Ti 2:5]; [Tit 2:14]; [1Pe 1:19].
He 9:13-28. Proof of and Enlargement on, the "Eternal Redemption" Mentioned in He 9:12
For His blood, offered by Himself, purifies not only outwardly, as the Levitical sacrifices on the day of atonement, but inwardly unto the service of the living God ([He 9:13], ). His death is the inaugurating act of the new covenant, and of the heavenly sanctuary ([He 9:15-23]). His entrance into the true Holy of Holies is the consummation of His once-for-all-offered sacrifice of atonement ([He 9:24], ); henceforth, His reappearance alone remains to complete our redemption ([He 9:27], ).
13. if--as we know is the case; so the Greek indicative means. Argument from the less to the greater. If the blood of mere brutes could purify in any, however small a degree, how much more shall inward purification, and complete and eternal salvation, be wrought by the blood of Christ, in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead?
ashes of an heifer--([Nu 19:16-18]). The type is full of comfort for us. The water of separation, made of the ashes of the red heifer, was the provision for removing ceremonial defilement whenever incurred by contact with the dead. As she was slain without the camp, so Christ (compare [He 13:11]; [Nu 19:3], ). The ashes were laid by for constant use; so the continually cleansing effects of Christ's blood, once for all shed. In our wilderness journey we are continually contracting defilement by contact with the spiritually dead, and with dead works, and need therefore continual application to the antitypical life-giving cleansing blood of Christ, whereby we are afresh restored to peace and living communion with God in the heavenly holy place.
the unclean--Greek, "those defiled" on any particular occasion.
purifying--Greek, "purity."
the flesh--Their effect in themselves extended no further. The law had a carnal and a spiritual aspect; carnal, as an instrument of the Hebrew polity, God, their King, accepting, in minor offenses, expiatory victims instead of the sinner, otherwise doomed to death; spiritual, as the shadow of good things to come ([He 10:1]). The spiritual Israelite derived, in partaking of these legal rights, spiritual blessings not flowing from them, but from the great antitype. Ceremonial sacrifices released from temporal penalties and ceremonial disqualifications; Christ's sacrifice releases from everlasting penalties ([He 9:12]), and moral impurities on the conscience disqualifying from access to God ([He 9:14]). The purification of the flesh (the mere outward man) was by "sprinkling"; the washing followed by inseparable connection ([Nu 19:19]). So justification is followed by renewing.
14. offered himself--The voluntary nature of the offering gives it especial efficacy. He "through the eternal Spirit," that is, His divine Spirit ([Ro 1:4], in contrast to His "flesh," [He 9:3]; His Godhead, [1Ti 3:16]; [1Pe 3:18]), "His inner personality" [Alford], which gave a free consent to the act, offered Himself. The animals offered had no spirit or will to consent in the act of sacrifice; they were offered according to the law; they had a life neither enduring, nor of any intrinsic efficacy. But He from eternity, with His divine and everlasting Spirit, concurred with the Father's will of redemption by Him. His offering began on the altar of the cross, and was completed in His entering the holiest place with His blood. The eternity and infinitude of His divine Spirit (compare [He 7:16]) gives eternal ("eternal redemption," [He 9:12], also compare [He 9:15]) and infinite merit to His offering, so that not even the infinite justice of God has any exception to take against it. It was "through His most burning love, flowing from His eternal Spirit," that He offered Himself [Oecolampadius].
without spot--The animal victims had to be without outward blemish; Christ on the cross was a victim inwardly and essentially stainless ([1Pe 1:19]).
purge--purify from fear, guilt, alienation from Him, and selfishness, the source of dead works ([He 9:22], ).
your--The oldest manuscripts read "our." The Vulgate, however, supports English Version reading.
conscience--moral religious consciousness.
dead works--All works done in the natural state, which is a state of sin, are dead; for they come not from living faith in, and love to, "the living God" ([He 11:6]). As contact with a dead body defiled ceremonially (compare the allusion, "ashes of an heifer," [He 9:13]), so dead works defile the inner consciousness spiritually.
to serve--so as to serve. The ceremonially unclean could not serve God in the outward communion of His people; so the unrenewed cannot serve God in spiritual communion. Man's works before justification, however lifelike they look, are dead, and cannot therefore be accepted before the living God. To have offered a dead animal to God would have been an insult (compare Mal 1:8); much more for a man not justified by Christ's blood to offer dead works. But those purified by Christ's blood in living faith do serve ([Ro 12:1]), and shall more fully serve God ([Re 22:3]).
living God--therefore requiring living spiritual service ([Joh 4:24]).
15. for this cause--Because of the all-cleansing power of His blood, this fits Him to be Mediator ([He 8:6], ensuring to both parties, God and us, the ratification) of the new covenant, which secures both forgiveness for the sins not covered by the former imperfect covenant or testament, and also an eternal inheritance to the called.
by means of death--rather, as Greek, "death having taken place." At the moment that His death took place, the necessary effect is, "the called receive the (fulfilment of the) promise" (so [Lu 24:49] uses "promise"; [He 6:15]; [Ac 1:4]); that moment divides the Old from the New Testament. The "called" are the elect "heirs," "partakers of the heavenly calling" ([He 3:1]).
redemption of ... transgressions ... under ... first testament--the transgressions of all men from Adam to Christ, first against the primitive revelation, then against the revelations to the patriarchs, then against the law given to Israel, the representative people of the world. The "first testament" thus includes the whole period from Adam to Christ, and not merely that of the covenant with Israel, which was a concentrated representation of the covenant made with (or the first testament given to) mankind by sacrifice, down from the fall to redemption. Before the inheritance by the New Testament (for here the idea of the "INHERITANCE," following as the result of Christ's "death," being introduced, requires the Greek to be translated "testament," as it was before covenant) could come in, there must be redemption of (that is, deliverance from the penalties incurred by) the transgressions committed under the first testament, for the propitiatory sacrifices under the first testament reached only as far as removing outward ceremonial defilement. But in order to obtain the inheritance which is a reality, there must be a real propitiation, since God could not enter into covenant relation with us so long as past sins were unexpiated; [Ro 3:24], , "a propitiation ... His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past."
might--Greek, "may receive," which previously they could not ([He 11:39], ).
the promise--to Abraham.
16. A general axiomatic truth; it is "a testament"; not the testament. The testator must die before his testament takes effect ([He 9:17]). This is a common meaning of the Greek noun diathece. So in [Lu 22:29], "I appoint (by testamentary disposition; the cognate Greek verb diatithemai) unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me." The need of death before the testamentary appointment takes effect, holds good in Christ's relation as MAN to us; Of course not in God's relation to Christ.
be--literally, be borne": "be involved in the case"; be inferred; or else, "be brought forward in court," so as to give effect to the will. This sense (testament) of the Greek "diathece" here does not exclude its other secondary senses in the other passages of the New Testament: (1) a covenant between two parties; (2) an arrangement, or disposition, made by God alone in relation to us. Thus, [Mt 26:28] may be translated, "Blood of the covenant"; for a testament does not require blood shedding. Compare [Ex 24:8] (covenant), which Christ quotes, though it is probable He included in a sense "testament" also under the Greek word diathece (comprehending both meanings, "covenant" and "testament"), as this designation strictly and properly applies to the new dispensation, and is rightly applicable to the old also, not in itself, but when viewed as typifying the new, which is properly a testament. Moses ([Ex 24:8]) speaks of the same thing as [Christ and] Paul. Moses, by the term "covenant," does not mean aught save one concerning giving the heavenly inheritance typified by Canaan after the death of the Testator, which he represented by the sprinkling of blood. And Paul, by the term "testament," does not mean aught save one having conditions attached to it, one which is at the same time a covenant [Poli, Synopsis]; the conditions are fulfilled by Christ, not by us, except that we must believe, but even this God works in His people. Tholuck explains, as elsewhere, "covenant ... covenant ... mediating victim"; the masculine is used of the victim personified, and regarded as mediator of the covenant; especially as in the new covenant a MAN (Christ) took the place of the victim. The covenanting parties used to pass between the divided parts of the sacrificed animals; but, without reference to this rite, the need of a sacrifice for establishing a covenant sufficiently explains this verse. Others, also, explaining the Greek as "covenant," consider that the death of the sacrificial victim represented in all covenants the death of both parties as unalterably bound to the covenant. So in the redemption-covenant, the death of Jesus symbolized the death of God (?) in the person of the mediating victim, and the death of man in the same. But the expression is not "there must be the death of both parties making the covenant," but singular, "of Him who made (aorist, past time; not 'of Him making') the testament." Also, it is "death," not "sacrifice" or "slaying." Plainly, the death is supposed to be past (aorist, "made"); and the fact of the death is brought (Greek) before court to give effect to the will. These requisites of a will, or testament, concur here: (1) a testator; (2) heirs; (3) goods; (4) the death of the testator; (5) the fact of the death brought forward in court. In [Mt 26:28] two other requisites appear: witnesses, the disciples; and a seal, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, the sign of His blood wherewith the testament is primarily sealed. It is true the heir is ordinarily the successor of him who dies and so ceases to have the possession. But in this case Christ comes to life again, and is Himself (including all that He hath), in the power of His now endless life, His people's inheritance; in His being Heir ([He 1:2]), they are heirs.
17. after--literally, "over," as we say "upon the death of the testators"; not as Tholuck, "on the condition that slain sacrifices be there," which the Greek hardly sanctions.
otherwise--"seeing that it is never availing" [Alford]. Bengel and Lachmann read with an interrogation, "Since, is it ever in force (surely not) while the testator liveth?"