Superiority of the new covenant.
The advent of the Messiah has removed the defects suggested by the Mosaic ritual. He has obtained for the true Israel those great spiritual blessings which "the first covenant" was powerless to bestow. These verses indicate various elements of superiority. The new covenant has provided—
I. A BETTER HIGH PRIEST. (Hebrews 9:11) Our priestly Mediator is "Christ," the Anointed. He has been divinely ordained, equipped, and accredited. He is a better High Priest than Aaron, because the Minister of a better dispensation. The "good things" denote the blessings of the new covenant; and these are described as "to come," because they had been always premised and expected in connection with the advent of the Messiah. How joyful the tidings to our guilty, sin-deflowered, distracted world, that its true Priest has "come"! He has assumed our nature; he has lived and died; he has risen and ascended; he has "entered in once for all" into the true sanctuary.
II. A NOBLER TABERNACLE. (Hebrews 9:11) The sacred tent of the Hebrews had, doubtless, many excellences. It was a costly erection. Its arrangements were "a parable" (Hebrews 9:9) which instructed the Jews in spiritual truth. The ark was an emblem of the Divine majesty. The cherubic figures were "cherubim of glory," for Jehovah dwelt in symbol between them. Yet, after all, the Jewish tabernacle was only an earthly structure. It was "made with hands." But our High Priest ministers in "the greater and more perfect tabernacle." The place of his priestly service is the highest heavens. The true tabernacle is "not of this creation;" it is in the unseen—in the immediate presence of Jehovah. And the work of Christ there is to interpose and intercede for his people. Every act of saving power results directly from the expression of his will, as our Advocate at the bar of God.
III. A RICHER SACRIFICE. (Hebrews 9:12-14) Salvation comes to us as the result of satisfaction rendered to Divine justice. We are not saved by receiving Christ's doctrine, or by observing a Christian ritual, or by following Christ's example, or by imbibing moral influence from him as a Teacher and Martyr. Christ saves us "by the sacrifice of himself." As he laid down his life for us, and as "the blood is the life," he is said to have "entered into the holy place" "through his own blood." How much richer and more powerful is this blood than that which was shed upon the brazen altar of the tabernacle! The latter contained only the principle of brute life. But Christ's is:
1. Human blood. Our High Priest is a real man, woman-born—our own mother's Son. He is "bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh." So he yielded himself up intelligently and voluntarily as our Sacrifice.
2. Holy blood. Jesus "offered himself without blemish unto God" (Hebrews 9:14). His earthly life was absolutely faultless. He is the only perfect specimen of humanity that has ever lived upon earth—the one "Son of man" who did not share in human corruption and condemnation.
3. Heavenly blood. The Man Christ Jesus had an "eternal Spirit" (Hebrews 9:14); i.e. he possessed the Divine nature. He is personally and literally God. And it is his Deity that gives to his death its marvelous significance. No creature-blood could atone for our sins; but the sacrifice of Christ is of infinite value, because there resides in him" the power of an endless life."
IV. A MORE THOROUGH CLEANSING. (Hebrews 9:13, Hebrews 9:14) The writer concedes that the Levitical sin offerings did purify. One purpose of their appointment was that they might effect legal or ceremonial cleansing. "The blood of goats and bulls," which was presented for the collected guilt of Israel once a year, consecrated the Jew ceremonially to the worship and service of Jehovah. In like manner the sprinkling of "the ashes of a red heifer," mixed with water, removed legal defilement from the person who had touched a dead body (Numbers 19:2-9). But the blood of Christ purifies from a deeper pollution. It cleanses the "conscience." It is the God-provided solvent for the stains of sin. It can
"Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart."
This blood purifies from "dead works"—those deeds which are done by dead souls, and which, however excellent some of them may appear when viewed in themselves, are yet of no avail to recommend to the Divine favor. Under the new covenant the conscience is cleansed so thoroughly that the service of God becomes a constant joy to the believer's soul. The Divine statutes become his "songs," and he learns to "run in the way of God's commandments."
V. A MORE BLESSED REDEMPTION. Some of the positive elements of the Christian salvation are indicated in these verses. Those had not been "made manifest" under the old covenant.
1. Perfect access to God. The subject of access is the nerve-thought of this whole section of the treatise. The worshipper under the new covenant, being cleansed through the "one offering" of Christ, is admitted into the immediate presence of Jehovah. He stands within the "second veil," that veil being now "rent in twain" (Romans 5:1, Romans 5:2).
2. Full freedom to serve God. (Hebrews 9:14) A guilt-stained soul can perform only "dead works;" but the spirit that is washed in the blood of Christ's atonement begins immediately to be of use to its Redeemer. Oar High Priest has shed his blood, not only to render us safe, but to make us holy; not only to deliver us from God's wrath, but from our own wickedness. So soon as Christ destroys "the body of sin" within us, we discover that it is our "reasonable service" to present our persons "a living sacrifice."
3. The gift of eternal life. (Hebrews 9:12) The gospel salvation redeems both soul and body, finally and for ever. It saves, not only from the curse of the Law, but from all evil. "Eternal redemption" expresses the sum total of the benefits which accrue from Christ's mediation, and includes the consummation of the plan of grace in the heavenly world. It denotes "the salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory."