Hebrews 9:11-14: Purge Your Conscience from Dead Works
2023-03-11
Hebrews 9:11-12
The earthly tabernacle was made by men. They were Spirit-filled men, like Bezaleel and Aholiab, but still, they were men. Mortal men were made priests. Many of them were godly men through the ages, like Phinehas or Jehoiada, but they were still men.
Jesus Christ was the Son of God who went into the tabernacle made by God Himself. Unlike high priests from years gone by who entered by the blood of animals, Jesus rather entered by His own blood, and He did this once. The blood of Christ is most precious. “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us” (Ephesians 2:13-14). “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:18-19).
The blood of Christ is incorruptible. He is not sinful or mortal man. He is not an animal. He is the most prized of the Father. If Jesus is the most prized of His Father, then His death is the most important thing. If the Father sent His Son to shed His blood, it is sufficient. The Father says that His blood is sufficient to cover all sins because the Son’s value is eternal and without price. We do not dare say that His blood is not enough to pay for our sins, because our Father has said that it was. Furthermore, if the blood of Christ was enough to pay other people’s sins, then we are required to forgive also, because the blood of Christ covered it. We must say that Christ’s blood is enough to pay for all sins. To not forgive others is an affront to the blood of Christ as well as the Father Himself.
Once again, we see that the Son entered into the holiest once. He ended endless sacrifice and days of atonement.
Moreover, He “obtained eternal redemption for us.” If He redeemed us eternally, there is no need for Him to redeem a second time. This is your eternal security. This puts the burden on Christ to redeem us, and not for us to procure or manage the redemption for ourselves.
Consider the Year of Jubile.
What would happen if there were no Year of Jubile? Slaves would remain enslaved. People’s inheritance would be lost forever. This year was hitting a great big reset button. Consider another example. If nobody would have redeemed Ruth the Moabitess, what would happen to the family and inheritance of Elimelech? They would be unrecoverable. However, with a redeemer, the family name continues. “Then said Boaz, What day thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi, thou must buy it also of Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance” (Ruth 4:5).
These historical examples of redemption were temporary and were shadows of the real thing. Christ eternally bought back that which was otherwise eternally lost. He intervened when all hope was lost.
Hebrews 9:13-14
The blood of bulls of goats were considered enough to sanctify under the old covenant. “Take the Levites from among the children of Israel, and cleanse them. And thus shalt thou do unto them, to cleanse them: Sprinkle water of purifying upon them, and let them shave all their flesh, and let them wash their clothes, and so make themselves clean. Then let them take a young bullock with his meat offering, even fine flour mingled with oil, and another young bullock shalt thou take for a sin offering” (Numbers 8:6-8).
However, compared with the blood of the eternal Son, they are nothing in comparison. We see that Christ with His blood, through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself once before the Father. This is the Trinity at work in the redemption of humankind.
The Spirit of God is eternal. This shows His deity. Even the Son relied on the Spirit in His work in the ministry and at Calvary. Six times in the book of Numbers sacrifices were mentioned as being offered without spot. A like phrase, without blemish, is also repeated. There was a reason those animals had to be perfect. They foreshadowed the Son of God, who became the Son of Man, who also was without spot or blemish.
Our conscience is purged because the blood of Christ was fully accepted of the Father for our sins and dead works. There is no sin debt lingering in our mind; we know that we can say with Jesus, “It is finished” (John 19:30).
Dead works are works that are from some source other than faith in Christ. Dead works are the opposite of what it means “to serve the living God.” We saw the same phrase “dead works” in Hebrews 6:1. There, we repent of dead works to have faith. Here, our conscience is purged from dead works. The sense of guilt for these dead works is gone because we see that Jesus has received the punishment for those things once for all.