ill the lieavenly holy place, tlie unclean- (.'rcc
The Sacrificen of the Law HEBREWS IX. Jar Inferior to that of CJiitst.
carnal, as an instrument of the Hebrew polity, God, their King, accepting, in minor offences, expiatory victims instead of the sinner, otherwise doomed to death ; spiritual, as Ihe shadow of good things to come (ch. 10. 1). Tlio 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 aud ceremonial disqualifications ; Christ's sacrifice releases from everlasting penal-
—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 (cf. V. 9; ch. 10. 1). not made wltli hands—bnt by the Lord Himself (ch. 8. 2). la. 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 (Leviticus 16. 6, 15), ties (v. 12), and moral impurities on the conscience disqualifying from access to God (v. 14). The purification of the/?esA (the mere outward man) was by "sprinkling;" the washing followed by inseparable connection (Numbers
3/ear 6y 2/ear, 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, viz., the scapegoat ; over it he confessed the people's sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and sent as the sin-bearer into the wilderness out of sight, implying that the atonement eflfected by the goat sin offering (of which the ceremony of the scapegoat is a part, and not distinct from tlie sin offering) consisted in the transfer of the people's sins on the goat, and tlieir consequent removal out of sight. Tlie 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
19. 19). So justification is followed by reneiving. 14. offered himself— The voluntary nature of the offering gives it especial efiicacy. He "througli the eternal Spirit," i.e.. His Divine Spirit (Romans 1. 4, in contrast to His " flesli,"
V. 3; His Godhead, 1 Timothy 3. IG; 1 Peter 3. 18), "His inner personality" [Alford], which gave a free consent to the act, offered Himself. Tlie animals ofl'ered 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 efl Scacy. But He from eternity, with His Divine and everlasting Sjnrit, concurred with the Father's will of redemption by Him. His offering began on tlie altar of the cross, and was completed in His entering the holiest place with His blood. The etci-nity and infinitude of His Divine Spirit (cf. ch. 7. 16) gives eternal ("eternal redemption," v. 12, also cf. v. 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. [CEcolampadius.] without spot—the animal victims had to be without outward blemish ; Clirist on the cross was a victim inwardly and essentially stainless (1 Peter 1. 19). purge— purify from fear, guil*, alienation from Him, and selfishness, the source of dead ivorks (v. 22, 23). your—The oldest MSS. read "our." T'M?(7ate, however, supports English Version reading, conscience—moral religious co;i«cioi(*)ieM. ilcad works—all works done in the natural state, wliich is a state of sin, are dead ; for they come not from living faith in, and love to "the living God" (ch. 11. 6). As contact with a dead body defiled ceremonially (cf. the allusion, " ashes of an heifer," v. 13), so dead works defile the inner consciousness spiritually, to 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 life by the living goat sent away. Modern Jews substitute in some places acock for the goat as an expiation, tlie sins of the offerers being transferred to tlie entrails, and exposed on the house-top for the birds to carry out of sight, as the scapegoat did; the Hebreiv for man and cock being similar, Gebher. [Buxtorf.] by—" througli," as tlie means of His entrance; the key unlocking the heavenly Holy of holies to Him. The Greek is forcible, " through THE blood of His own" (cf. 23). once—"once for all." having obtained—having otitained ; iiV., "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 (cli.
5. 7). None before had trodden the path, eternal—T!ie entrance of our Redeemer, once for all, into the heavenly holiest place, secures eternal redemption to us; whereas t!ie Jewish high priest's entrance was repeated j'ear by year, and the effect temporary and partial, " On redemption," cf. Matthew 20. 28; Ephesians 1. 7; Colossians 1. 11
1 Timothy 2. 5; Titus 2. 14; 1 Peter 1. 19.
13-28. Proof of, and Enlargem f.nt on, the " Eternai, Redemption" mentioned, v. 12. For His blood, offered by Himself, purifies not only outwardly, as the Levitical sacrifices on the day of atonement, but inwardly unto tlie service of the living God (u. 13, 14). His deatli is the inaugurating act of the new covenant, and of the heavenly sanctuary (v. 15-23). His entrance into the true Holy of holies is tlie consummation of His once for all ottered sac-
(cf. Malachi 1. 8), much more for a man not justified by Christ's blood to otter dead works. But tliose purified by* Christ's blood in living faith do serve (Romans 12. 1), and shall more fully serve God (Revelation 22, 3). living God —therefore reciuiring living spiritual service (John 4. 24).
rifice of atonement (v. 21, 2(i); henceforth. His I'eappenrance alone remains to complete our redemption {v. 27, 2S). 13. if—as we know is the case; so the Greek indicative means. Argument from the less to tlie greater. If the blood of mere brutes could purify in any, liowever small a degree, how much more shall inward purification, and complete and eternal salvation, be wiouglit by the blood of Christ, in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godliead 7 aaliesof an heifer-(Numbers 19. lG-18.) The type is lull of comfort for us. Tlie water of separation, made of the ashes of the red heifer, was the provision for removing ceremonial defilement whenever incurred l>i/ contact wilh
1.5. for this cause—llecanse of the all-cleansing power of His blood, this fits Him to be Mediator (ch. 8. (i, ensuring to both i>arties, God and ns, the ratification) of the new covenant, which secures botli forgiveness for the sins not covered by the former imperfect covenant or testament, and also an eternal inheritance to tlie called, by means of death—ratlier, as Greek, " iXeath having talien place." At the moment that His death took place, the necessary elfect la, " the called receive the {fulfilment of the) promise" the dead. As she was slain without the camp, so Christ
(cf. ch. 13. 11 ; Numbers 19. 3,4). The ashes were laid by lor constant use; so the continuaUy cleansing ettocts of
(so Luke 21. 49 uses "promise;" ch. 6. 15; Acts 1. 4); that moment divides tlie Old from the New Testament. Tlie " called" are the elect " heirs," " partakers of the heavenly calling" (ch. 3. 1). redemption of . , . transgression*
Clirlst's blood, once for all shed. In our wilderness lourney we are continually contracting defilement l)y contact with the spiritually dead, and with dead works, and need tlierefore continual application to I he antllyp-. . . under . . . first testanient-the transgressions of all men Uom Adam to Christ, first against the i)rlinltlve 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 ]>erlod from .\dam to Christ, and not merely that of the covenant with Israel, which was a concentrated representation of the covenant made with (or the first testa-
Ical life-giving cleansing blood of Christ, whereby we are afresh restored to peace and living conimunloii with God ill the lieavenly holy place, tlie unclean- (.'rcc/L, " those
(Inflled" on any particular occasion, puvifyin^—drcck, "purity." tlie flesh-tlieir efft-ct In thetnselves extended no further. Tlie law had a carnal and a spiritual aspect