8. Nothing but the Blood of Jesus Hebrews 9:15 – 10:18
HEBREWS CHAPTER 9 VERSE 15 TO 10 VERSE 18
8. Nothing but the Blood of Jesus
8. Nothing but the Blood of Jesus Hebrews 9:15 – 10:18
“Why are Christians so obsessed with blood?”
So asked a non-Christian friend of mine. At first, I wasn’t sure what he was talking about. But as I thought about it, I realized Christians really do talk about blood a lot. Just think about some well-known hymns: “Washed in the Blood”, “Saved by the Blood of Jesus”, “Nothing but the Blood of Jesus”, and (perhaps most notably) “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood.”
Sometimes I think we don’t pause enough to really think about the role of blood in our salvation. It means that someone’s life had to be taken in our place. It means that our sin is a big deal—bigger than we think—and demands a terrible price.
In the next section of Hebrews 9, as the author continues his comparison between the old covenant and the new, we have an opportunity to pause and think. It shows us both the seriousness of sin and, at the same time, the depth of God’s love. It shows why Christ’s sacrifice was necessary and what it achieved.
An Eternal Inheritance
“[Jesus] is the mediator of a new covenant so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance” (v 15). The author uses that language of inheritance very deliberately because he is going to make an analogy about a will. You can’t see it in the English translations, but “will” and “covenant” are the same word in Greek. That is why our author says, “A will is involved” (v 16).
Jesus has a great inheritance stored up for you, but you can’t receive it unless he—the person who made the will—passes away. “A will takes effect only at death” (v 17). Death is the pathway to inheritance. We “receive the promised eternal inheritance” because “a death has occurred” (v 15).
At its core, this inheritance won by Jesus involves the forgiveness of sins. The “transgressions committed under the first covenant” could never be cleansed by the sacrifices of animals, but they could be cleansed by Jesus’ death.
No doubt this “inheritance” implies other benefits that flow naturally from our forgiveness. That would include our future resurrection—being raised from the dead and given a new resurrected body. And with that body we will enjoy the new heavens and new earth. But the greatest part of the inheritance is Jesus himself. He is the great reward. What we are most looking forward to is being with Jesus eternally.
The Need for Blood
Of course, Jesus’ death was not the first time blood was shed. As our author reminds us, “Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood” (v 18). In other words, things have always been this way. God has always been holy. Sin has always been a big deal. Someone has always had to pay.
In Moses’ time, when the people first agreed to the covenant, he sprinkled blood on them (v 19-20; see Exodus 24:7-8). Water, scarlet wool, and branches of hyssop (Hebrews 9:19) were also part of the purification rituals (Numbers 19:1-6).
But blood is the main symbol. “Under the law almost everything is purified with blood” (Hebrews 9:22). Blood would be sprinkled over the altar, inside the tabernacle, and even inside the Most Holy Place where the ark of the covenant was (v 21; e.g. Leviticus 4:4-7; 16:14-16).
We often don’t realize what a gruesome scene this would have been: blood on the floor, blood on the altar, blood on the hands of the priest and on his garments, blood on the people. But it sent a clear theological message: the effect of sin is very serious.
In Hebrews 9:20, our author cites Exodus 24:8, the words used by Moses to inaugurate the old covenant: “This is the blood of the covenant.” Nearly the same wording was used by Jesus when he inaugurated the new covenant at the Lord’s Supper: “This is my blood of the covenant” (Matthew 26:28).
When we remember the cross by sharing the Lord’s Supper, we should be hearing the same message that Old Testament Israelites heard when they went to make sacrifices at the temple. In order to participate in a covenant with God—in order to be purified and forgiven and to gain access to him—you need blood.
Yet in the new covenant there is a difference: the blood that is shed is Jesus’ blood, the only blood which can take away sin. Jesus made an important change to what Moses said: “my blood.” He loved you so much that he gave himself for you.
This fundamental need for Christ’s blood is summed up in Hebrews 9:22: “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”
There are two fundamental principles of theology behind that verse.
The first principle is that our sin is a bigger deal than we tend to think it is. It is a cosmic rebellion against the rightful King of the universe, which deserves the penalty of death.
This was true right from the start. In the Garden of Eden, God told Adam and Eve that if they ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would surely die (Genesis 2:17). Death is and has always been the punishment for sin.
The second principle is that God is holier than we tend to think he is. We often imagine God as just a bigger version of ourselves, and so we come to think of him as the problem. Why can’t he just put up with our sin? But here is the reality: God is pure, holy righteousness. God is so holy that he cannot dwell with sin; and he is so concerned with justice that he cannot simply forget about sin.
There is not a single sin committed in all of time that God will allow to go unpunished. Either God punishes that sin in us, or he punishes it in our substitute, Christ. Sin is a monumental problem requiring a monumental solution. That is why Christ had to come.
When we diminish either the seriousness of sin or the holiness of God in order to make people feel better, we end up diminishing what Christ has done for us. If sin were not a big deal or God were not holy, then we would not really need Jesus to have died on the cross, and the gospel would no longer be gloriously good news.
This is why the old covenant involved so much blood. It made people realize how serious the problem of sin was.
Jesus Appeared in the Presence of God
The purification rites under the old covenant were important, but at the same time the author reminds us again that the temple and its altar were just “copies of the heavenly things” (Hebrews 9:23). So, the purification could only be symbolic.
Jesus, however, “entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf” (v 24).
One of the most poignant (and frightening) pictures of God’s heavenly throne room is in Revelation 4. There we see that the symbols of the earthly tabernacle have a true, heavenly counterpart. The earthly tabernacle had a “door” or curtain, and so the heavenly one has a door, and it stands open (v 1). The earthly ark of the covenant was understood to be symbolic of God’s throne, but in Revelation we have the real throne (v 2). On top of the earthly ark were golden angelic creatures (cherubim), but in Revelation they are real and surround the throne (v 8). In this heavenly tabernacle we even have a sevenfold golden lampstand, but this one shines with the very power of God’s Spirit (v 5).
So, Christ did what no human being had ever done—he went into this throne room, representing his people before God’s holy presence.
No matter what kind of life you have led and no matter what sins you struggle with currently, if you are trusting in Christ, then, when God looks upon you, he sees perfect righteousness because of the blood shed for you by Jesus. If you are a Christian, then God will not reject you. To do so he would also be rejecting his own Son. And that is not going to happen.
So this is our great hope: the hope of representation. You cannot represent yourself before God. But Jesus represents you perfectly.
He is your advocate, your spokesman, and your intercessor. He represents us both in his death and in his life. He has died in our place; it is as if we have died and paid the penalty for our sin (Romans 6:6). He has lived the perfect life of righteousness; it is as if we have lived perfectly (1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus is, in effect, saying to God, What is true of me is true of all those who put their faith and trust in me.
That means we can be honest about who we are. If you know God is never going to reject you, then you do not need to be afraid of anyone discovering what you are really like. God accepts you solely on the work that Christ has done.
Jesus Offered Himself
Anyone who entered into the real Most Holy Place instead of its earthly copy would need to offer “better sacrifices” (9:23). And that is what Christ did.
Verse 25 is critical. The high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year “with blood not his own.” But Jesus, by contrast, went only once, with his own blood.
The high priest had to keep repeating this act of sacrifice again and again because he brought the blood of an animal, which could not achieve real remission of sins. But Christ did not have to keep making his offering. His blood was superior: the perfect sacrifice for sin. So, “he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (v 26).
The phrase “end of the ages” is significant because it echoes the very beginning of the book where the author has told us that the coming of Jesus has inaugurated “the last days” (1:2). It tells us that the coming of Jesus is the culmination and pinnacle of all God’s promises: the crescendo of all God’s redemptive plan. There’s nothing greater or better.
The implication of that fact is hard to miss. If Christ has ushered in a new age—the climax of history—then why go back to the old ways? Why would a person want to go back to the old covenant when we now have what is new and more wonderful?
All this means that we can be confident that there is nothing more to do to solve the problem of sin.
In our earthly lives, there is always something more to do. Whether you’ve got to get the laundry done or mow the lawn or take the kids to school or cook dinner, there is always something. And that is just on an earthly level. But what about in eternity? What if you had the stress of continually having to work to earn your salvation? What if you feared that that work would never be finished—not ever?
Jesus changes the game. He offered himself once. Our author says it in 9:26 and then again in verse 28: “having been offered once to bear the sins of many.” He will not let this idea go because it is so important. Indeed, it is the heart of the gospel. The good news is not that there’s something that can be done, but that something has already been done. It is finished.
That matters for us because we too will die and face judgment. In verse 27 the author draws an analogy between our death and Christ’s death. “Just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ…”
There are two inescapable, sobering facts here. One is that you’re going to die someday. The second is that when you die, you’ll face judgment. It is inevitable.
I can still remember when Hurricane Dorian was rumbling through the Atlantic in 2019, headed ominously toward the east coast of the United States. Since we live in North Carolina, we pay attention to approaching hurricanes. Dorian was the one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes in recorded history, a Category 5 with winds reaching 185 mph. So powerful was it that the “rumblings” could be picked up by seismometers while it was still far out in the Atlantic.
God’s judgment is like a hurricane heading toward your town. It’s not here yet, but we can see it on the horizon. We can feel the rumblings. It is an enormous, terrifying inevitability heading our way. We can’t avoid it. We can’t run from it. We cannot wish it away. In such a scenario, we need a place of refuge. We need someone who can bear the brunt of the storm for us. The good news is that Christ has been “offered once to bear the sins of many” (v 28). He died once and faced judgment once, on behalf of every single person who trusts in him. Only he can do this. Only he can save us from the judgment to come.
Jesus Will Return
Christ came from heaven to earth to die for our sins, once for all. Then he went back to heaven to represent us before God. Our third hope is that he is going to return again to bring us home.
This is all in verse 28. He “will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”
When my kids were younger, whenever I was coming back from a trip, I would pull into the driveway and see them all waiting for me on the front step. They knew my flight had landed, and they were eagerly waiting for me to come back. Those days are long gone now! But I remember seeing their eyes light up as they saw me: “Dad’s home.” They were waiting eagerly.
That is not always the way we feel when we think about Christ’s return. Of course, in the abstract we are looking forward to Christ coming back, but we are not always really all that eager about it. So what would it look like to eagerly wait for the return of Jesus? First, we need to make sure we don’t grow too comfortable in this world. The more we make this place our home, the less we will long for our heavenly home. We must always remember that we are strangers and aliens here so that we look forward to the time when we can return to our true homeland.
Second, we need to continually cast off the works of darkness, replacing them with the works of righteousness. If we are caught up in sin patterns we won’t relinquish, then we will not be eager for Christ to return anytime soon. In short, we need to be ready for his return. As in the parable of the ten virgins, we need to have our lamps burning brightly when he comes back (Matthew 25:1-13).
Third, we need to regularly stir our affections for Jesus. We will only long for his coming if we long for him. Think of a wife whose husband is away on a long journey. In anticipation of his return, she looks at his picture and reads his letters, reminding herself of why she loves him. So it is with Jesus. We read his word and fellowship with him in prayer, so that we are more eager to be with him again.
In sum, we need to be sitting on that front step saying, “I cannot wait until my Lord returns to save me and bring me home.” We may not know when it will come; but because of what Christ has already done, we can look forward to that day with certainty. Jesus has already dealt with sin; he is coming back to bring us to himself at last.