Hebrews 9:15 – 28

15Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. 16For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. 17For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. 18Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. 19For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 20saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” 21And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. 22Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

23Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24For Christ has 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. 25Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, 26for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Advertisement

3 Comments»

  Wayne Park wrote @

There’s just blood everywhere. I’m calling this message “THERE WILL BE BLOOD” I’m struck by a few observations:

1. The language of “will” as in “inheritance”. A will is written but the enactor of the will must die first. At least that is how I am understanding this passage? Is that correct?

2. The imagery of Moses sprinkling blood on the book, the people, the tent, the vessels, everything!

3. Vs22 is compelling: “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

I think the big idea here is that of expiation vs. propitiation. Cannot a loving God who is also all-powerful just put away (expiate) our sin? Why the need for blood? But expiation is an incomplete idea. Propitiation – the exchange – is necessary… and unignorable.

Still how do we translate this idea to postmoderns who are so turned-off to the idea of a God of blood? (as primitive, angry, etc…)

  kimbahpnam wrote @

W, in response to 1, I’m thinking ‘will’ as in an old man who is soon to die and writes a will to distribute his belongings to whomever. So the writer of the will must die before the will can have any affect.

I think some focuses of this text are: Christ as sacrifice (one time only), blood, covenant.

An interesting image came to mind while reading this: the high priest would go in to shed the blood of a sacrifice, while Christ was the high priest and went into to be the sacrifice.

There are quite a number of connecting words: therefore, thus, for, etc. I would even say every single verse starts with one form of a connecting word! It all seems to be one train of thought here from the author.

I agree there is this need for blood to propitiate or to satisfy God’s wrath.

  TJ wrote @

I can see 3 important messages:
1. v.22 ‘without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness’ This verse sums up the story of cross.
2. v.27. There is judgment after death.
3. v.28. Christ will come again.


Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.