A Study Of The Apostle Pauls Letter To The Hebrews

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AStudyOf TheApostlePauls LetterTo The
Hebrews
How can we neglect so greata salvation?
Hebrews 23
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Hebrews Christ Is Superior! Superior Person
(11413) Superior to Prophets
(11-3) Superior to Angels (14218) Superior
to Moses (31-19) Superior to Joshua
(41-13) Superior Priest (414728) Superior to
Aaron (414612) Superior to Melchizedek
(61375) Superior to Levi (76-28)
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Hebrews Christ Is Superior! Superior Pact to
Moses (811018) Superior Promises
(81-13) Superior Sanctuary (91-15) but Well
only study verses 11-15 today. Superior
Sacrifice (916-28) Superior Results
(101-18) Superior Principle (Faith) to Moses
(10191325) Superior Things (1019-39) Superio
r Actions (111-40) Superior Relationship
(121-29) Superior Way of Life (131-25)
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As we began our last study on chap-ter 9, we
found that Paul began to show that Christs
covenant is better than that of Moses, not just
because it was founded upon better promises
(chapter 8), but because it also in-cludes a
better tabernacle than that of Aaron and his
priestly lineage.
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In 91-5 Paul pictured the sanctuary and its
furnishings for his audience then in verses 6-10
he explained to them that all these literal,
physical things were merely symbols, point-ing to
the real thing. And now Upon that basis, in
verses 11-15, Paul wrote about some of what those
things symbolized.
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But Christ came as High Priest of the good things
to come, with the greater and more perfect
tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of
this creation.
Hebrews 911 ?
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But Christ came as High Priest of the good things
to come, with the greater and more perfect
tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of
this creation.
This is from a term which means to make ones
public appear-ance. And when did Jesus make His
ap-pearance as High Priest? According to 55-10,
it was after His crucifixion and resurrection.
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But Christ came as High Priest of the good things
to come, with the greater and more perfect
tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of
this creation.
This phrase is from a root term which means about
to come. Its the same term found in 85 where it
speaks of when Moses was about to make the
tabernacle i.e., it wasnt something thousands
of years in the future, but something on the
verge of occurring.
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But Christ came as High Priest of the good things
to come, with the greater and more perfect
tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of
this creation.
These have reference to everything that would (
did) achieve the aforementioned reformation (v.
10), including redemp-tion, regeneration,
reconciliation, and restoration i.e., put
concisely, through or because of Jesus, for the
first time since Eden, we have ac-cess to God
again.
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But Christ came as High Priest of the good things
to come, with the greater and more perfect
tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of
this creation.
This refers, of course, to the real, spiritual
thing that the physi-cal, symbolic thing merely
pointed tothe one-room taber-nacle or kingdom
wherein all Gods people are united as one
reconciled body.
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Paul also said it this way in the fullness of
times, He gathered together in one all things
in Christ, both which are in Heaven and which are
on Earth (Eph. 110).
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This one-room tabernacle is also called a few
other things in Hebrews the city whose builder
is God a heavenly country (119 16), and
Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the
heavenly Jerusalem, the general assembly, the
church of the firstborn, and a kingdom (1222-28).
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But Christ came as High Priest of the good things
to come, with the greater and more perfect
tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of
this creation.
This refers to the same idea found in 82 where
it speaks of the true taber-nacle that the Lord,
not man, erected.
For further study, consider if theres a
connection here with the house not made with
hands in 2 Cor. 51-4.
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But Christ came as High Priest of the good things
to come, with the greater and more perfect
taber-nacle not made with hands, that is, not of
this creation.
This indicates, of course, that this true,
genuine, or real tab-ernacle is of a heav-enly or
spiritual na-ture, not a temporal or physical
nature as Jesus Himself said, My kingdom is not
of this world (John 1836).
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Not with the blood of goats calves, but with
His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once
for all, having obtained eternal redemp-tion.
(Cf. 619-20 924.)
Hebrews 912 ?
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This is not from the usual personal pro-noun
(autos ) its from the a more spe-cific term
(idios ), meaning that this blood was unique to
Jesus. Heres an ex-ample ? ? ?
Not with the blood of goats calves, but with
His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once
for all, having obtained eternal redemp-tion.
(Cf. 619-20 924.)
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Idios is the word used in John 518 where it
speaks of the Jews wanting to kill Jesus because
He claimed Yahweh as His Father. Why would that
be a problem? Didnt all the Jews claim Yahweh to
be their Father since they were His children?
Sure. So what was the problem? Well ?
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According to John 518, Jesus didnt just use the
idea behind autos which wouldve indicated that
He was a child of God just as the other Jews
were rather, He used the idea behind idios
which indicated that Yahweh was His Father in a
unique way, meaning that He was deity just as God
is. So ? ? ?
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What made the blood of Jesus uni-que? It flowed
in the veins of One who was sinless in regard to
His humanity and deity in regard to His person,
the combination of which made His blood the only
blood that could be acceptably sprinkled on the
mercy seat in the heavenly or true holy of holies.
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This means once for all time, not over over
again every year as with the OT priests in fact,
this is the idea behind eternal hereinstead of
referring to the doctrine of once saved, always
saved, its actually just a synonym for the
once-for-all-time concept.
Not with the blood of goats calves, but with
His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once
for all, having obtained eternal redemp-tion.
(Cf. 619-20 924.)
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This refers to a re-lease by payment of a ransom,
such as when money was paid in order to free a
slave sinners are slaves of sin, and the wages
of sin is death (Rom. 623) this is the debt
Je-sus paid for those who want freedom from sin
and eternal death.
Not with the blood of goats calves, but with
His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once
for all, having obtained eternal redemp-tion.
(Cf. 619-20 924.)
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Things to note in contrast 1. Animal blood under
the OT Christs blood under the NT 2. High
priest entered holiest by means of animal
blood Jesus entered by His own blood 3.
Animal blood involuntary Jesus blood
voluntary 4. Animals offered repeatedly Jesus
offered once 5. Animal blood covered sins
briefly Jesus blood removed sin eternally.
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I believe the NASB rendered verses 11-12 more
accurately When Christ appeared as a high priest
of the good things to come, He entered through
the greater and more perfect taber-nacle not made
with hands, that is to say, not of this creation
and not through the blood of goats and calves,
but through His own blood, He entered the holy
place once for all, having obtained eternal
redemption.
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For if lit. since the blood of bulls and goats
and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the
un-clean, sanctifies for the purifying of the
flesh
Hebrews 913 ?
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For if lit. since the blood of bulls and goats
and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the
un-clean, sanctifies for the purifying of the
flesh
Paul added the heif-er-sacrifice and the
sprinkling of her ashes in water over people who
became ceremonially un-clean as a result of some
type of con-tact with the dead see, if a Jew had
such contact, then entered the taber-nacle area,
he was cut off from Israel (Num. 191ff).
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Ceremonial defilement was not in and of itself
sin, but it (like leavening) was a type of sin
this is why its said that the blood of animals
could cleanse this defilement. It was only the
flesh that was defiled by contact with the dead,
so it was only the flesh that was cleansed,
meaning that the defilement and cleansing were
both symbolic this ceremony didnt make anyone
morally or spiritually better, just physically.
In fact ? ? ?
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Remember verse 9? Such things were symbolic for
the present time in which both gifts and
sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who
performed the service perfect in regard to
conscience.
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For if lit. since the blood of bulls and goats
and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the
un-clean, sanctifies for the purifying of the
flesh
Unclean refers to that which is unhal-lowed or
not related to or associated with God, while
sanctifies means to set apart to or for God.
So
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For if lit. since the blood of bulls and goats
and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the
un-clean, sanctifies for the purifying of the
flesh
The unclean Israel-elite was out of bounds when
it came to participat-ing in any service or
worship to God but once he fulfilled the
Levitical ritual in relation to this
un-cleanness, then he was sanctified to for God
again. So If animal sacrifices could do that ?
?
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how much more shall the blood of Christ, who
thru the eternal spirit offered Himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God?
Hebrews 914 ?
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how much more shall the blood of Christ, who
thru the eternal spirit offered Himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God?
While the sacrifice of a heifer sanctified one
physically in or-der to serve God ac-ceptably
under the OT, the sacrifice of Gods Son
sanctifies one spiritually in or-der to serve Him
ac-ceptably under the New Testament.
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how much more shall the blood of Christ, who
thru the eternal spirit offered Himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God?
Christs sacrifice is greater because He (as a
human) was sin-less and because He (as deity)
offered Him- self on behalf of man.
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how much more shall the blood of Christ, who
thru the eternal spirit offered Himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God?
This phrase has no definite article be-fore it in
the Greek, indicating that it is not a reference
to the Holy Spirit as the NKJV and others
indicate with the capital S. Rather
? ? ?
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Its probably (and contextually) a re-ference to
the eternal nature (or the deity) of Jesus
Himself the CEV, for ex-ample, reads, He offered
Himself as an eternal and spiritual sacrifice.
Besides... Just as it requires that which is
physi-cal to affect that which is physical, so it
requires that which is spiritual to affect that
which is spiritual, which also signi-fies that
the scenario here is spiritual in nature i.e.,
Jesus didnt take His literal blood to Heaven
with Him.
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how much more shall the blood of Christ, who
thru the eternal spirit offered Himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God?
This occurs at bap-tism (1 Pet. 321). This is
when one is assured of absolute forgiveness, that
which those under the OT didnt have until Christ
came still another way to put it is that a clean
conscience equals access to and recon-ciliation
with the living God.
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how much more shall the blood of Christ, who
thru the eternal spirit offered Himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God?
This probably has reference to how that attempts
to be saved by works (as was done in the OT
times) are dead as far as being effec-tive, while
now, thru Christ, we are saved by grace.
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how much more shall the blood of Christ, who
thru the eternal spirit offered Himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God?
Since dead works for a living God are worthless,
our works though the Christ are living (Rom.
121-2), because theyre done out of
appreci-ation instead of an attempt to merit our
salvation. So ? ?
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To summarize this If the shadow purified the
flesh, how much more does the truth purify the
soul? Now Although its slightly out of line
with my outline, lets go ahead and finish this
study with
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For this reason He is the Mediator of the new
covenant by means of death, for the redemption of
the transgres- sions under the first covenant,
that those who are called may receive the promise
of the eternal inheritance.
Hebrews 915 ?
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This refers to the fact that while ani-mal blood
merely cleansed from cere-monial defilements,
Christs blood cleanses from actu- al sin, making
Him the Mediator of the New Covenant.
For this reason He is the Mediator of the new
covenant by means of death, for the redemption of
the transgres- sions under the first covenant,
that those who are called may receive the promise
of the eternal inheritance.
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This refers to one who intervenes be-tween two
parties, either to make or restore peace by
forming a compact or ratifying a cove-nant by
His crucifi- xion, Jesus removed the barrier and
pen-alty for sin between God and man.
For this reason He is the Mediator of the new
covenant by means of death, for the redemption of
the transgres- sions under the first covenant,
that those who are called may receive the promise
of the eternal inheritance.
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Notice that Jesus wasnt called the Testator
here, but the Mediator, re-minding us of the idea
brought up in 723 that Jesus not only died to
ratify, but rose to mediate.
For this reason He is the Mediator of the new
covenant by means of death, for the redemption of
the transgres- sions under the first covenant,
that those who are called may receive the promise
of the eternal inheritance.
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This means that even those under the OT were
saved by virtue of Jesus atoning work under the
NT. Why? Again, because the OT had no provi-sions
for the com-plete removal of sin.
For this reason He is the Mediator of the new
covenant by means of death, for the redemption of
the transgres- sions under the first covenant,
that those who are called may receive the promise
of the eternal inheritance.
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Its believed by many that this is what is meant
by the prophecy of Zechariah 148 In that day
living waters shall flow from Jerusalem, half of
them to-ward the eastern sea and half of them
toward the western sea. I.e. The salvation that
the Messiah would bring would extend in both
directions in time from His cross in the past
and in the future, making His cross the pivotal
point in human history this is why it can be
said that Jesus is a Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world (Rev. 138).
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Paul put it this way in Romans 324-25 being
justified freely by His grace thru the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth to be
a propitiation because in His forbearance God
had passed over the sins that were previ-ously
committed. How did He pass over them? By
for-bearing or holding their sins in a book of
remembrance until Jesus blood re- moved them so
that God could remem-ber them no more (Heb.
1017).
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This refers, of course, to any and all who were
called by and accepted the Gospel at another
time, Paul, speaking of salvation, wrote, to
which God called you by our Gospel(2 The.
213-14).
For this reason He is the Mediator of the new
covenant by means of death, for the redemption of
the transgres- sions under the first covenant,
that those who are called may receive the promise
of the eternal inheritance.
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This is a contrast to the temporary in- heritance
of Canaan this eternal inheri-tance was
available to those who ac-cepted Jesus as the
Messiah because His blood obtained eternal
redemption (v. 12 cf. chapters 3-4).
For this reason He is the Mediator of the new
covenant by means of death, for the redemption of
the transgres- sions under the first covenant,
that those who are called may receive the promise
of the eternal inheritance.