A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH

THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS

CHAPTER 9

          Glad to have you back for more Daily Bread. In our study today, Paul elaborates still more about Jesus as the High Priest of the New Testament. He shows the Hebrews that the patterns or “shadows” of things to come, were symbolic of the New Testament.

Truly then, the first covenant also had ordinances of divine service,

and a worldly sanctuary (or the Tabernacle).

Exodus 25:8

A model of the Tabernacle

For there was a tabernacle made;

the first, wherein was the candlestick,

and the table, and the shewbread (holy bread);

which is called the sanctuary (also the holy place).

Exodus 26:35

And after the second veil,

the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all;

Exodus 26:33

Which had the golden censer

(in which incense was burned),

Leviticus 16:12

and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold,

Exodus 25:10-11

wherein was the golden pot that had manna,

Exodus 16:33

and Aaron's rod that budded,

Numbers 17:8

and the tables of the covenant;

Exodus 25:21

And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat;

Exodus 25:17-20

of which we cannot now speak in detail.

Now when these things were put in order this way,

the priests always went into the first tabernacle

(called the holy place or the sanctuary),

To perform the service of God.

But into the second (the Most Holy Place)

the high priest alone went once every year,

with blood of the offerings,

which he offered for himself,

(the blood of a bullock)

and for the errors of the people

(the blood of a goat):

This yearly celebration was called the Day of Atonement. You can read more about this “shadow” at the
Feast Shadows page of Christianity Oasis.

The Holy Ghost this signifying,

that the way into the holiest of all

(the way into the Most Holy Place,

or the way to enter into the presence of God)

was not yet opened,

while the first tabernacle was still standing:

Which was a figure

(form, symbol, representation, example, copy, shadow)

in those days when they offered both gifts and sacrifices,

that couldn’t make the high priest complete,

as pertaining to the conscience;

and various washings, and fleshly regulations,

required by them until the time of reformation.

But Christ being made an High Priest of good things to come,

by a greater and more perfect tabernacle,

not made with hands, that is to say, not like the first tabernacle;

or by the blood of goats and calves,

but by His own blood He entered in once

into the Most Holy Place,

having obtained eternal redemption for us.

Jesus opened the door once and for all for us to step into God’s presence because by forgiveness through His death, we are now worthy to be called pure, being cleansed by His blood. Now take a look at more ways of how Paul shows that death brings life.

For if the blood of bulls and of goats,

and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean,

makes holy and purifies the flesh:

How much more shall the blood of Christ,

who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God,

clean your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

And for this reason,

Jesus is the mediator of the New Testament,

that by means of His death,

for the redemption of the sins that were under the Old Testament,

they who are called,

might receive the promise of eternal inheritance (life).

Because where a testament is,

there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.

For a testament is of force after men are dead:

otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator lives.

You can compare a testament to a will. A will doesn’t become valid until the testator dies. Death seals the covenant, or brings it to life.

Not even the Old Testament was established without blood (death).

For when Moses had spoken every rule to all the people according to the law,

he took the blood of calves and of goats,

with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop,

and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, saying,

This is the blood of the testament which God has commanded you.

Exodus 24:8

He also sprinkled both the tabernacle,

and all the vessels of the ministry with blood.

And almost all things are by the law purified with blood;

It was therefore necessary that the patterns (shadows) of things in the heavens

should be cleansed with these (the blood of calves and goats, etc);

but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands,

which are the figures of the true (shadows of the real holy place);

but Christ is entered into Heaven itself,

now to appear in the presence of God for us:

Nor yet that He should offer Himself often,

as the high priest entered into the holy place every year with blood of others;

For then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world:

but now once in the end of the world has He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

And as it is appointed unto men once to die,

but after this the judgment:

So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many;

and unto them that look for Him

shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

Join in again next time in our study of Paul’s letter to the Hebrews as he compares the sacrifices of the Old Testament with the ultimate sacrifice of our Savior Jesus Christ, right here at Daily Bread.