The Superiority of Redemption in Christ

Hebrews 9:11-22

Main Idea: The blood of Christ, our great high priest, is superior to the animal sacrifices of the old covenant since his blood accomplishes a once-for-all-time redemption, secures an eternal inheritance for us, cleanses our consciences, and makes him the mediator of a new and better covenant.

1. The Superiority of Christ to the Levitical Priests (9:11-12)
2. The Superiority of Christ to the Levitical Sacrifices (9:13-14)
3. The Superiority of Christ as Mediator of the New Covenant (9:15)
4. The Better Blood of the New Covenant (9:16-22)

One of the most effective teachers in my life was the woman who taught my literature class in the eleventh grade. She was a remarkable teacher and helped me develop a deep love and appreciation for good literature. Perhaps the most formative assignment she gave the class was something that I never would have tried on my own. She required us to write a one-page summary of every book we read. Initially, composing a one-page summary didn’t seem too difficult a task. However, I soon discovered that even though I really enjoyed reading the books, I really hated writing the summaries. Great novels seem to defy being reduced to one page. However, the assignment taught me that writing a short summary is one of the most effective ways to remember what I have read and to increase my comprehension. Given that we tend to forget more than we remember, we desperately need summaries.

This is one reason why Scripture employs so many summaries. Paul does this quite often. In Romans 3:9-20; 5:1; 8:1; and 12:1 we see Paul concisely summarizing previous arguments. This is similar to the way in which the sermons of Moses in Deuteronomy summarize large portions of the Pentateuch. Likewise, we might say that Hebrews 9–10 functions as a summary of all that has gone before. Thus, it is imperative that we understand Hebrews 9:11-22 within the context of what the author has already said in his letter.

The Superiority of Christ to Levitical Priests

Hebrews 9:11-12

The beginning word but is very important. Hebrews 9:1-10 discusses the old covenant and the Levitical priesthood, which were characterized by the temple and its regular practice of sacrifices that were unable to “perfect the worshiper’s conscience” (v. 9). “But” Christ’s priestly work starkly contrasts with these Levitical practices, since his priesthood actually accomplishes the salvation to which the old covenant could only point. In contrast to the old covenant priests, our new covenant priest fully and finally atones for the sins of his people and ushers in the “good things” of redemption for which they had always hoped.

The word appeared is also important because it highlights the fact that God’s plan of salvation has now been made visible in Christ. Christ’s appearance as high priest signals the dawning of the eschatological promises—promises that have in some sense already arrived in Christ, but that will not be complete until he arrives again. This is why the author identifies Jesus as the high priest of the “good things that have come.” Even though aspects of our redemption—life with God in heaven, glorification, and full sanctification—are still future, we are inheritors of these good things in the present. What are these “good things”? They are the fruits of Christ’s atonement that culminates in our “eternal redemption” (v. 12).

The author of Hebrews also indicates that Christ’s priestly work occurs as he passes through the “greater and more perfect tabernacle” into “the most holy place.” This, of course, is not the earthly tabernacle. The writer of Hebrews has already explained that the earthly tabernacle (or tent) was actually patterned after the heavenly dwelling place of God. The most holy place in the tabernacle on earth was therefore a picture of the realities of heaven. Whereas the Levitical high priest could only go as far as the earthly most holy place by means of the blood of animal sacrifice, Christ entered the eternal and heavenly most holy place by means of his own blood.

This entrance into the most holy place is “once for all time.” This emphasizes the completeness and eternality of Christ’s sacrifice as opposed to the repetitive sacrifices of the Levites. They continually had to offer up sacrifices to God; Christ only offered up one. In doing so, he secured an eternal redemption for us and demonstrated the sufficiency of his atonement for those who obey him. This eternal security and sufficiency grounds our confidence in Christ and the author’s exhortation to endure. Once we are redeemed, we cannot be lost. Jesus’s atonement was once for all time, accepted unconditionally by the Father, and presented in the heavenly sanctuary. Certainly we can see now how these verses so succinctly and spectacularly summarize the mission of Christ.

The Superiority of Christ to the Levitical Sacrifices

Hebrews 9:13-14

To approach God under the old covenant required becoming ritually clean. This was even necessary for the high priest before he could enter the most holy place to perform the Day of Atonement sacrifices. Becoming ritually clean is what the author means by “purification of the flesh.” The old covenant priests engaged in these ceremonies so that they might be rendered externally, outwardly clean and thus go into the holy place and sacrifice for the people—even if it was just for the briefest of moments. But these ceremonies and sacrifices could not cleanse the inner person or the conscience.

Christ, however, is decisively different. He did not need to purify himself by means of blood sacrifices and external washings as the priests of the old covenant did. Jesus did not need ritual cleansing because he was already clean. He offered himself not through ceremonial rituals that purify the flesh, but as One without blemish “through the eternal Spirit.” The phrase eternal Spirit suggests a reference to the Holy Spirit. There follows an even greater contrast between Christ and the priests of old. Whereas they had to be externally purified just to engage in sacrifice, Christ’s sacrifice of himself internally cleanses those for whom he died. He purifies our consciences.

Finally, the last words of verse 14 read, “from dead works so that we can serve the living God.” What does it mean for our consciences to be cleansed “from dead works”? Anyone under the old covenant who recognized the pervasiveness of his sin would know he would need another sacrifice as soon as the Day of Atonement was over. This is why they repeated the Day of Atonement every year. These are “dead works” because they amount to nothing, just as many of us through our own efforts have tried to earn God’s favor through “dead” moral and religious works. But Christ’s atonement fully cleanses our consciences such that we now no longer have the weight of our sin condemning us before God. Christ’s work on the cross fully removes our guilt, thereby rendering our consciences clean.

Because of this internal cleansing, we can now serve the living God without fear. Hebrews remarkably captures the balance of the Christian life. Redeemed people serve God and find fulfillment and joy in doing the very things that we did out of obligation and frantic determination to try to justify ourselves before Christ came. The completed work of Christ rescues us from this foolish attempt and saves us from dead works.

The Superiority of Christ as Mediator of the New Covenant

Hebrews 9:15

Because Christ is the high priest who has secured our redemption through offering himself, the author of Hebrews says Jesus is “the mediator of a new covenant.” Mediator is a dangerous word for many of us because we think we know what it means. We assume that a mediator is someone who gets two opposing sides together and tries to effect a compromise or an agreement between them. For example, if you have conflict in the Middle East, you’ll bring in diplomats and mediators to try and effect some kind of compromise—an arbitration in which two parties try to find some common ground by means of a mediator.

But there is no common ground between a holy God and sinful humanity. Therefore, Christ, as mediator, doesn’t find a compromise between the two because God’s holiness cannot be compromised. Far from suggesting a compromise between two opposing positions, Christ agrees with the Father that we deserve the infinite outpouring of his wrath. He agrees with the Father about the ugliness of our sin. He agrees with the Father about the necessity of a sacrifice. And as our mediator, he agrees to be that sacrifice even as the Father sends him for that task. In this mediatory work, Christ procures an eternal inheritance for his church (i.e., the “called”), an inheritance simply synonymous with all of the present and future benefits of Christ’s salvific work. This “eternal inheritance” is comparable to the “eternal redemption” in 9:12.

Again the author of Hebrews highlights that it is specifically Christ’s death that accomplishes what the sacrifices under the first covenant could not—namely, eternal redemption and forgiveness. The animal sacrifices of the old covenant could not secure redemption eternally. They were temporary and needed to be repeated. Christ’s death, on the other hand, secures redemption forever. His death wins forgiveness from all of the transgressions committed under the first covenant. Furthermore, the old covenant could not secure redemption sufficiently for the people. It could not repair man’s severed relationship with God, for the old covenant anticipated and depended on the new covenant. The animal sacrifices offered for sin and purification under the old covenant foreshadowed the fully sufficient sacrifice in the new: Jesus Christ. He mediated a better covenant and offered up a better sacrifice, one that was efficient to redeem people from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. In doing so, Christ secured an eternal inheritance for those who are called.

The Better Blood of the New Covenant

Hebrews 9:16-22

The church today is often impoverished by truncated, reductionistic articulations of the gospel. We often talk about how someone can come to know the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved from their sins, but we often have no idea what took place in order for that promise to be true. Hebrews demonstrates that it is the Father’s will that his people understand not only what Christ has done for us but how he did it. The reason is because how Christ achieves our redemption more fully demonstrates the glory of God. We can’t honor, appreciate, and worship God for what he has done for us unless we understand what it cost to achieve our salvation.

Verses 16-22 begin to unveil how Christ achieved our redemption. The author explains that the covenant is like a last will and testament. Just as a last will and testament bequeaths gifts to others after the death of the testator, so also the death of Christ results in the giving of gifts to members of the new covenant community. The account of the inauguration of the first covenant in verse 18 draws the reader back to Exodus 24:4-8. In this covenant-initiation ceremony the sprinkling of the people with the blood of animals signified that the punishment for covenant disobedience was death. However, the deaths of these animals also signified that God provided a substitute to stand in the place of covenant breakers. Covenant breakers could only be forgiven by the shedding of blood. Moreover, the shedding of blood was the inauguration sign of the covenants. The shedding of blood—that is, the death of a substitute—inaugurated both the old and the new covenant. This is what the author means in Hebrews 9:18. Thus, the shedding of blood represented the beginning of a covenant and the forgiveness of sins. This is the theological heart of verse 22. Just as the first covenant was inaugurated with the death of animals and the purification of the tabernacle by their blood, so Christ has inaugurated a new covenant with his blood and has thereby accomplished the forgiveness of sins.

Why blood atonement? In the Old Testament, God tells his people, “The life . . . is in the blood” (Lev 17:11). You don’t have to know very much about anatomy and physiology to know that’s true. Just try losing too much of it and see how well you do! Without blood, there is no life. The Israelites would remember this every time they cut the throat of an ox or a lamb in sacrifice. When they watched an animal’s blood drain out, they watched its life drain out as well.

So if we think theologically about the sacrificial system, we can see the connection between blood, death, covenant, and atonement. The act of sin brings about the covenantal consequence of death. The demand for the transgressor’s death is essentially the same thing as the demand for the transgressor’s blood. The substitutionary animal sacrifices in the old covenant were vivid reminders that transgressors deserved death. Yet, through these substitutionary blood sacrifices, God made a way to atone for sin. Therefore, blood is symbolic in the sacrificial system under the old covenant because it demonstrates the costliness of sin. It graphically illustrates that with sin comes death.

The events on Calvary are the most vivid depiction of this reality. Christ—the One who was fully God and fully man, who was tempted in every way as we are yet remained without sin—shed his own blood. When he shed his own blood, he became the mediator of a new and better covenant. By that blood, and that blood alone, all who are called and endure receive a redemption and inheritance that lasts forever.

Reflect and Discuss

1. In what ways is Jesus’s priesthood starkly different from and superior to the priesthood of the Levites in the Old Testament? In what ways did the Levitical sacrifices point to Christ’s ultimate sacrifice? How does Jesus’s death fulfill animal deaths that happened under the old covenant?
2. Why is Jesus the perfect sacrifice for your sins? Since Jesus did not need to ritually cleanse himself as the Levitical high priest did, how does this affect the security of your salvation?
3. How does Jesus’s “once for all time” atonement affect the way that you view your relationship with him? How does this truth anchor our hope in the security of our salvation and help us endure until the end?
4. In what ways does Jesus’s example of unconditional atonement defy our culture’s understanding of forgiveness and love?
5. What does it mean for your conscience to be cleansed “from dead works”? How does this cleansing free you to genuinely worship God and joyfully serve him in your local church?
6. How does Christ’s role as our mediator differ from our culture’s understanding of a mediator? Explain the folly of trying to strike a compromise with God.
7. How is your motivation to share the gospel strengthened by the knowledge that Jesus’s death secures redemption for every person who is called? Does this knowledge refine your definition of “success” in evangelism? Explain your answer.
8. Why was it necessary for Jesus to be born as a man and die for our sins? What does this necessity teach you about the costliness of your salvation? What does it teach about God’s love for you?
9. What are some of the good gifts that Jesus’s priesthood has secured for you in the future? What good gifts has he secured for you in the present? Explain how you can be the benefactor and recipient of these good gifts, even the future ones, right now.
10. Does your local church promote a truncated, reductionistic articulation of the gospel? If so, in what ways? How might you lead the people in your church to understand and embrace the full gospel of Jesus Christ?