Hebrews 9

¹ Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness.² For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. ³ Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, ⁴ having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. ⁵ Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail. ⁶ These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, ⁷ but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. ⁸ By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing ⁹ (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, ¹⁰ but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation. ¹¹ But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) ¹² he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. ¹³ For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, ¹⁴ how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

The headline certainly grabs one’s attention: “He donated blood every week for 60 years and saved the lives of 2.4 million babies.” Listen:

Most people, when they retire, get a gold watch. James Harrison deserves so much more than that.

Harrison, known as the “Man With the Golden Arm,” has donated blood nearly every week for 60 years. After all those donations, the 81-year-old Australian man “retired” Friday. The occasion marked the end of a monumental chapter.

According to the Australian Red Cross Blood Service, he has helped saved the lives of more than 2.4 million Australian babies.

Harrison’s blood has unique, disease-fighting antibodies that have been used to develop an injection called Anti-D, which helps fight against rhesus disease.

This disease is a condition where a pregnant woman’s blood actually starts attacking her unborn baby’s blood cells. In the worst cases, it can result in brain damage, or death, for the babies…

“Every bag of blood is precious, but James’ blood is particularly extraordinary. His blood is actually used to make a life-saving medication, given to moms whose blood is at risk of attacking their unborn babies. Every batch of Anti-D that has ever been made in Australia has come from James’ blood.” Falkenmire said. “And more than 17% of women in Australia are at risk, so James has helped save a lot of lives.”…

The discovery of Harrison’s antibodies was an absolute game changer, Australian officials said.

“In Australia, up until about 1967, there were literally thousands of babies dying each year, doctors didn’t know why, and it was awful. Women were having numerous miscarriages and babies were being born with brain damage,” Jemma Falkenmire, of the Australian Red Cross Blood Service, told CNN in 2015. “Australia was one of the first countries to discover a blood donor with this antibody, so it was quite revolutionary at the time.”

But the article ends on a fairly somber note. Listen:

Now that Harrison has given his last blood donation (in Australia you can’t donate blood past the age of 81), Falkenmire and others hope people with similar antibodies in their blood will step up and donate.

“All we can do is hope there will be people out there generous enough to do it, and selflessly in the way he’s done,” she said.[1]

The article makes us feel two things: (1) joy and (2) sadness. We feel joy that this man’s blood was able to save the lives of over two million babies! But we feel sadness that this man with the saving blood is limited and now no longer able to give.

Joy.

Sadness.

I would like to propose that, rightly understood, this is how we should feel when we look back to the old tabernacle (and temple) worship of Israel. We feel joy, for sure! God instituted the tabernacle in the wilderness wanderings of Israel as a place for worship and for sacrifice. The tabernacle meant that God had not abandoned Israel and the blood of countless bulls and goats meant that there was hope that their sins could be forgiven.

And yet…

The blood of those bulls and goats had to be shed over and over and over again, did it not?

And those priests got old and died, did they not?

And the tabernacle itself had to be packed up and moved and built back, did it not?

In other words, there was joy at what the tabernacle suggested but sadness at what the tabernacle could never quite deliver: final and ultimate salvation, final and ultimate forgiveness, and a priest that would have no end!

The writer of Hebrews wants to take us through the tabernacle, it is true. But he does not want to leave us there. He wants to take us to the tabernacle so that he can show us the greatness of Jesus Christ!

The Imperfect Preparation

In reality the tabernacle was an imperfect preparation hinting at something better to come. It prepared Israel’s heart for something greater, but it was not itself the greater something it suggested. In the first ten verses, the author is going to walk us through the tabernacle. First we get the layout of the tabernacle itself.

¹ Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. ² For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. ³ Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, ⁴ having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. ⁵ Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

While the writer of Hebrews mentions a first and second section, in reality the tabernacle at large had three if we include the larger outer court. What the author is doing is breaking down the inner sanctuary into its two parts: the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place (more popularly known as the “Holy of Holies”). Thus we have:

• The outer court of the tabernacle.

• The inner Holy Place.

• The innermost Holy of Holies.

Now we are shown the ministry that happened within the layout of the tabernacle.

⁶ These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, ⁷ but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people.

The large altar of the outer court is where animal sacrifices were made. Blood was shed there and the smell of cooking flesh arose from it. On the inner altar of incense is where incense and prayer was offered. And in the Holy of Holies, on the lid of the ark of the covenant (known as the mercy seat), is where, once a year, on the day of atonement, the high priest would enter first with the blood of a bull to put on and before the mercy seat and then with the blood of a goat. Then he would go out and pronounce the sins of Israel over and on the head of the scapegoat that would then be sent out of the camp, carrying with it the atoned-for sins of Israel.

So we see an overview of the layout and the ministry of the tabernacle and of the priests and the high priest. But therein we find a problem, as the writer of Hebrews says:

⁸ By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing ⁹ (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, ¹⁰ but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.

So we see the problem! The tabernacle (and the temple, which later maintained the same basic layout and function) could draw the minds and hearts of Israel to God but it could not change, save, and transform the heart in any definitive and ultimate sense. F.F. Bruce has laid out three important conclusions about tabernacle worship.

(i) except on this annual occasion, the way into the throne room of God was barred for all Israelites, even for the high priest himself;

(ii) when the high priest did receive permission to enter, his entry was safeguarded by sacrificial blood;

(iii) this sacrificial blood was not finally efficacious, for fresh blood had to be shed and a fresh entry made into the holy of holies year by year.[2]

That is true. Its very architecture and furniture spoke of separation from God Himself and its daily repetitive offerings spoke of its limitations. In the words of the German theologian and reformer Johannes Bugenhagen, “The repetition showed the imperfection.”[3]

It is like James Harrison, the man with the golden arm, and his life-saving blood, is it not? It is glorious, to be sure, but it is (a) limited and (b) bound to end! Mr. Harrison can only give so much blood! The temporal and weak nature of his indisputably amazing and wonderful gift itself ushers in a kind of despair. It asks, “What do we do now?”

Tabernacle worship was glorious in its way, to be sure. We dare not despise it. But we also dare not elevate it above its purpose. It could not save. It could not ultimately and finally cleanse once-for-all. All that blood could only do so much! It too ultimately ended with the worshiper saying, “What do we do now?”

It could prepare the heart, but it could not transform the heart.

What, then? Are we stuck with this imperfect preparation for true worship that always falls short?

The Perfect Fulfillment

The author of Hebrews now pivots with a beautiful first four words: “But when Christ appeared…” What glorious words these are! Into the despair of the limitations of human religion, Christ comes! Watch what Christ brings with him:

¹¹ But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) ¹² he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. ¹³ For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, ¹⁴ how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Oh my! How far-excelling is the blood of Christ! How superior is His cross! Notice the contrasts to which the author points:

• The priest entered the tabernacle and its tent. Christ enters heaven itself.

• The priest entered the Holy of Holies trembling with the blood of bulls and goats. Christ enters the very presence of the Father on the basis of His own shed blood!

• The priests did their work day after day after day. Christ’s redemption is eternal and therefore once-for-all!

• The offerings of the tabernacle could offer ritual “purification of the flesh.” Christ’s blood is able to “purify our conscience from dead works to serve a living God.”

• The high priest could enter behind the veil once a year. Christ has torn the veil in two!

• The high priest would get old and die. Christ never will!

• The high priest had to offer sacrifice for His own sin! Christ “offered himself without blemish to God” and was the perfect Lamb of God!

• A bad wind could blow the tabernacle over. Hell itself cannot cause Jesus to budge an inch!

• The tabernacle needed repair. Jesus is unassailable!

Here is how Heinrich Bullinger, the 16^th century Swiss reformer, put it:

…Christ poured out his blood to God only once, without any repetition—yes, just once—not for his own sins (for he had none), but for the sins of the world. And the fact that he poured out such blood just once was the reason why, by his single offering before God, he achieved an ever-enduring atonement for all those who have believed, believe now, and will believe. Therefore, by the single sacrifice of the body of Christ not only the Jewish sacrifices have come to an end, but all other sacrifices for sins on earth, for the single sacrifice of Christ is enough for the whole world. Therefore, this sacrifice alone is presented to all the earth to be adored with true faith. Therefore, that person is anathema who has established another sacrifice, or has multiplied that which is unique, or has said that Christ has not blotted out all the sins of the world. That person is anathema who seeks any atonement for sins other than that which was accomplished by the unique blood of Christ, which was shed just once.[4]

There is no other blood that can so cleanse us like the blood of Christ! Not the blood of bulls. Not the blood of goats. Not the blood of countless animals. And also not our own blood spilled out in a frantic religious effort to save ourselves.

No. None of this will do.

But the blood of Christ…

¹⁴ how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

As Robert Lowry wrote in 1876:

What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

For my pardon, this I see,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
For my cleansing this my plea,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Nothing can for sin atone,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
Naught of good that I have done,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

This is all my hope and peace,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
This is all my righteousness,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Now by this I’ll overcome—
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
Now by this I’ll reach my home—
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Glory! Glory! This I sing—
Nothing but the blood of Jesus,
All my praise for this I bring—
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Refrain:
Oh! precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Yes.

Nothing but the blood.

Thank you Jesus for the blood!

 

[1] https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/11/health/james-harrison-blood-donor-retires-trnd/index.html

[2] F. F. Bruce. The Epistle to the Hebrews (Kindle Locations 2372-2375). Kindle Edition.

[3] Ronald K. Rittgers, ed. Hebrews, James. Reformation Commentary on Scripture. Gen. Ed. Timothy George. New Testament XIII (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2017), p.125.

[4] Ronald K. Rittgers, ed., p.125.