COVENANTS AND THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES
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`Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you' (9:20).
`Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry' (9:21).
`And almost all things are by the law purged with blood' (9:22).
`And without shedding of blood is no remission' (9:22).
`Nor yet that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place ... with blood of
others' (9:25).
`For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins' (10:4).
`Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus' (10:19).
`Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of
God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing' (10:29).
`Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest He that destroyed the firstborn should touch
them' (11:28).
`Ye have not yet resisted unto blood' (12:4).
`To Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that
of Abel' (12:24).
`The bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned
without the camp.' (13:11).
`Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate' (13:12).
`Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep,
through the blood of the aionian covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will' (13:20,21).
Those that refer to redemption are 9:12,22, 10:4, and 11:28; of these 9:12 speaks of redemption as having been
obtained already, and is not the result of the offering there, as verses 13, 14 prove; 9:22, speaking of remission, may
at first seem to be a direct statement, yet it is in the midst of a context dealing with the Covenant and Tabernacle,
and rather indicates that the remission which is a part of the new covenant (Heb. 10:16-18), cannot be enjoyed
without this blood of sprinkling that links the people and the book together; 11:28 refers to the passover, the true
type of redemption, which offering is outside the scope of the epistle, for Hebrews has no place for redemption from
Egypt, its setting being the wilderness and its centre the Tabernacle. Salvation in the evangelical and gospel sense is
not the theme of Hebrews; it deals with a saved people, and their sanctification. Redemption, in the evangelical
sense, is presupposed.
The teaching of the epistle as to sanctification is directly bearing on the `purifying for sins', which Hebrews 1:3
brings so prominently forward. It figures again in 2:11 and 10:10,14, `we are sanctified through the offering of the
body of Jesus Christ once for all ... for by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified'. The
context speaks of the New Covenant, of access into the holiest, and of despising the blood of the Covenant
whereunto one is sanctified; it is not the salvation of the sinner, but the perfecting of those who are sanctified that is
here in view; so we come back to Hebrews 1:3. Of all the phases of the sacrificial work of Christ this one is
selected; selected by reason of the fact that it is vitally connected with the purpose of the epistle. The greatness of
the One Who thus provided the purifying, the Son of God, makes wilful defilement a terrible thing. It does despite
to the spirit of grace.
Hebrews 10:12 tells us that after the Lord had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, He sat down; this is the
testimony also of Hebrews 1:3, `When He had made a purifying for sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty
on high'. This has reference to His high priesthood, `we have such an High Priest, Who is set on the right hand of
the throne of the Majesty in the heavens' (8:1), and to Himself as the Pattern, `looking unto Jesus the author and
perfecter of faith, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross despising the shame, and is set down at
the right hand of the throne of God' (12:2). Both the High Priest and the Pattern are for believers; so also this one
phase of the work of Calvary, `the purifying of or for sins'.
The Right Hand of the Majesty on High