 |  |
The voice of the Lord is powerful;
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars:
Yea the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.
He maketh them also to skip like a calf:
Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn;
The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire;
The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness:
The Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh;
The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve;
And discovereth the forests;
And in His temple doth every one speak of His glory;
The Lord sitteth upon the flood;
Yea, the Lord sitteth King for ever.
The Lord will give strength unto His people;
The Lord will bless His people with peace."
#9. "The Purifying of Sins" (Heb. 1: 3).
pp. 150 - 154
Since the mention of the Son we have been taken you with the glories of His person
and the wonders of His office. We now come prepared with this revelation of His
majesty to the record of His work. His wondrous attributes are many and varied, but the
word to which all are focused is one--the purification of sins.
The A.V. would lead the reader to emphasize the words, by Himself, but the R.V. and
all the best texts omit them, together with the word "our", and we accept the reading,
"when He had made a purification for sins". The word kathariző is used for the cleansing
of a leper (Matt. 8: 3), and the ceremonial cleansing of the outside of the cup
(Matt. 23:). It is used in the epistle to the Hebrews, as indeed are the other forms of the
word, and it will enlighten us as to the meaning if we consider all the references in that
epistle:--
"How much more shall the blood of Christ, Who through the aionian spirit offered
Himself without spot to God, purge (kathariző) your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God" (9: 14).
"And almost all things are by the law purged (kathariző) with blood" (9: 22).
"It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be
purified (kathariző) with these" (9: 23).
"Our bodies washed with pure (katharos) water" (10: 22).
"For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the
unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying (katharotés) of the flesh" (9: 13).
As we examine these passages we shall observe that they do not speak primarily of the
forgiveness of sins, or the justification of the sinner; they do not speak of redemption, but
of one only of its effect, viz., purification. The type which will indicate fairly clearly the
object of the work of Christ in Heb. 1: 3 is that of the "ashes of the heifer". The