Hebrews

9.1-28

Note the details in the first four verses of this chapter that call us to a recollection of the Old Testament and the artifacts of the old covenant. Verse eight is critical for our understanding of why these things bear explanation. Before the cross and the destruction of the temple (which Christ both prophesied to be destroyed and rebuilt [John 2:19]), the old covenant and the temple were the gateways to God, which required a lesser priest than Christ.
So perfect is the new covenant that access to God not only no longer requires an intermediary, but our clean appearance before the Father occurs in another way not previously available to us - see what the writer of Hebrews is saying by comparing verses 9 and 14. We may now come before God with a clean conscience. Consider vv.15-22 knowing this: Before Christ, the Israelites were saved by a covenant that held a future promise, yet unfulfilled, of a coming Messiah, whose blood would be shed to seal a new covenant. Their faith was correctly placed in the promise of future salvation and symbolized by a continual representative imperfect sacrifice, under the old covenant. By Christ's death, the provisions of the new covenant are now immutable forever (v.17).
Under the old covenant, the high priest would annually enter the veiled holy of holies in the Temple to make an atoning sacrifice for all of Israel. The people would wait with eager anticipation to know as he reappeared from behind the veil that the sacrifice had been accepted. Verse 28 gives us this same anticipatory picture of our High Priest. Jesus Christ will also reappear, but at His second coming, He will not come to deal with our sin, "without reference to sin" (v.28). Sin only needs to be dealt with once, and He did that on the cross.

CHAPTER 9

The Old Covenant

1 Now even the first covenant had requirements of divine worship and the earthly sanctuary.
2 For there was a tabernacle prepared: the first part, in which were the lampstand and the table and the sacred bread, which is called the holy place.
3 And behind the second veil there was a tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies,
4 having a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden jar holding the manna, and Aaron’s rod which budded, and the tablets of the covenant.
5 And above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.
6 Now when these things have been so prepared, the priests are continually entering the first part of the tabernacle performing the divine worship,
7 but into the second, only the high priest enters once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance.
8 The Holy Spirit is indicating this, that the way into the holy places has not yet been manifested while that first part of the tabernacle is still standing,
9 which is a symbol for the present time. Accordingly both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience,
10 since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, requirements for the body imposed until a time of reformation.

The New Covenant

11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation,
12 and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy places once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh,
14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
15 And for this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the trespasses that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
16 For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it.
17 For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives.
18 Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.
19 For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the Law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,
20 saying, “THIS IS THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT WHICH GOD COMMANDED YOU.”
21 And in the same way, both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry he sprinkled with the blood.
22 And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
23 Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
24 For Christ did not enter holy places made with hands, mere copies of the true ones, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;
25 nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy places year by year with blood that is not his own.
26 Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
27 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,
28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.