Hebrews 9:1-15

Mediator of a New Covenant

Have you ever been seduced by some of the over-the-counter diet pills that promise rapid weight loss without making any radical changes in your life?  What they don't tell you on the commercials is that for these to work you have to eat a sensible amount of food and begin an exercise regimen to take off the weight.  So you purchase those bottles of pills and begin taking them and nothing happens.  They were big on promises but little on results.  But then you look closer at the directions on the bottle and realize that they didn't work because you didn't fulfill your side of the plan of eating right and exercising.

Well, this is the same thing that happened to the Mosaic Covenant and Israel.  Moses came to them with the Law from on top of Mt. Sinai promising them a wonderful life of drawing near to God and dwelling in his presence.  There would be temples and priests and sacrifices and through these wonderful means, the people of God will be able to dwell in a new land with God in their midst.

However, there was a catch:  they had to keep the whole law and keep it perfectly. 

But that was there downfall wasn't it?  It wasn’t that the law was in any way imperfect.  No!  It was the revelation of God's holy character to His people.  It was perfect for Israel.  The problem wasn't with the Law, but with the people who received it.  They were rotten to the core and no matter how many tablets of stone filled with laws were given to them, they were not going to be able to live up to their side of the agreement.

Therefore, the law didn't work.  In fact, as the author of Hebrews says, the law was "weak and useless" because it could make nothing perfect (cf. 7:11-12, 18). 

But if the Law doesn't work in bringing us to God, does that mean that we no longer have the promise that we might be able to draw near to God and dwell in His presence forevermore?  Well, one thing is for sure, the law has taught us all that we will never be able to draw near to God if that promise is in any way dependent upon us.  We will never be able to do anything that will repair this rift between us and God.  The barrier between us is far to high for us to climb over.  And as long as that barrier remains, God is against us and if God is against you there is no hope of peace.

So what are we to do?  What hope do we have?

That is the preacher's gift to you this morning.  You in fact have a better hope than did Moses and Israel which is based upon better promises which have been brought about by the mediator of a new covenant with God (cf. 7:18-28; 8:6-7).

And with this new covenant the old covenant under Moses has now become obsolete because it was weak and powerless to bring you to God (cf. 8:13).

But what was it about that old covenant under Moses that made it so weak and powerless to bring us to God?

Well, the preacher mentions at least two problems with the priests themselves in chap. 7:  first, they were weak and powerless in that they died and needed to be continually replaced with a fresh batch of priests to take their place.  And second, they were themselves sinners who needed to offer sacrifices for their own sins first before they could offer a sacrifice for the sins of Israel (cf. 7:23-28).

But now the preacher turns to the actual place of worship, where God promises to meet with His people, as being insufficient and powerless to be a space where we could draw near to God.  The two inadequacies of the tabernacle were the limited access the worshippers had to God and the ineffectiveness of the sacrifices and offerings of cleansing the conscience of the worshippers.

The preacher begins with the first imperfection of limited access in v. 1 of chap. 9.  He begins with a radical contrast that speaks to the heart of the problem:  in the tabernacle Israel was attempting to worship God through an "earthly" structure.  Under the first covenant made with Moses Israel could approach God through a meeting place that belonged to this world, this passing age.  It was by nature transitory.  As the preacher said in 8:2, it was pitched by the hands of man, not God. 

The old tabernacle had man's hands all over it (cf. 9:24).  Moses made it according to the pattern he saw on the top of Mt. Sinai.  It was only a copy and shadow of the real temple in heaven.  It belonged to this world and therefore the whole system was based upon something that would eventually fall away and become obsolete.  It was never meant to last.  In fact, the preacher even uses the tabernacle as his example rather than the present day temple that he readers would have seen every day because he wants to stress the temporary nature and inadequacy of an earthly sanctuary as a true meeting place with God.  How could you ever build your hope on that?

But the preacher has another problem with the old structure of Moses:  it included a barrier that limited the access of God's people into His presence, which was certainly a picture of the barrier between God and us because of our sin.  The preacher speaks of two compartments within the tabernacle:  In the first one, called the "holy place" the priests daily served tending to the menorah and the table of sacred bread (vv. 2, 6).  But the real place of glory was hidden behind a barrier to most priests and the rest of the children of Israel -- it was referred to as the "holy, holy place."  This is the compartment where God would sit and meet with those who were privileged enough to enter it.  But it was limited to only one person:  the high priest and only through a strict and precise means of entry that could only be offered one time a year (vv. 3-5, 7).

Now what did all of this mean?  Well, the preacher doesn't waste time trying to allegorize each element present in the tabernacle (v. 5b).  He doesn't have to.  His point is simply that that old system didn't allow for true fellowship with God.  As he says in v. 8, the Holy Spirit was teaching through that old system that the way into God's presence was severely limited and would never be perfect as long as it existed.  Why?

It wasn't because God wasn't able to use that old system.  Rather it was because that system was based upon man's hands.  Entry of it was based upon the sacrifices and offerings offered by man and belonging to this world, which itself is temporary (cf. vv. 9-10).  And those who entered were sinners who cannot approach a holy God.  That is why there were so many barriers.  God was teaching Israel that they could never approach Him as long as their sin remained.  As long as they lived in rebellion against God they could never perfectly draw near to Him and in fact, most of Israel were never able to draw near to Him.

That's why there needed to be a new way to God.  A way not based upon man's obedience but based upon God's own righteousness.  A righteousness that would be accomplished by God Himself and offered to all who wanted it, or rather, whom God would make want it, as a free gift through faith alone.   

And that is exactly what God has done through His own Son, Jesus Christ.  He came to fulfill the promise of our drawing near by His own work. 

And He came not with the blood of bulls and goats that can never make anything perfect but He came with His own blood (vv. 11-12).

How could the blood of mere animals ever make anything clean?  How could the blood of a bull or goat ever cleanse you of your sin?  At the most, it could be a temporary fix and only externally as a mere formality (cf. 10:1-4). 

But Jesus Christ didn't come with such an imperfect sacrifice.  No!  He came to earth to take on your nature -- to become one of you -- so that he could pay the ultimate price for your sin.  He laid down His own life -- a perfect life without sin or blemish – (this time) a man's own blood to atone for the blood of sinful man. 

And then glory upon glory he was raised from the dead and ascended into Heaven -- the true tabernacle -- and offered his own blood to the Father for your sin and rebellion against God.  There is the true presence of God your sin debt was paid in full.  All your sins were washed away by the blood of the Lamb of God.  It was not the temporary, imperfect blood of animals that was offered, but the blood of God's own Son that has forever removed your sins from view and removed them as far as the east is from the west.

And so why is this sacrifice so effective where the former way of Moses made nothing clean?  Because it was offered by God's own Son -- the perfect God-man -- and not touched by sinful, human hands.  In other words, it was effective because it was God's work not man's (cf. vv. 11-12). 

Now the effect of that sacrifice was not simply an external bandage that covered up the problem, but a true cleansing that went all the way to the core of your being.  The preacher contrasts the nature of the sacrifices under Moses with the ultimate sacrifice of God's own Son.  The old system only provided for a mere external cleansing that had to be offered year after year after year (v. 13; 10:3-4).  By its very nature it proved ineffective.  The whole system could not work because it was mixed with man's hands.  In fact, the result of the old system was to merely teach us that we cannot do anything to approach God in ourselves.

We needed a whole new system based not upon our works but upon God's grace and mercy.  A new covenant that was based upon Christ's work as the ultimate mediator between God and man.  He would be the God-man where that peace and reconciliation would be made in Himself.  There in Christ is the new meeting place between man and God.  In his own torn flesh, you have been given and new and living way to God that you may be able to draw near to God in time of need (cf. 10:19-23). 

It is the true meeting place not because you are faithful but because He alone is faithful to His promise.  He has done it.  The work is complete.  Jesus Christ has done what you couldn’t do through your own sweat, blood, and tears.  He has offered himself without any blemish to God for your sin and because that offering is in itself absolutely perfect you now have what you couldn't have gained through your own works of the law:  You have a perfectly clean conscience before God (9:14).  Your dead works now mean nothing to God for they have been forever made clean before God and there is nothing more for you to do (cf. v. 15 -- the promise). 

Do you see the incredible gift that has been given to you?  You can draw near to God with absolute confidence and boldness.   No fear, no regrets, no looking back.  There is no barrier between you and God anymore.  It has been forever removed by the blood of Christ and in Him you have all you need to forever approach God without any fear of rejection.

And this cleansing it not merely a band-aid that covers up your imperfections.  No!  It is a complete and total cleansing so that to the very core of your being you have been made clean so that even your conscience has been wiped clean (v. 14).

What the law was unable to do, Christ has done for you.  The law could make nothing clean, including your conscience before a holy God.  Israel approached God daily with a burdened conscience because their sin was never truly dealt with through that imperfect system under Moses.

Your conscience needed to be cleansed by a whole new plan -- a new covenant that was based not upon you and your works, but upon God Himself.  As Paul says in Romans 8:

Romans 8:1-4  Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.  3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,  4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

There is now no condemnation for you because you have been forever hidden in the one who has perfectly fulfilled all the requirements of God and who has forever cleansed you of all your transgression of God's law.

Therefore, you have confidence -- boldness -- before God because the one sacrifice has forever made you right with God.  You can approach Him with a clear conscience because the work is finished in Jesus Christ.

Last week while I was driving to work I saw a sign outside a business that read, "A clean conscience makes a soft pillow."  As I thought about it, I realized how condemnatory that sign made me feel.  And rightly so.  My conscience is not clean.  I know my own heart and the depths of depravity hidden deep within me.  I know that no sin is impossible for me and if I haven't done it with my hands, I most likely have done the most horrible of sins in my heart.

So how could I possibly ever be at rest to sleep quietly and peacefully at night?  Because my conscience has been completely and forever cleansed by the blood of the Lamb of God.  Jesus Christ is your only rest.  A better sign would have read, "The completed work of Jesus Christ makes a soft pillow."  Because it is a work that has not been made here on earth, with the blood of animals and offered up in a structure made with man's hands.  Rather, it was the blood of God's own Son that was offered in heaven in God's own presence where the rift between God and man has been forever breached and you have been made clean forevermore (cf. 9:24-28).

You are clean.  All your past mistakes.  All your failings.  All you coming up short have been forever made right with a holy God.  Why?  Because Jesus has done it all.  And now, as the preacher says in v. 14 you can serve the living God with a clean conscience knowing the debt has been paid in full and that because the work is complete you have received the promise of the eternal inheritance of God (v. 15). 

Amen!  -SDG-