A Study Of The Apostle Paul’s Letter To The Hebrews

1. Don’t fall away! Don’t Depart! Don’t neglect your salvation! Don’t cast away your confidence! Don’t harden your heart! Don’t drift away! AStudyOf TheApostlePaul’s LetterTo The Hebrews How can we neglect so greata salvation? ~ Hebrews 2:3

2. Hebrews: Christ Is Superior! Superior Person (1:1—4:13) Superior to Prophets (1:1-3) Superior to Angels (1:4—2:18) Superior to Moses (3:1-19) Superior to Joshua (4:1-13) Superior Priest (4:14—7:28) Superior to Aaron (4:14—6:12) Superior to Melchizedek (6:13—7:10) Superior to Levi (7:11-28)

3. Hebrews: Christ Is Superior! Superior Pact to Moses’ (8:1—10:18) Superior Promises (8:1-13) Superior Sanctuary (9:1-15) Superior Sacrifice (9:16-28) Superior Results (10:1-18) Superior Principle (Faith) to Moses’ (10:19—13:25) Superior Things (10:19-39) Superior Actions (11:1-40) Superior Relationship (12:1-29) Superior Way of Life (13:1-25)

4. Our study of 9:11-15 taught us at least four things: 1.TherisenJesusbecamethenewHigh Priest who (at the time of Hebrews) was building a spiritual/eternal re- placement-tabernacle for the one He would destroy at His AD 70 coming. 2.This greater tabernacle was estab- lishedupontheuniquebloodof Jesus —the only blood that could/did result in the eternal redemption of any and all who desire it.

5. 3.Christ’sblood,therefore,finallymade it possible for mankind to come into possession of a clear conscience, a conscience that couldn’t be achieved by any sort of works.And… 4.His blood had to be shed—He had to die—to ratify,andHehadto be raised to mediate the new covenant which came along with the new priesthood (cf. 7:12). Now…   

6. In 9:16-23 we’ll discover more about why Jesus had to shed His blood and die for mankind. After writing about the eternal in-heritance (v. 15), Paul wrote the fol-lowing in…

7. Hebrews 9:16-17   For where there is atestament,there must also of ne-cessity be the deathofatestator. For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testa-tor lives.

8. This comes from a term which refers to stipulations or an agreement between two parties; obvi-ously here it speci-fically refers to a will of conditions left by the dead, a will that must be agreed and submit-ted to by the living before any rewards in it can be claimed. For where there is atestament,there must also of ne-cessity be the deathofatestator. For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testa-tor lives.

9. I.e., no one, even today, can, for ex-ample, obtain his father’s will and force the courts into executing it as long as his father is still alive. But of course…    For where there is atestament,there must also of ne-cessity be the deathofatestator. For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testa-tor lives.

10. The father (like the one in Luke 15) can go ahead and distribute what-ever he wishes while he’s alive; but it must be remembered in such a case that this father isn’t executing a ratified will which can only occur by his death—he’s merely doing what he wishes with what he possesses.

11. In Matthew 9:1-6 Jesus forgave a paralytic, and when the scribes got irritated at Him, Jesus said that He had power on Earth to forgive sins. Jesus did this same sort of thing in the case of the thief on the cross: al-though we have no idea if the thief had been baptized or not, Jesus could save him without baptism if He wished to do so, because He had not died yet to ratify the new covenant that requires baptism (Acts 2:38).

12. Hebrews 9:18 Thereforenoteven the first covenant was dedicated without blood.

13. I.e., just as all this is true in the case of man-made wills, it’s also true of the covenants of God—they also must be ratified and estab-lished by means of death and the sprinkling of blood. (Besides, I wonder where man got this if not from God!) Thereforenoteven the first covenant was dedicated without blood.

14. Even the old cove-nant, which was but a type of the new, was established with blood. Thereforenoteven the first covenant was dedicated without blood.

15. Hebrews 9:19-20    For when Moses had spoken every pre-cept to all the peo-ple according to the Law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and [or on] hyssop [branch-es], and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the cove-nant which God has commanded you.”

16. The Testator of the Old Covenant was God, for it was God who was the source of forgiveness for those in OT times. However…    For when Moses had spoken every pre-cept to all the peo-ple according to the Law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and [or on] hyssop [branch-es], and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the cove-nant which God has commanded you.”

17. Since God wasn’t yet ready to come in the person of Christ and die for mankind, He pro-vided a substitute to typify Him in death, a death that would make the first testament ef-fective; this substi-tution, of course, was an animal. So… For when Moses had spoken every pre-cept to all the peo-ple according to the Law, he tookthe blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and [or on] hyssop [branch-es], and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the cove-nant which God has commanded you.”

18. The emphasis in these two verses is that everything associated with the testament bears the mark of blood, the shedding of which resulted in death; as seen here, blood is that which seals not only a covenant, but also the people to the covenant.

19. Since this is not de-scribed in the Bible and since there are at least 3 different plants this could refer to, I must conclude that Bible hyssop must have been the only one of the three that had strong and long enough stems to use in Bible ways—thecaper plant. For when Moses had spoken every pre-cept to all the peo-ple according to the Law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and [or on]hyssop[branch-es], and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the cove-nant which God has commanded you.”

20. This simply means enjoined: God had enjoined this cove-nant on or to them (cf. Exo. 24:1-6). For when Moses had spoken every pre-cept to all the peo-ple according to the Law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and [or on] hyssop [branch-es], and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the cove-nant which God has commanded you.”

21. Hebrews 9:21 Then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry.

22. Sprinkling all these things with blood seemed to express the exceedingly sin-fulness of man; i.e., manissosinful, and sin itself is so bad, that it spilled over onto the things he used in worshipping and serving a holy God! So they needed to be cleansed as well. Again… Then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. …as has been true throughout this con-text, this is all sym-bolic for us to learn how God sees sin.

23. Hebrews 9:22 And according to the Law almost all things are purged with blood, and without the shed-dingof blood there is no remission. So…

24. What was left out? Things that were symbolically cleans-ed with water and fire (Num. 31:22-24). And according to the Law almost all things are purged with blood, and without the shed-dingof blood there is no remission.

25. Paul’s point was simply that there just wasn’t and isn’t any sin that could or can be annulled without bloodshed and death (cf. Rom. 6:23 & Lev. 17:11); that has just always & admittedly been the requirement of the nature of deity for sin (cf. Isa. 55:8-9 & 2 Cor. 5:7). And according to the Law almost all things are purged with blood, and without the shed-dingof blood there is no remission.

26. This is from a term which means to send away (reminis-cent of the scapegoat, Lev. 16), so it came to mean to pardon a wrong or to cancel an obligation or a punishment, making itrelatedto the idea of mercy. And according to the Law almost all things are purged with blood, and without the shed-dingof blood there is no remission.

27. Hebrews 9:23 Therefore it was necessary thatthe copies of the things in the heav-ensshouldbe puri-fied with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacri-fices than these.

28. This refers back to the Aaronic priest-hood and the taber-nacle; and since the tabernacle of God was situated in the midst of a sinful na-tion, it (and every-thing belonging to it) was cleansed by the blood of animal sacrifices. Therefore it was necessary thatthe copies of the things in the heav-ensshouldbe puri-fied with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacri-fices than these.

29. The word things is actually not in the original; the word heavenly is what is plural, so logic and context must deter-mine what the heavenlies refer to. So…    Therefore it was necessary thatthe copies of the things in the heav-ensshouldbe puri-fied with these, but the heavenlythings themselves with better sacri-fices than these.

30. Since Paul was speaking about the cleansing of sin and the ceremonial impurities of and due to the people, then the logical and contextual meaning of heavenlies here seems to refer back to the consciences of men (v. 14).

31. The OT priesthood = NT Christians. The OT tabernacle = the NT kingdom in which Christians serve God. So… The heavenly things here could easily be translated as the heavenly ones; i.e., those of the heavenly kingdom are those who have been purified by the shed blood of Christ.

32. This obviously re-fers to the sacrifice of Christ. But since Paul often claimed that there was only the one sacrifice of Christ (even in v. 26), why did he say sac-rifices? Perhaps to retain the parallel, it was because Christ’s one sacri-fice equaled, even surpassed, all previous sacrifices! Therefore it was necessary thatthe copies of the things in the heav-ensshouldbe puri-fied with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacri-fices than these.

33. Hebrews 9:24 For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands which are copies of the true, but into Heaven it-self, nowtoappear in the presence of God for us…

34. Not only do 9:24-28 contrast 9:19-23, but they also cite three appearances of Christ. For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands which are copies of the true, but into Heaven it-self, nowtoappear in the presence of God for us…

35. AsPaulhasalready stated a few times, instead of going into the literal, physi-cal, man-made tabernacle with His blood, Jesus went into that which the tabernacle partly pictured—Heaven!

36. Unlikewiththe earthly high priest who could only appear before God once a year, Jesus appears before God on a continuous or eternal basis. Also… Unlike the earthly high priest who had to conceal himself in smoke while in God’s presence in the holy of holies, Jesus appears face to face with God in Heaven; since Jesus died sinless, there is no need for anything to hide Him from God. And…   

37. He does this for us; on behalf of those cleansed, Jesus stands in God’s presence, meaning that we have access to God because and only because of Jesus. So if these brethren had re-turned to their old ways, they would’ve rejected the One God provided as their substitution! For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands which are copies of the true, but into Heaven it-self, nowtoappear in the presence of God for us…

38. Hebrews 9:25-26a   …not that He should offer Him-self often, as the high priest enters the most holy place every year with the blood of another—He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world…

39. This offering of Him- self refers to His second appearance —His appearance before God’s throne as the OT high priests appeared before the mercy seat in the holy of holies with the blood of the lamb. …not that He should offer Him-self often, as the high priest enters the most holy place every year with the blood of another—He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world…

40. If the sacrificial service of Christ was like that of the OT, then He would’ve been required to begin His sacrificing immediately after Adam’s sin; how-ever, since only once was necessary and since it’s God’s general rule that men die only once (cf. v. 27), Jesus could and did wait until the perfect timing of God to offer Himself once and for all time (cf. Eph. 1:7-12, Gal. 4: 4-5, et al.). I.e….   

41. Hebrews 9:26b  …but now, once at [or in] the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Him-self.

42. This simply refers to the last genera-tion of time inthe Mosaicalage(which, of course, followed the Patriarchal age, mak-ing at least two ages), and it was at this time that Christ came in His first appearance and sacrificed Himself for mankind. …but now, once at [or in]the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Him-self.

43. It’s interesting to notethatthisclause implies that Paul and these brethren were still in the Mosaical age (cf. 1:2, 1 Pet. 1:20, Heb. 8:13, 2 Cor. 3:11, etc.). …but now, once at [or in] the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Him-self. Unlike the KJV, the NKJV has 26a & 26b correct: world is from kos-mos, while ages is from aion. Also interesting is the fact that the Bible never uses kosmoswhen speaking of the end of the universe!

44. Some scholars be-lieve that the origi-nal wording for sin here actually has reference to sin-offerings, fulfilling Daniel 9:27 (the context of which is about Jerusalem’s demise); i.e., Jesus’ one sacrifice put an end to all sacrifices! On the other hand… …but now, once at [or in] the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Him-self.

45. If Paul meant just sin, then that works just as well, fulfill-ing Daniel 9:24 (the context of which is, again, about Jeru-salem’s demise). …but now, once at [or in] the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Him-self.

46. Hebrews 9:27-28a   And as it is ap-pointed for men to die once, but after thisthejudgment, so Christ was of-fered once to bear the sins of many. I.e.…

47. Christ was a man, and as a man He lived and died never to come to Earth to live and die again; in Romans Paul put it like this: Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once forall.However… And as it is ap-pointed for men to die once, but after thisthejudgment, so Christ was of-fered once to bear the sins of many.

48. This word denotes a contrast; i.e., the difference is that Jesus, instead of dying in order to be judged, died in order to provide forgiveness of sins to make our judg-ments favorable. And as it is ap-pointed for men to die once, but after thisthejudgment, so Christ was of-fered once to bear the sins of many.

49. There’s no definite article before judg-ment here; i.e., it isn’t the judgment, just judgment. At the time of death, we’re already judged, regardless if we believe in a separate time of sentencing or not, i.e. whether we be-lieve we go directly to Heaven or not. And as it is ap-pointed for men to die once, but after thisthejudgment, so Christ was of-fered once to bear the sins of many. Anyway…

50. Paul’s indisputable point here is that Jesus’ death for our reconciliation to God would no more be repeated than will a man’s death and judgment; i.e., there’s no reincar-nation! And as it is ap-pointed for men to die once, but after thisthejudgment, so Christ was of-fered once to bear the sins of many.