Establishing the Superiority of Jesus Christ: A Commentary on Hebrews 9:11–28
In the early days of Christianity, especially among new Jewish followers, there was some confusion about how much of the old religious practices established by God through Moses should continue in this new way of worship. This confusion came partly from negative reactions in their mostly Jewish surroundings and partly from their deep emotional connection to a worship system that had been a significant part of their lives and nation for as long as they could remember.
The book of Hebrews can be seen as a kind of surgery, aimed at separating the close ties between Christianity and Judaism.
Modern Christians, just like their ancestors, will benefit from these clarifications.
Heb. 9:11–10
In the first section of the text before us: Heb. 9:1–10 — the Apostle labours diligently to draw a sketch of the Old Covenant, its structure and furniture, its rituals and its personnel (the priests and the high priest), and their duties.
He then goes on to assert that it’s all limited, grossly so, in its effect. i.e. its ability to deliver the desire of God to man, which is ultimately to purify and consequently qualify him to tread the courts of God freely and confidently.
This desire of God for man which the Old Covenant system could not deliver to man is stated in verse 9 as the inability to “perfect the conscience of the worshiper”.
From verses 11–14 [read these in contrast to verses 7–10], he labours with equal diligence to show in detail,
1. The superior Chief Personnel of the New Covenant — Christ the High Priest,
2. The Superiority of the deliverables thereof — “the good things to come”, those things that were part of God’s design and intention for humanity, as foretold in advance. (Dan. 9:24). The things that make for the perfection of the worshipper;
3. The (superior, heavenly) nature of the structure of Christ’s administration — “the perfect tabernacle not made with hands, not of this creation”;
4. The superior material/ingredient of the ritual- “His own blood”- (this is understandably a subject of controversy, and we’ll address it later) which obtained a superior quality of redemption- “eternal redemption”.
5. He is the Superior Offering- “offered Himself through the Eternal Spirit without spot to God,” and
6. Attained what the Old rituals could not- “cleanse (y)our conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (works that are not alive, that do not possess the life of God, the touch of God, not sourced in God, make us impure and unable to serve the God Who is alive). Luke 1:74,75 offers some hint.
Essentially, Christ came as the [spiritual] Administrator of the prophetic purposes of God.
Verses 15–28 now,
To properly grasp the Apostle’s reasoning in this section, we may have to picture a courtroom where a witness is under cross-examination concerning his recent claims and report:
The recent claim: “Christ, the Much Superior and Eternal High Priest went in to the greater and more perfect tabernacle with His own blood and as offered Himself to God”
This essentially means Christ died.
And this requires a defense for two significant reasons:
i. The idea of the high priest doubling as the offering is strange to and unheard of in Jewish thinking; it wasn’t clearly stated anywhere in the Torah. The closest hint would be Isaiah 53 — the portrait of the Suffering Messiah.
ii. Earlier, in Chapter 7 v 23, he implied strongly that death of the Aaronic high priests is proof of their inferiority. Now, he’s saying this High Priest, the better and much superior High Priest too died.
Contradictions?
No.
The Defense:
Starting from ii.
a. They (high priests of the Old Economy) died as a result of the frailty of their frame — mortality- “they were PREVENTED by death from continuing.”
But here he says Christ died as an offering to God, enabled by the Eternal Spirit, the Spirit of Life & Immortality, the Spirit of continuance, the forever Spirit, the Spirit that does not die [Hebrews 9:14].
In other words, His [Christ’s] death was sponsored/facilitated by the Eternal Spirit.
And the death facilitated or sponsored or energized by the Eternal Spirit is infinitely superior to the death that is died in submission to weakness.
Death is different from death- every other man’s death is the logical end/conclusion of weakness/diminishing but Christ’s death was a product of strength.
It was an offering. Not suicide. Not mere death.
b. And now, on the subject of blood sacrifice. Since the First Covenant was dedicated with blood [Ex. 24:3–8], and is but a shadow of God’s ultimate intention, the New Covenant too must of necessity be dedicated with blood. It is the nature of covenants to be dedicated with blood.
Christ’s death, therefore, was needful in order to enact/mediate the New Covenant that God promised and had always wanted for His people. [Luke 22:20; Hebrews 9:15].
This commentary is split into three parts for easier reading. See Part II here.
