"Execution by Blood" Sermon: Hebrews 9:15-22

“Execution by Blood”

[Hebrews 9:15-22]

May 5, 2013 Second Reformed Church

            Do any of you have a will?  Do you understand what your will does?  If you understand – even if you don’t have a will, you will understand a major point of this morning’s text.

            “Therefore”

            Last week we ended by looking at the fact that Christ’s Blood has greater – and eternal – effectiveness for purifying the believer.  Being sprinkled with the blood of animals was a temporary, though real, purification, but Christ’s Sacrifice offered up by Himself as the Final and Perfect High Priest is an eternal purification.

We also noted that the fact of the matter is that the best works we do, even as Christians are tainted with sin.  Yet, through Christ and by the Power of the Holy Spirit, we can and ought to strive to do the good works He has set before us, continually working towards the holiness we are called to. 

            “Therefore” – since these things are true:  Christ is the Final and Perfect High Priest Who offered up Himself as the Final and Perfect Sacrifice for the purification of sin, we are eternally purified and empowered by God the Holy Spirit to turn from sin and do the good works God has called us to – we are to strive towards holiness – towards sanctification.

            “Therefore [Christ] is the mediator of a new covenant,”

            The first Covenant made by God through Moses – the Mosaic Covenant – was a lesson that it is not possible for us to be saved by our works.  God made promises and called all to keep the Law perfectly.  But the Law was never meant to be a way of salvation – the Law was to show us that we cannot keep the Law, but our Only Hope is through the Savior that God had promised to send from the Garden.

            The first Covenant called the people of God to obedience – holiness – and made the promise of an inheritance based on the keeping of the Law – and that promise was confirmed through death – that is, through the blood of animals.  But the promise was forfeit every time they sinned – every time they broke the Law.

            The New Covenant – the Covenant through Jesus – the Gospel – also calls the people of God to obedience – holiness – but made the promise of an inheritance based on God’s call and Christ’s Work – that is, through the Blood of Christ.  This promise, since it is based on the Work of Christ, is eternal for all those who will believe.

            Notice there is a mediator for both covenants:  in the first Covenant, Moses was the mediator between God and the people.  As we read:  “Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, ‘You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.’ Moses said to the people, ‘Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.’ The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was” (Exodus 20:18-21, ESV).

            In the New Covenant, Christ is the Mediator.  “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” (1 Timothy 2:5, ESV).

            Why was Christ the Mediator of the New Covenant?

“so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance,”

The problem with seeing the first Covenant as a way of salvation is that neither the mediator, nor the people could refrain from sin, and sin broke the Covenant.  In the first Covenant, the mediator could not expiate sin – he could not totally remove sin, the sin nature, the desire to sin, and the effects of sinning.  Moses did not have that power – and the blood of animals did not have that power.

Christ became the Mediate of the New Covenant so that in perfectly keeping the Law and through conquering of sin, all those who believed in Him would be saved from sin – their sins would be forgiven and they would be made holy through Christ’s Work.

God, through Christ’s Work, has adopted a people for Himself, so the inheritance we receive is not through biology or genealogy, but through being the adopted sons and daughters of God.

With Christ as Mediator of the New Covenant – Who kept the first Covenant perfectly and took upon Himself all of the sins of everyone who would ever believe in Him – all those God called to be His – we are delivered from the eternal wages of sin – eternal death – and received the righteousness of Christ as our own.

God has chosen a people to receive the eternal inheritance through the Mediator Christ Jesus:  “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Romans 8:28-30, ESV).

Yet, there is one piece missing:  remember that the Old Testament is a foreshadowing or a type of what Christ would be.  Christ kept the first Covenant’s Law and, thus, was righteous and could impute that righteousness to us – to we who believe, so we would be reckoned as righteous by God.  But Christ’s Life alone does not deal with our sin – the imputation of Christ’s Righteousness to us does not deal with our sin – the wages of sin must still be paid for.  In the first Covenant, this was done with the shedding of the blood of animals.  So, the Law requires that there be blood again.

“since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.”

Christ had to die as the Sacrifice for the sins of His people for us to be forgiven of our sins and delivered from our slavery to sin.  Blood had to be shed to fulfill the Law.  Death – blood – redeems from sins committed under the first Covenant.  Blood cleanses us from our sin.

“and [we] are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins” (Romans 3:24-25, ESV).

The author of Hebrews now turns to some word play:  in Greek, the word for “covenant,” “testament,” and “will” all have essentially the same meaning, so, to make his next point, he switches from using the word “covenant” to the word “will” – as in, “last will and testament”:

“For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established.”

If you have a will, you understand that it only takes effect after you have died.  I have a will and have explained what I want done with my stuff after I have died.  It does not take effect – my stuff is not taken and distributed as I would like them to be – until I have died.  A will is executed – it goes into effect – after a death.

In the case of Christ, He wills grace and glory to those who believe in Him.  All those who believe in Christ were willed His Grace – both the imputation of His Righteousness and the forgiveness for sin and freedom from slavery to sin.  And all those who believe in Christ were willed His Glory.  Again:  “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Romans 8:28-30, ESV).  All those who believe in Christ Jesus Alone for salvation will be brought into His Glory.

“The goods and inheritance of the kingdom of heaven are bequeathed absolutely unto all of the elect, so as that no intervenience can defeat them of it” [Owen, Hebrews, vol. 6, 341].

“For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive.”

So, in order for those who believe in Christ to receive the grace and glory that He has willed to them, Christ had to die.  Both in fulfilling the Old Testament Sacrifices and in fulfilling the legal working of a will, those who believe could not – in reality – receive the things He bequeathed to His people until he died.

OK?  So, if Shirley bequeathed $500,000 to the church in her will – which would be a very nice thing to do – the church would not receive it until she died.  Similarly, Christ willed certain things to every believer, but they did not receive it until He died. If Christ came to earth, lived a holy life, and ascended back to the Father, we would still be dead in our sins and without hope – it is only through Christ’s death that we inherit salvation and its benefits.

Now that we see the point of inheriting the benefits of Christ Work, the author of Hebrews resumes using the word “covenant.”  The author of Hebrews points us to the inauguration of the first Covenant – the Mosaic Covenant – to show the parallels between it and the New Covenant – the Gospel:

“Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.”

The summary of what happened, we find in Exodus:  “And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, ‘All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.’ And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words’” (Exodus 24:6-8, ESV).

Of course we know this was not the blood of humans, but the blood of animals – as we have been discussing.  All the same, the first Covenant was executed with blood, just as the New Covenant was executed with blood.  Why?  Because a will cannot be executed until death has occurred.

Now, the author of Hebrews looks at some specifics of what happened in executing the first Covenant:

 “For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, ‘This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.’ And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship.”

First, Peter explained that Moses prefigured Jesus:  “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people’” (Acts 3:19-23, ESV).

Second, Moses and the priests slaughtered a number of animals – and there must have been quite a lot of them killed on that day to have enough blood to fling on all six million Israelites – and drained their blood into basins.  Half of the blood was thrown on the altar – the place where offerings were made for the forgiveness of sins.  The other half of the blood was flung on the Tabernacle, its vessels, the book of the Law, and all of the people.

Why was blood thrown on everything?  Because blood is symbolic of the execution of the Covenant and the forgiveness of sin and for the purifying of all those things, as well as the people, involved in the sacrificial ceremonies.

Jesus similarly said at the Last Supper, “for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28, ESV).  The wine of the newly instituted Lord’s Supper was symbolic of the blood Christ Jesus would shed to execute the New Covenant.

Third, why was the blood mixed with water?  Perhaps to extend it so all six million Israelites could be sprinkled.  Certainly to keep it from coagulating as he sprinkled it from group to group.  John Owen notes, “But there was a mystery in it also” [Owen, 360].

When do we see blood and water associated with Christ Jesus? 

“Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe” (John 19:31-35, ESV).

The mixing of the blood and the water – which is why some traditions mix the wine with water in the Lord’s Supper – was done because it prefigured the blood and water which came out of Jesus’s side when He was pierced by the spear.

Fourth, why did Moses fling the blood – not just with his fingers – but with scarlet wool and hyssop?

For this we can only conjecture – if there is symbolism to be found here at all.  Certainly Jesus is called “the Lamb of God.”  The scarlet could symbolize His Sacrifice or royalty.  And hyssop is use to purify as an antibiotic.  But there is nothing blatantly clear in the Scripture as to why these were used.  So, we dare not go too far in conjecturing.

Our text for this morning ends:  “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”

Let us just quickly note this:  there are a number of ways to become legally pure in the Old Testament – through blood, through offering up of other items, through baptism, etc.  So, not everything is purified only through blood.

However, there is no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood.  There is no other way to be forgiven for our sin but someone be bled – that someone’s blood be shed.  This is the one and only way God has made for sin to be forgiven.

The first Covenant – the Sacrificial System of the Old Testament – surely makes it clear that we cannot be eternally forgiven of our sins through the blood of animals.  And if humans were coming with animals for forgiveness, mere human blood would never be enough.

No, only Christ Jesus, the God-Man, could make us right with God through His Life and through the shedding of His Blood.  As Paul wrote, “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God” (Romans 5:9, ESV).

            We covered a lot in a short number of verses:

Christ is Mediator of the New Covenant, because no mere human is capable to be the mediator.

As Mediator, Christ lived a holy and perfect life under the Law, imputing to us His Righteousness, and securing an eternal inheritance for all those God called to be His people.

Yet, Christ’s Blood also had to be shed to fulfill the shadow of the Old Testament sacrifices and to free us from slavery to sin.

In the New Covenant, Christ has willed all those who believe in Him grace to be righteous, forgiven of sin, and free from slavery to sin.  And He has willed that all those who believe in Him will be brought into His Glory in the Kingdom.

However, in order for Christ’s Will to be executed and the benefits of salvation to be given to those who believe, Christ had to die.

Just as Moses was the mediator of the Covenant, Christ Jesus is the greater mediator of the Covenant.

Just as Moses bled animals to execute the first Covenant; Christ was bled on the cross to execute the New Covenant.

Just as Moses mixed the blood of the dead animals with water, Christ Jesus’ blood was mixed with water in His death.

God told Moses there was not forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood, and without the shedding of the Blood of the God-Man, Christ Jesus, there is no eternal forgiveness of sins.

Let us pray:

Almighty God, splashing blood here and there seems very foreign to us, but we can understand the idea of a will and how it is not executed except by the owner’s death.  And we can consider that and hear the promises of the New Covenant – righteousness and forgiveness for sin and from slavery to sin, and we can understand that those promises which are willed to all those who will believe through Jesus Christ can only be received in His death – through an execution by blood.  Help us to take all the more seriously what You have done to save us and to live lives of humility and seeking after holiness.  For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.