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HOLY HELP FOR THE HOPELESSCOMES BY A ONCE FOR ALL DEATH (PART 2)Hebrews 9:16-28INTRODUCTION Imagine with me that you were a tribal person living in the distant interior of Papua New Guinea. You never have had contact with the outside world but have lived your entire life within these few square miles of mountaintop jungle, just as your ancestors have done for centuries. One day a stranger arrives in your village after hiking and cutting his way through the jungle for two weeks. This stranger is a missionary. For almost two years he lives among you and learns your language and your culture. Finally, he begins to tell you this grand story of the God who made the heavens and the earth and who made you and your people and the jungle you live in. He says that this God who has provided you with everything through all these long centuries has sent him to tell you how you can be forgiven of your many sins and have an eternal relationship with him. As he explains the story of God and of human rebellion against God he finally comes to the story of Jesus. He tells how the eternal Son of God came to earth and lived a perfect life and then died on the cross. The missionary goes on to explain that this death on the cross is the main event in all of history. This death is the most powerful force in the universe. This death is the reason that God the Father sent God the Son to the earth. He was born so that he could die. The missionary tells you that the most important thing that the founder of Christianity did was to die. The most astonishing claim of the Christian religion is that the death of Jesus Christ is the most important event ever. Why is it that the death of Christ is the most important event in the history of the universe? How can it be that the founder of the Christian religion’s most important work was his dying a bloody death on a Roman cross? P.T. Forsyth, a famous pastor and theologian of the past century said it this way, “Christ is to us what his cross is. All that Christ was in heaven or on earth was put into what he did there… Christ, I repeat, is to us just what his cross is. You do not understand Christ till you understand his cross.” It is this death that sets Christianity apart from every other religion. While the leaders of other religions die, their death is not the main event. Rather, the main event in all other human religions is what the founders of those religions taught. Not so in the only true religion. In God’s explanation of reality the most important event is that Jesus died, not that he taught truths about God. As we began to see last week it is the aim of the author to this letter to the Hebrews in chapter 9:16-28 to show why it is that the death of Jesus is so important. He is out to answer the question, “why did Jesus have to die?” Last week we saw in vv. 16-18 that Jesus had to die because a will does not go into effect until the one who made the will dies. Jesus, as the eternal Son of God is the one who made the new covenant with all those whom he has called and this covenant is God’s last will and testament. Therefore, the inheritance promised in that covenant could not be given until the one who wrote it, God himself, died. When Christ died, God died and so the will went into effect. The inheritance has been given. The second reason we saw for why Christ had to die is in the last half of v. 22, “without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness.” We saw that Christ had to die because God cannot simply forgive sins without becoming a corrupt judge. He must punish sin. He has punished the sin of everyone who trusts in Christ by killing his only Son on that Roman cross in their place. He cannot be accused of being a corrupt judge when he welcomes believing sinners into heaven because their pardon is secured by the death of Jesus, the Son of God. We are going to continue now to look at three more reasons for why Christ had to die in vv. 23-28. MAIN POINT Christ had to die because…III. Sinners contaminate everything they touch (vv. 23-24a) Verse 23 appears to be saying something that I doubt any of us could ever imagine being said. It says that heaven needs to be cleansed. We’ve talked before of how the blood of Christ cleanses us (9:9 & 14) but in v. 23 we are told that the blood of Christ is necessary to cleanse heaven itself. How can heaven be dirty or defiled, that is, in need of cleansing? I thought heaven was perfect because that is where God lives. How can it need to be cleansed? First of all we need to remember that the author’s entire argument in these chapters is based upon what he said in 8:5. The tabernacle and all the ceremonies associated with it are the physical, earthly, visible symbols of heaven and the work of Christ there. They are all copies and shadows of heavenly reality. The logic of v. 23 is this: if the earthly tabernacle and its vessels had to be cleansed by the blood of these animal sacrifices that must mean that the heavenly sanctuary itself must also be cleansed but by a better sacrifice than that of animals. Now it is one of the most often repeated things in the laws concerning the tabernacle in the OT that the blood of the sacrificial animals had to be sprinkled and placed on the various items in the tabernacle in order for them to be cleansed or purified. In Leviticus 16:15-19, which was just read for us, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest took the blood of the slaughtered bull and goat, put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and sprinkled the blood seven times on it “to cleanse it and consecrate it from the uncleanness of the Israelites.” In the same way Moses, when he was ordaining Aaron and his sons to their office as priests took the blood of a slaughtered bull and rubbed it on the horns of the altar to cleanse it (Lev. 8:5). Why did the tabernacle itself and the vessels used in the worship of God need to be cleansed? The materials from which the tabernacle and the vessels of worship are made are not inherently defiled, that is, unfit to be in God's presence. There is nothing evil about linen or gold or silver or bronze considered as physical objects. The answer is again stated numerous times in the OT. The tabernacle becomes defiled, unclean and therefore unacceptable to God because of its contact with human beings. That’s what is meant by that phrase in Leviticus 16:19 that the altar had to be cleansed “ from the uncleanness of the Israelites.” A few verses before that this uncleanness is described as the “rebellion of the Israelites.” It is the sinfulness of the Israelites that defiles the tabernacle. This is made clear in a number of places. In Leviticus 20:1-5 God commands that if anyone offers one of his children as a sacrifice to the pagan god, Molech, he is to be stoned to death by the Israelites. God says that by committing this sinful act the person defiles God’s sanctuary and profanes his holy name. Also, in Numbers 19 if a person who has touched a dead body refuses to obey God by going through the ritual cleansing with the water mixed with the ashes of the red heifer his presence in the camp defiles God’s sanctuary. Here is the key question. Why does heaven need to be cleansed of defilement by the blood of Christ? It is for the same reason the tabernacle had to be cleansed by the blood of animals. The reason is because sinners live in heaven and sinners contaminate everything they come in contact with, including heaven itself. The presence of sinners in heaven infects heaven with the contagion of sin. Right now the disembodied spirits of every person who has trusted in Christ is in heaven, going all the way back to Adam and Eve. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sara, Rahab, David all the way up to the most recent Christian who has died is in heaven. It is the presence of these sinners, though not yet resurrected, but only present in their disembodied spirits that makes it necessary for the blood of Christ to cleanse heaven itself. God could not dwell in heaven if not for the blood of his Son cleansing heaven from the defilement brought to it by the presence of sinners. That thought just takes the breath out of me. Heaven itself is contaminated by the mere presence of sinners. I really don’t understand how corrupt and offensive to God I am apart from Christ. Nor do I comprehend how powerfully my sin can corrupt everything that it touches. Sin is like a disease. It spreads through contact. We all know that you do not need to be in contact with a sick person to pick up the germs that cause the disease. Door handles, shopping cart handles, all kinds of inanimate objects if touched by a sick person can become infectious. There are only two ways to prevent inanimate objects from being the means of transmission of disease. Either you have to prevent sick people from touching these objects or you must clean them with a powerful disinfectant that will kill the germs once they've been touched by a sick person. God abhors the disease of sin. He is the ultimate obsessive-compulsive person when it comes to sin. He cannot tolerate being in the presence of sinners and he cannot tolerate being in a place that has been infected by sinners with their disease. This is because he is absolutely holy. He is completely disease free. His immune system reacts violently to sin and bursts forth in fire to destroy sin and all infected with the disease of sin. Therefore, he must either prevent sinners from living where he lives or he must cleanse the dwelling where he will live with sinners with a powerful disinfectant. Only the blood of his perfect Son, willingly shed on the cross is able to purify, to cleanse, to disinfect heaven from the contagion of sin brought there by us, thus making it a fit place for God to live. How we need the death of Christ and that blood shed for us! God could not live in the same place we live if not for the cleansing power of that blood; cleansing not only us but heaven itself which is contaminated with the disease of sin by our very presence. Christ had to die because…
IV. Sinners need a perfect and permanent priest and sacrifice (vv. 24b-26) Verses 24-25 take us back again to the Day of Atonement ritual that is described in Leviticus 16 and which the author has referred to several times in his letter already. In v. 24 we see the vast difference between what the Jewish high priest did when he entered the Most Holy Place and what Christ has done. The high priest only entered a man-made sanctuary, a mere copy of the heavenly reality but Christ has entered into heaven itself. The high priest only entered into the presence of God symbolized by the cloud of God’s presence and the Ark of the Covenant but Christ has entered into God’s very presence. Finally, just as the high priest enters into the Most Holy Place on behalf of the people of Israel so Jesus enters into God’s very presence for us. In a moment we are going to see to whom this “us” refers but for right now we need to see that Jesus is in God’s presence in our behalf. He is not in God’s presence for his own sake but for our sake. He makes an appearance in the presence of God as our representative. The implication is that we are going to follow him into the presence of God (This will be made explicit in the next chapter.). I just finished reading a biography of John Adams, the second President of the US, who, along with Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, was instrumental in the forming of the United States of America. When we declared our independence from Britain in 1776 we were taking on the most powerful economic and military force in the world at that time. England was feared by all and we did not have a navy and only a very rudimentary army who was short on gunpowder when we declared our independence. During the first year of the Revolutionary War we were on the verge of being wiped out by the British on several occasions. It was clear to our leaders that unless we could convince other nations to join us in opposing England we were going to be destroyed. The Continental Congress sent John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson to France to intercede with the French government to join us in fighting England. It is an amazing story of diplomacy by these three men that eventually resulted in France joining with us against Britain and thus enabling us to defeat the British. Probably the main reason that France came to our aid was the presence of Benjamin Franklin. He was loved by the French people and had access into the inner courts of the French monarchy. Jefferson and Adams did significant work but if not for the love of the king of France and the people of France for Benjamin Franklin we would not have had their help and we would not be a free people. Benjamin Franklin appeared in the presence of the king of France for us, the citizens of the U.S.A. Because he appeared there he gained for us the help we needed to win our freedom. While this is not a perfect analogy, it helps us to understand how wonderful it is that our perfect high priest, Jesus Christ, has entered God’s court to stand in God’s presence on our behalf. All of the resources of heaven are now for us and not against us because heaven loves Jesus. Jesus by dying and rising from the dead has now entered into God's presence on our behalf to gain for us the favor and assistance and acceptance of God himself. In vv. 25-26 Jesus is shown to not only be there as our high priest, our representative but also as our perfect sacrifice. It is because of his offering himself as a sacrifice that he is able to appear for us in God's presence. Again there is the contrast with the Jewish high priest who enters into the Most Holy Place year after year with the blood of bulls and goats, with blood that is not his own. Jesus did not, like the high priest enter heaven year after year and thus offer himself as a sacrifice year after year. If he were simply acting like the Jewish high priest then he would have had to offer himself time after time since the beginning of creation to pay for the sins of God’s people throughout the ages. However, he did not do that. He entered heaven once for all and offered himself as a sacrifice for sin, once for all. He is not only our perfect and permanent representative but he is also our perfect and permanent sacrifice. Notice that his appearing once for all at the end of the ages was for the purpose of nullifying sin. He has done away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Sin is what separates us from God. It is the barrier that keeps us from him and he from us. Christ destroyed sin and its power to keep us from God when he died on that cross. P.E. Hughes in his commentary says it more eloquently than I, “This nullification… is comprehensive: it covers sin in its totality, without qualification, in every form and degree and also in every age of human history, retrospectively as well as prospectively. Were this not so, we would be confronted with the incongruous conclusion that 'then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world…' What was needed, and what the old system cried out for, was a single perfect sacrifice which would deal fully and finally with the sin of the world, throughout the whole course of human history” (Hughes, p. 385-386). If you are one of the “us”, for whom Christ died and for whom he appears in God’s presence, then all of your sins have been destroyed, nullified, rendered powerless by the sacrifice of Christ. You are no longer guilty. You can no longer be punished for your sins. Your sins can no longer be used to condemn you to an eternal hell. God is no longer angry with you but is smiling upon you, because Christ offered himself as a sacrifice for your sins. Your debt has been paid, your pardon has been granted, the gallows made for your execution have been thrown down, God’s wrath against you has been appeased because Christ offered himself once for all to do away with sin. Your sin is nullified not because of anything you have ever done or ever will do but only because Christ offered himself for you. Stop trying to prove to God that you are worthy of forgiveness, for you are not. Stop living under the burden of guilt because Christ has removed guilt. Stop looking at your subjective, spiritual state to find out what God thinks about you. Look only to Christ and to his work. Salvation comes to you from outside of you, not from within you. It has been done. It is finished. Christ had to die because…
V. Death precedes judgment (vv. 27-28) Notice that in vv. 27-28 there is a comparison made between the experience that is common to all human beings and to the unique experience of Jesus. Every human being is destined to die once and after that to face God's judgment. This is a universal reality. The verb "is destined" indicates that someone has determined that this is man's destiny. The word actually refers to the act of storing something up to be given in the future. This verse is referring to the fact that because we are sinners God has stored up death and judgment after death for every human being. As the Apostle Paul says in Romans 14:10 & 11, "We must all appear before God's judgment seat…. So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God." This is the destiny of every human being. None can escape it. There is nothing greater in your life than this fact. One day you will die and then you will be judged. You will have to give an answer to the God who made you and who knows everything there is to know about you. We have little sympathy for those who know that a wildfire is sweeping down the mountainside toward their homes and are warned to flee but who stay and are burned up. All of us view as foolish those who live in coastal towns in the path of a hurricane who are warned to flee but who stay and perish. How much more foolish are you who know that one day you will die and after that you will face judgment and who are warned to flee from sin and to Christ and yet do not flee. There will be no mercy shown, no escape. But this is not the main emphasis of this verse. The key words in these two verses are the "so also Christ." The reason that Jesus had to die once for all is because this is the experience of every human being. Jesus had to die because he is fully human. As the author said in 2:17, Jesus "had to be made like his brothers in every way so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest and so that he might make atonement for sin." Also, his death was because of sin, just as our death is because of sin but with this important difference. We die and are judged as the punishment for our sins whereas Christ dies and is judged as the punishment not for his sins but for our sins. "Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people." And there is another important distinction between his death and judgment and our death and judgment. While he died and was judged for our sins, that is, he experienced hell for us, yet God's ultimate judgment on him was to approve of his sacrifice for us. God raised Christ from the dead to show that his life and death were acceptable. Jesus earned eternal life by his obedient life and death. His judgment did not result in eternal damnation but in eternal salvation for himself and for all his offspring. Just as Adam failed to obey and thus brought death and judgment to himself and all his descendants, so Christ, by his obedience brought salvation to all his descendants. God's judgment of Christ is that he is worthy to receive that eternal life that is promised to the obedient. And he is worthy to give that life to all his people. Now notice, here is the only word of application in this entire passage. Who are those whom God has called so they can receive the promised eternal inheritance (v. 15)? Who are the "us" for whom Christ appears in God's presence (v. 24)? Who are the "many" whose sins have been taken away (v. 28)? The identifying mark of those God has called, for whom Jesus appears in God's presence and who have had their sins taken away is they are eagerly waiting for Jesus to appear a second time so that he can give to them that full salvation. What does it mean to eagerly wait for Jesus to appear a second time to bring salvation? All of us have eagerly awaited the arrival of some person or event that we believed would bring us some great good, some measure of happiness that we do not at present possess. Any of you who know my son Jordan know that this summer he is working at Frito Lay packing bags of chips in boxes to be delivered to stores. Since the day he began working he has not stopped talking about August 9th, the day he is done working. It is the thought of being done with work at Frito Lay that gets him up every morning at 5:15am to go to work. He is eagerly awaiting the day when the work is over. All of us are like this. We do not wait for happy events by refusing to fulfill our duties and responsibilities now. If you know you're going on vacation in a month, you don't stop going to work and taking care of your house now and just sit on the step of your house with your bags packed for a month. You go to work and fulfill the duties of everyday life but with anticipation for the good that is coming. Thinking about the coming vacation helps you to be joyful and responsible while you do your work. I've found that when I'm eagerly waiting for something that the coming event helps me prioritize my work. It is easier to figure out what must be done now, when I know that my work will soon be over. If something difficult happens to you while you wait, you find some joy and relief in the burden by thinking about the joy that is coming. We all know what it means to eagerly wait for something or someone. So I ask you, are you eagerly waiting for Jesus to appear a second time to bring salvation? Is the thought of his return frequently in your mind? Does thinking of his return fill you with joy? Does thinking of his return fill your heart with hope when you are in the midst of suffering? Or is your heart only full of joy as you think about retirement or school being over or the next big event in your life? It is a chief characteristic of all who belong to Christ that we are eagerly waiting for him to appear a second time to bring to us salvation. Christ had to die because…
© Copyright 2007 John Swanson.
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