Hebrews: The New Covenant Administration of Christ Max A Forsythe (c) Anno Domini 2004

From the Pulpit at Pilgrim's Rest Presbyterian Church in America

The Old Covenant Ritual
For the Lord’s Day:  the 12^th of September 2004

 Hebrews 9: 6-10 

“These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing (which is symbolic for the present age).  According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation. ”

Introduction:  The key issue in this passage is the symbolic limited or restricted access to the very presence of God intimated in and through the specific Old Covenant ritual.  The Old Covenant regulations carefully specified not only who, but also: when and under what circumstances the Shekinah or divine presence could be approached.  Only the High Priest of Israel could attend to the special duties.  And he could enter the Holy of Holies only once a year with the properly specified blood atonements.

As the commentator John Brown describes it: “The whole of the Levitical ritual was of divine appointment.”  Contrary to the administration of the New Covenant in Christ’s blood, only the appointed Mediator of the specified Mosaic ritual could approach the Lord of all the earth, and due to the fact that the priestly representative was afflicted with his own sins – intimates that the person and ability of such a mediator is thereby limited in what could possibly be accomplished.

There are also two secondary issues.  Raymond Brown gets to the heart of the matter when he outlines not only the restricted access, but also the partial cleansing and the fact of a limited pardon.  Specifically, the commentator observes that “our writer knows that the real barrier between man and God is not merely a physical one.  The heavy curtain is symbolic.  The problem is not purely external; it is internal, within our hearts and minds. … The old covenant did all it could possibly do.  But it could not bring help to man at a point where it was needed most desperately, in his conscience.  All the sacrifices and gifts in the world could not ease the most seriously disturbed part of man’s inner life.”  Thanks be to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who offers “the better covenant” with a “full and complete inward cleansing.”

Development:  As we consider the complexities contained in the brief outline before us, let us begin with a discussion of the restricted access to the presence of God as it was practiced in the Old Covenant ritual.  The ordinary presumption was that no mere mortal could live in the immediate presence of the Creator God.  Both the Prophet Isaiah and the Apostle John fell on their faces in mortal fear when they received their divine interviews recorded in the two Covenantal records.  Moses too, must need a protective hand even as the glories of our God and King passed him by.

Therefore, in order to approach such an awesome God, certain rituals were required whenever the High Priest would enter for the annual Day of Atonement offerings.  A protective cloud of smoke and incense was brought into the Holy of Holies in order that, as John Brown writes:  “the cloud thus produced might cover the mercy-seat, and intercept his view of the Shekinah or visible divine glory, lest he should die.”

Brown writes that the High Priest must have entered the Holy of Holies at least three times.  After the introduction of the burning coals and incense, he would bring back in the blood of the bullock which had been offered for his own and familial sins – including those of the priesthood.  The third entrance would have been to bring the blood of the goat which had been offered “for the sins of the people.”  “A fourth entrance is mentioned in the Mishna, for the purpose of bringing out the censer.”

The second issue in this passage is the partial cleansing symbolized in ordinary understanding of the details.  F.F. Bruce carefully notes that the “sacrificial blood was not finally efficacious, for fresh blood had to be shed and a fresh entry made into the holy of holies year by year.”  Bruce continues in agreement with Raymond Brown:  “In the earthly sanctuary sacrifices were indeed offered, but their efficacy was sadly restricted; they could not bring ‘perfection’ to the worshipper because they did not affect his conscience.”

Bruce goes on to observe that “the really effective barrier to a man’s free access to God is an inward and not a material one; it exists in his conscience.  It is only when the conscience is purified that a man is set free to approach God without reservation and offer Him acceptable service and worship.”

Certainly, the Old Covenant saints could and did feel sorrow for their sins, they could repent of their wickedness and they could undergo the various libations, washings and sacrifices to atone for their guilt.  And like Job and the rest – they could look forward to the knowledge that they would see and know by faith that their Redeemer would finally come.  “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.  My heart faints within me!”  (Job 19: 25-27)  David too prayed in the same frame of mind: “O Lord, my rock and my redeemer,” “who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,” in Psalms 19 and 103.

And yet the work of Christ was not accomplished until many generations later.  The Old Covenant saints could only look forward to a redemption accomplished even though by faith it was incipient and incomplete.  Further, we have the revelation in the text itself in verse eight:  “By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing (which is symbolic for the present age).”  To this important fourth and last point, we shall consider in the closing and application of our lesson today.

The third point in this passage is the limited pardon offered under the Old Covenant regulations.  Raymond Brown certifies the believer’s sincere conundrum.  By that word “conundrum” we understand “a hard question” or “riddle” as it is defined in the Oxford American Dictionary.  This spiritual situation should be understood in the context of the special use of the law: to make us aware of our sins and sinful state.  Raymond Brown details the sinner’s situation under the Old Covenant:  “man’s conscience was certain to be troubled because many sins simply could not be forgiven through the sacrificial system.  No atonement was offered here for transgressions and offences which were of a deliberate nature.”

Like Martin Luther under the Roman system and even modern men under conditional works righteousness – what real hope can be realized if it depends in any great part upon me?  Peter Taylor Forsyth, (no relation that I know of) is quoted by Raymond Brown to this effect:  “What could the law do about people like us who are, in Forsyth’s words, ‘not even stray sheep, or wandering prodigals merely; we are rebels taken with weapons in our hands’?”

Remember the American Taliban taken in Afghanistan?  He had taken up arms against his own people, - like him, we are all guilty of sinning against not only the Holy Spirit, the sacred Son and Lord but also the only Creator God of heaven and earth.  The answer of course is the message of eternal forgiveness found in this glorious book of Hebrews as well as the rest of the New Covenant revelation.  Again Raymond Brown catches the theme:  “The word of assurance in the new covenant, spoken centuries before the coming of Christ, sounds in our own ears with comfort and hope:  ‘I will be merciful … I will forgive.’  God declares it and Christ obtains it.  His sacrifice procures the cleansing and release for which we long.  Hebrews reminds us repeatedly of the assurance of pardon.”

Application:  We now return to the final and necessary fourth point, mentioned earlier to set this passage in its proper New Covenant context.  “By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing (which is symbolic for the present age).  What we are getting at here is demonstrated by John Owen.  In Owens' translation, the word “opened” in our text is translated “disclosed” or more literally “manifested”.    According to his argument, the Apostle “does not say that there was no way then into the Most Holy Place, that none had been made, none provided, none made use of, but that it had “not yet been disclosed” – no open manifestation about it had been made.”  Think of it this way, once Sir Isaac Newton lay down for a nap under the Apple tree, the fact of gravity had already been in force since the dawn of time.  And yet, the proverbial apple had to hit a hard thinker on the head and open his mind to the theories by which we now understand the dynamics of physics in their relationship to the ongoing gravitational field which envelops the earth.

With the coming of Christ, all the hopes and promises of the Old Covenant are fulfilled.  Owen helps us immensely with his commentary:  “There was an entrance under the old testament into God’s presence to find grace and glory, namely, the virtue of the oblation of Christ; but this ‘had not yet been disclosed.’  …  By virtue of the eternal agreement between the Father and him about what he would accomplish in the fullness of time, the benefit of what he would do was applied to those who did believe.  They were saved by faith, as we are.  Hence he is called ‘the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world’ (Revelation 13: 8), that is, in and from the giving of the first promise.”

So therefore, as we follow the progress of the Apostle’s argument, the rending of the curtain to the Holy of Holies at the crucifixion demonstrated the end of the Old Economy with the attainment of its promises in the redemption of Israel in and through the blood and suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We had mentioned earlier the certain hope that the new believer can entertain with a detailed understanding of this Letter to the Hebrews.  And that better hope than works righteousness is the wonderful fact that our sins are remembered no more, that our names are inscribed in the book of life.  This is as Raymond Brown asserts, “the staggering message of a better hope, of a new covenant and an eternal redemption.”

This is a message of hope, joy and certitude that the church needs ever and anew from age to age.  Far too often the church relapses into an Old Covenantal mind set – preferring the familiar rituals and material observations so easily managed at a human level over the spiritual fact of grace received.  May we, as the revelations of Hebrews are unfolded, may we more and more count it all grace – that the good Lord has loved us, provided a covering for our sins in Christ and that He intends to bring us at long last into the promised glories of heaven for ever and ever.  Amen.

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PREACHING RESOURCES
Brown, John.  A Geneva Series Commentary:  Hebrews.
Brown, Raymond.  The Bible Speaks Today:  The Message of Hebrews.
Bruce, F.F.  The Epistle to the Hebrews.
Owen, John:  Commentary on the Book of Hebrews.
The Holy Bible:  English Standard Version.

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