Hebrews 9:14

‘How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?’

Yet, says the writer, if those old rites could be effective in dealing with the external problems of sin and defilement, how much more could the blood of the Messiah, who offered Himself without blemish to God through the eternal Spirit, truly cleanse and purify inwardly from all ‘dead works’, (useless fleshly works which can only result in death). And we may note that in this case this is not just because of God’s appointment, but because of the intrinsic worth of the sacrifice. Thus are men and women cleansed, not outwardly but deep within, in the very heart and conscience of every one who comes to Him, resulting in the possibility of true and fully acceptable worship, of spiritual service to the living God.

Here was the effective remedy of which the past ordinances had been but shadows. This was not just outward but reached into man’s deepest heart and conscience, for it totally removed and made satisfaction for all sin both without and within. The effect of the shedding of the blood of the new covenant would purify, justify and work righteousness within men’s lives in accordance with the new covenant (Hebrews 8:10), that they might serve in the very presence of the living God.

Notice in these two verses the deliberate contrast of life with death. The ashes of the heifer were for the removal of the defilement of death through the waters of purification, and the works of men are ‘dead works’, works that defile and result in death. Men are thus portrayed as defiled and tainted with death, for which Christ’s blood is the remedy. For as Paul tells us, all men apart from Him are dead in trespasses and sins precisely because of their works (Ephesians 2:1) . And that is why Jesus had to partake of death (Hebrews 2:9), and that is why the blood of the Messiah had to be shed in order that He might die to bear our sin. All this was in order to bring men and women to the ‘living’ God.

‘The blood of Christ.’ This signifies what the shedding of His blood accomplished, through His meeting in full, by the shedding of blood, the requirements of the Law on behalf of all His own, and its sufficiency was now made available to them in full forgiveness and atonement. Using the illustrations of Hebrews 9:13 it was presented to God for atonement at the altar (Hebrews 13:10), before the veil, and within the veil, and sprinkled on men as the equivalent of the ashes of the heifer mingled with living water, that is as the water of purification, so that the defilement of death may be removed once and for all. It covered all aspects of cleansing, purification and atonement.

‘Who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God.’ And in this He was aided by the ‘eternal’ Spirit, (the Spirit of the coming age - Isaiah 44:1-5; Joel 2:28), Who enabled Him as Man to live blamelessly, so that He was ‘without blemish’ as a sacrifice must be. He was crowned with glory and honour as true, sinless man (Hebrews 2:9). And the eternal Spirit further enabled Him to offer Himself as a sacrifice to endure death, so that He might face death fully for every man. The Messiah and the Spirit worked as one, the comparatively weak frail One Who was made in the likeness of man, Who had emptied Himself of His Godhood and walked as a human being (Philippians 2:6-8), and the powerful, eternal Spirit of God active fully through Him as through no other (John 3:34; Luke 4:1).

And it is because He so died for us without blemish, that our consciences can be cleansed from our past works, works which could only produce death, with the result that, coming out of spiritual death with a cleared conscience, and made free from all the defilement of death-producing sin, through the shedding of His blood, we are able to face God without fear. This then results in our being able to come into the presence of ‘the living God’, the One who calls to account, and serve and worship Him in His presence. The whole of the eternally living, Triune Godhead was thus active in our deliverance. Through Him life comes from death so that we can enter the presence of the living One.

Alternately ‘through the eternal spirit’ is seen by some as referring rather to Christ’s own eternal spirit, which enabled Him to live blamelessly and to offer Himself as the unblemished Lamb to God, so that He might cleanse our consciences from the same death-dealing works and bring us into the presence of the living God. This would be emphasising His divine nature.

But this interpretation does seem rather to separate His spirit too much from His flesh, His Godhood too much from His manhood, and to by-pass His self-emptying. For while His spirit was undoubtedly fully involved, so was His flesh, and He offered Himself in the flesh, and His blood was demonstrably shed in His flesh, through His own ‘fleshly’ choice. He was blameless in both His flesh and His spirit, and He offered up both blameless flesh and blameless spirit to God. There was no separating of the one from the other. For He ‘tasted death’ as Man (Hebrews 2:9). Thus offering Himself as blameless for the shedding of blood ‘through His eternal spirit’, if referring to His own spirit, would surely seem to separate spirit from flesh and spiritualise the whole idea too much, lifting it above the earthly in which He had voluntarily submerged Himself. Can we really so separate His spirit from what was basically a ‘down to earth’ transaction of flesh and blood as much as a spiritual one (compare Hebrews 2:14 where it is stressed that it was as flesh and blood that He defeated death)? It was very much as man that He offered Himself up in the Garden of Gethsemane, not as eternal spirit. We must not over-spiritualise His offering of Himself. It was as both God and man.

Yet it was certainly ‘through His eternal spirit’ in the sense that He did it as He Who is the source of everlasting spiritual life, as the One Who was heavenly and divine, as the One Who was sent by the Father, as the One Who could therefore voluntarily choose to die in the flesh and live again (John 10:18), the Lord of life. As such His spirit was certainly ‘eternal’, ‘of the ages’. Thus it may be that we are to see this as bringing out the fact that He was in Himself, from the beginning, eternal spirit, the One Who was the resurrection and the life (John 11:25), the One ‘in Whom was life’ from the beginning (John 1:4) as He subsequently revealed in His victorious earthly life, and in His triumph through and over death (compare Hebrews 7:16). His sacrifice ‘through His eternal spirit’ might thus be seen as encouraging us to see His sacrifice as eternally effective on our behalf because it was made by the eternal One, in order to give us true life so that we might live in the presence of the living God. But such a spiritualising is outside the writer’s normal way of thinking. Previously he has been robust in stressing Jesus’ essential manhood in all that He has done (although consider Hebrews 1:2-3), even in revealing Himself as High Priest. And in Scripture ‘eternal’ usually looks to the ‘coming age’ rather than to all ages.

Both applications are true and present different aspects of His work. But for the reasons given above we feel that the emphasis is rather on the whole of the Godhead at work in the accomplishment of our redemption.

‘Offered Himself.’ But however we see it, it was as the great High Priest that He offered Himself as the only true unblemished sacrifice. His action was both willing and voluntary (Isaiah 53:10; Mark 14:36). He had come to do God’s will (Hebrews 10:7-10). He was working hand in hand with the Father. There is, however, no contradiction in this, for the will of His Father, and His own will, were as one (Hebrews 10:7-10; John 4:34; John 5:19; John 5:30; John 6:38).

‘Cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.’ Note again the contrast between the dead and the living. God is the living One. Those who serve Him perform works that are living and vital. Dead works (compare Hebrews 6:1) are those which are performed apart from the living God, in the case of these people prior to coming to know Him. They are works which are dead in themselves, they have no part in achieving ‘life’. They carry within them the smell of death, and they can only result in death. They lead men into despair.

They are not the product of the activity of the living God. Their aim is self-saving and self-glorifying, but they are in fact self-condemning and can only leave man more guilty than he was before. They achieve nothing spiritually. Whether speaking of works of merit or of dead ritual acts (and Hebrews 6:1 stresses the former) they are spiritually futile. They are man’s feeble attempt to make himself right. And they fail. They can never remove the sense of guilt, they can only contribute to it. They merely confirm that ‘all have sinned and come short of the glory of God’ (Romans 3:23). Even when they have done all, those who perform them can only admit that what they have done cannot atone for the past. That they have only done in each work what it was their duty to do at that time, so that in regard to any saving effectiveness even those are dead works (Luke 17:10). Thus these cannot make up for the times when they have failed in their duty. Their failure ever hangs over them. They are dead in their past sins.

In direct contrast is serving the living God. Those who serve the living God produce the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). They do not work in order to achieve merit, or in order to establish their own reputations, for their merit and their reputation has been established through the shedding of the blood of Christ. Through His sacrifice of Himself they are accepted as ‘sanctified’, made holy, set apart as God’s (Hebrews 2:11). They are acceptable to God through the death of His Son. They have been ‘perfected’ (Hebrews 10:14). Thus they gladly give of themselves to the service of God because they have been ‘bought’ by the shedding of the blood of Christ (1 Corinthians 6:20; 1 Peter 1:18-19). Having received life, they through that life serve the living God, resulting in live works.

We can finalise these few verses by pointing out that in context (Hebrews 9:13) Christ’s blood is seen as spiritually ‘sprinkled’ on His own. He offered Himself as a sacrifice for sin, and the efficacy of that offering is here applied to each individual who comes to Him. It is this personal contact with the power revealed through the cross (1 Corinthians 1:18) that cleanses the conscience as opposed to the outward flesh. The Christian becomes aware that God is now totally satisfied with him because he is in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20-21), because he is accounted righteous by His grace (Romans 3:24), because he is fully acceptable as sanctified by His blood (Hebrews 13:12; 1 Peter 1:2), because he is reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:19). He no longer needs to struggle to perform dead works. In fact God requires nothing further of him to make Him acceptable, for in Christ he has done all that is required. He is totally in the clear. That is why he is now free to serve the living God as one who in God’s eyes is wholly righteous.