Hebrews 9:15

‘And for this cause he is the mediator of a new covenant, that a death having taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, they that have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.’

It is because as High Priest He offered Himself to death as an unblemished sacrifice that He is demonstrated to be the Mediator of the new covenant. "For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, Who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time" (1 Timothy 2:5-6). And this death took place ‘for the redemption of the transgressions which were under the old covenant’ (compare the propitiatory sacrifice by which our ‘sins done aforetime’ could be passed over - Romans 3:25). Without that death we would yet be left in our sins. We could have no part in the covenant. But having been delivered by His covenantal death as Mediator by the shedding of His blood (compare Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25; Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24) we can now enjoy His life, provided as our inheritance in that new covenant (Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 3:16-17).

The idea of redemption (apolutrosis) is again prominent here. Compare ‘eternal redemption (lutrosis)’ - Hebrews 9:12. For apolutroo in LXX see Exodus 21:8 where the buying back of a family member is in mind. The idea is of the Kinsman Redeemer who pays off the debts of one of his family (Leviticus 25:47-49), redeeming them from their transgressions under the old covenant by the payment of the required price. Here in Hebrews the idea is that they are ransomed by Him and set free (compare Mark 10:45). This then releases them from the old covenant so that they can participate in the new.

But if a ransom is paid, to whom is it paid? The final answer is, to God and the requirements that result from what He is. For man was enslaved by sin, bound by guilt, and was under sentence of death because he had failed to pay his due to God. And this was all owing to what God is. By His very nature God had to require it of man. So, until God’s sentence on man could be averted by being fully satisfied, man could only remain in that state. Thus the price of sin had to be paid, guilt had to be removed, the sentence of death satisfied, and then man could be released. Redemption vindicated the moral law, the moral nature of God.

Once the redemption has taken place the ‘called’, those chosen (Ephesians 1:4) and called by God (2 Timothy 1:9), receive the promise of the eternal inheritance (or ‘of the inheritance of the age to come’), eternal life (the ‘life of the age to come’). To ‘receive the promise’ means to enter into enjoyment of it (compare Hebrews 11:39). In this regard it should be noted that the initial element of this inheritance is received now (John 5:24; 1 John 5:13) as well as being enjoyed even more wonderfully in the future in God’s eternal kingdom. Thus it is even now ‘the age to come’. It is the consequence of our eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:10).

God’s future blessings for His own are often seen as an inheritance (e.g. Acts 20:32; Ephesians 1:11; Ephesians 1:14; Colossians 1:12; 1 Peter 1:4), but it is the more apposite here because the writer goes on to speak of Christ’s last will and testament. It is the inheritance of the saints in God’s light (Colossians 1:12-13; Revelation 21:23; Revelation 22:5) received under His rule.

This use of the idea of inheritance is significant. An inheritance is something that comes to you as a gift. In its basic idea it is not earned, it is not bought, it is not worked for. It comes as a result of the undeserved grace of the giver. It brings out the fact that what God’s people will receive in the future is not their deserts but the giving of blessings by a gracious God.

So the picture is of our great High Priest, our Kinsman Redeemer, Who acting as mediator, and having died for us, applies to us the benefits of His death and grants to us eternal life, the eternal inheritance, which is granted to us by the grace of God, and ‘bought’ for us through His blood.

‘Of the transgressions which were under the old covenant.’ The question which might arise here is as to whether this merely signifies that those living in the time of the writer who had sinned under the old covenant could now be redeemed, (because that is what is in the writer’s mind). Or whether it includes the transgressions of all Old Testament believers for which Christ’s death and mediation was effective (Romans 3:25). Or whether it refers to all transgressions committed by those who have now been ‘called’, who had committed them before they were under the new covenant (because, whether Jew or Gentile, all were assumed to be under the old). It is not really necessary to choose between them. By implication, if not in fact, all are in mind, the point being that any who are called would necessarily have to have had their old sins dealt with, and that that could only be through the blood of Jesus.

Whichever way therefore that we take it, the words are true. Those who believed in the Old Testament period, whose sins were for a time passed over through their obedience to the covenant as they knew it in all its facets, were awaiting the coming of the One Who would Himself bear their sins (Romans 3:25). Thus implicit in their calling was the fact that God would in future deal effectively with their sins. Those who were never patently under the old covenant because they were not Israelites/Jews were nevertheless under it latently, for they were under the law of conscience. Sinning without law they would perish without law unless they were ‘called’ and their sins atoned for, for they were as it were voluntarily ‘under the law’ by responding to their consciences (Romans 2:12-16).

The context might be seen as suggesting that the second interpretation is paramount, (while drawing in the other two), for it has depicted the problems of people under the old covenant. It had only been effective outwardly, not inwardly. Thus unless we are to see the Old Testament believers as left without real hope there had to be some explanation as to how they too could share in God’s true salvation.

We should now note one of the implications of this verse which will be taken up in the next. There is in mind here a new covenant. But it is more than a covenant. In order for it to come into force there must be a redeeming death because of their sin under the old covenant. Thus it must be a covenant linked with death. And the result is to be an inheritance received, an inheritance not receivable until the death has occurred. It is thus seen to be a covenant-testament, a covenant, which was irrevocable because of Who made it and because it was unconditional, and yet only coming into force through the death of the bestower, and therefore being like a will.