Context No. 2872 of 4322 · Hebrews

Hebrews 9:11-20: in context

11But Christ having come as a high priest of the coming good things, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, 12nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption. 13For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify to the cleanness of the flesh, 14how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without defect to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 15For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, since a death has occurred for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. 16For where a last will and testament is, there must of necessity be the death of him who made it. 17For a will is in force where there has been death, for it is never in force while he who made it lives. 18Therefore even the first covenant has not been dedicated without blood. 19For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 20saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.”

The writer sets Christ against the whole old system. He came as high priest and entered the greater, true sanctuary, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, once for all, securing an eternal redemption. If the blood of animals could set apart the outward flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who offered himself without blemish, cleanse the conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

The heart of it is those three words, once for all. The old priests repeated their sacrifices endlessly, year after year, because none of them ever finished the task. Christ entered one time, with his own blood, and obtained a redemption that never needs redoing. And what his blood reaches is not merely the outward flesh but the conscience, the guilty inner self that no outward ritual could ever scrub clean. He is the mediator of a new covenant, sealed, like a will, by a death.

Do I keep trying to cleanse my own conscience by repeated effort, when Christ's one sacrifice has already secured what I keep straining after?

Sources

Hebrews 9:12: "Through his own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption."
Hebrews 9:14: "How much more will the blood of Christ... cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"
1 John 1:7: "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son, cleanses us from all sin."