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If this happened, God required that the ashes of a heifer be
sprinkled on the person for external cleansing.
What
a picture - a person needed to be forgiven and cleansed for
a number of reasons. The external cleansing was immediate and
lasting. But the forgiveness of sins in this life was never
complete, and one had to be forgiven each year again and again.
Only the external cleansing lasted.
There
was never any real forgiveness with the blood of bulls, goats,
and heifers. So the Holy Spirit answers the question, “Why
not Jesus?” with,
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For
if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer
sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the
cleansing of the flesh, how much more will 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? (NASB) Heb. 9:13-14 |
Jesus
is the better sacrifice. He sacrifices Himself without blemish.
He was without sin. Jesus’ blood cleanses our conscience
forever. The animal sacrifices could only cleanse the flesh
forever.
When
Jesus died the ritual sacrifices were gone. The animal sacrifices
only cleansed the outside forever, but Jesus’ sacrifice
forgave our sins forever. When Jesus forgives our sin, he does
it forever. Does Hebrews teach that we can lose our salvation?
If so, then Jesus blood does not forgive us forever - only temporarily
or “only year by year.”
For
The New Covenant.
The second reason for Jesus’ blood was to install the New
Covenant.
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And
for this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant,
in order that since a death has taken place for the redemption
of the transgressions that were committed under the first
covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise
of the eternal inheritance. For where a covenant is, there
must of necessity be the death of the one who made it.
For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it
is never in force while the one who made it lives. Therefore
even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood.
For 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, saying, “THIS IS THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT
WHICH GOD COMMANDED YOU.” And in the same way he
sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the
ministry with the blood. And according to the Law, one
may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and
without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Therefore
it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens
to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves
with better sacrifices than these. (NASB) Heb. 9:15-23 |
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