hebrews 9

Read Hebrews 9 at Bible Gateway.

Heb 9:1-28 chiastic structure:

1a) Heb 9:1-13, The service/ sacrifices of the first covenant tabernacle which purified the flesh;

1a) Heb 9:1-10, The divine services + sacrifices offered according to the first covenant in the present tabernacle;

1a) Heb 9:1-6, The ordinances of the first covenant/ priests performing the divine services;

1a) Heb 9:1, Then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service + earthly sanctuary;
1b) Heb 9:2a, For a tabernacle was prepared;
central axis) Heb 9:2b-5, The description of the tabernacle + its furnishings;
2b) Heb 9:6a, Now when these things had been thus prepared;
2a) Heb 9:6b, The priests always went into the first part of the tabernacle, performing the services;

1b) Heb 9:7a, But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year;
central axis) Heb 9:7b, Not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance;
2b) Heb 9:8, The Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing;
2a) Heb 9:9-10, It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts + sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience— concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation;

1b) Heb 9:11a, But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come;
1c) Heb 9:11b, With the greater + more perfect tabernacle not made with hands; not of this creation;
central axis) Heb 9:12a, Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood;
2c) Heb 9:12b, He entered the Most Holy Place once for all;
2b) Heb 9:12c, Having obtained eternal redemption;
2a) Heb 9:13a, For if the blood of bulls + goats + ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh;

1b) Heb 9:13b-17, The blood of Christ cleansed us from dead works to serve the living God/ He is the mediator of the new covenant;

1c) Heb 9:18, Therefore not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood;

1d) Heb 9:19a, For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law;

1e) Heb 9:19b, He took the blood of calves + goats, with water, scarlet wool, hyssop + sprinkled both book + people;

central axis) Heb 9:20, Saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you;”

2e) Heb 9:21, Then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle + all the vessels of the ministry;

2d) Heb 9:22a, And according to the law;

2c) Heb 9:22b, Almost all things are purified with blood;

2b) Heb 9:22c, And without shedding of blood there is no remission;

2a) Heb 9:23-28, The service/ sacrifice of Christ once for all which purified the conscience;

1a) Heb 9:23-24, Christ appeared in the presence of God + entered the heavenlies made without hands, bringing a better sacrifice;

1a) Heb 9:23a, Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these;
central axis) Heb 9:23b, But the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these;
2a) Heb 9:24, For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.

1b) Heb 9:25a, Not that He should offer Himself often;
central axis) Heb 9:25b, As the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another—
2b) Heb 9:26a, He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world;
2a) Heb 9:26b-28, Christ offered once for sin/ He will appear a second time, bringing salvation;

1a) Heb 9:26b, but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself;
central axis) Heb 9:27, And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment;
2a) Heb 9:28, So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

The writer of Hebrews is on his same topic already begun. What is better about the better covenant? We saw yesterday that the Law did not change or become obsolete, but that one fault or deficiency of the first covenant was that we were obligated to obey the Law from without when our sin nature inherited from Adam ruled within. That changed with the better covenant, because the better covenant brought the new birth. Today we see that a second fault or deficiency of the first covenant was the continual sacrifice of the blood of bulls and goats, which could temporarily purify the flesh but which could not purify the heart. Furthermore, these sacrifices were offered in the copy of the dwelling place of God, the tabernacle, made with human hands. In the better covenant, one perfect Sacrifice of the blood of the Son, once for all, purified the heart as well as the flesh. The Son furthermore brought this sacrifice, His own blood, into the eternal dwelling place of God, the tabernacle in the heavenlies, made without human hands. The writer of Hebrews is not done with his topic …