For if the blood of goats and bulls, and a heifer's ashes sprinkling the defiled, sanctifies for the purity of the flesh,
The verse looks back at two rituals from Israel's law. One is the blood of the yearly day of atonement. The other is water mixed with the ashes of a burnt heifer. Both really did something. The question is how far that "something" reached — and what it proves about a better sacrifice.
Israel's law had many ceremonies. Why does the verse name only these two?
Israel's law had almost countless rites, yet only these two are mentioned here: the day of atonement, and the cleansing by the ashes of the heifer. They are named because it is by them that the complete process of sanctification was carried out. The two parts of this sanctification are clearly distinct, though as a whole it is described as a "purifying of the flesh." First comes the cleansing of the worshipper himself by the accepted offering on the day of atonement. By the yearly forgiveness of his sins, God restored him each year to an acceptable standing. Second, he is sanctified in his way by the later provision of the water of purification.
The second rite is less familiar than the first.
The ashes of a heifer sprinkled on the unclean remind us of the service in Numbers 19 — the provision against defilements along the way. The heifer was offered without blemish. The priest laid his hands on it, and then it was killed and completely burnt. Its ashes were kept in a clean place outside the camp. Whenever an Israelite was unclean because of some defilement that had come on him — contact with the dead, or anything of that sort — the priest took the ashes, mixed them with water, and sprinkled the unclean person on the third and seventh days. He then came back into outward fellowship with the people of God. In other words, it worked for the purifying of the flesh. This had to do, not with access to God, but with communion.
So what were the ashes for?
They were kept simply and solely with a view to communion — that is, to restore it when it was broken. It is not at all a question of establishing relationships; that was already done. But on the ground of the relationship that already exists, the Israelite must allow nothing along the way that would stain the holiness that suits the sanctuary of the Lord.
The verse admits these rites worked. But look at the words it uses for the result: "for the purification of the flesh."
These formal ordinances accomplished a formal result. "The purifying of the flesh" was merely an outward, public setting apart from the sin for which the sacrifice was offered. The very fact of the sacrifice was a public condemnation of the sin, and the offerer publicly linked himself with that rejection of the sin. But there was no vital, eternal value in it.
The same writer asks what such a sprinkling could do about real moral failure.
Suppose you fall into some defilement of soul through contact with anything in this chamber of death — this world where we are living — and the ashes of a heifer are sprinkled on you. What effect could it possibly have? Absolutely none.
The verse begins with "if." Verse 14 finishes the sentence with "how much more." So where should our confidence rest?
The whole question hinges, not on the character or condition of the offerer, but on the value of the offering. The question is not at all whether a Christian is a better man than a Jew. It is whether the blood of Christ is better than the blood of a bullock. It certainly is better. How much better? Infinitely better. The Son of God gives all the dignity of His own divine Person to the sacrifice He offered. If the blood of a bullock purified the flesh for a year, "how much more" shall the blood of the Son of God purge the conscience for ever? If that took away some sin, how much more shall this take away all?
One writer applies the heifer to the believer today. Notice what is not repeated.
The ordinance of the red heifer was an exceptional form of sin offering. It did not have atonement in view. It was for the cleansing by water of people who had their home and place in the camp, where the Lord's sanctuary was, and who had become defiled along the way. By the word, the Holy Spirit applies the truth of the condemnation of sin in the cross of Christ to the heart and conscience. He purifies the believer, without applying the blood again.
- Flesh — the old rites reached the body and the outward standing. They truly "sanctify," but only "for the purification of the flesh."
- Flesh restored — the heifer's ashes did not make an Israelite one of God's people. They brought back a member whose fellowship had been broken along the way.
- Flesh exposed — a formal ordinance gives a formal result. Sprinkled ashes could do nothing for a soul that was truly defiled.
- Conscience — the worth of the offering decides everything, not the worth of the offerer. A bullock's blood purified the flesh for a year; Christ's blood purges the conscience for ever.
- Conscience kept — the pattern holds for the believer. The Spirit applies the truth of the cross by the word, and never applies the blood a second time.
how much rather shall the blood of the Christ, who by the eternal Spirit offered himself spotless to God, purify your conscience from dead works to worship [the] living God?
If the old sacrifices could clean an unclean body, what must the blood of Christ reach? Everything in the verse turns on who the Offerer is, by what power He offered, and what that offering does to a guilty conscience.
Those sacrifices only reached the body. Christ's blood goes deeper, and the reason lies in the One who offered it.
If these things sanctified "to the cleanness of the flesh," how much more shall the blood of the Christ cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve a living God in worship? Only consider the Christ, glorious in Himself, in the character of His offering, "who by an eternal Spirit offered Himself spotless to God." As He stands alone, so does that offering of Himself. Here the Holy Spirit's part in it carries the title "an Eternal Spirit": eternity marks this letter all through.
Israel's high priest brought a victim other than himself, and he needed one for his own sins first. Here priest and sacrifice are the same Person.
In Aaron's case he had, "as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins." In this we again find contrast and not comparison... There is all the difference in the world between Aaron offering FOR himself and Christ offering HIMSELF.
The Spirit carries an unusual title here. One writer draws a conclusion from that single word.
Hebrews 9:14 says, "Christ … through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God." Here we are told the Spirit of God is eternal. Now that ascribes Deity to Him. Only Deity can be from eternity, without beginning and without end.
The same phrase also tells us what moved Him to make that offering.
He offered Himself to God — but as moved by the power, and according to the perfection of the eternal Spirit. All the motives that governed this action, and the carrying out of it according to those motives, were purely and perfectly those of the Holy Spirit. They were absolutely divine in their perfection, yet they were of the Holy Spirit acting in a man... so that it is the Man Christ who offers Himself. This had to be so.
The words "without spot" (ESV: "without blemish") describe more than a clean record at the cross. They gather up the whole life that led there.
He was without blemish. He in whom all these holy excellencies dwelt offered Himself to be a sacrifice for sin. The inward devotion of His life to God that made Him altogether pleasing to God in life carried Him into death for the accomplishment of the will of God.
Three names stand together in this one sentence: Christ, the Spirit, and God. That shapes how far the offering reaches.
Notice, moreover, the majesty which characterizes the one offering of Christ. All three Persons of the Godhead stand related to it. The spotless Son of God offered Himself. It was to God that He offered Himself; and it was by the eternal Spirit He did it. No wonder that all sin comes within its scope, and that its results abide for eternity.
"Dead works" is not another word for scandalous sin. It covers respectable religion and decent effort where there is no life toward God.
Dead works are those done by a man who has no divine life, no true relationship with God... The apostle does not say sinful works merely; it is dead works, whatever they may have been. They may have been mere religious rituals, or acts of charity — works that look blameless and kind. There may be much that is commendable in the eye of man, yet God may write "dead works" upon it all.
Nothing we do clears the conscience. God's satisfaction with the sacrifice already made does it, and that turns a worker into a worshipper.
Christ has offered Himself without spot to God. God has accepted the great sacrifice and is infinitely satisfied with Christ and His shed blood. So the conscience of the believer is relieved of all thought of working to secure the blessing. Such works, however good in themselves, would only be dead works. So, set free in conscience,, the believer becomes a worshipper of God.
But that freedom is not carelessness about sin:
The man who thinks lightly of sin, thinks lightly of the blood of Christ... No, we are purged from all our dead works in order that, in blessed contrast, we might serve the living and true God. Christ has introduced us into the presence of that living God, and our service is to Him now.
- Eternal Offerer — Aaron offered for himself; Christ offered Himself. Priest and victim are one Person, and He stands alone.
- Eternal Spirit — a Man made the offering, but through the eternal Spirit, so the motives behind it were God's own.
- Eternal reach — all three Persons of the Godhead stand related to this one offering. So all sin comes within its scope.
- Eternal cleansing — the blood reaches past the body to the conscience. It clears away "dead works": not just wicked deeds, but blameless, lifeless religion.
- Eternal service — a cleared conscience stops working to earn blessing and starts to worship. Freedom from dead works is freedom for the living God.