Hebrews 9:9–10

The provisions of the law were admirable as a witness to man's sinfulness and to a coming Redeemer. But they were only surface-level and temporary. They went no further than outward "meats and drinks and various washings." In keeping with that, they touched no deeper needs than "the errors of the people" (verse 7). They were called here "ordinances of flesh imposed until a time of setting right."

Thirdly, these things during their existence were a figure of things to come. The figures, however, could never satisfy God nor meet the need of man. Under such a system God was shut in and man was shut out. The Jewish system could neither open heaven to us nor fit us for heaven.

The former could never give a perfect conscience, simply because they were imperfect in themselves. It was impossible that the blood of a bull or of a goat could ever give a perfect conscience. It might do for a day, a month, or a year, but no longer. So the conscience of a Jewish worshipper was never perfect. He could never say that his conscience was perfectly purged, because he had not yet reached a perfect sacrifice.

Here is a poor Israelite. He brings his sacrifice, lays his hands on it and kills it. He sees the priest take the blood, sprinkle it on the altar, and burn the victim. He sees the smoke rise, and the priest says, Your trespass is forgiven. And yet on the day of atonement those trespasses, and all the others, were mentioned all over again. He had to conclude they were not really forgiven at all. In other words, his conscience was not perfect, he did not yet have perfect assurance of acceptance, or forgiveness.

First, the sacrifices offered under the law could never put those who came to them in the place of constant worshippers. That is clearly what "perfect" means in this passage. They failed both because they were ineffective in themselves and because they had to be repeated... Now note, to be perfected as a worshipper is to have no more conscience of sins. Surely this exalts worship very highly, because worship is not at all the means of our justification, but that for which we are already justified.

The purged conscience is one that, being "once purged", has no more conscience of sins (Hebrews 10:2). It assumes a conscience that has been exercised about its sins. That exercise is then met: the believer learns that the precious blood of Christ cleanses him from all sins, and that he will never come under judgment. A good conscience is a conscience free of offence in practical ways and walk.

No conscience can be at ease before God where anything depends on what the person himself is doing or has to do. Yes, I would say, not even if it now had to depend on what Christ has to do, instead of resting on what He has already done... Christ does not have to enter in again, He has no more sacrifice for sin to offer — no other blood to carry in; for where could any be found of like preciousness? All is done once, and once for all.

Christendom, instead of seeing in the tabernacle a figure, has used it as a pattern for its religious services. In doing so, it has lost the "good things" the figures speak of. So the mass of people in Christendom have again set up magnificent buildings. They have again railed off one part of those buildings as more holy than the rest. And they have again set up a priestly class distinct from the ordinary people, who perform religious services on their behalf. So Christendom has adopted a system modelled on the Jewish camp. It keeps people at a distance from God and can never make the conscience perfect.

They were external things. They consisted only of meats and drinks and various washings. An Israelite had to be very careful about what food he ate. The law prescribed everything he ate or drank. All of it had to be clean, or else he was defiled... There was a washing at the basin. There was the sprinkling of blood to sanctify the unclean. It went on the bronze altar too, sometimes on the horns of the altar of incense, and once a year on the mercy seat. These could not make the conscience perfect, or give real peace. They were carnal, or fleshly, ordinances. They dealt with the outward man, and with a relationship to God that was outward only. A man might be a good Israelite, clean by the ritual, and yet be a complete stranger to peace with God, to any sense of His love, or to access into His holy presence.

In Hebrews 6:2 the Hebrew believers were told to leave "the doctrine of baptisms." In Hebrews 9:10 we read of "various baptisms or washings." The words that follow are "imposed until the time of reformation," and that "time" is "Christ being come." So these baptisms were part of the Jewish ritual, which had many washings and bathings. None of them fully signified the baptism of the New Testament, which as the ordinance of entry places the baptised in a new position.

Judaism's great failure, as the apostle shows, was that it could not really purify the conscience and set the soul at rest in the presence of God. In the tabernacle of old, he says, gifts and sacrifices were offered that "cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper." Why not? Because they consisted only of "meats and drinks, and various baptisms," or purifications — "carnal ordinances." They were ordinances which could not in their very nature affect the condition of the soul.

Meats and drinks too were only pictures of the food and refreshment found in the sacrifice of Christ — both for God and for the believer. Various washings and carnal ordinances pictured how the truth of Christ is applied to the soul, with cleansing and sustaining power. Such things were pictures, so of course they were temporary. They were imposed only until the time of reformation, when God would set things in proper relationship and perspective, bringing in a change to end all changes.

Those ordinances were there until the "time of reformation" (verse 10). That term means "setting things right." The time for setting things right has come. Verse 11 turns our thoughts from the carnal ordinances to the work of Christ. There He is, the new High Priest in relation to this new spiritual system, the answer to the parable.

Nothing is more empty and pointless than a ritual whose time has passed. Verse 10 says this sharply. Things that once carried all the weight of Jehovah's name are, looking back, powerless and empty... But once the time of reformation has arrived, Truth is no longer hidden under figures. It stands out in its own glory and life. Then the former things are no longer truth, nor even a likeness of truth. To approach Him now through such a channel is to come before His presence with a contradiction of the glory of His Christ.