"The Holiest of All" part LXXIV

SIN PUT AWAY BY THE SACRIFICE OF HIMSELF.
Hebrews 9: 25-28  Nor yet that He (Jesus) should offer Himself often; as the high priest entered into the Holy Place year by year with blood not his own; Else must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once at the end of the age has He been manifested to put away sin by the Sacrifice of Himself. And inasmuch as it is appointed to men once to die, and after this comes judgment; So Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for Him, to Salvation.

The Last part of the SEVENTH SECTION
Hebrews 9: 1-28.
The Power of Christ's Blood to inaugurate the New Sanctuary and the New Covenant.

BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY


In the previous verses the spiritual and Heavenly character of Christ's work was contrasted with the material and earthly figures of the old worship (the priesthood under the Levitical Laws of Moses and in the order of Aaron and external none spiritual priesthood). Here the contrast will be between the unceasing repetition of the old and the Now Once and Forever of the New. Repetition is the proof of imperfection: what needs doing only once is finished, is perfect, is forever. Now Once at the end of the age (the end of the Hebrew priesthood as under Aaron or the tribe of Levi dealing with mans obedience to the Levitical Laws of Moses an external a flesh or carnally based priesthood) has He been manifested to put away sin (this the priesthood of Aaron could never do as man practiced his trade of sin continually, why unbelief ) by the Sacrifice of Himself. As it is appointed to men once to die, and after this the judgment--- with death, life is finished and complete, and then to await for judgment; after that comes the full revelation of what that death was--- so Christ also, having been Once offered to bear the sins of many (the world), shall appear a second time--- in the full manifestation of what that death accomplished--- without sin, to them that wait for Him, unto Salvation. What is done once is done forever: all it waits for is the everlasting manifestation of what is already perfect and complete.

Christ, Now Once manifested (in the flesh as a son of man) to put away sin by the Sacrifice of Himself--- this is the great lesson of our passage. What Christ effected by His dying once, is forever. And what He did effect was this--- He put away sin by the Sacrifice of Himself. He was manifested to put it away out of God's presence (the cloud that separated God from the Hebrews (unbelief, sin) and man (sin) Exodus 13;  Psalms 97: 2; Isaiah 44: 22; 55: 7-8; Lamentations 3: 44; Hebrews 9), out of His book and His remembrance--- to put it away from us, so that it has no more power over us, and we enter upon an entirely New State of Life, with sin removed and God's Law (the moral law or ten commandments, the Beatitudes and the Divine Law of Love self-sacrificial) written in our heart and on our minds (the having Now the mind of Christ to do and obey the Will of God).

The question comes up, Is not the expression too strong? Is not the experience of the Church a proof that it cannot be meant so literally? The solution of the difficulty will be found in a Truth that leads us into one of the deepest mysteries of the Spiritual Life (this is received by those who are made Alive in Christ and are being made Christ-Like Ones or a disciple through the discipline of obedience to the Faith of Christ as found in Jesus while still here as the son of man). As we saw in our last meditation, the words of God have a Divine, an infinite fulness of meaning. They set before us what is an actual fact, a Divine Reality, a spiritual Truth in the Authority and the power of the Endless Life. But this Truth is seldom fully understood or accepted by the church or its believers. And as their Knowledge Limits their faith, and their faith their experience, the human exposition and witness of what God means seldom if ever reaches to the fulness of what the Word contains. We limit the Holy One of the Hebrews perhaps most when we think we honor Him, by thinking that we know and hold in our formulas (forms of what we consider as worship, doctrines of men, ceremonies, religious holidays, what we believe the image of God is in our imaginations, and other practices of custom) all His Word means. With its Divine contents the word infinitely exceeds our apprehension, and ever invites us to press on to perfection, and prove the deeper and higher Truth there is still hidden in the old familiar words. It is as we yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit, whose it is to reveal the power of the Blood and the Opening of the Way into the Holiest, that we shall be led to inherit this promise too, in all its Divine significance--- sin put away by the Sacrifice of Himself.

By the Sacrifice of Himself. The words reveal the inmost meaning of the death of Christ: it was Self-sacrifice. Sin, in its deepest root, is a turning from God to self; rejecting God to please self. From the wilderness to the garden this was the one temptation with which Satan sought to lead Him astray. By doing not His own will but the Will of His Father, by the Sacrifice of Himself to God and His Will, He conquered sin in His own person ( in the flesh of man, as the son of man), and gained a victory over it whereby it was forever vanquished (destroyed) and brought to nought. He gave Himself up to death, as His submitted to it to do its utmost, rather than yield to its temptation. He gave Himself up to death, as His submitted to God's righteous judgment upon sin. It was in this that His death to sin, as the obedient One, that His death for sin, as our Substitute, had its power, and His atonement its efficacy. To Him, our Head, death was a personal spiritual victory, and thereby a vicarious propitiation. In both aspects He made an end of sin, and of both we are made partakers.

And how? By the Sacrifice of Himself He put away sin. ( "The putting away of sin. The thought goes beyond the redemption from transgressions (verse 15). It is literally for the disannulling of sin (compare 7: 18-19). Sin is vanquished, shown in its weakness, set at nought (Mark 7: 9; Galatians 3: 15);" Westcott.) And now He offers us Himself to take the place of sin. He gives Himself, the Sacrificed One, who has Finished our Redemption, to us to put away sin within us, too. It is as the Son, the Living One, that He is High Priest; it is in Eternal Life Authority and power, by this Life working in us, that He brings us to God. And so, by His Spirit, He, in His self-sacrifice, Lives in us, and makes it true in the experience of each True Christ-like one a disciple--- sin put away by the sacrifice of self. The Law for the Head is the Law for every member.


And now the alternative is put before us: Which shall it be? Sin and myself or Christ and His Self. Christ has opened for us a Heavenly Life-sphere, out of which sin has been put away--- from (the cloud of separation removed forever) the Sanctuary of God's presence. Which shall it be--- self-pleasing or self-sacrifice--- a life in self ( a continuing in the conscience of sin, and its chains of shame and guilt onto death ) or a Life in Christ. Though we may not always be able to see fully all that Christ's work means, or realize all the riches of Blessing it brings, there is one word not difficult to carry in which all is centered. That Word is Himself. He gave Himself a sacrifice for sin; He gives Himself the putter away, the conqueror of sin; He is Himself all we can desire or need. Blessed the soul that rests in nothing less than--- HIMSELF.

1. Sin is the refusal to sacrifice one's self to God. Self-sacrifice in the fellowship and Spirit of Jesus Is the Way out of sin to God.
2. Christ as our Head Is our Substitute. The value of His work as Substitute rests in His personal character and obedience. The two aspects are inseparable both in Him and in us. We draw near to Him and accept Him, and are saved at once by Him as our Substitute. But then we are at once implanted into Him, and the spirit in which He works our salvation is imparted to us. And so salvation by sacrifice, putting away sin by the sacrifice of self, rules out our whole being.