He Sat Down

When I remember my grandma—my mom’s mother— I see her working in her kitchen. She fed a large extended family, cooked everything from scratch on a wood burning stove, and washed the dishes by hand in a big farmhouse sink. Food prep and clean up required hours of work every day. She peeled and chopped, kneaded and shaped, adjusted the fire in the stove, stirred cooking pots, and then scrubbed everything down afterwards. When one meal was finished, she started preparing the next. I’m sure she sat down for a break sometimes, but that’s not how I remember her. I remember her in her kitchen, standing over the sink or stove.

The Levitical priests of the Old Testament were a little like my grandma. The author of Hebrews wrote this about them: 

And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins (Hebrews 10:11 ESV). 

An old covenant priest performed the same duties over and over again. He offered the same sacrifices day in and day out. My grandma stood in her kitchen, repeating food prep chores every day, meal after meal, because the food she served couldn’t permanently satisfy hunger. The Levitical priest stood in the tabernacle, repeating the same sacrifices day after day, because the sacrifices he offered were not a real solution to the problem of human sin. The repetitive nature of the priest’s work was evidence of its futility.

There is a reason the Old Testament sacrifices were ultimately ineffective. If we had read through Hebrews 10 from start to finish, we would have already seen that “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin” (Hebrews 10:4).  No animal was an adequate substitute for a human being. No animal could bear God’s just wrath against human sin. No animal sacrifice could cleanse someone’s conscience, so old covenant worshippers remained aware of their guilt before God (Hebrews 9:9, 10:2). 

It isn’t as if animal sacrifices had no point. God instituted them, and he has good reasons for everything he does. One of those good reasons is that the repeated nature of animal sacrifices was meant to be a reminder of sins (Hebrews 10:3). Their futility had a purpose: it showed that they didn’t actually save anyone from sin.  Animal sacrifices pointed people to their need for something—or someone—greater. They needed a better sacrifice—an effective one.

That better sacrifice, the one the old sacrifices pointed to, was Jesus. Hebrews 10:12-14 says this about him:

But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. (ESV)

The old priests and sacrifices were, to use a phrase from verse 1 of this chapter, merely “a shadow of the good things to come,” and Christ and his sacrifice are the good things to come. In every way, Christ is better than the old system that foreshadowed him. The old sacrifices had to be repeated, over and over again, day in and day out, but Christ offered a single, definitive sacrifice that was effective “for all time.” The old sacrifices didn’t take away sin, but reminded people of it. With Christ’s sacrifice God “remembers sins no more” (v. 17). The old sacrifices couldn’t cleanse consciences, but Jesus’s sacrifice removed guilt forever. 

The Old Testament priests stood daily as they worked, but Christ offered one sacrifice of himself and then he sat down at the right hand of God. He is resting because his work is done. His sacrifice will never need to be repeated, because it solved the problem of human sin by “perfect[ing] for all time those who are being sanctified.” Believers are not yet perfect, of course, if by perfect we mean they no longer sin. We all still struggle with sin in this life. But the author of Hebrews didn’t use the word perfect this way. His point was that believers’ sins were taken away, their guilt was removed, and they were forgiven.  Christ’s sacrifice cleansed them completely and forever. They have been perfected and his work is finished. 

So Christ sat down—and look where he sits! He is at the right hand of God, in a place of unlimited power, highest authority and ultimate triumph, waiting for his enemies to be crushed. The work that will bring him certain victory over them was finished when he died and rose again. His enemies are not yet lying under his feet, but in the last scene of God’s unfolding drama, they will be, because Christ’s work is finished and their final outcome is certain. 

And because Christ is resting, every believer can rest in the forgiveness he accomplished for us. What’s more, because he rests, we can come. Our sins have been taken away, and God is reconciled to us, so

we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us  … . [L]et us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water (Hebrews 10: 19-22 ESV).

Our full assurance of forgiveness and our bold approach to God is grounded in Christ’s completed work. That our Priest is a sitting Priest confirms to us that our hearts have been sprinkled clean, our bodies have been washed, and we are forever fully forgiven.

The Better Sacrifice came, sacrificed himself, and now sits at the right hand of God. Jesus opened the new and living way for us, and we can enter God’s presence with confidence. Let us draw near!  

What Are Dead Works?

 

For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh,  how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. (Hebrews 9:13–14 ESV)

I host a Bible study on the New Testament book of Hebrews in my home, and a couple of months ago, we discussed these verses. We asked (and tried to answer) several questions about this text, questions like, “What’s up with sprinkling heifer ashes?” and “What does it mean to purify the flesh?” The question that intrigued me the most seems simpler than either of those: What exactly are the dead works that Jesus’s blood cleanses from our conscience?” 

Because I’m a reformed protestant, I see the word works in the Bible and automatically think of acts someone does to try to improve their standing before God. Some may give money to charity, for instance, or help the poor, or attend church in hopes of gaining God’s favour. Others perform religious rites, like (since it’s the season) giving up something for Lent. We could call these “dead works” in the sense that they cannot bring life. They will not gain God’s favor. No matter how many good works we do, we cannot perform ourselves into a better standing before God.

A couple of the commenters and preachers I read to prepare for the Bible study thought the dead works in this text were exactly these sorts of acts. Others thought the phrase referred to acts done in accordance with the Old Testament ceremonial system. S. Lewis Johnson, for instance, said dead works are “Levitical works. They have no power, really, to bring life. That’s why they are dead.” 

Neither of these answers to the question of the meaning of dead works in Hebrews 9:14 satisfied me. According to this verse, people needed to be cleansed from the inner defilement their dead works caused. Was a faithful Jew defiled inwardly by keeping all the Levitical laws? Considered in themselves without regard to motive, do giving to charity, helping the poor, and going to church defile us? I don’t think so.

I’ve concluded that the actual meaning of dead works in this passage is simpler than either of these explanations. The phrase “dead works” is used one other time in Hebrews, and this text helps explain what the author means by it: 

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, (Hebrews 6:1 ESV)

The writer of Hebrews says “repentance from dead works and faith toward God” is a foundational truth of the Christian faith. It’s his formula for the gospel. It means the same thing as “repentance from sin and faith in Jesus.” Dead works in Hebrews, then, are simply sinful acts. They are dead because they bring death. They are dead because they result in the condemnation of God. The NIV translates “dead works” as “acts that lead to death” and I think that’s exactly what it means. 

Our sinful acts defile our consciences, and Jesus’s sacrifice cleanses that defilement. The Levitical sacrifices effected cleansing from physical defilement, like the defilement that came from close contact with death, but they could not clean the inner defilement that came from intentional disobedience.

And—carrying on with the verse—a conscience purified by Jesus’s sacrifice is set free to serve the living God. We work for God, not to make ourselves clean, but because we have already been made clean. As the outflow of a cleansed conscience, we joyfully do the good works the living God prepared for us to do. 

What Did Moses See?

“Scripture is boring!” I’ve heard people say this, and I’ve probably even thought it myself. But the more I learn about scripture, and the more familiar I become with it, the more interesting I find it. I am always learning something new.

While studying Hebrews 8 recently, I saw something I’d never noticed before. I’m not sure how I missed it, because it’s right there in plain writing. 

Let me show you. Here’s Hebrews 8:5:

[The levitical priests] serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain” (Hebrews 8:5 NIV).

The sanctuary in the Old Testament tabernacle was meant to be a copy and shadow of God’s heavenly dwelling. God’s home in heaven was the real deal, and the sanctuary of the tabernacle was only a temporary earthly replica of the heavenly reality.

What caught my attention was something in the quote from Exodus 25:40. God commanded Moses to construct the tabernacle like “the pattern shown you on the mountain.” When Moses was on Mount Sinai, God gave verbal intruction about how to build the tabernacle. But the verbal instructions, which are written down for us in Exodus 25-31 and 35-40, weren’t all God gave Moses. God showed Moses something that served as a pattern for tabernacle. This is what I hadn’t noticed before. Moses actually saw something he was supposed to replicate (See also Exodus 25:9; 26:30; 27:8).

Which brings up the question that kept my mind busy for a while: What exactly did Moses see? Did God show him a model of the tabernacle? A blueprint? A picture?

It could be any of those, I suppose. F. F. Bruce thinks there’s even a possiblity Moses was permitted to see “the heavenly dwelling place of God.”1 We know Moses saw “the form of the Lord” (Numbers 6:8), and God talked to him face. If anyone would be permitted at glimpse of God’s home, why not Moses?

It’s an intriguing thought, but it’s only conjecture. We just can’t know for certain what it was God showed Moses.

What we can know is that Jesus, our high priest, has not just seen God’s true dwelling place, but has entered it. What Moses (maybe) caught a glimpse of is the place where Jesus “always lives to make intercession for [us]” (Hebrews 7:25). He is “seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man” (Hebrews 8:1–2). He now “dwells in God’s presence and ministers in the heavenly realm where God dwells.”2

And there’s more. Moses went to Mount Sinai, a place that made him tremble with fear (Hebrews 12:21), and God showed him something. But because of Jesus’s sacrifice of himself for us, believers “have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem …” (Hebrews 12:22). Because Jesus is our high priest, we are already citizens of the city God has built. And our hope, our inheritance, is to one day dwell with God in this city. Unlike Moses was, we will not be afraid in God’s presence. We will be part of “a joyful assembly” (Hebrews 12:22) because Jesus, our high priest, has cleansed us from sin. 

1 F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, page 184.
2 Thomas R. Schreiner, Commentary on Hebrews, page 243.