JEAN'S BIBLE STUDY COM

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1 Now even the first covenant had regulations of divine worship and the earthly sanctuary.

Heb 9,1-28

(80l) Thy kingdom come >> Prayer >> The priesthood >> Jesus ministered to people through His ministry toward God – God commanded Moses to place the Golden Altar of Incense in front of the curtain so the priests could daily tend to it, because no one was allowed in the Most Holy Place except the high priest only once a year. This passage says that the Golden Altar of Incense was placed in Most Holy Place, but Exodus 30-6 says, “You shall put this altar in front of the veil that is near the ark of the testimony, in front of the mercy seat that is over the ark of the testimony, where I will meet with you.” He spoke about the location of the Golden Altar of Incense as though the veil weren’t there. This is the ministry of prayer: it removes the veil. The Golden Altar of Incense represents prayer, and according to the symbolism, prayer escorts us into the presence of God (into the Holy of Holies). Before we pray we must pass the Table of Showbread representing the word of God, and the golden lampstands give light to His word. For many Christians, prayer is all but missing. Living a life of prayer has the power to transform a person from flesh to spirit, and such a radical change is not easy to make. For this reason, most Christians never make it past the table of showbread in their walk with God. Prayer makes us spiritual, and our flesh doesn't want to be spiritual. We can read the Bible all we want, and we can go to seminary school and come out with a doctorate in theology, but if we never discipline ourselves to pray, we will not have ventured into the Most Holy Place or developed a relationship with God.

(246d) Kingdom of God >> Spirit realm imposed on the natural realm >> Literal manifestations >> The true tabernacle – The priest passed the Table of Showbread and the golden lampstands as he made his way to the back of the first room to rekindle the perpetually smoldering incense, which represents prayer. The Showbread in the the Holy Place that the priests replaced every day represents the word of God, indicating that the Lord wants His word to be fresh in our minds every day with new insights. The Golden Altar of Incense was physically placed outside the Holy of Holies, but its spiritual position was behind the curtain, suggesting that being a disciple of prayer gives access into the Holy of Holies, as we couple it with the knowledge of God’s word, referring to the table of showbread and the golden lampstand that the priest had to pass first. Thus, we understand prayer to be a type of temple worship by a priest that is performed in the Most Holy Place. Jesus alluded to this in Mat 6-6, “When you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” This inner room refers to the Most Holy Place.

Heb 9,1-26

(141f) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Old Testament bears witness to the new >> It bears witness to Jesus >> Prophesy about Jesus’ death

(151f) Witness >> Validity of the Father >> New Testament bears witness of the Old >> The law – The writer of Hebrews was saying that when Jesus ascended back to heaven, it fulfilled the old covenant priestly duty of taking the blood sacrifice and presenting it in the Holy of Holies. To do this the high priest had to walk passed the Golden Lampstand and the Table of Showbread, passed the Golden Altar of Incense and through the veil into the Holy of Holies, where he would make propitiation for the sins of the people. These temple laws were given in the time of Moses and were strictly observed in those days, but the years between taking possession of the land of Canaan and building Solomon’s temple (about 440 years) temple worship was disregarded. It was also disregarded in a long period prior to the Babylonian takeover through apostasy.

Heb 9,1-16

(139i) Temple >> Building the temple (with hands) >> Tear down the old to rebuild the new – Verse one says, “Even the first covenant had regulations of divine worship,” suggesting that the second one does too. So, what are the regulations of new covenant worship? The regulation of the old covenant was the law, but Jesus said that the worshiper of the new covenant would worship God in spirit and truth. Therefore, the regulation of the new covenant consists of obeying the Holy Spirit, and note that such is divine. The writer of Hebrews went on to discuss aspects of the old covenant tabernacle, but he never mentioned the outer court, which was nothing more than a wall built around the tabernacle that represented the outer most perimeter of the temple, made of porpoise skin, representing the skin of our own bodies. That is, our bodies are the new covenant temple. Go into the temple and you would find a lampstand and a table for the sacred bread. Although this was the holy place they did not call it holy bread, but sacred bread. We have two forms of God’s word in the holy place: there was the light of God’s truth, symbolized by the lampstand, and the sacred bread, representing the body of Jesus, who called Himself the bread of life, broken for us. He was also considered the word of God in the gospel of John, manifested in human flesh (Jn 1,1-14). The symbolism of the temple exists on at least two levels. First, there is the symbolism of Christ, who was given for us. As we break the bread, the light of the lampstand shines on us to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ (2Cor 4-6). Second, our experience in the holy place qualifies us to advance into the Most Holy Place, but standing in front of the curtain is the golden altar of incense, representing prayer. As we seek God in prayer, the Holy Spirit will usher us into the Holy of Holies where we have fellowship with God and come to personally know Him on a whole new level. The old covenant temple was torn down in AD 70 and the new temple has become our bodies. Therefore, in the same way that Jesus' body was torn down and resurrected by the Father, so we go from the holy place of the sacred bread to the Most Holy Place of the living bread, where they kept the sample of manna in a golden jar. In the same way that our bodies must die before we can go to heaven, so God has called us to die to self to advance in various levels of our relationship with God. 

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Heb 9,1-6

(189a) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Holy sacrifice >> The smell of death >> Priestly anointing perfume of sacrifice – The golden altar of perpetual incense is the key that unlocks the symbolism of the old covenant temple. It released a beautiful fragrance into the room, yet it was the smell of death, one of the many ironies of the Bible. Verse six explains why the golden altar of incense had to be located outside the Holy of Holies, “The priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle, performing the divine worship.” Among other things, they were continually maintaining the burning of perpetual incense, which required them to dispose of previous ashes and other duties. Perhaps heaven smells similar to the incense that God commanded Israel to burn. There was another room within the first room, called the Holy of Holies, where according to verse 4 we find the golden altar of incense and the Ark of the Covenant. Now, Moses’ description puts the golden altar of incense just outside the veil (Exodus 30-6), so the priests could keep the incense burning, since they were forbidden in the Holy of Holies except once a year to perform the annual sacrifice. This is in contrast to verse 4, which puts the golden altar of incense inside the Holy of Holies. So, is there a discrepancy here? That is unlikely, since the writer of Hebrews was an expert in matters regarding Jewish temple worship. Rather, he was making the point that the golden altar of incense has equal significance with the Ark of the Covenant, which was Israel's most prized possession! Since the golden altar of incense represents both dying to self and prayer, what does that say about prayer? It implies that in order to develop a life of prayer, we must first die to self. As is the pattern of baptism, that which dies according to the will of God will be resurrected to newness of life, so a life devoted to prayer leads us away from a telluric existence to one that is more spiritual in nature. 

Heb 9,1-5

(133j) Temple >> Your body is the temple of God >> Holiness >> The body of Christ is holy >> Our obedience is holy to the Lord – There were many layers to the tabernacle. Counting them, there was the outer court represented by the wall of fabric surrounding the temple, that represents our flesh. Then, there was the holy place and the most holy place. That makes three. Finally there was the Ark of the Covenant, which was a room in itself containing “the golden jar holding the manna, Aaron’s rod which budded and the tables of the covenant,” making four in total. The Bible says that the Ark of the Covenant was God’s dwelling place. You could almost say that God lived in a box. People have since tried to put God in a box, but what does the Scripture say? “See that you make [it] according to the pattern shown you on the mountain” (Ex 25:40). Since our bodies are the new covenant temple, God is calling us to live "according to the pattern shown [us] on the mountain." 

Heb 9,1-3

(134f) Temple >> Your body is the temple of God >> Composition of our bodies is from the earth >> Worship unlocks the spirit realm to us -- These verses go with verses 6-15

(37f) Blood of Jesus (Key verse)

Heb 9-1

(174a) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Man’s religion >> Good traditions (Exception to bad religion) >> Good customs -- This verse goes with verses 9&10

(205h) Salvation >> Salvation is based on God’s promises >> New covenant >> The old one is obsolete – Each person can be seen to have an old and a new covenant. The old covenant is the time in a person’s life before he believed in Jesus, while the new covenant marks the time when he now believes. Every Christian is living in the new covenant age, for the days of his unbelief are past in reference to old covenant disobedience and living according to the law. Even the law itself made no promises of redemption, until Christ came and saved us. He gave us a new covenant by which He affords His grace as our strength to perform the works of the law that we could not do before we believed in Jesus.

(206g) Salvation >> God makes promises on His terms >> Conditions to promises >> Conditions to the gifts of God >> Conditions to the promises of God -- This verse goes with verse 10

(252j) Trinity >> You shall put no other gods before Me >> Worship God >> Worship God by your lifestyle -- This verse goes with verse 9

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2-6 For there was a tabernacle prepared, the outer one, in which were the lampstand and the table and the sacred bread; this is called the holy place. 3 Behind the second veil there was a tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies, 4 having a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden jar holding the manna, and Aaron's rod which budded, and the tables of the covenant; 5 and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat; but of these things we cannot now speak in detail. 6 Now when these things have been so prepared, the priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle performing the divine worship,

Heb 9-2,3

(132c) Temple >> Your body is the temple of God >> Holy Spirit is in God’s people >> Spirit of God in the spirit of man >> Spirit gives access to the Father through Christ -- These verses go with verses 6-15

Heb 9-2

(76n) Thy kingdom come >> Desires >> Word is food >> Bread of life is the word of God – The showbread, which represents the word of God, was located in the holy place, the outer room of the tabernacle, indicating that the word of God is holy; that is why we call it the Holy Bible. Along with the showbread was the Menorah, the golden lampstand holding seven candles; these two things working together: the showbread and the lampstand, bring about the revelation of the truth. Without the light the showbread would be in dark; we would have to grope to find it and once we found it we would have to eat in the dark. Conversely, without the bread there would be nothing for the light to reveal, just an empty table. It is not the word of God only but also the illumination of God’s word that we need. Sometimes we read the Bible in the mundaneness of seemingly meaningless letters and words; those are the nights we are reading in the dark; other days we read and the words jump off the page. How do we turn on the light so we can see what we are reading? Everybody knows something about the will of God, so if we do what we know, it will turn on the light so we can read the Bible, and understand what it says. This indicates that there are actually three things at work here; the third piece is obedience. When we supply the third ingredient to our faith, not only does the word of God illuminate our minds but also our bodies; isn’t that what Jesus said? “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light” (Mat 6-22). Whatever we allow in our presence we will do, so if we put the will of God in front of us, we will do it, and our bodies will be filled with the light of His word, His will and His ways. 

(231j) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> Body of Christ is the organism of God’s kingdom >> We are the body of His kingdom -- This verse goes with verses 6-12

Heb 9,6-27

(209j) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Jesus is our sacrifice >> Jesus paid the price for us >> Jesus is the lamb of God >> The Great High Priest offered up Himself – The priests offered sacrifices both for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance. He entered the holy place, where he passed the table of showbread and the seven candlesticks shedding light on the word of God. He sprinkled the articles of the temple with blood as he progressed to the Golden Altar of Incense, representing prayer, located just outside the curtain that acts as a veil in front of the inner room. He brushed past the curtain and entered the most Holy Place where he offered the annual sacrifice. The imagery of old covenant temple worship represented the ministry of Christ in many of the same ways that it also refers to the individual worshipper. The Holy Place is where cleansing of the flesh was performed, while the Most Holy Place is where Jesus offered His own blood, representing the presence of the Father in heaven. It was a place that no man could go, except by authorization as the high priest, who had physical access only once a year. The high priest made the sacrifice with the blood of animals, and so technically it didn’t count; it only represented the sacrifice that would come later in the flesh of Jesus Christ that he prepared through a life of faithfulness to His Father, living without sin in a body that craved sin, making His sacrifice holy and acceptable to God. Based on the fact that God commanded Israel through Moses to perform these sacrifices as a perpetual reminder of the sacrifice that His Son would later make, so long as they performed them precisely as instructed, God accepted Israel’s temple worship for propitiation of sins committed in ignorance.

Heb 9,6-26

(37g) Judgment >> Redemption of man >> His blood is the gift of His grace – Into the holy place the priests continually entered throughout the year, where the golden lampstands, representing the Holy Spirit shined on the table of showbread, representing God’s word, and the golden altar of incense in front of the veil represented prayer, being actually an article of the Most Holy Place but was placed just outside the veil so the priests could maintain the perpetual incense, while into the Most Holy Place the high priest entered only once a year with a blood sacrifice. If the holy place was not properly maintained throughout the year, the significance of the annual sacrifice was nullified. This implies that our daily ministry in the word of God and prayer sanctifies our ministry of good works that God has prepared for us. When Jesus went to heaven as the more perfect sacrifice, the fact that His Father received Him was significant in that it proved we could be forgiven. The high priest offered the annual sacrifice for sins committed in ignorance, can only be understood by virtue of its opposite, which is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, sins committed in full knowledge. Let’ face it, there are sins committed that we know full well what we are doing, yet we can be forgiven through repentance, so this concept of ignorance is in reference to innocence more than to a lack of knowledge. We are essentially innocent of blaspheming the Holy Spirit when we sin. We commit sin because we’re sinners, not because we’re devils. However, there are people who more resemble devils than man in the type of sin they commit.

Heb 9,6-15

(132c) Temple >> Your body is the temple of God >> Holy Spirit is in God’s people >> Spirit of God in the spirit of man >> Spirit gives access to the Father through Christ -- These verses go with verses 24-26

(134f) Temple >> Your body is the temple of God >> Composition of our bodies is from the earth >> Worship unlocks the spirit realm to us -- These verses go with verses 1-3. Essentially, God is saying that it is our turn to die to self, that we may offer the sacrifice of our own willful flesh and our own dreams and desires in order to take on God’s will and His vision and purpose, and follow Him into the inner chambers of the Holy of Holies, where we fellowship with Him. 

Heb 9,6-12

(231j) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> Body of Christ is the organism of God’s kingdom >> We are the body of His kingdom -- These verses go with verse 24

Heb 9-6,7

(8l) Responsibility >> Responsible to defend God’s cause >> Preparing the sacrifice – There was an annual sacrifice that the high priest performed once a year to make propitiation for the sins of the people. The high priest would take with him into the Holy of Holies a basin full of blood from a bull, using it to sprinkle the brazen altar and the articles of the temple on his way to the Most Holy Place, through the second veil. Once inside he sprinkled the Ark of the Covenant for the sins of Israel committed in ignorance. The priest offers the sacrifice first for His own sin, and then for the sins of the people, but Jesus was without sin. Nevertheless, the symbolism stands and is relevant to Christ, not that He had sinned, but that He lived in a physical body just like ours that Paul called "the likeness of sinful flesh." He also wrote that Jesus was in appearance as a man; that is, He had the appearance of a sinner. The sacrifice of the lamb was performed outside the temple upon a brazen altar located in the outer court, surrounded by a curtain made of porpoise skin, which represents the skin of our own bodies, the skin of Jesus' body, but before that Jesus sacrificed Himself throughout His life, dying to the sinful passions and desires of his flesh. Heb 5-7 says, “In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.” Long before Jesus was crucified He died to His sinful nature, which consecrated the sacrifice that Jesus literally made with His body on the cross for the sins of the people. He ascended into heaven, where He physically offered Himself to His Father as the sinless Lamb of God. It took a man without sin to die for the sins of the people. Only God could do this, for not even an angel could live in a body of sinful flesh without committing sin. Since Jesus was both God and man, He could sacrifice Himself for the sins of the people and use the sacrifice to appeal to God for the people who would believe in Him for the forgiveness of sin.

(176a) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Ignorance >> Misguided – What kind of ignorance is this? “Sins… committed in ignorance” are sins that we commit apart from the full knowledge of God. There is a kind of sin that both Lucifer and Adam committed in full knowledge. That is, they both sinned knowing the presence of God to spite His righteousness, whereas Jesus’ blood sacrifice only has power to cleanse sin that was committed in ignorance; the blood of Jesus cannot cleanse sins that are committed in full knowledge of the truth, referring to blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. It is important to protect our hearts from this kind of sin, for it has an eroding effect on our faith, and once our faith is destroyed we lose access to His grace.

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7-9 but into the second, only the high priest enters once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance. 8 The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed while the outer tabernacle is still standing, 9 which is a symbol for the present time. Accordingly both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience,

Heb 9,7-28

(189i) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Martyr >> Jesus was a martyr

Heb 9-7

(155d) Witness >> Validity of the believer >> Witness of the believer >> Conscience >> An evil conscience keeps us from believing God >> Knowledge of evil testifies against our deeds – It is impossible to commit sin in ignorance, for it is the knowledge of sin that makes sin utterly sinful (Rom 7-13). We sin on purpose, so to forgive only the sins committed in ignorance would seem a very narrow band indeed. However, part of God’s grace is that He sees us as ignorant; this is why He is able to forgive us. The full knowledge of sin speaks of spiritual sins. The sins of the Pharisees who crucified Jesus knowing that He was their Messiah is an example of spiritual sins committed in full knowledge of the truth. All sin has an eroding effect on our faith, but some sins effectively sacrifice our faith in Jesus; this is the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. The Pharisees did this when they crucified Jesus, the sacrifice that was predestined from the foundation of the world. So now anyone who believes in Jesus’ blood sacrifice can be saved; even the Roman soldiers who actually performed the sacrifice were eligible for salvation, but those who ordered the sacrifice could not be saved, because they knew too much. They knew He was their Messiah. Caiaphas who wanted Jesus dead, who stood in the office of high priest at the time exempted himself from God's forgiveness. Anybody who would crucify Jesus Christ would in effect exempt himself from eternal life. There was no repenting from that, for their hearts were hardened beyond remedy.

Heb 9,8-28

(229j) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> Partaking >> Partaking of Jesus >> Partaking of Jesus’ gift

Heb 9,8-15

(227f) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> God working in you >> Dependence on Jesus >> Depending on Jesus to have compassion >> Depending on Jesus to receive us -- These verses go with verses 24-28

Heb 9,8-10

(38e) Judgment >> Jesus defeated death (Satan) >> Resurrection anointing

(187a) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Die to the flesh >> The ministry of dying to self >> Die to self to minister to God >> Jesus died to self and ministered to God – This is referring both to the body of Jesus and to our own flesh. The way into the Holy Place had not yet been made available while Jesus’ body was still alive, but now that His flesh has been torn, the veil was torn with Him, and now God has given us access into the Most Holy Place on the altar of obedience, that we may pick up our cross and follow Him into the innermost sanctuary. The Bible teaches that our bodies are the temple of God, and He has called us to offer the sinful nature as our sacrifice. Jesus died outside the tabernacle as the priest spilled the blood of the animal within the perimeter of the outer court. The high priest took a basin and filled it with the animal’s blood and then brought it into the temple, passing the Table of Showbread, the menorah and the Golden Altar of Incense. He passed through the veil and into the Most Holy Place and sprinkled blood on the Ark of the Covenant. This Ark of the Covenant contained the original stone tablets of the Ten Commandments that Moses brought from the top of Mount Sinai written by the finger of God, which in the new covenant represents the Holy Spirit writing His word on our hearts (2Cor 3-2,3). We receive the Spirit-imparted word as a revelation of Jesus Christ, our most treasured possession. As He continues to reveal His word to us in our innermost being, which has become the Most Holy Place, He redefines us over the course of our lives. We become fresh and new from year to year and from day to day in a never-ending process of revelation knowledge. It changes our identity as we conform to the person that God is revealing in us (Col 3-9,10).

(190f) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Circumcision >> Undressing >> Dismantling the outer tabernacle – Dying to self is something we do by the Spirit, since the flesh cannot kill itself. We must let God perform the sacrifice, or in this case the circumcision, as it is written, “In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead” (Col 2-11,12). He plunges the sword of His Spirit into the jugular vein of our sinful nature, killing our sinful passions and desires by the Spirit, giving us access into the Most Holy Place through prayer.

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Heb 9-8 

(61d) Paradox >> Two implied meanings >> Outer tabernacle—Jesus’ body / Our bodies -- This verse goes with verse 17. The Holy Spirit dwelling in the believer reveals the word of God to us. As this verse refers to the dying body of Jesus, so it also refers to us dying to self to access the Holy of Holies. This is the ministry of the word of God and prayer: it gives us the tools we need to die to the sinful passions and desires of the flesh. As we do, God will bestow His anointing. He calls us to sacrifice our flesh as Jesus did, only in a spiritual sense that we may enter the Most Holy Place through the sacrifice of Christ.

(109ha) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Spirit and the word >> Spirit the teacher >> Spirit interprets the word for us

(118m) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Freedom >> Law of the spirit >> Newness of the spirit transcends oldness of the letter – Mk 2,18-20 says, “John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and they came and said to Him, ‘Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?’ And Jesus said to them, ‘While the bridegroom is with them, the attendants of the bridegroom cannot fast, can they? So long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.’” It is interesting that John the Baptist did not become one of Jesus’ disciples but remained separate from His ministry, maintaining his own disciples and ministry that paralleled the Lord, though representing different covenants. John represented the pursuit of righteousness through the Law, while Christ represented the forgiveness of sin through God’s longing kindness. Although John’s ministry revolved around introducing the coming of Messiah to Israel and preparing the way for His ministry, yet when He came, He did not graft onto Him. The reason for this is that John represented what remained of the old covenant. His ministry was not only to open the door to the new covenant but also the close the door on the old covenant. Therefore, the death of John represented the death of the old covenant while the death of Christ represented the birth of the new covenant by virtue of His resurrection.

(133e) Temple >> Your body is the temple of God >> Holiness >> The body of Christ is holy >> The temple of God is holy – As Jesus’ body was destroyed, the way into the holy place was created. Similarly, the Jewish temple of worship was destroyed in 70 AD, indicating that the new covenant way into the holy place has been made. According to the manner of worship that God commanded Moses, after they built Solomon’s temple they set up a room called the holy place, and they added a room in the back called the Holy of Holies. In the first room they set up a table and set bread on it, which the priests would later eat and replenish with fresh bread. They placed candlesticks called menorahs beside the table of showbread in order that there might be perpetual light in the holy place. Hence, the light and the bread represent the Spirit and the word. The Ark of the Covenant, that contained the stone tablets of the law, was placed in the Most Holy Place. They placed a curtain at the entrance of the Most Holy Place, and in front of the curtain they put the Golden Altar of Incense. They performed daily temple services in the first room: replacing the bread, replacing the candlesticks and adding incense to the altar, but into the Most Holy Place the high priest went only once a year, not without taking the blood of a heifer. In the Holy of Holies the high priest would make the annual sacrifice for sin, walking through the first room, past the Table of Showbread, the menorahs and the Golden Altar of Incense as a reminder that these daily activities related to faith in God.

(206a) Salvation >> God makes promises on His terms >> Conditions to promises >> Conditions to living in the spirit >> Conditions to partaking in the spirit

Heb 9,9-14

(41c) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Be like Jesus >> Jesus presented Himself to God without sin for us – This passage is talking about Jesus’ ascension after He gained redemption for the sins of the world through the sacrifice of His flesh on the cross. He came back to heaven in the presence of God Almighty, who received His perfect sacrifice after a life of thirty-three years in sinful flesh without committing a single sin. Had Jesus sinned once, He would have been defiled and His Father would not have received Him; in fact, He would not have even raised His Son from the dead. Therefore, Jesus lived without sin as the Son of God and rose from the dead as a perfect man. Going back to the old covenant form of temple worship, the priests first bathed prior to putting on the ceremonial robes in preparation to perform the annual sacrifice that was fulfilled in Christ. They would wash in a bath that represented the sinless life of Christ, cleansing themselves of the dirt and grime and filth of the flesh before they brought the heifer to the outer tabernacle and slit its throat, allowing the blood to spill into the bronze basin in front of the doorway to the tent of meeting, where the sacrifice of flesh and blood was made. Then they carried the blood of the animal into the tabernacle and cleansed the articles of worship with the blood of the bull, but the preparation of cleansing the priest’s body came before any blood was spilled, representing the perfect life that Jesus lived before He offered Himself as the lamb of God on the cross. Although these things had been predestined from the foundation of the world, yet there was the practical fulfillment of these things that only God in the weakness of human flesh could perform.

Heb 9,9-11

(214f) Sovereignty >> God controls time >> God’s timing >> Dispensation of God’s revelations >> Dispensation of Christ -- These verses go with verse 26

Heb 9-9,10

(174a) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Man’s religion >> Good traditions (Exception to bad religion) >> Good customs -- These verses go with verse 1

Heb 9-9

(154j) Witness >> Validity of the believer >> Witness of the believer >> Conscience >> Having a good conscience >> God is my conscience -- This verse goes with verses 13&14. God wants to perfect our conscience. How important is our conscience? It is imperative! Our conscience is not the same as our spirit-man, though it represents who we are in the spirit. Our conscience is like the doorkeeper, who opens and closes the door leading to the Most Holy Place. With an evil conscience, the doorkeeper disallows us access into the Holy of Holies in that we are aware of sin, just as Adam and Eve became aware of sin, God asking them, “Who told you that you were naked?” (Gen 3-11). The sacrifice of Jesus Christ destroyed sin by forgiving us, which gave us power to overcome sin, and between these two, forgiveness and the power to overcome, we are no longer conscious of the sin. The relationship between God and us has been mended through the blood of His cross. Now we have a clear conscience, whereas the gifts and sacrifices of old covenant had no power to perfect the worshiper’s conscience in that those sacrifices merely symbolized the real sacrifice that was yet to come in Christ.

(252j) Trinity >> You shall put no other gods before Me >> Worship God >> Worship God by your lifestyle -- This verse goes with verse 1

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10&11 since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation. 11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation;

Heb 9-10

(103a) Thy kingdom come >> Purifying process >> God’s cleansing power >> Cleansing blood of Jesus -- This verse goes with verses 13&14

(206g) Salvation >> God makes promises on His terms >> Conditions to promises >> Conditions to the gifts of God >> Conditions to the promises of God -- This verse goes with verses 16-18

Heb 9,11-18

(35a) Gift of God >> God is willing to Give >> He is generous with the flesh of His Son

Heb 9,11-15

(29j) Gift of God >> God is on our side >> God identifies with us >> He is our advocate -- These verses go with verses 24-28. Jesus appeared in the presence of God for us. He didn’t do what the high priest did so many times past, offered the annual sacrifice and entered an earthly temple and presented himself to God as an authorized symbol of what was to come. Instead, Jesus went directly to heaven and presented Himself to His Father, where salvation was made complete, and by that reception the Father also promised to receive whomever will believe in Jesus for eternal life, promising also to usher us into his presence as the spiritual offspring of Christ. All these things were predestined before the foundation of the world; we too have been predestined to become the children of God, so that ultimately when Jesus came and presented Himself to His Father, He did it for our benefit, that we should follow in His footsteps. Jesus didn’t need acceptance from the Father, since that acceptance was already extended to Him at His resurrection, meaning that had Jesus not found favor with His Father, He would not have been raised from the dead. However, it was inevitable that Jesus would never commit a single sin, but find favor with God; it was inevitable that the Father and Son would rejoin in heaven, the point in which salvation was made complete. Although it was completed on the cross with Jesus crying, “It is finished” (Jn 19-30), yet being a practical God and always wanting victory and success fulfilled in every detail, considered it complete when He received back His Son safe and sound. God demands absolute proof in everything He does and for this reason He expects us to prove our victory of faith by manifesting it in the natural realm through obedience. The resurrection was proof that Jesus was perfect before God, and His acceptance before the Father was the authoritative testimony of His perfection.

(30h) Gift of God >> God is our Father >> God favors you by His grace >> He favors you through His son

(41g) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Be like Jesus >> God’s righteousness is His doing -- These verses go with verses 24-26

(83g) Thy kingdom come >> Intercession >> Jesus intercedes for us >> Jesus is our Great High Priest – Jesus may have visited many a synagogue, which is similar in concept to a church, but He never entered the old covenant tabernacle, where they performed the divine worship. This fact alone is proof that Jesus did not act as a priest when He walked the earth in the flesh. Instead, during His 33 years He was preparing the sacrifice. When He sacrificed His flesh on the cross, even then He was not acting as a priest. Actually, His murderers were more priest-like than Jesus, though they were Roman soldiers, in that they were the ones offering the sacrifice, while He played the part of the sacrificial lamb for the sins of the whole world. Once Jesus was resurrected and ascended to the Father, this is when Jesus began filling the role of a Priest, beginning when He presented Himself to His heavenly Father as a man who once walked the earth in a sinful body yet without committing a single sin. The Father raised Him from the dead, which was tantamount to accepting the sacrifice of His crucifixion and with that, accepted His role as Great High Priest for the sake of all mankind at the right-hand of the Father. The purpose of the sacrifice was to make it possible for the high priest to intercede for the people, meaning that the role of intercessor was more important than the sacrifice. Jesus' heavenly role as intercessor consists of delegating and managing the Holy Spirit among those who would believe in Him.  

(133f) Temple >> Your body is the temple of God >> Holiness >> The body of Christ is holy >> God has made His people holy -- These verses go with verses 24-28

(241i) Kingdom of God >> Opposition toward the Kingdom of God >> Persecuting the kingdom >> Persecution to the death >> Kill Jesus >> Kill Jesus by the predetermined plan of God >> The apostles taught about His death – It is ironic that the high priest didn’t understand that what he was doing was merely simulating the real sacrifice that Christ would make at His appointed time. What is more ironic is that the high priest was mostly responsible for hanging Jesus on the cross in the first place. Caiaphas was the ringleader of the whole kangaroo court, who had Jesus arrested and appeared before Pilate who condemned him to death as a man who deserved to die for reasons they only could understand. Jesus was hanged on the cross the day before Passover, and then Caiaphas led the annual sacrifice, and apparently never put two and two together.

Heb 9,11-14

(45e) Judgment >> Judgment on believer’s sin >> Through His Son >> On the cross -- These verses go with verses 25&26

(119l) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Curse of God is broken >> Curse of the law is broken -- These verses go with verses 24-26

(120g) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Forgiveness >> Forgiveness is an act of mercy >> We have forgiveness through the blood of Christ -- These verses go with verse 22. God allowed centuries of divinely sanctioned old covenant worship to cleanse the people from dead works, so when they performed the sacrifices exactly as they were commanded, God accepted it as a form of righteousness that He would use to forgive previously committed sins. However, those sacrifices did not contain the actual mechanism of forgiveness. Rather, God forgave old covenant worshipers through the blood of Christ, just as He does for us, only proactively, and their sacrifices stood as placeholders for a time when the real sacrifice would be made that became the active ingredient in God’s forgiveness.

Heb 9-11

(140c) Temple >> Temple made without hands >> Hiding place >> House where you live with Jesus

(217c) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> God’s will over man >> God Is Independent Of His Creation >> No one can walk in His glory without His consent -- This verse goes with verse 24

(237h) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Transferring the kingdom >> The Church is transferred to the kingdom >> The ascension >> Jesus’ ascension -- This verse goes with verse 24. This is in reference to Jesus ascending back to heaven and being received by His Father. Jesus wasn’t worried if He would be received, since He had already been raised from the dead. Jesus ascended with the experience of all man’s sin being heaped upon Him, and He ascended back to the Father with the experience of being cast into hell as though a sinner, ascended with the experience of all these sins dropping off Him because none of them were His own. He ascended as the savior of the world after dying without sin and breaking the law of sin and death. He ascended to the Father’s right-hand and has been there ever since, the place of His new ministry as high priest in heaven, who intercedes for His people from the throne of God.

KJV    NAS  /  Navigation Bar

12-14 and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Heb 9-12

(172j) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Catholicism >> Scripture that contradicts the Catholic faith >> Jesus never to die again >> Because His death was sufficient -- This verse goes with verses 25,26

Heb 9,13-28

(205f) Salvation >> Salvation is based on God’s promises >> New covenant >> The new covenant in His blood

Heb 9-13,14

(103a) Thy kingdom come >> Purifying process >> God’s cleansing power >> Cleansing blood of Jesus -- These verses go with verses 19-23

(154j) Witness >> Validity of the believer >> Witness of the believer >> Conscience >> Having a good conscience >> God is my conscience -- These verses go with verse 9. The cross has the power to cleans our conscience, suggesting that our conscience is the heart of the matter. Sin defiles our conscience and keeps us from serving God, and it is the blood of Jesus that cleanses us from dead works. Conscience refers to sin that has already been committed, while dead works refer to the things we have done that do not pertain to God’s interests. Whether sin or not, God wants us completely devoted to Him so that everything we say and do pertains in some way to promoting His Kingdom, “for whatever is not from faith is sin” (Rom 14-23). Whether we are committing sin or not doesn’t matter if our heart is not trained on Him, for we are called to use every fabric of our being to glorify God, as it says in Psalm 69-9, “Zeal for your house has consumed me.” Therefore, every aspect of our lives that is not committed to God including outright sin is considered dead works, a useless waste of time and energy.

(191g) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Result of putting off the old man >> Set apart >> God sanctifies us by His doing

Heb 9-14,15

(244f) Kingdom of God >> The eternal kingdom >> Eternal life of the trinity >> Spirit is the source of eternal life

Heb 9-14

(14f) Servant >> Ministry of helps >> Helpers obey Christ

(44j) Judgment >> Transformed >> Fulfill your ministry according to the will of God

(111e) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Spirit and the word >> Father and the Son – Jesus Christ, who is the word of God, offered His blood through the eternal Spirit. We have the Spirit and the Word working together as one to purchase the redemption of man in the eyes of the Father. All three members of the trinity are at work in everything God does, Jesus obeyed the Father, the Holy Spirit endorsed His sacrifice and the Father received Him back in heaven and invited Him to sit at His right hand.

(161j) Works of the devil >> Essential characteristics >> Satan’s attitude determines our direction >> Carried Away >> Condemnation >> Condemnation without basis of sin

(171b) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> Outward appearance >> Vanity >> Vain effort >> Vain attempt to pursue God

(173l) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Man’s Religion >> Deeds that are not initiated by God >> Deeds that are not initiated by the Holy Spirit – The term “dead works” is the new covenant definition of the word sin. This definition is far more encompassing in that it involves the things we do wrong, plus includes the things we do that are not initiated by the Holy Spirit. In other words, the things we do that God might consider dead may not necessarily match the description of an old covenant law, but simply be something we have done outside of faith. This in not to imply that all our works must be inspired by the Holy Spirit; that expectation would create more anxiety than fruit. Any point that we are unsure we are living in God's will, even though we may not be sinning against the law, neither are we bearing the fruit of faith. We may keep our hands busy doing good works, but if we are not walking in the Spirit, even our good works are dead, for “everything that does not come from faith is sin” (Rom 14:23).

(255g) Trinity >> Father, Son and Holy Spirit >> The process of imparting the substance of God >> Father discloses the Spirit by the word

KJV    NAS  /  Navigation Bar

15-21 For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. 16 For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. 17 For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives. 18 Therefore even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood. 19 For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the Law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 20 saying, "THIS IS THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT WHICH GOD COMMANDED YOU." 21 And in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood.

Heb 9,15-22

(26c) Sin >> Consequences of sin >> Death is separation from God’s presence -- These verses go with verse 27. Many people don’t understand why God required blood in the rite of forgiveness; it was His plan from the beginning of creation to experience death and sin for Himself on a cross. He planned to create man and allow him to sin for the opportunity to experience for Himself the repercussions of rebellion against His own will and experience death and sin without actually having to commit sin, thus retaining His perfection. There is no aspect of life or death that God has not visited. It is very important for Him to experience everything, because if He didn’t, how could He be God? Up to then He never experienced sin or death; He had to do this, otherwise His creation would forever hold it over Him claiming, ‘I experienced something You haven’t.’ He is now above His creation in all things so that no man can brag that he is better than God in any way. Not only did God experience sin, He experienced them all. We have only experienced our own sin and those who have sin against us, but Jesus experienced the sins of every family on earth that has ever lived throughout all time. He must own and possess all things, and if He doesn’t, then He doesn’t feel much like God. Now He is greater than He has ever been, because of the cross.

(26i) Sin >> Consequences of sin >> Death of Christ -- These verses go with verse 27. This covenant is in reference to an inheritance that in case God should die, He is leaving us with all His possessions. He owns the entire universe, and He owns the earth and everything on it, so when we enter this covenant with God, it would behoove us to understand that He has already died. Therefore we who belong to Jesus, who have made a covenant with Him through His blood, have inherited His entire creation. Paul speaks about this in Gal 4,1-7, about a son who was born a prince in a kingdom, though he could not take possession of it immediately because of his youth, but had to mature into it. When he grows to become a man, then he can rule the kingdom. Jesus has died and we have inherited His kingdom; He has also risen from the dead, but that does not negate the covenant; what it means is that we will reign with Him at the proper time.

Heb 9,15-18

(216j) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> God’s will over man >> God Is Independent Of His Creation >> You cannot control God’s desire for you >> man is not in control of his own destiny -- These verses go with verses 26-28

Heb 9,15-17

(36g) Gift >> God opens His home to us >> Inheritance >> We are heirs through faith – The covenant that God made with Abraham and Moses, and the covenant He made with mankind through the blood of Christ resembles a will. Essentially, God willed His creation to mankind so that if He were ever to die we would receive the inheritance. That is, we would come into ownership with the creation. The resurrection of Christ did nothing to invalidate the will. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and those of us who believe in Him are His brothers and sisters, hence sons and daughters to the Father. God has made a covenant with us. He has put us in right standing with Himself, and raised us to the level of His Son, so that we have come into possession of all things through Him, who in turn has come into possession with us. We, through the death of Jesus Christ, have inherited everything! The Father raised His Son from the dead and gave Him place just under His authority, and then raised us up with Him and seated us in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph 2-6). There are two things that must take place before anyone can benefit from an inheritance: a will must be drawn naming the beneficiaries, and the man who wrote it must have died. The will is made for the occasion of death who owned the estate to determine who of his survivors receives his possessions. The old covenant will was the journal that Moses was writing that has become our Old Testament, but the new covenant God has written in His own blood, and the beneficiaries are named in the Lamb’s Book of Life. It says that Moses took the blood of the calves and goats and sprinkled the book itself and all the people saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you.” Moses did this only once, inaugurating the old covenant and acting as a high priest to demonstrate to Aaron how temple worship should be performed, who afterward took over the ministry as Israel’s first high priest.

Heb 9-15

(83h) Thy kingdom come >> Jesus intercedes for us >> He represents us before the Father -- This verse goes with verse 24

(91g) Thy kingdom come >> The called >> Walking along the narrow way >> Responding to the call of God

(173b) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Catholicism >> Scripture that contradicts the Catholic faith >> Relationship between Jesus and His mother >> Jesus is our mediator, not Mary (or the apostles)

Heb 9,16-18

(206g) Salvation >> God makes promises on His terms >> Conditions to promises >> Conditions to the gifts of God >> Conditions to the promises of God -- These verses go with verse 22

Heb 9-16

(253ed) Trinity >> Relationship between Father and Son >> Jesus is equal with the Father >> Jesus has all the internal qualities of the Father >> Jesus is God of the Old Testament

Heb 9-17

(40d) Judgment >> Jesus judges the world through His own death -- This verse goes with verse 27

(61d) Paradox >> Two implied meanings >> Outer tabernacle—Jesus’ body / Our bodies -- This verse goes with verse 27

(68c) Authority >> Jesus Delegates Authority To Execute Judgment >> Against Satan -- This verse goes with verse 27

Heb 9,19-23

(103a) Thy kingdom come >> Purifying process >> God’s cleansing power >> Cleansing blood of Jesus -- These verses go with verse 10. Jesus didn’t go to heaven with a basin full of His own blood and sprinkle it over everything. For one thing, nothing is allowed in heaven from the natural realm, for the things of this realm are vulgar to God. Heaven has no need to be cleansed, so what are these heavenly things to which he is referring? They are the people of God who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ. We have been cleansed with things better than the blood of bulls and the ashes of a heifer.

KJV    NAS  /  Navigation Bar

22&23 And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. 23 Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

Heb 9-22

(11e) Servant >> Jesus is our standard

(120g) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Forgiveness >> Forgiveness is an act of mercy >> We have forgiveness through the blood of Christ -- This verse goes with verses 11-14. People have asked a valid question, ‘Why did Jesus need to die on the cross.’ We could tell them that, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness,” but then we would need to answer why that statement was true. Why does there need to be the shedding of blood for the forgiveness of sin? God is a different sort of person than the rest of us. He operates exclusively through His word so much that His word literally defines Him. He treats His word as though it were law, such as the laws of the physical universe that He spoke into existence through His word. Later, we discovered the laws of gravity and all the other laws through science. Everything God speaks becomes unbreakable, and God will not transgress His own word. That is, “it is impossible for God to lie” (Heb 6-18). Since he previously said to Adam in Gen 2:17, “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die,” sin now causes death, and this statement cannot be overturned. God has an aversion to sin as an eternal truth. It is a condition of creation that existed prior to the creation of Adam, because God is perfect and nothing evil can stand in His presence, which defines sin as that which exists outside His presence. Since God is everywhere, there is no place for sin to exist in God’s creation. For this reason there are different realms, such as the physical realm, where sin is allowed to exist for now, and the spiritual realm that God inhabits apart from sin. If the wages of sin is death, then there must be a death imposed to counteract that law. If the people have sinned and it caused them to die, then there must be a man who comes without sin and dies for the people to break the law of sin and reverse the power of death in their lives. So, it wasn’t just that someone should die, but that someone without sin should die. God could not have sent an angel to die for the sins of mankind, because God’s greatest, most powerful angel wouldn’t have had the stamina to resist temptation for 33 years in the flesh without sin. Only God could do this. Without question, Jesus’ greatest miracle was that He lived a sinless life for 33 years, so when Jesus died on the cross, He broke the power of sin, which represented the veil of the temple that tore in half from top to bottom (Mat 27-51), the veil that partitioned the holy place from the Most Holy Place representing sin, which was the cause of separation from God. He broke the power of sin in those who would believe in Him for eternal life (Eph 2,14-16). Without shedding the blood of Christ, there would be no forgiveness.

(206g) Salvation >> God makes promises on His terms >> Conditions to promises >> Conditions to the gifts of God >> Conditions to the promises of God -- This verse goes with verse 1

Heb 9,23-26

(140f) Temple >> Temple made without hands >> Hiding place >> God builds your spirit with His own hands

Heb 9,23-27

(134e) Temple >> Your body is the temple of God >> Composition of our bodies is from the earth >> We are physically excluded from the spiritual realm

Heb 9-23,24

(224h) Kingdom of God >> Illustrating the kingdom >> Description of heaven >> The joyful kingdom >> Heaven is better than earth – Earthly things were cleansed with copies of heavenly things as earth is a replica of heaven. Moreover, the origin of all life dwells in heaven even as our experiences in this life are mere copies of our future experiences in heaven. We think our earthly lives are real, but wait till we get to heaven and we will discover a reality that far exceeds this one. It says that the heavenly things needed to be cleansed; that sounds strange, since we could probably all agree that if heaven is a perfect paradise, why does it need to be cleansed? Heb 2-10 says, "It was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings." In this case "perfected" bears the same meaning as cleansed. Hence, in the process of cleansing us, God through Christ cleansed Himself from the absence of personal experience of man's suffering as a sinner, not that Jesus ever sinned, but that He suffered as a mortal man throughout his life and then died, and the Father heaped the sins of all mankind upon Him at his death and then He went to hell and deposited it there. It is written in Eph 4,8-10, "Therefore it says, "When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men. (Now this expression, 'He ascended,' what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.)"

Heb 9-23

(253ja) Trinity >> Relationship between Father and Son >> Jesus is subject to the Father >> Jesus is under the authority of the Father >> Jesus did His Father's will – The writer of Hebrews is making a distinction between the copies of the things in the heavens and the heavenly things themselves. Had Jesus gone to heaven and stood in the presence of His Father with a basin full of goat’s blood, His sacrifice would have been rejected. The blood of animals was acceptable to God to cleanse the earthly sanctuary, only because God commanded Israel to do it, and that is what the earthly and the heavenly sacrifices have in common; God also commanded Jesus to sacrifice His body on the alter of obedience. Jesus stood before His Father with His own blood to atone for the sins of the people and God accepted it, because the Father ordained it. This was His plan from the beginning; Jesus was simply acting in obedience. The Father accepted His blood sacrifice for three reasons: Jesus was God in human flesh; He was without sin, and the Father ordained the cross as the ultimate sacrifice that would atone for the sins of the people. It is like a college professor who requires a ten-page paper, making stipulations: its due date, the subject matter, the font type being Times New Roman, the letter-size being 12-point and that the paper should be double-spaced. Nevertheless, a student hands in a fifteen-page paper two weeks early regarding a different subject matter in Arial font, 14 letter-size and 1½-spaced, and the student expected the professor to be pleased with it. It may have looked good and read well, but it wasn’t what the professor wanted, and so it was rejected, because the student didn’t follow directions. Father and Son are in perfect agreement with each other about everything. Jesus was the Son of God and now we are the sons and daughters of God, and so the same rules apply to us. Doing His will is what gains God’s favor. This is how we bless our neighbor, our immediate family members and our brothers and sisters in the faith, and it is how the Kingdom of God grows both spiritually and numerically. However, we think we have better ideas than God, and so we implement them and forget what God has commanded us. He has a plan and purpose for our lives, a predestined path for our feet, a set of good works prepared for us that we should walk in them, but we think we could please God better if we did our will instead of His will, and this is how most Christians live. They try to please God doing their own thing, which always appeals to their flesh, and then we ask God to bless it. Meanwhile, God’s thing is already blessed, and if we did it we would be blessed. The reason the Kingdom of God is so stagnant these days is that people think they have better ideas than God.

KJV    NAS  /  Navigation Bar

24 For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; 

Heb 9,24-28

(29j) Gift of God >> God is on our side >> God identifies with us >> He is our advocate -- These verses go with verses 11-15

(133f) Temple >> Your body is the temple of God >> Holiness >> The body of Christ is holy >> God has made His people holy -- These verses go with verses 11-15

(172i) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Catholicism >> Scripture that contradicts the Catholic faith >> Jesus never to die again >> Because He conquered death – “Otherwise he would have needed to suffer often.” This is what the Catholics believe is happening every time they take communion (Eucharist), calling it transubstantiation. It is exactly what Satan would like them to believe. He must have imagined Jesus suffering every time people took communion, and thought it would be a good doctrine to teach his parishioners, and now it is well-entrenched in the Catholic Church. Those who believe Jesus must die every time they take communion will die themselves one day and be judged for believing such lies, and God will send them to hell where they will die an eternal death, just how they envisioned Jesus dying for them. It says, “Once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” How many times was that? Once! For anyone to say that the body and blood of Christ magically appears at the blessing of the priest is sorcery. If the offering of Jesus once was enough, then why do the Catholics continue this blasphemous heresy? The Catholic manner of communion is more like the old covenant high priest who entered the Most Holy Place year by year with blood not his own, only the Catholics do it weekly. Before Christ, Jewish temple worship was valid, but the Catholics offer communion after Christ has shed His blood, thus treating His sacrifice with contempt. The fact that they continually offer the body and blood of Christ suggests that His sacrifice was insufficient, that it must be supplemented with their metamorphic doctrine. In the end they admit they don’t understand it themselves, which they use as further proof of its validity. It is a fabrication of their own vile imaginations as a way of holding people in bondage to the clergy. A priest must bless the communion, and if a layman blesses it, their little magic trick doesn’t work. It becomes necessary for a priest to be present, which makes the Catholic Church beholden to the priesthood for its spiritual well-being. In contrast, the Bible teaches that we are obligated only to Christ for our salvation and spiritual well-being.

(227f) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> God working in you >> Dependence on Jesus >> Depending on Jesus to have compassion >> Depending on Jesus to receive us -- These verses go with verses 8-15

Heb 9,24-26

(41g) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Be like Jesus >> God’s righteousness is His doing -- These verses go with verses 11-15

(119l) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Curse of God is broken >> Curse of the law is broken -- These verses go with verses 11-14

(132c) Temple >> Your body is the temple of God >> Holy Spirit is in God’s people >> Spirit of God in the spirit of man >> Spirit gives access to the Father through Christ -- These verses go with verses 2&3

Heb 9-24

(44a) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Complete >> It is finished >> Fulfill God’s will – God likes things completed. Paul reiterated this numerous times, and so did James who said, “that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (Jm 1-4). He wants our righteousness to be complete, to finish what He has called us to do. He doesn’t like things undone. It is His nature to finish whatever He started, and He wants us to do the same. The Father did not recognize the blood sacrifice to be complete until the entire ceremony was completed. Consequently, there are varying levels of completion in the covenant of forgiveness. We could say that it was finished in the Garden of Gethsemane in the sense that He completely resolved in His heart that He would go to the cross. He already knew He would go, but the garden represents the difference between a plan on paper and a plan in progress. We can invent an award winning design, but until it is tested it means absolutely nothing. When Jesus made the sacrifice of Himself, it was another level of completion. Then He rose from the dead, which was another level, each completed phase being added on top of the other, until He reached heaven and sat down at the right-hand of the power of God, completing our salvation.

(67c) Authority >> Jesus at the right hand of the father >> He is interceding for us there – This is the principle verse of the entire book of Hebrews, and Hebrews is the principle book of the entire Bible, suggesting that this is the most important topic and verse of all Scripture. The writer of Hebrews was working up to this one verse, and now he has finally said it, and we cannot walk past verses of this grandeur without allowing them to have the kind of influence in our lives that they deserve. This verse is depicting the functional element of our salvation. Although Jesus said, “It is finished” on the cross, yet there was one more thing that needed to be fulfilled, which was that the Father should receive His Son in heaven. This event finalized our salvation and was so sure a thing that the whole future creation depended on it. Imagine Jesus saying goodbye to His disciples on Mount Olivet and then realizing that His feet were not lifting off the ground; this is an impossible scenario, since He had already been raised from the dead, depicting the Father’s pre-approval of His Son.

(83h) Thy kingdom come >> Jesus intercedes for us >> He represents us before the Father -- This verse goes with verse 15. This verse proves that the old covenant Jewish form of temple worship merely symbolized the act of Christ appearing in the presence of God for us. The essence of His ministry was when He ascended to heaven and was accepted by the Father, representing us who will one day follow Him into heaven to meet the Father with Jesus seated next to Him advocating for us. 

(104f) Thy kingdom come >> Pure in heart shall see God >> Shall see the Father >> Being in the presence of God – Jesus went to heaven and made propitiation for the sins of the people, suggesting that the cross didn’t accomplish this. That is, He didn’t make propitiation for sin on the day of his crucifixion. The sacrifice was made, but the blood had not yet been presented in the Most Holy Place, until Jesus ascended to heaven. The shedding of His blood on the cross did not fully satisfy the Father, because His purpose in Christ was not complete. When Jesus said, “It is finished,” He probably meant a lot of things, the main thing being His suffering was finished, His purpose for coming to this world and living as a man in the weakness of sinful flesh. Repossessing the keys of the kingdom and taking away Satan’s authority as god of this world was finished to those who obey Christ, but the covenant that would cleanse man from his sin was not complete, until His ascension when He presented Himself to the Father on our behalf. The moment He sat on His Father’s glorious throne the plan of redemption for mankind was complete. It must have been an uproarious moment in heaven.

(217c) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> God’s will over man >> God Is Independent Of His Creation >> No one can walk in His glory without His consent -- This verse goes with verse 11

(231j) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> Body of Christ is the organism of God’s kingdom >> We are the body of His kingdom -- This verse goes with verse 2

(237h) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Transferring the kingdom >> The Church is transferred to the kingdom >> The ascension >> Jesus’ ascension -- This verse goes with verse 11

25-28 nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own. 26 Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, 28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.

(45e) Judgment >> Judge believer’s sin >> Through His Son >> On the cross -- These verses go with verses 11-14

(172h) Jesus never to die again (Key verse)

(172j) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Catholicism >> Scripture that contradicts the Catholic faith >> Jesus never to die again >> Because His death was sufficient -- These verses go with verse 12. Jesus paid for the sins of the world with His own blood, and He subsequently ascended to the Father and received by Him, and this whole event happened just once; that is the key word; it happened only “once”, not zero times or two times or more. The number (1) is the right answer in some math problems, such as 3-2=1; no other number fits here. For people to create a doctrine that centers around taking communion and having the wine and the bread mystically transform into the literal body and blood of Christ (as they affirm) is blasphemous. It is saying that the work of the cross was insufficient, that there is something left we must do, that if we don’t take communion by an ordained priest officiating and blessing the holy sacrament, then our salvation is incomplete. Some think they can lose their salvation if they don’t take communion on a regular basis, like filling a car with gas. It takes the blessing of the priest in order for this mystical change to transpire, making the people beholden to the religious establishment, so they must come to church, and while they are there to tithe their money. That is the real purpose for this doctrine.

Heb 9,26-28

(216j) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> God’s will over man >> God Is Independent Of His Creation >> You cannot control God’s desire for you >> man is not in control of his own destiny -- These verses go with verses 15-18

Heb 9-26

(39g) Judgment >> Jesus defeated death >> Jesus’ victory was through His flesh

(214f) Sovereignty >> God controls time >> God’s timing >> Dispensation of God’s revelations >> Dispensation of Christ -- This verse goes with verses 9-11

Heb 9-27,28 

(38a) Judgment >> Blood of Jesus >> God judged the devil through the blood of His son

KJV    NAS  /  Navigation Bar

Heb 9-27

(26c) Sin >> Consequences of sin >> Death is separation from God’s presence -- This verse goes with verses 15-27

(26i) Sin >> Consequences of sin >> Death of Christ -- This verse goes with verses 15-22

(38d) Judgment >> Jesus defeated death (Satan) >> Resurrection brings about judgment – If a person stood before Christ and had the arrogance to ask Him, ‘Who gives You the right to judge me?’ Jesus might say, ‘My Father does, who raised Me from the dead.’ The man might continue, ‘Yeah well, He raised Me too,’ and Jesus would say, ‘But He raised Me first to inaugurate a way to raise you, so that your resurrection is hinged on Mine.’ The cross of Christ created a way for God to raise both the righteous and the wicked from the dead for the purpose of eternal life or eternal judgment. Prior to the resurrection, there was no established way for God to judge the world, because He had no benchmark outside the law. Therefore, the resurrection is the center of God’s judgment for both the righteous and the wicked. He could have judged the world for violating the Law of Moses, but now it is improbable that He will even mention the Law in judgment, because there is a violation that supercedes breaking the law, that of rejecting Jesus Christ. This suggests that omission of righteousness is more evil than commission of sin, in that one defines the other; that is, we sin in place of doing His will. God has fixed a day called the Great White Throne Judgment (Rev 20,11-15) when He intends to judge the world. It will be the day the wicked will meet Jesus, who will explain to them that they deserve hell for rejecting Him. The Son of God, the only perfect and holy man who ever lived, died for their sins and they rejected Him, wanting instead to be God. This one omission of righteousness was the cause of all their sin. God has ordained faith in Christ as the act of righteousness that clears us of all transgression. Our sin is forgiven and our righteousness is sanctified through faith in Him. The sinner may hand Christ a list of righteous deeds he has done, but it will not be acceptable outside of faith in the Son of God.

(40d) Judgment >> Jesus judges the world through His own death -- This verse goes with verse 17

(48c) Judgment >> God judges the world >> Eternal judgment of the resurrection – This popular verse depicts the principle that after we die we enter into judgment with God, but how is the writer of Hebrews using it in this context? In as much as it was appointed for Jesus to die once, after this comes judgment. After Jesus died it says He went to hell to make proclamation to those who died in their sin. He testified to them that they sacrificed eternal life for eternal darkness and damnation, just to have their own way (Eph 4-9,10; 1Pet 3,18-20). Then He returned and was resurrected. This verse indicates that we will die too, and as God judged His Son, so He will judge us. There is a believer’s judgment, which many Christians are unaware (2Cor 5-10). The judgment of the believer will be different from the judgment of the sinner in that God will add condemnation to the sinner and cast him from His presence, but in the believer's judgment, He will compare the life He had prepared for them with the life they actually lived and take away rewards.

(58m) Paradox >> Two implied meanings >> Literally die and partake of the first resurrection / Die to self to receive the anointing – After we die, then comes judgment, and the result of that is the resurrection. Taken literally, after the body breaths its last the soul faces God’s judgment, but spiritually interpreting this is to go through a similar process, but instead of our bodies literally dying, we die to our evil desires, our natural fleshly impulses, things that bring shame to ourselves and to Christ. When we physically die as Christians, we face the believer’s judgment, which will determine the luminosity of our bodies at the resurrection. Similarly, when we judge the carnal temptations of our flesh and abstain through the power of the Spirit, we will experience a type of resurrection in the form of an anointing that has the power to establish the Kingdom of God on the earth. We display the anointing as Jesus said in Mat 5-16, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Our speech changes into the utterances of God, and our countenance changes, “A man's wisdom illumines him and causes his stern face to beam” (Ecclesiastes 8-1). The anointing is a manifestation of the work that God is doing in our hearts.

(61d) Paradox >> Two implied meanings >> Outer tabernacle—Jesus’ body / Our bodies -- This verse goes with verse 8

(68c) Authority >> Jesus Delegates Authority To Execute Judgment >> Against Satan -- This verse goes with verse 17

(69i) Authority >> Righteous judgment (Outcome of Discernment) >> Judging the flesh by the Spirit

(72a) Authority >> Ordained by God >> We are ordained to walk in His authority

(187e) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Die to the flesh >> Dying to receive the glory of God >> Die to self to be set free – At face value this verse is talking about the natural death of man and his subsequent judgment from God. However, there is another interpretation that is derived from a principle of Scripture, something Jesus mentioned, also Peter, Paul and John, not just in a couple verses but extensively, called Dying to Self. In fact, an entire chapter of this website is devoted to this major subject. This is not to minimize what the writer of Hebrews was saying, but to bring about clarity of a principle that is far less known. Jesus said in Jn 12-24,25, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.” If the grain of wheat is eaten, the only advantage is the nutrients it offers, but if we plant the grain in soil that has been prepared, it grows a stalk with many grains. The seed must first die as Paul also indicated in 2Cor 4,10-12, “Always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you.”

(240f) Kingdom of God >> Opposition toward the Kingdom of God >> Hindering the kingdom >> Natural disadvantage >> Natural disadvantage of the flesh >> Limitations of the flesh

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Heb 9-28

(24e) Sin >> Poverty (Forms of fear) >> Waiting creates anxiety

(84c) Thy kingdom come >> Be on the alert >> Be faithful until Jesus comes >> Invite the return of Christ

(237a) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Transferring the kingdom >> The Church is transferred to the kingdom >> The rapture >> Appearance of Christ – This verse gives reference to the Rapture, our blessed hope. Unbelievers throughout the generations have mocked Christians saying, “Where is this `coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation” (2 Peter 3-4), yet we have more reason to believe that Jesus will come in our lifetime than any generation before us. Unbelievers think we are stupid for hoping in the Rapture, but we are not fools for believing in our blessed hope. God doesn’t think we are stupid, for he never gave a reason to any generation that He wouldn’t return in their lifetime. God has given this blessed hope to keep us alert, and our lamps trimmed, for He could return at any time and we don’t want to be caught unaware. Everyone who has ever lived and believed in Jesus has hoped for the Rapture, and though He has not come for anyone, yet no one has believed in a false hope, for when God makes a promise, He has a plan and a reason for his promise, until the time comes for its fulfillment. He wants every generation dressed in readiness at a moment’s notice, otherwise mankind would go astray in his heart, just as Jesus promised man will do in the generation of His return. For Jesus to say, “…the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him” (Matt 24:44), is to say He is coming in the generation that has quit waiting for Him, and the generation that quits waiting has quit believing in Him. Therefore, if you want Jesus to come in your lifetime, quit believing in Him, but then you will not be a beneficiary of His return. Ironically, the Church’s faith has staved off His return, as Jesus said to doubting Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen, yet have believe” (Jn 20-29). Every generation since Christ has been given God’s seal of approval on their faith by His absence, and the generation that does not have this seal will be blessed by His appearing. It is a blessed generation indeed who sees His return, though many will be caught off-guard in a faithless generation, but those who are faithful will welcome their Lord back to this planet that needs God like no other time in history.

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