9:13
The blood of goats and bulls was not totally ineffective, it did achieve an outward cleansing. Given that they only had an earthly tabernacle, an outward cleansing was all that was needed. But God’s ambitions were much greater than that. His plan was for man to be in true fellowship with Him. For that to happen a much greater and deeper cleansing was needed, and only the blood of Christ can achieve that.
9:14
So the Law was effective in as far as it went, in as far as it was meant to go. But it was pointing forward to something much greater. And the thing that it was pointing forwards to would therefore achieve so much more. The “eternal Spirit” refers to the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit was at work in the Cross. So Christ offered Himself up as a totally unblemished sacrifice. The Levitical laws are insistent that the sacrifices had to be animals without blemish. The blood of Christ cleanses “our consciences from acts that lead to death” (dead works). We have all committed “acts that lead to death”, i.e. we have sinned, but we are completely cleansed by the blood of Jesus. And this is not done so that we remain passive, but so that we can serve the living God!
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