Today’s Reading: Hebrews 9-11, Proverbs 31
Guest Blogger: Andy Milligan
Hebrews 9:16-17
Now when someone leaves a will, it is necessary to prove that the person who made it is dead. The will goes into effect only after the person’s death. While the person who made it is still alive, the will cannot be put into effect. (NLT)
The majority of Hebrews 9 is spent discussing the superiority of Jesus’ ministry as well as the need for His ultimate sacrifice. In the middle of all that are these two verses that carry an amazing impact on the underpinnings of our faith. I’m going to do a bit of Bible study on you, but stay with me.
Think for a second at what has taken place prior to Jesus’ death and what will take place after. First, the old covenant had long been in effect among the children of Israel. Paul (the most likely author of Hebrews) explains fully that blood was a required part of the various sacrifices to atone for sin in the old covenant. The problem was that no amount of ritual or blood could satisfy the judgment of sin for very long, which was why it had to be repeated annually. But keep in mind that a promise or covenant, although we now refer to it as old, had been made.
Paul points out in verses 16 and 17 here that the promise is like a will that cannot go into effect until the will maker dies. In other words, not only did Christ’s death atone for sin once and for all with the shedding of His blood, it fulfilled the promise that had been made starting with Abraham on through to Moses. Not only that, His death ushered in a new covenant, which the Word tells us was established on better promises. The really amazing thing is that Jesus was both will maker and testator. In other words, He established the will by making the promise and then sacrificed Himself once and for all to put the will into effect.
People sometimes wonder why Jesus had to die to accomplish these things. He’s God. Why couldn’t he just decree what he wanted? The fact is the ONLY way to fulfill what God had established, including judgment, was for Jesus to die. There was no other option. Any other action on His part would have been against Himself, which He cannot do.
We know that much of the Old Testament exists as types and shadows, and this example is no different. We were given a type of what was to come with Jesus’ death on the cross through Moses leadership of the children of Israel. Think about it. The “mediator” of the old covenant was Moses, and it was not until after his death that the children of Israel entered their inheritance, the Promised Land. We often only remember that Moses was not allowed to go into the land because of his sin, but keep in mind that Moses says in Deuteronomy 3:26 that it was because of the children of Israel that the Lord was angry with him. In other words, it was Moses’ position as the head of the children of Israel that is key here. His responsibility for them was what, at least in part, required that he die before they could receive their inheritance.
It is an incredible type of what was to come with Jesus. In fact, it highlights how important it is to our faith that Jesus is considered the head of the church. This alone was grounds for God to cast the sin of the body onto the head. (The Old Testament is full of examples of ceremonies involving or centering on the head.) But, unlike Moses, the opposite is also true. Christ’s obedience of the law and sacrifice on the cross has been counted to us, the body, just as if we had performed to the standard of the law ourselves. What we deserved was charged to Him and the inheritance of the only Son has been given to us freely as if we were sons all along.
“As the “Surety” of the covenant, Christ undertook to discharge all the debts of those who are made partakers of its benefits. As our Surety He also merited and procured from God the Holy Spirit, to communicate to His people all needful supplies of grace to make them new creatures, which enables them to yield obedience to God from a new principle of spiritual life, and that faithfully unto the end.”
The fact that God pre-ordained this to happen (Romans 8:29) should never cease to amaze us. It should also serve as a sobering reminder that there are no works or sacrifices that we can perform that would produce any more grace or blessing than what Jesus has already provided. So, as you wake up tomorrow at the beginning of a new year, take joy that ALL grace and favor has been provided to you and purpose to seek His presence most of all. If we know Jesus provided all these things to us through his own death, how could we not want to be in His presence to know Him more?
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