Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hebrews 9:14
How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
14. how much more ] Again we have the characteristic word the key-note as it were of the Epistle.
the blood of Christ ] which is typified by “the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness” (Zec 13:1).
who through the eternal Spirit ] If this be the right rendering the reference must be to the fact that Christ was “quickened by the Spirit” (1Pe 3:18); that “God gave not the Spirit by measure unto Him” (Joh 3:34); that “the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him” (Luk 4:18); that He “by the Spirit of God” cast out devils (Mat 12:28). For this view of the meaning see Pearson on the Creed, Art. iii., and it is represented by the reading “Holy” for Eternal in some cursive mss. and some versions. It may however be rendered “by an Eternal Spirit,” namely by His own Spirit by that burning love which proceeded from His own Spirit and not by a mere “ordinance of the flesh” (Heb 9:10). In the Levitic sacrifices involuntary victims bled; but Christ’s sacrifice was offered by the will of His own Eternal Spirit.
without spot ] Christ had that sinless perfection which was dimly foreshadowed by the unblemished victims which could alone be offered under the Levitic law (1Pe 1:19).
from dead works ] See Heb 6:1. If sinful works are meant, they are represented as affixing a stain to the conscience; they pollute as the touching of a dead thing polluted ceremonially under the Old Law (Num 19:11-16). But all works are “dead” which are done without love. It is to be observed that the writer true to the Alexandrian training which instilled an awful reverence respecting Divine things attempts even less than St Paul to explain the modus operandi. He tells us that the Blood of Christ redeems and purifies us as the old sacrifices could not do. Sacrifices removed ceremonial defilement they thus “purified the flesh:” but the Blood of Christ perfects and purifies the conscience (Heb 10:22) and so admits us into the Presence of God. The “ how can this be?” belongs to the secret things which God has not revealed; we only know and believe that so it is.
to serve the living God ] Not to serve “dead works” or a mere material tabernacle, or fleshly ordinances, but to serve the Living God who can only be truly served by those who are “alive from the dead” (Rom 6:13).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
How much more shall the blood of Christ – As being infinitely more precious than the blood of an animal could possibly be. If the blood of an animal had any efficacy at all, even in removing ceremonial pollutions, how much more is it reasonable to suppose may be effected by the blood of the Son of God!
Who through the eternal Spirit – This expression is very difficult, and has given rise to a great variety of interpretation. – Some mss. instead of eternal here, read holy, making it refer directly to the Holy Spirit; see Wetstein. These various readings, however, are not regarded as of sufficient authority to lead to a change in the text, and are of importance only as showing that it was an early opinion that the Holy Spirit is here referred to. The principal opinions which have been entertained of the meaning of this phrase, are the following.
(1) That which regards it as referring to the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. This was the opinion of Owen, Doddridge, and archbishop Tillotson.
(2) That which refers it to the divine nature of Christ. Among those who have maintained this opinion, are Beza, Ernesti, Wolf, Vitringa, Storr, and the late Dr. John P. Wilson. mss. Notes.
(3) Others, as Grotius, Rosenmuller, Koppe, understand it as meaning endless or immortal life, in contradistinction from the Jewish sacrifices which were of a perishable nature, and which needed so often to be repeated.
(4) Others regard it as referring to the glorified person of the Saviour, meaning that in his exalted, or spiritual station in heaven, he presents the efficacy of his blood.
(5) Others suppose that it means divine influence, and that the idea is, that Christ was actuated and filled with a divine influence when he offered up himself as a sacrifice; an influence which was not of a temporal and fleeting nature, but which was eternal in its efficacy. This is the interpretation preferred by Prof. Stuart.
For an examination of these various opinions, see his Excursus, xviii. on this Epistle. It is difficult, if not impossible, to decide what is the true meaning of the passage amidst this diversity of opinion; but there are some reasons which seem to me to make it probable that the Holy Spirit is intended, and that the idea is, that Christ made his great sacrifice under the extraordinary influences of that Eternal Spirit. The reasons which lead me to this opinion, are the following:
- It is what would occur to the great mass of the readers of the New Testament. It is presumed that the great body of sober, plain, and intelligent readers of the Bible, on perusing the passage, suppose that it refers to the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. There are few better and safer rules for the interpretation of a volume designed like the Bible for the mass of mankind, than to abide by the sense in which they understand it.
(2)This interpretation is one which is most naturally conveyed by the language of the original. The phrase the spirit – to pneuma – has so far a technical and established meaning in the New Testament as to denote the Holy Spirit, unless there is something in the connection which renders such an application improper. In this case there is nothing certainly which necessarily forbids such an application. The high names and Classical authority of those who have held this opinion, are a sufficient guarantee of this.
(3)This interpretation accords with the fact that the Lord Jesus is represented as having been eminently endowed with the influences of the Holy Spirit; compare notes on Joh 3:34. Though he was divine, yet he was also a man, and as such was under influences similar to those of other pious people. The Holy Spirit is the source and sustainer of all piety in the soul, and it is not improper to suppose that the man Christ Jesus was in a remarkable manner influenced by the Holy Spirit in his readiness to obey God and to suffer according to his will.
(4)If there was ever any occasion on which we may suppose he was influenced by the Holy Spirit, that of his sufferings and death here referred to may be supposed eminently to have been such an one. It was expressive of the highest state of piety – of the purest love to God and man – which has ever existed in the human bosom; it was the most trying time of his own life; it was the period when there would be the most strong temptation to abandon his work; and as the redemption of the whole world was dependent on that act, it is reasonable to suppose that the richest heavenly grace would be there imparted to him, and that he would then be eminently under the influence of that Spirit which was granted not by measure unto him. notes, Joh 3:34.
(5)This representation is not inconsistent with the belief that the sufferings and death of the Redeemer were voluntary, and had all the merit which belongs to a voluntary transaction. Piety in the heart of a Christian now is not less voluntary because it is produced and cherished by the Holy Spirit, nor is there less excellence in it because the Holy Spirit imparts strong faith in the time of temptation and trial. It seems to me, therefore, that the meaning of this expression is, that the Lord Jesus was led by the strong influences of the Spirit of God to devote himself as a sacrifice for sin. It was not by any temporary influence; not by mere excitement; it was by the influence of the Eternal Spirit of God, and the sacrifice thus offered could, therefore, accomplish effects which would be eternal in their character. It was not like the offering made by the Jewish high priest which was necessarily renewed every year, but it was under the influence of one who was eternal, and the effects of whose influence might be everlasting. It may be added, that if this is a correct exposition, it follows that the Holy Spirit is eternal, and must, therefore, be divine.
Offered himself – That is, as a sacrifice. He did not offer a bullock or a goat, but he offered himself. The sacrifice of oneself is the highest offering which he can make; in this case it was the highest which the universe had to make.
Without spot – Margin, Or fault. The animal that was offered in the Jewish sacrifices was to be without blemish; see Lev 1:10; Lev 22:17-22. It was not to be lame, or blind, or diseased. The word which is used here and rendered without spot amomos – refers to this fact – that there was no defect or blemish. The idea is, that the Lord Jesus, the great sacrifice, was perfect; see Heb 7:26.
Purge your conscience – That is, cleanse, purify, or sanctify your conscience. The idea is, that this offering would take away whatever rendered the conscience defiled or sinful. The offerings of the Jews related in the main to external purification, and were not adapted to give peace to a troubled conscience. They could render the worshipper externally pure so that he might draw near to God and not be excluded by any ceremonial pollution or defilement; but the mind, the heart, the conscience, they could not make pure. They could not remove what troubles a man when he recollects that he has violated a holy law and has offended God, and when he looks forward to an awful judgment-bar. The word conscience here is not to be understood as a distinct and independent faculty of the soul, but as the soul or mind itself reflecting and pronouncing on its own acts. The whole expression refers to a mind alarmed by the recollection of guilt – for it is guilt only that disturbs a mans conscience.
Guilt originates in the soul remorse and despair; guilt makes a man troubled when he thinks of death and the judgment; it is guilt only which alarms a man when he thinks of a holy God; and it is nothing but guilt that makes the entrance into another world terrible and awful. If a man had no guilt he would never dread his Maker, nor would the presence of his God be ever painful to him (compare Gen 3:6-10); if a man had no guilt he would not fear to die – for what have the innocent to fear anywhere? The universe is under the government of a God of goodness and truth, and, under such a government, how can those who have done no wrong have anything to dread? The fear of death, the apprehension of the judgment to come, and the dread of God, are strong and irrefragable proofs that every man is a sinner. The only thing, therefore, which ever disturbs the conscience, and makes death dreadful, and God an object of aversion, and eternity awful, is guilt. If that is removed, man is calm and peaceful; if not, he is the victim of wretchedness and despair.
From dead works – From works that are deadly in their nature, or that lead to death. Or it may mean from works that have no spirituality and no life. By works here the apostle does not refer to their outward religious acts particularly, but to the conduct of the life, to what people do; and the idea is, that their acts are not spiritual and saving but such as lead to death; see note, Heb 6:1.
To serve the living God – Not in outward form, but in sincerity and in truth; to be his true friends and worshippers. The phrase the living God is commonly used in the Scriptures to describe the true God as distinguished from idols, which are represented as dead, or without life; Psa 115:4-7. The idea in this verse is, that it is only the sacrifice made by Christ which can remove the stain of guilt from the soul. It could not be done by the blood of bulls and of goats – for that did not furnish relief to a guilty conscience, but it could be done by the blood of Christ. The sacrifice which he made for sin was so pure and of such value, that God can consistently pardon the offender and restore him to his favor. That blood too can give peace – for Christ poured it out in behalf of the guilty. It is not that he took part with the sinner against God; it is not that he endeavors to convince him who has a troubled conscience that he is needlessly alarmed, or that sin is not as bad as it is represented to be, or that it does not expose the soul to danger. Christ never took the part of the sinner against God; he never taught that sin was a small matter, or that it did not expose to danger. He admitted all that is said of its evil. But he provides for giving peace to the guilty conscience by shedding his blood that it may be forgiven, and by revealing a God of mercy who is willing to receive the offender into favor, and to treat him as though he had never sinned. Thus, the troubled conscience may find peace; and thus, though guilty, man may be delivered from the dread of the wrath to come.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 14. Who through the eternal Spirit] This expression is understood two ways:
1. Of the Holy Ghost himself. As Christ’s miraculous conception was by the Holy Spirit, and he wrought all his miracles by the Spirit of God, so his death or final offering was made through or by the eternal Spirit; and by that Spirit he was raised from the dead, 1Pe 3:18. Indeed, through the whole of his life be was justified by the Spirit; and we find that in this great work of human redemption, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were continually employed: therefore the words may be understood of the Holy Spirit properly.
2. Of the eternal Logos or Deity which dwelt in the man Christ Jesus, through the energy of which the offering of his humanity became an infinitely meritorious victim; therefore the Deity of Christ is here intended.
But we cannot well consider one of these distinct from the other; and hence probably arose the various readings in the MSS. and versions on this article. Instead of , by the ETERNAL Spirit, , by the HOLY Spirit, is the reading of D*, and more than twenty others of good note, besides the Coptic, Slavonic, Vulgate, two copies of the Itala, Cyril, Athanasius sometimes, Damascenus, Chrysostom, and some others. But the common reading is supported by ABD**, and others, besides the Syriac, all the Arabic, Armenian, AEthiopic, Athanasius generally, Theodoret, Theophylact, and Ambrosius. This, therefore, is the reading that should he preferred, as it is probable that the Holy Ghost, not the Logos, is what the apostle had more immediately in view. But still we must say, that the Holy Spirit, with the eternal Logos, and the almighty Father, equally concurred in offering up the sacrifice of the human nature of Christ, in order to make atonement for the sin of the world.
Purge your conscience] . Purify your conscience. The term purify should be everywhere, both in the translation of the Scriptures, and in preaching the Gospel, preferred to the word purge, which, at present, is scarcely ever used in the sense in which our translators have employed it.
Dead works] Sin in general, or acts to which the penalty of death is annexed by the law. See the phrase explained, “Heb 6:1“.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
How much more shall the blood of Christ? The question supposeth an unexpressible difference between Christs purifying and the legal sacrifices. The blood with which he pierced within the veil to the throne in the highest heavens, on which sat the just God, the proper, precious, powerful blood of God the Son incarnate.
Who through the eternal Spirit; who in his immortal soul obeying all Gods will in suffering, did, through his own eternal God-head, to which both body and soul were united, and which sanctified the body offered, as the altar the sacrifice, Mat 23:19, which is called the spirit of holiness, Rom 1:4, and gave value and virtue to the sacrifice, offered up his body a sacrifice for sin, when he died on the cross. Not sheep, bulls, goats, turtles, pigeons, &c., not man, nor the life of angels, were his sacrifice; but himself, pure, holy, and unpolluted, an innocent, harmless person, 2Co 5:21. How much beyond his types for innocency and purity! Lev 22:20,21; Num 19:2.
Offered himself without spot to God: the offended, injured Creator and Judge of sinners, who constituted him to this whole work; and was by this most perfect sacrifice propitiated; his justice was satisfied, his law obeyed, and himself set fully free to pardon and forgive sinners without injustice; and to be just, as well as gracious and merciful, in doing of it, Rom 3:25,26; and they might be put in possession of his favour, presence, and person again, as their own God, 1Pe 3:18.
Purge your conscience; though the sacrifice be over, the virtue and excellent causality of it doth abide, purging now as ever, not only justifying and absolving of a penitent believing sinner, but purifying and sanctifying the soul, procuring the Holy Spirit to renew it, and take away inherent corruption and infuse holiness into it, Eph 4:24, and making willing in the beauties of it, Psa 110:3; 1Co 6:11; Tit 3:5,6; making body, soul, and spirit one frame of holiness to God, 1Th 5:23. So as the most quick, lively, and sensible part of the immortal soul, conscious of sin, is freed from the guilt, filth, and fears of sin that did cleave to it; this thus purged, no consciousness of guilt remains, nor fear of punishment, but it is filled, from the interest it hath in this blood, and the work on it of this Spirit, full of joy and peace and righteousness by believing, Rom 5:1,2,5,11.
From dead works; all operations of sin, which come from spiritually dead souls, and work eternal death, Eph 2:1, of which they are as insensible as dead men; all sorts of sin which do taint, pollute, and defile the soul, much more contagious, pestilent, and polluting the soul, than any of those things forbidden to be touched by Mosess law could the flesh, Num 19:18; they are as offensive to God, and more, than carcasses are to us, and pestilential things, though themselves keeping souls from any communion with him.
To serve the living God; as under the law there was no coming to the congregation of the tabernacle without legal purifying, Num 19:13,20; so by this purifying correspondent to the type, souls are quickened, have boldness and confidence God-ward in point of duty, present themselves living sacrifices, Rom 12:1, aim at him through their whole life; that he delights to keep up communion with them proportioned to himself, till he fit them for their complete serving and enjoying of him in the holy of holiest in heaven.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. offered himselfThevoluntary nature of the offering gives it especial efficacy. He”through the eternal Spirit,” that is, His divine Spirit(Ro 1:4, in contrast to His”flesh,” Heb 9:3; HisGodhead, 1Ti 3:16; 1Pe 3:18),”His inner personality” [ALFORD],which gave a free consent to the act, offered Himself. The animalsoffered had no spirit or will to consent in the act ofsacrifice; they were offered according to the law; they had alife neither enduring, nor of any intrinsic efficacy. But He frometernity, with His divine and everlasting Spirit, concurredwith the Father’s will of redemption by Him. His offering began onthe altar of the cross, and was completed in His entering the holiestplace with His blood. The eternity and infinitude of Hisdivine Spirit (compare Heb 7:16)gives eternal (“eternal redemption,” Heb9:12, also compare Heb 9:15)and infinite merit to His offering, so that not even the infinitejustice of God has any exception to take against it. It was “throughHis most burning love, flowing from His eternal Spirit,” that Heoffered Himself [OECOLAMPADIUS].
without spotThe animalvictims had to be without outward blemish; Christ on the crosswas a victim inwardly and essentially stainless (1Pe1:19).
purgepurify from fear,guilt, alienation from Him, and selfishness, the source of deadworks (Heb 9:22; Heb 9:23).
yourThe oldestmanuscripts read “our.” The Vulgate, however,supports English Version reading.
consciencemoralreligious consciousness.
dead worksAll worksdone in the natural state, which is a state of sin, are dead;for they come not from living faith in, and love to, “the livingGod” (Heb 11:6). Ascontact with a dead body defiled ceremonially (compare the allusion,”ashes of an heifer,” Heb9:13), so dead works defile the inner consciousness spiritually.
to serveso as toserve. The ceremonially unclean could not serve God in theoutward communion of His people; so the unrenewed cannot serve God inspiritual communion. Man’s works before justification, howeverlifelike they look, are dead, and cannot therefore be accepted beforethe living God. To have offered a dead animal to God would have beenan insult (compare Mal 1:8);much more for a man not justified by Christ’s blood to offer deadworks. But those purified by Christ’s blood in living faith doserve (Ro 12:1), and shall morefully serve God (Re 22:3).
living Godthereforerequiring living spiritual service (Joh4:24).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
How much more shall the blood of Christ,…. Which is not the blood of a mere man, but the blood of the Son of God; and the argument is from the lesser to the greater; that if the ashes of the burnt heifer, which was a type of Christ in his sufferings, mixed with water, typically sanctified to the purifying of men externally, in a ceremonial way, then much more virtue must there be in the blood of Christ, to cleanse the soul inwardly:
who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God; Christ is a priest, and the sacrifice he has offend up is “himself”; not his divine nature, but his human nature, soul and body, as in union with his divine person; which gives his sacrifice the preference to all others; and is the reason of its virtue and efficacy, and is expressive of his great love to man: and this sacrifice was offered up “to God”, against whom his people had sinned, and whose justice must be satisfied, and which is of a sweet smelling savour to him; besides, he called him to this work, and engaged him in it, and is well pleased with this offering, as he must needs be, since it is offered up “without spot”; which expresses the purity of Christ’s nature and sacrifice, and the perfection of it, which is such, that no fault can be found in it by the justice of God; and hence, the saints, for whom it is offered, are unblamable and irreprovable, There is an allusion in the clause, both to the priests and to their sacrifices, which were neither of them to have any spot or blemish on them; and this unblemished sacrifice was offered unto God by Christ,
through the eternal Spirit; not the human soul of Christ; for though that is a spirit, yet not eternal, and besides, was a part of the sacrifice; but rather the divine nature of Christ, which is a spirit, and may be so called in distinction from the flesh, or human nature, as it sometimes is, and this is eternal; it was from everlasting, as well as is to everlasting; and this supported him under all his sufferings, and carried him through them, and put virtue unto them; and Christ was a priest, in the divine, as well as human nature: though by it may be better understood “the Holy Ghost”; and so the Vulgate Latin version reads, and also several copies; since the divine nature rather acts by the human nature, than the human nature by the divine; and Christ is often said to do such and such things by the Holy Spirit; and as the Holy Ghost formed and filled the human nature of Christ, so he assisted and supported it under sufferings. This whole clause is inserted by way of parenthesis, showing the efficacy of Christ’s blood, and from whence it is:
to purge your conscience from dead works; that is, “from the works of sin”, as the Ethiopic version renders it; which are performed by dead men, separate and alienated from the life of God, are the cause of the death of the soul, and expose to eternal death, and are like dead carcasses, nauseous and infectious; and even duties themselves, performed without faith and love, are dead works; nor can they procure life, and being depended on, issue in death; and even the works of believers themselves are sometimes performed in a very lifeless manner, and are attended with sin and pollution, and need purging: the allusion is to the pollution by the touch of dead bodies; and there may be some respect to the sacrifices of slain beasts, after the sacrifice and death of Christ, by believing Jews, who were sticklers for the ceremonies of the law, and thereby contracted guilt; but immoralities are chiefly designed, and with these the conscience of man is defiled; and nothing short of the blood of Christ can remove the pollution of sin; as that being shed procures atonement, and so purges away the guilt of sin, or makes reconciliation for it, so being sprinkled on the conscience by the Spirit of God, it speaks peace and pardon, and pacifies and purges it, and removes every incumbrance from it: the Alexandrian copy, the Vulgate Latin, and Syriac versions, read, “our conscience”. The end and use of such purgation is, “to serve the living God”; so called to distinguish him from the idols of the Gentiles, and in opposition to dead works; and because he has life in himself, essentially and independently, and is the author and giver of life to others; and it is but the reasonable service of his people, to present their souls and bodies as a living sacrifice to him; and who ought to serve him in a lively manner, in faith, and with fervency, and not with a slavish, but a godly filial fear; and one that has his conscience purged by the blood of Christ, and is sensibly impressed with a discovery of pardoning grace, is in the best capacity for such service. The Alexandrian copy reads, “the living and true God”.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
How much more ( ). Instrumental case, “by how much more,” by the measure of the superiority of Christ’s blood to that of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer.
Through the eternal Spirit ( ). Not the Holy Spirit, but Christ’s own spirit which is eternal as he is. There is thus a moral quality in the blood of Christ not in that of other sacrifices.
Offered himself ( ). Second aorist active indicative of (used so often as in Heb 5:1; Heb 5:3; Heb 8:3). The voluntary character of Christ’s death is again emphasized.
Without blemish (). Old compound adjective (Col 1:22; 1Pet 1:19) as the sacrifice had to be (Exod 29:1; Lev 1:3; Lev 1:10).
Shall cleanse from conscience ( ). Future active indicative of . Some MSS. have (our). The old Greek used , not (in inscriptions for ceremonial cleansing, Deissmann, Bible Studies, pp. 216f.), for cleansing.
From dead works ( ). As in 6:1. “A pause might be made before , from dead–(not bodies but) works.”
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Through the eternal spirit [ ] . For the rend. an. Dia through = by virtue of. Not the Holy Spirit, who is never so designated, but Christ ‘s own human spirit : the higher element of Christ ‘s being in his human life, which was charged with the eternal principle of the divine life. Comp. Rom 1:4; 1Co 14:45; 1Pe 3:18; Heb 7:16. This is the key to the doctrine of Christ ‘s sacrifice. The significance and value of his atonement lie in the personal quality and motive of Christ himself which are back of the sacrificial act. The offering was the offering of Christ ‘s deepest self – his inmost personality. Therein consists the attraction of the cross, not to the shedding of blood, but to Christ himself. This is Christ ‘s own declaration, Joh 12:32. “I will draw all men unto me.” Therein consists its potency for men : not in Christ ‘s satisfaction of justice by suffering a legal penalty, but in that the cross is the supreme expression of a divine spirit of love, truth, mercy, brotherhood, faith, ministry, unselfishness, holiness, – a spirit which goes out to men with divine intensity of purpose and yearning to draw them into its own sphere, and to make them partakers of its own eternal quality. This was a fact before the foundation of the world, is a fact today, and will be a fact so long as any life remains unreconciled to God. Atonement is eternal in virtue of the eternal spirit of Christ through which he offered himself to God.
Offered himself without spot [ ] . The two other elements which give superior validity to Christ ‘s sacrifice. It was voluntary, a self – offering, unlike that of brute beasts who had no volition and no sense of the reason why they were offered. It was spotless. He was a perfectly righteous, sinless being, perfectly and voluntarily obedient to the Father ‘s will, even unto the suffering of death. The legal victims were only physically unblemished according to ceremonial standards. Amwmov in LXX, technically, of victims, Exo 29:1; Lev 1:3, 10, etc.
Purge your conscience [ ] For your rend. our. The superior nature of Christ ‘s sacrifice appears in its deeper effect. While the Levitical sacrifice accomplished only formal, ritual expiation, leaving the inner man unaffected, while it wrought externally and dealt with specific sins the effect of Christ ‘s sacrifice goes to the center of the moral and spiritual life, and cleanses the very fountainhead of being, thus doing its work where only an eternal spirit can do it. Kaqarizein to purge is not a classical word. In Class. kaqairein (also in LXX) : but kaqarizein appears in inscriptions in a ritual sense, and with ajpo from, as here, 211 thus showing that the word was not confined to biblical and ecclesiastical Greek.
From dead works [ ] . The effect of Christ ‘s sacrifice upon the conscience transmits itself to the works, and fills them with the living energy of the eternal spirit. It changes the character of works by purging them of the element of death. This element belongs not only to works which are acknowledged as sinful and are committed by sinful men, but to works which go under the name of religious, yet are performed in a merely legal spirit. None the less, because it is preeminently the religion of faith, does Christianity apply the severest and most radical of tests to works. Professor Bruce truthfully says that “the severest test of Christ ‘s power to redeem is his ability to loose the bonds springing out of a legal religion, by which many are bound who have escaped the dominion of gross, sinful habits.”
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “How much more shall the blood of Christ,” (poso mallon to haima tou christou) “By how much more (will) the blood of Christ,” cleanse or purify or make morally clean, cleanse or purify the heart by faith in His blood, Act 15:9; Rom 3:25 declares that Jesus became a propitiation a satisfactory mercy sacrifice “thru faith in His blood,” 1Pe 1:14.
2) “Who through the eternal spirit,” (hos dia pneumatos aioniou) “Who thru Spirit Eternal,” thru strength of the Eternal Spirit, by which his life was guided and thru which he was raised from the dead, Rom 1:4; Rom 8:11; 1Pe 3:18.
3) “Offered himself without spot to God,” (heauton prosenegken amomon to theo) “Offered himself without blemish to God,” or without a spot of inherited or contracted pollution or uncleanness at all, Heb 7:26-27; Eph 5:2; Tit 2:14.
4) “Purge your conscience from dead works,” (katharici ten suneidesin hemon apo nekron ergon) “Will cleanse our conscience from dead, barren, or unfruitful works,” Heb 1:3; Heb 10:22.
5) “To serve the living God,” (eis to latreuein theo zonti) “To serve the living God,” continually, progressively, until death, Luk 1:74; Rom 6:13; 1Pe 4:2; 1Co 6:19-20; 1Co 10:31.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
14. Who through the eternal Spirit, etc. He now clearly shows how Christ’s death is to be estimated, not by the external act, but by the power of the Spirit. For Christ suffered as man; but that death becomes saving to us through the efficacious power of the Spirit; for a sacrifice, which was to be an eternal expiation, was a work more than human. And he calls the Spirit eternal for this reason, that we may know that the reconciliation, of which he is the worker or effecter, is eternal. (150) By saying, without spot, or unblamable, though he alludes to the victims under the Law, which were not to have a blemish or defect, he yet means, that Christ alone was the lawful victim and capable of appeasing God; for there was always in others something that might be justly deemed wanting; and hence he said before that the covenant of the Law was not ἀμεμπτον, blameless.
From dead works, etc. Understand by these either such works as produce death, or such as are the fruits or effects of death; for as the life of the soul is our union with God, so they who are alienated from him through sin may be justly deemed to be dead.
To serve the living God. This, we must observe, is the end of our purgation; for we are not washed by Christ, that we may plunge ourselves again into new filth, but that our purity may serve to glorify God. Besides, he teaches us, that nothing can proceed from us that can be pleasing to God until we are purified by the blood of Christ; for as we are all enemies to God before our reconciliation, so he regards as abominable all our works; hence the beginning of acceptable service is reconciliation. And then, as no work is so pure and so free from stains, that it can of itself please God, it is necessary that the purgation through the blood of Christ should intervene, which alone can efface all stains. And there is a striking contrast between the living God and dead works.
(150) Some as Grotius and Schleusner, take “the eternal Spirit” as meaning the same thing as “endless life” in Heb 7:16, — “who having (or in) an eternal spirit,” or life, etc.; they give the sense of “in” to διὰ. The comparison they represent to be between perishable victims and the sacrifice of Christ, who possesses a spirit or life that is eternal.
Others, as Junius and Beza, consider Christ’s divine nature as signified by “the eternal Spirit.” Beza says, that it was the Deity united to humanity that consecrated the whole sacrifice and endued it with vivifying power. The view of Stuart can hardly be comprehended.
But the explanation most commonly adopted is that given here by Calvin that the Holy Spirit is meant, whose aid and influence are often mentioned in connection with Christ; see Mat 12:28; Act 1:2. Some MSS and fathers have “holy” instead of “eternal,” but the greatest number and the best have the last word. Dr. Owen, Doddridge and Scott take this view. Why the Spirit is called “eternal” is not very evident. It may have been for the purpose of showing that the Spirit mentioned before in Heb 9:8 is the same Spirit, he being eternal, and thus in order to prove that the offering of Christ was according to the divine will. God is said to be eternal in Rom 16:26, where a reference is made to the past and the present dispensation, with the view, as it seems, to show that he is the author of both. But perhaps the explanation of Calvin is the most suitable. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(14) Through the eternal Spirit.Better, through an eternal Spirit; for in a passage of so much difficulty it is important to preserve the exact rendering of the Greek, and the arguments usually adduced seem insufficient to justify the ordinary translation. By most readers of the Authorised version, probably, these words are understood as referring to the Holy Spirit, whose influence continually rested on the Anointed One of God (Act. 10:38). For this opinion there seems to be no foundation in the usage of the New Testament, and it is not indicated by anything in the context. The explanation of the words must rather be sought in the nature of our Lord, or in some attribute of that nature. There are a few passages, mainly in the Epistles of St. Paul, in which language somewhat similar is employed in regard to the spirit (pneuma) of our Lord. The most remarkable of these are Rom. 1:4, where spirit of holiness is placed in contrast with flesh; and 1Ti. 3:16, in spirit. On the latter Bishop Ellicott writes: in spirit, in the higher sphere of His divine life: the pneuma of Christ is not here the Holy Spirit, but the higher principle of spiritual life, which was not the Divinity (this would be an Apollinarian assertion), but especially and intimately united with it. (Another passage of great interest is 1Pe. 3:18.) The attribute eternal is explained by Heb. 7:18-19, according to power of indissoluble life (He hath become priest), for of Him it is testified, Thou art a priest for ever. Through this spirit, a spirit of holiness, a spirit of indissoluble life, He offered Himself to God. This made such a self-offering possible; this gave to the offering infinite worth. In the words which stand in contrast with these (Heb. 9:13) we read of the death of animals which had no power over their own transient life: He who was typified in every high priest and in every victim, through an eternal spirit, of Himself laid down His life (Joh. 10:18), offering Himself to God in the moment and article of death,offered Himself in His constant presence in the Holiest Place (Heb. 9:24).
Without spot.The word here used is frequently applied in the LXX. to the victims without blemish that were offered in sacrifice. The sinlessness of Jesus is expressed under the same metaphor in 1Pe. 1:19.
Purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.Better, cleanse our conscience from dead works to serve a Living God. The word cleanse is akin to cleanness in Heb. 9:13. Authorities are divided between our and your; but the former is probably the better reading. Once before, in Heb. 6:1, the writer has spoken of dead works. (See the Note.) It is here, however, that the significance most fully appears; for we cannot doubt that there exists a reference to the purification made necessary by all contact with death. (See Heb. 9:13.) Since the works are dead because they had no share in true life, which is the life of God, the last words bring before us the thought of a Living God (Heb. 3:12). This thought also stands connected with eternal Spirit, for those who are cleansed through the offering of Christ shall share His relation to the Living God. The contrast is in every respect complete. From the whole number of Jewish rites had been selected (Heb. 9:13) the two which most fully represented the purification from sin and from pollution through death, in order that this completeness of antithesis might be attained. It is not necessary to trace the details of the contrast. In each and in all we read the How much more!
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. Through the eternal Spirit Lunemann enumerates some eight different interpretations of this unusual phrase. A large majority of commentators understand it to mean either the divine second person of the Trinity in Jesus incarnated, or the third person, the Holy Spirit, indwelling and inspiring him. For this last Stuart assigns the following texts:
Mat 4:1; Mar 1:12; Luk 4:1; Mat 12:28; Luk 4:18; Mat 3:16; Mat 3:11; Luk 3:22; Joh 1:32-33; Joh 3:34. This makes, certainly, a genuinely biblical meaning. It assumes that Christ went through the scenes of the atonement in full cooperative accordance with, and under actuation by, the blessed Spirit. Nevertheless, our own view will appear from our threefold parallel given above. And our process brings out a result quite coincident with the view of Delitzsch, (which is treated by Lunemann with almost contempt,) namely, that the eternal personal spirit of Christ himself, his divine nature, stands in antithesis to the perishing life of the animal sacrifice. So, rightly, Delitzsch says: “This eternal spirit answers to the animal soul ( ) in the expiatory victims of the Old Testament.” The animal becomes a sacrifice through an animal soul; Jesus makes himself a sacrifice through an eternal spirit. And the phrase is without the definite article in the Greek. Christ is, though rarely, styled a spirit in Scripture, and by Paul alone. 1Co 15:45; 2Co 3:17, and onward. Hereby the divine nature of the Son of God is brought in, upbearing and giving divine superiority and merit to his atonement.
Without spot The usual phrase by which the spotlessness of the victim was expressed in the law; prefiguring the sinlessness of Him who atones for the sins of others.
To God And not as a few of the Church fathers taught, to Satan; as if he possessed a conceded authority over all held under penalty of sin. We hold that the sacrifice of himself by Jesus was a divine concession paid to the divine governmental justice. It was offered to God, not as a payment or gift to him, but as a presentation manifesting that the concession was truly made by which sin is forgiven and government verified.
Your conscience Your, carries home the direct appeal to the moral consciousness of those (our Hebrews) addressed.
Conscience Our moral nature, which feels the claim of moral obligation, the sense of guilt at its violation, and the sense of purity upon forgiveness and sanctification. And how great that feeling when assured at such a cost and from such a source!
From dead works Suggested by the image above detailed of the moral taint from the death-touch. Dead works are our corrupting dealings and contact with sin and death, sending a death-taint through our soul. And in contrast with this is the living God, whom sin and death would love to kill, but who ever lives, and sends immortal life through soul and body of all who serve him.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘How much more shall 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?’
Yet, says the writer, if those old rites could be effective in dealing with the external problems of sin and defilement, how much more could the blood of the Messiah, who offered Himself without blemish to God through the eternal Spirit, truly cleanse and purify inwardly from all ‘dead works’, (useless fleshly works which can only result in death). And we may note that in this case this is not just because of God’s appointment, but because of the intrinsic worth of the sacrifice. Thus are men and women cleansed, not outwardly but deep within, in the very heart and conscience of every one who comes to Him, resulting in the possibility of true and fully acceptable worship, of spiritual service to the living God.
Here was the effective remedy of which the past ordinances had been but shadows. This was not just outward but reached into man’s deepest heart and conscience, for it totally removed and made satisfaction for all sin both without and within. The effect of the shedding of the blood of the new covenant would purify, justify and work righteousness within men’s lives in accordance with the new covenant (Heb 8:10), that they might serve in the very presence of the living God.
Notice in these two verses the deliberate contrast of life with death. The ashes of the heifer were for the removal of the defilement of death through the waters of purification, and the works of men are ‘dead works’, works that defile and result in death. Men are thus portrayed as defiled and tainted with death, for which Christ’s blood is the remedy. For as Paul tells us, all men apart from Him are dead in trespasses and sins precisely because of their works (Eph 2:1) . And that is why Jesus had to partake of death (Heb 2:9), and that is why the blood of the Messiah had to be shed in order that He might die to bear our sin. All this was in order to bring men and women to the ‘living’ God.
‘The blood of Christ.’ This signifies what the shedding of His blood accomplished, through His meeting in full, by the shedding of blood, the requirements of the Law on behalf of all His own, and its sufficiency was now made available to them in full forgiveness and atonement. Using the illustrations of Heb 9:13 it was presented to God for atonement at the altar (Heb 13:10), before the veil, and within the veil, and sprinkled on men as the equivalent of the ashes of the heifer mingled with living water, that is as the water of purification, so that the defilement of death may be removed once and for all. It covered all aspects of cleansing, purification and atonement.
‘Who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God.’ And in this He was aided by the ‘eternal’ Spirit, (the Spirit of the coming age – Isa 44:1-5; Joe 2:28), Who enabled Him as Man to live blamelessly, so that He was ‘without blemish’ as a sacrifice must be. He was crowned with glory and honour as true, sinless man (Heb 2:9). And the eternal Spirit further enabled Him to offer Himself as a sacrifice to endure death, so that He might face death fully for every man. The Messiah and the Spirit worked as one, the comparatively weak frail One Who was made in the likeness of man, Who had emptied Himself of His Godhood and walked as a human being (Php 2:6-8), and the powerful, eternal Spirit of God active fully through Him as through no other (Joh 3:34; Luk 4:1).
And it is because He so died for us without blemish, that our consciences can be cleansed from our past works, works which could only produce death, with the result that, coming out of spiritual death with a cleared conscience, and made free from all the defilement of death-producing sin, through the shedding of His blood, we are able to face God without fear. This then results in our being able to come into the presence of ‘the living God’, the One who calls to account, and serve and worship Him in His presence. The whole of the eternally living, Triune Godhead was thus active in our deliverance. Through Him life comes from death so that we can enter the presence of the living One.
Alternately ‘through the eternal spirit’ is seen by some as referring rather to Christ’s own eternal spirit, which enabled Him to live blamelessly and to offer Himself as the unblemished Lamb to God, so that He might cleanse our consciences from the same death-dealing works and bring us into the presence of the living God. This would be emphasising His divine nature.
But this interpretation does seem rather to separate His spirit too much from His flesh, His Godhood too much from His manhood, and to by-pass His self-emptying. For while His spirit was undoubtedly fully involved, so was His flesh, and He offered Himself in the flesh, and His blood was demonstrably shed in His flesh, through His own ‘fleshly’ choice. He was blameless in both His flesh and His spirit, and He offered up both blameless flesh and blameless spirit to God. There was no separating of the one from the other. For He ‘tasted death’ as Man (Heb 2:9). Thus offering Himself as blameless for the shedding of blood ‘through His eternal spirit’, if referring to His own spirit, would surely seem to separate spirit from flesh and spiritualise the whole idea too much, lifting it above the earthly in which He had voluntarily submerged Himself. Can we really so separate His spirit from what was basically a ‘down to earth’ transaction of flesh and blood as much as a spiritual one (compare Heb 2:14 where it is stressed that it was as flesh and blood that He defeated death)? It was very much as man that He offered Himself up in the Garden of Gethsemane, not as eternal spirit. We must not over-spiritualise His offering of Himself. It was as both God and man.
Yet it was certainly ‘through His eternal spirit’ in the sense that He did it as He Who is the source of everlasting spiritual life, as the One Who was heavenly and divine, as the One Who was sent by the Father, as the One Who could therefore voluntarily choose to die in the flesh and live again (Joh 10:18), the Lord of life. As such His spirit was certainly ‘eternal’, ‘of the ages’. Thus it may be that we are to see this as bringing out the fact that He was in Himself, from the beginning, eternal spirit, the One Who was the resurrection and the life (Joh 11:25), the One ‘in Whom was life’ from the beginning (Joh 1:4) as He subsequently revealed in His victorious earthly life, and in His triumph through and over death (compare Heb 7:16). His sacrifice ‘through His eternal spirit’ might thus be seen as encouraging us to see His sacrifice as eternally effective on our behalf because it was made by the eternal One, in order to give us true life so that we might live in the presence of the living God. But such a spiritualising is outside the writer’s normal way of thinking. Previously he has been robust in stressing Jesus’ essential manhood in all that He has done (although consider Heb 1:2-3), even in revealing Himself as High Priest. And in Scripture ‘eternal’ usually looks to the ‘coming age’ rather than to all ages.
Both applications are true and present different aspects of His work. But for the reasons given above we feel that the emphasis is rather on the whole of the Godhead at work in the accomplishment of our redemption.
‘Offered Himself.’ But however we see it, it was as the great High Priest that He offered Himself as the only true unblemished sacrifice. His action was both willing and voluntary (Isa 53:10; Mar 14:36). He had come to do God’s will (Heb 10:7-10). He was working hand in hand with the Father. There is, however, no contradiction in this, for the will of His Father, and His own will, were as one (Heb 10:7-10; Joh 4:34; Joh 5:19; Joh 5:30; Joh 6:38).
‘Cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.’ Note again the contrast between the dead and the living. God is the living One. Those who serve Him perform works that are living and vital. Dead works (compare Heb 6:1) are those which are performed apart from the living God, in the case of these people prior to coming to know Him. They are works which are dead in themselves, they have no part in achieving ‘life’. They carry within them the smell of death, and they can only result in death. They lead men into despair.
They are not the product of the activity of the living God. Their aim is self-saving and self-glorifying, but they are in fact self-condemning and can only leave man more guilty than he was before. They achieve nothing spiritually. Whether speaking of works of merit or of dead ritual acts (and Heb 6:1 stresses the former) they are spiritually futile. They are man’s feeble attempt to make himself right. And they fail. They can never remove the sense of guilt, they can only contribute to it. They merely confirm that ‘all have sinned and come short of the glory of God’ (Rom 3:23). Even when they have done all, those who perform them can only admit that what they have done cannot atone for the past. That they have only done in each work what it was their duty to do at that time, so that in regard to any saving effectiveness even those are dead works (Luk 17:10). Thus these cannot make up for the times when they have failed in their duty. Their failure ever hangs over them. They are dead in their past sins.
In direct contrast is serving the living God. Those who serve the living God produce the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22). They do not work in order to achieve merit, or in order to establish their own reputations, for their merit and their reputation has been established through the shedding of the blood of Christ. Through His sacrifice of Himself they are accepted as ‘sanctified’, made holy, set apart as God’s (Heb 2:11). They are acceptable to God through the death of His Son. They have been ‘perfected’ (Heb 10:14). Thus they gladly give of themselves to the service of God because they have been ‘bought’ by the shedding of the blood of Christ (1Co 6:20; 1Pe 1:18-19). Having received life, they through that life serve the living God, resulting in live works.
We can finalise these few verses by pointing out that in context (Heb 9:13) Christ’s blood is seen as spiritually ‘sprinkled’ on His own. He offered Himself as a sacrifice for sin, and the efficacy of that offering is here applied to each individual who comes to Him. It is this personal contact with the power revealed through the cross (1Co 1:18) that cleanses the conscience as opposed to the outward flesh. The Christian becomes aware that God is now totally satisfied with him because he is in Christ (2Co 5:20-21), because he is accounted righteous by His grace (Rom 3:24), because he is fully acceptable as sanctified by His blood (Heb 13:12; 1Pe 1:2), because he is reconciled to God (2Co 5:19). He no longer needs to struggle to perform dead works. In fact God requires nothing further of him to make Him acceptable, for in Christ he has done all that is required. He is totally in the clear. That is why he is now free to serve the living God as one who in God’s eyes is wholly righteous.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Heb 9:14 . [91] Incomparably more efficacious must the sacrifice of Christ be. For (1) Christ offered Himself, i.e. He gave up His own body to the death of a sacrifice, while the Levitical high priest derives his material of sacrifice from a domain foreign to himself personally; then: He offered Himself from a free resolve of will, while the Levitical high priest is placed under the necessity of sacrificing, by the command of an external ordinance, and the sacrificial victim whose blood he offers is an irrational animal, which consequently knows nothing of the end to which it is applied. The Levitical act of sacrifice is then an external one wrought in accordance with ordinance, a sensuous one; Christ’s act of sacrifice, on the other hand, one arising out of the disposition of the heart, thus a moral one. From this it is already evident how it could be said (2) that Christ offered Himself . The ethical belongs to the province of the spirit. Christ accordingly offered Himself by virtue of spirit, because His act of sacrifice was, in relation to God, an act of the highest spiritual obedience (Phi 2:8 ), in relation to the human brethren an act of the highest spiritual love (2Co 5:14-15 ). , however, by virtue of eternal spirit did Christ offer Himself, inasmuch as the notion of the eternal belongs inseparably and essentially to the notion of spirit, in opposition to , which has the notion of the transitory as its essential presupposition. The adjective is added in natural correspondence with , Heb 9:12 . For only by virtue of eternal spirit could a redemption which is to be eternal, or of ever-enduring validity, be accomplished.
The majority have interpreted of the Holy Spirit; then thinking either, as Clarius, Estius, Whitby, and others, of the third person in the divine trias, or as Bleek, de Wette, and others, of the Spirit of God which dwelt in Christ in all its fulness, and was the principle which animated Him at every moment. But this application is too special. For, in accordance with the force of the words and the connection of the thoughts, there can stand as a tacit antithesis to the expression: , only the general formula: , whereby the mode of accomplishing the Levitical acts of sacrifice would be characterized. Moreover, if the Holy Spirit had been intended, the choice of the adjective instead of must have appeared strange, because indistinct and liable to being misunderstood; finally, the absence of the article also is best explained on the supposition that the formula is to be understood generically . Too special, likewise, is the explanation of the words adopted by Aretius, Beza, Jac. Cappellus, Gomarus, Calov, Wolf, Peirce, M‘Lean, Bisping, and many others, in part coinciding with the second form of the first main interpretation, according to which, by , the divine nature of Christ, or “the principle of the eternal Sonship of God indwelling in Christ” (Kurtz), is designated. This view already finds its refutation in the fact that has its opposite in , and and are contrasted as spirit and body , not as divine and human . To be rejected farther is the procedure of Faustus Socinus, Schlichting, Grotius, Limborch, Carpzov, Riehm ( Lehrbegr. des Hebrerbr . p. 525 ff.), Reuss, [92] Kurtz, Woerner, and others, in making the , as regards the thing intended, equivalent to the , Heb 7:16 , whereby the essentially ethical import of the expression in our passage is lost sight of; entirely false and arbitrary, however, is the interpretation of Dderlein, Storr, and Stuart, who refer to Christ’s state of glorification after His exaltation; of Nsselt ( Opusc. ad interpret. sacr. scripturr . fascic. I. ed. 2, p. 334), as also van der Boon Mesch, l.c. p. 100, who espouse the opinion: “ esse victimam, quam Christus se immolando Deo obtulit, eamque dici propterea, quod istius victimae vis ad homines salvandos perpetua atque perennis futura sit;” of Michaelis, ad Peirc. , who finds the sense, that Christ presented Himself not according to the letter of the Mosaic law, but yet certainly according to its spirit ; and of Planck ( Commentatt. a Rosenm . etc., edd . I. 1, p. 189), who even maintains that the spirit of prophecy in the prophets of the Old Covenant is thought of. Strangely also Oecumenius, Theophylact, Clarius, and others (comp. already Chrysostom): stands in opposition to the fire , by which the Levitical sacrifices were offered to God. Similarly Hofmann ( Schriftbew . II. 1, p. 420, 2 Aufl.), who is followed by Delitzsch and Riehm ( Lehrbegr. des Hebrerbr . p. 527, Obs .): “the spirit by which Christ offered Himself is called an eternal spirit, in opposition to the fleeting spirit of the animals which the O. T. high priest presented.” Of a “spirit” of the animals the author (cf. Heb 4:12 ) can hardly have thought, inasmuch as, though in the O. T. a is often ascribed to animals, this is understood only in the lower sense of the . Needlessly, in the last place, does Reiske conjecture instead of .
] denotes not the mere impulse or impelling motive (Vatablus, Ribera, Estius, al .), nor yet the condition or sphere (Stengel, Tholuck, al .), but the higher power , by virtue of which the offering was accomplished and made effective.
] is understood by Bleek, with whom Kurtz concurs, after the precedent of Faustus Socinus, Schlichting, Grotius, Limborch, and others, in the sense that Christ offered to God, in the heavenly Holy of Holies, His blood which was shed upon earth ; which, however, is violent on account of , since these words appertain to the whole relative clause, and are not to be referred, with Bleek, as a nearer definition merely to . The undergoing upon earth of the death of the cross is that which is meant.
] as a spotless sacrifice , yielding full satisfaction to God. The Levitical victim must be ( ), physically free from blemish. Here is used of the higher, ethical spotlessness, and has reference to the sinlessness of character manifested by Christ during His earthly life. Erroneously Bleek: the expression has respect to “the condition of Christ after death and the resurrection, in which, raised above even the infirmities to which as very man He was subject upon earth, He could in particular no more fall a victim to death.”
] is to be taken along with the whole relative clause, not merely with .
] forth from dead (legal) works , so that we free ourselves from them as from something that is unfruitful and useless, rise above them. The notion of the here the same as at Heb 6:1 .
[91] A. L. van der Boon Mesch, Specimen Hermeneuticum in locum ad Hebr. ix. 14, Lugd. Bat. 1819, 8vo.
[92] “L’auteur a voulu dire ici, par une tournure nouvelle, justement ce qu’il a dj dit deux fois en d’autres termes (Heb 7:16 ; Heb 7:25 ). La nature de Christ lui assure une vie ternelle, non sujette la mort et par cela mme seule capable de nous assurer un bienfait durable et ternel aussi.”
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Ver. 14. By the eternal Spirit ] That is, by his Deity, called the Spirit of holiness,Rom 1:4Rom 1:4 , and the Spirit, 1Ti 3:16 , that gave both value and virtue to his death, both to satisfy and to sanctify.
Purge your conscience ] This is that eternal redemption, Heb 9:12 .
From dead works ] The most specious performances of unregenerate persons are but dead works, because they proceed not from a principle of life, and have death for their wages,Rom 6:23Rom 6:23 . A will written with a dead man’s hand can hold no law. God will be served like himself.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Heb 9:14 . . The Levitical sacrifices had their congruous effect, the sacrifice of Christ must also have its appropriate result. The blood offered was not of bulls and goats but of “the Christ;” it was not with another’s blood (vicarious, Heb 9:25 ) but with His own He entered God’s presence. His was not a bodily sacrifice but . . This clause is inserted to justify the efficacy of the blood of Christ in cleansing the conscience. It had virtue to cleanse the conscience because it was the blood of one “who through eternal spirit offered Himself blameless to God”. How are we to understand . ? Riehm considers it a parellel expression to that of Heb 7:16 , , and that it is here used to bring out the idea that Christ having an eternal spirit was thereby able to perform the whole work of atonement, not merely dying on the cross but passing through that death to present Himself before God. So too Davidson, Weiss and others. This involves that refers not to the cross but to the appearance before God, subsequently to the death. And it does not account for the absence of the article. It seems more relevant to the passage and more consistent with the purpose of the clause (to show the ground of the efficacy of the blood of Christ) to understand the words as expressing the spiritual nature of the sacrifice which gave it eternal validity. It had superior efficacy to the blood of bulls and goats because it was not of the flesh merely, but was expressive of the spirit. It is the spirit prompting the sacrifice and giving it efficacy, which the writer seeks to indicate. Over against the “ordinances of the flesh” which made the slaughter of animals compulsory and a mere matter of letting material blood, he sets this wholly different sacrifice which was prompted and inspired by spirit and belonged wholly to the sphere of spiritual and eternal things. [ Spiritus opponitur conditioni animantum ratione carentium (Heb 9:13 , Bengel); “bezeichnet das Lebensprinzip, in dessen Kraft, von dem beseelt und angetrieben Christus sich opferte” (Kbel)]. It was the spirit underlying and expressed in the sacrifice which gave it all its potency. Spirit is eternal and can alone be efficacious in eternal things. . The Levitical High Priest, as stated in Heb 9:25 , entered the holy place , but Christ . Also goats and calves were of no great value, but what Christ offered was of infinite value. Two points are brought out by . (1) He offered not a vicarious victim; but, as Priest, offered the only true sacrifice, Himself. Therefore His blood had cleansing efficacy. (2) He offered not a cheap animal, but the most precious of sacrifices. , i.e. , on the cross; for the clause is an explanation of the value of the blood. Cf. Heb 9:28 . without blemish, perfect, as required in the Levitical sacrifices, but now with an ethical significance, and therefore possessing an ethical validity. This explains how the blood of Christ should not merely furnish ceremonial cleanness but , a characterisation of sins suggested by the context. Works that defile; as the touching of a dead body defiled the worshipper. Works from which a man must be cleansed before he can enter God’s presence. A pause might be made before , from dead (not bodies but) works. [ , Hellenistic; see Anz. Subsidia , 374. In class. is used, as in Herod. i, 44, , and sch. Choeph . 72.] This cleansing is preparatory to the worship of the living God . The living God, who is all life, can suffer no taint of death in His worshippers. Death moral and physical cannot exist in His presence. , “ad serviendum, in perpetuum, modo beatissimo et vere sacerdotali” (Bengel).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Spirit. Same as Heb 9:8.
offered. Observe, not sacrificed.
without spot. Greek. amomos. See Eph 1:4.
God. App-98.
from. Greek. apo. App-104.
dead works. See Heb 6:1.
serve. See Heb 9:9 (did the service).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Heb 9:14. ) The blood, and death: see the following verses.- , by the eternal Spirit) See Luk 4:18 : and comp. Rom 1:4; Rom 15:16. The Spirit is opposed to the condition of irrational animals, Heb 9:13. The epithet eternal is understood from Heb 9:12; Heb 9:15, ch. Heb 7:16, and is opposed to the heifer reduced to ashes [ashes of a heifer].-, without spot) Superior as contrasted with every Levitical victim.-, shall purge) It corresponds to , purifying, Heb 9:13. So Heb 9:22-23, ch. Heb 10:23, Heb 1:3. It is put in the future as an antithesis to the present, , sanctifies, Levitically, Heb 9:13.-) , , from, to, denote things contrary.- , from dead works) Things dead most of all defile. The antithesis is , living. The power of sin and death was abolished by the blood of Christ.- , to serve) for ever, in a manner most blessed and truly sacerdotal, [Heb 9:12; Rev 22:3.-V. g.]
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
How: Deu 31:27, 2Sa 4:11, Job 15:16, Mat 7:11, Luk 12:24, Luk 12:28, Rom 11:12, Rom 11:24
the blood: Heb 9:12, 1Pe 1:19, 1Jo 1:7, Rev 1:5
who: Isa 42:1, Isa 61:1, Mat 12:28, Luk 4:18, Joh 3:34, Act 1:2, Act 10:38, Rom 1:4, 1Pe 3:18
eternal: Deu 33:27, Isa 57:15, Jer 10:10, Rom 1:20, 1Ti 1:17
offered: Heb 9:7, Heb 7:27, Mat 20:28, Eph 2:5, Eph 5:2, Tit 2:14, 1Pe 2:24, 1Pe 3:18
without: Lev 22:20, Num 19:2-21, Num 28:3, Num 28:9, Num 28:11, Deu 15:21, Deu 17:1, Isa 53:9, Dan 9:24-26, 2Co 5:21, 1Pe 1:19, 1Pe 2:22, 1Jo 3:5
spot: or, fault
purge: Heb 9:9, Heb 1:3, Heb 10:2, Heb 10:22
dead works: Heb 6:1
to serve: Luk 1:74, Rom 6:13, Rom 6:22, Gal 2:19, 1Th 1:9, 1Pe 4:2
the living: Heb 11:21, Deu 5:26, 1Sa 17:26, 2Ki 19:16, Jer 10:10, Dan 6:26, Act 14:15, 2Co 6:16, 1Ti 3:15
Reciprocal: Exo 12:5 – be without Exo 12:7 – General Exo 12:22 – a bunch Exo 29:12 – the blood Exo 38:1 – the altar Lev 1:3 – a male Lev 3:7 – offer it Lev 4:19 – General Lev 4:20 – an atonement Lev 4:31 – a sweet Lev 4:32 – without blemish Lev 4:35 – and the priest shall make Lev 5:16 – and the priest Lev 8:27 – upon Aaron’s Lev 15:5 – General Lev 15:27 – General Lev 16:12 – from off Lev 16:30 – General Lev 22:19 – General Num 19:4 – sprinkle Num 19:9 – a water of separation Num 19:11 – toucheth the dead Num 19:18 – General Num 19:21 – General Deu 16:1 – the passover 2Ch 4:6 – but the sea 2Ch 35:6 – sanctify Psa 51:2 – Wash Psa 51:7 – and Psa 65:3 – transgressions Isa 6:7 – thine iniquity Isa 40:28 – the everlasting Isa 52:15 – sprinkle Isa 53:10 – when thou shalt make his soul Eze 36:25 – will I Eze 37:23 – will cleanse Eze 44:26 – General Eze 45:18 – without blemish Zec 13:1 – a fountain Mat 5:8 – are Mat 26:28 – my Mat 27:50 – yielded Joh 3:25 – about Joh 6:57 – the living Joh 11:55 – to purify Act 11:9 – What Act 15:9 – purifying Act 24:16 – General Rom 5:9 – being Rom 16:26 – everlasting 2Co 3:3 – the living Gal 1:4 – gave Eph 5:26 – he Eph 5:27 – not Col 2:13 – dead 1Ti 1:5 – a good 1Ti 6:14 – without Tit 1:15 – their Heb 7:26 – holy Heb 8:3 – have Heb 9:18 – dedicated Heb 9:23 – the heavenly Heb 9:25 – offer Heb 9:26 – the sacrifice Heb 10:14 – he Heb 12:22 – of the Heb 13:12 – sanctify 1Pe 1:22 – through 1Pe 3:16 – a good 2Pe 1:9 – that he 1Jo 5:6 – blood Rev 7:14 – and have
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
CHRISTS DEATH AS A SACRIFICE
How much more shall the blood of Christ, Who through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Heb 9:14
Christ was not dragged to the altar. It was a voluntary sacrifice, it was a spontaneous sacrifice, it was a moral sacrifice, offered by that in Him which was highest through the Eternal Spirit; He offered Himself without spot to God.
Let me dwell on two results of our Lords death.
I. Made sin for us (2Co 5:21).What a mysterious expression that seems to be, and no doubt it is. But surely it becomes to a certain extent intelligible to us from one phase of human experience. Is there not such a thing as intense sympathy, intense solidarity of man with man? How could Christ take our infirmities? how could He bear our sicknesses? The incarnate love and glory of God, the sinless son of God, could not be sick; He took death, which summed up all in itself, but sick with particular sickness He could not be; how then did He take our sickness? It was by the depth of His sympathy that He took it.
II. Christ died that He might emancipate themas many aswho through fear of death were subject to bondage. There are those who through fear of death are so subject through all their life; or rather, through all their livingthrough every function and part of life. Are there any amongst us who as our lives go on are haunted by that bondage to the fear of death? As one aspect of Christs death purges man from sin, so another delivers him from the bondage to the fear of death.
III. Now, think of the effect upon human character.How much more shall the blood of Christ, Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Observe, the blood of Christ is said there to be the agent. The blood of Christ in the past has too often been looked at merely as a pathetic expression for the suffering and death of Christ. According to the whole symbolism of Scripture the blood is the life thereof. The blood of Christ speaks of His death, but does not rest there; it goes on to the life, the life that was riven from Himyes, but the life given again; the life that was rendered, yes, but the life tendered to us.
Archbishop Alexander.
Illustration
Dr. Johnson had a perfect horror of death for many years in his life; it was taken away before his time came. No doubt some who are present will remember the sweet and solemn history of the death-bed of Sir Walter Scott, how he died with his windows open to the light, and the soft ripple of the Tweed, as it broke over the pebbles, coming to his ears, and in the chamber itself the voice he loved reading words deeper, truer, grander, fuller than any that had ever dropped even from that magic pen: In my Fathers house are many mansions.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Heb 9:14. The Hebrews admitted that the blood of animals could cleanse the bodies of men from outward impurity. That should enable them to believe in the greater sterilizing power of the blood of Christ. The animals used under the old law were required to be without spot. Likewise the sacrifice of Christ was perfect since He had no blemish either in body or mind or spirit. This sacrifice was made possible through the Spirit, which was necessary because the literal blood of Christ was poured out on the ground and never reclaimed. But the spiritual worth of it was taken into the Most Holy place (Heaven) by Him (verse 12). From dead works means to draw the Christians from the works of the law. (See comments at chapter 6:1.) To serve the living God in this age can be done only by accepting the perfect sacrifice made through the Son.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Heb 9:14. How much more shall the blood of Christ . . . cleanse your conscience from that impurity which shows the inward man to be as a dead corpse, producing only such works as have no pulse, no power or feeling of true and higher life. The context gives to dead works in this passage a slightly different meaning from that in chap. Heb 6:1. And the purpose of this process is to secure not the common service of the Jewish worshipperthe service of an outward life; but the inward spiritual service of the living Godof God not as veiled and in symbols, but of God in His reality and holiness. Such is the work of Him who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot (1Pe 1:19) unto God. Through the eternal Spirit has been variously explained. Through the Holy Spiritsay somewhich was given to Him without measure, or by which He was quickened and raised from the dead, and so entered into the holy place. Others, however, regard the expression as describing all in Christ that was not humanHis higher nature, His Divine personality. This view is favoured by the double fact that it is the writers purpose to describe the intrinsic excellence of His offering, and that elsewhere the Spirit is used in this sense when applied to our Lord. As to His fleshHis human natureHe was son of David; as to the Spirit, what in Him was not human nature, He was the Son of God (Rom 1:3-4; 1Pe 3:18; 1Ti 3:16). The victims of the Law gave up an animal life all unconsciously. Christ gave Himself, His own will and heart consentingnot the man only, but all that was Divine in Him: His higher nature which, before time, acquiesced in the purpose of the Father, and that same nature now a conscious agent in effecting it.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from {l} dead works to serve the living God?
(l) From sins which proceed from death, and bring forth nothing but death.