6.19.26 – Yeshua in Hebrews, Part 2

In yesterday's study, "Invest Wisely," at first blush, it appears we went away from Yeshua in Hebrews, but in actuality, it is an essential piece of the puzzle to hear, "Well done."

The heavenly sanctuary represents the place where God and humanity can meet. Yeshua has reopened it, which raises an obvious question—and the author of Hebrews wants to answer it. This week's study of Hebrews does the heavy lifting we need for understanding that answer.

His blood is life—and not just any life. It is an indestructible life. Hebrews says that He walked into death, and death could not hold Him. He holds His priesthood by the power of His indestructible life (Heb. 7:16). That is why He is a priest of a different order—not because of His bloodline, but because death could not hold Him. A life like that—indestructible—and blood like that is the most potent force in all of creation: the strongest purifying and consecrating power there is. And that is the key to the book of Hebrews. His blood is the one life-giving act that can do what no other can do. It can clear the heavenly sanctuary and reach places no animal blood could ever go.

You will notice something interesting in Hebrews: "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness" (Heb. 9:22). But this is not because death is the price—it is not about death. As we have learned repeatedly, blood is about life. Life is the agent, and His is the most important life there is. This verse is a statement about purification, not a demand for death.

Side note: if anyone ever tells you there is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood, that is actually not strictly true—and the author himself qualifies it. He says, "one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood" (Heb. 9:22). He knows his Torah. Flour could be used for the poor worshiper (Lev. 2), and water, fire, and the census of silver could also provide atonement without a drop of blood. Actually, I know of at least seven different forms of atonement in Scripture. That is a jaw-dropping side note—I probably should not have added to the confusion—but it shows another way His blood opens the way.

Remember back to our twelve-week study: there is something else that blood does, something a sin offering could never do—it consecrates. Think back: the blood sealed the covenant at Mount Sinai (Ex. 24:3–8). It makes a covenant; it consecrates. That was not a sin offering. The blood that ordained the priests and set them apart for service was not a sin offering either—it was a different kind of blood: the blood of covenant and consecration. That is the kind of work that Hebrews lays onto Yeshua in His high priesthood. His life-giving blood inaugurates a new covenant—the one the prophets promised, tied to forgiveness and to writing His Torah on our hearts (Jer. 31:31–34; Heb. 8:7–12). And it does not only bring forgiveness; it also consecrates. It takes ordinary people and sets them apart as priests, conserving God's holy space so that people can come near when they have this consecration.

The third and most powerful thing Hebrews wants you to understand is that Yeshua's blood does something unbelievable: it reaches the conscience. The sacrificial system could never reach inside a person and cleanse the conscience itself—there was no offering written for that. The author says it outright: the blood of bulls and goats could never perfect the worshiper from the inside out. But the blood of the Messiah, offered through the eternal Spirit, purifies our conscience from dead works to serve the living God (Heb. 9:12–14). The same power that clears the sanctuary also clears the person. Our hearts are sprinkled clean.

Now, some may object—and that is good; it means you are reading carefully. I have said again and again that sacrificial blood never cleansed moral impurity from a person; it dealt with ritual impurity. Moral guilt had to be answered by repentance, and at its worst, through exile. We even said that the deepest moral pollution built up on the holy space beyond what any sacrifice could touch, and God would leave the area until His presence was driven out. That was the ceiling of the whole system. So how can I now tell you that blood reaches the conscience? Because Yeshua is not just a better sacrifice, doing the same old job. Sacrifice hit the wall of exile; His life reaches past it. That is what an indestructible life is for. Ordinary blood could never cleanse our conscience of that deep pollution—but He can. The author makes the same argument: if the blood of bulls and goats could purify the flesh (outward ritual impurity), how much more does the blood of the Messiah reach the conscience? The greater life reaches where lesser blood never could. That is the whole reason for the distinction between Jesus and a sacrifice.

Happy Preparation Day and Shabbat Shalom!

Alan 

Feel free to go to DEVOTIONAL on lightintorah.org for any back studies