I’m sure, if you are like me, you have wondered if someone, somewhere, sometime, might ever leave you some large inheritance in their will. Maybe you don’t have any wealthy people in your immediate family, but perhaps there is some long-lost cousin somewhere, or some friend who knows you from afar and wants to bless you. Do you ever imagine what that would be like—to open the mail one day and find that someone has left you a million dollars?
In the passage from the book of Hebrews that we are going to read today we are going to learn about Jesus’ last will and testament. And it is a better will than any other will ever written because in it we are guaranteed much more than a million dollars. Let’s see what great promises are offered to us in Jesus’ will. Listen for the word of God to you from Hebrews 9:15-28…
For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, because a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions under the first covenant.[a]16 Where a will[b] is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. 17 For a will[c] takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. 18 Hence not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. 19 For when every commandment had been told to all the people by Moses in accordance with the law, he took the blood of calves and goats,[d] with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the scroll itself and all the people, 20 saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God has ordained for you.” 21 And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent[e] and all the vessels used in worship. 22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
23 Thus it was necessary for the sketches of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves need better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25 Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own; 26 for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
In verses 15 through 17 we see three important things about Jesus’ last will and testament. First, we learn about the gracious benefactor.
In love, Jesus acts as the mediator of a new covenant. Who does Jesus mediate between? The answer is: his holy Father in heaven and sinful human beings like us. A Great gulf was created between God and us by our sin and Jesus bridges that gap by his life and death.
Think of how generous Jesus was in the giving of his life. He effected our reconciliation with God by the giving of his life blood.
The writer to the Hebrews reminds us of something we all know. No one gets a promised inheritance until it is proven that the person executing the will has died. The death of the testator must be proven beyond all doubt. And such was the case with Jesus. There is no doubt that he died. His death is confirmed not only by the New Testament but by the annals of history. He is our gracious benefactor who gave his life for us.
But secondly, the writer to the Hebrews tells us about the grateful beneficiaries of Jesus’ last will and testament.
Think about it. We are penniless before God, unable to produce the riches of righteousness that he asks of us. Only when we give up trying to please God by our own puny efforts can we hear his call to receive the promised eternal inheritance.
And God’s call to us is not simply an invitation. It is a summons, just like a summons to a law court.
If you were summoned to a law court to hear the will of some wealthy relative read out, some relative who had promised you something in his or her will, do you think you would show up? I know I would. How much more should we respond gratefully, immediately, excitedly to God’s summons in Christ to receive an eternal inheritance?
Thirdly, we learn here about the generous bequest. What are we promised in Jesus’ last will and testament?
Our legacy is a promised eternal inheritance. The word “promise” describes its certainty. In chapter 6 the writer to the Hebrews reminded us that God does not lie. When God swears something on oath we can count on his word. If God has promised us something, we can be sure we will receive it. There is no higher authority who can effectively dispute our inheritance.
The word “eternal” describes the quality of our legacy. It cannot be taken away. It will not rust or wear out or deteriorate in any fashion. It will last forever.
The word “inheritance” says something about the content of our legacy. Our inheritance is not simply future, “pie in the sky by and bye”, though it is that too. Our inheritance is something present. In the present we are “set free from the sins committed under the first covenant”. We are no longer slaves to sin. We do not have to obey its dictates. As the African American spiritual says, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty I’m free at last!”
The writer to the Hebrews goes on to illustrate his point about Jesus’ last will and testament from two Hebrew Scripture passages…
The first illustration comes from Exodus 24. After Moses read out God’s commandments to the Israelites he inaugurated the covenant with a sacrifice. Then he took the blood of the sacrifice and sprinkled it on the altar and on the people. The writer to the Hebrews mentions Moses sprinkling the blood on the Book of the Covenant. This detail is not in Exodus. The writer to the Hebrews may be drawing this idea from some source which is no longer available to us. In any case, both the altar and the Book of the Covenant represent God. Thus, the sprinkling of them, along with the sprinkling of the people with the blood of the sacrifice symbolized the union of the two.
In the same way, Jesus united us with God by the shedding of his blood. At the Last Supper when he took the cup of wine in his hands, Jesus said to his disciples, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
The second illustration comes from Leviticus 8. In Leviticus 8:19 we read, “Then Moses slaughtered the ram and sprinkled the blood against the altar on all sides.”
The idea was that the tabernacle had to be sanctified by the blood of the sacrifice so that it would be purified for the purpose of worship, for the purpose of God meeting human beings. Our writer sees in this a message regarding our life in Christ: namely, without the shedding of Christ’s blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
Many people in our day and in our culture have a hard time dealing with this concept of the importance of the blood of Christ. To many, this focus on the blood of Christ seems primitive, barbaric, or even bizarre.
When Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion of the Christ, was released in Italy, the review board amazingly gave it a “G” rating. Some parents objected, saying the movie was too violent for children to watch—too much blood!
Italian author, Riccardo Zucconi, had his reaction quoted in USA Today. He refused to allow his children to see the film because, in his words: “I want them to have this idea of the spirituality of Christ, not this idea of debauchery. The soul of Jesus is important, not his body.” The writer preferred to have his son watch a 30-year-old film, The Gospel according to Matthew. “That film is very deep,” he said, “and you don’t see a drop of blood.”
Zucconi planned to see The Passion of the Christbut he said, “I think sometimes I will shut my eyes to preserve myself from all this blood.”[1]
So why this focus on blood? N. T. Wright explains that the point of sacrifice within the Hebrew Scriptures was at least threefold. First, it was necessary as a sign of humans offering to God something that represented themselves. Second, it symbolized the outpouring of life in order to deal with sin. Third, the effect of both of these actions was the cleansing or purifying of the worshiper.
Even more importantly, all the sacrificial blood that flowed throughout the times recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures was pointing forward to something no Jew ever could have imagined: that God would somehow pour out his own blood in self-giving love for his people. This is what he did in Christ. The importance of the blood is that it shows forth Christ’s death.
I don’t know how many of you have watched The Passion of the Christ, but when I saw that movie and saw all that blood, all I could think was: “And he did that for me, he suffered that for me, he shed his blood and died for me.” When I first understood at age 12 or 13 that Christ died for me on the cross, it was an amazing thought. It’s still amazing. There is a reason why we call it “amazing grace”. On the cross, God in his Son Jesus met our violent world head on. He took all that violence upon himself, with no retaliation, and in his light, all of that darkness was swallowed up.
A third thing that the writer to the Hebrews stresses about Jesus death is that it was once for all.
Let me illustrate this in this way… Most brides and bridegrooms take a video of their wedding ceremonies these days. I know Becky and I did. And many brides and bridegrooms enjoy watching that video over and over again with family and friends. In fact, each of our boys has watched our wedding video and so have been enabled, in a sense, to be there at our wedding. Strange thing isn’t it?
I imagine many brides and bridegrooms have said when watching their wedding video, “Oh, I wish I could do it all over again. That was such a great day!” But the whole point is that weddings are supposed to be once-in-a-lifetime events. Of course, some people do get married more than once, but seldom if ever to the same spouse. So every wedding really is a once-in-a-lifetime event.
That’s the same point the writer to the Hebrews is trying to make here. But Jesus’ death wasn’t just a once-in-a-lifetime thing, it was a once in eternity thing. This is one key way in which Jesus’ sacrifice is better than all the sacrifices under the old covenant. The priests in the Jewish temple had to offer their sacrifices over and over again. Jesus offered the sacrifice of his body and blood once for all time.
The writer to the Hebrews introduces this idea by explaining that the heavenly sanctuary, just like the earthly one which was its copy, had to be cleansed by sacrifice. This idea, at first, seems strange. Why would the heavenly sanctuary have to be cleansed by blood? Wasn’t it already perfect? The answer seems to be “yes,” but the heavenly sanctuary had to be made ready for the arrival of people who weren’t perfect, who were sinners. Jesus offered the sacrifice of his blood in that heavenly sanctuary so that when we get there we will see it has already been purified, and we have been cleansed, by God’s self-giving love in Jesus.
Verse 24 talks about Jesus appearing in God’s presence (literally) before God’s face. To see God face to face was, in the Hebrew Scriptures, such an awesome thing that the angels even covered their faces in his presence (Isaiah 6). But Jesus stands before the face of the Father without fear so that one day we can do the same.
And Jesus did not have to enter heaven again and again to go before the face of the Father, like the high priests of old entering the Holy of Holies year after year on the Day of Atonement. I think of how many people I have met who have prayed over and over again to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior, thinking perhaps that the first time didn’t work. But we don’t have to pray over and over again to receive Christ. Though we can pray for fresh infusions of his grace. And Jesus himself did not have to enter heaven over and over again. He only had to do it once.
“But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.”
What does the writer to the Hebrews mean by “the end of the ages”?
The events of Jesus’ life and death brought the old age and the old covenant to completion. And at the same moment, a new age dawned. The central characteristic of this new age is that in it sins are forgiven once and for all.
The writer to the Hebrews has very much in mind the picture of what happened on the Day of Atonement. The high priest would enter the Holy of Holies to sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on the mercy seat. Then he would emerge from the sanctuary to declare forgiveness to the people and to deal with the practical outworking of atonement in people’s lives.
Jesus has done something similar. However, he has gone into the heavenly sanctuary, and from that sanctuary he will one day re-appear. But when he re-appears it will be to bring salvation to all those who are waiting for him.
Jesus the testator died once and offered his sacrifice once, just as we will die once, not many times, and after our death we will face judgment.
What will that judgment day be like for you? Will it be a judgment of mercy because you have trusted in the blood of Jesus to cover, to atone for, your sin? Are you longing for Jesus’ second coming, when he will re-appear from the heavenly sanctuary with salvation for those waiting for him? I hope so.
If you have had an email account for very long then, I imagine, you have received one of those scam emails saying that such and such a millionaire or billionaire has died, usually in Africa somewhere, and his inheritance has gone unclaimed. Now all you have to do is respond to the email to claim it.
While all such emails really are scams and should always be deleted and never answered, we have a similar, though real invitation through Christ. Your name is written into the last will and testament of Jesus. You are promised in it, not a million dollars, not even a billion dollars, but something much better—an eternal inheritance. The fact that this inheritance is now yours is confirmed by Jesus’ blood. But you have to claim the inheritance. You have to respond to the email, or else you get nothing.
I hope that if you have not responded before, that you will answer Jesus’ email today. It’s not a scam. And it’s not just a once-in-a-lifetime gift that you are being offered. It’s a once-in-eternity gift. Don’t miss it…
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