Some who may have only a superficial acquaintance with the gospel of Jesus Christ are puzzled at the thought of the death of Christ.
Why did Jesus have to die? He was, as most people generally believe, the best man who ever lived. Not everyone believes that he was sinless. God incarnate, but nevertheless nearly all acknowledge that he was an amazing person.
His teaching is so profound and so practical and his life was such a good life of doing good to all of those that he came into contact with. And so surely Jesus did not deserve to die the death that he did. Cut off at the very prime of life by the cruelest death devised by man.
His blood drained out in full view of the gawking public. Could not he have escaped death by his miraculous power? Could not God, his Heavenly Father, have prevented his death, the death of his own beloved Son? And the answer, of course, to these questions is yes, of course he did or could have, but unless Jesus died on the cross by the shedding of his blood, there would be and could be no salvation for any sinner. And so to answer this question, why did Jesus die, the writer of Hebrews brings us into the very heart of the gospel as he explains the purpose for Christ's death in Hebrews 9 verses 16 through 22.
And we find three reasons that are listed for us here in this section. Why did Jesus die? Number one, to inaugurate the new covenant. Why did Jesus die? Number two, to fulfill the old covenant. And why did Jesus die? In order to remit sin.
Why did Jesus die? Verse 16 of chapter 9 says, For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is enforced after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives. The author of Hebrews, continuing, for this is not the beginning of a new section, but continuing what he has already said in previous verses, picks up on a couple of words out of verse 15, which was our text for last Sunday.
He picks up on that word death and he picks up on the word inheritance. Remember verse 15, And for this reason he, that is Christ, is the mediator of a new covenant by means of death. For the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. Death, inheritance are in the mind of the author of Hebrews, whoever he was, guided by the Holy Spirit.
Death and inheritance are in view. And so he gives us a helpful explanation that centers on this word covenant or testament, translated either way. It is the Greek word diathake and at its base it means an arrangement. The covenant of course is an arrangement. The marriage covenant is a very formal and legal arrangement between two people to be entered into solemnly and to be kept by the promises that are made before God and witnesses.
A marriage covenant is a marriage arrangement of serious proportions. And so this Greek word diathake, arrangement, is generally translated covenant, but it can also mean testament. It's one of those words in Greek that has more than one meaning. We have many words in English like that. If I take the word letter, L-E-T-T-E-R, and I say I received a letter from a friend this week, you know what I'm talking about. Or if I said what is the first letter of the English alphabet and you said A, we'd also know what we're talking about, but there's two very different meanings for the word letter. In one case it is an epistle that has come to us on paper, through the mail, no doubt, or maybe by email. And on the other hand it is one of the symbols, one of the 26 symbols in our English alphabet by which we form letters and are able to communicate in writing. A letter is a small symbol or a letter is a longer epistle. And likewise diathake is a covenant on the one hand or a testament on the other hand.
There are connections between the two, but these are different meanings for the same Greek word. Testament as in last will and testament. I never gave that phrase a lot of thought until I got into this passage. And it seems to me, the best I can figure out, that when we say last will and testament it's almost the same as saying last will and will or last testament and testament because will and testament pretty much have the same meaning, but we combine them together and say last will and testament. So what is a testament?
I took this from a Webster's dictionary. A testament is an act by which a person determines the disposition of his property after his death. That's a testament. I think we would more likely be drawn to the word will to describe the definition I just gave you, but that is exactly the English dictionary definition of a testament.
An act by which a person determines the disposition of his property after his death. And that's the meaning that the writer of Hebrews is now dealing with in verses 16 and 17 as he's explaining why Jesus died. He died to inaugurate the new covenant. He died in order to be able to bequeath this inheritance that he mentioned in verse 15.
He died in order to determine the disposition of, in this case we probably wouldn't say his property, but we would say the benefits of his bestowment that can only take place after his death. And so with that helpful explanation of the word testament as it's used in this particular verse, we notice therefore these two practical observations. Again back to verse 16 for where there is a testament or a will. There must also of necessity be the death of the testator. The testator is the one who makes the testament.
Those words are related. A testament is the act or the document by which the property of someone is disposed of. The arrangements are made for how it shall be disposed of after his death. And that testament is authored by the testator who generally gets an attorney or someone to help him to make sure that it's done legally. And so the practical observation therefore as we're looking at these two verses is that a testament involves the unilateral disposition of benefits and it requires the death of the testator in order to become effective.
Notice both of those things are important. Now the second one is going to be the focus of what this text is talking about but the first thing should not be dismissed too lightly. It is a unilateral disposition of benefits. A testament is not quite the same as a contract that is entered into by both people agreeing together on what the terms are going to be and then entering into the contract. But a testament is a unilateral. One person decides this is how I have decided to dispose of my property after my death.
Here it is. And that's the word that is used for salvation secured by the blood of Christ and his death. He is the one who determines what those benefits will be. He is the one who determines to whom those benefits will go.
And so it involves unilateral disposition of benefits but secondly it requires the death of the testator to become effective. And what the writer of Hebrews is telling us is that the inauguration of the new covenant which brings the benefits of salvation to those for whom Christ died, that is like a last will and testament in several respects, the most important of which for this consideration is that it cannot go into effect until after the death of the one who made that testament. Now what are we examining? What are we inquiring about? The question why did Jesus die?
This gets us to the very first answer to that question. It was necessary in order to inaugurate the new covenant. It was necessary in order that the benefits of his death upon the cross could be dispensed to those who trust in him. And so the gospel application therefore is clear. The new covenant is a testament. That's what it says in the beginning of verse 16. For where there is a testament, talking about the new covenant, where there is a testament there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For, verse 17, a testament is in force after men are dead since it has no power at all while the testator lives. The new covenant is a testament and a testament requires death in order to put its benefits into force. Therefore the new covenant was inaugurated by the death of Christ. And that's what Christ indicated, wasn't it?
On just hours before his death when the certainty of it was looming very large in front of his eyes. And he took up that cup from the Passover supper that he was enjoying with his apostles and he changed the ordinance both as to its details as well as to its meaning from the old covenant ordinance of the Passover meal. He changed it to the new covenant ordinance of the last supper with the breaking of the bread to indicate the brokenness of his body but even maybe more significantly by the taking of that cup to represent his blood. And he said this cup is the new and most versions say new testament in my blood but some translations say this cup is the new covenant in my blood and both of those words will do nicely at this particular juncture. But the point is it takes his blood to inaugurate the new covenant.
It's about to be inaugurated. He's signaling that by this symbol but the symbol is not the reality. The symbol is not the inauguration. Here's the symbol and you'll remember this every time you partake of the Lord's table because this is a powerful symbol to remind you of what it is that enables Almighty God to apply the benefits of Christ's death upon the cross to his believing people. And it is the shedding of blood. This cup is the new covenant in my blood. And so the new covenant was inaugurated by the blood of Christ and the new covenant which is a testament, a new testament and we use those words interchangeably with reason.
I think the reason now becomes more clear. We use those words interchangeably. We talk about the two sections of the Bible, the Old Testament, the New Testament but sometimes we refer to the old covenant and the new covenant. We realize that the old covenant did not occupy all of the writing and all of the history that we find in the Old Testament scriptures because it actually was inaugurated in the days of Moses. There was a lot of scripture, a lot of history, a lot of God's dealings with mankind before Moses came along but nevertheless most of what takes place in the Old Testament took place under the auspices of the old covenant until Jesus came along and inaugurated the new covenant.
And that inauguration required his death. So reason number one, why did Jesus die? In order to inaugurate the new covenant, in order to make the benefits of the new covenant now dispersible to those that he determined to bequeath his benefits to. So number one, Jesus died to inaugurate the new covenant. Number two, Jesus died to fulfill the old covenant.
And that takes us now to verses 18 through 21. Therefore, upon this principle that the new covenant was inaugurated by blood, it required the death of Christ in order to be inaugurate the covenant, it too was inaugurated with the shedding of blood. And therefore the old covenant helps us to better understand the new. The question before us is why did Jesus die and we have learned first he died to inaugurate the new covenant but secondly to fulfill the old covenant. Third, blood was required to inaugurate the old covenant.
For blood is a graphic symbol of death, violent death by sacrifice. Blood was required to inaugurate the old covenant even as blood was required to inaugurate the new covenant. I want to read to you a few verses from Exodus 24 about the inauguration of the old covenant. So Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the judgments and all the people answered with one voice and said, all the words which the Lord has said we will do. And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord and he rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and 12 pillars according to the 12 tribes of Israel. Then he sent young men of the children of Israel who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. The slaying of animals, the shedding of blood in the making of these sacrifices for the old covenant worship. And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the book of the covenant, the scroll upon which these words were written. He took the book of the covenant and read in the hearing of the people and said, all that the Lord has said, and they said rather, all that the Lord has said we will do and be obedient. And you find the children of Israel in the Old Testament saying that repeatedly.
God through his spokesman says, here are my commandments and they say, we will obey them, we will do them. But they never did, did they? In fact, we realize in reality they never could. Their sinful natures could not arise to that level, it could not arise to the requirement of doing everything. They promised to do it, but they failed to do it. They promised to be obedient, but they failed to be obedient. They promised to be sinless, we might say, in their relationship to God and to his law, but they failed.
They were sinful by transgressing the law of God. But here's the final verse in Exodus 24 verse 8. And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, this is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words. And by that he inaugurated the old covenant. Now this inauguration that I just read in Exodus 24 took place before the erection of the tabernacle, before the construction of the tabernacle, before the furnishings of the tabernacle were put into place.
But that also, if you read, there's a lot of Old Testament passages and I thought perhaps we could just refer to them rather than reading them all. But that also, when the tabernacle was constructed, it was inaugurated by a bloody sacrifice, a sacrifice of an animal and the blood that was sprinkled on the tabernacle. And all the furnishings of the tabernacle likewise were inaugurated by blood.
They were cleansed by blood, they were dedicated by blood, they were put into operation by the sprinkling of blood. And so that's the way that the old covenant came into existence. Blood inaugurated the old covenant and blood permeated all of the, or nearly all of the ceremonial rituals of the old covenant.
It was blood, blood, blood, sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice. That blood permeated the old covenant worship not only in its inauguration but also in its continued ceremonies after it was inaugurated. What we have in verses 19 and 21 are what Moses did in the inauguration and the continuation of the activities of the old covenant. And in verse 20 we have what Moses said.
So let's read it again with those two thoughts in mind. First of all what Moses did, verse 19. For Moses had spoken, oh verse 18 rather, therefore not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood. Verse 19, for when Moses had spoken every precept of all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats with water, scarlet, wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people. Evidently the scroll upon which this was written was rolled out on top of the altar where the sacrifices were made but now on the altar and it too was sprinkled with blood. Everything, everything, the people, the furnishings, the very book of the law all sprinkled with blood.
That's what Moses did. He inaugurated everything. He dedicated everything. He cleansed everything. He sanctified everything by the sprinkling of blood. And when he did that, verse 21 tells us about more of that than likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. But when he did that we read what he said in verse 20 and it's very significant. This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded for you. That was a pronouncement that Moses made. I hope the old covenant people of God understood the importance of that pronouncement. This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you. And Jesus when he inaugurated the new covenant said, This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for their mission of sins. Do you see the parallel?
Not exact wordage but so close, the parallel. We shouldn't miss that. So blood permeated old covenant worship in its inauguration and by its ceremonies. Sacrifices were made on the altar every day. Animal sacrifices. Animals were killed. Their blood was drained. It was collected.
It was sprinkled. All of this going on every day and some extra sacrifices weekly on the Sabbath day in addition to the daily ones. And even more on the annual day of atonement when the high priest shed the blood of animals and went behind the veil to the Ark of the Covenant and there sprinkled blood upon the mercy seat. Blood permeated old covenant worship. The old covenant was a bloody religion.
Critics have noted that and scoffed at it. Such a bloody religion. How could anyone ever be willing to be part of such a bloody religion?
You've missed the whole point. It is a bloody religion deliberately by design. The blood of the old covenant speaks of something. It points to something. It teaches us something.
Don't miss it by your skepticism and your scoffing. Yes, it was a bloody religion. That old covenant in its activities was just permeated with blood.
Because it was teaching us something very important about the way of salvation. Blood pointed to the wages of sin. The wages of sin, we read, is death. The soul that sins, the Bible tells us, shall die. And blood is a symbol of death.
It's the most vivid symbol I think that it would be possible to point to. And therefore blood is a reminder of sin's penalty. Sin brings death. Blood, blood, blood.
Death, death, death. Sin brings the judgment of death upon the sinner. Blood is a symbol of death. Blood is a symbol of sacrificial death. The reason there was so much blood in the old covenant was because of all the animals who were killed and their blood drained out.
That was part, a very important part, of the sacrifice of these animals in old covenant worship. So blood pointed to the wages of sin as a reminder that we who have sinned deserve to die. In fact, we who have sinned have already been condemned to die. It's not that we shall die. There are different aspects of death. But the most serious aspect is separation from God himself. In the garden, God said to Adam, the day that you eat thereof, disobey sin.
The day that you do that, you shall surely die. Dying, you shall die. We recognize, of course, that they didn't die physically that day. In fact, Adam went on to live for hundreds of more years, didn't he?
Some would say, ah, God said the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die. And he didn't die for hundreds of years. Oh yes, he died immediately in that he was now separated from God. He who had had perfect communion with his creator, who was in perfect fellowship with the holy God, he being a sinless man, he had that relationship with God which was now severed. He was cut off from God. He was dead spiritually.
And he would die physically. And without remedy, he would die eternally, separated from the joys and the blessings and benefits of being in the presence of God. All of that is the death that belongs to those who sin. Blood, blood, blood. Death, death, death. The wages of sin is death.
The soul that sins, it shall die. The old covenant. How many animal sacrifices were made under the old covenant worship from the days of Moses until Christ put an end to that? And it even continued on, as you know, some years after Christ's death until the Romans put an absolute stop to it, no doubt unquestionably designed by God to destroy the temple and to end all the sacrifices. How many animals do you suppose were sacrificed during that time? Hundreds wouldn't be enough to cover that period. Probably wouldn't even be enough to accurately describe what took place in one year. Thousands would not be enough. Tens of thousands probably wouldn't be a sufficient number.
Hundreds of thousands may be getting closer to the truth. Can you imagine all of the animals, all of the blood that was shed during the time that the old covenant was in effect? Blood, blood, blood. Death, death, death. The penalty of sin is death. That's what it was pointing to. But even though the blood of the old covenant pointed to the wages of sin, it also pointed to the remedy for sin.
What is that? As the penalty of sin is death, so the remedy for sin is death. And that was portrayed by the death of the animals in the place of the worshiper, in the place of the sinner.
The sinner, the worshiper, who has sinned, deserves to die. But he comes with his animal sacrifice and he lays his hands upon the head of the animal, symbolically transferring his sins to the animal. And then the animal, as his substitute, dies in his place. And God mercifully overlooks his sin, knowing, as God does, and knowing as any thinking, believing person surely should have understood, that that animal can't really take away my sins.
The value of the animal isn't even as much as the value of my own soul. But nevertheless, if this is the arrangement God has made, we're grateful for it and we'll do it. We'll symbolically transfer our sins to the animal and we'll let the animal die in our place, the substitute for our judgment. But all of that, of course, is teaching the lesson for what is the remedy for sin. The penalty for sin is death, blood, blood, blood. The remedy for sin is death, blood, blood, blood. The blood of the sacrificial animals and all of that pointing to the ultimate sacrifice, the one that can really take away sin, the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is all pointing to his death. Blood telling us about the wages of sin, blood pointing to the remedy for sin. And therefore, in this way, Jesus' death fulfilled the purpose of Old Covenant worship. His death was the effective sacrifice that the sacrifices of the Old Covenant were not.
They were only symbolic of the one that was to come, the one that John the Baptist pointed to when he said, Behold, the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world. His death alone could atone for sin. So why did Jesus die? He died, number one, to inaugurate the New Covenant. Why did Jesus die? He died, number two, to fulfill the meaning of the symbols of the Old Covenant and to put that aside now that its meaning has been fulfilled with the arrival of the one true sacrifice able to take away sin. But we have a third reason in our text today, and that's in verse 22. Why did Jesus die? He died to remit sin.
A little bit of overlapping here, but let's look at this specifically. Verse 22. And according to the law, almost all things are purified with blood. And without shedding of blood, there is no remission.
He died to remit sin. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. What is remission?
What does it mean to remit? Again, from Webster, remit means to release from the guilt or penalty of sins. To release from the guilt or the penalty of sins. But without the shedding of blood, there is no remission.
It was necessary. Jesus had to die. Yes, the penalty for sin is symbolized by blood to point to its seriousness, to point to its deadliness. But the remedy for sin is also accomplished by blood, foreshadowed by the Old Covenant sacrifices of animals, where almost all things are purified with blood, we are told. Verse 22, and according to the law, almost all things are purified with blood. It doesn't say all things, it says almost all things, which causes us to say, well, what wasn't? Most things were, what wasn't?
What are the exceptions? That we're not purified or cleansed or dealt with by blood. Well, there are a couple of things.
It's rather interesting. One in particular, I wasn't even aware of this, consciously aware of it until I got into this passage, though I'm sure I've read it scores of times in the Old Testament Scriptures. I think all of us know that the requirement for a sin offering was to bring a sheep or a goat or an oxen, an animal of some worth to the tabernacle and later the temple to the priest for him to kill it and shed the blood and that becomes the substitute, the sacrificial payment for the sins of the worshiper. But I think we all know that if a worshiper was poor and couldn't afford one of these larger farm animals, we might call them, they could bring instead two turtle doves or two pigeons, right? We know that because Joseph and Mary brought as a sacrifice for Jesus two turtle doves and two pigeons. That was a provision for the poor, but here's what I didn't realize. There was even a provision for someone who was so poor they couldn't afford pigeons or turtle doves.
What was it? Two quarts of fine flour, an ephah of flour. No blood there. That's an exception. According to the law, all things, almost all things, are purified with blood. Here was an acceptable sacrifice to God that didn't involve blood simply not because the meaning was different, but because God is so merciful, He makes provision for everyone who will believe Him, who will honor Him, who will worship Him in the way that He has said. Even the poorest of the poor could afford to bring some flour.
Everybody used flour every day in those days. What a merciful and gracious God to make a provision like that for those who couldn't bring a bloody sacrifice. And if you'll read the Old Testament carefully, you'll find there are a couple of things that must be purified by putting them in the fire, metal objects which needed to be purified.
But apart from those rare exceptions, almost everything else in the Old Covenant was purified by blood. But that bloody sacrifice was all completed and ended with the final sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the cross. The fulfillment of the Old Covenant system was accomplished at the cross where the seriousness of sin is portrayed as you see this awful death, which we are to understand is what every sinner deserves. Every one of us deserves to be hanging on that cross in agony. The fulfillment is accomplished at the cross where the justice of God is revealed.
Justice must be satisfied. God Almighty, who knows all things and we say in a manner of speaking can do all things, nevertheless there are some things He cannot do because they would be in violation of His own holy character. And one of the things He cannot do is simply overlook sin, forgive it without any penalty being paid. We often imagine that that's the way God operates, but it's not.
He doesn't do that. He can't do that without violating His own holiness, His own perfect justice. Justice must be satisfied, but Jesus satisfied divine justice, didn't He, upon the cross. So on the cross the seriousness of sin is portrayed, on the cross the justice of God is revealed. On the cross the love of God is displayed, God who cannot exhort nor sin. Justice demands a penalty and He is a just God, but God can provide the penalty Himself for sinners at great cost, which is what He did. That He might be, as Romans 3.26 tells us, both just and justifier of Him who believes in Jesus. Justice is not abridged one whit, but God Himself provides the remedy which we could never provide in order that believing sinners might be freed. At the cross justice and mercy meet, and that's the only place they meet, but there they meet. The holy God requires a just judgment.
The merciful God provides the required payment, and what a payment it is, at what cost, and what love is demonstrated in the giving of His own beloved Son, that whoever believes on Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. Why did Jesus die? In order to inaugurate the new covenant, He had to die before its provisions could go into effect. Why did Jesus die? In order to fulfill the old covenant, to complete everything that it spoke about and what it pointed to and to bring it to its completion. Why did Jesus die? In order to remit sins.
That's the only way. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission, and it can't just be any blood. Those edible sacrifices, as many as there were and as much blood was shed, that wasn't equal to what was needed. That really couldn't satisfy the justice of Almighty God. But His eternal Son, God, robed in human flesh, man, living a perfectly obedient life, dying the death that sinners deserved, can satisfy the holy justice and the amazing love and mercy of Almighty God. And that's why Jesus died. In summary, why did Jesus die? Not, as some think, as a martyr for a noble cause.
Not at all. He was not a martyr. His life was not taken from Him. He laid it down voluntarily upon the cross.
Why did Jesus die? Not merely as an example of selfless love, though it certainly is that. But that's only secondary. That's only a lesser matter, though a wonderful one. But not merely as an example of selfless love. But why did Jesus die? As the only remedy which can actually remit sins. Old covenant sacrifices could not accomplish remission. They could only point to the need for a truly effective sacrifice that God promised He would give in due time.
And Old Testament believers, Old Covenant believers who believed in the promises of God were saved, not on the basis of their Old Covenant worship, but on the basis of the promised Messiah who would come, who could actually remit sins and dead when He died on the cross. He died as the only remedy which can remit sins. The eternal Son of God became a man so that He could live a perfect life of obedience as a human being.
The only human being who did so. So that He could die as a sufficient payment to satisfy God's justice. A thrice holy God of perfect justice. He died to pay the penalty required by God. His blood is the only blood that can truly remit sins. So how do we benefit from His sacrifice? How do you benefit from His sacrifice? Well, start with your sin.
As long as you deny it, excuse it, don't own up to the full gravity of it. Think yourself to be righteous, to some extent anyway, sufficiently so that you don't need a Savior, then there's no salvation for you. Jesus Christ didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. If you're going to be saved, you've got to become a sinner in your own eyes, in your own thinking, in your own heart.
You are, but oh how we try to think otherwise, to think better of ourselves than what the Bible says is true. So you must admit your sinfulness, repenting of your sins, confessing your sins, acknowledging them, saying the same thing about them that God says. If God in His word says this is a sin and you've done it, then you're a sinner.
Acknowledge it, own it, and repent of it. How do you benefit from His sacrifice? Embrace Christ.
What the Bible tells us about Him. You'll never be saved denying Christ's sinless life because you're not trusting in the Savior that God gave and in the provision that He made and what He had to do in order to qualify. Embrace Christ in His sinless life. Embrace Christ in His vicarious death. He must die for sinners. He must die for me if I am going to be saved. I must embrace that by faith. Believe His promises that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and enjoy the benefits of the testament that the testator Jesus Christ bequeathed upon His believing people when He died on the cross. Would you be free from your burden of sin? There's power in the blood of the Lamb.
Let's pray. Father, how grateful we are for this wonderful gospel. We never tire of it.
We never get to the end of it. We always find new elements, new aspects, little things about it that perhaps we had not seen or considered before. It is so great. It is so vast. It is so wonderful. It is so valuable. And yet it is so simple that even a trusting child can believe and be saved. Father, cause everyone under the sound of my voice today to come humbly, bowing at the foot of the cross, acknowledging His sin, and trusting the Savior, we ask in Jesus' name, amen.
