28).
23 It was necessary therefore that the copies of the things in the heavens should be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ entered not into a Holy place made with hands, like to the pattern of the true, but into the heaven itself, now to appear openly before the face of God on our behalf; 25 nor yet did He enter in order that He may often offer Himself, as the High-priest entereth into the Holy place year by year with blood not his own; 26 since in that case He must often have suffered since the foundation of the world; but now once for all, at the close of the ages, hath He been manifested to disannul sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men once to die, and after this cometh judgment; 28 even so Christ also, having been once offered to carry the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for Him, unto salvation.
9:23. This verse serves for the return from the line of thought in vv. 13- 22 to that indicated generally in vv. 11, 12. The consideration of the use of blood for cleansing and for remission under the Law throws light upon the significance of Christ's Blood in connexion with His heavenly ministry. That which was done in symbol on earth required to be done truly in the spiritual order. In regard to the individual conscience, the Blood of Christ has absolute eternal validity (v. 14): in regard to the sceneif we may so speakof the future service of the Church, the Living Christ fulfils that which was represented by the blood of victims.
ajnavgkh ou\n
...]
It was necessary therefore
, since blood is the means of purification for all that is connected with man's service of God,
that
the typical sanctuary,
the copies of the things in the heavens, should be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
The fact that such a mode of purifying by blood was enjoined for the material instruments of worship carried with it the inevitable consequence that some analogous and therefore some nobler purification should be provided for the divine archetypes.
In an external system the purification might be external, but in the spiritual order it was requisite that the purification should be of corresponding efficacy, spiritual and not material only.
The whole structure of the sentence requires that cleansed should be supplied in the second clause from the first, and not any more general term as inaugurated. In what sense then can it be said that the heavenly things needed cleansing?
The necessity for the purification of the earthly sanctuary and its vessels came from the fact that they were to be used by man and shared in his impurity (comp. Lev. 16:16).
Agreeably with this view it may be said that even heavenly things, so far as they embody the conditions of man's future life, contracted by the Fall something which required cleansing (comp. 1 Tim. 4:4 f. kalovn, aJgiavzetai ). Man is, according to the revelation in Scripture, so bound up with the whole finite order that the consequences of his actions extend through creation in some way which we are unable to define (compare Gen. 3:17 ff.; Is. 24:5, 6; Jer. 23:10; Rom. 8:18 ff.). And conversely the effect of Christ's work extends throughout creation with reconciling, harmonising power: Eph. 1:10; Col. 1:20. ajnavgkh ] It was necessary. The reference is definite, to the purification