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dead are represented as receiving strength for a time from the blood which they eagerly drink: Od. 11.36ff.; 95 ff.; 152; 231.

The Blood, in other words, represents the energy of the physical, earthly, life as it is. The use of the term in the Epistle to the Hebrews becomes first fully intelligible by taking account of this truth. The Blood poured out is the energy of present human life made available for others.

1. The first mention of Blood prepares for all that follows from the conception: Since the children are sharers in blood and flesh, He also Himself in like manner partook of the same ...(Heb. 2:14). Christ became true man under such conditions that He could die even as men die, and in dying make the virtue of His life accessible to the race. For it must be remembered that in Scripture death under its present form is not regarded as a natural necessity, but as a consequence of sin. By this perfect assumption of humanity, the sacrifice of absolute obedience became possible. In life and in death Christ was able ‘to do the will of God,’ both as Son of man and under the circumstances of the Fall (10:4 ff.).

2. The next mention of Christ's Blood brings before us the accomplishment of this work: Through His own Blood [Christ] entered once for all into the Holy place, having obtained eternal redemption (9:12). As, in the type, the Jewish High-priest came before God through and in (v. 25) the power of the life of victims offered up, Christ came before Him ‘through His own Blood.’ Through a life lived and a death willingly borne according to the mind of God, He could rightly approach God in His glorified humanity; and at the same time He provided for men also the means of approach ‘in His Blood.’

3. This thought comes next. The Life of Christ offered in its purity and fulness to God cleanses men, and enables them also to serve Him Who is a living God (9:14). Just as the blood of the appointed victims was efficacious by Divine promise for the representative of the people, the Blood of Christ in its essential nature is efficacious for those to whom it is applied. In the Blood of Jesus —not simply ‘through’ it— we have boldness to enter into the Holy place (10:19). In this respect the Blood has a twofold action, personal and social. It is the ‘blood of sprinkling’ (12:24), touching with its quickening power each believer; and it is also a force of consecration through which ‘Jesus sanctified the people’ (13:12).

4. This last passage brings into prominence yet another thought. The Blood of Christ is not only available for individual men. It has established for the race a new relation to God. The offered Life in which Christ found the glorified Life of the Resurrection (13:20 oJ ajnagagw;n ejk nekrw'n ... ejn ai{mati ...), is, in virtue of His Nature, the blood of an eternal covenant ( l. c. ). In this the Christian is sanctified (10:29) when he is admitted into the Christian Society. And, however little we may be able to give distinctness to the truth, its hallowing, cleansing, power reaches to all finite things with which man has contact.

The mere indication of the passages, as they follow one after the other and reveal the harmonious completeness of the apostolic teaching, will be enough to encourage the student to examine them in detail in their mutual relations.

Additional Note on Hebrews 9:12. The idea of lutrou'sqai, luvtrwsi" , & c.


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