Ruth 4:14-15. Kinsman Redeemer, part 14.

Friday July 27, 2018

 

The Law made nothing complete. Daily sacrifices reminded of sin and did not clean the conscience. Jesus’ sacrifice removes sin and cleanses fully.

 

The Levitical priesthood and the Law made nothing complete. Sacrifices and ceremonial cleansing was repeated day after day. There was always a reminder of sin and nothing of the clean conscience that a believer can have in this age, HEB 9:14.

 

HEB 9:11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation;

 

HEB 9:12 and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

 

HEB 9:13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh,

 

The blood of animals refers to ceremonial cleansing.

 

HEB 9:14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish [qualified to pay] to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

 

A clean conscience from which we serve God is a NT spiritual maturity.

 

We are not ceremonially cleansed by animal blood, waiting for some future time to be fully cleansed. We are clean now through the offering of Christ.

 

How many people can speak with their own conviction, with a clean and pure certainty in the truth of the matter? So many cannot speak with personal conviction, they rather only relate ideas that have been implanted in them from the outside. Faith is the conviction of things not seen and Jesus is the One that is seen, but He has done something to us from the inside.

 

HEB 9:14 gets right to the heart of the doctrine of Kinsman Redeemer. Jesus became a man - blood, which is qualification 1. He offered Himself without blemish - impeccable, which is qualification 2. And, He did so through the eternal Spirit - willingly, which is qualification 3.

 

This deserves our attention.

 

The writer makes a comparison between the efficacy of the blood of animals and that of the blood of Messiah.

 

Animal blood could cleanse ceremonial defilement, but the blood of Christ can cleanse from actual sin.

 

And the reason why the blood of Messiah is so much more efficacious, is stated by the writer in the words, "Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God."

 

In the Greek we have a preposition of instrumentality, dia. There is no definite article before the word “Spirit”.

 

Literally it reads: "Who through the instrumentality of eternal Spirit." This is not a reference to the Holy Spirit, but His own divine Spirit - willing, freely, unbound by any conditions as God.

 

The word used for the spirit of a man and the Holy Spirit are the same in the Greek, pneuma. In almost every case the context of the sentence makes it clear which one is in view. In a few cases, it is difficult to discern. There are many very good theologians who interpret this usage as the spirit of Christ and other very good theologians who interpret it as the Holy Spirit. Since the Kinsman Redeemer is surmised in this passage and willingness is a part of that, we are going to adapt the interpretation that the author means the spirit of Jesus.

 

The ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of Christ is not in any way diminished here. Rather, the writer speaks of the Lord’s willingness. By His own divine Spirit, as He was body, soul, and spirit, He offered Himself. Think of the difference between the spirit of a fallen man, or man alone, and the spirit of a man who is divine. Even as redeemed men and women our spirits are bound by many things: laws, finiteness, limitation, etc. Our Lord’s spirit was bound by nothing. He is Sovereign God. Nothing bound Him to do what He did, yet He did it. The Divine One, the freest of all, chose to succumb to the Sanhedrin, Pilate, the crowd shouting “Crucify Him,” your sin, and the judgment of God the Father.

 

Read it again: HEB 9:14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish [qualified to pay] to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

 

The animals which were offered, had no will, no pneuma or spirit of their own, which could concur with the act of sacrifice.

 

Animals cannot have virtue. They were offered through law rather than any consent, or agency, or counter-agency, of their own. But Christ offered Himself, with His own consent assisting and empowering the sacrifice.

 

His consent was not like yours and mine. We are bound by space and time. We are bound by laws. A divine personality or spirit (Eternal Spirit) is self-conscious and bound by nothing.

 

The eternal spirit is absolute spirit, divine spirit, and thus self-conscious, laying down its own course purely of itself unbound by conditions, simply and entirely free: so that Christ's offering of Himself through His eternal Spirit is, as such, a moral act of absolute worth or efficacy. In other words, a believer in the age of the church could not be more complete or perfect. There could not be one thing considered more perfect or more complete added to the sacrifice of Christ.

 

He condescended. The best man didn’t humble himself. The best angel didn’t. God Himself did. You can’t go any higher than that.

 

He couldn’t be any more perfect or sinless. Born of a virgin, not the product of human means, only God’s means. Again, this is not the best of us, but the God man who was temptable in all things yet remained sinless, not only in what He didn’t do, but in fully obeying the Father’s will in what He did do. You can’t get any better than that.

 

We add to these, that having a divine spirit, unbound by anything, He offered Himself freely. You can’t get any more devoted than that.

 

What could be added to Him or His sacrifice that would make it even a fraction of a percent more complete or more perfect. It is over and above, above and beyond what was needed or necessary. It is eternally perfect and transcendent. It’s more than beautiful.

 

This is what gave efficacy to the blood of Messiah. It was owned and offered by a Person eternal in His Being, infinitely and absolutely worthy in moral and spiritual character, and offered voluntarily.

 

But not only was it the fact that Messiah's offering of Himself was a voluntary one and by Himself as Deity, that made His blood infinitely efficacious. It was also because of the fact that He in His Person was spotless, absolutely holy, perfectly righteous. The animals for sacrifice under the Levitical code, were physically unblemished according to ceremonial standards. He was unblemished in respect to His Person and His character.

 

And again: HEB 9:14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish [qualified to pay] to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

 

The Levitical offering cleansed ceremonially. It left the inner man untouched. The sacrifice of Messiah reaches the very center of the moral and spiritual being of the individual.

 

It cleanses the conscience of dead works, in that it changes the character of the works done by the individual. This is done supernaturally by the baptism of the Holy Spirit and by the full knowledge of the word of God.

 

We are always involved though the Holy Spirit has changed us and continues to guide and empower us. The knowledge of all of these things concerning Jesus Christ and His work, coupled with the actual act of being regenerated or born-again, changed the core of the inner man.

 

Jesus said that it was not what goes into a man that defiles him, but what comes out of his heart. God has given us a divine seed or nature and the knowledge of what that is, what it does, and what its future hope is. All of this together changes us drastically from within.

 

Redemption, and the knowledge of it, changes the believer from within, therefore changes his character, and therefore changes his life’s fruit from human only to divine.  

 

Before salvation, the sinner did so-called good works in the strength of his own sinful nature using various motivations from human sources. They were dead works. After salvation has wrought its mighty transformation within the individual, the good works are motivated, empowered, and produced by the Holy Spirit. They are, therefore, living works. Thus, the person serves the living God.

 

Next (vv. 15-19), the writer reiterates that the old order was temporary.

 

HEB 7:15 And this is clearer still, if another priest arises according to the likeness of Melchizedek,

 

HEB 7:16 who has become such not on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of an indestructible life.

 

HEB 7:17 For it is witnessed of Him,

"Thou art a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek."

 

PSA 110:1 A Psalm of David.

 

The Lord says to my Lord:

"Sit at My right hand,

Until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet."

 

PSA 110:2 The Lord will stretch forth Thy strong scepter from Zion, saying,

"Rule in the midst of Thine enemies."

 

PSA 110:3 Thy people will volunteer freely in the day of Thy power; In holy array, from the womb of the dawn [first light],

Thy youth are to Thee as the dew [numerous and beautifully clothed priests].

 

PSA 110:4 The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind,

"Thou art a priest forever

According to the order of Melchizedek."

 

If He is David’s Lord then He is from the tribe of Judah. If He is a priest forever, then the Levitical priesthood must eventually come to an end.

 

God said that if the people in Israel sought Him they would find Him. The prophecies of Jacob in Gen 49 and Samuel in 2Sa 7 make it clear that the promised King is forever and from the tribe of Judah. Combined with the prophecy of Psa 110, according to the order of Melchizedek, the promised King is also to be the High Priest, and since He is from Judah, the Levitical priesthood is temporary and must eventually be replaced and with it the Mosaic Law.

 

If the people of Israel sought Him with all their heart, they would have known this truth.

 

Yet Jesus knew that they did not discern the truth concerning the Redeemer. Just a few days before His death He asked the religious leaders a question, which was very rare for Him to do.