Hebrews 9:15–22 Hebrews has established that Christ’s sacrifice accomplishes what the sacrifices of the first covenant could not. The blood of goats and bulls provided the ceremonial cleansing God assigned to them, but they could not perfect the conscience. Christ, by contrast, offered Himself without defect to God through the eternal Spirit. His blood cleanses the conscience from dead works, His entrance into the heavenly sanctuary is once for all, and the redemption He obtained is eternal.
That eternal redemption explains why Christ is “the mediator of a new covenant.” The New Covenant promises forgiveness, and Christ’s death accomplishes the redemption necessary for sinners to receive its blessings. His sacrifice reaches even the transgressions committed under the first covenant so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance. Hebrews develops the relationship between covenant and death through the inauguration of the Mosaic covenant. Moses declared the words of the covenant, sacrifices were offered, and sacrificial blood was applied with the declaration, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.” From its inauguration, the first covenant joined covenant relationship, sacrifice, purification, and blood. Christ’s death fulfills that sacrificial pattern as the mediator of the covenant in which God promises to remember the sins of His people no more.
Hebrews 9:15–22 (WEB) For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, since a death has occurred for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
For where a last will and testament is, there must of necessity be the death of him who made it. For a will is in force where there has been death, for it is never in force while he who made it lives.
Therefore even the first covenant has not been dedicated without blood. For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.”
Moreover he sprinkled the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry in the same way with the blood. According to the law, nearly everything is cleansed with blood, and apart from shedding of blood there is no remission.
For This Reason Hebrews connects Christ’s mediation directly to the sacrifice described in the preceding verses: “For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant.” His priestly sacrifice and His covenant mediation belong to the same work. Jeremiah had promised a covenant in which God would write His laws upon the hearts of His people, establish them as His people, bring them into the knowledge of Himself, show mercy toward their unrighteousness, and remember their sins no more. Hebrews has identified the sacrificial basis upon which those promises are realized.
The sinless High Priest offers Himself once for all, obtains eternal redemption, and cleanses the conscience.
Christ therefore does more than announce the New Covenant or communicate its terms. His death secures the redemption upon which its promised forgiveness rests. The better covenant has a better mediator because its mediator is Himself the High Priest whose sacrifice deals with the guilt standing between God and His people.
Redemption of the Transgressions Christ’s death occurred “for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant.” The statement reaches backward into the history governed by the Mosaic covenant. Israel possessed sacrifices for sin throughout that period, yet Hebrews attributes redemption from those transgressions to the death of Christ. This follows the distinction Hebrews has consistently maintained between the genuine function of the Mosaic sacrifices and their inability to accomplish final purification. God prescribed those sacrifices and attached real covenantal cleansing to them, but they could not perfect the conscience. Their repeated character and their association with the earthly sanctuary belonged to the provisional order through which God taught His people about sacrifice and atonement while anticipating something greater.
Christ’s death therefore supplies the final ground of redemption for sins committed before His historical self-offering as well as afterward. Old Testament believers were not ultimately redeemed by animal blood while New Testament believers are redeemed by Christ. The animal sacrifices accomplished the functions God assigned to them within the Mosaic covenant, but eternal redemption rests upon the sacrifice of the Son. The statement gives Hebrews’ theology of redemption a remarkable historical reach. Christ’s death occurs at a particular moment in history, yet its saving efficacy is not confined to those who live after that moment. The sacrifice that establishes the New Covenant also redeems transgressions committed under the first because the redemption it accomplishes is eternal.
The Eternal Inheritance The purpose of this redemption is “that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.” Hebrews joins eternal inheritance to the eternal redemption of verse 12. The permanence of the inheritance corresponds to the permanence of the redemption through which it is received.
Inheritance is deeply rooted in the biblical covenant story. Abraham received promises concerning descendants, land, blessing, and the purposes God would accomplish through him. Israel later received the land as an inheritance, and the concept became part of the covenant vocabulary of God’s people. Hebrews has already shown that the promise cannot be exhausted by possession of Canaan. Abraham looked beyond his earthly dwelling toward “the city which has the foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”
The inheritance secured through Christ belongs to that larger fulfillment. Its heirs receive it through the death of the mediator whose priesthood is permanent and whose redemption is eternal. What God promised reaches its completion not through the temporary ministry of mortal priests but through the Son who offered Himself once for all.
Covenant, Testament, and Death Verses 16–17 contain one of the more difficult interpretive problems in the passage:
“For where a last will and testament is, there must of necessity be the death of him who made it. For a will is in force where there has been death, for it is never in force while he who made it lives.” The Greek word diathēkē normally means “covenant” throughout Hebrews but can also refer to a testament or will. The WEB reflects the latter sense explicitly in these verses, and many interpreters understand Hebrews to be drawing upon that range of meaning: an inheritance received through a diathēkē naturally evokes a testament whose provisions become operative through the death of the one who made it. On this reading, the author briefly employs the testamentary sense of the word to establish the connection between inheritance and death before returning to covenant inauguration in verse 18. Other interpreters understand the passage entirely within the framework of covenant ratification and take the disputed language as referring to the death associated with the covenant sacrifice rather than the death of a testator. That reading has the advantage of maintaining the covenantal sense of diathēkē throughout and connecting verses 16–17 directly with the sacrificial blood of verses 18–22.
The surrounding argument makes the larger point clear even where the precise force of the word is disputed. The promised inheritance, the New Covenant, and the death of Christ are inseparable. Christ’s mediation does not consist merely in proclaiming covenant promises. His sacrificial death is necessary for the redemption through which those promises become the possession of His people.
The First Covenant Was Not Dedicated Without Blood Hebrews grounds the relationship between covenant and sacrificial death in the inauguration of the Mosaic covenant: “Therefore even the first covenant has not been dedicated without blood.” Exodus 24 records Moses communicating the words of God to Israel, the people committing themselves to the covenant, sacrifices being offered, and sacrificial blood being applied in the covenant ceremony.
Hebrews draws upon that event because the inauguration of the covenant itself establishes the connection under discussion. Blood was not an incidental feature introduced later into Israel’s worship. The covenant established at Sinai was dedicated through sacrificial blood, and the worship subsequently conducted under it continued to join sacrifice and purification with approach to God.
The New Covenant likewise comes through death, but its mediator does not inaugurate it with the blood of another creature. Christ’s own sacrificial death secures the redemption necessary for the eternal inheritance promised to those who are called.
The Blood of the Covenant Hebrews recalls Moses saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.” The wording echoes Exodus 24:8 and places sacrificial blood at the inauguration of Israel’s covenant relationship with God. The same covenantal language appears in Jesus’ words at the Last Supper when He identifies the cup with His blood of the covenant.
The connection places the cross within the covenantal pattern already established in Scripture. Jesus’ death is not an isolated sacrificial event subsequently given covenantal significance by His followers. His blood belongs to the establishment of the covenant promised through Jeremiah, just as sacrificial blood belonged to the inauguration of the covenant at Sinai. The correspondence also highlights the superiority Hebrews has been developing. The blood applied by Moses belonged to animals sacrificed in connection with a covenant whose priesthood, sanctuary, and sacrificial ministry remained provisional. The blood of the New Covenant is the blood of its mediator, the sinless High Priest who gives Himself and whose sacrifice secures the definitive forgiveness promised by Jeremiah.
Sprinkled With Blood Hebrews describes Moses sprinkling the book, the people, the tabernacle, and the vessels associated with ministry. The account draws together features of the Mosaic system rather than reproducing Exodus 24 alone in strict chronological sequence. Exodus describes the sprinkling of the people at the covenant’s inauguration, while the Pentateuch elsewhere describes the consecration and purification of the tabernacle and its furnishings. Hebrews presents these details together as part of the broader pattern in which blood accompanied covenant inauguration, purification, and sacred service. The pattern demonstrates that approach to God occurred according to conditions God Himself established. Israel did not determine what counted as clean, how sacred space should be consecrated, or how guilt should be addressed. The sanctuary, priesthood, sacrifices, and purification rites all operated according to divine command.
Sacrificial blood within that system represented life given in death and testified that communion with the holy God could not proceed by simply disregarding sin and uncleanness. Yet its repeated application also belonged to the provisional character of the Mosaic order. The same covenant that taught the necessity of sacrificial purification anticipated the sacrifice capable of accomplishing what its own repeated offerings could not.
Nearly Everything Is Cleansed With Blood Hebrews summarizes the Mosaic pattern by saying, “According to the law, nearly everything is cleansed with blood.” The qualification “nearly” matters because the Law contained forms of purification that did not require blood. The author is not establishing an exceptionless rule for every cleansing ceremony but describing the dominant sacrificial pattern of the Mosaic system.
Blood occupied a central place within that system because purification and atonement involved life given in sacrificial death. Sin and uncleanness could not simply be ignored in the presence of the holy God. The means of cleansing came from God Himself and reflected the seriousness of approaching Him.
The repeated sacrifices also revealed their own limits. Another defilement required another purification, and another Day of Atonement required another sacrifice. The continual application of sacrificial blood testified to the necessity of cleansing while simultaneously demonstrating that the final cleansing of the conscience had not yet been accomplished.
Apart From Shedding of Blood Hebrews summarizes the sacrificial logic of the Law with the statement,
“Apart from shedding of blood there is no remission.” Its context prevents the words from becoming a detached formula about blood as a substance possessing inherent spiritual power. The subject is sacrificial death within the covenantal means God established for dealing with sin. “Remission” concerns forgiveness, the promise placed at the heart of Jeremiah’s description of the New Covenant. God promised to be merciful toward the unrighteousness of His people and to remember their sins no more. Hebrews has identified Christ’s death as the sacrifice through which that promised forgiveness is secured. God does not forgive by treating guilt as though it were unreal or morally insignificant. The mediator gives Himself in the sacrificial death through which redemption is accomplished.
The importance of Christ’s blood therefore lies inseparably in the life He gives. Hebrews does not present His blood as a sacred substance whose effectiveness can be detached from His self-offering. Christ’s blood cleanses because the sinless Son has offered Himself to God.
The sacrificial system of the first covenant provided the categories through which that death could be understood, while Christ’s sacrifice accomplishes the forgiveness those repeated offerings anticipated.
The Death of the Mediator Hebrews 9:15–22 binds covenant, redemption, inheritance, sacrifice, purification, and forgiveness together in the death of Christ. He mediates the New Covenant because His self-offering accomplishes the redemption upon which its promises rest. That redemption reaches the transgressions committed under the first covenant and secures the eternal inheritance promised to those whom God calls. The Mosaic covenant had joined covenant relationship with sacrificial blood from its inauguration. Moses declared its words, sacrifices were offered, and blood was applied with the declaration, “This is the blood of the covenant.” Its subsequent worship maintained the same relationship between sacrifice, purification, and approach to God. The system was therefore capable of teaching both the seriousness of guilt and the necessity of a God-appointed means by which sinners could approach Him.
Christ fulfills that sacrificial pattern without merely extending it. The mediator of the New Covenant does not bring another animal sacrifice into the succession of offerings already made. He gives Himself. His death provides redemption from transgression, secures the promised inheritance, and establishes the covenant in which God promises definitive forgiveness.
The New Covenant rests upon the once-for-all death of its mediator.