Hebrews
Rite Versus Reality
Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony
Subject: Conversations, Panels, and Sermons
Lesson: 19-33
Genre: Lecture
Track: 19
Dictation Name: RR198K19
Location/Venue:
Year:
Let us worship God. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thy heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord.
Let us pray.
Our Lord and our God we give thanks unto Thee for all the blessings of the week past. We know our Father that in all things Thy hand is upon us for good; teach us therefore to seek in adversity Thy face, to know in troubles thy blessing, to know in tribulation that Thou art there, and Thou wilt prosper us mightily for Thy names sake. Bless us this day as we give ourselves to the study of Thy word, grant that by Thy word and by Thy spirit we may indeed understand the things of Thy kingdom, the things of Thy calling, and the things of Thy grace. In Christ’s name we pray, amen.
Our scripture is Hebrews 9:13-17. Our subject, Rite versus reality. Rite, R I T E. Rite Versus Reality. Hebrews 9:13-17.
“ 13For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
14How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
15And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
16For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.
17For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.”
Hebrews is concerned with demonstrating the finality of Jesus Christ’s work. The characteristic of the mark of Aaron’s priesthood was repetition. Over and over again, year after year, the sacrifice of atonement was made. The sanctuary had a required ritual because repetition was inevitable where no full atonement was possible. However, the priestly sacrifice was important in setting forth the meaning of atonement. And yet however closely the typical sacrifices tied the sacrifice to the coming one, they were not efficacious in any final sense and they required the true High Priest and the true and final sacrifice to make atonement.
The rite had only meaning because of that which was to come. Repetition had to give way to the final and totally efficacious atonement, the Levitical high priest and his sacrifices were pale shadows of that which was to come. Liturgy can never replace reality. It can foreshadow or represent it, but it is not itself the reality it represents. But men like ritual, it is present, the once and for all act is past history.
Men are often more wedded to forms and shadows in preference to reality. They prefer the partial to the full reality because no room is then left for their own free activities. What can you add to the atonement? But you can be a part of a ritual, and a significant part of it. Men prefer the shadows of ritual to the living presence of God.
In verses 13-14 we are told that the Levitical sacrifices had a partial validity, not in and of themselves, but as typifying that which was to come. The reference is the yearly sacrifices of goats and bulls on the day of atonement, described in Leviticus 16, and to the sacrifice of the red heifer described in Leviticus 19.
These gave the worshipper freedom to worship, and to enter into communion with the covenant God. Jesus Christ offered himself as an unblemished sacrifice to God. His own eternal spirit was fully in the sacrifice, whereby He purged our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God. The reference to Christ’s eternal spirit tell us that from all eternity, the atonement was Christ’s calling and purpose. This is why He is the mediator of the New testament, as verse 15 tells us. The atonement is not an after thought, but it is central to the being of God the son. By His death all who are called receive the promise of eternal inheritance. His death, His blood effect a cleansing and a renewal in us, all the transgressions of God elect people that were under the first testament or covenant, are wiped out.
Because this letter is to the Hebrews, this pointed reference to the people of that covenant, now the Greek word mean both testament and covenant; but from its usage we know that it is the Greek meaning of Testament that is involved. The reference is to stress that all atonement, with reference to the Old Testament era, depends on Christ’s atoning work. How then can you be wedded to the ritual? Wedded to the temple, to the ceremony, rather than to Jesus Christ? By the death of Christ, they received the promise of eternal inheritance. The choice is theirs. The signs and types of the old testament or the reality in Christ.
Now a Testament required as verse 16 tells us, the death of the testator. A will does not go into force, a last will and testament, until the make dies. Without the testators death, there is no inheritance. The death of Jesus Christ opens up the will for His people. In Revelation the opening of the testament also opens up the great warfare to alienate the inheritance from Jesus Christ’s people. And it is a bitter but futile war. We are in that war now. The force or legal status of the testament requires as we have seen the death of the testator as verse 17 stresses. A will becomes effective when there is a death. This means that for the promises to become effective the will had to go into effect with Christ’s death.
The promises had been made, from Adam through the prophets, but they are not effective until Christ dies. As Revelation makes clear in Revelation 5:1 following, the will is made and also opened by Jesus Christ. No one else can put the will into force. All the enemies of Hell and Earth wage war against those who are to inherit. Only the one whose death it is can again open up the will or the scroll.
Although the powers of hell and of this world contest the will, it is finally put into force. And the great proclamation follows as Revelation tells us: “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. And He shall reign forever and ever.” The crucified Christ makes the testament and the resurrected Christ reigns triumphant over His peoples.
We began by calling attention to the finality of Christ’s work. This is a basic aspect of the gospel, there is nothing tentative about what Jesus Christ did. It is eternally efficacious. Gods works are never problematic nor incomplete. In every area, his ways are total and perfect. His work of creation is Genesis 1:31 tells us: “Very Good.” His predestination is total as Matthew 10:30 tells us: “The very hairs on your head are all numbered”
Now what man does is tentative, and partial. But not so with God. Hebrews by here stressing the finality of Christ and of His atonement cuts the ground out from under mediatorial groups, persons, and ministries. The Levitical priesthood could not compare with Jesus Christ. Similarly, the church cannot arrogate to itself powers restricted to the Redeemer King. And this is what the church has done again and again in its history. It arrogates to itself powers that belong to Jesus Christ.
At issue in Hebrews, are the unwarranted claims by the temple and the synagogue to a mediatorial function between God and man.
But the church also has at times exalted the institution over its Lord, with devastating results. Instead of a people with clean consciences before God, we have then a weakened and conscience stricken people. The church that exalts itself, dishonors Christ. What does Christ do? We have been told He cleanses our conscience, so we can stand before God and man with a clear conscience. But what does the world constantly try to do? To impose guilt upon us.
Leaving people with a guilt trip is one of the most common things in our time. This is the essence of politics. Make people feel guilty, so they will give however grudgingly and reluctantly, because they feel they will be worse off in their conscience if they don’t.
I’ve referred to it before, but one of the most memorable experiences, and I saw this kind of cartoon on the editorial page again and again after that time, year in and year out sometimes. But back in the 20’s when I was a child, an editorial cartoon at thanksgiving showing a family gathered around a thanksgiving table with a table loaded with all kinds of things, and then in the shadows you saw all the starving people of the world. The whole point was to make you feel guilty if you enjoyed your thanksgiving dinner.
I thought then and there that that was wrong, and every time I’ve seen something like that since I’ve known it to be evil. And the church does it.
I know that years ago, a woman who joined the church, a very lovely and gracious person, told me that her father was a very devout, conscientious believer, would go faithfully every Sunday morning and night to his Bible believing church, and come home feeling what a terrible sinner he was. And she said: “I did not like that kind of church.” Well, church and state, society in general, the films, all the media are intent upon putting a guilt trip on people. And then to offer their own remedies for absolution. “Do what we say, give where we say to give, and they insistently milk the people because they have first laid a guilt trip on them.
Well, Hebrews militates against that. What is the purpose of the atonement, to have a clear conscience before God. A clear conscience, to know indeed that while we are sinners we are saved by grace, and the atonement blots out all our sins and transgressions. We live in fearful times, because the most horrible kind of slavery is one which is within. And this is what church and state and society are intent upon doing with all their heart mind and being: to put a guilt trip on people, to leave them guilt ridden because guilty people are slaves. And of course then, with their remedies they can exalt themselves, as church and state and various aspects of society are now doing. But the church that exalts itself dishonors Christ.
Let us pray.
Our Father, we thank Thee for this Thy word, for the finality of Christ’s work, we thank Thee that by His coming the status of all institutions that seek to provide a go-between Thee and us has been destroyed. And they have been given ministries under Thee. Teach us out Father, always to know that in Jesus Christ we have a clear conscience before Thee. In His name we pray, amen.
Are there any questions now about our lesson?
Yes.
[Audience Member] Rush, isn’t this inclination to rites and ceremonies often times a reflection of the influence of paganism, because paganism often tends to be obsessed with external rites and that sort of thing?
[Rushdoony] Paganism of course, more than anything else stresses a bad conscience. And it works to create it, and whenever you have church and state and society working to create a bad conscience among people, if that isn’t checked in time it leads to paganism, where you have the total enslavement of the conscience. Take Gaia worship, worship of mother earth which is so popular today. You are to feel guilty for what you and your forefathers have done to the environment, to the air, to everything. To animals. And its whole purpose is to leave you with a bad conscience. Now environmentalism is pernicious in this. All you have to do is to read some of what our environmentalists have to say, and you are left feeling as though you were one of the worst people imaginable. This is the labor day weekend, and of course they put out regulations, or rather an advisory with regard to keeping the air clean over the weekend. No backyard barbecues. Well I was glad to see that they interviewed a couple of people who laughed it off. What was their barbecue compared to all the smoke from the forest fires? Thank God there are still some people with a sense of humor.
But the whole point of all this is to leave you feeling guilty, if you have a backyard barbecue, if you go boating, or if you get in your car to go and visit your relatives or friends, all those things were mentioned. And they showed us pictures of cars on the freeways going here and there as though those people were the worst kind of wretches. Well, the whole idea is a bad conscience. This is what they want. More than clean air they want you to have a bad conscience because if they wanted clean air they’d have a more honest approach towards the whole problem, and would not make mountains out of mole hills.
Are there any other questions or comments?
Well, if not let us conclude with prayer.
Our Father, Thy word is truth, and Thy word heals and cleans. We thank Thee that Thou hast cleansed our conscience through the atonement of Jesus Christ, and Thy cleansing word day after day refreshes us and reminds us of our privilege in Christ. Make us effectual in the face of the paganism around us, that we may be more than conquerors through Christ.
And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, Amen.