And this was a foreshadowing: for the tabernacle is us, according to the following words: "I will dwell in them, and walk in them" (2 Cor. 6:16). We are also "vessels in the great house of God," some golden, others silver (2 Tim. 2:20). Thus, we were sprinkled with the true Blood of Christ and sanctified, having been baptized into His death.
Heb. 9:22. And almost all things according to the law are cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
Why did he add: "at all"? Because there was neither perfect cleansing nor perfect remission of sins. For how is this possible, when sins were not remitted?
Heb. 9:23. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these,
He calls "heavenly" the things that pertain to us, that which concerns the Church. It was said above in what sense the Church is heaven. Therefore, the things used among the Jews were images and foreshadowings of our sacred rites; for this reason they were also purified with the blood of goats and the ashes of a heifer, and other equally insignificant things.
Heb. 9:23. The very heavenly itself
The meaning is that what belongs to the Church belongs to us.
Heb. 9:23. "better sacrifices than these."
Since our things are better than those of the Jews, and better by as much as heaven is better than earth — and indeed, earthly blessings were promised to them, while our inheritance is heaven — then, in all fairness, our sacred rites are worthy of a better and more magnificent sacrifice, the Blood of the Son of God, which cleanses us more perfectly. Thus, the death of Christ occurred not only for the establishment of the covenant, but also for the accomplishment of true purification, the purification of the soul. He reminds of the benefits of death because to many it seemed dishonorable, and especially death on the cross.
Heb. 9:24. For Christ has not entered into the holy place made with hands, which is a figure of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us,
The Jews greatly prided themselves on their temple, for nowhere on earth was there such a temple either in beauty or in magnificence. Since the Jews were captivated by material things, God commanded that it be constructed in the most magnificent manner. Therefore people came to it even from the ends of the earth (Acts 2:5–10). What then does Paul do? Just as he dealt with the sacrifices and overthrew them by setting against them the death of Christ, so here too, by setting heaven against the temple, he shows the difference. The other high priests entered "into a sanctuary made with hands," which was "a copy of the true one," that is, it was a figure of heaven. For it was the "true" sanctuary. But Christ entered into heaven itself, although He fills all things and is present everywhere; yet Paul says this with regard to His human nature. He shows the difference not only for this reason, but also to demonstrate that our High Priest is closer to God. For the Old Testament high priests saw God through symbols, but Christ beholds God Himself, having appeared "before the face of God." And this is said according to His condescension, according to His human nature. What does "for us" mean? He entered, he says, with a sacrifice able to propitiate the Father, and also to reconcile us with the angels, for they too were hostile toward us as enemies of their Lord. Therefore He now appears "for us"; "now" indicates that He entered as a High Priest, for He entered for the sake of our reconciliation.
Heb. 9:25. Not in order to offer Himself repeatedly,
But He did not enter heaven now in order to enter again a second time, offering Himself.
Heb. 9:25. As the high priest enters the sanctuary every year.
Notice the superiority of Christ. The former — "every year," Christ — once.
Heb. 9:25. with another's blood;
And in this is the superiority. That one — "with the blood of others," of calves and goats, but Christ — with His own.
Heb. 9:26. otherwise He would have had to suffer many times since the beginning of the world;
For, he says, if it were necessary for Him to offer sacrifices many times, then it would have been necessary for Him to die many times as well, by virtue of the fact that He had to offer His own Blood.
Heb. 9:26. He, however, once, at the end of the ages, appeared for the destruction of sin by His sacrifice.
Here he also reveals a certain mystery of why He appeared "at the end of the ages," after a multitude of sins. For if His death had occurred at the beginning, when sin was not yet so widespread, then no one would have believed, and a second time He was not obliged to die; consequently, everything would have seemed useless. But now, after there had been a multitude of transgressions over the course of time, God rightly appeared at the end of the ages, so that by "His sacrifice," that is, by His bodily death, He might destroy, that is, overthrow and render powerless, sin. He expressed this same thing in another place as well: "where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more" (Rom. 5:20). In what way, then, was sin rendered powerless? In that those who committed it were pardoned without punishment. For the power of sin consists precisely in bringing down punishment. This very question was also posed by Gregory of Nyssa in his Catechetical Oration; and in his homily on the feast of the Nativity of Christ he speaks about this same thing: why did the Son become incarnate at the end of the ages? And he answers: because just as the best physicians, when a feverish heat is still slowly burning within the body and intensifying due to the causes producing the illness, do not offer the patient any help in the form of nourishment but wait for the time when the disease reaches the highest degree of its development, so also with regard to us. The Physician of souls waited until the entire disease of impiety was fully revealed, so as to leave nothing hidden unhealed, since a physician heals only what is manifest. You will learn more fully what this divine man says if you wish to read his actual works.
Heb. 9:27. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after that the judgment,
Now he also states the reason why Christ died "once": namely because, he says, He appeared as the redemption of a single death. For it is appointed unto men "once to die." Therefore He also died "once" for all. What then? Do we not die now? We do die, but we are not subject to death as before, and are not subject because of the hope of the resurrection, the source of which is Christ who died for us, and such a death is not death but a falling asleep. Therefore, since death held dominion over all of us, He also died in order to set us free. Or now the apostle wishes to show not that Christ paid for us by the death which we were to undergo as punishment, but the following: since Christ, being God, was at the same time truly man, just as men die "once" and after that comes judgment, so He also died "once." Listen to what follows next.
Heb. 9:28. So also Christ, having once offered Himself as a sacrifice,
Though He is the High Priest, He is also the offering and the sacrifice.