Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
PROOF OF AND ENLARGEMENT ON, THE "ETERNAL REDEMPTION" MENTIONED IN Hebrews 9:12. (Heb. 9:13-28)
if—as we know is the case; so the Greek indicative means. Argument from the less to the greater. If the blood of mere brutes could purify in any, however small a degree, how much more shall inward purification, and complete and eternal salvation, be wrought by the blood of Christ, in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead?
ashes of an heifer— (Numbers 19:16-18). The type is full of comfort for us. The water of separation, made of the ashes of the red heifer, was the provision for removing ceremonial defilement whenever incurred by contact with the dead. As she was slain without the camp, so Christ (compare Hebrews 13:11; Numbers 19:3-4). The ashes were laid by for constant use; so the continually cleansing effects of Christ's blood, once for all shed. In our wilderness journey we are continually contracting defilement by contact with the spiritually dead, and with dead works, and need therefore continual application to the antitypical life-giving cleansing blood of Christ, whereby we are afresh restored to peace and living communion with God in the heavenly holy place.
the unclean—Greek, "those defiled" on any particular occasion.
purifying—Greek, "purity."
the flesh—Their effect in themselves extended no further. The law had a carnal and a spiritual aspect; carnal, as an instrument of the Hebrew polity, God, their King, accepting, in minor offenses, expiatory victims instead of the sinner, otherwise doomed to death; spiritual, as the shadow of good things to come (Hebrews 10:1). The spiritual Israelite derived, in partaking of these legal rights, spiritual blessings not flowing from them, but from the great antitype. Ceremonial sacrifices released from temporal penalties and ceremonial disqualifications; Christ's sacrifice releases from everlasting penalties (Hebrews 9:12), and moral impurities on the conscience disqualifying from access to God (Hebrews 9:14). The purification of the flesh (the mere outward man) was by "sprinkling"; the washing followed by inseparable connection (Numbers 19:19). So justification is followed by renewing.
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing Hebrews 9:13:
Leviticus 4:35
Isaiah 52:15
Jeremiah 30:21
Jeremiah 33:8
Ezekiel 36:25
Haggai 2:14
Zechariah 13:1
Hebrews 9:9
Hebrews 9:10
Hebrews 9:14
Hebrews 9:24
Hebrews 10:4
Hebrews 10:22
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