In this, the main section of the book of Hebrews, recall how the epistle’s author introduced the superior nature of Jesus’s high priestly ministry to that of the Old Covenant. Beginning in verse 12 of chapter 9, the greater sacrifice takes center stage and stays there until the conclusion of the discourse in the middle of chapter 10.
While the older order house of worship was designed to usher the worshipper into the presence of God, the ritual sacrifices in the wilderness Tabernacle and Jerusalem Temple not only fell woefully short of this goal, but in fact, accentuated the distance and inaccessibility of the worshipper to the presence of God. In and of themselves, these ordinances were carnal; they were but physical types that could only vaguely represent eternal and spiritual things. But where the type failed, the anti-type, the Lord Jesus, succeeded, by entering, once for all into the holy place, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption (9:12). This crucial verse tells us three important things about the new and greater worship which Jesus inaugurates in the New Covenant. 1) how this was accomplished – by his own blood; 2) when it happened – once; and 3) the effect – securing eternal redemption. This third point demonstrates the efficacy of Christ’ s sacrifice.
