John Carter (1889-1962) was a leading Christadelphian preacher and expositor. He served as the editor of The Christadelphian magazine from 1937 until 1962. In his commentary on Heb 9:23-28, we read the following:
The
Cleansing of the Tabernacle (verses 23-28)
But as both new and old covenants
required confirmation by shed blood, so also both the typical and true
tabernacles were cleansed with blood. For the old covenant and the typical
tabernacle animal sacrifices sufficed becoming by their use and association
part of the ritual shadow. But the substance is the “better sacrifice” of
Christ. “it was necessary therefore that the copies of the things in the heavens
should be cleansed with these; but the heavenly heavens should be cleansed with
these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these”
(verse 23).
“The heavenly things” is a phrase
denoting Christ and those who are redeemed by him. They are denominated “heavenly”
in contrast with the “earthly” tabernacle, “made with hands, of this creation”.
There are heavenly, not because their final abode is in heaven, but because
they partake of the character of God who is in heaven, but because they partake
of the character of God who is in heaven. Christ has ascended to heaven for the
time being, but location in incidental to the matter. The phrase has its source
in the fact that in the mount Moses was shown a pattern of which the tabernacle
made by Israel was a “copy”. Relatively to this “copy”, the pattern was
heavenly; so Paul describes it in 8:5: the priests under the law “serve that
which is a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, even as Moses is warned of
God when he is about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make
all things according to the pattern that was shewed thee in the mount”.
It is important to observe that
these heavenly things stood in need of cleaning; and undoubtedly Christ is part
of the heavenly things. As Robert Roberts says: “The phrase ‘heavenly things’
is an expression covering all the high, holy, and exalted things of which the
Mosaic pattern was but a foreshadowing. They are all comprehended to Christ,
who is the nucleus from which all will be developed, the foundation of which
all will be built. The statement is therefore a declaration that it was
necessary that Christ should first of all be purified with better sacrifices
than the Mosaic: ‘Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own
blood he entered in once into the holy place’; ‘not into the holy places made
with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to
appear in the presence of God for us’” (Law of Moses, 2nd edn, page 92).
“There must therefore be a sense
in which Christ (the antitypical Aaron, the antitypical altar, the antitypical
mercy-seat, the antitypical everything) must not only have been sanctified by
the action of the antitypical oil of the Holy Spirit, but purged by the
antitypical blood of his own sacrifice . . .
“If the typical holy things
contracted defilement from connection with a sinful congregation, were not the
antitypical (Christ) holy things in a similar state, through derivation on his
mother’s side from a sinful race? If now, how came they to need purging with
his own ‘better sacrifice’?
“Great difficulty is experienced
by various classes of thinkers in receiving this view. Needlessly so, it would
seem. There is first the express declaration that the matter stands so: ‘it was,
therefore, necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be
purified with these (Mosaic sacrifices), but the heavenly things themselves with
better sacrifices than these.’ ‘It was of necessity that this man have somewhat
also to offer.’ ‘By reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for
himself to offer for sins.’ ‘By his own blood he entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption’ (Heb. 9:23; 8:3; 5:3; 9:12) . . .
“There was next the necessity that
is should be so. The word ‘necessity,’ it will be perceived, occurs frequently
in the course of Paul’s argument. The necessity arises from the position in
which men stood as regards the law of sin and death, and the position in which
the Lord stood at their redeemer from this position. The position of men was
that they were under condemnation to die because of sin, and that not their own
sin, in the first instance, but ancestral sin at the beginning. The forgiveness
of personal offences is the prominent feature of the apostolic proclamation,
because personal offences are the greater barrier. Nevertheless, men are mortal
because of sin, quite independently of their own transgressions. Their redemption
from this position is a work of mercy and forgiveness, yet a work to be
effected in harmony with the righteousness of God, that He might be just while
with the righteousness of God, that He might be just while justifying those
believing in the Redeemer. It is so declared (Rom. 3;26). It was not to be done
by setting aside the law of sin and death, but by righteously nullifying it in
One, who should obtain this redemption in his own right, and who should be
authorized to offer to other men, a partnership in his right, subject to
required conditions.
“How to effect this blending and
poising of apparently opposing principles and different requirements: mercy and
opposing principles and differing requirements: mercy and justice: forgiveness
and righteousness: goodness and severity, would have been impossible for human
wisdom. It has not been impossible with God, to whom all things are possible.
We see the perfect adjustment of all the apparently incompatible elements of
the problem in His work in Christ, ‘who of God, is made unto us wisdom and righteousness,
and sanctification and redemption’ (1c Cor. 1:30)” (pages 171-173)
“Under apostolic guidance, we see
Christ both in the bullock, in the furniture, in the veil, in the high priest,
and in brief, in all these Mosaic ‘patterns,’ which he says were ‘a shadow of
things to come.’ All were both atoning and atoned for. There is no counterpart
to this if Christ is kept out of his own sacrifice, as some thoughts would do.
He cannot so be kept out of place is given to all the testimony—an express part
of which is that as the sum total of the things signified by these patterns, he
was ‘purified with’ a better sacrifice than bulls and goats—his own sacrifice.
If he was ‘purified’ there was a something to be purified from. What was it?
Look at his hereditary death taint, as the son of Adam, through whom death
entered the world by sin, and there is no difficulty. Look at the curse of God
brought on him in hanging on a tree (Gal. 3:13; Deut. 21:22, 23). We must not
get away from the testimony” (page 182). (John Carter, The Letter to the
Hebrews [2d ed.; Birmingham: The Christadelphian, 1947], 102-5)
Further Reading