In last Sunday’s sermon, I decided not to make much comment on Hebrews 9:23, except noting that it is the author’s transition from speaking of the old covenant to speaking of Christ. However, if we slow down to read that verse carefully, a significant question arises: “Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.”

Richard Phillips raises the question and answered it better than any other commentary that I read on that matter:

What does it mean that Christ has purified the heavenly things themselves with his better sacrifice? The commentators offer a number of views regarding “the heavenly things themselves” (Heb. 9:23). One compelling proposal comes from F. F. Bruce, who connects the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary with the cleansing of our consciences, a theme that dominates this chapter. He argues that heaven does not need to be cleansed since it is not defiled. He also points out that the New Testament frequently describes believers together as God’s spiritual house (see 1 Peter 2:5 and Eph. 2:22). It is therefore the inward cleansing of believers that is in view here, he says, by the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. Concerning believers, Bruce says, “It is they who need inward cleansing, not only that their approach to God may be free from defilement, but that they may be a fit habitation for him.”

Those things are true, but they do not adequately explain what the writer of Hebrews is talking about here. Verse 24 is clearly discussing Christ’s entry into heaven. Furthermore, the writer of Hebrews has stated that Israel’s tabernacle was an earthly version of the heavenly reality. This does not mean that there are an actual lampstand and table of showbread and altar of incense in heaven, but rather that those things symbolized features of God’s relationship with man. The same is true of the ark of the covenant. The ark represented man’s status before God. When the high priest entered into the holy of holies, he encountered the ark, with its two golden angels, between which God symbolically dwelt. Beneath God’s gaze were the tablets of the Ten Commandments. This represents man’s great problem. Our first problem is not our relationships with other people, not our jobs, and not our finances. Our problem is that we are transgressors of God’s holy law and that we stand in judgment before his holy throne. We are in jeopardy of eternal damnation. This is the heavenly reality symbolized by the “earthly copy” that was the ark of the covenant.

What, then, was the significance of the application of the blood, which was sprinkled on everything in the tabernacle? The furnishings in the earthly tabernacle spoke of the great privileges arising from our fellowship with God. But since we have fallen into sin, we are not worthy of these privileges. The lampstand spoke of God’s revealing light, though sinners are not worthy of any revelation save that of God’s wrath. The table of showbread spoke of intimate fellowship with the living God. But the very thought of sitting down to table with sinners is repugnant to God’s holy character. The incense altar spoke of the privilege of access in prayer, but man in sin deserves no such access.

Without the blood, apart from a sacrifice, everything in the tabernacle speaks of privileges that sinners must be denied. There could only be the piercing gaze of God, the tablets of the law open before him while the sinner stands condemned.

You see, therefore, what the blood accomplished. For when you apply the blood of the sacrifice–the sacrifice that has borne the sin in the sinner’s place, the sacrifice that has satisfied God’s justice and turned his wrath aside–the whole situation is changed. Now when God turns to the lampstand and sees the sprinkled blood, he gladly shines forth his light to the sinner. Why? Because ethe blood speaks of the way he has provided through Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of sins through the blood. The same is true of the table of bread; God receives and feeds us because the blood of the Lamb has been applied. The same is true with regard to full and open access to God in prayer, symbolized by the altar of incense. Because of the blood, for us God’s throne is a throne of grace, and our prayers are received as those of dear children. “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Heb. 9:22). But with the blood, applied to every aspect of our relationship with God who lives in heaven, there are forgiveness, acceptance, blessing, light, and life.

The cleansing blood provides us with a relationship with God in this life and secures for us a place in heaven. Without the blood, even the angels would hardly tolerate our presence there, so wretched is the thought of sin to holy hearts. But the blood of Christ has made heaven a home for us, and as Peter indicates in his first epistle, we have become a source of wonder and joy to the eyes of angels (1 Peter 1:12). No longer the condemned, we are now the redeemed–fellow children of the firstborn of the new creation.

Pp. 323-325