Hebrews 5:9
9. made perfect—completed, brought to His goal of learning and suffering through death (Heb 2:10) [ALFORD], namely, at His glorious resurrection and ascension.
author—Greek, "cause." eternal salvation—obtained for us in the short "days of Jesus' flesh" (Heb 5:7; compare Heb 5:6, "for ever," Isa 45:17). unto all . . . that obey him—As Christ obeyed the Father, so must we obey Him by faith. Hebrews 9:9
9. Which—"The which," namely, anterior tabernacle: "as being that which was" [ALFORD].
figure—Greek, "parable": a parabolic setting forth of the character of the Old Testament. for—"in reference to the existing time." The time of the temple-worship really belonged to the Old Testament, but continued still in Paul's time and that of his Hebrew readers. "The time of reformation" (Heb 9:10) stands in contrast to this, "the existing time"; though, in reality, "the time of reformation," the New Testament time, was now present and existing. So "the age to come," is the phrase applied to the Gospel, because it was present only to believers, and its fulness even to them is still to come. Compare Heb 9:11, "good things to come." in which—tabernacle, not time, according to the reading of the oldest manuscripts. Or translate, "according to which" parabolic representation, or figure. were—Greek, "are." gifts—unbloody oblations. could not—Greek, "cannot": are not able. him that did the service—any worshipper. The Greek is "latreuein," serve God, which is all men's duty; not "leitourgein," to serve in a ministerial office. make . . . perfect—perfectly remove the sense of guilt, and sanctify inwardly through love. as pertaining to the conscience—"in respect to the (moral-religious) consciousness." They can only reach as far as the outward flesh (compare "carnal ordinances," Heb 9:10, 13, 14). Hebrews 10:19-21
19. Here begins the third and last division of the Epistle; our duty now while waiting for the Lord's second advent. Resumption and expansion of the exhortation (Heb 4:14-16; compare Heb 10:22, 23 here) wherewith he closed the first part of the Epistle, preparatory to his great doctrinal argument, beginning at Heb 7:1.
boldness—"free confidence," grounded on the consciousness that our sins have been forgiven. to enter—literally, "as regards the entering." by—Greek, "in"; it is in the blood of Jesus that our boldness to enter is grounded. Compare Eph 3:12, "In whom we have boldness and access with confidence." It is His having once for all entered as our Forerunner (Heb 6:20) and High Priest (Heb 10:21), making atonement for us with His blood, which is continually there (Heb 12:24) before God, that gives us confident access. No priestly caste now mediates between the sinner and his Judge. We may come boldly with loving confidence, not with slavish fear, directly through Christ, the only mediating Priest. The minister is not officially nearer God than the layman; nor can the latter serve God at a distance or by deputy, as the natural man would like. Each must come for himself, and all are accepted when they come by the new and living way opened by Christ. Thus all Christians are, in respect to access directly to God, virtually high priests (Re 1:6). They draw nigh in and through Christ, the only proper High Priest (Heb 7:25).20. which, &c.—The antecedent in the Greek is "the entering"; not as English Version, "way." Translate, "which (entering) He has consecrated (not as though it were already existing, but has been the first to open, INAUGURATED as a new thing; see on Heb 9:18, where the Greek is the same) for us (as) a new (Greek, 'recent'; recently opened, Ro 16:25, 26) and living way" (not like the lifeless way through the law offering of the blood of dead victims, but real, vital, and of perpetual efficacy, because the living and life-giving Saviour is that way. It is a living hope that we have, producing not dead, but living, works). Christ, the first-fruits of our nature, has ascended, and the rest is sanctified thereby. "Christ's ascension is our promotion; and whither the glory of the Head hath preceded, thither the hope of the body, too, is called" [LEO].
the veil—As the veil had to be passed through in order to enter the holiest place, so the weak, human suffering flesh (Heb 5:7) of Christ's humanity (which veiled His God head) had to be passed through by Him in entering the heavenly holiest place for us; in putting off His rent flesh, the temple veil, its type, was simultaneously rent from top to bottom (Mt 27:51). Not His body, but His weak suffering flesh, was the veil; His body was the temple (Joh 2:19).21. high priest—As a different Greek term (archiereus) is used always elsewhere in this Epistle for "high priest," translate as Greek here, "A Great Priest"; one who is at once King and "Priest on His throne" (Zec 6:13); a royal Priest, and a priestly King.
house of God—the spiritual house, the Church, made up of believers, whose home is heaven, where Jesus now is (Heb 12:22, 23). Thus, by "the house of God," over which Jesus is, heaven is included in meaning, as well as the Church, whose home it is.