Hebrews 9:13 Commentary and Bible Study

The comparison, which begins in this verse and is completed in the next, starts by acknowledging that the sacrifices and ritual cleansing of the law accomplished at least something; they were not totally without effect. God required that every Israelite born into the nation followed the requirements of the law. Anyone who ignored the statutes which forbade the eating of the sacrifice in an unclean state, the making of the anointing oil for personal use according to its holy composition, the breaking of the sabbath, the eating of fat or blood, the presenting of a defective animal for sacrifice, along with other violations of the law, or anyone who copied the abominations of the Canaanites, would be cut off from their people. The right carrying out of the ordinances defined by the ceremonial law ensured that a person was ceremonially clean, clean according to the flesh. But what it did not do wash to away guilt and to justify a person before God. It did not cleanse the soul and the conscience, and it did not renew the heart. The true Israelite in whom was no guile (John 1:47) looked for a greater cleansing than simply a purification of the flesh, for he knew he was still not ready to come into the presence of God on that basis alone.