Hebrews 9:11-12 meaning

Christ’s priestly ministry is better than that of the Old Covenant. He entered the greater tabernacle, through His own blood, and He did it once for all.

Christ’s ministry is much greater than that of the Old Covenant in many ways: But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle (v 11). Christ did not just enter into the earthly tabernacle, as a Levite priest would have done. 

He actually entered the true tabernacle in heaven which God showed to Moses, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation (v 11), but it exists in the presence of God in heaven. He did not offer the blood of animals for our sins as the Levite priests did, not through the blood of goats and calves (v 12). 

Instead, He offered His own sinless blood for our sins. Lastly, He did not enter once a year as was required of the Levite priests, He entered once for all. But through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption (v 12). By doing these greater things, Christ obtained eternal redemption for us. This redemption does not require us to perform any continual service; it is something we receive freely by simply believing.

Redemption means being released from something in exchange for a payment, like paying off a debt. Christ entered the holy place of the heavenly tabernacle and paid the payment for our sins once for all, freeing us from our debt toward God. If we trust Christ’s work on the cross to save us from our sins, we receive this eternal redemption that our great high priest obtained. This is our position in Christ, our permanent entry into the family of God through a spiritual rebirth of the Spirit and acquired by faith in the promise of God in Jesus.

Biblical Text

¹¹ But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; ¹² and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

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