What does Hebrews 9:1 mean?
Leading up to this chapter, the writer of Hebrews emphasized that God had always intended a "new covenant" to replace the system of priests and temple sacrifices (Hebrews 7:11). In this section, he seeks to explain exactly how the elements of the "old covenant" serve as symbols of the ministry of Jesus Christ. To begin with, the writer reviews the components of the temple and the sacrificial system, while also explaining how those elements are imperfect and flawed. Since the writer's intent is to explain the meaning of these articles, not their exact arrangement, the description is intentionally brief (Hebrews 9:5).Here, the writer points out that the location for worship is earthly. That is, it is in only one place at any given time. This means that the benefits it offers are only available to people in a certain area, rather than to the entire world. As Jesus pointed out to the woman at the well, God's real intent is for people to worship God in a spiritual way, independent of any earthly temple (John 4:22–24). This also corresponds with the writer's quote of Jeremiah, who spoke of God writing His law on His people's hearts (Hebrews 8:7–13).
Hebrews 9:1–10 explains how the rooms and artifacts of the temple were only meant as symbols. In fact, those items were specifically intended to show how the old covenant could not remove the barrier between God and man. The use of external rituals can only assuage feelings of guilt, it cannot actually remove sin or change a person's nature. The existence of the curtains, separating men from the holy places, is also symbolic of how the old covenant leaves us apart from God. This sets up a comparison, in the following passage, showing how Christ's sacrifice fulfills those symbols and achieves a perfection of our relationship with God.
Hebrews chapter 9 explains how the old covenant included various physical locations and physical rituals. These, according to the writer of Hebrews, were always intended as symbols. Their details, and the drawbacks which they suffered from, were meant to point towards the ''true'' means of our redemption, which is Christ. Unlike animal sacrifices, which must be repeated, and which cannot change man on the inside, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is a once for all, permanent, and completely effective solution to sin. The fact that Christ died for sin only once also means that His next arrival, in the future, will not be as a sacrifice, but as the final fulfillment of God's plan.
