Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Hebrews 9:15

"And for this cause he is the mediator of a new covenant, that a death having taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, they that have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance." — Hebrews 9:15 (ASV)

“For this reason” may refer to the preceding: because Christ really cleanses us from dead works by his blood, he mediates the new covenant. But it is also possible that the words look forward: Christ mediates the new covenant so that the called might receive the inheritance. The passive voice in “those who are called” (GK 2813) preserves the divine initiative, as does “promised” (GK 2039). Both expressions remind us of the freeness of salvation and of God’s will to bless his people. “Inheritance” (GK 3100) originally denoted a possession received through the will of someone who died; then it came to denote anything firmly possessed regardless of how it was obtained.

“Eternal” (GK 173) stresses that the believer’s possession is no transitory affair. The salvation Christ won is forever.

Christ’s death is viewed, then, as “a ransom” (GK 667), the price paid to set free a slave or a prisoner or a person under sentence of death. While the idea of redemption was widespread in the ancient world, the word used here (the most common one in the NT) is rare—suggesting that the redemption Christians know is not simply another redemption among many. It is unique. And it avails for those who sinned under the old covenant as well as for those who are embraced in the new covenant. The author insists that the sacrifices offered under the old covenant cannot take away sins. So it is left to Christ to offer the sacrifice that really effects what the old offerings pointed to.