Hebrews 9:17 Study Bible: For a will is in force where there has been death, for it is never in force while he who made it lives.

◄ Hebrews 9:17 ►

because a will does not take effect until the one who made it has died; it cannot be executed while he is still alive.

Because a will
The term "will" here is translated from the Greek word "diathēkē," which can mean both "covenant" and "testament." In the context of Hebrews, it refers to a legal document that outlines the distribution of an individual's estate after death. This dual meaning is significant in understanding the New Covenant established by Christ, which is both a legal testament and a divine covenant. Theologically, it underscores the transition from the Old Covenant, based on the law, to the New Covenant, based on grace and the sacrificial death of Jesus.

does not take effect
The phrase indicates the legal principle that a will is not operative until the death of the testator. This reflects the ancient legal systems, both Jewish and Roman, where a testamentary document was considered a future promise, only actionable upon death. Spiritually, this illustrates the necessity of Christ's death to activate the promises of the New Covenant, emphasizing the fulfillment of God's redemptive plan through Jesus' sacrifice.

until the one who made it has died
This phrase highlights the necessity of death for the activation of a will. In the context of Hebrews, it points to the sacrificial death of Christ as the pivotal event that inaugurates the New Covenant. Historically, this reflects the Jewish understanding of covenants, often ratified by a sacrificial act. Theologically, it underscores the profound truth that Jesus' death was essential for the forgiveness of sins and the establishment of a new relationship between God and humanity.

it cannot be executed
The execution of a will involves the legal process of distributing the estate according to the deceased's wishes. In the spiritual sense, this execution refers to the application of the benefits of the New Covenant—eternal life, forgiveness, and reconciliation with God. The phrase emphasizes the certainty and reliability of God's promises, which are fully realized through Christ's death and resurrection.

while he is still alive
This final phrase reiterates the necessity of death for the activation of a will. It serves as a powerful reminder of the sacrificial nature of Christ's mission. While Jesus lived a perfect life, it was His death that fulfilled the requirements of the law and opened the way for humanity's redemption. This truth is central to the Christian faith, highlighting the depth of God's love and the cost of our salvation. Theologically, it affirms the belief that life, in its fullest sense, is found through the death and resurrection of Jesus, offering hope and assurance to believers.

Persons / Places / Events

1. The Author of Hebrews
Traditionally attributed to Paul, though the exact authorship is uncertain. The author writes to Jewish Christians, emphasizing the superiority of Christ and the New Covenant.

2. The Recipients
Jewish Christians who were familiar with the Old Testament laws and customs, facing pressure to revert to Judaism.

3. The Old Covenant
The agreement between God and Israel, established through Moses, involving laws and sacrifices.

4. The New Covenant
Instituted by Jesus Christ, emphasizing grace and faith, fulfilling the promises of the Old Covenant.

5. Jesus Christ
Central figure in the New Covenant, whose death and resurrection fulfill the requirements for the covenant to take effect.

Teaching Points

Understanding Covenants
A covenant, like a will, requires the death of the one who made it to be enacted. This underscores the seriousness and binding nature of God's promises.

The Necessity of Christ's Death
Christ's death was essential for the New Covenant to be effective. It was not just a symbolic act but a legal and spiritual necessity.

Living Under the New Covenant
Believers are called to live in the freedom and grace of the New Covenant, no longer bound by the old laws but guided by the Spirit.

Assurance of Inheritance
Just as a will guarantees an inheritance, the New Covenant assures believers of their spiritual inheritance through Christ.

Faith in the Fulfillment of Promises
Trust in God's faithfulness to fulfill His promises through Christ, just as a will is executed according to the wishes of the deceased.

Bible Study Questions

1. How does understanding the concept of a will help us grasp the significance of Christ's death in the New Covenant?

2. In what ways does the New Covenant change our relationship with God compared to the Old Covenant?

3. How can we live out the freedom and grace offered by the New Covenant in our daily lives?

4. What assurances do we have as heirs of the New Covenant, and how should this impact our faith and actions?

5. How do other scriptures, such as Galatians 3:15-18 and Romans 7:1-4, enhance our understanding of Hebrews 9:17?

Connections to Other Scriptures

Galatians 3:15-18
Discusses the concept of a covenant or will, emphasizing that it cannot be altered once ratified, similar to the point made in Hebrews 9:17.

Matthew 26:28
Jesus refers to His blood as the blood of the New Covenant, highlighting the necessity of His death for the covenant to be effective.

Romans 7:1-4
Paul uses the analogy of marriage to explain how death releases one from the law, paralleling the necessity of Christ's death for the New Covenant.

Sermons

The Mediator of the New Testament	J.S. Bright	Hebrews 9:15-22
Called	C. Girdlestone, M. A.	Hebrews 9:15-28
Christ's Last Will and Testament	T. M. Morris., A. Roberts, M. A.	Hebrews 9:15-28
Christ's Testament	John Davies.	Hebrews 9:15-28
Christ's Testamentary Covenant	H. Melvill, B. D.	Hebrews 9:15-28
Effectual Calling	C. Simeon.	Hebrews 9:15-28
The Blood of Sprinkling	W. Jones, D. D.	Hebrews 9:15-28
The Blood of the Testament	C. H. Spurgeon.	Hebrews 9:15-28
The Dying Will of Jesus Christ	H. S. Keating.	Hebrews 9:15-28
The Old and the New	H. W. Beecher.	Hebrews 9:15-28
The Testament of Christ	Am. Nat. Preacher	Hebrews 9:15-28
The Two Mediators	D. Young, B. A.	Hebrews 9:15-28

People

Aaron, Hebrews

Places

Holy Place, Jerusalem, Most Holy Place

Topics

Alive, Avail, Case, Covenant, Covenant-victim, Dead, Death, Deceased, Died, Effect, Force, Otherwise, Power, Somebody, Stedfast, Strength, Takes, Testament, Testator, Valid, Victims

Dictionary of Bible Themes

Hebrews 9:12-22

6027 sin, remedy for

Hebrews 9:14-17

1352 covenant, the new

Hebrews 9:16-24

7416 purification

Library

Good Friday
HEBREWS ix. 13, 14. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? The three collects for Good Friday are very grand and very remarkable. In the first we pray:- 'Almighty God, we beseech thee graciously to behold this thy family, for which our …
Charles Kingsley—Discipline and Other Sermons

Fifth Sunday in Lent
Text: Hebrews 9, 11-15. 11 But Christ having come a high priest of the good things to come, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, 12 nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling them that have been defiled, sanctify unto the cleanness of the flesh: …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II

The Sacrifice
"For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"--HEB. IX. 13, 14. No Christian doctrine is more commonly misunderstood than that of the sacrifice of Christ. This misunderstanding arises from ignorance as to the meaning of sacrifices in the ancient world. …
J. H. Beibitz—Gloria Crucis

The Essay which Brings up the Rear in this Very Guilty Volume is from The...
The Essay which brings up the rear in this very guilty volume is from the pen of the "Rev. Benjamin Jowett, M.A., [Fellow and Tutor of Balliol College, and] Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Oxford,"--"a gentleman whose high personal character and general respectability seem to give a weight to his words, which assuredly they do not carry of themselves [143] ." His performance is entitled "On the Interpretation of Scripture:" being, in reality, nothing else but a laborious denial of …
John William Burgon—Inspiration and Interpretation

The Blood-Shedding
There is another fool. The storm is raging, the ship is flying impetuous before the gale, the dark scud moves swiftly over head, the masts are creaking, the sails are rent to rags, and still the gathering tempest grows more fierce. Where is the captain? Is he busily engaged on the deck, is he manfully facing the danger, and skilfully suggesting means to avert it? No sir, he has retired to his cabin, and there with studious thoughts and crazy fancies he is speculating on the place where this storm …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 3: 1857

Between the Two Appearings
Here, too, is the place for us to build a grand suspension bridge, by which, through faith, we ourselves may cross from this side to the other of the stormy river of time. The cross, at whose feet we stand, is the massive column which supports the structure on this side; and as we look forward to the glory, the second advent of our Lord is the solid support on the other side of the deep gulf of time. By faith we first look to Jesus, and then for Jesus; and herein is the life of our spirits. Christ …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891

The Blood of the Testament
BLOOD IS ALWAYS a terrible thing. It makes a sensitive mind shudder even to pronounce the word; but, to look upon the thing itself causes a thrill of horror. Although by familiarity men shake this off, for the seeing of the eye and the hearing of the ear can harden the heart, the instinct of a little child may teach you what is natural to us in referer to blood. How it will worry if its finger bleeds ever so little, shocked as the sight, actually there be no smart. I envy not the man whose pity would …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 58: 1912

An Unalterable Law
EVERYWHERE under the old figurative dispensation, blood was sure to greet your eyes. It was the one most prominent thing under the Jewish economy, scarcely a ceremony was observed without it. You could not enter into any part of the tabernacle, but you saw traces of the blood-sprinkling. Sometimes there were bowls of blood cast at the foot of the altar. The place looked so like a shambles, that to visit it must have been far from attractive to the natural taste, and to delight in it, a man had need …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 60: 1914

The Deity of the Holy Spirit.
In the preceding chapter we have seen clearly that the Holy Spirit is a Person. But what sort of a Person is He? Is He a finite person or an infinite person? Is He God? This question also is plainly answered in the Bible. There are in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments five distinct and decisive lines of proof of the Deity of the Holy Spirit. I. Each of the four distinctively Divine attributes is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. What are the distinctively Divine attributes? Eternity, omnipresence, …
R. A. Torrey—The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit

The Book of the Covenant
"And Moses took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do and be obedient. And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words."-EX. xxiv. 7, 8; comp. HEB. ix. 18-20. HERE is a new aspect in which to regard God's blessed Book. Before Moses sprinkled the blood, he read the Book of the Covenant, and obtained the …
Andrew Murray—The Two Covenants

The Holy Spirit in the Mediator.
"Who through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God."--Heb. ix. 14. The work of the Holy Spirit in the Person of Christ is not exhausted in the Incarnation, but appears conspicuously in the work of the Mediator. We consider this work in the development of His human nature; in the consecration to His office; in His humiliation unto death; in His resurrection, exaltation, and return in glory. First--The work of the Holy Spirit in the development of the human nature in Jesus. We have …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit in the Passion of Christ.
"Who through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself."--Heb. ix. 14. Thirdly--Let us now trace the work of the Holy Spirit in the suffering, death, resurrection, and exaltation of Christ (see "First" and "Second," pp. 93 and 97). In the Epistle to the Hebrews the apostle asks: "If the blood of goats and calves and the ashes of the heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purification of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ purge your conscience from dead works?" adding the words: …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Christ's Priestly Office
Q-35: HOW DOES CHRIST EXECUTE THE OFFICE OF A PRIEST? A: In his once offering up of himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, and reconcile us to God, and in making continual intercession for us. 'Now once in the end of the world has he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.' Heb 9:96. What are the parts of Christ's priestly office? Christ's priestly office has two parts - his satisfaction and intercession. I. His Satisfaction; and this consists of two branches. [1] His active …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Twenty-Fifth Day. Holy and Blameless.
Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe.--The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, to the end He may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His holy ones.'--1 Thess. ii. 10, iii. 12, 13. 'He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before Him …
Andrew Murray—Holy in Christ

"My Little Children, These Things Write I unto You, that Ye Sin Not. And if any Man Sin, we have an Advocate with the Father,",
1 John ii. 1.--"My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father,", &c. Christ Jesus came by water and by blood, not by water only, but by blood also, and I add, not by blood only but by water also, chap. v. 6. In sin there is the guilt binding over to punishment, and there is the filth or spot that defileth the soul in God's sight. To take away guilt, nothing so fit as blood for there is no punishment beyond blood, therefore …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The Sin-Bearer.
A COMMUNION MEDITATION AT MENTONE. "Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls."--1 Peter ii. 24, 25. THE SIN-BEARER. THIS wonderful passage is a part of Peter's address to servants; and in his day nearly all servants were slaves. Peter begins at the eighteenth verse: "Servants, be subject …
Charles Hadden Spurgeon—Till He Come

An Admonition to them who Come to visit the Sick.
They who come to visit ihe sick, must have a special care not to stand dumb and staring in the sick person's face to disquiet him, nor yet to speak idly and ask unprofitable questions, as most do. If they see, therefore, that the sick party is like to die, let them not dissemble, but lovingly and discreetly admonish him of his weakness, and to prepare for eternal life. One hour well spent, when a man's life is almost out-spent, may gain a man the assurance of eternal life. Soothe him not with the …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

The Blood of the Covenant
"Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you."--EX. xxiv. 8; HEB. ix. 20. "This cup is the new covenant in My blood."--1 COR. xi. 25; MATT. xxvi. 28. "The blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified."--HEB. x. 29. "The blood of the everlasting covenant."--HEB. xiii.21. THE blood is one of the strangest, the deepest, the mightiest, and the most heavenly of the thoughts of God. It lies at the very root of both Covenants, but specially of the New Covenant. The difference …
Andrew Murray—The Two Covenants

The Lord's Supper --Concluded.
We have quoted, noted, collected and compared the words of Scripture that speak of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. We now wish to ask and examine the question: What do these passages taken together and compared with one another teach? Or, in other words, what is the Bible doctrine of the Lord's Supper? Does the Bible teach the doctrine of Transubstantiation, as held and confessed by the Roman Catholic Church? If our investigation of the teachings of the Holy Scriptures convinces us that they …
G. H. Gerberding—The Way of Salvation in the Lutheran Church

The Kingdom Forming
Exodus Page Leviticus Page Deuteronomy Page EXODUS I. Pictorial Device. Originate one, or omit. II. III. IV. V. 1706 B.C. to 1490 B.C., making 216 years. VI. 1. 1 to 18. Israel Delivered. 2. 19 to 34. Israel Taught at Mount Sinai. 3. 35 to 40. Israel Prepared for Worship. VII. Chapter 20.2. VIII. God Delivering a Nation. IX. 12:13: "And when I see the blood I will pass over you." 15:11. X. 1. Bondage. 2. 3. Burning Bush. 7-11. 12. 14. Red Sea. 15. 16. Manna. 20. 25 and 35. The …
Frank Nelson Palmer—A Bird's-Eye View of the Bible

The Joint Heirs and their Divine Portion
I would invite you, my brethren in Christ Jesus, this morning, to do three things; first, let us consider the terms of the will--"joint heirs with Christ;" secondly, let us go forth and view the estates--what it is of which we are joint heirs; and when we have done so, let us proceed at once to administer, for God hath made his children administrators as web as heirs. I. First, then, there is A LEGAL TERM IN THE WILL UPON WHICH THE WHOLE MATTER WILL HINGE. We are called "joint heirs with Christ"--what …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 7: 1861

Christianity
WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY? WHAT is Christianity? The question seems a belated one. It never was more pertinent than now. Its pertinency rests upon two facts. First: the modern drift in Christianity and its absolute failure. Second: the phenomenal triumph of primitive Christianity. The modern drift is antagonistic to doctrine and repudiates the miraculous. It sets aside the virgin birth, has no toleration for atonement by sacrificial death, and positively refuses to accept the bodily resurrection of our …
I. M. Haldeman—Christ, Christianity and the Bible

The Work of the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ Himself is the one perfect manifestation in history of the complete work of the Holy Spirit in man. 1. Jesus Christ was begotten of the Holy Spirit. We read in Luke i. 35, R. V., "And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee; and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee: wherefore also that which is to be born shall be called holy, the Son of God." As we have already seen, in regeneration the believer is begotten of God, but Jesus Christ was …
R. A. Torrey—The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit

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