“For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:13-14)
It is a timeless and valid argument. In logic it is called argumentum a fortiori, because it reasons from the lesser to the greater. If the lesser (less likely or inferior) is true, how much more the greater (more likely or superior) must be true.
Moses used this argument forcefully when he asked the generation about to enter the Promised Land: “If today, while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the Lord, then how much more after my death?” (Deuteronomy 31:27).
Solomon made powerful points when he noted: “Hell and Destruction are before the Lord; So how much more the hearts of the sons of men…All the brothers of the poor hate him; how much more do his friends go far from him?…The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination; how much more when he brings it with wicked intent!” (Proverbs 15:11, 19:7, 21:27).
Jesus used this logic when arguing for the certainty of God’s providence: “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him” (Matthew 7:11). “Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?” (Luke 12:24). “If then God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith?” (Luke 12:28)
In Hebrews, the inspired penman effectively argues for the certainty of the efficacy of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice (the greater) based upon the efficacy of the Old Testament sacrifices (the lesser) to fulfill the purpose God gave them.
It is a pungent and important point: If God can be trusted to have prescribed the Old Testament sacrifice(s) which can adequately purify the flesh, then He can be trusted to have provided—by the blood of Christ—the adequate cleansing agent to purify our consciences from dead works so we can serve the living God acceptably.
God’s prescriptions for cleansing in the Old and New Testaments stand or fall together. If God’s Old Testament plan was sufficient for its purpose, how much more His New Testament plan!
