'So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever. ' (Hebrews 9.11-12, NLT.)
Jesus came in anticipation of a greater and better covenant when the things made and done with human hands would be replaced. By His own blood He entered in once to the Holy Place, having obtained an eternal redemption for us.
'That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.' (v15.)
Christ is the mediator by which we can access the New Testament and receive the promised eternal inheritance.
'Now when someone leaves a will, it is necessary to prove that the person who made it is dead. The will goes into effect only after the person’s death. While the person who made it is still alive, the will cannot be put into effect.' (v16.)
Where there is a testament, a will, there must also be a death, otherwise the will cannot be enacted. My wife and I had the same will. Whoever died first, would give everything to the other. Because she died, I inherited everything. Because Christ died, we inherit all that was His.
We HAVE that Inheritance, now, because Christ has died! You know, you only get that inheritance you want when your rich uncle dies… In the difficult days of communism, that’s what every Russian dreamed of, a rich uncle in America who has died… But what Paul is teaching us is that we have that Inheritance THROUGH Christ, NOW! ALL the Glory of Heaven – we don’t have to wait until we get there! We can experience the Glory down here! In our worship services, when we are together, when the Holy Spirit comes down, and we are lifted up – something of the Glory of Heaven enters into our soul, and we glimpse and KNOW the riches of the Glory that we HAVE! Receiving this Inheritance is confirmation of our position in Christ!
The saints who died before Christ, in the Old Testament dispensation, believing the prophets, died looking forward to the Coming of Christ. Those of us who live in the New Testament dispensation and die today, in faith, look back to the Resurrection of Christ, and forward to the resurrection of the saints!