Saturday, May 4, 2019

Our Great High Priest: A Study Of The Book Of Hebrews. Day 23, The New Covenant, Part One

The old covenant---the law---has been replaced by the new covenant---grace. The old covenant was confirmed by the sprinkling of animal blood; the new covenant was confirmed by the shedding of Christ's blood. Under the law the Levitical priesthood ministered on behalf of the people before God; under grace Christ ministers on our behalf before God. Within forty years of the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, the temple was destroyed and the Levitical priesthood was done away with since there was no temple at which to serve. There are several reasons why God allowed the destruction of the temple to occur and we won't discuss these here, but since the old covenant has been done away with, and since we have a great high priest who lives forever, there is no longer any need for continual sacrifices and offerings to be made. There is no longer any need for mere human beings to serve as mediators between God and man, for Christ (who is both fully man and fully God) is more perfectly equipped to perform this role than anyone else ever could be.

The author of Hebrews is writing to Jewish Christians. It's important for his readers to understand that Christ is superior to everyone and everything else. He knows they grew up with the law of Moses, so he's established Christ's authority over Moses. In his day a growing interest in angels is emerging, and some have even made the mistake of worshiping angels, so he's been careful to point out that the angels are not to be worshiped and that the angels themselves worship Christ. He's presented Christ  as the great high priest who lives forever, proving that the priesthood of Christ is far better than the priesthood of the Levites who were ordinary people just like us. And now, because we are living in the age of the new covenant, the author is going to speak of the preeminence of the new covenant over the old covenant. There was nothing wrong with the law of Moses, with the establishment of the Levitical priesthood, or with the old covenant. These things were ordained by God and were meant to be used for the good of the people. But now a more excellent covenant is in place, and this covenant makes the old covenant obsolete. It's not that the old covenant was bad; it's that the new covenant is better.

"Now the main point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by a mere human being." (Hebrews 8:1-2) The priests performed their duties in the tabernacle and later in the temple. They were mere human beings, like us, who had to pray and implore God to forgive both their own sins and the sins of the people. Christ, the perfect Son of God, speaks to God face to face as a son speaks to his father. Christ doesn't serve in an earthly temple but instead takes our needs directly to the throne of God. Christ doesn't have to make continual sacrifices for our sins, but instead once and for all He made the sacrifice that allows Him to successfully defend those who have trusted in Him. It's easy to see why His priesthood is far superior to that of the Levitical priesthood. It's easy to see why we should want Christ to be the one who speaks up on our behalf before our holy God and Judge.

The Levitical priests did not have the authority that Christ has. Because Christ is who He is, He can go boldly and confidently to the throne of God and say, "This one who belongs to Me has a need I want You to fulfill," or, "This one has messed up and is sorry about it. Because he has trusted in Me, accept his repentance for My sake and restore to him the joy of his salvation." We can be certain that God the Father honors the requests of God the Son. As Christ said when He stood before the tomb of Lazarus, "Father, I thank You that You have heard me. I know that You always hear Me." (John 11:41b-42a) What more could we possibly want in a great high priest?


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