Sunday, May 5, 2019

Our Great High Priest: A Study Of The Book Of Hebrews. Day 24, The New Covenant, Part Two

The priesthood of Christ is superior to the priesthood of all others because the covenant of which He is a priest is superior to the old covenant.

The author begins today by saying: "Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer. If He were on earth, He would not be a priest, for there are already priests who offer the gifts prescribed by the law." (Hebrews 8:3-4) Not being of the tribe of Levi, Jesus didn't possess the qualifications under the law to be a priest. So while He lived on earth He did not perform this role. But after presenting His life as a gift and sacrifice, Jesus made an offering greater than any priest could make. He didn't sprinkle animal blood on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant as the priests once did in the sanctuary and later in Solomon's temple; He took His blood straight to the mercy seat in heaven.

The pattern for the sanctuary on earth was a copy of the sanctuary in heaven. As a copy, it couldn't be as good as the original. Because it was on earth, it couldn't be as holy as the one in heaven. "They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: 'See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown to you on the mountain.' But in fact the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which He is mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises." (Hebrews 8:5-6)

The old covenant was the law, and no one could perfectly keep it. God didn't give the law so people could fail in keeping it, but so people would acknowledge their need of Him. King David, who lived under the law, knew that no amount of sacrifices or good works could make up for his failures, so when he admitted his sins of adultery and murder he implored the Lord to forgive him and make him clean. (See Psalm 51.) He states in this psalm that if sacrifices and offerings would make things right, he would bring them, but that he knew the only sacrifice and offering the Lord would accept was a repentant and broken heart. This was the purpose of the law: to cause man to face his sinfulness and to cause man to turn to God for righteousness.

But now God is doing a new thing through Christ. Instead of obeying rules written in stone, man is to obey what Christ teaches him in his heart. Instead of religion, there is relationship. The God who seemed so difficult to know under the old covenant is our Redeemer, Defender, and Friend under the new covenant. This is who He always was, but until Christ came and gave Himself for us we could not fully understand the loving heart of God.




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