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Hebrews | Chapter 8

Hebrews 8:1-5

“The intrusion of eternity”

  • Introduction
  • 1 Position
  • 2-5 Preparation

 

 

Introduction

The author of Hebrews simply cannot take his eyes off Christ. In 7:26 he said: “It was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, unstained, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens.” Jesus was just what his readers needed! And because this book is in the Bible and according to 2 Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is given by inspiration of God,..”; then Jesus is just exactly what we need in our lives as well! In Chapter 8 we have another major division in the letter. You will recall that our focus was on Jesus as High Priest, how what some of the Hebrews viewed as a liability in his genealogy because He was not from the tribe of Levi was in reality an essential asset. The main focus in chapters 8-10 moves from the Person of the High priest which we saw in verse 26 to the work of the High Priest and His sacrifice. Through church history and its influence in society there has been a never-ending attempt to “sanitize” Christ and Christianity from any connection with His cross. But the truth remains “You will never understand Jesus apart from the cross.” They are indivisibly united! They are best explained in the phrase of verse 27 where we read that, “This He did ONCE FOR ALL when He OFFERED UP HIMSELF”.  There had never been a Levitical priest who ever OFFERED UP HIMSELF upon the alter of sacrifice. But not only did Jesus do so but verse 28 tells us that “the Son who has been perfected forever”. The job of the High Priest was to find a sacrifice that had the right qualifications that would be acceptable; it had to without spot or blemish and as such we are being told that Jesus Christ could find no sacrifice that was without spot or blemish except himself, so he offered himself. There was no Priest found worthy to sacrifice and no innocent victim worthy of offering, so Jesus as High Priest was worthy and became the sacrifice offering Himself once and for all, as both Priest and Victim. Furthermore, the cross of Christ is a “timeless” event! When you combine the two key thought s of verses 27 and 28 together you get that picture: This He did ONCE FOR ALL…. the Son who has been perfected forever”. The Cross of Jesus is NOT merely an event we look back into time to understand it is rather an event that was in its very nature an intrusion of eternity into time! The Cross of Christ burst into time for the world to see but the fact is it had been going on since before time began and it continues on throughout time into eternity. Two scriptures prove this point:

  1. First in Revelation 13:8 we are told that James is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
  2. Then in Revelation 5:6 as the apostle John looked all around heaven searching for one worthy to take the title deed to the earth and remove the curse of the fall saw, “, in the midst of the throne,…stood a Lamb as though it had been slain...”

This is why all of humanity prior to the Cross and the historic presentation of Christ could be saved, just as we are saved today, because the cross reached backward into time as well as forward into time. From God’s perspective the cross of Jesus Christ, is the central act of history, everything flows from that.

 

1 Position

Vs. 1 First the writer wants to remind his readers that, the point of emphasis is in Jesus as High Priest is not about duration but location! The central question is: Where can a person find this kind of ministry of Jesus Christ? The writer answer is twofold and is yet another superiority of Jesus priesthood when compared to that of the Levities, His “POSITION” and His “PREPARATION”.

  1. POSITION: First in verse one he writes that that it comes from the risen Lord, Jesus Christ who is “SEATED at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven.” Thus, the emphasis is upon Jesus “POSITION”. I find two things about Jesus’ “POSITION” fascinating, His posture and its location!
  2. Posture “Seated at the right hand of the throne”: The writer starts off by way of a point of comparison saying that; Jesus as our High Priest was “Seated”. Every Hebrew reader of this letter would have stopped the writer right then and there and said, “Excuse me, did you say the Priest was seated?” Go back Exodus chapters 25-30 as God gave Moses the pattern of the tabernacle with all its furniture and you will notice that there is one piece of furniture missing in the earthly pattern that is very present in the Heavenly Tabernacle, a chair or a throne! In the earthly tabernacle there was no pattern given for a chair because the Levitical priest never sat down! They stood all day long from morning to evening as they were constantly offering sacrifices as Hebrews 10:11 goes on to explain because, “Every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.” The Levitical priest’s job was never done, because what he had to offer was never permanently effective. There was no need for a chair, a bench or a Barcalounger in the earthly tabernacle, yet we read that in the heavenly tabernacle Jesus was “SEATED”. The only piece of furniture that had any resemblance of a seat in the earthly tabernacle was in the holy of holies behind the veil atop of the arc of the covenant in the mercy SEAT. But it was not designed to be a place for a priest to sit and would have blasphemous for him to do so. Yet we are told after Jesus as our High Priest offered Himself, He sat down because His work was done, as His last words on the cross were, “It is finished!” Jesus in one sacrifice accomplished what 10’s of thousands of priests and untold millions of sacrifices never did, forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God. Saint’s as far as our salvation is concerned, Jesus has taken His seat! Ah but as true as this is with regards to being seated as our redeemer, He is nonetheless STANDING, as our helper.Remember Stephen’s witness before the Sanhedrin where in his time of need he declared that He saw Jesus STANDING at the right hand of God! He has accomplished all that needs to be done and there is nothing more He has to do! The work of Christ needs nothing added to it because it is perfect. Furthermore we are told that the taking His seat involved it being on the “right hand of the throne”! The significance of being on the “right hand” is twofold:
  3. The right hand was the place of honor and exaltation of a monarch. To sit there was the highest honor a king could bestow. In the ruling council of the Sanhedrin, it was the place of final authority and power.
  4. The right hand was also significant as it related to trials in Judaism as the seat on left side was responsible for writing the condemnations for the accused and the right seat was responsible for writing the acquittals. In John 3:17 Jesus himself said that He came into the world not to “condemn” the world but that the world through Him might be saved or “acquitted”! Jesus now sits on the right hand of the throne a place of honor, power and mercy and it is on this seat that we have read that “he always lives to make intercession for us.”
  5. Location “Of the Majesty in the heavens”: I think that the readers would have found tremendous comfort in reading this as they were in Rome deprived of the temple services in Jerusalem, but they need not be concerned as Jesus the great High priest was “Seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.” A far better location then Jerusalem to obtain mercy! Jesus is not somewhere out in outer space called heaven! Yes, Jesus is in heaven, but heaven is not “out there” in some unspecified distant location in a “galaxy far far away” He is not like we are looking all over the heavens for Luke Skywalker. No, according to Jesus in Luke 17:21 “The kingdom of God is within you.” Heaven is within! In Exodus 25:9 God told Moses, “According to all that I show you, that is, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make ”

 

Vs. 2-5 Preparation

Vs. 2-5 The sanctuary in which Jesus is a High Priest is infinitely superior than the one in which the Levities served in. When this book was written, the wilderness tabernacled hadn’t been used for a 1000 years, and the Herodian temple in Jerusalem would only be standing for another 5 years. Ah, but the true sanctuary in which Jesus serves can never crumble or be destroyed. The use of the word “true” in the Greek doesn’t mean that the other tabernacles were “false” but rather between eternal and temporary!

  1. Second the author writes that Jesus is “a minister of the true sanctuary which God made and not man.” Here the emphasis is upon Jesus’ “PREPARATION”. Verse 3 is in response to a hypothetical question the writer anticipates the readers would ask: If Jesus has finished His work and is seated in heaven, what’s He doing now? The answer is that His sacrifice and atoning work is finished but priestly ministry is not finished as we saw in 6:25. The tabernacle took form and shape under the direction of Moses as a copy of something else that Moses had been shown in heaven and was built in three parts:
  2. The outer court which the people could come.
  3. The inner structure in the center of this court divided into two sections. One part called the Holy Place where only the priests and the Levites could enter.
  4. The third part of the tabernacle was the rear section of this structure, called the Holy of Holies, containing in it nothing but the Ark of the Covenant of God, where Shekinah glory of God, indicated the presence of God. Into that Holy of Holies, hidden behind the veil, entrance was prohibited to all upon pain of death, with the exception of the high priest who could enter once a year and then only under the most rigid requirements involving the shedding of a sacrifice and the bearing in of a basin of blood.

All this was but a pattern or a copy of the true tabernacle. The interesting thing is that this is the same threefold structure of the universe:

  1. The world of matter, the world of things, material, or physical structure that we can touch, sense, see, taste, and smell. There is a great and varied area for discovery and exploration in this world. This where science works.
  2. The world of mind, the world of ideas, of emotions, the arts, knowledge, and the interchange of human ideas. This too, is a world, rich in voyages of discovery.
  3. Then there is the world of the spirit, a world that is a great mystery to us. It is a world in which are hidden the secrets of life. The keys to living are all in the world of the spirit. But into this world we cannot enter, we have no way of access in ourselves.

Now Moses was shown all this. He saw the invisible realities of the nature of God, the structure of the universe, and the need for man too have a Mediator, who would provide a way of access into this world where all the secrets of life are hidden. It was God’s intention that man should have access into the inner world. We have no difficulty now with the worlds of mind and matter. We can explore it, we can weigh ideas, we can analyze them, we can entertain the various thoughts of men and we find wonderful delight in doing this. But into the world of spirit, we cannot enter. There is only One who can enter that realm — the Holy of Holies — the High Priest!

By means of the cross, Jesus our High Priest, entered into the Holy of Holies. The cross is made for the whole man; it can be understood on three levels of life:

  1. There is the understanding of the cross on the physical level, its pain, its anguish, the awful thirst of it.
  2. There is an understanding of the cross on the emotional level. It is a moving experience to contemplate what occurs in the minds and hearts of those connected with the cross, and especially in the Savior’s mind.
  3. But the real meaning of the cross never comes to us except as we move into the realm of the spirit, where we are entirely shut up to revelation. Our minds or emotions are incapable of explaining it on this level, we are shut up to what God says it means. But, on that level, we discover there is marvelous meaning and insight on life granted to us in the cross, and in the next section the writer begins to unfold to us the results of this sacrifice. The first part reveals the provision, in the cross, of a new arrangement for living.

 

Hebrews 8:6-13

“Christ’s Covenant”

  • Introduction
  • 6-7 Better contract
  • 8-13 Jeremiah’s endorsement

 

 

Introduction

Though out the book of Hebrews the two things the writer is most passionate about continues to be written numerous ways: He most passionate about them staying with their profession of faith in Jesus and because of this he is passionate about Jesus! The 8th chapter marks a transition in his letter as it switches from the person of Jesus to the work of Jesus; the final 7 verses of chapter 8 take a unique look at the work of Jesus as mediator of a superior covenant because of its 8 superior characteristics. If your Bible is like mine, you will notice that 167 out of 244 words of these 7 verses are italicized. The reason for this is that the writer is making his case by quoting the prophecy of Jeremiah 31 concerning a future New Covenant. All of this was designed to cause the readers to realize that despite those Hebrews who were attempting to get them to abandon Jesus for the Old Covenant there were far more reasons to stay. Before we break into the text, we need to clarify what we are examining today.

Vs. 6-7 Better contract

Vs. 6 First the writer says in regard to Jesus that “He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also aMEDIATOR OF A BETTER COVENANT, which is established on better promises.” The argument hinges on the reader understanding both what a covenant is as well as what a mediator is. First the Greek word for mediator means aperson who stands between two people or parties and brings them together. They are a go-between in a dispute or conflict, and they must represent both parties. A covenant is a contract or agreement between two parties. In the case of Jesus His ministry is to reconcile humanity back to God. The First covenant had mediators as well, in ceremonial matters the priests filled this role but ultimately it was Moses who acted as a mediator, as we see in Exodus 20:19 as the Israelites after hearing the 10 Commandments read and observing lighting flashes and smoke form the mountain said, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, least we die.” The prophets also acted as mediators of God’s word. Moses and the prophets weren’t false mediators they were just unable to bring fully reconcile people to God, they were just a reflection of the true mediator, Jesus. So Jesus is a better mediator because only He can bring sinful humanity together with a Holy God, He is the ONLY go-between. But furthermore is offers a better covenant or contract. If you have ever entered into any kind of contract, you know that some are better than other and it all hinges on the “terms” and “promises”! The author of Hebrews declares that the reason for the New Covenant being better is because it offers a much great set of terms and promises. A standard contract has promises made to both parties and some of those promises are “conditional” in nature known as “if then” promises. What makes this New Covenant superior with better promises is that it is NOT an “if then” contact and the promises are 100% beneficial the humanity with 100% of the responsibility in keeping the contract with God not with humanity! If the New Covenant was even partially dependent upon us keeping our part of the bargain, then there would be no hope of us ever being able to enjoy the promises. People break their promises all the time, but God never breaks His.

Vs. 7-8a The next point the writer makes is show that while the Old Covenant wasn’t false it had it’s faults because of what it had to work with, US! That’s why he writes, “If that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a SECOND.” The point that the writer makes is that the Hebrew scriptures anticipated a New Covenant as Jeremiah the prophet foretold of establishment 2000 years before it came. That obviously means that the first covenant was temporary and pointing to a later New covenant which would render it obsolete. He suggests that instead of encouraging those fellow Jews to abandon the New Covenant in which Jesus was the mediator they should have been expecting a New one and embraced it. So the writer says in verse 8a, “finding fault with them” and then quotes Jeremiah’s prophecy listing eight reasons according to God’s word that the New Contact is better than the old contract.

8-13 Jeremiah’s endorsement

Vs. 8b-13 This quote over 2000 years before the New Contract was issued is from one of their most beloved prophets, Jeremiah.

  1. Based only on God’s terms: Vs. 8b “Behold the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a New Covenant”: The Lord told Jeremiah that He was going to write a New Covenant based only on His terms. This contract was more like a WILL then it was a contract between two parties in which both had terms and promises. Though a “WILL” is a type of contract and may have many different “beneficiaries” that can all enjoy it’s promises it is only written by ONE Person. The beneficiaries have no part in determining the benefits, their only responsibility is to accept or reject the WILL’s promises they can never change what the WILL provides. The New Covenant is based upon Jesus being the Mediator of it and it is only on His terms and conditions, all we can do is reject it or accept it. And some of these Hebrews were trying to change the terms by adding on to it, which render it for them null-and-void!
  2. New and BETTER than the Old: Vs. 8b-9 “A New Covenant…not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers.” The writer continues to tell his readers what necessitated this New Covenant saying in verse 9, “because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord.” It was the Jews forefathers that soon after God made the contract that broke it and that is what necessitated the making of a new one. This reveals to us a powerful truth, the New covenant had to eliminate the flaw in the first contract, the Israelites. It also reveals that there was NO HOPE of improvement from humanity through time or culture otherwise God would have reissued the same covenant. The New Covenant isn’t slightly modified or enhanced it is radically different because it eliminates what caused the first contract to fail, humanity to keep up their terms.
  3. Proven better because it had perfect results with the same imperfect people: Vs. 8c “with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.” It had the same beneficiaries that the Old Covenant had but it achieved perfect results. Note that God mentions both halves of the divided kingdom: The 10 northern tribes that were carried away by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. These 10 tribes never fully returned from captivity and were either absorbed into the two tribes of the Southern kingdom or became half Jewish and half gentile, Samaritan. The point the writer makes is that the effects of the failure of the Old Covenant because of Israel didn’t alter the success of the New Covenant in Christ. Even though the Northern tribe lost their genealogical records, God still knew who they were and was able to keep His promises to them. Now you might note that the beneficiaries are all Hebrews. God has never made a direct Covenant with gentiles and as far as the Bible is concerned, He never will. The New Covenant isn’t made with the church it is made to the same people the Old Covenant was made with, Hebrews. We can become beneficiaries by being grafted in the same way Abraham became a beneficiary, by faith. We must remember God has never and will never reject Israel even though they have rejected Him at times. Neither will he ever transfer His promises to another.
  4. Better because the promises weren’t dependent upon Israel keeping their terms: Vs. 9 “because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord.” The blessings of the Old Covenant were conditional upon perfect obedience to the terms it was a “if-will” contract! God gave the law with the contract and having already been recipients of God’s blessing through the Exodus they said, “All that You have said we will do!” I have no doubt that this was their intention as Paul explains the problem in Romans 7:14-25 “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.
    For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God–through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin    .” Israel’s sins did not do away with the obligations of the law but it did forfeit their experiencing all the blessings of the contract.
  5. Better because it is relational not religious: Vs. 10 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” The New Covenant would be radically different because it would internal and external, relational and not religious! What this New covenant did was change the motivation of obedience from FEAR to LOVE. Notice the difference in the parchment of the contract: God’s Old Covenant as seen in the law was written on cold hard stone or on doorposts, writs and foreheads as a continual reminder of the terms we have agreed too! There was no way to place the terms on hearts. But God’s intention is to write His New Covenant upon our hearts and He does this through the Holy Spirit, birthed through a relationship because of His Son who proved His love for us! The New Contrast is a “HEART CHANGER” not a “THOUGHT REMINDER”!
  6. Better because it’s personal not merely educational: Vs. 11 “None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.” This dove tails with the above superiority because the contract is relational it is personal as God’s word is within us and so is our tutor, the Holy Spirit. Every believer as a resident Teacher in the Holy Spirit. That’s what Jesus said in John 14:26 saying that “the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” The contrast between the contracts is obvious in Jeremiah’s quote as the old contract was dependent upon those who couldn’t keep the contract to teach those who wouldn’t keep it and in the New contract we are dependent upon the Holy Spirit who implement the truth into our hearts!
  7. Better because it offers forgiveness for failures: Vs. 12 “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Where the old contract broke down because the promises were tied to perfect obedience the New Contract is tied to perfect forgiveness! What we “promise breakers” need more than anything else is forgiveness. Under the old contract our sin and failure were never truly forgotten because they were never truly forgiven as sin was covered but not cleared! The old contract was a shadow anticipating the New contract. Oh, glorious it is that God had “forgotten” all our sins!
  8. Better because it is ready and available NOW: Vs. 13 “He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” This New contract that Jeremiah 2000 years before it came was now available for all of the Hebrews to receive. This was their stumbling block as to receive the New contract they had to abandon the old obsolete contract. They had to realize that it was no longer valid for them or anyone else and that God no longer honored the old contract because the new one had arrived. The old contract was only temporary and a symbol or picture of the new contract. These Hebrews rejection of the new contract was like a person who has a picture of a loved one they haven’t seen in many years. The picture is on the wall of their home and in their wallet and on their desk at work they see it every day and look forward to the time when they will be reunited with their loved one. The picture is a great representation of their future time together and over time the picture becomes for dear to them. But one day unexpectedly their loved one shows up at their door. But all they do is continue to look at the picture and never recognize their loved one. They have focused so long on the picture that when the loved one had come in person, they no longer see the person. The symbol has been substituted for the reality; the symbol is treated as the real thing! The sad truth is that the loved one can do for them what the picture could never do but can’t because they still hold on to the picture which can never accomplish what they wish it could. The picture wasn’t BAD it is beautiful it was never intended to be the real thing. When the real thing has come it’s time to get rid of the picture and grab ahold of Jesus!