Hebrews
Lesson 104 October 18, 2007
NKJ Psalm 119:9 How can a
young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your
word.
We are back in Hebrews 7, Hebrews 7. Now last time we
were in Hebrews we got down through about verse 14 and then I took us on a
little detour. We went down a side trail to go through an orientation to
dispensations and to understand why we believe in dispensations. It’s not an
external theology imposed on the Bible. But as we apply the basic principles of
a literal, historical, grammatical hermeneutic consistently to the Scripture; then what we discover is that God has worked in different
ages in different ways. There are some things in all the dispensations that
stay the same and there are other things that are different. One of the things
that changes (and whether you are dispensationalists
or not, you are forced to deal with this, forced to admit this, that there) is
a major shift that occurs because of the cross. That’s what’s focused on in
this particular chapter because at the cross the Law is finished. When the Law
ends, it not only ends the Law, it ends the Old Testament ritual. It ends the
Old Testament priesthood. It ends the whole structure of the spiritual life
that is built on the ritual system that God gave to Israel. So a new priesthood
comes into effect by the Lord Jesus Christ at the cross.
Now when we look at Hebrews we have to remember as
Church Age believers living some 1900 years or so later, that we really don’t
read Hebrews the way the original recipients read Hebrews. The original
recipients were Jewish believers probably from a priestly background and they
were deeply troubled by the fact that there was this new priesthood. They had
spent their lives dealing with the fact that they were Levites, that there was a
temple in Jerusalem, that the High Priest was a descendent of Aaron and all the
ritual associated with that, and all of the ceremony that was associated with
that was the very fabric of their lives. Now they are wrestling with whether or
not to go back into Judaism and to really understand what has changed with this
new revelation that has come through Jesus Christ. That becomes the backdrop
for this. The things they are wrestling with are not as significant to us as
Gentiles in the Church Age, but the implications are because it relates to
Jesus Christ’s ministry as a High Priest.
What happens in the structure of this epistle is as
you move from the first part of the chapter 7 talking about the high priesthood
according to the order of Melchizedek in verses 11 down thru 17 (actually from
11 down through 28), we see a transition. I can basically summarize what he is
going to say in those verses from 11 down to 28 – those 18 verses –
he is going to talk about the fact that the priesthood according to the order
of Aaron was temporary. It was limited and the priests themselves were sinners.
They not only had to offer sacrifices for themselves; they had to offer sacrifices for
themselves before they could offer sacrifices for the people. There were numerous
priests because they all died. In
contrast what they really needed was a high priest who was sinless, who didn’t
need to sacrifice for himself, who was eternal and
would not be replaced. That is grounded in a verse Psalm 110:4
which quoted in verse 17 and quoted again in verse 21 so that everything
that is said between 11 and 28 is basically unpacking this one verse from
Psalms.
Before we diverted down the dispensational track for a
few weeks, we had gone through verses 11 through 14 in this section. Now I want
to go back and review that tonight so that we get our heads back into that. This
isn’t a long review but by way of introduction.
Therefore,
if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood
That’s
the Greek word telios which has to do with
completion, not perfection in the sense of flawlessness, but completeness. There
is no completed salvation in the Old Testament because their salvation was
provisional until the Messiah actually paid for sins on the cross. So the first
thing that he is saying is that the completion of the plan of salvation could
not take place through the Levitical priesthood because it (the Levitical
priesthood) was incomplete. That’s the first verse.
NKJ Hebrews 7:11 Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical
priesthood (for under it the people received the law),
That’s his initial clause. It’s a second
class condition as we studied at the time. If and it’s not. It wasn’t
possible but he is making that assumption even though it’s not true. Then he is
going to bring in the “then” clause in the second point. It relates to the
second point. But the first point
is simply that the completion of the plan of salvation could not take place through
the Levitical priesthood. It was impossible for any of
the Old Testament ritual or ceremony to bring a complete salvation. It was
simply a picture of what God would do.
what further need was
there that another priest should rise according to the order of
Melchizedek, and not be called according to the order of Aaron?
His
point is that “if perfection” (if a complete salvation were available through
the Levitical priesthood, and it’s not), what need would there be for another
priest. But we do have another priesthood. We have another high priest according
to the order of Melchizedek. Therefore it was necessary to have this second
priest who could complete the plan of salvation.
Actually
what the writer is doing is he is stating the same principle three or four
different times from one angle, then another angle, then another angle. He
keeps repeating this to make sure that these Jewish former priests who are now
Church Age believers understand the issue. It is called repetition. He is
drilling it into them to make sure that they get it.
NKJ Hebrews 7:12 For the
priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law.
This is
a great passage that I really had not thought of in demonstrating the end of
the Law. Usually I go to a passage in Romans or in Galatians to demonstrate
that the Law has ended. But, this is a much stronger passage to show that the
Mosaic Law ended because we have a different priesthood, a high priesthood after
the order of Melchizedek. There is a different legal structure, a different
covenant. What comes through in this whole section is how God grounds and
establishes all of His relationships with man according to legal contracts. There
is this legal structure that I think has to go back to the basic concept of
some sort of appeal trial of Satan. There is this judicial dimension. We are
justified. We will be eventually judged before the Supreme Court of Heaven. We
have imputation. All these terms are forensic terms. They are courtroom terms. They’re
not experiential emotional feel-good terms. They all have to do with that which
is legally correct and it’s all laid out in legal documents known as covenants
or contracts. So a change in the priesthood necessitates a change in the covenant.
NKJ Hebrews 7:13 For He
…referring to the Lord Jesus
Christ.
of whom these things
That is, related to the Melchizedekean priesthood.
are spoken belongs to another tribe,
He was of the tribe of Judah. Someone from the tribe
of Judah could not officiate in the temple service which is what he concludes
with.
from which no man has officiated at the altar.
Only a
Levite was qualified to go in and offer sacrifices at the altar and to serve in
the temple.
NKJ Hebrews 7:14 For it is evident that our Lord
arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood.
Now we
are going to come back and look at this word “evident” because if you are
looking at your Bibles (and you should be), you’ll notice that verse 14 and verse
15 both have a statement that’s translated into English as if it’s the same
Greek word. Verse 14 reads “for it is evident” and
verse 15 reads “and it is yet far more evident”. Actually they are two
different words in the Greek. They have the same root, but they have different prepositions which indicate a greater intensification in the
second word. The word “here” simply indicates something that is factually
obvious - something that is factually obvious. It’s factually obvious that our
Lord arose from Judah. Everyone could demonstrate that from His parentage. It
was obvious to one and all that He was from the tribe of Judah. Moses said
nothing in the Pentateuch about the tribe of Judah serving in the Temple. It is
a self-evident fact from the Scriptures.
NKJ Hebrews 7:15 And it is
yet far more evident if, in the likeness of Melchizedek, there arises another
priest
NKJ Hebrews 7:16 who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly
commandment,
He had to be related to Aaron. He had to be related to
Levi, no physical defects. That is what is meant by a fleshly commandment.
but according to the power of an endless life.
That’s really a key phrase there – the power. He
is focusing on the fact that Jesus is eternal so His priesthood would be
eternal. That’s the point of the
quote in verse 17. Now as I pointed out already, the difference between these
two words that are both translated evident in the English. The first word is prodelos and the
second word is katadelos
– delos being the root. In the first word pro is your prepositional prefix and in
the second word kata
is your prepositional prefix. Kata is a stronger emphasis than pro. The first one means that is factually
obvious or apparent. The
second word katadelos
indicates something that is more than factually obvious. It is an irresistible
conclusion. It is overwhelmingly obvious. So you can’t escape this conclusion
that it becomes an irresistible conclusion that …
Then we have the word “if”. We do have a first class
condition set up here in the Greek, but the “if” expresses the protasis which is the first part of the clause. In any
conditional clause you have “if” and “then”. If this happens, then that happens. The
“if” clause is called the protasis. Pro
indicates it comes first. The apodosis comes afterward; it follows. There is no
apodosis here. Therefore what he is basically saying is something along the
idea that … and the “and” (Now I am starting to get into the exegesis of his
verse.) really shouldn’t be translated and because that looks as if it’s just
adding something. But the kai here is used in an ascensive manner, something even
more. So it should be translated something like “it is even more inescapably obvious
since there has arisen”. It is a present tense, but it has a perfective sense
to it. It has happened with results that are continuing into the present. It is even more intently obvious that
another High Priest has arisen in the likeness of Melchizedek. We’ll look at a
corrected translation in just a minute.
He is drawing a very strong conclusion based on the
reality that because another High Priest has arisen according to Melchizedek,
it completely replaces the previous priesthood and that implies a replacement
of the previous covenant. He hasn’t really introduced the word covenant yet,
but he will before we get too much further. He has just introduced Law, but he
starts talking about covenant a little later on in the section 20 down to 28. But
all of this is leading to chapter 8. That’s what is a little bit difficult
about going through and explaining this section from 11 to 28 because it’s a
transition. He is not making strong doctrinal points. There are no imperatives
here. There is nothing for mandates for you to go do or to think differently. He’s
simply drawing a very tight argument that if there is a new priest, He is after
the order of Melchizedek, if this priest is eternal and we know he is eternal because
he is a priest forever. That is going to be verse 17, the quote from Psalm 110:4.
Then that means that the former commandment is going to be nullified. That is
verse 18. Because of that, he goes on and is building one thing on another,
walking the readers through a logical thought process based on the fact that if
Jesus is a priest according to the order of Melchizedek, then that means the
old covenant has ended, the ceremonial law has ended, and a new covenant has
been put in place. That’s where he is going to end and then he is going to
unpack the idea of a new covenant in chapter 8 and then get into the temple
sanctuary and other things in chapter 9 which is all going to be based on an
understanding of Old Testament structures and ceremony and the tabernacle and
the temple.
Let’s go on. Let’s make sure I covered
everything.
NKJ Hebrews 7:15 And it is yet far more evident if, in the likeness of Melchizedek, there
arises another priest
Now the word for arise is the Greek word anistemi which
means to cause to stand, to erect something, to raise or lift something up, to
bring something back to life almost in the sense of anastasis which is resurrection. Anastasis – anistemi – do you hear the similarity? So anistemi is a cognate to anastasis which is the word for resurrection. But he is not talking
about resurrection here. He is talking about the idea of providing someone who
is going to take a certain position.
So in verse 15 he says, “There arises (There has been
put into place, you might say) another priest and this priest has come not
according to the Law of fleshly commandments but the power of an endless
life.”
Now let’s get a corrected translation of Hebrews 7:15.
Hopefully this will put that verse, give it a little better significance for
you.
Literal translation: He says
In the King James it says, “And it is far more
apparent if.”
What does the “it” refer to? The “it” refers to this principle of a change in priesthood
and Jesus’ higher status. So we would read it this way:
It (that is the principle of a change in priesthood) is even made exceedingly more evident since another priest according
to the order of Melchizedek is arisen.
I translated that “is arisen” because it is a present
tense, but there is a use of the present tense that has in the Greek a
perfective sense. Perfective means
that it is completed action. That is what it is talking about. He is already in
place. That action at the ascension of Christ has already taken place, but he
is focusing on the fact that there are ongoing results of the fact that Christ
has risen and is seated at the right hand of God the Father as our High Priest.
This is what we have now. It is so important that He is seated at the right
hand of the Father and not ruling from the throne of David in heaven. If you
have Jesus sitting on some kind of Davidic throne at the Father’s right hand
(which is what a-millennialism teaches and what progressive dispensationalism
teaches) is that Jesus is on the throne of David ruling from the Father’s right
hand. It starts to destroy the significance of the present session of Christ as
our High Priest and all that we have in Him as our High Priest because the
Davidic rulership and the kingdom are essentially Jewish oriented concepts. They
are not Church Age oriented concepts. That is why we covered that – the
last class I covered the dispensational material when we looked at Acts 2 and
its use of the Old Testament and went through all those different passages
showing that we are not in some form of the kingdom now. The kingdom is
postponed and the kingdom doesn’t come in until Jesus Christ returns at the
Second Coming. Right now the focus is on the church where He is functioning as
our High Priest. Now we get into verse 16
NKJ Hebrews 7:16 who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly
commandment, but according to the power of an endless life.
The point that he is making here is very simple that
the humans, the fallen human beings who were in the Aaronic high priesthood,
all died. Their life spans were
limited. It was necessary to have a high priest who would not die, who would be eternal. This is brought out in the Greek word
that is used here, akatalutos,
which has the idea of something indestructible in the temporal sense. His life
can’t be destroyed. It is therefore endless or eternal. It is just a very
simple point that he has come not according to the fleshly commandment for those
individuals would all die, but it’s the power of an endless life.
NKJ Hebrews 7:17 For He testifies: "You are a
priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek."
Now he has been talking about this all the way back to
the early part of this particular chapter. He is talking about the
Melchizedekean priesthood. But the emphasis right now isn’t on the fact that
you are a priest. It’s not on the last part of that is quoted according to the
order of Melchizedek. The only thing he is focusing on is that one word
“forever” - because he is a priest forever. That means that the Davidic king,
(that is the context of Psalm 110:1-4 that the Davidic king) is also a priest
and He is an eternal priest. That means that the eternal priest mentioned there
is based on the Melchizedekean order is superior to the Levitical priest
because the Levitical priests die, but the Melchizedekean priest won’t die. He
will be eternal. So that makes it a superior high priesthood.
Now I am making another point here. That is just on
how the writers of Scripture in the New Testament often quote Old Testament
passages. He quotes more than he needs and all he is talking about is one word.
Now that’s going to be important when we get into chapter 8 because when we get
there we are going to see this lengthy quote from the Old Testament starting in
verse 8 of chapter 8. We are going to see this lengthy quote coming out of
Jeremiah 31:31-34 and he is going to have a six-verse quotation. But he is not
referencing anything else in that quotation other than the initial phrase
– a new covenant - to show that the very term “new covenant” implied that
the old covenant had to be temporary. He is not talking about anything else in
that quote. When we looked at the issue on interpretation of Old Testament uses
in the New Testament in the last class when we talked about Peter’s quote of
Joel 2 in Acts 2 that he really quotes this lengthy out of Joel 2, but he is
just focusing on a parallel as it were. He is not even giving any kind of exposition
of all those verses. To our mind that’s strange because we are used to somebody
… if you are going to quote 8 verses you are going to talk about everything in
those verses. But in the Jewish mindset you would just quote the passage
because you wanted to make sure you had the context. But all you are talking about
is one word in that quote. This is just an example of that. He quotes these two
stanzas from Psalm 110:4 only to focus on one word. That is the word “forever”
– the Melchizedekean priest would be a priest forever.
Then we get into a very crucial point in verse 18. This
is a great little passage. In verse 18 down to the first part of 19, we have
three negative assessments – actually four negative assessments about the
old dispensation, about the dispensation of the Law - four negative assessments
of the Law. And then in the last part of 19 we have two positive things said
about the Church Age that correct the negatives from the Mosaic Law.
He says, “For on the one hand there is an annulling of
the former commandment…”
because of its weakness and unprofitableness,
Now the word “for” indicates that he is going to give
us an explanation of why all of this is the way it is. His first statement is
on the one hand. He is going to do
a comparison contrast between the old law and the new dispensation.
He says, “For on the one hand there is the annulling
of the former law…”
So the first negative is that the old law is annulled.
The Greek word there is athetesis.
It simply means that it is removed, set aside, abrogated, cancelled, annulled
and rendered invalid. It is removed. It refers to something that is removed,
set aside, abrogated, annulled, cancelled or rendered invalid. How much stronger
language can you use? The Mosaic Law is gone. It’s no longer valid. It has been
completely annulled, athetesis.
When he talks about the former commandment it simply means that which is
historically prior.
He says, “For on the one hand there is an annulling a
complete canceling of the former commandment” for two reasons.
First of all, because of its
weakness. The
Greek word is the word asthenes
which means that it as no power. It had no power to save. It was only
basically a teaching tool, a ritual that pointed to something else. It was
weak. It was impotent. It was without strength and it was powerless.
The second thing he says about it is its
unprofitableness. The Greek word here anopheles
means it served no purpose. That came to indicate that because something
served no purpose, it could therefore become injurious, noxious, useless and
harmful. Something was there and now it no longer served a purpose so it could
actually become harmful. So what he says about the law is first of all it’s
completely cancelled. It’s cancelled because it was spiritually impotent. And
it’s cancelled because it is harmful now because it has been replaced by
something higher.
Then the last thing he says is in the first part of
verse 19:
NKJ Hebrews 7:19 for the law
We could almost translate that in terms of an
explanation, almost causal because the law never made anything complete. The
law never saved anybody. We are going to have this long chapter coming up talking
about the fact that the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin. Nothing
in law – nothing in the moral law, nothing in the ceremonial law, nothing
in the civil law - could provide anything of real spiritual value. It was all
ritual that pointed to that which would have value, what was done at the cross
so that the Old Testament believer never had access to the kind of power, the
kind of reality that you and I have as Church Age believers. What we have is so
far beyond anything they could ever imagine. We have a completed canon of
Scripture. We have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We have the filling of
the Holy Spirit. But, that barely touches what we have. So he mentions two
things that we do have in the latter part of verse 19. These are the positive
things that we have in this dispensation.
First of all, it brought in a better hope. Now this is
not saying that it can make us more hopeful. It’s not talking about something
that is emotional. It’s talking about the ground of our future expectation. Whenever
we see the word “hope” in the New Testament it doesn’t have the idea of an
optimistic wish.
Some of us have been wishing a cold front would
finally come in so that is would cool things off a little bit and we would have
a sense of fall in October.
“I hope a cold front makes it through this weekend. I
hope that it won’t rain tomorrow.”
That is just optimistic wistfulness. That’s not what
the Bible means by hope.
When we say, “I hope something happens tomorrow”,
there is a level of uncertainty there.
But when the Bible talks about hope it talks about a
certain future expectation. There is definiteness about it. There is a
certainty about it that something specific is going to happen. This is our
superior hope. It’s superior to what they had in the Old Testament because
there wasn’t that measure of certitude there. But with Christ there is a better
hope, a better ground for our future expectation.
made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better
hope, through which we draw near to God.
Through that ground of expectation we draw near to God
because we are united with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection and more
than that we are seated with Christ.
Hold your place and go with me to Ephesians 2. This is
a great passage. It’s a fun passage to work through in the Greek because the
first 7 verses are actually one sentence in the Greek. I taught this last week
when I was out in California at the WHW Conference. This was the main
passage I had them work through every morning in terms of diagramming and
phrasing the whole structure because Paul’s real focus is on what happens with
the main subject and the main verb. You don’t get the grammatical subject of
this long sentence until you get to verse 4. You don’t get to the verbs (and there are 3 verbs)
until verses 5 and 6. So you go
through three verses of negatives before you ever get to the positive. That sets
up that contrast – but God. Then, Paul diverts in a relative clause.
NKJ Ephesians 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great
love with which He loved us,
NKJ Ephesians 2:5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with
Christ (by grace you have been saved),
That’s the reminder of the negatives in verses 1
through 3 that we were born dead in our trespasses and sins and walked
according to the course of the world, according to the prince and power of the
air and conducted ourselves in the lust of the flesh – all of those
things.
He says, “But God.”
What did God do? You have three verbs. It’s a compound
verb. Three different verbs, three different things God did. The first thing He
did, He made us alive together with Christ. The second thing that He did is He
raised us up together. The third thing that He did was He made us sit together
in the heavenly places with Christ. That is our salvation. That’s why He has
the interjection in the middle of verse 5 “by grace you have been saved”. He is
summarizing with the word “saved” those three things that we have been made
alive together in Christ and raised and seated in Christ. That is where you and
I are positionally. We are seated in Christ at the right hand of the Father in
the session. That’s as close as Paul gets to dealing with the session in the
Pauline epistles. But, that’s what we have. This is our magnificent salvation
that has been provided for us.
Back to Hebrews 7. Now none of that could be true unless the law was nullified. So the Law
is completely nullified and completely cancelled. On the other hand we have
this better hope and we are able to draw near to God. Why? Because, positionally you are in Christ, seated at the Father’s
right hand. You just have to look up at Him. That’s it. Positionally
we are right there with the Father.
Look at a couple of these other verses. This is a
major theme in Hebrews.
NKJ Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace,
It is the same verbiage, to draw near to the
Father.
This is the same theme that we saw back in Hebrews 4,
the priesthood of Christ because we are seated at the Father’s right hand.
that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of
need.
Then it is used again in our passage in Hebrews 7. Then
it will be used again as we get into the warning section to this part of
Hebrews, Hebrews 10:1.
NKJ Hebrews 10:1 For the law, having a shadow of the good
things to come,
The other reason it’s cancelled is it’s just a shadow.
It’s a typology. It is a concrete version of the spiritual realities that would
come in with Christ.
and not the very
image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer
continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.
The Mosaic Law couldn’t do it. You can’t do it on the
basis of ritual and morality and sacrifices. It has to be grounded on the
imputed righteousness of Christ and the completed work of His sacrifice on the
cross.
Then there is one other mention of this concept of
drawing near in Hebrews 10:22.
NKJ Hebrews 10:22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having
our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure
water.
That last part is a picture, a verbal picture, of what
happens at the instant of justification in our positional cleansing that occurs
in the baptism by means of the Holy Spirit where we are placed into Christ and
then seated at the Father’s right hand.
See how all these things come together. So often we
take them as separate doctrines, but they all interconnect. They all come
together in that mysterious thing we talk about in being identified in Christ,
being in Christ and the whole concept of positional truth that we are so
familiar with.
We say, “Oh, that is positional truth.”
Yeah, well unpack it for the next five years. That is
a fabulous doctrine that nobody really talks about or deals with - that our
position in Christ gives us this proximity, this access, this nearness to the
Father that no believer at any other time in history has. They didn’t have it
in the Old Testament; they aren’t going to have it in the tribulation. But we
have that. That is something that is going to be part of our eternal
relationship, even in the Millennial Kingdom when we are there
as the bride of Christ. We are serving as what? As priests and kings. We’re in
that training ground right now to learn how to be priests and kings.
So verse 19 finalizes his point that the law has
ended. It’s over with.
So at this point we get into verse 20. Melchizedek is
virtually left behind and the focal point from 20 to 28 is one the superiority
of Jesus Christ which is established by a better
covenant. Look at verse 20.
NKJ Hebrews 7:20 And inasmuch as He was not made priest without an oath
Then we have a parenthesis. The grammar here is kind
of interesting. It’s awkward or it is unusual. But it’s interesting. Verse 20
makes your first positive sense. Verses 20 to 22 is
one sentence in the Greek.
Then you have a parenthesis.
The “they” being Levitical priests, Aaronic high
priests.
NKJ Hebrews 7:21 (for they have become priests without an oath,
See, there is the contrast. Jesus Christ was made a
High Priest on the basis of an oath. The Old Testament priest did not have an
oath. Why is that important? Well, once again the oath makes the legal contractual
foundation more certain. It makes it more significant. It’s more emphatic. It
raises it to another level. The Old Testament priesthood was not founded on
this kind of a legal oath. But, the Melchizedekean
priesthood is.
but He with an oath by Him who said to Him: "The
LORD has sworn
And then we quote Psalm 110:4 again.
Here it’s a little bit lengthier quotation. It
includes everything we saw in verse 17 but more.
What is he talking about in these three verses?
Swearing an oath. But once again he quotes four stanzas.
And will not relent, 'You are a priest forever According to the order
of Melchizedek' "),
He quotes the whole thing to give us the content of
the oath – that Christ is a priest forever according to the order of
Melchizedek.
Then he draws his conclusion in verse 22.
NKJ Hebrews 7:22 by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.
That is He has become a pledge of that better
covenant, a seal. The fact that He has become a High Priest according to this
oath seals the contract. The contract as we will see in chapter 8 is the New
Covenant. That is sealed at the cross. This is the same thing Jesus is talking
about when He is redefining the elements in the Passover meal at the Last
Supper.
He says;
NKJ Luke 22:20 Likewise He also took
the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is
shed for you.”
The new covenant terminology there is the new
contract.
He is saying, “My blood is the sacrifice that is going
to establish this new covenant.”
Now the New Covenant though doesn’t come into effect
until the Second Coming because the New Covenant isn’t with the church. Now I
know that Paul says he is a minister of the New Covenant. That is because New
Covenant blessings are applied to the church today, but we
aren’t a covenant partner.
Skip over to the next page in Hebrews 8:8 in the quote
from Jeremiah 31:31.
Here is the quote from Jeremiah 31:31.
NKJ Hebrews 8:8 Because finding fault with them, He says: "Behold, the
days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house
of Israel and with the house of Judah –
And with the church…
Oh, you didn’t see that there did you? See the church
is never mentioned as a contract partner in the New Covenant. The contract is
between the Lord and Israel. On the basis of that legal document, He is then
able to bless the Gentiles. It sounds an awful lot like the Abrahamic Covenant,
doesn’t it? It is just the expansion of that Abrahamic Covenant. Everything that
God does is based on this legal contract. Now He doesn’t have to do that, but
He lowers Himself for the benefit of the creature. In order to demonstrate His
faithfulness, He enters into these binding legal contracts with His creatures
so that He can be free to bless us and we understand what the parameters are
for that blessing.
So verse 22 says:
NKJ Hebrews 7:22 by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better
covenant.
Jesus is a pledge or seal of our better covenant.
Then verse 23 goes on to talk about the fact, the
limitations of the other priesthood also from the same dimension of this
eternality. It says:
NKJ Hebrews 7:23 Also there
were many priests, because they were prevented by death from continuing.
In the Old Testament there were many priests. All the
Levites could serve in the temple. Many of them were priests. You had Levites
and those that were qualified to serve in the temple could serve in the temple.
Then you have the high priests. But you had to have so many because they all
died. They could only serve from the time that they were 30 to the time they were
50. Then they had to quit. You had to have other priests. So it is temporary. They
don’t have any permanent service.
In verse 23:
NKJ Hebrews 7:23 Also there
were many priests, because they were prevented by death from continuing.
NKJ Hebrews 7:24 But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood.
He is a priest forever, Psalm 110:4.
He has an unchangeable or immutable priesthood. Now
what does that mean? What are the implications of that?
NKJ Hebrews 7:25 Therefore
(because He has an eternal priesthood that is
superior to the Levitical priesthood)
He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come
to God through Him, since He always lives
He is not dead. When they sacrifice that lamb, the
lamb was still dead. When they sacrificed the goat, the goat was still
dead.
to make intercession for them.
This is one of the primary reasons we have eternal
security. It’s reflected in Jesus’ high priestly prayer in John 17. He prays
continually for the Father to keep us. He never stops that prayer. His
intercession is Jesus who keeps us saved. It is not our actions. It is not by
doing “good”. It’s not by applying the Word or any of the other things Lordship
salvation people come up with or Arminians come up with to say that the way you
stay saved is by being obedient. What you do has nothing whatsoever to do with
the preservation of your salvation. It is preserved by the Lord Jesus Christ’s
faithfulness to His promise to save you. That’s why you can know without a
shadow of a doubt that you are saved. It’s not based on anything that can
happen. You can fail miserably 5 seconds after you’re saved and never recover
for the rest of your life, and guess what? You are still saved because you are kept not by your
perseverance; you are kept by Christ’s power and by His prayer.
NKJ Hebrews 7:25 Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those
who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for
them.
Next point, explanation in verse 26.
NKJ Hebrews 7:26 For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has
become higher than the heavens;
Holy is hagios, set
apart.
The adjectives there which I don’t have time to go
into tonight…I think I am going to stop here, just a little early. We are going
to have to come back and look at each of those adjectives and get a correct
translation of them. Then it ends with the fact that He has become higher than
the heavens. That takes us right back to what? The doctrine
of the ascension. What has happened that Christ passed through the
heavens and He is now higher than the heavens – literal, spatial
terminology here - seated at the right hand of God the Father? All of that has
to do with what we have now in Him as our High Priest.
So we will start next time with verse 26 and finish up
this chapter and go into the next one.