One Death for the Called

 

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. (Hebrews 9:11–14 ESV).

 

Our reading today is just a part of the chapter (Hebrews 9), which contains the main message of the section. The writer asserts that Jesus Christ, as the superior High Priest who entered the heavenly sanctuary once and for all with his own blood, offering an eternal sacrifice that cleanses consciences and perfects worship, rendering the temporary, repetitive animal sacrifices of the Old Covenant no longer necessary.

 

There are some key elements that we should pay careful attention to in this chapter. The first is the superiority of Christ's sacrifice. Unlike the annual animal blood sacrifices, Christ's sacrifice was voluntary, personal, and final, paying the penalty for sins once and for all. All of these elements are present in the Apostle Paul’s declaration to the Church at Philippi:

 

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5–11 ESV).

 

The second key element is that Jesus entered the true, heavenly tabernacle, not a man-made one, providing direct access to God. At first glance, that seems to be insignificant; it almost feels as if it is no more important than a mere shoulder-shrug. However, when we think of Jesus entering into the very center of all creation, in the presence of His Father and offering Himself as payment in full for our debt is staggering in its impact. Jesus really did “pay it all… and all to Him I owe”!

 

Third, the new covenant sacrifice doesn't just cleanse externally (like the old system), but inwardly, cleaning the conscience to serve the living God. This also bears a "once for all" effectiveness. Because his sacrifice was perfect, it does not need to be repeated, guaranteeing eternal redemption. Hebrews 9 serves as a contrast, urging believers to rely on the completed work of Jesus rather than returning to old, ineffective systems. That same truth applies to any “new system” man may have developed. There is only one means to eternal life. And, that is the perfect blood of Jesus given for us on the cross!

 

Jesus Provides a Greater Covenant

 

Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. (Hebrews 8:1–7 ESV).

 

When we come to today’s reading we find another example cited by the writer of how Jesus is greater than anything before. In the last two verse of this section he says that Jesus a “more excellent ministry” that was a result of the “old covenant” (v. 6). Further he writes that the reason for this new covenant is the first one had faults. He says this in regard to the first covenant not being “complete.”

 

Perhaps a definition of “covenant might be helpful at this point. A search of definitions provides us with this explanation:

 

A covenant is a formal, solemn, and binding agreement, promise, or contract between two or more parties. It often implies a deeply personal or sacred commitment, going beyond a mere contract to create a lasting relationship or pledge. Covenants are frequently used in legal, religious, and international contexts, requiring specific actions or restrictions.

 

We see here that the reason for the need for this new covenant is that we have now been given a better mediator. Previously in the old covenant it was dependent on the works of the Law. No one was able to keep that covenant until Jesus. So, when Jesus comes, He is the mediator of a "better covenant," which is established on superior promises and a higher ministry in heaven rather than an earthly tabernacle. This new covenant replaces the obsolete, external Mosaic law with an internal transformation—writing God's laws on hearts—providing complete forgiveness.

 

There are some key components in this covenant that we should both understand and appropriate. First, we now have a superior High Priest. Jesus is the High Priest seated at the right hand of God, serving in the heavenly sanctuary—the "true tabernacle" built by God rather than man.

 

Second, we now have superior promises. Unlike the Old Covenant, which focused on external obedience and was broken by the people, the New Covenant, predicted by Jeremiah, involves God placing laws directly into minds and writing them on hearts. It is God initiated and God maintained.

 

Third, there is a better covenant basis. The covenant is not merely "better" in quality but in its very nature, offering direct access to God, internal transformation, and full forgiveness of sins, rather than just covering them. God is not glossing over our sin. Through Jesus He is absolving them from us. They are paid in full, never to hold us accountable for them.

 

And fourth, the writer argues that if the first covenant were flawless, a second would not be necessary. Because the first was broken and temporary, it is deemed obsolete. This is the meaning behind Jesus’ declaration that He had “completed” the old covenant. Where none of us could ever do all that was required for the covenant to succeed, Jesus has already finished that work.

 

That is the hallelujah of our faith!

 

Slave or Son - Trapped or Free?

 

Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests. This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. For it is witnessed of him, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 7:11–17 ESV).

 

We get back to this incredible image of Jesus’ greatness, even over Melchizedek. All of these last three chapters (cf. Hebrews 5-7) leads to this great, practical, relevant conclusion. Because Jesus is alive, and in the presence of God with the sacrifice of the blood of the Son of God, and full of sympathy for his people, therefore two things must be true: first, we must “hold fast our confession” (v. 14b); and second, we may now “draw near with confidence to the throne of grace” (v. 16).

 

This confession is simply our unshakable hope (cf. Hebrews 10:23), that God is for us and will work to bring us into his final rest and joy. Hold fast to that because you have a great High Priest. That’s the first conclusion. For days we have been seeing the call to hold fast and to be diligent and to take heed. Here we see it again. Only here is the writer spreading out powerful reasons not only for why we should hold fast to our confession, but also why we can! God is for us. We have a great High Priest. He is alive. He is in the presence of God. He is the Son of God. He is sympathetic. So, hold fast to our hope. Now we can explore what we practically do with this hope. The writer tells us: “Jesus knows the battle. He fought it all the way to the end. And he defeated the monster every time.” (v. 16).

 

If I were preaching, this would be that moment when I would take a “dramatic pause” and say, “stop… listen… don’t miss this!” It is an incredibly important point. Every one of us needs help. We are not God. We have needs. We have weaknesses. We have confusion. We have limitations of all kinds. We need help. But every one of us has something else: sin. And therefore at the bottom of our hearts we know that we do not deserve the help we need. And so, we feel trapped. I need help to live my life and to handle death and to cope with eternity — help with my family, my spouse, my children, my grandchildren, my loneliness, my retirement, my health, my finances. I need help. But I don’t deserve the help I need.

 

We are all right there. We can try to deny it all and put on that hypocritical front that we don’t need any help. Or we can try to drown it all and throw our life into a pool of sensual pleasures. Or we can simply give way to the paralysis of despair. But God declares over this hopeless conclusion that Jesus Christ became a High Priest to shatter that despair with hope and to humble that false act and to rescue us as if plucking us from the fire. Because we have a great High Priest, the throne of God is a throne of grace. And the help we get at that throne is mercy and grace to help in time of need. Grace to help! Not deserved help — gracious help. This is the whole point of the Old and New Testaments. God planned for a High Priest, a Savior, a Redeemer, a gracious Helper.

 

You are not trapped. Say no to that lie. Listen to Jesus:

 

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:34–36 ESV).

 

Jesus - He Who is Without Sin

 

For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”; as he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 5:1–6 ESV).

 

We cannot leave this passage without examination of “why” Jesus is the greater High Priest. The easy answer is because He is God Himself; however, to simply rely on that answer would be incomplete. It denies the humanity of Jesus, which was essential for His completion of the atonement and how He is perfectly fitted to guide us in our journey.

 

Remember, as I wrote a few days ago, this priestly system had some important and unavoidable inadequacies. The High Priest was fully human and as such a sinner just like any other human being since Adam and Eve. Before he could make any sacrifice for the sins of others, he had to make a sacrifice for himself. That is not true with Jesus. Though He was fully human, He was with sin (cf. Hebrews 4:15; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:22; and 1 John 3:5).

 

As I also wrote earlier, this is the story of Israel from its beginning. In fact, it is also the story of humanity since Adm and Eve were cast out of the Garden. Thus, we needed someone perfect and complete. We needed the only begotten Son of God. It points to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our ultimate and perfect High Priest. This is the foreshadowing that the sacrifices the high priest offered provided. Because Jesus is such a perfect and complete fulfillment of the priesthood that he is not only the High Priest, but he is also the sacrifice that the High Priest gives (Hebrews 9:12, 25–26; 13:12).

 

This is the truth that urges us to hold fast to our hope and draw near to our God! Tomorrow we will go deeper into this glorious truth!

 

 

 

Elementary Doctrine and Dead Faith

 

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. (Hebrews 6:1–3 ESV).

 

This reading is certainly worded in a way that captures our attention. Something doesn't seem to fit. Look back at an earlier verse: "Though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God" (Hebrews 5:12). The question is how this fits together with our reading today where it says, "Leave the elementary teachings and don't lay a foundation again" (v. 1). One seems to say you need to be taught the basics again (v. 12), and the other seems to say you should not lay that foundation again (v. 1). Well, which is it!

 

I think the teaching they need about the basics (cf. Hebrews 5:12) is how to use these basics for Christ's sake to press on to maturity. But laying a foundation again, I think, implies that they are losing sight of the basics about Christ and are beginning to occupy themselves with Old Testament and Jewish truths that were used as the foundation for presenting and understanding Christ. And the writer doesn't want them to go that far back.

 

In this writer's mind, laying a foundation for the understanding of Christ is different from teaching about how to live in Christ based on that foundation. The striking thing about this list in the first two verses of our reading is that it is not distinctively Christian. It is made up of foundational Old Testament and Jewish truths and practices that the readers probably built on when they were converted. The context of his readers makes this easier to understand.

 

He lists "repentance from dead works and of faith toward God" (v. 1d); "instruction about washings and laying on of hands"; and, "the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment" (v. 2). All these are common Old Testament beliefs or current practices among the Jews. When these readers were evangelized and converted, these things, it seems, had been made foundational as a way of helping them understand the work of Christ. Christ is the goal and fulfillment of all these things. So when verse 1 says they should leave the "elementary teachings about Christ (or literally: "the word of the beginning of Christ"), what I think it means is that they should not occupy themselves so much with the pre-Christian foundational preparations for Christ that they neglect the glory of the gospel and how to use it to grow into maturity and holiness.

 

I wonder if we are guilty in this sometimes. We spend so much energy teaching people how to begin that I fear we have lost the mechanism of producing disciples. And, yet that is precisely what we are called to do. That is Jesus’ desire for the church. We should then take care to move forward from the foundation of our faith. We can’t neglect it. However, once we have that truth, there is so much more! We must always be in the mode of learning.

 

After the Order of Melchizedek

 

For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”; as he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 5:1–6 ESV).

 

In the last phrase of this paragraph the writer says that Jesus is “a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek” (v.6). To understand this best we should read the original mention of this King/High Priest in the Old Testament (cf. Genesis 14:18-20) and the writer’s description of him later in this letter (cf. Hebrews 7:1-25). Instead of dealing with these twenty-five verses in detail today, I want us to get the big picture and the main point. The big picture is of Christ's superior priesthood over the Old Testament priests of the tribe of Levi. While the first twenty-four verses of chapter seven may be complex and difficult to understand, the last verse is wonderfully plain.

 

It has three parts: Christ can save forever (v. 25a), which is a great promise; He always lives to make intercession for us (v. 25c); and, this eternal intercession and eternal salvation are for those who draw near to God through Christ (v. 25b). Think with me about the relationship between those first two: that Christ can save forever, and that Christ always lives to make intercession for us. It says that he can save us forever since (or because) he always lives to make intercession for us. In other words, our future eternal salvation hangs on Christ's future eternal intercession for us.

 

This implies two huge things. First, it answers the question of what we need to be saved from. We need to be clear about this, especially when we talk to unbelievers. For them the very term "salvation" or "being saved" may not carry the same meaning the Bible gives these terms. It is simply that we need to be saved from God. Specifically, we need to be saved from the wrath of God that burns against all ungodliness and unrighteousness (cf. Romans 1:18). Christ can save us forever from the wrath of God because he intercedes forever with God. He continually puts himself between the Father and us as an impenetrable shield against his wrath against sin. Hebrews 10:30-31 says, "We know Him who said, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay.' And again, 'The Lord will judge his people.' It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

 

That’s not a very popular message. We like the kindly, old grandpa figure of God who is indulgent in allowing his grandchildren to do whatever pleases them much better. However, that is not the God of the bible and the Father of our Savior, Jesus. Until we get this firmly and clearly fixed in our minds, hardly anything in the book of Hebrews will make sense. The major problem in the world and in our lives is not our troubled marriages or our wayward children or our financial pressures or our failing health or our cultural degeneration. The main problem in the world—everybody's problem—is our sin and how to be reconciled to God so that we escape his terrifying wrath at the judgment. That's the main problem. And the Biblical answer is priesthood. And specifically, the superior priesthood of Christ. Jesus is greater!

 

This is where the writer is going. What we need God has provided for us in His Son, who is so much greater than anything we could imagine! Melchizedek was great. Even Abraham recognized that truth; but he pales in comparison to the greatness revealed now in Jesus! Thanks be to God!

 

High Priest and Son of God

 

For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”; as he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 5:1–6 ESV).

 

In our reading today we have two declarations. First, Jesus is the appointed High Priest who is the Son of God; and second, He is a priest forever “after the order of Melchizedek” (v. 6). Both are vital in our understanding. However, we will look at them separately, one today and the other tomorrow.

 

Built into the priestly system were some inadequacies. The one we see here in Hebrews 5:3 is that the high priest was himself a sinner and had to offer sacrifices for his own sins as well as the sins of the people. This meant not only that his sympathy would be imperfect and his presence in the holy place with God limited; it also meant that he would die and need to be replaced. He could never guarantee an ongoing presence with God to intervene for the people. All the inadequacies of the old priesthood will be clearer as we go forward in the book of Hebrews; however, this one is addressed with the statement that Jesus is the “Son of God.” There is no imperfection in “the only begotten Son of God” because He is fully God and fully human. There is no other like Him.

 

The whole history of Israel points to this truth. It is imperfect, inadequate, and incomplete. It all points forward to something greater, to Someone perfect and complete. It points to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our ultimate and perfect High Priest. In fact, even the sacrifices that the high priest offers (v. 3) point to Jesus, because Jesus is such a perfect and complete fulfillment of the priesthood that he is not only the High Priest, but he is also the sacrifice that the High Priest gives (Hebrews 9:12, 25–26; 13:12).

 

Fifty years ago, C.S. Lewis imagined someone objecting here. Lewis imagined the objection that if Jesus never sinned, then he doesn’t know what temptation is like. He lived a sheltered life and is out of touch with how strong temptation can be. Here is what Lewis wrote in response to that objection:

 

A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is . . . A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in . . . Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means — the only complete realist.

 

We’ll see more tomorrow. Today we should recognize that Jesus is the perfect High Priest and the perfect sacrifice, willingly given, on our behalf. That brings me to the highest level of gratitude and amazes me as nothing else could!