Hebrews 7, beginning in verse 20. And inasmuch as he was not made priest without an oath, for they have become priests without an oath, but he with an oath by him who said to him, the Lord is sworn and will not relent. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. By so much more, Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.
Also, there were many priests because they were prevented by death from continuing. But he, because he continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. 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. For such a high priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens. who does not need daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins and then for the people's.
The Once-for-All Sacrifice
For this he did once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath which came after the law, appoints the Son who has been perfected forever. Now this is the main point of the things we are saying. We have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected and not man.
For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore, it is necessary that this one also have something to offer. For if he were on earth, he would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law, who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For he said, see that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.
But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry inasmuch as He is also mediator of a better covenant which was established on better promises. Amen. Well, let us pray. Father, we thank You for the Scripture and we pray for the Spirit to guide us now.
We pray that Jesus would be exalted in our thinking. and that, Father in Heaven, You would just give us the grace to shine as lights in a crooked and perverse generation, holding forth the Word of Truth, serving effectively as Your witnesses of the glorious Gospel of free and sovereign grace. How we thank You for so great a salvation. How we thank You that You brought us nigh through the blood of the Lamb of God. How we thank You for that pardon of sins that is full, that is perfect.
How we thank You for the imputation of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And how we praise You, God Most High, that salvation is of the Lord. For if it were in our hands, we would be damned to hell forever. But because You are our Champion, because You are our Savior, we have everlasting life.
And in this we rejoice, Lord God. And we pray in Jesus' most holy name, Amen.
Introduction
Well, in Hebrews chapter 7, it's part of a larger whole. The section begins in chapter 5 at verse 1 and continues to chapter 10 verse 18. The entirety of those several chapters deal with the priestly office of our Lord Jesus. A priest was to go to God on behalf of the people.
The prophet comes on behalf of God to declare His Word to the people, and of course, a king rules over his people. Jesus is prophet, He is priest, and He is king. And all those names are mingled in this section, but the primary emphasis in chapters 5 to 10 is on the priestly office. And in chapters 5 to 7 specifically, it focuses on Christ as our Great High Priest.
And then chapters 8, 9, and 10, or at least half of 10, deal more so with His offering. Because a priest without an offering isn't a priest. If you notice here in verse 3 of chapter 8, it says, every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. That's his function.
That's his task. That's his job. The priest doesn't come to make us holy. The priest comes to act. on our behalf.
He is our representative. He engages in sacrifice in order that God will declare us holy, in order that God will justify us by His grace and for His glory. Well, this morning I want to just consider several observations on the priestly office of Christ. Again, some of this will be review for those who have attended the Wednesday night studies.
But if you're like me, you can't get enough of these things. If you're like me, these things thrill you each and every time you are reminded. of them, because our salvation hinges upon the conduct, the sacrifice, the offering, and the practice of this beloved High Priest of the New Covenant. And
Christ's Priesthood by Divine Oath
the first observation that I want us to notice is that Christ executes the office of High Priest by divine oath. That may not seem significant, but I hope that you'll appreciate it in the few minutes that we spend making this observation, that Christ serves or functions as High Priest by a divine oath. That is the thrust of verses 20 to 22. It says, Inasmuch as he was not made priest without an oath, For they have become priests without an oath." He's speaking about the former priesthood.
He's speaking about the Levitical priesthood. The sons of Aaron. They were not instituted by oath, they were instituted by gene. If they were of the tribe of Levi, if they were sons of Aaron, they would serve in the capacity of priest or high priest.
Not so with Christ. It was divine oath. It was a divine foundation. It was the institution, not because of his tribe, but because of who he is in the person and work of our Lord Jesus.
God Most High instituted him by divine oath. And he highlights Psalm 110 verse 4. It says, The Lord has sworn and will not relent. It's a blessed statement there.
God will not relent. We might suggest, or we might see it this way, God is relentless in the pursuit of His elect. God will not suffer any of His people whom He has chosen unto salvation to be finally lost. Our God has orchestrated the entirety of the cosmos for the salvation of our wretched, hell-deserving souls.
Our God functions in such a capacity that when a sinner believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, that salvation is rock-solid. It cannot be frustrated. It cannot be thwarted. It cannot be undone.
Christ functions according to a divine oath. Jehovah has sworn. Jehovah will not relent. Jehovah has ordained Him a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
And then he says this in verse 22, By so much more, Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant. His priestly office is consistent with the better covenant, which is the new covenant. He will specify various things later in this section. He will call the new covenant the second covenant.
He will call it the new, the better, and the eternal covenant. It's not like that which God had made with the fathers of old. But it has been effected and enacted by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is everlasting. And the word that he uses here, he is the surety of a better covenant.
The idea means, or it's a legal term, which appears only here in the New Testament, but was commonly used in Hellenistic Greek of a surety who assumed responsibility for another person's debt if the latter could not meet it. Let me just read that again because it's full of blessing. He says, the word surety or guarantor is a legal term which appears only here in the New Testament, but it was commonly used in Hellenistic Greek, Greek outside, or extra-biblical Greek, that which is not necessarily contained in the Scripture, but in various commercial transactions or in legal documents, this word came up often. And it was used of one who assumed responsibility for another person's debt if the latter could not meet it.
We were indebted to God. God is a holy God. God is a most pure spirit. God is most glorious and wise.
He is righteous. No wickedness dwells in His presence. He is of too pure of an eye to behold evil. He doesn't look approvingly on it.
He's not like us in that respect. And so we stood in His debt because we sinned against Him. We are completely contrary to God. We are full of sin, and full of depravity, and full of infirmity, and full of weakness, and full of wickedness.
And yet Christ came as our surety of a better covenant. He fulfilled the legal obligations of the covenant. He obeyed His Father at every step. And then He died as a sacrifice at Calvary.
And then He rose again. He is truly the surety of a better covenant. And I want to read from John Flavel. Again, a long quote, but one that really does capture this reality of Christ as a surety of a better covenant.
John Flavel was a Puritan and he wrote this, speaking about what's called the covenant of redemption. The father making a pact with the son to save a people from their sins. And so what Flavel does is he assumes a conversation between the persons of the Holy Trinity. And so he says, my son, the father speaking to the son, my son, here is a company of poor, miserable souls that have utterly undone themselves. and now lie open to my justice." Let me just ask you as you hear this, as you enter into this sermon today, we're not just learning data about Jesus, we're learning about the Savior of our souls.
We're hearing about the high priest, of the better covenant that by God's grace we are participants in. We come today to taste the bread and to drink the wine, to be reminded of our Savior's dying love, on our behalf. So, appropriate these things to yourself. Receive them as unto yourself.
And listen to what Flavel says here. My son, here is a company of poor, miserable souls that have utterly undone themselves and now lie open to my justice. Justice demands satisfaction for them or will satisfy itself in the eternal ruin of them. What shall be done for these souls?
And thus Christ returns. Oh, my Father, Such is My love to and pity for them, that rather than they shall perish eternally, I will be responsible for them as their surety. Bring in all your bills, that I may see what they owe you. Lord, bring them all in, that there may be no after reckonings with them.
At My hand shall you require it. I will rather choose to suffer Thy wrath than they should suffer it. Upon Me, My Father, upon Me be all their debt. But My Son, if you undertake for them, you must reckon to pay the last mite.
Expect no abatements. If I spare them, I will not spare you." Content, Father, let it be so. Charge it all upon me. I am able to discharge it.
And though it prove a kind of undoing to me, though it impoverish all my riches, empty all my treasures, yet I am content to undertake it." He is the surety of a better covenant. It's what the Apostle says to us to consider.
Christ's Priesthood Is Permanent
Notice, secondly, Christ's priesthood is permanent. It is eternal. It is abiding. It is everlasting.
This is the emphasis of verses 23 to 25. He says, also, there were many priests because they were prevented by death from continuing. We noted a comment from John Gill. John Gill says, death has a power to forbid a long continuance in this world.
The best theologians and commentators are masters of the obvious, as far as I can tell. You hear what he says? Death has a power to forbid a long continuance in this world. And no man does continue long here.
Death puts a stop to men's works and to the exercise of their several callings. No office, even the most sacred, exempts from it. No, not the office of high priests. These were but men, sinful men, and so died.
And their discontinuance by reason of death shows the imperfection of their priesthood. Not so with Christ. He is eternal, and thus His priesthood is perfect. Christ is from everlasting to everlasting.
When the Son of God went into the tomb, He rose up on the third day. The Father exalted Him and seated Him in His right hand. He gave Him the name which is above every name, both in this age and in the age to come. Christ has won victory on behalf of His people, and He has a permanent priesthood.
We are not looking to the Levitical high priests. We're not looking to carnal men. We're not looking to fleshly men who may for a time appear and do good things, but then die and go to the grave. Our Savior lives.
Our Savior reigns. Our Savior rules at the right hand of God Most High. He continues forever. He exercises an unchangeable priesthood.
Notice in verse 24, but He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. It's a beautiful statement. We need this kind of a Savior. In fact, that's what the Apostle is going to say in just a moment.
For such a high priest is fitting for us. We are carnal. We are sinful. We go astray.
One of the reasons I like to sing 400 is because I believe it captures something of the Christian life. Prone to wander, prone to leave the God I love. Those Levitical priests found themselves in the same position. Prone to wander, prone to leave the God they love.
Not so with Christ. He never wandered. He never strayed. He always did the will of His Father.
He says, my need is to do the will of My Father. He enters into the tomb, but because death has no dominion over Him, He rises again. He ascends on high. He has the power of an endless priesthood.
This is our Savior. And notice the implication that the author draws from this statement. Verse 25, he says, therefore, Be thankful for therefores in your Bible. Theology has to be applied.
Theology has to move us. Theology has to become implications to our lives. And that's what he does here. He's described the divine oath behind the priestly office of Christ.
He's shown us the unchangeable priesthood that he exercises. And now he says in verse 25, Therefore, he is also to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. You've got to see this.
Saving to the Uttermost
He is able to save to the uttermost. And brethren, sometimes we use that word ability, and it's not the way the author is using it here. I may be able to do something, but that doesn't necessarily mean I do it. You may be able to do something, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you go out and do it.
He is not only able, but He does it. That's the point of verse 1 in chapter 8. He says this is the main point of the things we are saying. We have such a high priest.
Not only is he fitting for us, it would do us no good if he was fitting for us, but we didn't have him. It does us no good if we have a fitting thing that we can't use. But he not only is fitting, but he executes. He not only has the power, but He puts it into practice.
That's the point here. 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. Jesus Christ is an able Savior. Jesus Christ doesn't save partially.
Jesus Christ doesn't save a little bit. If you're here this morning and you're not a Christian, I want you to get this point. Jesus saves to the uttermost. He doesn't share the task.
He doesn't ask you to give and then He'll provide some. It's not a give and take in the matter of salvation. He saves to the uttermost those who come to God through Him. That's what you need to hear.
You need to give up your trying. You need to give up your reforming. You need to give up your, I've just got to get better. You need to give up all those things that you put stock and emphasis upon, and you need to bow to Jesus.
You need to come to God through this high priest, through this mediator of a better covenant. You need to turn your back on the garbage and embrace the Savior who has given Himself for sin. That's what the Apostle is saying. Therefore, based on this divine oath, the fact that God is sworn and will not relent, the fact that all those Levitical priests, Josephus figured that there was about 83 high priests from the time of Aaron to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
Those several high priests who continued only for a time, but were stopped because of death. They could not save you. They could not bleed for you and die for you and rise again for you. They could not fulfill the law on your behalf.
But based on this One who has an unchangeable praise to Him, the fact is He saves. And He doesn't save partially. He saves to the uttermost. He saves completely.
The idea here is uttermost, completely, or absolutely. He is not frustrated. There is never a time when someone will say, I believe the Gospel, and be disappointed. Isn't that one of the statements in Romans 10 that Paul quotes from the Old Testament?
Whoever believes in Him shall not be disappointed. If somebody says, you know, I tried Jesus and it just didn't work. I tried Jesus and my life just didn't get better. You may have tried Jesus, but you didn't believe the Gospel.
Because everyone who looks to live, everyone who believes that message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified and resurrected, never, ever says, boy, what a waste this has been. You find a saint on his dying bed and you ask him if he has any regrets that he came to Christ. He will never say, yes. It will only be, I should have come sooner.
I should have believed more. I should have been more faithful. But, oh, that I have a surety who stood in the place for me. Some of you are playing games.
Some of you want things to satisfy you. Some of you are looking to this world and this earth to speak to your deepest needs. But that's not going to happen. There is One.
And there is only One who saves to the uttermost. All those who draw nigh unto God through Him. I love the language of our text. He is able to save to the uttermost.
You come to God through Him. But it's not only for the unbeliever that this text has blessed application. It's for the believer. Do you ever feel like He doesn't save to the uttermost?
Do you ever feel like your life's a mess You've got to this, or you've got to that, or maybe he's not going to accept me after all. I haven't been as good a Christian. I hear that sometimes. Hey, he's not that good of a Christian.
What does that mean? You know what the defining reality of a Christian is? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. When we say he's not that good of a Christian, or I'm not that good of a Christian, what are we looking to?
Our performance. Our doings. Our abilities. Our merits.
I'm not that good of a Christian. Maybe Jesus won't accept me. No, you're not that good of a Christian. You're not that good of a human being.
In fact, as the Scripture says, you're utterly worthless. You're despised. You are an enmity with the living God. But He, in His grace and in His mercy, has captivated your heart.
He has saved you by precious blood. And Christian, you need to believe that He saves to the uttermost. I shared with the brethren on a Wednesday night, a pastor friend of mine had another pastor friend. He went into his office one day and he saw on the wall, And Today.
You know, a lot of pastors, a lot of people like to put Scripture up in their offices, or put Scripture on their refrigerators, or put Scripture on their mirrors so that when they're shaving, you can remember the Scripture. This is Deuteronomy Christianity. You post that word all over the place. So the pastor, my pastor friend says, what's that?
What's And Today? And he said, Hebrews 13, it says, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever. He said, I don't really doubt Jesus Christ is all-powerful and sovereign and supreme in the past. I don't doubt the future glory and the power and the sovereignty of Jesus Christ in the future.
He says, what I struggle with is, and today. I need to be reminded that Jesus Christ is the same today. That He saves to the uttermost today. That He saves us completely today.
That He is not going to leave you. That He is not going to forsake you. That this high priest, who has an unchangeable priesthood, doesn't save you for a time and then let you go. He doesn't save you for a time and then discard you.
If you are in by His grace, you will stay in by His power. It cannot be otherwise. And this is what our author wants us to understand. Therefore, he says, he is also able to save to the uttermost.
Whatever you commit to Him, He is faithful to keep unto that day. Paul says in 2 Timothy 1.12. I am persuaded, he says. That's the conviction of a Christian.
The Character of the High Priest
Thirdly, notice the character of this high priest. His sinlessness. Verse 26, For such a high priest was fitting for us. This makes sense only as we read the rest of the verse.
For such a high priest was fitting for us. Yes, by divine oath. Yes, by the fact that he exercises an unchangeable priesthood. But by virtue of his person.
He's holy. He's harmless. And he's undefiled. That is fitting for us as unholy and harmful and thoroughly defiled people.
We are sinners who stand in need of this type of a Savior. We don't need a little help from on high. We don't need that slogan that is unbiblical to the core, God helps those who help themselves. God saves those who are utterly destitute of any power to save themselves.
That's the scriptural truth. When people say Christianity is for losers, it's for mess-ups, it's for those who have total issues, they're right. They're absolutely spot on. Don't try to defend it.
Don't try to put a ribbon on it. Don't say, well, no, He just kind of helps us do all that we can be. This isn't the Marines. That was the slogan in the Marine Corps in the United States, or the Army.
Be all that you can be. That's not Christianity. Christianity is look to Him who did everything. and find hope, comfort, and salvation through His blood and resurrection.
Holiness, Harmlessness, and Purity
His fitness for service. He's holy. This speaks to His personal piety. His obedience to the Father.
The accomplishment of the Father's will. Because contrary to Rome and contrary to modern aversions, or aberrations rather, of the Christian Gospel, we need a righteousness that avails with God. We need the imputation of Jesus' active obedience. And Christ avails that through His holiness, His obedience to His Father's will.
He is harmless. This means free from all guile or innocence. And he is undefiled. This means pure, unstained.
O'Brien says, taken together, the three adjectives forcibly describe the sinlessness of our High Priest. This is his character. This is what he looks like. We don't look to a son of Aaron who had to first atone for his sin, get himself right with God, and then go and perform sacrifice on behalf of Israel.
Remember that Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16? That Yom Kippur? When that high priest went in there, he went with two animals. The first was for his own sin.
Not so with our Redeemer. This is what our author says. He says in verse 27, because of the fact that He's holy, harmless and undefiled, because of the fact that He's separate from sinners and has become higher than the heavens, He does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people's. For this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.
We don't need daily sacrifice. We don't need the day of atonement. We don't need that representative high priest to take off the regalia, put on the linen, and go into that Holy of Holies one time a year to offer up sacrifice, to exit from the holy place, and then to lay his hand upon the scapegoat and drive it out into the wilderness. We don't need that anymore.
Those were copies. Those were shadows. Those were types. The substance has come.
And our author is saying, our high priest is such that he does not need daily to go and sacrifice for himself. He's not morally impure. He's not morally defiled. He is not deficient.
He is the best. You know, when God came to sacrifice, He wasn't like us. God had to specify in the law that when you sacrifice, you don't take the worst from your flock. God knows us, doesn't He?
What's our temptation? It's time to sacrifice. What's going to cost me the least? What's going to hurt me the less?
What's going to affect me without my really feeling it or knowing it? There's not a one of us who goes out to the flock and finds the best, the choices, the most dignified, and says, that one for God. We see it in Israel's history. Malachi's day, they were stealing sacrifices to take to the temple.
I don't know how you get that degenerate. Actually, I do know. Unfortunately, sons of Adam, we never stop devising ways of sinning against God. Can you imagine that?
You're going to go sacrifice? Hey, honey, I forgot the sacrifice. Oh, steal one from the Joneses. They won't miss it.
Grab one of their best. Grab their best. Did they ever doubt on them? But we're stealing a sacrifice.
Has it ceased to be a sacrifice? Not so, our God. When it came to deal with His sinful people, He sends the best. He sends the champion.
He sends the Savior. He sends David's greater Son. He sends David's Lord. And our Author tells us He does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people's.
For this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. When we eat this bread and we drink this wine, we are not ingesting the physical body of Jesus. We are not taking corporally the real body and blood of Jesus. That is what Roman Catholicism teaches.
They teach that the priest pronounces words and changes those elements from the bread and wine to the body and blood of Jesus. And what they do in their sacrifice of the Mass is re-crucify the Lord of Glory. There is not a memorial service. Theirs is an atoning sacrifice, an unbloody atoning sacrifice.
Why? Jesus did it once for all. Never to be duplicated. Never to be engaged in again.
Never to be replicated. Christ's sacrifice is back glorious. When you take the best, and you pour your wrath upon Him, and you accept Him, then sinful men don't have to go through some external system of unbloody sacrifice anymore. I love what O'Brien says with reference to this sacrifice that Jesus engaged in.
He says, by contrast with the Levitical priests, Christ offered the definitive and ultimate sacrifice of Himself once for all. Now listen, He did not make an offering for Himself, but of Himself for the sake of others. That's good theology right there. He did not make a sacrifice for Himself like these Levites, but He made a sacrifice of Himself for the sake of sinners.
Substitutionary, wrath-bearing, curse-bearing on the part of our great High Priest. You see why the author says, so much so, we have a surety of a better covenant.
Minister of the True Tabernacle
Fourthly, quickly, notice He is the minister of the true tabernacle. Verses 1 and 2. I love this. Now this is the main point of the things we are saying.
Hebrews for dummies, right here. I don't mean to be cheeky, but this is what he's doing. You ever see those books? I remember the first one I saw, DOS for dummies.
Now they probably have Windows for dummies. They might have C++ for dummies. They have dog training for dummies. I'm not trying to be...
You go to any bookstore, you see these books. How to be a housewife for dummies. How to do philosophy for dummies. Everything for dummies.
That's Hebrews 31. In case you missed everything, I want to just summarize and encapsulate. This is the main point of what we've been saying. This is what I want you to get.
This take-home message. When you eat this bread and you drink this wine, you praise God Almighty for the fact that Jesus died for you and rose again. Here's what you need to remember. We have such a high priest.
This is not a fictional man. This is not a figment of the imagination. This isn't a cunningly devised fable. This isn't something developed in a drug-induced state.
This wasn't mass hysteria. Jesus of Nazareth was a real man who really did all that we have specified. Who really died as a substitute at Calvary and who really rose again. Who did not offer sacrifice for himself, but of himself for the sake of others.
This is the main point of what we've been saying. You need to understand this. Remember back in verse 26, for such a high priest was fitting for us. You may feel your need.
You may understand that you are deficient before a thrice holy God. You may see Him as holy and yourself as miserable and sinful. I understand this is the main point of the things we are saying. We have such a high priest.
He's there. He's in session. In this first century context, the author is writing to Jewish Christians who are being tempted to go back to the temple. who are being tempted to go out into their barn and grab an animal, and go to the temple, and cut its throat, lay their hand on its head, and turn it over to the priest so that he can offer it up to Jehovah. They're being tempted to do this.
It's one of the thrusts of the book of Hebrews. The sacrificial system was an abomination, but it was still in practice. That's what he alludes to in verse 13 of chapter 8. In that he says a new covenant, he has made the first obsolete.
He did this at the cross by his dying at Calvary. Now it says, now what is becoming obsolete? This system that was still in play before A.D. 70. What is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
When would that happen? When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, know that its desolation is near. But for the present time, there were Jewish Christians tempted to go back to the sacrificial system. And he says, don't do it.
We have such a high priest. We have this Jesus. He saves to the uttermost. He exercises an unchangeable priesthood.
He's been instituted by divine oath. Don't go backwards. Don't leave off. Keep going.
The glory of plotting. The glory of perseverance. The glory of keeping on. The glory of looking to Jesus.
The glory of not taking your eyes off of Him. You could hear the pressure the unbelieving Jews would put upon that. What's up with you? You don't have any sacrificial system.
You don't have any high priest. You don't have any ceremony. You don't have any pomp. You don't have any show.
You don't have any external glory. You don't have any splendor. You don't have any temple. So the author takes pen to paper and says, oh, we've got all that. that you carnal wretches know nothing of.
We have such a high priest, he says, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens. A minister of the sanctuary. We could read this sentence this way. A minister of the sanctuary.
That is the true tabernacle which the Lord erected and not man. He's not talking about two items. He's talking about the true tabernacle which is heaven itself. Isn't it interesting?
This king-priest reigns not from a palace, but in a sanctuary. When God made Adam and Eve, He made Eden as a sanctuary. He institutes the tabernacle and the temple, pointing the way forward to this true tabernacle, to this true sanctuary, to this true new heavens and a new earth. So that when John in Revelation 21 sees New Jerusalem descending out of heaven like a bride adorned for her husband, he describes a temple.
Life is about worship. The eschaton is about worship. It's about the service of our triune God. It's about being priests to Him.
That's why when we find the redeemed in heaven in Revelation 22, it's all priestly terminology. He's made us a kingdom of priests unto our God and unto His Christ. That's what Jesus is all about. Hughes says, it is described as the true tabernacle because in contrast to the perishable tent or tabernacle which accompanied the Israelites in their wilderness wanderings, the heavenly reality in which the Ascended Lord has entered is the genuine sanctuary, the imperishable holy of holies.
This is our movement. This is where we're headed. This is what the trajectory of history is all about. going forward to be that place where God is all in all and His people worship Him. Fifth, we could spend several hours here, just so you all know.
You're probably going, oh man, we're getting lots of Wednesday night poured into wine. Come out to Wednesday night, lots to say about the book of Hebrews.
The Priestly Function and Justification
Notice fifthly, quickly, the function of the high priest. We've already touched on this. Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. One of the things we pointed out this past Wednesday night is the priestly office in connection with justification by faith alone.
The priest doesn't make us holy. The priest functions before God to declare us holy. Charles Hodge says it this way, Christ saves us as a priest, but a priest does not save by making those who come to Him good. You didn't wander into the temple to have the priest give you an example.
You didn't wander into the temple to have the priest make you holy or good. You went to the temple so that a declaration could be made, so that a judgment could be adjudicated, so that there would be peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, having been justified by faith. He says, He does not work in them, but for them. Christ saves us by a sacrifice, but a sacrifice is effectual, not because of its subjective effect upon the offerer, but as an expiation or satisfaction to justice.
Christ is our Redeemer. He gave Himself as a ransom for many, but a ransom does not infuse righteousness. It is the payment of a price. It is the satisfaction of the claims of the captor upon the captive.
And
A More Excellent Ministry
notice what our beloved author says in verse 6, which brings us to our sixth and final observation. This is a more excellent ministry. But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry inasmuch as he is also mediator of a better covenant which was established on better promises." Those better promises are spelled out in the following verses. Those better promises are taken right out of Jeremiah 31, 31-34.
Remember the Old Covenant? Within that one covenant community you had all who were circumcised and entered in, but you had saved and you had unsaved. God through Jeremiah says in the New Covenant, that's not the case. In the New Covenant, all shall know the Lord, from the least of them to the greatest of them.
They will know Me. They will receive the forgiveness of sins. That's what the author does in verses 7 to 13. He says that this new covenant is superior.
This new covenant is supreme. This new covenant has taken the place of the old, and it is the only one that's left. Hebrews 13.20 calls it the eternal covenant. It is not going to falter.
It is not going to fail. It is not going to go away.
Application
So, brethren, this morning, consider the fact that you are participants, by the grace of God, in a better covenant. You are participants in a better covenant founded upon divine oath and effected by a glorious priest. If that doesn't make you happy, you all need to repent. It just doesn't get any better.
Now, I'm not saying that Hebrews 7 is the bestest place in the Bible. It's one of many vistas in the Bible. It's one of many summits in the Bible. Because what it does is it takes Jesus Christ and it sets Him before us in all of His glory as the great High Priest of this New Covenant.
And if you are not a Christian this morning, there's one way to become a Christian. It's not to become good. It's not to go out and read your Bible. It's not to make sure you're at the evening service.
It's not to buy a leather confession. It's not to be here on Wednesday night. It's to look to Jesus Christ. To believe the gospel.
To realize that God is a holy God. That you are a sinful man, a sinful boy, a sinful woman, or a sinful girl. and that Jesus alone is the Savior. The Scripture says when you believe on Him, He will forgive you. He will impute righteousness to you.
He will make you fit to stand before the Father everlastingly. There's no greater news in this world. There's no greater blessing in this world. There's no greater joy in this world than to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father in Heaven, we thank You so much for Hebrews 7 and 8. We thank You so much for the entirety of Hebrews, the entirety of the canon, both Old and New Testaments, because their consistent message is God saving sinners by Jesus Christ for the glory of His own Most Holy Name. And we just pray, Father, that as this Gospel is proclaimed today, sinners in this place and throughout the earth would look and live. And I pray that You would strengthen Your people, strengthen believers, help us to reflect upon the fact that this Jesus saves to the uttermost.
That when we come by grace to Him, He doesn't partially save. He doesn't make us save a bull, but He completely and thoroughly saves us. And Father, may this be an encouragement to us. And may You grant us grace now as we consider His death in a special way and just cause us to reflect upon these truths.
We ask through Christ our Lord. Amen.