VI.
Melchizedek (7:1-28)
C.
Christ's Priesthood Superior ()
Because of its Permanence ()
2.
() From Christ's unchanging priesthood, the divine author draws an important conclusion about the salvation Christ accomplishes. The verb "to save" is used absolutely, which means that Christ will save in the most comprehensive sense; He saves from all that humanity needs saving from. The expression rendered "forever" signifies that Christ's salvation is a complete deliverance, no matter what the need of the sinner. It also means "always." The verb "is able" after "He" refers to divine power. Christ's inviolable and permanent priesthood means that He has the capacity (as others have not) of bringing a complete salvation to all who approach God through Him as God enables them.
a.
() The author then mentions that Christ lives "to make intercession" for those who come to Him. He is supreme, and His very presence in heaven, seated at God’s right hand, as the One who died for those chosen in eternity past as vessels of blessing and rose again is itself an intercession. We should infer from this verse that our Lord maintains a continuous intercession against Satan in heaven for our benefit.
Because of His Better Sacrifice ()
This section is rounded off with a glowing description of Christ as our High Priest, better qualified than the Levitical priests, and as One who offered a better sacrifice than they did.
1.
() This verse (beginning in Greek with the word "For") gives the basis for the preceding verse. Because Christ is what He is, He intercedes as He does. This great verse implies that even our human sense of the fitness of things can recognize Christ's suitability for His saving work fact of the Incarnation. "Holy" signifies the character involved in the separation of human beings from God. Christ is also "undefiled" and "innocent". "Undefiled" may be a contrast between the ritual purity that the Levitical high priest must be careful to maintain and the complete moral purity of Jesus. "Innocent" high priest looks to His state as innocent when He died on the cross to pay the penalties of our sins.
a.
There is probably another contrast in the words "separated from sinners," for Jewish tradition prescribed that the Levitical high priest was required to leave his home seven days before the Day of Atonement and live in such a manner as toensure that he avoided ritual defilement. But Jesus' separation was notritual. While these words refer to His spotless character and His contrast withsinful human beings, it is more likely that they should be taken closely with the following. His work on earth is done. He has accomplished His sacrifice. He has been "exalted above the heavens." This makes Him the perfect intercessor.
2.
() The high priest Jesus did not offer sacrifices over and over again like the Levitical high priest did. However, a word of explanation is needed. While there weredaily sacrifices in the temple, the high priest was not required to offer them personally; but some sacrifices did demand his personal action. (; )Those on the Day of Atonement, took place once a year, a fact the author well knows.() What the divine author likely had in mind was that it was always possible for the high priest, as for anyone, to commit inadvertent sin, which required the offering of a sin offering, and that thus the high priest needed to offer these offerings "daily" (to ensure his own fitness for ministry). () We should also bear in mind that Leviticus 6 requires the high priest to offer the grain offering each day. This came to be regarded as expiatory (atoning for sin).
a.
Jesus stands in contrast to the earthly priests. He has no need to offer for His own sins because He has none (). And He has no need to keep offering for the sins of the people, for His one sacrifice has perfectly accomplished this. Earthly priests were sinful people who had to provide for the putting away of their own sins before they were in a fit condition to do anything about the sins of the people. What they did for themselves they then proceeded to do for others. But Christ's offering is different. There is none for Himself. And He offered "once for all". There is an air of utter finality about this expression. Characteristically, the divine author introduces the thought of Christ's sacrifice but does not elaborate. He will return to the thought later and develop it.
3.
() Here the contrast between human beings with all their infirmities and the Son of God with His eternal perfection is further brought out. "The Law" brings us back to the law of Moses, the law of divine origin indeed, but the law that necessarily operates among people who are "weak". And when the law appoints high priests, they must be limited, for they are not made from some super race but from ordinary people, with all their human frailty.
a.
"But" introduces the contrast; "the oath" makes all the difference. This oath, we are reminded, "came after the Law" and so cannot be thought of as superseded by it. And the oath "appoints a Son." Actually, , which speaks of the oath, does not mention the Son who is referred to in . But the author sees both psalms ( and ) as referring to Jesus (cf. ); so, he has no difficulty in applying terminology taken from the one to a situation relating to the other. And the Son has been "made perfect forever." He has been made perfect through those sufferings () that bring people to God.
VII
A New and Better Covenant (8:1-10:39)
A.
Christ's More Excellent Ministry ()
1.
Throughout the Old Testament period, the relationship of God's people to their God was characteristically viewed in terms of covenant, which was fundamental to their thinking and outlook. It is accordingly something radically new and daring to maintain that this whole system has been done away and replaced by a new covenant. Central to the new covenant is the death of Jesus, the sacrifice that established the new covenant. The demonstration of what all this means spells out the end of the Mosaic system.
a.
The divine author leads on from his treatment of the priesthood after the order of Melchizedek to emphasize that Christ's ministry far surpasses that of the Levitical priests. The readers of the book would be familiar with this priesthood, and the writer makes it clear that Jesus has a ministry far excelling it.
2.
() In this opening verse, the divine author picks out his principal "point" and proceeds to develop it. We have, he says, a high priest who is so great that "He has taken His seat" at God's right hand. "The Majesty in the heavens" is a reverent way of referring to God, and to be at His right hand is to be in the place of highest honor (see ). The posture of sitting suggests a completed work. "Heavens" can be used in a variety of ways, but here it clearly means the dwelling place of God.
3.
() Christ is a "minister" in "the sanctuary" (lit., "the holy things"). The former word is actually a noun, used of one who performed a variety of forms of public service. In the Bible, it is confined to the service of God, whether by angels () or by people (; ). () It can even include what is done by pagan officials. It speaks of Christ in His capacity as servant, which is striking, as it immediately follows the reference to His high place in heaven. That earthly tent corresponds to a heavenly reality, and it is in this heavenly reality that Christ's ministry is exercised. "True" means authentic, insofar as the reality is possessed only by the genuine and not by its copies. This is further brought out with the statement that "the Lord" pitched the true tabernacle — "not man." Sin is dealt with in the way and place determined by God.
4.
(; ) Earlier, the author said that high priests are appointed to offer sacrifices. Now we see Christ as high priest ministering in the true tabernacle (). Thus, it is "necessary" that Christ have something to offer. () As he has already indicated, the author has in mind the one offering made once for all, not a continuous offering always being made in heaven. Even though Christ is eternally High Priest, He is not eternally offering up a sacrifice. () Characteristically, the divine author does not say at this point what is offered; that subject he will explain more fully later.
5.
() We must be clear that Christ's priesthood is not one of this earth (even though His offering of Himself took place here, His priesthood began after His death, resurrection, and ascension). There are divinely appointed earthly priests, but Jesus has no place among them. On earth He was a layman, who performed no priestly functions in any earthly sanctuary. Those functions were performed by the priests to whom God had entrusted them. Christ's priestly functions must obviously, then, be exercised elsewhere, in the true sanctuary in heaven.
6.
() The earthly priests serve in a sanctuary they value highly, though it is no more than "a copy and shadow of the heavenly things." The divine author’s main thought accords with the Old Testament, though he has added to his thinking the idea that the earthly is imperfect and the heavenly is real. Inevitably the ministry of the Levitical priests was defective; they could serve only the "copy and shadow." So, we are reminded of the Lord's words to Moses that he must make everything "according to the pattern which was shown [him] on the mountain" ().
7.
() The ministry of priests in a sanctuary made according to the heavenly pattern is obviously one of great dignity. But the divine author's point is that Jesus' ministry in the heavenly archetype is of incomparably greater dignity and worth. He chooses to bring this out by using a comparison of the two covenants. Jesus is the mediator of a "better" covenant. "Mediator" is a legal term for one who arbitrates between two parties. Christ mediates between people and God; it is He who establishes the new covenant (see ). This new covenant is better than the old because it is "enacted on better promises" — it concentrates on spiritual things (e.g., the forgiveness of sins) and is unconditional in nature.
8.
() The author brings out the superiority of the new covenant by referring to the supersession of the old one. If there had been "faultlessness" with the old covenant, there would have been no place for "a second": the new covenant. That the new covenant has now been established is itself evidence that the old one was not adequate (cf. ). The old covenant was lacking not so much in what its terms spelled out as in the fact that it was weak and unable to bring people to the LORD (cf. ; ).
B.
The Old Covenant Superseded ()
This long quotation from makes the point that the old covenant under which Israel has had its religious experience is now superseded by a new covenant under which forgiveness of sins is brought about. As soon as the divine author comes to the words about forgiveness, he breaks off his quotation.
1.
() The writer proceeds to show that a place was indeed sought for a new covenant. God found fault with the people of old, he reminds us, and this thought leads to the quotation from . As usual, he suggests that what is found in Scripture was written by God (lit., it reads, "I will write it"). "I will write it" is not the usual word for making a covenant but means something like "I will write a new covenant, so it accomplishes My desire." The author implies that the "covenant" (cf. ) is all of God. Human beings do not bargain with God and come to an acceptable compromise. Rather, God is the One who lays down the terms. Jeremiah looks for the unification of "the house of Israel" and "the house of Judah." They had long been separated when he wrote, but his vision was large enough to take in both and to look for the day when Judah and part of Israel would be one in the first century as the Messiah replaced them to become the King of kings.
2.
() The new covenant is contrasted with the old one. Jeremiah does not say that God will simply patch up the old covenant and give it new life, but will make a completely new covenant, with four significant differences (see vss. 10-12).