In our study of Hebrews chapter eight, we will look at the reality of Jesus as our High Priest and how He was promised to the people of Israel.
Now, if God speaks to you in this study, you can save your own personal notes on this page. Then, every time that you look at this study, your notes will automatically be added to the page. To add a note or to display your previous notes, click on the YOUR NOTES button.
Here is the whole point of what we have been saying: we do have just such a cohen gadol as has been described. And he does sit at the right hand of HaG'dulah in heaven.d There he serves in the Holy Place, that is, in the true Tent of Meeting, the one erected not by human beings but by ADONAI.
In chapter 7, Paul explained how Jesus was declared to be our High Priest by the power of His resurrection and this was compared to the earthly Levitical priesthood. He continues, here, to share some differences. First, we see that Jesus went to heaven and sat down at the Father's right hand. This is a very big detail because the earthly priests that served in the temple and tabernacle never had a chair or sat down. Their work was never done as they were constantly required to offer sacrifices and present offerings for the people. But, the work of Jesus was finished when He was sacrificed on the cross as the atonement for our sins. The second thing we see is that Jesus serves in the "true" tabernacle in heaven. The actual word means "genuine" and is a reminder that the earthly tabernacle was simply a copy of the tabernacle in heaven. In our world today, there are cheap copies of just about everything that we can imagine and most people would rather have the real thing.
For every cohen gadol is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; so this cohen gadol too has to have something he can offer. Now if he were on earth, he wouldn't be a cohen at all, since there already are cohanim offering the gifts required by the Torah. But what they are serving is only a copy and shadow of the heavenly original; for when Moshe was about to erect the Tent, God warned him, "See to it that you make everything according to the pattern you were shown on the mountain."
Jesus had to present Himself as our sacrifice because the earthly priests did not have a perfect sacrifice. The earthly tabernacle is described here as a "shadow" of the sanctuary in heaven. As a child, many of us have spent time chasing our shadows for amusement. The attempts of the priests to present sacrifices for sins was much like that in the fact that you can never really catch a shadow. Their sacrifices did not have the power to eliminate sin permanently and so they were continually chasing forgiveness. It is sad to say but the same type of thing is happening even today in the church. There are many people running around trying to do something for God in hopes of finding forgiveness. They will perform all of the rituals on cue but still leave without a realization that Jesus has already done the work. He is the real priest and we must look to Him and His finished work and not the efforts of others (earthly priests) or ourselves. This constant effort is simply like chasing our shadows as a child. When we accept Jesus' finished work, we can have the security in our hearts and minds that the work is finished. We all must ask ourselves the question: Is Jesus real to me or am I just chasing a shadow?
But now the work Yeshua has been given to do is far superior to theirs, just as the covenant he mediates is better. For this covenant has been given as Torah on the basis of better promises. Indeed, if the first covenant had not given ground for faultfinding, there would have been no need for a second one.
Just as the real thing is better than a picture or a copy, the new covenant in Jesus is superior to the Mosaic Covenant. In this passage, we see two reasons for its superiority. First, the new covenant has a far better promise in the fact that it guarantees us a restored relationship with God forever. We can know for certain that we will be with God for eternity. The second reason is that the first covenant required continual action on the part of man without man having the power to keep his part of the contract. The Law did not have the power to save as it could only show us our inability to keep it completely.
For God does find fault with the people when he says, "'See! The days are coming,' says ADONAI, 'when I will establish over the house of Isra'el and over the house of Y'hudah a new covenant. "'It will not be like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by their hand and led them forth out of the land of Egypt; because they, for their part, did not remain faithful to my covenant; so I, for my part, stopped concerning myself with them,' says ADONAI.
Paul quotes from the prophet Jeremiah where the people of Israel were told that a better covenant was coming. God explained that a new covenant was coming that did not require continual action on their part. He did this because they (and we) were unable to fulfill our part of the Mosaic Covenant.
"'For this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Isra'el after those days,' says ADONAI: 'I will put my Torah in their minds and write it on their hearts; I will be their God, and they will be my people. "'None of them will teach his fellow-citizen or his brother, saying, "Know ADONAI!" For all will know me, from the least of them to the greatest, because I will be merciful toward their wickednesses and remember their sins no more.'"
God goes on to explain that this new covenant is superior because it promises that God will be with every believer through the Holy Spirit. Jesus referred to the Spirit as the Counselor and we see that it is the job of the Spirit to lead men in the things of God. He goes on to say how the Spirit will guide the believer and not the traditions of men or a religious ruling class. Even today, there is a religious system that attempts to replace the work of the Spirit in the lives of believers. This is "the practices of the Nicolaitans" that Jesus said He hated (see Revelation 2:6).
By using the term, "new," he has made the first covenant "old"; and something being made old, something in the process of aging, is on its way to vanishing altogether.
This new covenant replaced the old which was the law. It is important to understand that it replaced the Law of Moses. In Paul's day, he was constantly facing those who wanted to hold onto the old covenant and blend it with the new. The same thing happens in the church of today and is the reason for the number of splits and factions (denominations) within the family of God. We must embrace the freedom that we have to live in Christ and let go of the old desire to do something to make ourselves more acceptable to God. When we don't embrace that freedom we, in fact, have fallen from grace.
Read about what we do with the data we gather and the rules you agree to by using this website in our privacy policy.