THE GLORY OF OUR PRIEST AS THE MEDIATOR OF THE NEW COVENANT
(Suggested Reading: Heb. 8)
In the last chapter the key verse v.12 told us that since the priesthood was changed (i.e. from Aaron to Christ) the law must change too since it was connected to the priesthood. A better law or covenant was what God had in mind, guaranteed by Jesus v.22 whose Priesthood was in turn introduced by God swearing the oath of Psa. 110 that it should be forever v.28. In the eighth chapter the great thought is the glory of our High Priest as the Mediator of this New Covenant. The first two verses of Chapter 8 which we will now consider summarize what has been taught to date, and introduce our chapter.
The Present Position and Function of Our Great High Priest
The opening statement presents some difficulty to the spiritual mind. That is because it tells us that our High Priest has sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens. Clearly this is in contrast to Chapter 1 where He sat Himself down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. In Chapter 1 He sits down personally in Chapter 8 He sits down as High Priest. In the ancient world most work was done standing, although a few privileged people such as scribes would sit down to work. Therefore Scripture uses the symbolism of standing to indicate work and sitting down to indicate rest. This works perfectly in the case of Chapter 1. In that chapter Christ sits down because His work of purging our sins is finished. He was the Apostle sent out by the Father and His work is done. But how can He sit down in Chapter 8 as High Priest since this work is not finished indeed is the very character of His present work for us. The difficulty vanishes when we realize that a King's working time is spent on His throne hearing petitions, judging cases, etc. In other words unlike other men he works sitting down. So Christ sits down as High Priest at the beginning of Chapter 8. He is a King because He is after the order of Melchizedec who was a King. That is why in verse 1 Paul prefaces his remark about our High Priest sitting down by telling us he is summarizing his teaching on the priesthood. His teaching was that our High Priest was also a King. Such is His official position Priest King with endless life and unlimited power.
Then in verse 2 we are told the functions of His office. He is "a Minister of the holy places, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man." The inspired writer never mentions the Temple, for his purpose in writing was to wean the Hebrew Christians away from the Temple and its services. Instead he attracts their thoughts to the position of their forefathers redeemed out of Egypt by blood the promised land their destiny but not yet there in the desert instead and gathered around the Tabernacle where God dwelt. But, he says, you must think in terms of a true tabernacle with its holy places. The old tabernacle was a tent which man pitched. The true tabernacle is a spiritual one.
Christ's services in it are inside in the holy places not inside and outside like Aaron but inside only because the interior of the tabernacle was a figure of the heavens and that is where our High Priest is now. It is there He performs His High Priestly services.
The "More Excellent Ministry" of Jesus the Mediator of a Better Covenant
In verse 3 the argument is that every High Priest has official duties to perform and so it must be with this man our High Priest. The question is what has He to offer? Well, certainly not visible earthly priestly functions for there were priests on earth at the time this was written who did that and besides Christ was never a Priest when He was on earth v.4.*1 The functions of the earthly priests were mere copies of heavenly things just as the tabernacle was a copy of what was in God's mind not Moses' mind v.5. Then in verse 6 we get the explanation of verse 2 Jesus as "a minister of the holy places" for surely we should want to know what this ministry is. In verse 6 we are told that His ministry is "more excellent" that is more excellent than the ministry of the earthly priests. Why? Because He is the Mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
It is important to understand Christ's relationship to the New Covenant. In Heb. 7:2222By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. (Hebrews 7:22) Jesus was made the guarantee of this better covenant here in 8:6 the Mediator of this better covenant. When two nations sign a covenant, say, not to make war with each other, the worthless document (for man is fallen and his word unreliable) requires the signatures of the consenting parties. Should disputes arise they may call in a third party to arbitrate the argument or they may tear it up by going to war. Note the difference in a divine covenant. It does not require man's consent to make it operative. So Christ is first the guarantee of the better covenant guaranteeing the covenant itself. Secondly as the Mediator of the covenant He is the One who will see that it works, going between the parties involved God and man so that the terms of the covenant are fulfilled. Because of these features the blessing God has for man will be fully realized.
“the Better Covenant" Shown to Be the New Covenant God Will Establish With Israel in a Coming Day
What is meant by the "better covenant" of which Jesus is the Mediator? And why the comparative "better?" Would not "best" have described this covenant? For God once made a covenant with Noah and all flesh not to destroy the world again with water and sealed this covenant by setting His bow in the clouds Gen. 9:8-178And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, 9And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; 10And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. 11And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. 12And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 13I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. 14And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: 15And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. 17And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth. (Genesis 9:8‑17). That covenant however simply defines the general idea of what a covenant is in Scripture language. It is a condition or principle of the relationship of earthly creatures to God as established on His terms. The brute creation could not understand this covenant that God would not bring a flood on the earth again anymore than they could understand the rainbow as the seal of it. So this covenant is excluded in the comparison. The new covenant is a "better covenant" because it is in contrast to the old. The mind of God only visualizes two covenants in man's moral relationships to Himself the Old Covenant, the law given at Sinai and the New Covenant to be established with Israel in a future day whose principle is grace. But you say if the New Covenant is future how can Christ be the Mediator of it now? Simply because we come into the good of Israel's blessings through her fall and departure from God as we are told in the Book of Romans. The seal of the New Covenant is Christ's blood as He Himself said before His death "This is My blood of the New Covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”
Notice how gradually Paul has introduced the thought of the new covenant. In Heb. 7:2222By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. (Hebrews 7:22) and 8:6 he speaks of "a better covenant." In Heb. 8:77For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. (Hebrews 8:7) he tells us that if the first covenant the law had been faultless there would have been no need of another one. Then in v.8 the source of the fault is traced, not to the law, but to the people who couldn't keep it and needed something better. This is the sense of v.8 which introduces and unfolds the New Covenant prophesied by Jeremiah in his 31St chapter. In vs. 9 God reviews His ancient ways with Israel how He affectionately took them by the hand as a father would his children and led them out of the land of Egypt. Alas they responded by not continuing in the law and so He disregarded them. But only for a time. "For a small moment have I forsaken thee but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid My face from thee for a moment but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord, thy Redeemer" Isa. 54:7, 87For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. 8In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. (Isaiah 54:7‑8). And so "after these days" v.10 the days of being forsaken God comes back to Israel with a new covenant. Thus the two covenants are at the beginning and ending of Israel's history. What is the essence of the new covenant? Is it not grace? "I will put My laws into their mind and write them also in their hearts." The old covenant was written with the finger of God on two tablets of stone Ex. 31:1818And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God. (Exodus 31:18) figure of the mind and the heart set on obedience to God and loving Him. Being external to man, who was weak, they failed. The New Covenant is internal to man and the two tablets are put inside the mind and written on the heart. The result is "I will be to them for God and they shall be to Me for people." The remaining verses expand on this theme. The knowledge of God shall be universal and the preaching and teaching of this knowledge to others will, consequently end. As a result God's controversy with man because of his unrighteous conduct will end, and He will forgive the past v.11, 12. Since God has decreed a new covenant God Himself has made the first covenant old v.13: Old things, whether they be old people, old clothes or whatever eventually decay and disappear. So too with the Old Covenant.
To summarize, Jesus is the arbitrator, for us at the present day, of a new covenant which God will establish with His earthly people Israel in the millennial kingdom. That means that we come into the good of this New Covenant now we do not have to wait for it. God has truly written the moral values of the law into our minds and hearts now and given us all that is necessary for the enjoyment of divine things. Christ is in heaven now as the Mediator of this New Covenant and we His people are on earth. These relative positions must be clearly grasped to understand Hebrews. We are, so to speak, gathered around the tabernacle on the way to heaven, our spiritual Canaan. This subject opens up too in Chapter 9 the tabernacle but more in the way of divine services connected with it, as we shall see.
The World and God's People- a Digression
The world as we know it originated with Cain, the man who rejected a blood sacrifice for his sins, and killed his brother Abel who offered one. Cain built the world's first city to forget God and make this earth his home. God was not willing that Cain should claim the world uncontested. It was His will to have a people of His own in the world "and Adam knew his wife again. And she bore a son, and called his name Seth. For God, said she, has appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. And to Seth, to him also there was born a son, and he called his name Enos. Then men began to call on the Name of the Lord" Gen. 4:25, 2625And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. 26And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. (Genesis 4:25‑26). Such is the genesis of "the family of God," although "the people of God" is the term found in Scripture. In any event both God and the devil are looked at as having children, so effectively dividing the world "in this the children of God are manifest and the children of the devil" 1 John 3:1010In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. (1 John 3:10).
In Scripture the children of the devil first appear prominently in Egypt. In that land Satan spawned a priesthood which ministered to the carnal desires of fallen man. Egypt was the glory of Cain's world. It offered everything in the arts of civilization in exchange for the souls of men. The priesthood of the gods had two purposes to help men's needs so they could serve the gods and worship them. The physician— priests were highly skilled and cured many of their diseases. Other priests controlled education. The construction of the temples stimulated commerce. Surely the gods deserved worship in exchange for these benefits. The gods took material form as idols, and in bowing down to them man worshipped the creature rather than the Creator. In Egypt many of these idols were birds or animals which overturned God's ruling that man was to be over them, not under them Gen. 1:2828And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. (Genesis 1:28). In Greece and Rome the idols were more likely to be in human form for their gods and goddesses represented human lusts and passions, such as love, wine, war. In short Satan organized the whole world to oppose God, to worship himself and his fallen angels, and to indulge in sin, his ruling principle.
Egyptians worshipping animal gods "their foolish heart was darkened”
Out of this moral quagmire God determined to have a people for Himself. He saved this people by the Passover lamb's blood figure of Christ our Passover who was sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 5:77Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: (1 Corinthians 5:7). He delivered them from the power of Pharaoh figure of Satan at the Red Sea. He brought them into the desert, built a tabernacle in which He dwelt, and which the people surrounded in their tents. He instituted a divine priesthood, completely different from the priesthood of the gods in Egypt. Here there were no graven images but a holy God who dwelt unseen in their midst. One God no gods or goddesses. So they could serve Him He personally took care of their needs food, drink, clothing. So they could worship Him He established not many priests to many gods as in Egypt but a priesthood for the One True God. The function of Satan's priesthood was to keep man in communion with the devil and actively sinning against God the function of God's priesthood was to keep the people near God and to instruct them in His ways. Still it was a temporary thing until Christ' should come. This Aaronic priesthood has now been superseded by a superior one that of Christ as a Priest forever after the order of Melchizedec. That brings us to the subject of the people of God in our day we who in time past were not a people like Israel but are now God's people Rom. 9:2525As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. (Romans 9:25), 2 Cor. 6:1616And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (2 Corinthians 6:16).
God's people need help in a world opposed to them. Three things help them prayer, which is talking to God, reading and meditating on the Scriptures which is God talking to us, and the High Priesthood of Christ, which sustains the eternal life God has given us so we can serve and worship the Lord. We get an advanced viewing of Christ's High Priesthood in the two sisters Martha and Mary in John 12 and Luke 10. The reason for this is that eternal life expresses itself in one of two ways service, of which Martha is the figure, and worship, of which Mary is the figure. But we are a weak people and if Christ did not help us through His High Priesthood we could easily be crushed by our burdens and settle down in the world, ignoring our responsibility to serve and worship Him.
Martha is prominent in Luke's gospel. She complains to the Lord about her lazy sister Mary, who wasn't carrying her weight in the kitchen. The Lord exonerated her sister, but did not sleight her busy activities either. The Martha story is preceded by the parable of the good Samaritan, for a reason. In modern language the good Samaritan dressed and bandaged the wounds of the man who was mugged, drove him to a motel, and prepaid his room rent until he should return. That is the gospel in capsule form, and the gospel is preached by the Marthas among Christians. We are told in John 11:55Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. (John 11:5) that Jesus loved Martha. It is not a question of which sister is better, but simply of the two ways in which eternal life is expressed service (Martha) which calls for outer activity in the world or worship (Mary) which is an act of relative seclusion apart from the world. In John 12 we find Mary in a devoted act of worship which the Lord commends. Since all believers have eternal life, we should all be actively serving or worshipping the Lord. In practice this would never happen at all because of our double burdens the opposition of the world and the storms of life which often threaten to capsize us. That is where the High Priesthood of Christ intervenes to keep us on the road.
These observations are a digression from the main flow of thought we are pursuing. The reason they are brought to the reader's attention is that in Hebrews the emphasis on the work of the High Priest is to prepare believers for approach to the Holy of Holies as worshippers. However if we thought of Christ's High Priesthood exclusively that way we would only understand it partially.