Hebrews 8

Why would anyone need a priest? A priest is one who understands both the world of heaven and the world of earth. As someone who has lived on earth, he understands the challenges and opportunities of living in a place under a the Lord's just sentence of futility. He has experienced things like betrayal and loss. As someone who has lived in heaven, he knows what is important to Almighty God, and how we who have sinned can have peace with a God who will by no means clear the guilty. He works within a covenant administration established by God. A covenant administration contains the rules of engagement between a holy God and His worshiping people. A priest is a man who bridges heaven and earth according to those rules. What could be more important than that?

The true priest offers up sacrifices to God on behalf of people and pronounces blessings from God upon people. The problems with the Levitical priests of the Old Covenant were substantial. But in Jesus we have a far better Priest and a vastly superior covenant administration.

Our Priest serves from a superior location. The earlier Levitical priests had to work from earth, because they did not have the right to be seated with God on high. Jesus has ascended to that place of power. He does not minister in an earthly tent that is a symbolic portrayal of the temple in heaven, but He has entered heaven itself.

The covenant that Christ administers is based on the Promise of God. The Law of Israel said to the people of God, “Do this and live.” In the Promise, God says to His worshiping people, “I will do this for you so that you will live” Which is more secure, a covenant administration dependent on the faithfulness of God or one where the blessings can be taken away based on the failure of man? Even during the time of the Law, which promised an earthly place of rest based on the full obedience of the people, the Promise was still in effect, securing a heavenly Land. The Law teaches us about the sinfulness and weakness of people. The Promise proclaims to us the power and mercy of God through the provision of a Substitute. These lessons could be seen in the shadows of the Law, but the administration itself was very different from the Promise. The Law was destined for failure. The Promise of God can never lose.

There are many ways to demonstrate these points from the Old Testament Scriptures. One of the most straight-forward is to read the writings of the prophets who served during the time of the Law. Jeremiah lived under the Law, but God used Him as a herald of a coming New Covenant administration. If there were no problem with the ceremonial arrangements of the Law, why would the Lord have spoken of a New Covenant through His servants the prophets?

In Jeremiah 31, the prophet plainly shows that the problem with the Law was that the people of God did not keep it. A better covenant administration would be needed to address that great weakness. The best laws in the world cannot help anyone unless they are followed. According to the Law, the people of Israel did not continue in covenant with God.

There needed to be something in the New Covenant system that would address this fatal problem of the Law. In the New Covenant, the laws of God would be placed within God's people. Rather than being an external reality that could be applauded by the mind but rejected by the will, now the laws of the Lord will somehow be alive in the renewed lives of the New Covenant people. According to Jeremiah 31, this coming administration will be grounded in the promises of God. He will be our God. We will be His people. But also the experience of this life of promise will proceed from a renewed will. We do not yet see the culmination of this New Covenant life, but one day we will. Then the Word of God through the prophets will come to pass, that no one will have to teach his neighbor to know the Lord. We will all know Him just as surely as we will all be alive. The forgiveness of sin will be so permanent and complete, that God's ancient promise will be fulfilled: God will no longer even remember our sins.

This New Covenant life has come. We may feel that much of the joy and assurance of it seems to allude us at present. Yet the ground of our joy and assurance has already been provided. We are not waiting for the Messiah to be the Lamb of God. He has already done this. We are not hoping that a Man will rise again to resurrection life. It has already happened. We are not thinking that it would be a good thing if God would send His Spirit to dwell within His people. We have the Holy Spirit now. We can walk in the blessings of eternal life now as we consider our great High Priest.

The Old Covenant arrangement is now obsolete. The New Covenant has come in Christ. It must have been tempting for many first century Jews and God-fearing Gentiles who used to worship in Jewish synagogues to think about returning to the old ways in order to escape persecution. To do so would be to reject Christ as High Priest.

Jesus is the perfect High Priest. He knows both heaven and earth as One who has lived in both places. He knows as God as One who is God. He had the moral perfection and love necessary to be our Sacrifice. There is no other priest who can represent us before the Father today. Even though we pray for one another, and are together a kingdom priests who care for one another, we offer up all of our worship through one Man, and from one Man we receive all the blessings of heaven. The Old Covenant has vanished. The new and better way has been revealed in the Son of God.