In my blog yesterday, I mentioned that the Book of Hebrews teaches how Jesus, the long-expected Messiah of Israel, fulfills the types and shadows of the worship rituals of Old Testament religion. For example, the high priesthood ministry of Aaron and his descendants find their fulfillment in Jesus, our heavenly high priest.
A Better Priest, A Better Ministry
Jesus is superior both in his person and in his ministry to Aaron and his descendants. Jesus didn’t have to provide an animal sacrifice for his own sins, like the other merely human priests. He fulfilled full obedience to the Law of Moses as God incarnate. And then he offered himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the people once for all. Jesus did not die and stay dead, but He rose from the grave on the third day and lives forever. Therefore, his priesthood goes on forever and he is able to save us to the uttermost (Heb. 7:23-28). His priesthood is based on the power of an indestructible life and not a mere regulation (Heb. 7:16).
Jesus’ personhood is superior to the Old Testament priests. In addition, the sanctuary He ministers in is superior. He ministers in a heavenly sanctuary, in God’s very presence, compared to the earthly sanctuary of the Old Testament (Heb. 8:5; 9:1-12). The earthly temple was a copy of the heavenly one (9:24). After his sacrificial death and resurrection, Jesus entered heaven itself in his ascension.
Jesus’ sacrifice is superior as well. It was himself and his own very blood, compared with the blood of animals under the Old Testament (Hebrews 9:12-14). The blood of animals could cover a person’s sin and make them ceremonially (outwardly) clean, but Christ’s blood takes the guilt of a person’s sin away (Heb. 9:13,14). Christ cleanses our conscience by his one sacrifice. He didn’t have to offer himself over and over again, like the priests of the Old Testament, who offered animals over and over again (Heb. 9:25-28). The blood of animals couldn’t take a person’s guilt away like Christ’s blood, shed once and for all time.
A Better Hope Is Offered Us
The covenant Jesus mediates is superior to the old covenants, as well. His covenant fulfills all the prior covenants, and they contain superior or better promises (Heb. 8:6). We have assurance of sin’s guilt removed and we serve a High Priest that will never die. He ministers in heaven itself. And Jesus is both fully God and fully human. He perfectly represents God to us and us to God. He is the perfect mediator. On the basis of his person and ministry, Jesus introduces a better hope, by which we can draw near to the very presence of God, now and forever (Heb. 7:18-22).
No wonder that the Hebrews’ author gives us this exhortation in Hebrews 10:19-23:
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
Let us therefore not become weary or lazy. But let us imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what God has promised (Heb. 6:12).
QOTD: Are you imitating those who, by faith and patience, inherited the blessings of God’s promises?