V. 20-22 – Remember that we said God made an oath to Abraham when he was willing to sacrifice Isaac – that was a reiteration of the covenant promises he had already made. However, he solidified it with an oath on his own name, specifically related to the priesthood in Ps. 110.

 

This is really interesting too by the way. The High Priest was not made the High Priest with an oath. God did ordain the Aaronic priesthood, there was a ceremony, an anointing, but there was not an oath exchanged. There was a calling, but it was not a promise of an eternal priesthood unlike the Davidic covenant or the Abrahamic covenant which were given with an oath. Think about this, the High Priest was appointed by God. However, God removed priests, kings and caesar’s appointed priests, governments got involved in the process of appointing priests over the years. The sanctity of the Aaronic priesthood was not maintained.

 

If God had promised an eternal priesthood to Aaron’s line, there would have been so many problems. I do often think of men like Caiaphas and others and think how fortunate they were that the glory of God’s presence had left the Temple. Can you imagine the way they (and many others including some that almost colluded with Antiochus in the Old Testament) would have dropped dead if God’s presence had still been present when they went into the Holy of Holies? Yet even beyond that, how blessed we are that Christ exchanges our nature for his so that we can stand before him – so that we can approach him as a friend.

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The oath was made in the Old Testament and then 1000 years later, it was fulfilled and is in perpetual fulfillment. Because he was the one who gave the promise and then the one who fulfilled the promise, he is the payment required.

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V. 23-24 – This goes back to v. 16 – he has an indestructible life. The grave had no power over him. The devil’s greatest weapon had no power over this man. It’s no wonder that Paul is virtually trash talking death in 1 Cor. 15. The thing that kept people in bondage, the fear of death – as the author discussed in chapter 2:15 could not contain him. We are surrounded by so much death, destruction and hate today. You would think we would be used to it. However, the vast majority of individuals still view death and as unnatural – we spend thousands if not millions of dollars to feel better, stay alive longer, and look younger. 

 

In this pattern of people trying to avoid death we see two things – one, sometimes people don’t have peace about what happens afterwards. They don’t know the one who conquered death. Two, people understand, on an intrinsic level (unless they have trained their minds otherwise), that death is not natural. We were made for eternity, not a temporal existence. Jesus took care of both of these issues. We no longer have to worry about what comes next and he restored the possibility of eternal life by his side.

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V. 25 – Because he lives forever, and has an eternal priesthood, he is able to save to the uttermost - to the completed end. He is able to complete their salvation because he never has to step away from his office and his work of redemption is completed. He still serves as a mediator – as an advocate between God and man, but he does not need to offer any additional sacrifices. At the end of all things in Rev. 21, we find out that there will be no temple in eternity – because he will be there. In the end, there is no more sacrifice, even ceremonially speaking – there is only the one who accomplished all redemption.

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Now notice that it says he lives to make intercession for them. I want us to think about how remarkable this statement is, but first I want us to consider what the statement itself means. Jesus is God – he is holding the universe together, he is receiving worship, he is ruling. He is doing more than just praying for us. However, because he lives, because he is eternal, and because he is an eternal High Priest, he intercedes – he continues to fulfil his purpose and calling.

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He is not just praying for us in the sense of wanting us to be victorious and wanting us to be obedient. Rather, he also intercedes for us when the accuser of the brethren slanders us. When our sins are presented to the Father a deserving judgement and condemnation, Christ presents his completed work on our behalf.

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Flip over to Romans 8. This chapter comes after the wonderful realization that we are not fighting our own nature for supremacy. Because it is no longer us, Paul issues this completely confident, non-negotiable truth in 8:1 – there is no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. However, there are days when it definitely feels like there is condemnation. There are days when the accuser of the brethren reminds both us and God of our failures. There are days when life feels overwhelming. These believers in Hebrews were struggling, they were uncertain. However, they were also thinking about going back to a legalistic system with an imperfect advocate. Can you imagine having Christ – the ever-living God interceding for you, speaking truth to both your heart and the throne room of heaven and trading that for an imperfect man who needs intercession just as much as you? One who will die? One who cannot provide eternal redemption.

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If you skip down a few verses to Romans 8:14-15, we find a truth that would have spoken directly to the turmoil they were feeling. You have been adopted. You have been set free under a new covenant. Do not go back to slavery and fear. Is it tempting? Yes, but we have been called to love and to a perfect relationship with an eternal Savior who has completed his work on our behalf. In v. 26-27, we are told that the Spirit is also interceding for us. This chapter culminates with the beautiful section of 31-38. Christ died for us, but he didn’t just save us and abandon us (although that still would have been far more than we deserved). Rather, he ever lives – the very reason there is no fear, no condemnation, and no accusation is because he intercedes for us. The reason we cannot be separated (despite experiencing the thing Paul describes and the Hebrew believers feared) is because Christ is alive. God will give us everything we need – he will give us more than we ask or think, but not necessarily what we ask for.

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Even before his death, Jesus began interceding for his disciples. He prayed for them often, but perhaps nowhere as clearly as John 17:20. In case anyone was wondering, Jesus was not only praying for his 12 disciples. He was also praying for us – even before the cross. Hours before he died for our sins, he decided to pray for those whose sins were going to cost him separation from the Father. Of all the ways I could spend my last hours, I doubt that this would be my top choice. However, he understood his calling – part of the role of a priest was an advocate between God and man. Jesus perfectly fulfilled all roles to which he was called.

 

He wanted us to live in unity with one another and to know that he loved us. Now there are many different things he might have wanted us to know, this one is particularly important because of the truth that John reminds us of in 1 John 4:16-18 – especially 18. If we are operating out of fear and making decisions out of fear instead of out of the peace that comes from knowing that we are forgiven, being sanctified, and that Christ is our advocate (as John reminded his readers a couple of chapters earlier), then we are not resting and in the perfect love of Christ and what he has done on our behalf. These Hebrew believers were terrified, and from a human perspective, they had a right to be so. They were facing persecution. So I want us to understand that the feeling of fear is not sin. However, they had to decide what they were going to do with the feeling of fear. Instead of remembering that he is our advocate and ever lives to make intercession for us – they were treating this as an equal exchange. They were completely missing the significance of Christ’s work on their behalf (not just on the cross, but as a High Priest). Nothing could take the place of the invaluable work on the cross – or the priceless worth of his continued prayers for us.

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V. 26 – It is fitting – it is comely, appropriate. Now understand, it is not fitting because that is what we deserved. We definitely did not deserve a High Priest with those wonderful attributes. Rather, we needed that – this was the only solution to our sin problem.

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V. 27 – Because he is all of those above things, he does not need to offer sacrifices daily

Now, it is worth noting that the HP was not involved in the daily offerings in the Temple. Truly, we only know for sure of one sacrifice that he oversaw (although he may have served at other times) and that is the Day of Atonement. So what does the author mean here?

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1. Very broadly, the HP was in charge of whatever occurred in the Temple. While he was not making the daily sacrifices, he was in charge of what happened. He was the head of the Sanhedrin – no one had more authority in Jewish society

2. Sin was constant – it could not be removed under the old covenant so in that sense, the work of sacrifices/the need for redemption never ended

3. While the High Priest did ceremonially offer sacrifices on the Day of Atonement, he would, theoretically, need to sacrifice daily if God had not ceremonially allowed them to limit it to one day. Imagining that one day a year was sufficient apart from God’s grace is ludicrous

In contrast, Christ made a sacrifice once for all sin (not his own) when he died on the cross. His sacrifice was able to remove sin for all time thus the constant need for forgiveness and sacrifice to appease the wrath of God was done away with. This idea will be fully fleshed out in ch. 10

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V. 28 – The law appointed men based on genealogy (or man’s authority). It appoints fragile, dying men who are sinners by nature. However, Jesus was the fulfillment of the oath made to David in Ps. 110, the prophecies in Zechariah, but also the prototype of the one who existed before the Law did. I love the fact that Jesus (and his priesthood) both precedes the Law and will survive long after it is done away with. He gave the Law to point people to himself to make them see their need for a Savior – but his solution to a person’s need for a Savior has always been himself. Despite the Law, people have always needed a Savior and will always need a Savior. The only way to live eternally and defeat death is to be placed into the eternal, complete, ever-loving, ever-living one who loosed the chains that bound us to the fear of death.

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I do want to make a couple of final notes here – see that it says it appoints a Son. This is important because if you remember what we talked about in our Galatians study – Isaac was the son and heir. Jesus is the Son. There is a difference between a Son and a servant or slave. If we want to inherit the promise – if we want to freely receive all things (as he promised in Romans 8:32), then we have to somehow wrangle an adoption into the family.

 

Flip over to Galatians 3:23-29 and 4:6-7. Not only did God appoint his Son – but he made us fellow heirs of the promise. If we are in Christ, we get the promises, we get the blessings, we get the trials, the mocking, the loss, the joy, the peace, the rest, the hope…we get his life. He has been made perfect – or probably better translated, he has been consecrated. He was set aside for a purpose and task, and he fulfilled his calling.

 

We have been placed into and accepted in the beloved. We have been made one with him and one another. We have been set free. We have been given everything we need for life and godliness. We have an advocate who knows our frame and our struggles – there is a king, a priest, a prophet, a Savior, a resurrected victor, and a Son sitting at the right hand of the Father – how shall he not with him freely give us all things?