Hebrews 8:1–6

Hebrews 1 says that "having by Himself made purification of our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." The point there is personal glory. No other seat was suitable to such a One. He sat down there by His own right and title... But in chapter 8 He sits there not only as the proof of how perfectly He has purged our sins by Himself alone. He sits there as the Priest. That is why it does not just say "on high," but "in the heavens."... He has been shown to be a divine person, and the true royal priest pictured in advance by not only Aaron but Melchisedec. That is why the throne comes in here, and with it "of the Majesty in the heavens."

This is the sum: "We have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven;" and therefore we need no other. If we believe His one sacrifice has put away all our sins from the sight of God, then such a sacrifice excludes all others. In the same way, such a High Priest removes all need of another.

The Apostle states not only that there is such a High Priest, but that "we have such a High Priest." This great and glorious Person, called to be a High Priest after the order of Melchisedec, is for service to us. He is One to whom we can turn for sympathy in our sorrow and for help in our weakness. The Apostle reminds us how great the dignity of our High Priest is. He brings before us His place of power, "on the right hand of the throne"; His nearness to God, "the throne of the Majesty"; and His exalted position, "in the heavens."

Sitting down, unlike Aaron's standing, shows that the One has finished the work of sacrifice which the other never did... He has taken His seat there at the call of God. "The LORD says to my Lord: 'Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.'" God called Aaron, but never called him to sit down, even in the earthly sanctuary... What a value God stamped on the sacrificial work of Christ when He called Him in this way! The exaltation of Jesus to the seat on which He now sits proves beyond doubt the value of the blood He has shed.

The eighth chapter of Hebrews shows our High Priest in relation to the throne of God — seated "at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven." Not only does He hold the highest place, but He is seated there, because He had perfected us for ever by His one offering. How could we ever come to God's throne, unless we knew One was there who had glorified God by accomplishing our eternal redemption?

There is a wealth of meaning behind the word "such"... You will notice here it says the right hand of the throne; it is an official position. Hebrews speaks of the throne not so much as a place of government, but as the throne of grace (4:16). All the divine support, help and sympathy that God's people need is administered at the foot of the throne. And the One who sits there giving it out is none other than that blessed Man who has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

The priest was the special minister of the tabernacle; the word in Hebrew means "minister." The apostle applies this in Hebrews 8:1. The word used for "minister" here is leitourgos, one who performs duties for the public good. This completes the idea of the priest: one who serves on behalf of men in the sanctuary of God. So Christ has "entered … into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf" (Heb. 9:24).

Moreover, He is a minister of the sanctuary, or "holy places". This is not the earthly sanctuary. It is "the true tabernacle, which the Lord has pitched, and not man." Later in the letter we learn that this is "heaven itself" (Hebrews 9:24). The mention of the sanctuary introduces another part of the priestly service of Christ. This is no longer the service that helps us in our sorrows, or supports us in our weakness. It is the higher service that leads us as worshippers into the presence of God. Hebrews 2-7 shows His service for us in our wilderness circumstances. Hebrews 8-10 shows more clearly His priestly service, leading us into the sanctuary as worshippers.

The real sanctuary is the heaven of God's immediate presence. The true tabernacle is that vast universe of created things, and the third heaven of God's presence lies inside it. God and His presence are the centre of Christ's priestly service, and its circle reaches out to take in the whole creation of God. What a staggering thought this is! How small Aaron's glories look beside it!

That tabernacle was only a copy, answering to the pattern (Heb. 8:5) which was in heaven. The true tabernacle had never been on earth; it was always in heaven. And the structure Moses put up gave place in time to the Temple of Solomon; but the true tabernacle existed before it, and exists still. It abides. No power can overthrow it. Neither man nor devil can reach it. Moses had set up the earthly one; the Lord set up the true one. Everything connected with Judaism was shadow, nothing more. Its priesthood, its sacrifices and its tabernacle must all sink into nothing beside the true tabernacle, which the Lord set up, and not man.

In the true tabernacle there is no human instrumentality whatever; all is of God. The furniture and the vessels, all so finely made, are now found only in the various graces and offices of the Lord Jesus Christ — "the body is of Christ." All these are now shown and exercised in heaven for us. He can stand in the immediate presence of God, there presenting for us His own fulness of excellency. Moses, the servant, could not bear the glory given to the tabernacle he had set up. But Christ as a Son is over His own house. He is Himself its furniture and its glory.

He alone performs divine service for others. He does this as the great public Minister of the saints, in heaven. Any number of the saints might minister and fast before the Lord on earth (Acts 13). But they did not stand towards God in the relation this involves — performing for others a service which those others could not undertake. No saint stands towards God in such a relation to any other saint. Anyone who takes that place is taking the exclusive right of the Son of God.

The root meaning of the word priest is one who offers a sacrifice. We see this clearly in the priesthood that pictured Him, whose priests offered the sacrifices on the altar. We read in Hebrews 8:3, "For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices," carrying on the same principle. Again, "you… are… a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices" (1 Peter 2:5).

The word translated "ordain" here is kathistemi, meaning to establish, or set up. It is also translated "ordain" in Heb. 5:1 and Heb. 8:3, where it refers to the high-priesthood… It is the word mostly used for appointment to authority… It is interesting to note that every one of these passages refers to God's act.

In Aaron's case he had to offer for sins for himself as well as for the people. Here again we find contrast, not comparison. Christ is indeed an offering priest, for it says later on, "it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer" (Hebrews 8:3). But read on further in the Epistle, and we discover that Christ "through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God" (Hebrews 9:14). There is all the difference in the world between Aaron offering FOR himself and Christ offering HIMSELF.

In personal dignity and official honour He surpasses both Aaron and Melchizedek, and He did not fall short in what He had to offer. He offered up what neither of them could offer on their part, what He alone could — He offered up Himself (Heb. 7:27). And it was once for all. In that alone was the perfection of gift and sacrifice, and God marked His acceptance of it all by seating Him at His own right hand in the heavens. The question here is not propitiation but His service in the true tabernacle.

How are we to understand the last clause? What does our Great High Priest in heaven have to offer now, seeing that He already offered Himself on the cross?

I presume that the Great Priest offered the greatest gift ever presented or presentable to God — Himself, dead and risen, representing not His person only but His infinite work on the cross.

Christ's official priesthood did not begin until He took His place on high. As it is written, "Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law" (Heb. 8:4). But it is necessary that this One "also have something to offer." Through the eternal Spirit He "offered himself without blemish to God" (Heb. 8:3; Heb. 9:14). The work of the Lord in offering Himself on the cross was priestly work, for He was the Offerer, the Offering and the Offering Priest. But it was not part of His official priesthood, for that belonged to heaven.

I have already pointed out that His priestly work had to begin on earth, as far as sacrifice is concerned. If the priest was one who offered a sacrifice, then Christ must have been a Priest when He offered up Himself to God.

Offering gifts and sacrifices was an important part of the work of the priests of Israel. In the same way Christ as our High Priest has something to offer. We read later in the Epistle, "Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God" (Heb. 13:15).

He does not say that the Lord was not a Priest on earth. He has set Him before us as Minister of the true tabernacle. So if He were on earth, there would be no room for Him in the earthly one. There the sons of Aaron fill everything according to the law.

The Lord Jesus is not a priest of Aaron's order. Yet in many ways He carries out His ministry after the pattern set out in Aaron. So He must have something to offer in the presence of God. That something cannot be a gift of the kind the law required. Had He been on earth He would have been no priest at all, for He did not come from Levi or Aaron. His priesthood is of a heavenly order.

Christ carries out this priestly work in heaven, and for a heavenly people. If He were on earth He would not be a priest. On earth, the law appointed the only human priests God ever approved as a distinct class among His people. They served as "a copy and shadow of the heavenly things"… Now that Christ has come, that copy and shadow has served its purpose.

Now to be High Priest He must first have died. He was not, He could not have been, High Priest while on earth. Scripture is precise on this… God never replaces an order of priesthood. Aaron's order was for earth and for the house of Aaron… And He ministers only in the heavenly sanctuary. Hebrews 9:12 tells us that He entered it once for all by His own blood.

The apostle does not say that when Christ was on earth He was not a priest, but that "if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all." He is plainly speaking of One who is not on earth. He is not looking back to the time when He was here. He is speaking of Christ as the glorified High Priest, "the Minister of the true tabernacle," and the reason he gives settles it.

There is no ground at all for doubting that Hebrews 2:17 refers only to atonement for sins… its true meaning is "to expiate," or make propitiation for, "the sins of the people." That was not the work of the priest in the sanctuary, which is the one point in Hebrews 8:4. It was the high priest's own work on the day of atonement, and in that work Christ was both the Victim and the High Priest who offered it.

As Christ did not come from Aaron's family He could not be a priest after that pattern. His priesthood is wholly different, for it is heavenly and exercised in glory… These Hebrew believers needed to take hold of this truth, because the earthly tabernacle was still standing and its priests were still going through their empty and meaningless duties… Ritual religion within Christianity copies a priesthood that has died out, and models its worship more or less on Israel's. It is the shade of the departed shadow.

He does not say that the Lord was not a Priest on earth. He has already set Him before us as Minister of the true Tabernacle, the real one that the earthly tent copied. So he says that if He were on earth there would be no room for Him in the earthly one. There the sons of Aaron fill everything according to the law.

The word "example" here can rightly be translated "representation." God gave Moses no small or casual task. He was not allowed to change the pattern God gave him by one bit. It made no difference how the people of Israel felt about it, or whether they thought some things could be improved.

The legal system was a representation, but it was also a "shadow." It had no solid substance of its own. That is found only in Christ. The actual substance is heavenly, and the shadow of it was cast on earth, in anticipation of the substance.

That tabernacle was, after all, only a copy, answering to the type or pattern which was in heaven. The true tabernacle had never been on earth; it was always in heaven. In time the structure Moses put up gave way to the Temple of Solomon. But the true tabernacle existed before it, and exists still. It abides. No power can overthrow it. Neither man nor devil can reach it.

The people thought he was going to get the law. Not that alone. He had gone to get God's mind, and to see lovely pictures of Christ. He received the tables of stone, but far better than that, he saw many shadows of Christ. He walked through God's picture gallery. The tabernacle and all its furniture spoke of Christ in some aspect or other. I do not say that Moses grasped the full meaning of all that passed before his eye. But before he came down from the mountain God said, "And see that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain."

It was to be a real "example and shadow of heavenly things." So there was no room for human thoughts or imaginations. The part of Moses was obedience, and faithfulness in carrying out the heavenly design. God asks the same of believers today in His church: faithfulness to the word of God, and obedience to every part of it. Let in human rules and human authority, and the church stops being a true witness for God.

To argue for ritual forms in Christian worship is to lose sight of what the ancient ritual really was: a picture. "The example and shadow of heavenly things" is God's account of it all in Hebrews 8:5. Christ has come and redemption is accomplished. So the reality is ours, and the shadows pass away.

Now the shadow can never equal in importance the thing it is a shadow of. Would the Jews glory in their ritual and their sanctuary? There was something far better than that. The blessing would be to have a place, and the right of entry, into the true tabernacle, the sanctuary on high.

Compare the ministry of the priests — men who could fail, and who could not glorify God in their character because they themselves were sinners — with that more excellent ministry of Christ. The priests could only keep "offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins." Christ has offered one sacrifice for sins, and now He has forever taken His seat at the right hand of God. The priest did have a ministry, but Christ has a more excellent ministry... Everything here is "better." In the letter to the Hebrews you meet that word "better" again and again. You could almost write over the whole letter the title "Better Things."

To be a mediator — or, as people say today, to "broker a deal" — you need access to both sides. You must be able to relate to both. Moses was the mediator of the old covenant... God allowed him alone to draw near to Himself (Ex. 24:1–2)... Only through him could the people of Israel receive the covenant. But Christ is mediator of a better covenant, one "enacted on better promises" (8:6). These promises are better because they carry no conditions, and they include forgiveness, which is central to that covenant. Only He could establish that covenant, because He was ready and able to lay the foundation for its blessings — on the cross... when it comes to Christ being the guarantor (7:22) we cannot point to Moses, or anyone else, as an illustration. The old covenant had no guarantor. Both sides agreed to the deal, and God would never fail to keep His side — but no one could guarantee that the people would keep theirs.

You value Aaron's ministry according to the value of the covenant it was attached to. The new covenant is called better in itself. It also beats the first in how stable and lasting it is. It is founded on better promises. It is better because grace stands above law, promise above demand, righteousness above sin, blessing above cursing, and life above death. Its promises are better because they rest only on the sworn word of the God of grace. The old covenant rested on the people's word... One act of disobedience broke their promise. That destroyed for ever all hope of reaching the good the covenant guaranteed, since that good depended on obedience.

You could hardly say that the old covenant of law rested on promises at all, though some promises were attached to it. It rested instead on a bargain: Israel agreed to obey in everything, and God guaranteed certain blessings if they obeyed. Israel broke the bargain almost as soon as it was made, by making the golden calf... God's "I will" is the characteristic feature of it. All is a question of what God is going to do.

The new covenant is not addressed to Christians, no more than was the Old. Both are Jewish through and through, as verses 7 to 10 show. Still, though we are not under any covenant at all, the blessings of the new covenant come to Christians by pure grace, through Him Who is Mediator of the new covenant. This is grace, the branches of blessing spreading out over the wall of Jewish separation, and reaching Gentiles.

We haven't come to the new covenant — but we have come to the One who is its Mediator! It is infinitely greater and more precious to have a personal relationship with Him!