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HEBREWS: THE INFINITE SUPREMACY AND SUFFICIENCY OF JESUS CHRIST

XI. The Superiority Of Christ's High Priestly Tabernacle And Covenant

(Hebrews 8:1-13)

I. Introduction

A. We live in an era of great need for an encouraging word amid man's discouraging spiritual failure, so a word from God on the infinite supremacy and sufficiency of His Son Jesus Christ is both desirable and fitting.

B. The Epistle of Hebrews offers it, and Hebrews 8:1-6a clarifies the superiority of Christ's High Priestly Tabernacle and Covenant to the Aaronic priests, so we view the passage for our insight and edification:

II. The Superiority Of Christ's High Priestly Tabernacle And Covenant, Hebrews 8:1-13.

A. Christ has a High Priestly ministry in a heavenly tabernacle that is far superior to the earthly one, Heb. 8:1-6a:

1. As the author of Hebrews already established, he repeated the fact that we believers in Christ have a High Priest in Christ Who is set at the right hand of God in heaven as a King-Priest far above and superior in person and state to the Aaronic high priest or to any earthly high priest of any religious system, Heb. 8:1.

2. Christ is also the minister of a heavenly sanctuary, the true tabernacle that the Lord made in heaven, not the earthly tabernacle that was made by man in the ministry of Moses, Hebrews 8:2.

3. Since every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices in the earthly tabernacle or temple, Christ Himself of necessity must have something to offer as a High Priest in heaven, Hebrews 8:3-4.

4. However, Christ serves in the initial heavenly tabernacle built by God after which pattern Moses in Exodus 25:40 was told to build an earthly tabernacle, Heb. 8:5; Ryrie St. Bib., KJV, 1978, ftn. to Heb. 8:5.

5. Christ thus ministers in the superior, initial heavenly tabernacle that Moses used as an example, Heb. 8:6a.

B. Christ has a High Priestly ministry of a New Covenant that is far superior to the former one, Hebrews 8:6b-13:

1. Jesus Christ is also the Mediator of a better covenant than that which was offered under the Mosaic Law, for it was established under better promises, Hebrews 8:6b.

2. Had the first covenant been faultless, there would be no need to look for a newer covenant, Hebrews 8:7.

3. However, God found fault with the first covenant, for in Jeremiah 31:31-34, God promised that He would make a new covenant with the house of Israel and of Judah that contrasted with the covenant He had made when they left the land of Egypt during the Exodus, Hebrews 8:8-9a.

4. The fault with that older covenant lay in the sinfulness of Israel's people, for they failed to continue to uphold their commitment to the covenant by sinning so that God did not bless them, Heb. 8:9b ESV, NIV.

5. However, under the New Covenant, God promised to put His laws into their minds and write them on the tables of their hearts so that He would truly be their God and they would truly be His people, Heb. 8:10.

6. Under that New Covenant, the people would not still teach every man who is his neighbor saying, "Know the Lord," for they would all know Him, from the least to the greatest of them, Hebrews 8:11. God would be merciful toward their iniquities and would no more remember their sins, Hebrews 8:12.

7. In thus speaking of this New Covenant, God made the first covenant under Moses outdated, and what is becoming outdated is due to vanish away, Hebrews 8:13 ESV.

Lesson: (1) In great contrast not only to the Hebrew Old Testament Mosaic Law, but to every other earthly religion of man, Christ as the Christian believer's High Priest ministers in the original heavenly tabernacle not made with human hands, but by God in His holy heaven. (2) Also, in great contrast to not only the Hebrew Old Testament Mosaic Law, but to every other earthly religion of man, Christ as the believer's High Priest today ministers in a New Covenant where God has put His laws into our minds and hearts by the indwelling Holy Spirit so that God is truly our God and we are truly His people. (3) We believers know the Lord as a result of this arrangement, and one day we will no longer know sin due to the removal of the sin nature at the rapture, 1 Corinthians 15:51-58.

Application: (1) May we rest in the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ as King-Priest at the Father's right hand in heaven serves in the original heavenly tabernacle made by God in vast superiority over all earthly temples, and that (2) Christ serves in the New Covenant in vast superiority to all earthly human covenants wherein God puts His law into our minds and hearts so that we heed and know the Lord and He forgives us our sins. (3) As such, may we not fall prey to the efforts of any man-made religion to lure us into some earthly priesthood with an earthly temple that can only be violated by sin in the human heart by unsaved people, what all earthly religions offer. (4) May we also realize that Biblical Christianity was in the heart and mind of God from eternity past, seen in its tabernacle being the pattern for Moses' earthly tabernacle, and be satisfied with our vastly superior position in Jesus Christ!