Lesson 5 - Out with the Old, in with the New

• Review
• Poetry and Prophecy
• Priesthood and Covenant
• The Cross Just Got Bigger
• The Covenant Just Got Newer

Review

OK - let’s summarize the argument of the first 6 chapters -

Jesus the Messiah (= Christ) is God's Son who is God's final revelation to us. He has come directly to us with no intermediary. He is greater than angels, yet fully human. He is fully human, yet without sin. He is sinless, yet he suffered and learned obedience through his suffering. All of this uniquely qualifies him to be a perfect mediator between God and mankind.

And that's what he was - for God appointed him as a high priest, but not on the basis of the Mosaic Covenant. The basis of his priesthood is Melchizedek, someone greater than Abraham himself. Now we get to see where this takes us.

Just in case you forgot from the previous lesson, here's a quick review of the points the writer makes concerning Melchizedek in the first few verses of Chapter 7 -

• Melchizedek has no recorded genealogy - he enters the record a priest and leaves a priest.
• Melchizedek blesses Abraham. Clearly the greater blesses the lesser.
• Abraham gives Melchizedek a tenth (=tithe) of what he had won in the battle. Again- the lesser gives the tithe to the greater.

Now a little history. Here’s a list of the important players and their approximate date -

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Poetry and Prophecy

David and Jeremiah? How’d they get in here? Let’s start with David. We’ll give him credit for Psalm 110 - the one which records God's famous declaration that the Messiah would be a high priest on the basis of Melchizedek. As you can see, this comes roughtly 500 years after Israel accepted the terms of the Mosaic Covenant.

By this time it should have been obvious that the Law wasn't working. The writer of Hebrews points to two of these -

• The sacrifices, especially the high priestly sacrifices on the Day of Atonement, were repeated year after year. A perfect sacrifice would take care of sin once and for all.
  
• High priests came and went, their services limited by death.
  
• The law never touched the source of sin, the human heart.

David's prophecy sets the basis dealing with the first problem by promising that the Messiah would be a priest but not connected to the Mosaic Law.

Jeremiah, in one of the darkest times in Jewish history, including the Holocast, points a multi-million candlepower spotlight into the future by announcing a new relationship between God and His people, a relationship so radically different that he calls it a “New Covenant.”

Priesthood and Covenant

Now let’s draw this together and see where the writer is heading. After 500 years of spiritual failure under the Mosaic covenant David announces that the Messiah will establish a new priesthood. But clearly you cannot change one part of the Mosaic Law, the priesthood, without changing the entire package. The Mosaic Covenant is a unit, and you cannot through out one part of it without affecting the rest.

Five hundred years later God made what was implicit explicit - through Jeremiah He announced a new covenant with His people. As part of this new relationship He will put his laws into their minds and write them on their hearts. The Mosaic Covenant will be replaced once and for all.

"Yes," the writer states directly, “when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also.” (7:12)

You can see where this is heading - after1500 years of life under the Mosaic Covenant, the so-called Old Testament Law, God entered into a new relationship with His people. Not only that, He changed the definition of “His people”! The resurrected Messiah sent his followers into all the world (Matthew 28:19).

The first chapters of Acts record how God expanded the concept of "His People" to include Jews and their converts, Samaritans, and finally Gentiles. Anyone who accepted Jesus as the Messiah who died for their sins became part of God's people. This new collection gained a new descriptive term - the “Assembly” or, as we know it, the “Church,” the Body of Christ.

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The Cross Just Got Bigger

Here's one of the reasons I really enjoy the book of Hebrews - it expands the cross into new dimensions and areas that I had never even dreamed about! I believed that Jesus died for my personal sins, but that’s kind of where the cross ended for me.

Hebrews declares that God also ended the Mosaic Covenant once and for all on the cross. Here comes the Messiah whom God appointed with an oath a high priest. Look - this one died and rose again - He's an eternal high priest who holdhis priesthood permanently! He's always living and able to interceed for God’s people.

But wait - I’m now part of that group! I, an outsider, a Gentile excluded from citizenship in Israel and a foreigner to the covenants of promise, have been made part of God’s people, the Church. If this sounds like Ephesians 2, you’ve got a good memory - it is!

We, you and I, are the direct recipients of this saving and sustaining grace. “It is fitting,” he writes, “that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.”

He continues, “Jesus has obtained a more excellent ministry by as much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant which has been enacted on better promises.”

The Covenant Just Got Newer

The “better promises” are, of course, the New Covenant prophecied by Jeremiah. Yes, Pentecost and the indwelling Holy Spirit are part of those promises. We’re not there yet, not by a long shot, but we’re on our way. One day it will be completely fulfilled; one day the sin question will be completely answered.

Oh, did you miss it? Remember the writer’s style of dropping a hint about where he’s going next? He did it again - back toward the end of Chapter 7. See if you can figure out where he’s headed now!

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