The Perfect Offering: An Exposition of Hebrews 7:23-28
We continue this morning in the Book of Hebrews with the section revealing Jesus s our Great High Priest. The writer has had to deal with several questions about Jesus. One of these questions that arose was that in His flesh, Jesus was a descendant of Judah and not Aaron. Judah was the line of kings and not priests. The author of Hebrews tells us that according to Psalm 110: 4, the promised descendant of David would have a priesthood after the order of Melchizedek. He also demonstrated that the Order of Melchizedek was superior to that of Aaron. One of these superiorities is that the Order of Melchizedek is older than that of Aaron. The Levites, who were of the tribe which the High Priest was descended collected tithes of the people. But Levi paid tithes to Melchizedek through his great-grandfather Abraham.
It is important to understand that it was axiomatic that the older is always greater than the newer. The train of thought is that Melchizedek was older than Abraham as he had not beginning of days. Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek. Abraham came before Jacob and was therefore greater. Jacob was greater than Levi. Therefore Melchizedek and his order of priesthood was greater than that of Aaron, a descendant of Levi. when I say axiomatic, I am saying that this is how people thought in those days. We should understand that God often chose the least to represent him. Jacob was younger than Esau, yet God chose Jacob. Even though this is true, the writer is using the conventional train of logic as he is trying to persuade them that Jesus had a legitimate priesthood that was greater than Aaron. This same idea occurs concerning kingship. How could the Son of David be greater than David. Hebrews deals with this in a similar matter. The divine Son of God was before David and held the highest position as Lord of the Universe. There was none before Him because He has always been. This is why David acting as a prophet in Psalm 110:1 can say: “The LORD said unto my Lord.” The New covenant is greater than the old one given to Moses because it existed before Moses. In fact, it is said that Jesus was slain before the foundation of the world, before there was the Law. A promise is given to all humanity in Genesis 3:15 that a descendant of Eve would have His heel bruised. In return, Satan’s head would receive a death wound. the later Covenants including the Law of Moses can not annul what was given to all humanity in Eve. The promise to Abraham is: “In your seed (Christ) shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” What is promised in particular was that the Savior would descent through a particular line of humanity (Seth, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and so on. But this particular promise was to the benefit of all humanity, to those who believe in Jesus. So the later covenants do not annul but rather flesh out how God’s eternal decrees would be fulfilled.
Another superiority of the Order of Melchizedek was that it was eternal and not limited by the death of the priests. this is brought out in Hebrews 7:23 from this morning’s text. This meant that upon the death of one High Priest, another one had to be consecrated in his place. But the Priesthood of Christ has no ending as He lives evermore. Because of this, He is able to eternally and completely save those who come to God through Him because He makes intercession for us. The effects of His priesthood are greater than those of the previous line of High Priests.
Another superiority of Jesus’s priesthood is that He is morally perfect. The High Priest Had to make an offering of the blood of a goat to atone for his own sins on the Day of Atonement before he could offer one for the people. This was a temporary consecration. He would have to offer sin offerings during the year for his own sins and then offer the sin offerings and other offerings of the people. Besides these animal sacrifices, there was a morning and evening sacrifice every day. The High Priests and the other assisting priests had to offer these various sacrifices all day long. over the course of 1500 years, many priests over a long period of time had to offer many sacrifices. When one thinks of it, millions of animals had to have been sacrificed. As Jesus was sinless, there was only one sacrifice for sins that he had to make.
The last superiority which we will discuss this morning is that Jesus offered a better offering than the Aaronic priesthood. Aaron’s priesthood sacrificed animals. The animals they sacrificed had to be perfect in the sense that they could not be blemished of injured. But the efficacy of these offerings was temporary. Soon another animal would have to be offered as we have already noted. But Jesus is not just the perfect Priest, He is also the perfect sacrifice as well. Hebrews will bring out that this makes all other sacrifices unnecessary. Jesus offered Himself up once, not for His sin but ours, an eternally efficacious sacrifice. His blood can cleanse in a way no animal can. His sacrifice, unlike that of the animals was voluntary. This is not to say that the sacrifices of the Levitical priesthood were not efficacious. They were ordained by God, so they were perfect in the sense that they fulfilled perfectly God’s purpose for them. They were designed to show that a more perfect and lasting sacrifice was going to be needed. What we call Israel of the Old Testament era were saved by hope in the Christ to come. The animal sacrifices had power to save because their efficacy would be found in Christ. We, in turn, are saved by the Christ who came and is coming again. What made any sacrifice efficacious is that it points to Christ and one has faith. But now that Christ has come and offered Himself there is no need any more to sacrifice animals or for Christ to be crucified again. The only sacrifice to be offered now according to Hebrews 13 is the sacrifice of praise.
As we have been reminded several times throughout our study of the Book of Hebrews, this sublime theology is not intended just to tickle the mind. All biblical theology is meant to be practical as well. There are sophists and other philosophers who might want to stimulate their minds and show off their intellectual power by arguing useless things like how many angels can fit on the head of a pin and such nonsense. Why is it important for us to know all these things about Jesus Christ? Hebrews reminds us again and again that it was written that the Hebrew believers would not desert the Christian faith. We are not sure where the increasing persecution was coming from. There are some indications that the Jews were in process of disowning the Christians. To the Jews, the Christians were apostates. Unless the Christians had a firm grasp on why their understanding of Scripture was the correct one, they were in danger of lapsing. No one wants to be excommunicated from a group. Peer pressure is powerful. This would assume that most of the people in the congregation had come to the Christian faith through Judaism or were at least proselytes to Judaism before becoming Christians.
Another way of looking at it is that the Jews were granted by Caesar some extraordinary privileges not afforded to other religions and people groups. They could worship Yahweh freely anywhere within the confines of the Roman Empire. All other religions were only allowed in the nation of its origin. As long as Christians were seen as a sect of Judaism, they had the Jewish privilege of worship. Apart from Judaism, Christianity could only be freely practiced in Palestine where Jesus was born. So the Christians in other parts of the Empire were being exposed to persecution. Considering that Emperor worship was on the increase, one could see that pressure was coming to bear upon the congregation. As Hebrews 12 tells us, it was not yet to blood. Elsewhere, it seems that they had already suffered the loss of their. Some had lost their citizenship in the cities where they lived and were cast out as homeless. This is why Hebrews commanded them to show hospitality to these homeless believers as though they were angels. The Romans used a carrot and stick approach, Their privilege would be restored and their possessions if only they “repented” of their error and return to the worship of the Greco-Roman gods. This would affect all believers, both Jew and Gentile.
We find ourselves in the same position today in America. Christians in other parts of the world are already suffering unto blood. Christians over the centuries have sealed their faith in their blood. Without being thoroughly convinced of the person and work of Jesus Christ and the help of the Holy Spirit, it would be impossible to resist torture, imprisonment and death. The writer of Hebrews had already been jailed as had Timothy. Now we face increasing ostracism as we are tempted to leave the Christian faith and embrace the religion of science, falsely so-called. Many Christians here in America lack the solid theological grounding today to resist the modern carrot and stick. We must know of the eternal danger and loss which awaits us if we apostatize. Science at best offers only a temporary relief from human misery. Science is often the cause of the very problems it claims to solve. If they can extend the average life span through technology and science, they have no moral grounding. In the long term, science would make life on earth hell. Who wants to hear the nightly news for 1000 years?
Instead, we must remember that our faith is based upon sure and effective promises centered in Jesus Christ. They are morally efficacious, eternally so, In any comparison, Christ is superior. If Christ’s promises were fuller than that of the Jews to whom the Word of God came, how much more than the promises of human so-called science. Science offers no hope for humanity, only Christ. So let us continue to hold fast to our faith. Jesus is the perfect High Priest, the perfect offering, and the perfect offering among other perfections. So let us be diligent to learn of Christ that we might be able to stand more surely.
Final Hymn: Fairest Lord Jesus
