Hebrews: The New Covenant Administration of Christ Max A Forsythe (c) Anno Domini 2002

From the Pulpit at Pilgrim's Rest Presbyterian Church in America

“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.  Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Introduction:  One slightly disturbing trend within the greater Reformed community is a minimal number of former adherents who have returned to the Roman or Orthodox ritual, with Frankie Schaeffer and one of the World magazine writers being the most prominent converts.  While this new found affection is minimal  still the attraction of ritual and High Church formalism is proving to be something of a trend.  Partially, I would suppose it to be related to the popular entertainment and dramatic mode of an informal formalism plus the intinction method of communion  all of which derive from similar formulas for the sacred rituals of the traditional Roman and Orthodox churches.  Another attraction would be the heightened authority of institutions long dominant in the field of religiosity and thus attractive to adherents whose long spiritual journeys have sampled every other endeavor which in the long run proved too sparse for their spiritual pallet.

In this sense, let us begin to consider the implications of the new section laid out before us.  Commentator John Brown observes that “no part of the Mosaic economy had taken a stronger hold of the imaginations and affections of the Jews than the Aaronical High-priesthood, and that system of ritual worship over which its occupants presided.  The gorgeous apparel, the solemn investiture, the mysterious sacredness of the high priest  the grandeur of the temple in which he ministered  and the imposing splendour of the religious rites which he performed  all these operated like a charm in riveting the attachment of the Jews to the now over-dated economy, and in exciting powerful prejudices against that simple, spiritual, unostentatious system by which in had been superceded.”

When we were still in the storefront in Whitehall, a family visited and at the end of the service, politely announced that now they had learned what the early house churches of the New Testament must have been like.  But, they returned not the next week  seemingly having been content with one experience.

It was several hundred years from the time of Christ before the Christian Churches were able to afford buildings and then hymnody, service poetry, rituals and garments that could compete with the once glorious displays of the Old Covenant Church.  And that ongoing transition continued strongly in the metropolitan cathedrals that rose up during the Middle Ages in Europe.  Small Chapels of course came first, and for every cathedral there were of course many chapels in the same district where the locals within a four to seven mile circle, would gather for every Lord’s Day worship.  As time passed and prosperity increased  the rituals and tools of the cathedrals were imitated as best the local economy could maintain.

Now, I am not saying that God cannot be worshipped in an older building where lavish taste and careful attention were once afforded to be focused.   In the Reformation, the Lutherans remained content in their former luxury and it was only the Calvinists who whitewashed the instructive paintings on the walls and reconfigured the worst abuses of the 2^nd Commandment in the stained glass windows.  However, the important point before us in this passage is to realize as John Brown reminds us:  “the Apostle shows that the Christian economy is deficient in nothing excellent to be found in the Mosaic; on the contrary, that it has a more dignified High Priest, a more magnificent temple, a more sacred altar, a more efficacious sacrifice; and that, to the spiritually enlightened mind, all the temporary splendours of the Mosaic typical ceremonial wax dim and disappear, amid the overwhelming glories of the permanent realities of the Christian institution.”

Development:  How difficult it is to maintain a long steady commitment to a worship focused upon the clear commands of Christ.  In the Gospel of John, it is reported that when Jesus was passing through Samaria, he met a woman at a well.  After a detailed discussion wherein she was taught several lessons, Jesus pointedly tells her that “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4: 24). 

John Owen helps us along to apply that admonishment in the context of the text before us.  The Apostle here “particularly insists that [the Hebrews] should put into practice those things that they profess to believe.  He focuses on two” things, specifically.  The first is found in verse fourteen: where we are admonished to “hold fast our confession.”  The second thing is to be found in verses fifteen and sixteen where we are encouraged “to go to the Lord Jesus Christ, our ‘high priest’ for the necessary assistance in this matter.  For,” he says, “without special grace we will not be able to carry out our duty.”

Now we have to remember the underlying themes of this great letter to the Hebrews.  Above all, the intention is to systematically argue the superiority of Christianity to Judaism.  As John Brown outlines it, the substance of that argument is to prove absolutely the superiority of Jesus Christ to the “three great objects of Jewish veneration: the angels, by whose ministry the law was given; Moses, their great legislator; and the Aaronical priesthood, by whom the most sacred functions under that economy were performed.”

The first two we have already considered earlier in the year.  And it is the third and most obvious of the three, the priesthood that chapters five through to chapter ten.  This is not only the longest argument, but also the most important.  An important point to consider is the principality of the chief priest in the Old Covenant economy.  Basically this assertion meant that unless that high priest could mediate between God and man through the necessary sacrifices and prayerful intercessions  the people were lost without hope.  John Brown helps us focus our Christian hope towards our great High Priest:  “When the Apostle says that ‘we have a High Priest,’ he means ‘We Christians have One to interpose with God in our behalf; we have One who has offered up an availing expiatory sacrifice in our room  who has done what renders it consistent with, and illustrative of, the divine moral character to pardon and save us; and One too who makes intercession for us, securing us in the enjoyment of everything that is necessary to our final and complete salvation.’”

But, as we note in our text the passage actually reads “we have a great high priest.”  And with that adjective, the Greek text may be understood to convey an extra equivalence of being “distinguished” or “illustrious”.    Again John Brown sounds the trumpet call to look beyond the mere mortality of the common ordinary priests of the Aaronical clan.  Christ “Himself belongs to a higher order of being than the Aaronical high priests; and His priesthood is of a far more dignified character than theirs.”

Application:  Now, what does this all mean?  We have to remember that the depths of meaning in this book of the New Covenant are rich and pregnant in meaning in and through every word that the Greek language is capable of mustering!   It is good that there is an incredible wealth laid out before us, since with even a first cursory reading  we may learn and appreciate quite a lot.  However, just like the whole system of faith itself, the more we learn and grow all the more may we treasure the depths of vocabulary conveyed through the ancient languages.  I have learned that one of our young men is taking German in High School, this year - while his older brother had focused upon the French.  Both languages as well as every other are important avenues of study for more than just a graduation requirement.  You see, it is by means of a foreign language that one can literally stand beside and outside himself  if the depths of the language are plumped deep enough? When I was in Germany thirty-some years ago, mid-way trough my military tour I had just started to dream in that foreign tongue.  In addition, just like my understanding of Latin, Greek and Hebrew  I could almost stand outside my Mid-Western English Milieu and evaluate my own culture from the perspective of another!

This is precisely why ministerial candidates in the Presbyterian Churches are required to study the biblical languages  so as to help us each measure ourselves not only culturally but also spiritually.  And believe me, even if you find the depths of experience here in the linguistic analysis to be challenging, I do hope and pray that the experience forces you to look at yourselves and our culture through the prism not only of linguistic analysis, but also through the prism of God’s Holy Word.

Would you be content with taking away from this sermon the solid biblical fact that “we have a great high priest,” and that He is above and beyond every human model ever displayed in the Old Covenant economy; that is excellent and worthwhile knowledge, and please be content with that.  That was the first point outlined by John Owen earlier!

But let us go a little further, if we are willing and enabled?  F.F. Bruce picks up on Owen’s second point in these words:  “Jesus has already been presented to the readers as ‘a merciful and faithful high priest’ (Heb 2:17), and they are now shown how He is the one from whom they can receive all the strength they need to maintain their confession and resist the temptation to let go and fall back.”  Raymond Brown tells us that “our writer repeats his conviction that the mission of the priest is finished by Christ, accepted by God and effective among men.  Jesus has passed through the heavens.  The dominant idea in this writer’s exposition of the work of Christ is that he is triumphantly ascended and eternally glorified.”

Let us look carefully at our text to see and understand these last several points.

¹⁴ “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.”

In this fourteenth verse we are persuaded to realize that this Jesus, who is our “great high priest” is the very One who “has passed through the heavens,” not only to come down and live among us, but also to return on high in glory  and there to reign with the Father forever.  And in the final portion of this verse, if this is indeed our personal confession that Jesus is the Son of God  therefore it is all the more easier and advisable to remain steadfast in that confession!   Like the ancient Hebrews, having known Christ  how could we ever consider returning to a system of faith where any doctrine other than His having once for all died for our sins  be considered?

¹⁵ “ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” 

In this fifteenth verse we are reminded that Jesus Christ is indeed the second Adam, the perfect Adam who lived a life even as do we all, but His life was different from the first Adam and from that of our own.  Jesus Christ was not only tempted  but He lived a life without sin!  This is important in all aspects of the Old Covenant revelation.  The very perfect Lamb of God who was without blemish was sacrificed for all of Adam’s race who would believe in Him and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Christ died for your own sins.  The Perfect sacrifice  providentially planned since the beginning of time, hinted at in the Old Covenant economy and dramatically provided in and through Christ’s coming to earth and having died on that cruel cross on our behalf.

¹⁶ Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” 

Our last verse for the day is the most practical of the three.  The underlying presumption is:  if we believe in the teaching of the first two (verses fourteen and fifteen) then we should have confidence in what Jesus Christ has accomplished and thereby approach “the throne of grace” where Jesus shall reign for all time. 
And having come near, and through faith receive not only the necessary mercy, but also the continuing grace to help us in every time of need.

Now, I hope that I do no damage to the gospel with this last example and charge?  We know from the scriptures that we all go on sinning as long as we live in this life.  The Old Covenant economy and the several varieties of the mass insist upon continuing the sacrifice of Christ week after week to atone for our ongoing sins.  This is not a necessary ritual for any Christian organization!  If I may paraphrase the last phrase of verse fifteen in this way:  He continues in gracing us according to our ongoing need!  Forgiveness is once for all in the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross. 

We must realize that one He ascended He is continuing in prayer for us day by day and through the work of the Holy Spirit making us aware of a continual gracing according to His great mercy.  This is nothing more than the “special grace” described by Owen that keeps on giving and giving and giving.  May you realize this day by day and may we all learn to praise the Lord for every grace received?  Amen.