Hebrews: The New Covenant Administration of Christ Max A Forsythe (c) Anno Domini 2003

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

The Only Sufficient Sacrifice
For the Lord’s Day:  the 28^th of December 2003 

Hebrews 7: 26-28

“For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.  He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.  For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever. ”

Introduction:  There was an interesting article on the web recently by a Jewish scholar.  The context of the article was focused upon how Mormons and Christians treat the Jews, rather than what they believe.  In it Rabbi Boteach insits: “The Mormons are our brothers, the Christians are our kin.  So long as they support and defend the Jewish people through their current persecution, that will always be so, whatever their beliefs, and we owe them our gratitude.”  While he discusses several talking points in common with the Mormons and is distressed with the ongoing Muslim assault against everything Jewish – he does not worry about any perceived evangelical commitment to assist the establishment of a Jewish State as devoted only to a bringing in a final millennium kingdom.  Yes, that was a mouthful and there are many themes and issues in that convoluted assessment of the article’s contents!

And while, we can certainly support the democratic State of Israel as a shining utopia in the middle of a Muslim desert of despotism – let us make certain how far our understanding and support may go.  When I was in Europe in the late sixties – my Air Defense unit was one designated to be flown into Israel, for its defense, should American military aid have been necessary.  I would have had no problem with such an alliance politically.  However, theologically I believe there are some real limitations as to how far the Jewish religion should be encouraged.  Providentially, the Lord in His sovereign administration of all things has kept Muslim possession and ownership of the ancient Temple Mount in pagan hands, and I believe that there is a real purpose in this.  Specifically that purpose appears to keep the Temple Mount from being used by any Jewish “church” from rebuilding a temple and beginning anew the ancient sacrificial system.  After all, from a purely Christian viewpoint – such an abomination would be an absolute insult to the Creator God and His revealed plan of salvation given in and through the life and ministry of His only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.  Such an abomination could well be in the cards of an end-time scenario?

In saying this, I am not going out of my way to make enemies but only to clarify unquestionably that the New Administration of our Lord Jesus Christ is not only superior to the Old Covenant administration, but also that the passage we are considering today is absolutely definitive in its statement that the sacrifice of Christ was truly “once for all.”  Of course, we must remember that a Catholic scholar working on the Dead Sea Scrolls was run out of Israel for defending a similar proposition that the Jewish faith was a dead end religion once Christ was revealed!  In a similar manner, any and all Jewish Christians today are no longer considered ethnically Jewish once they have accepted the Lord of life.

Development:  In spite of any ongoing political support and the notion that actions are more important than beliefs, there is still a profound theological difference between modern Judaism and any solid uncorrupted Christian witness.  We should not be surprised with any affinity between the Mormons and the Jewish community, after all they are both ethical systems that lead people to believe that salvation rests in their obedience alone and thus by that definition – there is no need for the Lord of life to have died on anyone’s account! 

Our author here tells us in no uncertain terms the great significance of our Lord Jesus Christ.  “For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.”  In the revealed poetry of that verse there are five essential points for our consideration today.  And these are vitally important to dramatize and prove the superiority of Jesus Christ and His covenant of grace.  John Brown argues that mere men, descended from Adam: “need a high priest, and a high priest possessed of certain qualifications.  Every kind of high priest will not suit their circumstances.  The high priest they need – the high priest who alone can effectually be their surety, and gain for them the great end of bringing them to God – must be ‘holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners and made higher than the heavens.’”

Our first point of argument in that list is the holiness of the Lord’s Anointed.  Brown informs us that “the word ‘holy’ in the Scriptures very generally signifies separation from a common to a religious purpose.”  He continues however to tell us that “the original word before us, however, is not that which is ordinarily employed to signify separation from a common to a religious purpose, but one which denotes moral qualities.  It signifies moral excellence generally, when used alone; and when used with other words descriptive of particular forms of moral excellence, it signifies moral excellence in reference to God, - piety.”  Therefore in the context of the multiple adjectives in our verse, the godly holiness enjoined should be referenced theologically to that excellent holiness of the Godhead Himself.  F.F. Bruce observes that “there is no question of His fitness to appear in the presence of God; He is the Holy One of God.”

Our second point for argument is the “innocence, freedom from guile or harmlessness” of the One in question.  Brown intones: “Our high priest must be one who has never violated the laws either of justice or of mercy, who ‘loves his neighbour as himself.’”  Raymond Brown tells admonishes us with the information that “even the most devout priests who served under the old covenant were transgressors.  Although required by their office to lead pure and sinless lives, they were, like others, sinners by nature.  The former priesthood stressed the importance of outward cleansing and ritual purity, but Christ’s priesthood is effective because of his inward moral purity and his sinless perfection.”

Our third point for argument is the “unstained or undefiled” nature of the Messiah.  While John Brown opts for “moral excellence” and Bruce describes the high priest as “the incarnate Logos, one who preserved His purity while treading the common ways of the world and sharing our human lot.”  This second Adam was born into a corruptible body but remained spiritually uncorrupted.  Owen remarks that our Lord remained unpolluted “in every way happy and blessed, not touched with the defilement of any adversity.”  He remained because of His absolute purity undefiled by sin and able to resist every temptation and this in comparison to the first Adam who was not so consistent in his behavior and obedience.

Our fourth point for argument is the fact that Jesus remained “separate from sinners.”  This phrase John Brown tells us “seems explicatory of the three that precede it.  By his perfect piety, justice, benevolence, and personal purity, he must be ‘separated from sinners.’”  In other words He must not be a sinner, yet even while human he remained aloof from our habits and fallacies because of His other worldly spiritual nature which guided and guarded Him from the common pitfalls that afflict us all.  This means that He cannot be merely a man of our own order as Brown but One apart from the common mold – a distinctly unique person on all accounts:  God of God, man of man – the very person of the Godhead in all His glory who deigned to accept our low estate in order to lift us to a higher glorified state in heaven for ever and ever. 

Our fifth point for argument is the fact that Christ was truly:  “made higher than the heavens.”  John Brown helps us define the terms here.  “The phrase is peculiar.  It nowhere else occurs in Scripture; but its meaning is obvious enough.  He must occupy a place of the highest honour and power.  …  These words plainly imply that his elevation above the heavens is something conferred on him.  It intimates that our high priest must be beneath the heavens in order to the discharge of some of the functions of his office, and that, in consequence of the successful discharge of them, he must be exalted far above all heavens for the successful discharge of other functions, and for gaining the grand object, the ultimate end, of his office.”

In this descriptive collection of adjectives we are meant to realize especially what the God of both Covenants has actually and finally done.  Knowing the frailty of humanity and the inability of the sacrificial system to satisfy the divine order of justice, the Triune God must therefore bear the covenant cost of human disobedience in the person of His one and only Son.  This is the only possible sacrifice which can atone for human sin.  This is the perfect Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world in and through the sacrifice of His own person on the cross.  And after descending to the place of the dead, He arose again to go finally to the Father and there remain at His side where He remembers us and prays for our salvation and our ongoing witness day in and day out.

Application:  By contrast the Apostle reminds us of the ongoing ritual habits of the Old Covenant which must, to be credible point to something more, something better – in fact the sacrifice of the Lord’s Anointed Son.  Only this final sacrifice of His own person is finally effective in the expiation of the sins of humanity.  His sacrifice as John Brown reminds us “rendered unnecessary all other sacrifices and its own repetition; and His being ‘made higher than the heavens’ is the evidence that its repetition is unnecessary.”  Let us be certain to count upon this great high priest and have nothing to do with lesser religions that might teach any other way to heaven than the blood of Christ, Him crucified, raised from the dead and glorified at the right hand of God.  After all, we have it here on good account that the Lord God of heaven and earth has appointed “a Son who has been made perfect forever. ”

This is why we object to the ulterior purposes of the Roman Mass and why we must be opposed in principle to any possible restoration of the Jewish sacrificial system!  Please, this does not mean that we must exchange places with the Muslim crowd and use their means, methods and purposes to hold back the desires of the Jewish nation.  But, at the very least – we should not be found in financial support of the religious endeavors of Israel, nor should we glory if and when they are finally able to do with the Temple Mount what they sincerely desire.  But, if this great abomination to the redemption purchased by our Lord is once restored – the end of days must surely be near and if that must happen to usher in the Kingdom of Glory: then it must and will happen according to and within the providence of God.

But let us not succumb to the common evangelical superstitions that such a restoration is thereby a good thing!  After all, the Star Chamber court which convicted our Lord and the political purposes of Rome being thereby served does not make the crucifixion of Christ any more legal and justified.  It was a bad thing done in the name of sinful humanity – but the Lord of glory was able to transform that great wickedness of mankind to a higher purpose of redemption.  And so, at the end of time, will the Lord be able to transform the final rebellion of mankind to serve His final purpose and thereby with all fulfilled, Christ shall return with trumpet sound and all heaven will break loose even as the dead in Christ are lifted up to be with Him forever and ever.  Amen, “Come quickly Lord Jesus, come quickly!”  Amen!

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PREACHING RESOURCES 
Boteach, Shmuley.  “How Mormons & Christians treat Jews” WorldNet Daily.
Brown, John.  A Geneva Series Commentary:  Hebrews.
Brown, Raymond.  The Bible Speaks Today:  The Message of Hebrews.
Bruce, F.F.  The Epistle to the Hebrews.
Owen, John:  Commentary on the Book of Hebrews.
The Holy Bible:  English Standard Version.

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