Hebrews Lesson 110
NKJ Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my
feet And a light to my path.
As we’ve gone through the last
chapter of Hebrews in Hebrews chapter 7, we have been focusing on the high
priestly ministry of Christ. This
follows after the pattern of the royal priesthood of Melchizedek, not that of the
physically based priesthood of Aaron and the Levitical priesthood.
As we come to chapter 8, we
come to these first 6 verses that seem to be a transition from this argument on
the superiority of Christ’s priesthood to this discussion of the New Covenant
that begins in verse 7. That’s what you
get if you just sort of hit it the first two or three times you read through this. But there is more going on in the text. You don’t really pick it up in the English
because you have to (to some degree) be aware of Greek vocabulary that’s used
in the previous chapter. Even all the
way back to chapter 1 there are a lot of ideas as I will show you as we go
through this that are picked up in these first 6 verses of chapter 8 that take
us back to the first 4 verses of chapter 1.
What the writer is doing (I
have pointed this out many times.)…it’s like he is weaving a rope. That’s the best analogy I can come up with
where he lays one thread and then he lays down a second thread and a third
thread. Then be brings to weave them
together. Then he brings in a third
thread and then he works with another set of threads over here and starts to
pull them in. So he is constantly going
back and picking up ideas and doctrines that he has already discussed and then
bringing them forward in the development of his thought. It is very logical and very rationally
developed; but it’s not always as clear in the English as it is in the Greek
simply because the Greek writer, the original writer, is using vocabulary that
he has already introduced.
“Wait a minute. I saw that word back here in chapter 2 and
that sort of pulls things together for you.”
So we come to the first verse in verse 1.
NKJ Hebrews 8:1 Now this is the main point of
the things we are saying:
He says:
We have
such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty
in the heavens,
Now that first phrase (This
is the main point.) is a translation of one Greek word kephalaion
which is related to kephale which is the Greek
word for head or sometimes is used to mean authority. You see it in certain English words - someone
who is hydrocephalic – has got water on the brain. That’s the right term. That comes from the same Greek word. It has the idea of adding something up or
coming to the main point or the head point depending on how it fits in the
context. It’s not coming to a summation
here as much as he is emphasizing “this is the point I want you to understand.” Everything in chapter 7 has built to this
point.
Now he is making the point. That is that we have such a high priest. The main verb that we find in this verse is we
have such a high priest. That’s our main
verb. That tells us that it is what he
is discussing here is the nature of Christ’s high priesthood.
He begins by saying:
We have
such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the
Majesty in the heavens,
This takes us back to verse
26. If you look at verse 26 of the last
chapter, it begins:
NKJ Hebrews
That word “such” is the same
Greek word that we have in 8:1. He is
making a definite connection that we have such a High Priest.
Verse 26 says:
who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens;
So verse 26 leads up to this
idea of this kind of high priest. The
Greek word here is toioutos. It has the sense of this sort, of this
kind. It denotes a certain character or
individuality. So we have a High Priest
with a certain character, one who fits a certain template as it were that is
necessary to fulfill the divine plan.
Now about the fact that we have such a High Priest, he makes three
statements.
The first statement is that:
who is seated at the right hand of
the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,
That’s all one relative
clause.
Now there are a couple of
things we need to observe about this particular verse. First of all, He is seated. It is an aorist tense verb. It is action that indicates that His work is completed
on the cross so that He is no longer working in terms of accomplishing
salvation. It’s done. It’s over with. He is now seated because His work on the
cross is finished. When He concluded His
work on the cross He said, “Tetalestai” which means
it has been completed or it is finished.
It was a perfect tense verb indicating completed action with results that
continue. Because the work on the cross
was finished, He could ascend to heaven and He is now seated at the right hand
of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.
Now all of those elements are
important. He is at the right hand of
the throne. We need to pay attention to
this because the concept of throne is very important. We have number of different thrones in the
Bible. A throne relates to a kingdom and it relates
to rulership. Jesus is not saying that
He is sitting on a throne, but that He is at the right hand of the throne. The word throne is used 53 times in the New
Testament. The majority of times it is a
reference to the throne of the Father.
But in some key passages it references the throne of David and the
future throne of the Messiah, the greater Son of David, who will rule on His
throne in the
Jesus said to His disciples:
NKJ Matthew 19:28 So Jesus said to them,
"Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man
sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on
twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
“In the regeneration” is a
technical term there. It’s not talking
about the salvation of an individual.
It’s talking about in the regeneration in the new heavens and new earth
in the future
This throne in the
NKJ Luke
So He is destined as the Son
of David. That term “Son of David” is
important in Hebrews because we go back to His Sonship. He is the Son of God. He is the Son of David. All these terms related to sonship go back to
the first four verses in the first chapter.
So He’s got this future throne and it’s the throne of His father
David.
We go back to the first
chapter in Hebrews 1:8. There is a quote
from Psalm 45:6-7 that is applied not to the Father, but to the Son.
Of the Son He says:
NKJ Hebrews 1:8 But to the Son He says: "Your
throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the
scepter of Your Kingdom.
There the throne is applied
to the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ when He rules as the Davidic king.
Then when we get to
Revelation
NKJ Revelation
Overcomer believers in the
Church Age don’t sit with Him on His throne until after the Judgment Seat of
Christ, after the Second Coming. That’s
when He has a throne.
He says then:
as I also
overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
So currently Jesus is not
sitting on His throne. He is sitting on
His Father’s throne. This is important
when you study prophecy and study issues related to eschatology because in a-millennialism
and post-millennialism and this new thing that has been developed in the last
20 years called progressive dispensationalism (which is neither progressive nor
dispensational but is held by most of the faculty of Dallas Seminary. Not all, but I’d say at least half.) They
argue that Jesus is sitting on some form of the Davidic throne in heaven right
now. This violates your basic literal hermeneutic. In fact they had to invent a new hermeneutic
that they call complementary hermeneutics.
I am not going to get into that but when you start messing with the text
you have to start messing with hermeneutics.
The point that I want to make
here is simply that the first thing that is said about the Lord and His
priesthood is that He is seated at the right hand of the throne. So He exercises His high priestly ministry
from the right hand of the Father in session.
That word session comes from the Latin sessionum
which means to be seated. So this is
what’s happening today. He is seated at
the right hand of the Father.
Now the second thing that is
said about Him is in the first phrase of the second verse.
NKJ Hebrews 8:2 a Minister of the sanctuary and of
the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.
Now I am going to come back
and look at the details of this in a minute. Right now I am just summarizing the three
things that are said about Jesus. First
of all, as a High Priest He is seated at the right hand of the Majesty in the
heavens – not on high. We have the
phrase “on high” in 1:3. We will come back to that in a minute as I show the
connections between these verses in the first chapter. He is at the right hand of the Majesty in the
heavens. He is a minister of the
sanctuary and of the true tabernacle.
The third thing that is said is
about the tabernacle which the Lord erected and not man. It is God who built this. This is the archetype tabernacle in heaven. As we saw last time the word that is translated
tabernacle is the Greek word skene that has to
do with a dwelling place. So this is the
dwelling of God in the third heavens, the throne of God. There is a holy place there which is indicated
by the word sanctuary from the Greek word hagios. We will get into that detail in just a minute.
So this is what is said in
the first two verses – three things about His priesthood. He is seated at the right hand of the throne
of Majesty in the heavens. He is a
minister. That word minister has to do
with His priestly service. He is a
minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle. This sanctuary and true tabernacle were
erected by God not man so it’s a heavenly tabernacle.
Now before we get much
further just in terms of summary, there are five points stated in these six
verses regarding the superiority of Jesus as the High Priest. That’s the point that we are leading up to…is
this superiority of His priesthood. This
discussion about His high priestly ministry began in chapter 7, but it doesn’t
end until we get to 12:2.
NKJ Hebrews 12:2 looking unto Jesus, the author and
finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured
the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the
throne of God.
Again it is emphasizing that
aspect of His session. So this whole
section that we are in from 7 through the first couple of verses of 12 deals
with the high priestly ministry of Christ and the value of that for the
believer today. As I stated when I began
Hebrews and don’t forget this is the purpose is to not get all bogged down in a
lot of intricate and interesting doctrine; but it is to motivate us as
believers in the Church Age in light of what Jesus is doing for you right now
at the right hand of the Father to strengthen each one of us in our spiritual
growth in preparing us for that future responsibility when we reign with Him as
kings and priests. So we are in our training
ground. We are in spiritual boot camp right now in training for that future
position, that future role, that future responsibility. Last time I tried to connect that to all these
other things that are going on in relation to the angelic conflict and in terms
of covenants and how all these covenants fit together.
So the first point that is
made is that Jesus is a better priest than Aaron based on the use of toioutos “such a one” in 8:1 which is laid out from
Now as we look at these
verses, we look at 8:1. We think back in terms of what we have studied. There are some things that we ought to point
out. You can hold your place here so you
can mark some things in the text, but I am going to put these two verses up
here on the screen for you. Sometimes I
wonder if I put too many verses up here and you don’t use your Bible
enough. But you need to be using your
Bibles. I use the screen to make points
in a visual way to make it a little easier for you. If you look at 8:1, I am just going to read
it to you.
NKJ Hebrews 8:1 Now this is the main point
of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the
right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,
Now here we are talking about
one who is seated at the right hand of God. But the focus is on Him being High
Priest. As a High Priest, He is seated
at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heavens.
Now look at Hebrews 1:3. Hebrews 1:3 says:
NKJ Hebrews 1:3 who
That is the Son because
that’s who he talks about in Hebrews 1:2, the Son.
being the
brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and
upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged
our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
Seated at the right hand of
God…as a High Priest throne of the in the heavens.
So we are not talking Him as
the High Priest but as the Son.
You see the similarity in
terminology. It said the right hand of
the Majesty in the heavens. Verse 3 says
at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
The Greek word hupsolos and in 8:1 we
have ouranos which is heavens.
Now what is interesting is as
you look at this is that the subject in 1:1-4 is on Jesus as Son, but when you
come to the end of chapter 7 the focus is on Jesus as the High Priest.
Hebrew
NKJ Hebrews
So that ties that word
offering to what happened on the cross. See when we get to verse 3 it’s going to talk
about every high priest appointed to offer. So verse 27 nails the offering of that which
occurs on the cross.
NKJ Hebrews 7:28 For the law appoints as high priests
men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints
the Son who has been perfected forever.
See you didn’t you expect Son
in the context of chapter 7. You expected to read “appoint a High
Priest.” What the writer of Hebrews is
doing is he is interweaving this idea of His sonship and His high priestly
ministry. In one passage he uses the
same terminology, but he talks about Him as a Son (in Hebrews 1:1-4). Then in Hebrews 7 he is talking about Him as
a High Priest. When you come down
through verse 28 when we expect it to say that the Law points men as high
priests who are weak, but the word of the oath which came after the Law appoints
a High Priest – no, it appoints a Son.
Then in verse 1 (now this is
the main point of things), we have such a high priest. What I want you to see is how the writer
interconnects, weaves these ideas together so that the concept of His sonship (the
fulfillment of His sonship) and His high priestly ministry are
inseparable. This has been the focus
since chapter 4 – of the nature of who is developing the fact that the one who
is the Son is our High Priest. We can’t
distinguish the two that God became a man so that He could serve as our High
Priest. A high priest has to partake of
both the character and the nature of those who he is representing. A high priest partakes of the nature of whom
he is representing, but a mediator partakes of both. We have the idea of mediator comes up in 8:6
that He is also mediator of a better covenant.
So the idea of priesthood, mediator and sonship are all woven together in
these verses to demonstrate the superiority of Christ’s priesthood because He
is a priest as a Son and as a mediator.
The second thing that is brought
out in these verses is that He works in a better or superior sanctuary or holy
place. Literally, it’s holy place. It could be sanctuary, but holy place. He works in a superior holy place in 8:2 and
8:5. Moses and the Levitical priesthood served
in a copy or a shadow of that sanctuary, but Christ is in the archetypical holy
place.
He offers a better sacrifice. It is a once, for all sacrifice when He
offered up Himself according to verse 27.
Fourth, He is the mediator of
a better covenant. Now this is something
that hit me. I have written a number of papers years ago
when I was in a doctoral program at Dallas Seminary when I used to write a
newsletter - Tommy and I used to publish a newsletter on dispensational issues about
20 years ago. We wrote a number of
articles on the New Covenant. I don’t
know. It has been awhile since I have
been into this doctrine so maybe I saw it 20 years ago or not, but the whole
point of verses 1 through 5 is that Christ in His high priestly ministry right
now is functioning as a mediator of the New Covenant. The New Covenant is defined in context as the
covenant with the house of
Let me set it up again
because we will spend some time on this next time we have our next lesson. In the history of dispensationalism there was
a period of time in the early twentieth century, early half of the twentieth
century, when it was typical of people such as Scofield (I believe), Chafer
(for sure), Walvoord (in his early years), Ryrie (in his early years) and
others taught what was called a new two covenant view that there was a next
covenant with the church and a New Covenant with Israel. But when you get into the New Testament there
is no passage that ever talks about a new covenant with the Church. But when
you have Jesus talking to His disciples at the Last Supper saying, “This is the
new covenant of my blood which is given for you” and then Paul talks about the minister
of the New Covenant. The deduction was that
it must means that there is a New Covenant for the church.
But in neither of those two passages
is it stated that the new covenant is with the church. Now if the present priestly ministry of
Christ (His high priestly ministry) in session is a function of His being a
mediator of the New Covenant, you would think logically if there were two new covenants
that would be the New Covenant of the church, not a new covenant with
The church participates as a
beneficiary of that covenant. The
pattern that I use (the model I use) is the same thing you have in the Old
Testament. God makes a contract with
Abraham. He has His covenant with Abraham.
He says, “On the basis of my
contract with you, I am going to bless the Gentiles.”
The New Covenant is a
contract between God and
So Christ is superior as a
High Priest because He is a better priest than Aaron. He works in a superior holy place. He offers a better sacrifice. He is the mediator of a better covenant. His work rests on better promises. He is a mediator of a better covenant which
was established on better promises. His
work rests on better promises. At the
end of verse 6 He is a mediator of a better covenant which was established on
better promises. We will get into that
in the next lesson.
Once he establishes this, then
he will go on to four remaining points in the next three chapters. He will discuss the better covenant in
8:7-13. He will go into a detailed
explanation and analysis of the better sanctuary in 9:1-12. He will explain the better sacrifice in
NKJ Hebrews 4:14 Seeing then that we have a great
High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us
hold fast our confession.
NKJ Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a High Priest
who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted
as we are, yet without sin.
So, all these things are pulled
together. These threads are pulled
together into this developing doctrine of the high priestly ministry of Christ.
Now let’s go back to look at
verse 2.
NKJ Hebrews 8:2 a Minister of the sanctuary and of
the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.
This is the prototype dwelling
place in heaven. As I said earlier, this
is the Greek word skene meaning habitation,
dwelling place. It is the same word in
the Hebrew where we get the word Shekinah which means dwelling place. Shekinah is not used anywhere in the Hebrew
Old Testament. It was a rabbinical word coined
to explain the dwelling of God in the tabernacle in the Old Testament. The dwelling place, the tabernacle another
word for tabernacle is the Hebrew word mishkan,
same root. SHKN is a root word. It goes over into Greek as skene. I was
surprised. A couple of years ago I was
teaching this – something related to this – when I was over in
This heavenly dwelling place
is emphasized a number of places.
NKJ Hebrews 9:11 But Christ came as High
Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle
not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.
Going back to Exodus 25:9
where God told Moses:
NKJ Exodus 25:9 "According to all that I show
you, that is, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its
furnishings, just so you shall make it.
The earthly tabernacle is modeled
or patterned after a heavenly archetype.
Back to 8:2.
NKJ Hebrews 8:2 a Minister of the sanctuary and of
the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.
There are two key words
here. Minister is a word that sort of
loses a little bit of its significance in our current culture. It’s the Greek word leitourgos. It’s a noun meaning a servant. But in
the context of the Scripture it always relates to service in the tabernacle, in
the temple, service related to serving God.
So it is a priestly servant. This is a word commonly used in the Old
Testament Septuagint in relationship to the function of the priests in the
tabernacle.
The word sanctuary is a
translation of the Greek word hagios which
means a holy place, technically a place that is set apart for the dwelling of
God because it’s related to skene in contrast. So Christ becomes a minister. He functions as a priestly servant in the Holy
of Holies. That word hagios
hagion (Holy of Holies) is used when we get into
chapter 9. This inner sanctum, the
dwelling place of God which is the true tabernacle, which is the true dwelling
place of God which God erected and not
man.
It ultimately will end when
we get into the New Heavens and New Earth.
So then we get into the third
verse which begins with the phrase “for”.
It introduces an explanation.
Actually it begins to develop
something and lays a groundwork for what comes.
The “for” here doesn’t explain what happens before but is building a
case.
We read:
NKJ Hebrews 8:3 For every high priest is appointed
to offer both gifts and sacrifices.
The reason I sat that apart
in the verse is because that’s a generic statement. It is a general principle. It is a gnomic use of the present tense of
the verb kathistemi. It’s a generally true statement. A priest is appointed to offer gifts and
sacrifices. That’s the principle –
universal principle.
Then we have the second part
of the verse that applies this to Christ.
Therefore it
is necessary that this One also have something to offer.
Now when you read that word “it
is necessary” this is a Greek word anagkaios
which goes back to
NKJ Hebrews
That’s the word. There is a necessity there.
So there is a connection. That word is used in verse 27. The writer again is being very artful in the
way he uses his vocabulary to tie his sections together.
What he is saying here is
it’s necessary that this (That is this High Priest.) one also have something to
offer. The something that He has to
offer is His once, for all sacrifice on the cross. It’s not an ongoing sacrifice. It’s not the idea of the Roman Catholic mass
that every time you have a mass there is a re-crucifixion of Christ. It doesn’t have to go on repeatedly. It was a once for all sufficient sacrifice
for sin, not an ongoing action.
Then we come to verse 4 where
he sets up an unreal condition. This is
a second class condition where it’s not.
If He were on earth, but He’s not.
NKJ Hebrews 8:4 For if He were on earth, He would
not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the
law;
If He were on earth, but He’s
not is an argument from supposition but it’s not true. Jesus couldn’t fit the
pattern of priests. He keeps going back
very simply to what he has stated earlier that to function on the earth. He
would have to function according to the standards of the Levitical priesthood and
the Mosaic Law. Since He wasn’t of the
tribe of Levi, since He didn’t fit those qualifications, He couldn’t serve as a
priest.
So if He were on the earth
but He’s not, He would not be a priest since there are priest who offer the
gifts according to the law. These
priests served the copy and the shadow of the heavenly things.
NKJ Hebrews 8:5 who serve the copy and shadow of the
heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the
tabernacle.
He is restating it over again. He wants to make sure that we don’t miss the
point. The earthly priests served an
earthly copy, but Jesus is a heavenly high priest on a superior priesthood serving
in the better or superior sanctuary in heaven.
For He
said,
That is God.
"See that
you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the
mountain."
Now there are a couple of
interesting words here. They are
synonymous. The word for copy is the
Greek word hupodeigma. Shadow is the word skia
and these are virtually synonymous. What
it is saying is that the tabernacle on earth is a shadow image, a shadow copy, of
an ultimate reality that is in heaven.
Another key word that is used
here is the word down in the last line, pattern. That’s the Greek word tupos
where we get our word type. A type is a
pattern. It is like a stamp of a
dye. It sets the boundaries or the
limits of something. So what we have
here is that there is a heavenly type, a heavenly pattern that is simply
reflected in a shadow on the earthly tabernacle.
Then we come to verse 6.
NKJ Hebrews 8:6 But now He has obtained a more
excellent ministry,
This is the Lord Jesus Christ
and He has obtained this more excellent ministry. Why? Because of what He did on the cross. God’s plan was that the Lord Jesus Christ
instead of God requiring man to be righteousness and to produce righteousness, God
sent His Son who would go to the cross and He would bear our sins in His body
and then His righteousness would be given to us knowing that we could never
satisfy the demands of the Law in and of ourselves. The Law required a man to be something he
could not be, so Jesus Christ fulfilled that on His own. So because He has done that, because He
completed the offering He has now obtained a more excellent ministry
inasmuch as
He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
So we have three things that
are superior here – a more excellent ministry, a better covenant and a better
promise. Now I want you to note the similarly
between verse 6 and verse 4.
In Hebrews 1:4 we read:
NKJ Hebrews 1:4 having become so much better than
the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
So see he is using the
similar type of superlative language to emphasize His superior position as our
High Priest. This is based on two things,
the better covenant and the promises of the covenant that He is a mediator of
this better covenant.
We are probably going to wrap
up a little early tonight because I don’t want to get too far into the New
Covenant, but I want to at least introduce it with a diagram that I think helps
to explain it a little bit.
We are going to look at the
fact that in the Old Testament you have promises that are made to Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob, promises that are made to Moses, and these promises are eventually
fulfilled in the future – not yet.
Down here we insert the
dispensational chart of the ages starting with the formation of
With the formation of
I am going to stop there because
we are coming up. We have laid the foundation
for verse 7.
NKJ Hebrews 8:7 For if that first covenant had
been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.
There was an inherent aspect about
that first covenant, that old covenant that is temporary. It was never intended to be permanent. It seems like I get into this discussion at
least two or three times a year with some new pastor trying to work his way
through things. We have almost put
ourselves in a verbal trap by calling these covenants conditional and
unconditional because there are conditions even in the Abrahamic Covenant. The covenant is permanent, but it has
conditions. The Jews could not enjoy the
full scope of the land unless they were obedient and rightly related to
God. That’s a condition. But, if they don’t fulfill the condition, the
covenant’s not removed. It’s just that
the generation isn’t going to experience it.
So we get into a little trap here with our terminology. So I have tried for the last several years to
condition (no pun intended) myself to use the phrase “permanent” versus
“temporary”. The Abrahamic Covenant,
land covenant, the Davidic Covenant and the New Covenant are permanent
covenants. The old covenant was a
temporary covenant. That’s what the
writer of Hebrews is saying. There was
something inherent about it that was temporary.
That’s why you have a new covenant called the New Covenant because it is
replacing the old covenant. The old covenant
was never intended to last forever. But,
the New Covenant is. So by its very
nature the Mosaic Law was not intended to be permanent, but temporary and isn’t
fully instigated until Jesus Christ returns at the Second Coming. We will get into that next time. We will go back into Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel
and some of the other Old Testament passages related to the New Covenant and then
connect it all up with Hebrews 8.
Let’s bow our heads in
closing prayer.