JESUS Christ’s High Priesthood after the order of Melchisedec Heb. 7:1-10, FAR MORE EXCELLENT THAN Aaron’S PRIESTHOOD, 11-28
For the weakness and unprofitableness thereof”. God had annulled the Mosaic law. See v.11. The whole system was, relatively speaking, worthless. The Mosaic law was the product of Divine wisdom, holiness and truth… It was given to sinners who were defiled and guilty, and therefore was the law “weak through the flesh” (Rom. 8:3) … it was (in itself) incapable of meeting their deep needs; taking away their sins, bestowing life on them, conforming them to God’s holiness. Why, then, was it given? It was “added because of transgression, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made” (Gal. 3:19). It discovered the nature of sin, so that the conscience of man might be sensible thereof. Finally, it made known the imperative need for the coming of Christ to do for men what they could not do of and for themselves.
“For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God” (v 19). The design of the law was that it “made nothing perfect”. “It did not make the church-state perfect; it did not make the worship of God perfect; it did not perfect the promises given to Abraham in their accomplishment, it did not make a perfect covenant between God and man; it had a shadow, an obscure representation, of all these things, but it made nothing perfect” (John Owen). Why should God have given His people a law which made nothing perfect? The Lord Jesus rejoiced in spirit… because heavenly mysteries had been hid from the wise and prudent … “Even so Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight” (Luke 10:21). Primarily, God designed that the Lord Jesus should in all things have the pre-eminence…Christ is the center of all God’s counsels, the key to every problem… The law as a shadow, served as a suitable background, to make manifest His incarnate Son. “The darkness is past, and the true light now shineth” (1 John 2:8). But the “bringing in of a better hope did” see Rom. 8:3, 4. “Hope” … for the object itself, the thing hoped for. From the giving of the first promise in Gen. 3:15, renewed in Gen. 12:3; 17:8, the coming of Christ unto this world was the great thing which believers longed for. Abraham rejoiced to see His day Jn. 8:56, as did the prophets search diligently concerning it 1Pet. 1:11, 12. Simeon “waiting for the Consolation of Israel” Lk. 2:25 and of aged Anna. “All of them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem” Lk. 2:38. We also have the “blessed hope” set before God’s saints… the “appearing of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ” Tit. 2:13. The “better hope” believers now “draw nigh unto God”. By nature, we were “alienated from the life of God” Eph. 4:18. But now we who once were far off “are made nigh by the blood of Christ” Eph. 2:13, both believing Jews and Gentiles “have access by one Spirit unto the Father” Eph. 2:18, for the whole election of grace have been made “a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” 1Pet. 2:5. A new and living way opened Heb. 10: 19–22. We already have “access by faith into this grace wherein we stand” Rom. 5:2. The Forerunner has “for us entered” within the veil Heb. 10:19, 20. Then, in the meantime, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). Pink Arthur W.
