The divine services of the first covenant: the rites and bloody sacrifices, 1–10; are far inferior to the “dignity and perfection of the blood and sacrifice of Christ, 11–28. (90)
- “An high priest of good things to come.” The more excellent dispensation which the Messiah has inaugurated. Old Testament prophecy had announced many blessings and privileges which He would bring in, and the Jews had looked forward to better things than they had enjoyed under the old economy. That the promised blessings had been procured by the High Priest of Christianity. As the result of Christ’s advent, life and death, righteousness had been established, peace had been made, and a new and living way opened, which gave access to the very presence of God. Different far were these blessings from what the carnal Jews of Christ’s day desired. The “good things to come” include as well those which yet await us. The “good things” are summed up in “grace and glory,” and are in contrast from “the wrath to come” Matt. 3:7. “The state of glory will perfect the state of grace, this state will be in a much higher sense the perfection… Observe, all things past, present, and to come, were, and are, founded upon, and flowing from, the priestly office of Christ.” M. Henry
- “By a greater and more perfect tabernacle.” Heb. 8:2, 9:1–9. The is the human nature which the Son of God took unto Himself. “The Word became flesh and (Greek) tabernacled among us” Jn 1:14. Christ officiated in a much more glorious habitation than any in which Aaron and his successors served, “in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” Col. 2:9. In Heb. 10:20, the Holy Spirit again applies to Him as the Mosaic tabernacle and shows that in Him is found the antitype—“through the veil, that is to say His flesh.” There is both a comparison and a contrast between the tent which Moses pitched and the human habitat in which the Son of God abides: the comparison as in Heb. 8:2. The contrast is first pointed by the word “greater,” the Antitype far surpassing the type both in dignity and worth. “The human nature of Christ doth thus more excel the old tabernacle, than the sun does the meanest star” John Owen. Of old God declared, “I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir” Is. 13:12—a prophecy which obviously had its fulfillment in the Man Christ Jesus. “And more perfect tabernacle”: this points the second contrast between the type and the Antitype. The superior dignity and excellency of the humanity of Christ over the materials which comprised the tabernacle of Moses, so the “more perfect” respects its sacred use. The body of Christ was “more perfectly fitted and suited unto the end of a tabernacle, both for the inhabitation of the divine nature, and the means of exercising the sacerdotal office in making atonement for sin, than the other was. So it is expressed in Heb. 10:5, ‘Sacrifice and burnt-offering Thou wouldst not, but a body hast Thou prepared Me.” John Owen.
- “Not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building.” Act. 7:48; 17:24, 25. 2Cor. 5:1, Col. 2:11. “Not made with hands” is set in opposition to the Jewish tabernacle, which was made by the hands of men Ex. 36:1–8. The humanity of Christ was the product of Him that hath no hands, even God Himself, “which the Lord pitched, and not man” in Heb. 8:2. The temple of Solomon was a most sumptuous and costly building, yet it was erected by human workmen, and therefore the great God cannot dwell therein: “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house that I have builded?” 1Kg 8:27. In Dan. 2:45: He was to be a “Stone,” cut out of the same quarry with us, yet “without hands,” i.e., without the help of nature, begotten by a man. “That is to say, not of this building,” the term rendered “building” is translated “creature” in Heb. 4:13. “Although the substance of His human nature was of the same kind with ours, yet the production of it in the world, was such an act of Divine power, as excels all other Divine operations whatever. Wherefore, He saith ‘The Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a Man’ Jer. 31:22 or conceive Him without natural generation” John Owen.
