In our exposition of this marvelous book we have come to chapter 8. In the first seven verses of this chapter we have a summary of the changes that result from the priesthood of our Lord, which has been, as we have already learned, discussed in 4:14-8:28. As we have already seen, the Lord foretold in Psalm 110 that He would raise up a priest after the order of Melchizedek, which prediction was fulfilled in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ who made the supreme sacrifice by laying down His life, tasting death for every man. In chapter 7 the writer shows that of necessity there had to be a change of priesthood. Hence he quite appropriately gave us the resume of these great changes immediately following the presentation of the proof regarding them.

According to verse 1 the chief point of the whole matter is that we have a High Priest who is superior of the Aaronic, Levitical system. Thus we have:

(1) A better Priest than Israel had. This Priest, as we have seen, came of the tribe of Judah and had no connection whatsoever with the Levitical priesthood. He was after a different order, the order of Melchizedek. He was the Son of God who entered the world by virgin birth and who was the God-man. After He had made the sacrifice of Himself, He ascended to glory in fulfillment of Psalm 110 and is at the present time seated at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens (vs. 1). This is in perfect accord with the statement found in Hebrews 1:1-4. He has returned to glory as the God-man to become the minister of the true tabernacle.

(2) A better Sanctuary. In verse 2 we read of the "true tabernacle" in heaven "which the Lord pitched, not man." That there is a tabernacle in heaven is quite evident from verse 5 of this chapter which declares that the ritualistic service at the Temple served as a copy and a shadow "of the heavenly things, even as Moses is warned of God when he is about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern that was showed thee in the mount." Moses went up into the mountain and was with the Lord forty days, during which time the Lord showed him a vision of the heavenly sanctuary and gave him specific directions and instructions--plans and specification--for the building of the earthly sanctuary. Thus the Tabernacle, and later on the Temple, were but replicas of the real spiritual, heavenly temple.

One catches a glimpse of this heavenly sanctuary in which our blessed Lord Jesus Christ is ministering in such passages as Revelation 11:19 and 15:5.

I am bold to assert my conviction regarding the reality of this spiritual tabernacle or temple of God in heaven. In my believing that it is a reality, I am not asserting anything as to that out of which it has been erected. Whether it is of a material nature, no one can say. All we can affirm is that there is such a reality in heaven and that service is being conducted therein and will continue to be carried on. In Revelation 8:1-5 we catch a glimpse of the service that will be carried on at a given time during the Tribulation.

(3) A better Sacrifice. Under the Mosaic Economy various offerings and sacrifices were made. For instance, there was the whole burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering. Each of these represented some phase of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Four of these sacrifices were bloody ones and typified the sacrificial blood of our Lord. The meal offering, of course, consisting of grain offered with incense, laid emphasis upon a different phase of His blessed ministry. While each of the bloody offerings set forth His shedding His blood for our sins, each offering emphasized a different aspect of His sacrifice and of His suffering in our behalf. On the great Day of Atonement (seventh month tenth day) the principle sacrifice was that of the sin offering which for all of those in fellowship with God rolled their sins forward one year. Each year this sacrifice had to be offered again. By this recurrence of the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement Israel was taught that those sacrifices were insufficient to cleanse man from his sin. Had they been able to atone for sin and to remove them forever, they would not have been offered every year. The worshiper was always conscious of the fact that his sins had not been adequately atoned for and that they would be remembered against him at the same time next year, for,
 

Though all the beasts that lives and feed
Upon a thousand hills should bleed—
Though all their blood should flow,
The sacrifice would be in vain,
The stain of sin would still remain:
Sin is not canceled so.
"A better sacrifice" than these
It needs, the conscience to appease
Or satisfy the Lord.

But we have, declared our writer, a better sacrifice than all of those, which were offered upon Jewish altars. This sacrifice was none other than the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Though He was and is the High Priest making the offering, at the same time He was the sacrifice which was typified by all the offerings under the Mosaic economy. John the Baptist had this thought in mind when he, seeing Jesus returning from the Temptation, declared to two of his disciples, "Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29).

What can wash away my sin? The answer is, Nothing but the blood of Jesus Christ! There was a fountain for sin and for uncleanness opened nineteen hundred years ago. Every sinner who will come in the spirit expressed by the song,

     Just as I am, without one plea
     But that Thy blood was shed for me,

can come and offer Jesus Christ as his Sin Bearer, as his atonement and can have his sin washed away in the blood of the Lamb for ever and ever. We have a better Sacrifice than Israel had.

(4) A better Ministry and a better Covenant. According to verse 6 of our chapter, our Lord has obtained a better ministry, a more excellent one, "By so much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which hath been enacted upon better promises." We have therefore a better covenant than the one into which God entered with Israel at Sinai. Let us remember that the Sinaitic covenant was one of works. God had previously entered into covenant relationship with Abraham on the basis of grace—viewed from the divine standpoint, and faith, from the human side. That covenant—Genesis 12:1-3; Genesis 15—was unconditional. When, however, Israel come out of Egypt to Mount Sinai, she exchanged, voluntarily, grace for law and pledged that she would observe and do all the things that were contained in the law. Thus she went upon a legal basis. By law no one can be justified. The law made nothing perfect. By the law men were condemned. In fact the law is called "the ministration of death" (II Cor. 3:7).

But we have a better covenant than Israel had. Let it be noted that this is not a better law. Christians are not under law, but are under grace (Rom. 6:14). The New Testament is not another law, a better law. It is a message of life and light. It is a covenant into which the Lord entered with the individual who will come and bring Jesus Christ as his one only and all-sufficient sacrifice, to atone for his sins. We therefore have a better covenant than Israel had. But we shall study more about it in the next installment as we examine verses 8-13 of this chapter.

(5) Better Promises. This better covenant is enacted upon better promises. The basis of this new covenant is, as has been suggested, that of grace and not of works. No man can observe the law perfectly. If one is under law and violates in one point, he is guilty of all (James 2:10). Many were the requirements and restrictions of the Mosaic Code. Few are the instructions which we have under our Lord and grace. The promises made to Israel looked forward to the great Millennial Age, which all the ritualism of that economy typified. The promises of the new covenant were of a more spiritual nature and looked not only toward the Millennial Age but far into the eternal ages when the redeemed shall be blessed with God and with Christ forever and ever.

Thus we who have Christ have all things. He has provided us with all things that pertain to life and godliness (II Pet. 1:1-4). He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ (Eph 1:3). May our walk correspond with our privileges!