Hebrews 7:28

Hebrews 7:28

Men are weak, the Son is perfect

This last verse of chapter 7 is a kind of summary of all that has gone before. The footnote in my Bible gives three excellent reasons why “men in all their weakness” cannot compare with the Son, in fulfilling the roles of the priesthood. 

Firstly, men are mortal, we do not live forever, Christ on the other hand is eternal and His priesthood will never end. 

Secondly, human beings are tainted and scarred by sin, no man or woman has ever been able to rid themselves of this terminal and pervasive disease. However righteous a priest might be, he is still imperfect and unable to meet the holy standards that define the Lord our God. For that reason, all human priests have had to offer sacrifices for themselves as well as for the wider population. 

The third distinguishing difference between the Levitical priesthood and that pioneered by the Lord Jesus is that the human priests could only offer animals to God as substitutes for mankind. We are all created in the image of God, an animal is a very poor substitute for us, its blood and its flesh could never fully atone for the sins of men. The offering of a perfect human sacrifice, therefore, bears no comparison with the life and blood of bulls and goats! 

The author of Hebrews draws our attention to one further and extraordinary difference between the two sacrificial systems. The Levitical rituals were established by the Law. They followed the divine commandments and rules established at Sinai, they demanded obedience, attention to detail and were finite for all the above reasons. Laws can be broken, although there are consequences. Laws rely on the willingness and compliance of those who participate and, as we have seen, the weaknesses of humans make our complete complicity impossible. 

The appointment of Christ and the establishment of the new Covenant was all initiated by an oath from God Himself. What was the oath? We have to go to Psalm 110:4 once again, here David writes, “the Lord has sworn and will not change His mind: “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” Wow! Fancy having to dive into a Psalm of David to unravel this mystery! Not only does this show that, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” (2 Timothy 3:16.) but that there is a wonderful symmetry to all that has been written, and between the Old Testament writers and the New. So, let us rejoice that our High Priest is perfect, and by His offering has become so forever. That is why the ancient sacrificial system needs never to be re-established. Yeshua has fulfilled it all. What a chapter this has been. Hallelujah! 

 

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