GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH

EVERYTHING'S BETTER NOW
Hebrews 8:1-6

Don Fortner

The one great, constantly recurring message of the book of Hebrews is this: Everything's better now! In this glorious gospel day everything is better than it was in the Old Testament, legal age of carnal ordinances.

The Old Testament priests dared not come to God without a sacrifice. If our Lord Jesus is to be our Priest before God, he also must have something to offer as a Sacrifice to God (vv. 3-4; Heb. 10:1-5). But his sacrifice is infinitely better than any of those offered in the Old Testament.

Those sacrifices were only pictures. His is real. Those priests offered animals. Christ sacrificed himself. Those sacrifices were but animals. Christ is God and man in one glorious Person. Those sacrifices had no merit. Christ's sacrifice is of infinite merit. Those sacrifices could never put away sin. Christ has forever put away the sins of his people by the sacrifice of himself!

All the law and services of the Old Testament were but pictures of true, heavenly, spiritual worship (vv. 5-6). This is the main point of the whole book of Hebrews: – We have such a high priest, who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the true sanctuary, and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.

That great High Priest who stands between us and God our Father, that One who has made us right with God, who makes intercession for us to the Father is not an ordinary, weak, sinful, dying, man like Aaron and Levi. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God, omnipotent, sinless, and everlasting. As his life is indestructible, his priesthood, too, is indestructible.

Still there is more. Our Lord Jesus Christ does not minister in an earthly tabernacle, but a heavenly, spiritual one. His priesthood is not encumbered, hindered, or limited by time and space. Our great High Priest, the Son of God, is ministering for us in a "true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man." This is the real thing in heaven. Christ is the pattern shown to Moses in the Mount.

How I wish I could get people to see this. Everything in the worship of God in this gospel age is spiritual (John 4:23-24; Phil. 3:3).

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