Hebrews: Another Reading (Pt.5)

Part Four

The New High Priest

          Jesus then is the High Priest who replaces the Aaronic-Levitical High Priest.  This high-profile replacement of a cultic officiant was absolutely necessary, otherwise Christ’s mediatorial work could not have gone forward.  It would not be in the character of God nor patterned after the divine economy with men for Christ to bullishly take up the Davidic throne in Jerusalem and by simple irresistible fiat make Himself the High Priest.  But also, as Hebrews shows, He would have to already be functioning in His High Priestly role before taking over world dominion.  If we compare Hebrews with the Gospel of John we can see this:

But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance. – Hebrews 9:7.

Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’ – John 20:17.

But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.  Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption… how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?  And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. – Hebrews 9:11-12, 14-15.

          If the Levite High Priest had to enter the Holy of Holies in the earthly temple with a blood offering on the Day of Atonement any cultic performance by the new Melchizedekian High Priest would require Him to also have a blood offering. But He could not offer the blood (which was His own blood) at any altar unless He was already invested as a functioning High Priest at the time He entered the heavenly temple (cf. Heb. 8:1-6), ergo, Jesus had to be functioning as our High Priest before not long after John 20.  This means two things: Firstly, that Jesus Christ has been the High Priest since His ascension in the first part of the first century.  Secondly, it means that He is now our High Priest mediating on our behalf under the terms of the New covenant.  Therefore, it is an inescapable conclusion that Christians from A.D. 30 to the present day and until the Church is removed are full members of the New covenant!  There is no way around it.

          Hebrews 8:7-13 contains the longest OT quotation in the NT.  That quotation concerns the New covenant and is taken from Jeremiah 31:31-34.  This quotation is connected with Christ’s New covenant High Priestly role.  The New covenant has arrived, but not [yet] for Israel. 

          Hebrews 8:1 reports that Jesus “is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.”  He is clearly not seated upon David’s throne; David’s throne meaning the Davidide dynasty.

          What we also find in Hebrews 9, after the description of the ordinances of the old earthly sanctuary (Heb. 9:1-10), is a fascinating section about the heavenly sanctuary (which I believe exists, since one cannot pattern an earthly tabernacle after something which cannot be reduced to a pattern – Heb. 8:1, 5; 9:23-24).  The section begins in Hebrews 9:11 with the remark that Christ (i.e., Messiah) as the Melchizedekian High Priest mediates “the good things to come,” by which I understand the author to mean “the world to come” of Hebrews 2:5 and “the eternal inheritance” of Hebrews 9:15.  Christ offered His own blood as “the Lamb of God” (cf. Heb. 9:14, 24-26).  He did this “through the eternal Spirit” (Heb. 9:14).  By this I take him to mean the Spirit of life who brings the New covenant aeon to pass with the renewal of the earth (cf. Heb. 9:28). 

The Waiting Messiah

          Similar to what Peter said in Acts 3:19-21 the writer characterizes Jesus as in heaven “waiting.”  What is he waiting for?  According to Hebrews 10:13, Christ is “waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.”  This, of course, is in fulfillment of Psalm 110:1: “The LORD said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”  It appears then that God the Father will one day do this, without doubt through the orchestration of events immediately prior to the second coming.  Once this is done what might be called “the Kingdom of the New Covenant” will be set up.  This explains the anticipatory language of  “what is becoming obsolete and growing old [and] is ready to vanish away” (Heb. 8:13).  Hence, “He takes away the first {Mosaic covenant] that He may establish the second [New covenant].” (Heb. 10:9).  All indications are that this establishment will be accomplished[1] after Christ returns.  Thus,

To those who eagerly wait[2] for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation. – Hebrews 9:28.

          This text locates “salvation” after Jesus comes “a second time.”  This salvation is the Sabbath “rest” in the kingdom of God.  Right now, Jesus acts as the High Priest whose self-offering abrogates the sacrifices under the old covenant (Heb. 10:10-18).  This is why Christ is our High Priest now – which necessarily means that we are New covenant saints now.[3]  If such were not true Christ could not be our High Priest!

          Hebrews 9:28 depicts believers as eagerly waiting for the second coming.  Coupled with the anticipatory tones of the coming sabbath rest (Heb. 4:1-4, 9-10), and the stated intention of the author to write about “the world to come” (Heb. 2:5), we ought to carefully consider the rest of the book in this light.  I believe this is the “something better” of which we are told in Hebrews 11:40. 

          In addition to those texts we need to look at the last few verses in Hebrews 12:

See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.”  Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.  Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.  For our God is a consuming fire. – Hebrews 12:25-29. 

          The passage refers to the readers/hearers “receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken” (Heb. 12:28).  This is “the world to come”, the millennial inheritance.  The allusion in verse 25 is to the Voice of Yahweh thundering from Mount Sinai in Exodus 19:18 (cf. Psa. 68:7-8).  But a question comes up: does the author mean to tell us that God will speak once more in such a way?  It appears so.  The quotation from Haggai 2:6 needs to be studied in its context.  Here are the surrounding verses:

‘According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remains among you; do not fear!’  For thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the LORD of hosts…The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the LORD of hosts. ‘And in this place I will give peace,’ says the LORD of hosts.” – Haggai 2:5-9.

          Through the prophet Yahweh  cites the Mosaic covenant at Sinai, which, because of His grace and its connection to the Abrahamic covenant, He continued to remember regarding His oath.[4]  But, true to form, the emphasis shifts to the coming kingdom restoration when “the Desire of all nations” (Hag. 2:7) is present.  Who or what is this “Desire”?  Hengstenberg bluntly states that the messianic interpretation cannot be correct.  He asserts, “The only admissible rendering…is ‘the beauty of all the heathen.”[5]  In his opinion this refers to the Gentiles coming with their possessions.[6]   See also Peters[7], Merrill, and Rydelnik. 

Another equally valid understanding (perhaps more so) construed the “desire” as the kingdom temple.[8]  My slight resistance to this interpretation is that the “house of Yahweh” does not become a magnet to the nations until the kingdom is in full swing.  Whichever position is taken on Haggai 2:7 the context admits to a strongly premillennial outlook when the later temple is built after Yahweh has shaken creation and He is in a position to give final shalom (Hag. 2:9).  Hence, the writer of Hebrews has the second coming of Christ and the Kingdom of God in his sights in Hebrews 12:25-29.  And the intriguing verses just before it support this conclusion.  

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[1] Although the New covenant was instigated at the first advent, and we enjoy its benefits, it is clear from both Scripture and experience that the New covenant age has not yet dawned.  Christians have the Holy Spirit only as a pledge or “earnest” and not in His fullest expression in us.  We are yet in our “earthen vessels” and not our glorified bodies.  The voice of sin still calls within, and Satan and the world-system still exert their baleful influences every day.   

[2] The Greek word is apekdechomai meaning “to wait expectantly.”  This matches the language of striving to enter rest in Hebrews 4:11.

[3] With due respect, I don’t think this aspect of the New covenant has been fully considered by many Dispensationalists. 

[4] When the text says “My Spirit will yet remain among you [Israel]” we are to call to mind the end of the Babylonian exile and Yahweh’s providential presence in the throes of rebuilding.   

[5] E. W. Hengstenberg, Christology of the Old Testament, Volume 2, MacDill AFB, FL: MacDonald Publishing Company, n.d., 942-946.

[6] Ibid, 944-945.

[7] George N. H. Peters, The Theocratic Kingdom, Vol. 3, 418.

[8] See e.g., Walter Kaiser, The Promise-Plan of God, 219.