Once For All
In its eighth chapter, Hebrews highlights the incomparable benefits believers now receive in the New Covenant inaugurated by the Son. If the fulfillment of God’s promises arrived in him, to return to the incomplete revelations of the past is to embrace the old types and “shadows” rather than the substance provided by God in Jesus of Nazareth.
The Law
was incomplete, and not without its shortcomings. The fact that a new
priesthood became necessary indicated the need for a change of law - “for
the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the
law.”
Thus, “upon
the last of these days,” the former commandment has been set aside because
of “its weakness and un-profitableness, for the Law was unable to perfect
anyone.”
And this deficiency
included the Levitical sacrificial system included in the covenant given to the
nation of Israel at Mount Sinai - (Hebrews 8:1-5).
GLIMPSES AND SHADOWS
The previous
but now outmoded sacrificial system was ordained by God. The priests who served
in the Tabernacle did render divine service, but they were only “glimpses
and shadows of the heavenly realities”, mere “copies” of the reality
that was foreshadowed by the Tabernacle and its sacrifices and offerings.
In
contrast, Jesus did not enter the “copy.” Instead, he entered into the
very presence of God where he now remains to intercede for his people at the “right
hand” of God:
- “For the law having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near” (Hebrews 9:24, 10:1).
And so, he became the “guarantee of a better covenant,” one that is “legislated on better promises.” If the first covenant with its “glimpses and shadows” had been “faultless,” there would have been no need for its replacement.
ONCE FOR ALL
The
priesthood “after the order of Melchizedek” differs significantly from
the Aaronic priesthood. Rather than one generation of priests after another,
along with repeated animal sacrifices, the new priestly legislation is based on
the once-for-all sacrifice
and the endless resurrection life of its one high priest - (Hebrews 7:18-24, 8:7-13).
The recipients
of Hebrews were not facing the temptation to revert to paganism or gross
immorality, but to return to the “shadows” of the Heavenly Reality
that they already possessed in Jesus.
Effectively,
if they took the easy path and escaped persecution by returning to the local synagogue,
they would reject God’s appointed high priest who achieved the “purification
of sins” by his one-for-all sacrifice. They would regress to the obsolete
and incomplete “shadows” of the old legislation, including its flawed
priesthood and endless sacrifices – (compare Colossians 2:9-17).
If the
fulfillment of the promise has arrived in Jesus, why return to the “shadows”
cast by him? Returning to what was always partial, fragmentary, and promissory
is regression. And by doing so, a man may escape persecution in the present,
but he will not escape a far more severe punishment since he has rejected the very
“great salvation” provided by God through the death and resurrection of
His Son.
