The verses before us this morning testify powerfully to the greatness of our High Priest. About this, as the writer comments, he truly does have much to say, and hard to explain. Today's text in particular demands that you apply your mind and heart to understanding. The writer's whole point is built on two things that are not self-explanatory: perfection and the relationship between the Levitical priesthood and Mosaic law. In order to understand his point, which is that the Levitical priesthood could not grant perfection and therefore both it and the Mosaic law are now superseded, we must take some time to talk about perfection and then about how the Mosaic law existed in order to enable the service of the Levitical priests, and yet both that law and that priesthood have now been fulfilled and abolished in Christ. As we will see, the implication of this statement is that Christ's priesthood, and only Christ's priesthood, is the source of perfection.
Allow me to remind you that the harsh negative statements about the Mosaic Law and Aaronic priesthood in this section are not spoken absolutely, but only relatively. Relative to perfection, the Mosaic Law and Aaronic priesthood were imperfect. Relative to their own time and the purpose for which God instituted them, they were glorious, useful to the people, and pleasing to God. Remember, the writer's overall purpose is not to exalt the priesthood of Christ by denigrating the priesthood of Aaron, but to show that as glorious as Aaron's priesthood was, the priesthood of Christ is far more glorious — so much more glorious as to swallow up and apparently cancel out the glory of the Aaronic order.
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Caleb Nelson grew up in Ft. Collins, CO. Born into a Christian home, where he eventually became the eldest of 11 children, he has been a lifelong Presbyterian. He professed faith at the age of six, and was homeschooled through high school. He then attended Patrick Henry College...
