Everything’s Better Now

Hebrews 8:1-6

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.

Better Sacrifice

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!

Everlasting and Indestructible

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.

Spiritual

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).

Christ’s Heavenly Priesthood

The Implications – Hebrews 8:1-6

If the Old Testament sacrifices have been forever abolished, as they have, --If the carnal ordinances have been forever put away, as they have, -- If the temple and tabernacle have forever been destroyed by the hand of God, as they have, -- If the ark of the covenant, the mercy-seat, and all things pertaining to carnal worship have been forever destroyed in accordance with God’s purpose, as they have, what is implied by all these things? What does this mean to us? The implications are obvious; but they are not just implications. Everything implied by these things is specifically stated in Holy Scripture by God the Holy Spirit.

“Christ is the end of the law!” The High Priesthood of Christ fulfilled and forever brought to an end all the carnal ordinances of legal worship required under the Mosaic law (Col. 2:11-23). The tabernacle, the temple, the priesthood, the priestly garments, the priestly service, the priestly sacrifices, holy days, sabbath keeping, the commandments, the whole thing has been brought to its fulfilment and finality by Christ (Rom. 10:4).

The worship of God has been radically altered. Divine worship is no longer an external, material thing, but an internal spiritual matter. The external is still important, but now the spiritual is radically pervasive. We do not worship God at specified holy places, or upon specified holy days, or under the rigors of legal bondage.

We worship God in the Spirit. The believer’s life of faith in Christ is a life of worship (Rom. 12:1-2; 1 Cor. 6:19-20; 10:31). All who are born of God live in the Spirit (Rom. 8:1-17), walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:17-23), and worship in the Spirit (Phil. 3:3-10). The believer’s very acts of obedience to God are now, in Christ, by his merits and his blood, accepted of God as a sweet smelling sacrifice (Phil 4:18; 1 Pet. 2:5). Salvation is life in the Spirit. It is worshipping God in the totality of our beings. It is the continual consecration of our very lives to Christ.

All true worshippers worship God in the Spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24; Phil. 3:3). Worshipping God in the Spirit makes crosses, religious pictures, images, and icons abhorrent. We count nothing holy but Christ. We acknowledge no priest but the Christ of God. We have no altar but Christ himself. We bring no sacrifice to God for atonement and acceptance with him but Christ. We observe no sabbath but the sabbath of faith, finding all our souls’ rest and a total cessation from work in the finished work of Christ.

Christ alone is our Door of access to God. Christ alone is our Ark and Mercy-Seat. Salvation is doing business with God in the holy place. Worship is living for the glory of God. Worship is spiritual. It takes place in the heart.