Redemption Accomplished--Relationship Restored

REDEMPTION ACCOMPLISHED-- RELATIONSHIP RESTORED Spring Valley Mennonite; February 9, 2020; Hebrews 7:11-8:13 A question was posed in a devotional I read on Wednesday this week that caused me to pause: the question was this: “What is God doing today?” I know what God did through the life and death of Jesus as presented in the New Testament, and I am convinced that Jesus will return and establish His earthly Kingdom, although some of the details are still unrevealed. But what is God doing right now, both worldwide and in our lives? As we think about it, the answer is not that difficult: God is busy redeeming people. God is continuing what He began in the Garden of Eden after the fall into sin of our first parents: He set into motion His plan of redemption. God revealed His plan in stages, we call this “progressive revelation.” That revelation, God’s message of redemption, was completed as the early church discovered and affirmed the books of the New Testament. Stage one of His plan involved choosing Israel as a nation to whom to reveal Himself and His character of holiness. His Lawgiver was Moses, and God established a Covenant with Israel, the Covenant of the Law. This Covenant had two main parts: (1) the commandments and ordinances and (2) the sacrifices. The second part of sacrifices was necessary because of man’s inability to keep the commandments. The sacrifices made necessary a special group of people called the Priests. Their priesthood was by virtue of inheritance: they were of the tribe of Levi and of the family of Aaron. The Head Priest was called the “High Priest”. All of “Stage One” was preliminary and incomplete to accomplish God’s Plan of Redemption. The purpose of the Old Covenant was only to set the stage for the completion of God’s Plan of redemption. In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, the Lord Jesus and appointed Him a new High Priest Who could offer a final and complete payment for sin. The message of the New Testament, continued in this Book of Hebrews, is that a superior Priesthood and a superior Covenant leads those who believe to complete access and full relationship with God. Redemption has been accomplished. A close relationship with our Holy God is now possible. The rest of chapter 7 and chapter 8 of Hebrews give us important details of Jesus’ High Priesthood and how that relates to our relationship to God. Read 7:11-19. I. THE PERFECT REPLACES THE IMPERFECT There is a phrase in verse 19 which we must not miss. The words are “a better hope through which we draw near to God.” This is the goal of God’s Plan of Redemption, that the barrier of sin which separates us from God be removed so that we can draw near to God. Under the Old Covenant and old priesthood there remained a barrier, symbolized by the veil in the Temple. Only the High Priest could enter the presence of God, and that only once a year. Everyone else was kept at a distance; why? For their own protection! When the Law was given on Mt. Sinai, remember how a barrier was established around the mountain, and anyone who trespassed was under the penalty of death? The same prohibition existed in the Tabernacle and Temple. No common priest dared to enter the Holy of Holies. The Old Covenant not only disallowed man to draw near to God, it forbade them to do so! The Veil separated and protected those ordinary priests who served in the Tabernacle or Temple. What a cataclysmic event it was when the veil was ripped from top to bottom at the moment of Jesus’ death on the cross! Access was opened into the presence of God. We can now draw near to God! Verse 11 speaks of “perfection.” The Old Covenant and Old Priesthood could never achieve perfection. The word “perfect” is used in several ways in the New Testament; its most common usage is like that in James 1 when he speaks of our trials being the means by which we are “made perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” We grow through trials to become mature in the faith. But in Hebrews the meaning of “perfect” means the “goal and aim of Christianity which is nearness to God, achieved through a perfect sacrifice offered by a perfect High Priest.” This perfection could never come through the Levitical Priesthood. The argument here is that a new Priesthood, after the Order of Melchizedek, was the answer to the imperfections and inadequacies of the Old priesthood. And since the Priesthood changed, so must the Law also change. One example of that change was from the change of Priesthood from tribe of Levi to the tribe of Judah, the Royal tribe, as Jesus Christ combines the offices of Priest and King. As Melchizedek did not inherit his Priesthood, so Christ, by virtue of His eternal existence is the Eternal High Priest. Since the High Priest of Judaism has been replaced by the High Priest of Christianity, so the Old Covenant of the Law is now replaced. It was weak and useless in its ability to remove completely remove sin, only temporarily covering sin. Can you imagine how those steeped in Judaism and the ceremonies and rituals of the Old Covenant would respond to such a description? Weak, Useless?! Yet this is exactly true. Now, before we read too much into this description of the Law allow me to give a word of clarification. The Law contained both a moral application and a ceremonial application. The Moral Law of God describes and reveals God’s character of perfect holiness. The Moral Law reveals God’s absolute standards for holiness. These standards never change. God is the Only Invisible God, and we are to worship none other than Him. Parents are always to be honored. God’s Moral Law tells us that murder is always wrong, as is lying, coveting and adultery. As we read the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus actually intensified and elaborated on the Law teaching that our inward heart intent is grounds for judgment: lusting in the heart is equal to adultery; hatred is equal to murder. The Moral Law is still binding because God never changes. But the ceremonial Law, that of sacrifices and various ordinances given particularly to the Jew, that ceremonial and ritualistic Law has been done away with. Why? It was ineffective and imperfect, waiting for the perfect fulfillment of the ceremonial Law by Jesus Christ. Jesus’ perfect sacrifice for our sin opened the way to God. The barrier, symbolized by the Temple Veil, has been removed. We can now draw near to God. II. THE NEW COVENANT GUARANTEES OUR ETERNAL SALVATION Read vv. 20-25 The importance of Psalm 110:4 is seen in the words, “The Lord has sworn” signifying that God has eternally declared, with an oath,—signifying that He will not change His mind—that Messiah Jesus is an eternal Priest. And because Jesus is our eternal Priest we are guaranteed that He is able through His once-for-all sacrifice to save us forever! Forever, because our Savior is forever and our High Priest lives forever. He is our eternal Go-Between, our eternal Mediator, our eternal intercessor. We have an eternal relationship with our eternal Savior. All barriers of sin have been removed. The Veil is gone. An eternal High Priest says something else; it says stability. It says security. It says permanency. Nothing in this life is permanent except our relationship with God. This lends stability to our daily lives. Whatever happens, we can draw near to God. He is our refuge, our fortress, our strength and our deliverer. This is why Christians form a stable foundation for any endeavor, from the family to a nation. And Jesus Christ, our Savior is the guarantee of a better covenant, as He completely fulfills the Law’s requirements, a high priest that, as verse 26 tells us, is holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens! He lived a sinless life in the midst of a sinful world and is now exalted in glory. Moving on to chapter 8… Chapter 8:1-5 (READ) III. OUR HIGH PRIEST, SEATED IN HEAVEN The Levitical High Priest never stayed long in the Temple, as was true of the Priests who trimmed the lampstand or replenished the bread or incense. Have you ever noticed that there were no chairs in the Temple?! But notice that Jesus is seated in the Heavenly Temple. The earthly Tabernacle and Temple was a copy in some way of the heavenly Temple. It is not completely revealed in what ways it copies the heavenly Temple, but we see one difference: God the Father and Jesus are seated in heaven. As Jesus is seated at the Father’s right hand, it signifies that His work of offering the eternal sacrifice of His body and blood has been completed. Once and for all the sacrifice was made, an eternal sacrifice accomplishing eternal redemption. IV. A NEW AND BETTER COVENANT Read vv. 6-7. Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant, enacted on better promises. The Old Covenant was never meant to last forever but was meant to be replaced by a better one. Jeremiah prophesied of this new covenant with the words we read in verses 8-12: listen to these promises made to encourage the Jews who were about to be led into captivity in Babylon: (Read vv. 8-12.) Instead of an external based covenant which regulated and established an unattainable standard of behavior, the New Covenant gives us an internal enablement of the Holy Spirit. Upon belief in the sacrifice of Jesus and repentance of our sin, acknowledging we are sinners unable to save ourselves, we are changed from the inside out. As parents we live for the day that our children will obey us, not for fear of being punished for any disobedience, but because they love us and have learned that our rules are for their protection and welfare. We yearn for obedience and good actions because they trust us. God writes His laws upon our hearts and enlivens our conscience to know right from wrong. He makes us His children, and we gladly follow Him. Verse 11 tells me that I will be out of a job in heaven, for everyone will know the Lord intimately. Our sins will never resurface and there will be no whispers of guilt in our minds. This will be our blessed future! A final word, as in verse 13: The Old Covenant is obsolete. We live in the day of the New Covenant. God’s moral law still holds validity, as it reflects God’s character, but we are given an inward motivation to obey that which pleases our Heavenly Father. The eternal sacrifice has been offered. We cultivate that inward motivation as we gather to worship and as we exhort one another to love and good deeds. And when we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus, our eternal High Priest.