Sunday, 24 April 2016

The Greatness of Christ’s Priesthood

A Priest of greater moral character
Heb. 7:26     Such a high priest meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.

A Priest of greater effectiveness
27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.

A Priest of greater moral strength
28 For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.

A Priest of greater authority
Heb. 8:1    The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,

A Priest of greater place of service
2 and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man.
Heb. 8:3     Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer.  4 If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already men who offer the gifts prescribed by the law.  5 They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”

Greater covenant
6 But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.

A covenant with greater grace
Heb. 8:7     For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another.  8 But God found fault with the people and said:

  “The time is coming, declares the Lord,
 when I will make a new covenant
 with the house of Israel
 and with the house of Judah.

Heb. 8:9     It will not be like the covenant
 I made with their forefathers
 when I took them by the hand
 to lead them out of Egypt,
 because they did not remain faithful to my covenant,
 and I turned away from them,
 declares the Lord.

A covenant with greater change
Heb. 8:10     This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
 after that time, declares the Lord.

  I will put my laws in their minds
 and write them on their hearts.
  I will be their God,
 and they will be my people.

A covenant with greater intimacy
Heb. 8:11     No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
 or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
 because they will all know me,
 from the least of them to the greatest.

Heb. 8:12     For I will forgive their wickedness
 and will remember their sins no more.”

A covenant with greater endurance
Heb. 8:13     By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.


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