The Main Point

Hebrews 8:1-5

 

How often have you read an article or a book, or heard a sermon and said to yourself, “I wish he would just give me the main point”? That is exactly what Paul does in Hebrews 8:1-5. In fact, thee words, “this is the sum” (v. 1),  would be better translated, “this is the main thing.” Here the Holy Spirit tells us that what is before us in this eighth chapter of Hebrews is the main, primary, most important thing for us to know and understand regarding the priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Shadows Replaced

 

The Lord Jesus Christ did not come to fit into the old system of priestly sacrifices. He came to fulfill them, put an end to them, and replace them. He is the reality; they were but shadows, types, and pictures of him. When the Real Thing came, the shadows passed away. That is what we are told in verse 5. The last words in the verse are a quotation from Exodus 25:40. They were God’s words to his servant Moses. The Lord commanded his servant to make all things according to the pattern he showed him.

 

All the furnishings and the actions of the Old Testament tabernacle were but types, shadows, and pictures of Christ, of “heavenly (spiritual) things.” They served only to point to heavenly, spiritual things. Once the heavenly, spiritual things came, they vanished forever.

 

The whole point of the book of Hebrews is that Jesus Christ, God's Son, has not just come to fit into the earthly, carnal, Old Testament system of things, as the best and final human priest. He came to fulfill and forever abolish that system and to turn our hearts to himself, ministering for us in heaven. The Old Testament tabernacle and priests and sacrifices were shadows. Now the reality has come and the shadows have passed away. That is the message of Hebrews 8:1-5. The Lord Jesus Christ is precisely the kind of Priest spoken of and typified in the Old Testament Scriptures.

 

A Priest upon A Throne

 

He is a Priest in Heaven, seated upon his royal throne as God in human flesh (v. 1). "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:1-2).

 

A Minister of the Sanctuary

 

His body is that true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man (v. 2). “Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us(Heb. 9:11-12).

 

A Priest with a Sacrifice

 

Our Lord Jesus, as our Priest, must have something to offer as a Sacrifice to God (vv. 3-4).Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me" (Heb. 10:5).

 

All the law and services of the Old Testament were but pictures of true, heavenly, spiritual worship, “the example and shadow of heavenly things” (v. 5). We have I the Lord Jesus Christ such a High Priest as was pictured in the Old Testament Scriptures, one who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary, and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.

 

That Priest who stands between us and God our Father, that One who makes us right with God, who prays for us before God is not an ordinary, weak, sinful, dying, priest like Aaron and Levi. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God, omnipotent, sinless, with an indestructible life.

 

Not only that, he does not minister in an earthly tabernacle with all its limitations of place and size, a tabernacle that must wear out with time and use. Our Priest is ministering for us in a "true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man." Christ is the real thing in heaven. Christ is the pattern shown to Moses in the Mount.

 

Implications

 

What is implied by all this? What does this mean to us? “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 (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 specified vestments, liturgy, etc. The believer’s life of faith in Christ is a life of worship (Rom. 12:1-2; 1 Cor. 6:19-20; 10:31). Indeed, our very acts of obedience to Christ 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). We have nothing holy, but Christ. There is no place in the worship of God for religious symbols, crosses, images, and icons etc. We have no altar, but Christ, no priest, but Christ, no sacrifice, but Christ, no sabbath, but Christ, no access to God, but Christ, no mercy-seat, but Christ, no ark, but Christ, no holy thing, but Christ! Salvation is doing business with God in the holy place. Worship is living for the glory of God. Evangelism is carrying Christ, to poor needy sinners by the gospel.