The Permanence of Christ's Priesthood (Hebrews 7:23-25)

In continuing our discussion of the Lord's priesthood as presented on Sunday, let's take a look at the first advantage mentioned, namely its permanence.

Earlier in chapter 7, the writer began his exaltation of Christ's priesthood by explaining that it does not follow the model of Aaronic or Levitical priests:

• The Levitical priests served based on their ancestry, law and regulation, but it was wholly ineffective (7:18), therefore in a mediatorial the sense , their priesthood doesn't really implement and sustain peace between God and his people, and does not truly deliver them from their sins. This is made powerfully clear by the blunt fact that even though the Levitical system and the Law were established by the Lord himself, Israel nevertheless continued to fall into sin and idolatry, eventually landing in exile


• So clearly, theirs was merely a symbolic priesthood, which points ahead to the need for a more effectual model

Christ's priesthood, on the otherhand, rests on the power of an indestructible life, that is within himself! This is probably the most significant differentiator which in someways summarizes the distinctive difference between the two priesthoods: there is no cultural or traditional qualification that is generously applied to Jesus, he is uniquely [thanks, Mark H.] qualified within his person to achieve as our mediator what the previous priesthood lacked the power and reach to achieve: win our peace and make God's people safe from their sins!

The writer begins to expound on this by dealing with the continuity problem of the old priesthood, namely the person standing in for the people was always changing, consider...

• Even though Israel had several godly kings, prophets and priests, godless leaders often seemed to surface, examples of this include Hophni and Phinehas. And even though Samuel led Israel in a godly way, but he died and then even Samuel's sons did not follow in his ways, and of course Israel [and eventually Judah in the divided kingdom] managed to always leave her people exposed to bad leadership


• What we need is a priest that is permament and consistently available to intercede for God's people at all times; priestly "turnover" makes this impossible...this is the writer's point in v.23

Praise God, Christ lives forever...his priesthood is not subject to interruption! The big gains for this are the following:

• He is able to save completely those who come to God through him [v.25]...this "save" is not speaking about redemption, but really means to sustain, keep, deliver: his intercession brings us all the way home ["saves completely"]!


• In my opinion, this tells us a lot about the nature of the Lord's intercession at the seat of Majesty in heaven, that in additon to his defending us based on the work he has done, Christ also appeals to the Spirit's sustaining work to help the saints remain in him [again this is my opinion, it does not emerge directly from the text, but the "save completely" phrase implies practicality and considering the persistent emphasis in the epistle on endurance...it makes sense to me! But I won't quibble with objectors... :-)]

The bottom line is that the permanence of the Lord's priesthood results in the people of God always receiving the help and grace they need to walk successfully and not fall prey to the very pitfalls that threw off those under the old covenant.

It is this grace, I believe, that will help us understand the purpose and effect of the warning passages in the epistle [thanks brothers Caneday and Schreiner!] and to reconcile real warnings with real assurance. But that will come later...the big news here is that Christ's priesthood is always active and continues forever...and that is a real advantage!

Next, we'll very briefly profile the Character of Christ's Priesthood...

Sermon Notes: The Superior Priesthood of Christ (Hebrews 7:23 - 8:2)

Hello members of Living Faith and others: As promised, I am posting a summary and recap of this Sunday's sermon and I would like to do it in 4 posts, the first focused on the introductory items and then the next 3 on each of the aspects mentioned that speaks to Christ's Superior Priesthood, which Lord willing I will add over the next 3 days. I look forward to comments and questions from those who would like to weigh in.

For Christ!

Introduction: The theme of the book of Hebrews:

Hebrews is centrally about the absolute sufficiency and superiority of Jesus Christ as the revealer and mediator of God's grace.

By sufficiency we mean Christ is wholly adequate to:

• Account for the gulf betwen God's holiness and our sinfulness
• Absolve the white hot wrath of God's justice in dealing with our rebellion against his glorious rule
• Address the real material needs of his people in this broken world
• Provide a sense of godly purpose in a world bent on self-exaltation and carnal satisfactions

By superiority we mean Jesus is gloriously and overwhelmingly the best option for living in true peace and satisfaction/joy, overcoming what one philosopher (Jean Paul Sartre, for those interested) called the nausea of living in a world of pain and unpredictability. The writer of Hebrews note his superiority specifically in the following:

Hebrews 1:1-3, Christ is superior to the prophets

• The prophets relayed God's message / Christ is God's message
• The prophets spoke for God in the 2nd person / Christ speaks as God in the 1st person
• The prophets could only share what God said to them / Christ speaks what he has seen and experienced with the father, and authoratatively shares what he is privy to in his knowledge of the secret counsel of the triune God

Hebrews 1:4, Christ is superior to the angels

• The text does not appeal to Christ's deity for the exclamation of his superiority over angels, but instead looks to what came out of his ministry (he became, he inherited)
• It's the achievements of Christ that are in view here, it is his guardianship of the plan of redemption and grace that is focused on...

Hebrews 3, Christ is superior to Moses

• Moses was a faithful servant, made equivalent to a hired hand or employee
• Christ is faithful as a son, i.e. as an owner...his is a personal stake in the outcome

Jesus is superior to all competition for our devotion or religous commitment

• He is superior to the Koran and its vision of a military and its vision of a military God who will submit the world through conquest, Christ wins through the reformation of hearts as the Spirit regenerates people, writing God's laws on their hearts...not by power, not by might but my Spirit says the Lord! [no offense to potential muslim readers here, just making honest comparisons...don't come at me with a fatwa...let's talk instead!]
• He is greater than the Declaration of Independence and its vision for political democracy and human liberty...democracies are imperfect, witness the spectacle of this year's election, or what we observe around the world in post-liberation democracies, but when the Son sets you free you will be free indeed...
• He is greater than all economic systems: Capitalism can only provide reaches that are insecure and Marxism claims to be for the people but only Christ said come unto all that labor and are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest...

So, the writer of Hebrews is lifting up the superiority of Christ to Jewish Christians receiving his letter so they will not abandon the faith and fall away [this is not "losing one's salvation"...editorial note]...but will persevere in the faith and thereby actually inherit what has been promised.

Aside: I do not believe the writer of the Hebrews is addressing two different camps within this congregation or congregations, as many suggest, i.e. that there were some in the number of recipients who were not really committed or saved. Though this is true in most if not all congregations, there is nothing to suggest in the text of the letter that the writer was trying to evangelize the marginal. Instead, he addresses all in the same way, assuming they all share the same standing in Christ.

Another aside: There is nothing to suggest in the letter, I humbly offer, that the writer is addressing a special temptation on the part of these recipients to revert back to Judaism or to become Judaizers. The comparison of the two covenants was simply to emphasize the superiority of Christ and not warn against reverting to legalism as we see in Paul's letter to the Galatians.

So, I believe the book of Hebrews has a universal objective and therefore a universal principle and application for all believers everywhere and at all times, namely by lifting up the sufficiency and superiority of Christ, the writer wants Christians to see and wholeheartedly commit to Christ, thereby we are kept forever safe in the faith. This would be a good time to summarize the book of Hebrews again:

• Theme - The sufficiency & supremacy of Christ
• Objective - Exhort believers to enduring faith

So, wrapping up this post, there are three advantages to Christ's Priesthood which will explore in later posts this week:

• The Permanence of His Priesthood
• The Character of His Priesthood
• The Location of His Priesthood

Looking forward to the dialog...if you want the full audio version, you can get it here (it's a bit distorted, we're still working on our audio recording facilities): http://www.mediamax.com/dwilliamso012/Hosted/The%20Superior%20Priesthood%20of%20Christ%20-%20audio.wma

The Burden of Reformation - Philippians 2:1-3

Paul's exhortation to the Philippians at the beginning of the second chapter of this epistle makes it clear that the abundance of grace is made evident by its communicability; it cannot be contained and it must be shared! Grace necessarily leads to fellowship and reciprocity, first because it transforms the heart and then the new heart is restless to expand and connect with others to exult in this great work God has done in them all! Grace does not create loners (personality notwithstanding), and it is so very amazing that grace is both the means and impetus for fellowship!

We cannot lose the fact that fellowship is not just friendly conversation. When the grace and power and love of Christ have become for us not just a doctrine to uphold but an experience to enjoy, this grace is perfected in unity, at least this is what Paul calls these Philippian believers toward, and it is with considering the two principles he laid out for them that I would like to initiate this blog.

First Principle: As believers, we should share the same outlook
The fullness of the apostle's joy in the Philippian saints' love-centered like-mindedness is rooted in the realization that real Christian unity is nasty hard. Unity is a triumph of the Spirit, it is the spoils of a great achievement of Christ-abiding that is much more rare than we care to admit. We need to stop disparaging those who fall short of it, but we also can't reduce unity to the level of "nothing special" which is not worthy of the Spirit's indwelling presence or the power of Christ's blood.

As I consider the reformed minded blogosphere, this purpose of the Spirit is often set back by meanspiritedness that tries to pose as a commitment to truth. We can't lose sight of the priority love-guided dialog has in the Spirit's work when we share the gospel and aim to speak apologetically on behalf of him who redeemed us.

No doubt, this blog will sometimes offend...but my prayer is to let that offense be Christ and his word and not my attitude or impatience! Everyone should feel comfortable to share here in the safety of Christian affirmation, but also know that the truth (as revealed in scripture...and interpreted, albeit imperfectly) will be defended with force and grit...lovingly, but unequivocally.

So the outlook we share as believers is not that we come to the same conclusions about biblical matters, but that we are committed to the core purposes of Christ in the larger objective of loving unity...something only achievable by the Spirit.

Second Principle: Mutual Service
Friends, we are posting on this blog to exhort, challenge, and to correct one another in the great mission of gaining clarity of our Lord's great statement about himself. To meditate on his agenda and how it plays out in the church's unique mission in history, for both this age and the age to come. To that end, let's not just aim to make our points but to teach one another patiently. This I believe, is the burden of the modern reformation, i.e. to hold truth and fellowship on an equal mutually-reinforcing footing.

Of course, truth is never sacrificed for unity...but truth properly appropriated and handled well (2 Tim 2:15) should forge unity...over pain-burdened time and through the many inconveniences of the cross-bearing life.

Lastly, no one should take any criticism here as rejection or a lack of affirmation, let's think hard, pray dutifully, and search the word intently...yet preserve the greater cause of Christ's ways being found in us.

Upcoming Posts
1. Considering the social and ecclesiological challenges of multi-cultural ministries that are NOT white-led

2. Rethinking Tithing: Why most of our teaching on financial stewardship is inadequate and how John Wesley can help us with this

3. Book Review Series: John Frame's The Doctrine of God

4. Book Review Series: Schreiner & Caneday's The Race Set Before Us

5. The Banckruptcy of Liberation Theology and How Christ Empowers both Ethno-centricity and Spirit-centricity

6. The Need for a Christian Intelligentsia and why pastors should stop taking cheap and harmful shots at theology and theologians...

Posting Structure
Weekend Posting - Theological, Social, Cultural or Scientific Reflection

Midweek Posting - Devotional, doxological and pastoral focus

Thanks for joining in...

Deedub