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Bible Book Number 58—Hebrews“All Scripture Is Inspired of God and Beneficial”
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13. (a) How did Christ become “a priest forever,” responsible for everlasting salvation? (b) Why does Paul urge the Hebrews to press on to maturity?
13 Mature view of superiority of Christ’s priesthood (4:14–7:28). Paul urges the Hebrews to hold on to confessing Jesus, the great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, that they may find mercy. The Christ did not glorify himself, but it was the Father who said: “You are a priest forever according to the manner of Melchizedek.” (Heb. 5:6; Ps. 110:4) First, Christ was made perfect for the position of high priest by learning obedience through suffering, in order to become responsible for everlasting salvation to all those obeying him. Paul has “much to say and hard to be explained,” but the Hebrews are still babes in need of milk, when, in fact, they ought to be teachers. “Solid food belongs to mature people, to those who through use have their perceptive powers trained to distinguish both right and wrong.” The apostle urges them to “press on to maturity.”—Heb. 5:11, 14; 6:1.
14. How may believers inherit the promise, and how has their hope been established?
14 It is impossible for those who have known the word of God and who have fallen away to be revived again to repentance “because they impale the Son of God afresh for themselves and expose him to public shame.” Only through faith and patience can believers inherit the promise made to Abraham—a promise made sure and firm by two unchangeable things: God’s word and his oath. Their hope, which is as “an anchor for the soul, both sure and firm,” has been established by Jesus’ entry “within the curtain” as Forerunner and High Priest according to the manner of Melchizedek.—6:6, 19.
15. What shows that Jesus’ priesthood, being according to the manner of Melchizedek, would be superior to that of Levi?
15 This Melchizedek was both “king of Salem” and “priest of the Most High God.” Even the family head Abraham paid tithes to him, and through him Levi, who was still in the loins of Abraham, did so. Melchizedek’s blessing of Abraham thus extended to the unborn Levi, and this showed that the Levitical priesthood was inferior to that of Melchizedek. Further, if perfection came through the Levitical priesthood of Aaron, would there be need for another priest “according to the manner of Melchizedek”? Moreover, since there is a change of priesthood, “there comes to be of necessity a change also of the law.”—7:1, 11, 12.
16. Why is the priesthood of Jesus superior to the priesthood under the Law?
16 The Law, in fact, made nothing perfect but proved to be weak and ineffective. Because they kept dying, its priests were many, but Jesus by “continuing alive forever has his priesthood without any successors. Consequently he is able also to save completely those who are approaching God through him, because he is always alive to plead for them.” This High Priest, Jesus, is “loyal, guileless, undefiled, separated from the sinners,” whereas the high priests appointed by the Law are weak, having first to offer sacrifices for their own sins before they can intercede for others. So the word of God’s sworn oath “appoints a Son, who is perfected forever.”—7:24-26, 28.
17. In what is the new covenant superior?
17 The superiority of the new covenant (8:1–10:31). Jesus is shown to be “the mediator of a correspondingly better covenant, which has been legally established upon better promises.” (8:6) Paul quotes in full Jeremiah 31:31-34, showing that those in the new covenant have God’s laws written in their minds and hearts, that all will know Jehovah, and that Jehovah will “by no means call their sins to mind anymore.” This “new covenant” has made obsolete the former one (the Law covenant), which is “near to vanishing away.”—Heb. 8:12, 13.
18. What comparison does Paul make on the matter of sacrifice in connection with the two covenants?
18 Paul describes the yearly sacrifices at the tent of the former covenant as “legal requirements . . . imposed until the appointed time to set things straight.” However, when Christ came as High Priest, it was with his own precious blood, and not that of goats and of young bulls. Moses’ sprinkling of the blood of animals had validated the former covenant and cleansed the typical tent, but better sacrifices were necessary for the heavenly realities in connection with the new covenant. “For Christ entered, not into a holy place made with hands, which is a copy of the reality, but into heaven itself, now to appear before the person of God for us.” Christ does not have to make yearly sacrifices, as did Israel’s high priest, for “now he has manifested himself once for all time at the conclusion of the systems of things to put sin away through the sacrifice of himself.”—9:10, 24, 26.
19. (a) What has the Law been unable to do, and why? (b) What is God’s will in connection with sanctification?
19 In summary, Paul says that “since the Law has a shadow of the good things to come,” its repetitious sacrifices have not been able to remove the “consciousness of sins.” However, Jesus came into the world to do God’s will. “By the said ‘will,’” says Paul, “we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.” Therefore, let the Hebrews hold fast the public declaration of their faith without wavering and “consider one another to incite to love and fine works,” not forsaking the gathering of themselves together. If they continue to sin willfully after receiving the accurate knowledge of the truth, “there is no longer any sacrifice for sins left.”—10:1, 2, 10, 24, 26.
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Bible Book Number 58—Hebrews“All Scripture Is Inspired of God and Beneficial”
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23. What does Paul argue as to the Law, and how does he support his argument?
23 As a legal argument in support of Christ, the letter to the Hebrews is an unchallengeable masterpiece, perfectly constructed and freely documented with proof from the Hebrew Scriptures. It takes the various features of the Mosaic Law—the covenant, the blood, the mediator, the tent of worship, the priesthood, the offerings—and shows them to have been nothing more than a pattern made by God pointing forward to far greater things to come, all culminating in Christ Jesus and his sacrifice, the fulfillment of the Law. The Law “which is made obsolete and growing old is near to vanishing away,” said Paul. But “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, and forever.” (8:13; 13:8; 10:1) How joyful those Hebrews must have felt on reading their letter!
24. What arrangement is explained in Hebrews that is of immeasurable benefit to us today?
24 But of what value is this to us today, in our different circumstances? Since we are not under the Law, can we find anything beneficial in Paul’s argument? Most certainly, yes. Here is outlined for us the great new covenant arrangement based on the promise to Abraham that through his Seed all families of the earth would bless themselves. This is our hope for life, our only hope, the fulfillment of Jehovah’s ancient promise of blessing through Abraham’s Seed, Jesus Christ. Although not under the Law, we are born in sin as Adam’s offspring, and we need a merciful high priest, one with a valid sin offering, one who can enter right into Jehovah’s presence in heaven and there intercede for us. Here we find him, the High Priest who can lead us to life in Jehovah’s new world, who can sympathize with our weaknesses, having “been tested in all respects like ourselves,” and who invites us to “approach with freeness of speech to the throne of undeserved kindness, that we may obtain mercy and find undeserved kindness for help at the right time.”—4:15, 16.
25. What enlightening applications does Paul make of the Hebrew Scriptures?
25 Furthermore, in Paul’s letter to the Hebrews, we find heart-stirring evidence that prophecies recorded long ago in the Hebrew Scriptures were later fulfilled in a marvelous way. All of this is for our instruction and comfort today. For example, in Hebrews, Paul five times applies the words of the Kingdom prophecy at Psalm 110:1 to Jesus Christ as the Kingdom Seed, who “has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” to wait “until his enemies should be placed as a stool for his feet.” (Heb. 12:2; 10:12, 13; 1:3, 13; 8:1) Further, Paul quotes Psalm 110:4 in explaining the important office filled by the Son of God as “a priest forever according to the manner of Melchizedek.” Like Melchizedek of old, who in the Bible record is “fatherless, motherless, without genealogy, having neither a beginning of days nor an end of life,” Jesus is both King and “a priest perpetually” to administer the everlasting benefits of his ransom sacrifice to all who obediently place themselves under his rule. (Heb. 5:6, 10; 6:20; 7:1-21) It is to this same King-Priest that Paul refers in quoting Psalm 45:6, 7: “God is your throne forever and ever, and the scepter of your kingdom is the scepter of uprightness. You loved righteousness, and you hated lawlessness. That is why God, your God, anointed you with the oil of exultation more than your partners.” (Heb. 1:8, 9) As Paul quotes from the Hebrew Scriptures and shows their fulfillment in Christ Jesus, we see the pieces of the divine pattern falling into place for our enlightenment.
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