The Book of Hebrews 7:23-28 A Son, made perfect forever

Good morning. We're going to be looking at this passage that Brad just read for us here. And one of the things we want to point out is the passage breaks easily into two parts. The first three verses, verses 23, 24, and 25, Showed Jesus as contrast contrasted with the priest that is not the high priest But all of the priests who deal with the sacrifice and the next three verses 26 27 and 28 shows the Sun Contrasted with the high priests, so that's the kind of natural breakdown that shows up in this passage here So let's step into it We asked the question, what were they thinking? The readers of the book of Hebrews were thinking of going back to the Jewish sacrificial system, which, by the way, was within a short period of time to be ended because the temple was ended.

But nonetheless, they were thinking of going back to that system under the priests and Levites of the tribe of Levi, according to the law of Moses. Now, all of those priests and the high priest himself had some serious limitations, and we're going to talk about what those limitations are, even if they followed all of the Law of Moses to the letter, which they did not. Right? Even if they were able to follow the Law of Moses to the letter, there were still some serious limitations.

The believers here who are reading this letter had lost sight of Christ, their heavenly high priest, and they were starting to look to earthly things. All those rituals, they grabbed my heart, right? And so that was what was drawing them and tempting them. One of the distinctions we first pointed out last week, we'll bring it out again here just to keep things in perspective.

If we compare the Levitical priesthood on the one hand versus the Melchizedek priesthood of Christ, We have, first of all, the principle of law. The law of Moses is what governs the Levitical priesthood. The principle of grace is the governing principle for those under the Melchizedek priesthood of Christ. Secondly, under the Levitical priesthood, the priests were descended from Levi and Aaron, all of whom die off and must be replaced by another, and another, and another, and another, and another, etc. Under the Melchizedek priesthood, one priest, the Son of God of the line of Melchizedek who always lives to make intercession, not to be replaced, not to die off. And the third one, the sacrifices under the Levitical priesthood are never complete.

They must be done again and again and again and again and again ad nauseum. And then, but with the Melchizedek priesthood, his once and final sacrifice is complete and finished, never to be done again. And one of the things we're going to be taking a look at here is when Jesus offered himself was that a priestly thing to do. We'll take a look at that, okay?

So here's Hebrews 7.23, the beginning of our passage.

The former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing. You see, imagine, here's Josiah calls in. Josiah calls in and, okay, you won't be at work today, you know. All right, Josiah won't be at work today. Is he calling in sick? No, he's calling in dead, right? That's the problem. Okay.

In the Greek text, verse 23 literally starts off with, "...and they, truly many, have become priests." That's the more literal understanding of that passage, how it starts off. "...and they, truly many, have become priests." Between the many centuries of first the tabernacle, which was 40 years out in the wilderness, and the first temple under Solomon, and then the second temple, which was the one that Christ was in, The generations of priests, the number of priests taken together had been staggering. Hundreds and hundreds and thousands and thousands of priests, generations and generations. There was no hope that this would ever change.

Even during the time of the New Testament, and just before that, imagine here is under Herod, they're reconstructing an operating temple. So you have priests who are working in the temple and Levites who are doing peripheral duties in the temple area. But here's a problem. You have an operating temple. You can't just have any craftsman working on the temple building.

So they trained 10,000 Levites to do all the craft work on the temple building. And so the priests were busy not only with everything else that they did, and the Levites with everything else they did, but also dealing with this temple reconstruction in an operating temple. And so they kept those guys busy. So that's just the priests during the time of the reconstruction of the temple, 10,000 of the Levites working on the temple building.

Thousands and thousands and thousands of priests over the generations of time. On the one hand, it says, Levitical priests. There have been a number of Levitical priests, priests descended from Levi and Aaron, to handle all the sacrifices that were required by the Law of Moses.

And they had sacrifices for everything. Lots of things. One reason was because there were so many people and circumstances that required the sacrifices, and not just the annual sacrifices. We have here a picture of Simeon with Mary and Joseph. And when a baby was born, guess what you had to do? You come in and do a sacrifice. And so for every baby that's born, on top of all the annual things that you do, you also have another sacrifice for that.

They had sacrifices for everything. Sacrifice for this, sacrifice for that. Another reason why there had to be, however, so many priests carrying out the almost endless sacrifices is because the priests kept dying off, calling in dead. Other priests replaced the ones who died. This guy keeled over, you've got to call in another one.

And so, calling in more priests, and more, and more, and more, and you have more generations being trained up. Now, in verse 24, continuing on with that passage, But Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently.

So, on the other hand, Jesus, Because Christ will live forever, that is, He has an indestructible life, that's what we saw in Hebrews 7.16, He continues, even now, to serve as our High Priest forever, even now in the heavenlies. He has been serving as the High Priest for now almost 20 centuries of Earth time. He continues in that role. He holds his high priesthood permanently since he does not die as a Levitical priest do in the Jewish sacrificial system. Plus, one more thing, his once and final sacrifice is accepted by God.

And here's what Hebrews 7.25 says, Therefore, he is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them."

Let's take a look at that. The first part is, you know, he is able. The word able comes from a word that's sometimes translated might or power. It carries the primary idea of inherent ability. He has the inherent ability and capacity. Christ isn't salvation challenged, right? or just barely able to save. Christ has plenty of ability and capacity inherently to save. The word translated forever here, and the King James has the uttermost, conveys completion in getting it done. He is one who accomplishes.

That was one problem with the Levitical priests. They would sacrifice for sins and say, okay, are we done yet? No. Or last week, as we made the analogy, as kids ask when they're on a trip, are we there yet? No. And the reason that you're not there yet is because the car isn't moving. That's the problem with Levitical priests, is they did it and it didn't really get them anywhere. You've got to do it again next time.

So he is able to save forever. He is able to save completely from the beginning to the end of this life and on into eternity. He is not salvation challenged. He is fully able to save. And I think as we look at this is one of those verses that says, can you lose your salvation? The answer is no. Because how are you saved? Are you saved by yourself or by Him? You're saved by Him. And is He able to do it? Yes, fully able. And He can pull it off to completion. He is fully able to save.

And verse 25 also brings up those who draw near to God by Him, that is, believers. And Ephesians 2.18 reads this way, For through Him, that is, through Christ, we both, that is, both Jews and Gentiles in the context, have our access in one spirit to the Father. So this is one of those passages in Ephesians where you have the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit all in one passage, even one verse here. The word for access means a royal introduction through Christ. And let me explain what that means.

Both in modern times as well as in ancient times, you couldn't just walk off the street and go into the king's throne room there and say, hi, oh, kingy old buddy. Guess what's going to happen? You're going to get run through and sliced to pieces. That's not going to work.

The only way that you could come into the king's throne room is that the king had a royal introducer. And the royal introducer would sit there and listen to your story and whatnot. And then, if he thought it worthy, would then introduce you to the king. Only through the Royal Introducer would you be allowed into that room alive. So, what we see here, this word for access means we have that Royal Introduction through Christ. Christ is our Royal Introducer to the Father. That's what that word means.

Hebrews 7.25 says something similar, that we can draw near by Christ. It's because of Christ that we can draw near.

And not only do we get the royal introducer's privilege, but we get to go into that throne room and say, Abba, Father, Papa. Christ, the Lamb of God, is our high priest who always intercedes for us before the Father. He not only introduces us, he goes before the Father on our behalf all the time. All the time.

That draw near theme is one that we've already seen in Hebrews. It shows up, this is the middle of five times, and we'll continue to see that drawing near in chapter 10 a couple of times. There is a drawing near to God that is first in our initial salvation, which is by faith in the gospel message. That's how someone begins to draw near.

And that's believing that Christ, the Son of God, died for our sins and was buried and was raised to life. That's the core of the gospel message, believing that one draws near to God and not otherwise. Now, thereafter, we are in our position already near to God. We will forever be near to God in our position. So what this is talking about, when we say draw near to God, Drawing near to God for the believer is a matter of our daily condition, living out our position moment by moment. Walking moment by moment according to the nearness to God that we already have in our position. See that? Now, it says there in this verse, He always lives to make intercession for them. That is, for you and for me.

This is something the Apostle Paul agrees with completely, Romans 8.34, Christ Jesus who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who also intercedes for us.

Here's Hebrews 7.26, For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. It was fitting to the need we have to have a high priest of this kind of character, is really what this is saying here.

That's the idea in this first part of the verse. Now let's take a look at the words that follow that, holy. It means set apart in perfect and moral and spiritual character and purpose. And this has to do with his relationship to God. He is holy in that character, set apart and perfect in moral and spiritual character and purpose.

Next, it says he's innocent. The King James here is harmless. Literally, it means not of evil intent, so of good intent. And this is Christ's relationship to man. So holiness has to do with relationship to God. This innocence, as it says here, the intent is in relationship to man.

He has good intent for us. So that is why he can intercede for us because he is holy, therefore he can speak to God directly, and he is also innocent or harmless or of good intent on our behalf. He is undefiled, stated positively, pure. He doesn't need to have some kind of a sin sacrifice on his behalf. And finally, separated from sinners. Not in any way associated with sin or sinning. And by the way, this separated from sinners is a spiritual separation, not a physical separation.

Because he got nose to nose with some sinners. He spoke to some of the Jewish leaders who didn't believe, and he told One group of them, he says, if you do not believe, you're going to die in your sins. They told him that face to face. So he got up close to tell them that. So when it says separate, this is a spiritual separation. Not that he stayed away from sinners. They're not going to walk the planet and stay away from sinners.

Exalted above the heavens. Now we need to explain something here. Above the heavens is a term used in several of the Psalms, and we'll take a look at some of those shortly. It's usually used of God, God himself, in most cases. It is expressing the word heavens as the stellar heavens, above the highest of creation, the stars, the galaxies, all those beings, astronomical bodies. God is exalted above the stellar heavens, and Christ is as well. So Christ being exalted above the heavens just as God is, here's some of the psalm passages here, 57, 5, 11, and 18, 5, is full deity and enjoys the honors and glories due him for who he is and what he has done.

Now the Bible has three heavens. You ever hear the term seventh heaven? The Bible doesn't teach seventh heaven, right? The Bible teaches three heavens. The first one is the atmospheric heavens. God said, let the birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens. So atmospheric heaven is the first one. The second heaven, I will greatly bless you and I will greatly multiply your seed into the stars of the heavens. This is God's covenant with Abraham, right? So the stars, the second heaven is the astronomical heaven or the stellar heaven.

And the third heaven, there's the Apostle Paul writing, such a man was caught up into the third heaven, that is paradise, 2nd Corinthians 12, 2 and 4. So the Bible teaches not seven heavens, by the way that's Islamic. It's first, second, and third heaven is what the Bible teaches. And so what this is saying in this passage is above the first and second heaven, so he is in the third heaven. The second heaven or heavens is the highest of creation, so he's above the highest creation. He's above his creation is what that's saying.

Now here's Hebrews 4.14, which we've already covered, but I think it's relevant. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, which heavens? The second heavens, right? Jesus, the Son of God.

So here you have on, this is on page 3 in your handout, above the heavens in the Psalms, and here are the different references. these are the references that have above the heavens as this is the place where God is and that is where Jesus was exalted as well above the heavens now we look at verse 27 Hebrews 727 it was fitting for us to have such a high priest holy innocent undefiled separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens who does not need daily like those high priests to offer up sacrifices first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people because he did once for all this he did once for all when he offered up himself so the high priest and the priest had to offer up sacrifices daily again and again and again and again and they just did it again again imagine what this is like probably some estimates are that they would slaughter on the day of Passover They would slaughter something on the order of 200,000 lambs.

And that's just one day. That's just one day. Not only did the priests and the high priest die off and have to be replaced, but they never finished. We've got to do this again and again and again. Here is a dramatic depiction of Caiaphas. And by the way, that's Caiaphas Bone Box right there. It has his name on it. All the archaeological details fit. That's it. He died. And he's just one of a great number of high priests.

The sacrifices they made kept pointing to the sacrifice of God's Lamb. the Lamb of God, but their sacrifices did not in themselves satisfy God's holiness. All they did was point to God's sacrifice. They didn't satisfy God's holiness, God's righteousness, or God's justice. That could only be accomplished in God's Lamb, the Lamb of God.

We have this term, does not need. Once a year the high priest would offer up a sacrifice for his own sins and then for the people on the day of atonement, Yom Kippur. You may have heard it. On that day the high priest would then offer a sacrifice for his own and then for the sins of the people. The high priest did not offer those sacrifices daily. So why the reference to daily here? Christ does represent us to the Father as our high priest day after day. Yet does not offer a sacrifice even once a year or ever again. He doesn't need to offer a sacrifice every day or any day. Never again. And we'll soon see exactly why here.

Now, let's look at the sacrifices for the high priest's sins. One reason that the sacrifice done by the high priest didn't get it done is because the high priest themselves were not sinless. They could only offer up a symbolic sacrifice. So they had to first offer a sacrifice for their own sins. Did Christ have to do that? No, he did not.

Then even still their sacrifice were not really dealing with their own sins nor their sin natures which generated sins in guys like Caiaphas. So that's another problem is that It didn't deal with the sin natures, but guess what? Christ's death on the cross deals not only with our sins, but our sin natures. We are separated from them as we're identified with him on the cross. Christ, our high priest, has no sins needing sacrifice. It's not according to the Jewish sacrificial system. He's not a high priest under that set of laws. Then for the sins of the people. So the high priest would then offer sacrifices for the sins of people.

There were many people also required to sacrifice for many and varied things. There's a sacrifice for almost everything. Again these imperfect mortal priests who had offered up the ineffective but legally required sacrifices did the same for all the people again and again and again and again and again. And there were a great many of them. A great many of them. Now it says Christ died once for all.

We pointed out back in Hebrews 6.4 that this word hapax shows up. It's used for the first time there in Hebrews. And then again here in this verse that we're looking at, 7.27, it will continue to be used in the chapters ahead up into chapter 12. And that word here, That Greek word, hapax, means an action done once with finality and effective from then on. If it helps you remember, here's a happy ax. OK. Well, that's a groaner, isn't it? OK. Here is an example.

In Hebrews 10.10, we have been sanctified, that's in the perfect tense, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

And so we'll see that once for all term keep showing up. Because when Christ died, it wasn't a repeated, repeated, repeated sacrifice. It was done once and completely effective. Those in the James and Jude elective have run into this word. And you've run into this word where it talks about the gospel, the faith, was given once for all. Once given, Perpetually valid. That's the same word and the same meaning here. Given with finality. Effective from then on. So that Christ died once for all means that He will never be sacrificed again. He doesn't need to offer a sacrifice. There will never again be a need for Christ to be sacrificed. Not going to happen.

When Christ paid the price for our sins on the cross just before He died, He says it's all paid. He said in one word, in the original language, in the perfect tense, and it's been translated, it is finished. But it's actually an accounting term, which means it's all paid. He paid completely. And the implication of the perfect tense is that it's completely effective and the impact is permanent. Christ died once for all.

And that point will continue to be made here in the book of Hebrews. Now here's something that I think is fascinating. He offered up himself. When Christ offered up himself, it would oftentimes overlook the fact that his offering up of himself as God's Lamb was a priestly act. Let's take a look at that.

Christ wasn't a victim, and the Jews were not the ones responsible. Sometimes during the time of Good Friday, I'll hear people say, oh, the Jews are at fault, or the Romans are at fault, and somebody's trying to blame. No, He offered up Himself. When He went on the cross, He could have fought and had all these people vaporized. Instead, He says, let's do this. Right? Let's get it done. He offered up Himself, The Jews weren't responsible any more than you and I were. I could easily say, I put him there, right? He died for me. It was after all the Romans who drove the nails, right?

God loved and gave, this is John 3.16, and then three times in Paul's writings, Galatians 2.20, Ephesians 5 2 and 25 Christ also loved and gave he he loved as a motivation for giving his life and He looked ahead with joy as a motivation Hebrews 12 to forgiving his life. He offered up himself For the joy set before him he endured the cross for you and for me When Christ offered himself that was a priestly act and The priests had to keep offering sacrifices and sacrifices and sacrifices and they would offer up sacrifices until their whole career was spent and their life was gone. And they would keep offering it up. Christ offered up himself and did he die?

Yes he did. But he did it just once. He did it just once. That was a priestly act. When Christ died, the veil of the temple was torn in two. Why? Was it just some sort of a strange accident? No. The sacrificial system, though it continued to go through the motions for another 40 years, God was done with the sacrificial system, which is why the veil of the temple was torn. God's own lamb had been sacrificed. The price was paid. God says, I'm done with this. You guys can keep going through the motions, but we're through. We're through. The temple veil was torn. And it's because Christ, our High Priest, had given His own life once for all, with finality.

Here is Hebrews 7.28. For the law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath which came after the law appoints the Son, made perfect forever. So the law, it says, appoints weak men. We already saw the word weakness. The law of Moses is holy and righteous and good.

That's what the Apostle Paul said. He wrote that. Okay? Romans 7. So the law is not the problem, however. What's the problem? The problem is with human beings who are called upon to implement the law, from the priests down to the individual Jews. Okay? That's the problem. That's the problem.

The weakness of the law, which is brought out in Hebrews 7.18, is that the law asks spiritually and morally challenged human beings to carry it out, to pull it off, and appoints weak men to places of great spiritual responsibility. The law is weak because of the human beings who are weak that are called to carry it out.

Now one other thing comes out here, we pointed out this verse passage from Psalm 110, 1-4 for several weeks now, comes up here again. In 728, Hebrews 728, there's a reference to Psalm 110, 4, but rather than quoting it directly, which it has done previously, it refers to the parts of it. It contains the oath, it was written by David about four centuries after the law was given. See that? So four centuries after the law was given, David writes this psalm and talks about the appointment of the Son to the order of Melchizedek.

And this word perfect here has the idea complete in Hebrews 7.28. So this word translated perfect conveys complete and total accomplishment. He gets it done.

The one deficiency of the Levitical system of sacrifices was those priests never got it done. They just couldn't pull it off. So the Son of God, however, completed everything He was sent to do. He completed everything He was sent to do and to set out to do on earth. Do you ever read of something where Jesus tried something and said, I just didn't pull it off? No, you don't. Everything he was sent to do, he accomplished. He did it. A form of perfect, that is, perfection, perfected, etc., is found in Hebrews 2, 10, 5, 9, 7, 11, 19, and now this verse here,

28. We're going to see it again in chapters 10, 11, and 12, because the idea of completion, getting it done, is very important. And Jesus Christ, the Son of God, gets it done. And that's why we're going to see that word continue on as we go through the book of Hebrews on into chapter 12. So we could ask the question, what in heavens is going on?

The heavens is where we are blessed with every spiritual blessing, where we are seated with Christ, so that's Ephesians 1.3 and 2.6, where we are to set our minds, Colossians 3.1-4, and where we have a heavenly citizenship, as Paul wrote to the church at Philippi. It's also the place where we have a heavenly calling, That's from earlier in our study of Hebrews. And a place where Christ is conducting His high priestly ministry on our behalf, representing us to God the Father perfectly forever. Now let's ask, why do we need a high priestly ministry? Why do we need a high priestly ministry? One reason, and it's only one, one reason is because we have an accuser. That's what The devil means.

He is the one who casts accusations at us. And God says, wait a minute, everything these people did, what you're saying Verne did, that's covered by Christ. He took care of that. And Christ there, having been both the Lamb and the High Priest, represents us as having been covered and paid for. We also have heavenly access to the Father in the name of the Son by means of the Holy Spirit.

Remember I talked earlier about a royal introducer? All three persons of the Trinity are involved in our prayer. We pray, and when we pray, all three persons of the Trinity are involved. We are bringing our prayer before the Father. We have that right of entry with the Father in the name of the Son.

The Son is our royal introducer and our high priest. And the Holy Spirit is also involved in that prayer. As a matter of fact, the Holy Spirit can reinterpret and re-speak and re-present our prayers as we go before the Lord. This is Romans chapter 8. So we have all three persons of the Trinity involved when we pray. And let's ask this one more question.

Does God value those prayers? In Revelation it says that the prayers of the saints are kept in golden bowls in heaven. It's telling us these are greatly valued. Greatly valued, yes. We pray to the Father by means of the Son, and in the name of the Son, by means of the Holy Spirit, and with the Holy Spirit's ministry, and the Lord values those prayers greatly.

Let's go to them now, okay? Let's do that. Lord, we thank you that as we look at this high priestly ministry of Christ, that that is part of the ministry that allows us to come into your presence even now and to lay things before you. We thank you for what you've put in your word here. We thank you for the high priestly ministry, which you will carry on forever. that we constantly are accepted before the Father because of your once and final sacrifice, offering up of yourself and of your continuing High Priestly ministry. We thank you for that. We thank you for how immensely gracious it is. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.