Colleen and Nikki continue their discussion through the book of Hebrews. They discuss the second part of Hebrews chapter 7 where the new Priest changes the law. Transcription by Gwen Billington.
Colleen: Welcome to Former Adventist podcast. I’m Colleen Tinker.
Nikki: And I’m Nikki Stevenson.
Colleen: And here we are doing the second part of Hebrews 7 today. This has been a most amazing chapter for me. But before we get into it and unpack what it means that Jesus is a priest according to the order of Melchizedek, I just want to remind you that you can write to us if you have ideas, comments, questions, at formeradventist@gmail.com. You can donate to Life Assurance Ministries or subscribe to our weekly email or the magazine Proclamation! by going to proclamationmagazine.com. And please, don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and wherever you listen to podcasts, write a review and rate our program. We’re glad you’re with us today. So, Nikki, as an Adventist, did you ever have any thoughts about the law being connected to a priesthood. And if so, what was your idea about that?
Nikki: Well, I thought that the law was eternal and that it existed before earth was even created. I didn’t believe there was a priesthood in heaven in eternity past. I believed that this eternal governing law demanded a priesthood when sin came into the earth, and so the priesthood existed for the law. I think I thought of it as like the closest you can get to grace in the Old Testament was the priesthood.
Colleen: So the law that you believed was eternal – let’s be real specific so that anybody listening isn’t confused. What did you understand that law to be that was eternal.
Nikki: That’s a really good point. So as an Adventist, the law was the Decalogue. When I used the word “law” or “commandments,” it was always the Decalogue, and as it played out in human history, it made sense to refer to it as the Mosaic Law or the Mosaic covenant or the Old Covenant. All of those things were synonymous to me with the Decalogue. But what was eternal in the heavens was the Decalogue.
Colleen: So you believed that the priesthood existed for the law and was God’s way of providing grace so that when there is sin in the world and the eternal law has been transgressed, there was a way the people could sort of make amends with God.
Nikki: Yeah.
Colleen: I think I would have to say that my vague, unspecified understanding was very similar. I did have in my head all those pictures in the Bible Story books and in my Adventist school textbooks of Jesus puttering around in heaven in front of the golden cherubim waving a censor, dressed like a Levitical high priest, as He was conducting His investigative judgment. I did have that in my head as well. And I believed that He was doing His priestly duty up there, and I was taught that His priestly duty in heaven was that anytime a believer, according to the Investigative Judgment, whenever they repented of a sin, Jesus applied His blood to cover that sin and to pardon it, or something like that. [Laughter.] It was very confusing. In Adventism, His death on the cross was not once and done, but His blood then became accessible to cover forgiven sins. So it was on a sin-by-sin, confession-by-confession basis, and I didthink of Jesus’ priesthood as being something like that in the heavens going on now as part of the “New Covenant,” which was never really taught to me, just I knew the words. The priesthood was in support of the law for me as well.
Nikki: Yeah. And I think it’s important to say for anyone who’s joining us who doesn’t have an Adventist background that all of these ideas we had about this came from the unique Adventist doctrine of the Investigative Judgment, which came from Ellen G. White and the founders of Adventism and all of their visions and prophecies.
Colleen: So she’s put the Investigative Judgment into the Great Controversy, where it is explained, and where Adventists understand from that that they live in probation until Jesus finishes all that work in heaven, where He’s applying His blood if any sin is confessed. So it’s a confusing doctrine, and it’s an incomplete atonement, and this principle that Hebrews teaches, that Jesus is a priest of a different order, is completely not understood. In our last podcast we covered Hebrews 7:1-10. And we looked back at Genesis to figure out where this type called Melchizedek came from, who he was, what he did, and why his priesthood became a type of the priesthood of Jesus. This week we’re going to look at verses 11-28, and we’re going to start with verses 11-22. And in this part of the chapter, the author of Hebrews establishes the need for a priesthood that’s superior to the Levitical priesthood. He explains why the Levitical priesthood was not sufficient and couldn’t make the proper kind of reconciliation between God and man. Nikki, do you mind just starting by reading verses 11-22, and we’ll talk through that.
Nikki: “Now if perfection was through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the people received the law), what further need was there for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be designated according to the order of Aaron? For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also. For the one concerning whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no one has officiated at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses spoke nothing concerning priests. And this is clearer still, if another priest arises according to the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become such not on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of an indestructible life. For it is attested of Him, ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.’ For, on the one hand, there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness (for the law made nothing perfect), and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God. And inasmuch as it was not without an oath (for they indeed became priests without an oath, but He with an oath through the One who said to Him, ‘The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, “you are a priest forever”‘); so much the more also Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.”
Colleen: Going back to the first verse you read, verse 11, we find in this verse that the author says perfection was not possible through the Levitical priesthood. Now, in all of our walking through the first few chapters of Hebrews, Nikki, what have we decided, based on context and the meanings of the original Greek, what does this perfection mean? Does this mean like perfect moral law-keeping, or what is perfection when it’s referred to about Jesus?
Nikki: It’s the completion, His completion of His purpose.
Colleen: So the perfection that it’s talking about, for anybody who is trying to relate to God, is not about keeping the law perfectly, but it’s about becoming complete according to what God intended for us to become, so when it says, “Now if perfection was through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the people received the law), what further need was there for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not according to the order of Aaron?” So how do you understand that verse, Nikki?
Nikki: Well, perfection wasn’t attainable through the Levitical priesthood or through that law. And so we had need of another priest, another order. We needed something different.
Colleen: You know the phrase in that verse that I had never seen before a couple of years ago? I’d never even thought about it. It’s that phrase that says, “About the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the people received the law). I had never noticed that. It says that the Levitical priesthood was the basis of the law. Now, what’s a basis?
Nikki: The purpose, the reason for.
Colleen: It’s the foundation, the thing on which something arises. So the Levitical priesthood was the basis on which Israel received the law. I had always understood it the other way around. Israel received the law, I thought, because God gave it from eternity. And as He gave the law, then He added in this Levitical priesthood so they could have a means of sacrificing and pleasing God. It’s exactly upside down. This verse says the law depended on the Levitical priesthood, not the other way around.
Nikki: Yeah.
Colleen: That’s a huge shift in the Adventist paradigm because I believed that the law was eternal, and I believed that the law was based on God and that the Levitical priesthood was just added in to provide some way of sacrificing.
Nikki: When I read that as an Adventist, when I read “law” and I think about my Adventist worldview, I’m reading the Decalogue. I’m thinking the Ten Commandments. And so you can’t have what Adventists call “the transcript of God’s character” be temporary, that can’t be temporary, and that can’t be on the basis of the Levitical priesthood because you’ve deified the Decalogue.
Colleen: This is saying the exact opposite thing, that the priesthood, this temporary, imperfect, human priesthood, was the basis on which the law was given, and you can’t just shift the law away from the priesthood and retain the law, because the law is nothing without the priesthood.
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: The priesthood is what determines the law, not the other way around. Any system of law from God is built on the priesthood, and the nature of the priesthood determines the nature and sufficiency of the law. And that is a point in this verse that we can’t overlook. It determines everything we understand about Jesus’ priesthood and about the role of the law in the New Covenant. And it’s interesting that the law couldn’t be separated from the priesthood, so that everything in the law depended on the Levitical priesthood, including the Sabbath. Everything in the law depended on the Levitical priesthood.
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: And then in verse 12 is the other revolutionary verse. What does verse 12 say?
Nikki: “For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well.”
Colleen: So, what does that mean? What does that mean?
Nikki: It means [laughter] the law is different now.
Colleen: Yeah! If the priesthood –
Nikki: We have a new priest.
Colleen: Yeah!
Nikki: We have a priest who has come up after the order of Melchizedek, and under the order of Melchizedek, there is now a change in the law.
Colleen: The law is not the Ten Commandments anymore. It can’t be. Because the Ten Commandments and the rest of the Mosaic covenant was built on the basis of the Levitical priesthood, and we don’t have the Levitical priesthood anymore. So the law can’t be the same. Now, Adventists like to say, “Oh, the Sabbath never changes, the law never changes. ‘I am God. I change not.'”
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: But this clearly says the law has changed.
Nikki: Which means that the law, the Decalogue, is not God, and they have created an idol out of it.
Colleen: Totally. And it means that the Decalogue is not the eternal transcript of God’s character.
Nikki: No, that’s Jesus.
Colleen: Yes, it is! [Laughter.]
Nikki: [Laughter.]
Colleen: So we’ve learned here in just two short verses that the Mosaic Law, including the Ten Commandments, was built on and depended upon the fallible Levitical priesthood, and when that priesthood changed, the law changed. Let’s look at verses 13 and 14 and see where it takes us. Do you want to read those again, Nikki?
Nikki: Sure. “For the one concerning whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no one has officiated at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses spoke nothing concerning priests.”
Colleen: In this passage, who’s the one concerning whom these things are spoken? Who’s that referring to?
Nikki: We’re talking about Jesus here.
Colleen: Yeah. Now, what is this tribe business? He says in verse 14, “It’s evident our Lord was descended from Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses spoke nothing concerning priests.” So, what does that say?
Nikki: He was from the royal tribe of Judah. This is the tribe where they knew the king was going to come from. The priesthood came out of the tribe of Levi.
Colleen: Who was Aaron’s son. In the law – and this is important – it says, Moses spoke nothing about Judah serving at the altar. So in other words, Moses is referring to what he wrote down in the law. The law never accommodated the idea that anybody from the tribe of Judah would ever offer sacrifices. That’s what he’s saying. The law did not allow for anybody from Judah to serve as a priest. So here we have Jesus, and He’s not from the right tribe to be a Levitical priest. Moses didn’t allow for it. The law didn’t allow for it. And then in verse 15 and 16, he even makes it more clear. What does he say there?
Nikki: “And this is clearer still, if another priest arises according to the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become such not on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of an indestructible life.”
Colleen: Okay. So here’s this reference back to Melchizedek. And last week we established that Melchizedek was a type, a foreshadowing, of Jesus. And why was Melchizedek used as that type? What was especially used to say, “This is a type of the priesthood of Christ”?
Nikki: Well, we had no genealogy, and so he had no beginning of days or end of life, and he just continued as a priest forever. He had an indestructible life, and these were kind of the shadows of Christ.
Colleen: So now when we fast forward to Jesus, who’s come, what has made Him a priest who has the power of an indestructible life? What is it that qualifies Him to be indestructible.
Nikki: Well, He’s God.
Colleen: And He had no sin. Anybody who has sin in him, who is a sinner, who is born spiritually dead, does not have an indestructible life. They’re doomed to death. But Jesus came, spiritually alive, as a man, as God, and He had an indestructible life because He never sinned or had sin in Him in any way. He qualified to be a different kind of priest. So the argument here is Moses didn’t tell us anything about a person from the tribe of Judah offering sacrifices. When somebody comes along who has an indestructible life, like Melchizedek did, this is the qualification for a new kind of priesthood, a perfect intercessor between God and man, Jesus, who is God and man, but without sin. And then the author of Hebrews takes us back to his primary source of his argument, back to Psalm 110, and we need to go there. Let’s go to Psalm 110 and read some of that before we read the rest of this part of Hebrews. You know, it’s only seven verses, and for context’s sake, do you mind reading the seven verses of Psalm 110?
Nikki: Sure. “A Psalm of David. The Lord says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’ The Lord will stretch forth your strong scepter from Zion, saying, ‘Rule in the midst of your enemies.’ Your people will volunteer freely in the day of your power; in holy array, from the womb of the dawn, your youth are to you as the dew. The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.’ The Lord is at your right hand; He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath. He will judge among the nations, He will fill them with corpses, He will shatter the chief men over a broad country. He will drink from the brook by the wayside; therefore He will lift up His head.”
Colleen: This is a psalm of David. Was David writing about himself?
Nikki: No.
Colleen: It’s clearly not about David. In fact, he starts by saying “The Lord,” and the way we know what this means is, at least in my NASB, “Lord” is all caps, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. That is an indication that the Hebrew underlying that word is Yahweh. So Yahweh says to my Lord, and the second Lord is Adonai, or like “the Lord of all,” but not Yahweh. So Yahweh says to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand.” David is clearly not talking about himself.
Nikki: Uh-uh.
Colleen: He’s talking about the Lord God saying to David’s Lord, He’s talking to the Son.
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: And this is one of the most amazing prophecies of the fact that there’s a different kind of priest coming, and we find this in verse 4, “The Lord” – Yahweh again – “has sworn and will not change His mind, ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.'” Now, what’s one way we know He is not talking to David? What tribe was David from?
Nikki: He was the tribe of Judah.
Colleen: And David is living inside the Mosaic covenant. He has to keep the law. He is going to the temple. He is worshipping at the temple. The Levitical priesthood is in charge of the temple services. This is talking not about David, this is talking about someone to come, and what’s really interesting is that David comes about halfway between Abraham and Jesus. God sends the forerunner, the father of Jesus, the type of Christ, to let Israel know, “The Lord sees yours struggles with sin. The Lord sees the insufficiency of this sacrificial system. Just know, I’m sending one who will be a different kind of priest. There is a full, complete priest who is coming.” He allowed David to prophesy that, and it’s so interesting to me that at the same time period He allowed David to prophesy a new day for the rest of God. Instead of being the seventh day, it was David who says, “Today if you hear His voice, don’t harden your hearts.” So the Lord appointed David to foreshadow all the things that Jesus would do for Israel and for the rest of the world, but starting with Israel. He was going to fulfill the law. He was going to fulfill the Sabbath. He was going to fulfill the role of the priesthood. He was going to do everything but do it perfectly, something those Levites couldn’t do. Back to Hebrews 7, the author of Hebrews quotes Psalm 110, in verse 17. Right after saying there’s a priest in the order of Melchizedek who is qualified on the basis of an indestructible life, then he says, straight out of Psalm 110 – want to read it, Nikki?
Nikki: “For it is attested of Him, ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.'”
Colleen: And there we have it again. This author is building his argument on the basis of the revelation given to David a thousand years prior. And then go ahead and read verses 18 and 19.
Nikki: “For, on the one hand, there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness (for the law made nothing perfect), and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.”
Colleen: When you read that, Nikki, what comes to your mind, “a setting aside of a former commandment, weak and useless,” what comes to your mind?
Nikki: Honestly, that we were really lied to.
Colleen: Talk about that.
Nikki: Well, it’s so clear here. It’s so clear here that the Mosaic covenant was set aside, that it was weak, and Romans 8 talks about – Romans 8:3 talks about how it was weakened by the flesh. It was useless to us because of that, and so there’s a setting aside of this. The law made nothing perfect. We were taught that we were to vindicate the law, that it was our righteousness, that it was good, that He couldn’t have any kind of godlike nature because He had to prove that we could all keep the law, that we could all be perfect under the law. I mean, the whole narrative of Adventism is to uphold the perfection of the law. And this is saying it was weak and useless and that it was set aside. It made nothing perfect. And on the other hand now, there’s a bringing in of a better hope through which we draw near to God.
Colleen: It’s kind of overwhelming to me. I can’t imagine that Adventists read Hebrews, except I know they did because I was taught that Hebrews supports their sanctuary doctrine, but it’s exactly the opposite.
Nikki: Yeah.
Colleen: This tears apart Adventist theology.
Nikki: In order to use this letter to support the false doctrines of Adventism, you have to intentionally craftsomething. You have to create something that you can confuse and deceive people with because the clear reading of the letter destroys the face-saving doctrines of Adventism.
Colleen: That is so true. And they lied to us, as you said, by telling us the law was eternal, that it came from eternity past and was the transcript of God’s character. Nothing could be farther from the truth. This clearly indicates that the law was temporary. It was connected to a temporary, insufficient priesthood. It couldn’t last. It couldn’t have been in eternity past because there were no Levitical priests. This cannot be the law of the New Covenant. This cannot be a law for Christians today. This was a shadow, and Adventism taught us that it was eternal. No wonder we were confused.
Nikki: And I want to say too, in case anyone’s listening for the first time or doesn’t understand the Adventist context, we have a very high view of Scripture, and we believe that the entire Bible is useful for teaching, that it is for the believer. We believe that you’re to submit your life to the word of God, but we believe that there’s context involved in Scripture and that it’s applied according to God’s will and according to the clear reading and teaching of Scripture, and when you’re in the New Covenant, the Old Covenant has a different place in the life of God’s people. And so this isn’t to disparage on that, that we don’t need it and we can throw out the Old Testament, because I know there are people who do say that. Even some who leave Adventism have completely walked away from the Old Testament.
Colleen: Right. And that is not our position.
Nikki: No.
Colleen: The Old Covenant is necessary in order for us to correctly identify Jesus, because He was the only one who could fulfill and who did fulfill every shadow of the law, and it’s because we have the law that we know that Jesus is who He said He is. That’s the argument of the Book of Hebrews. And it’s horrifying to me now, when I think that Adventism even tries to make our Lord Jesus, who is eternal, almighty God the Son, a sinless man who never needed to be born again, who was born without sin and lived without sin, Adventism tries to make this Jesus fit the fallible framework of the law. Adventism teaches its members, as I learned, that Jesus could have failed, that He had Mary’s sinful gene pool and very possibly – there is no actual consensus on this – could have had a sinful nature, because Ellen White was all over the board on that subject, sometimes she said He did and sometimes she said He didn’t. But they believed that Mary’s genes carried her sin because they believe sin has to be physical because they disbelieve that man has a spirit that is born dead. So they say that Jesus could have failed. He had Mary’s gene pool, which contained sin. They say that Jesus couldn’t see through the portals of the tomb. He didn’t know if He would succeed in His mission. And they even say that God risked the Trinity by sending Jesus because if He failed, the Trinity would break up and the universe would be thrown into chaos. Poor God.
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: This is a horrifying thing that Adventism has done to our Lord Jesus and indeed to our triune God. To preserve the law and insist it is eternal and our absolute rule of faith and practice, the heart of God, to make that true, they have to make Jesus a weak, sinful man who is a little less than God, who might have failed, and we’re just lucky He didn’t.
Nikki: And all of this is to elevate man, because it’s our responsibility now to vindicate God to all the watching created worlds.
Colleen: And mind you, they believe there are watching worlds, not just those in heaven.
Nikki: Yeah, and so we are going to then prove that God is fair. And that was why I was told Jesus had to have a sin nature, because He had to prove that people with a sin nature can keep the Ten Commandments.
Colleen: I learned that too. But this passage says the opposite.
Nikki: Um-hmm.
Colleen: Jesus is an indestructible life and an eternal priest, and that is because there was no chance He could have failed, no chance He could have sinned. He is God, He is sinless man, and He was the perfect sacrifice and propitiation for our sins. This is not the Jesus of Adventism. So let’s go on and look at 20 through 22. Would you read that again, Nikki, please?
Nikki: “And inasmuch as it was not without an oath (for they indeed became priests without an oath, but He with an oath through the one who said to Him, ‘The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, “You are a priest forever”‘); so much the more also Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.”
Colleen: Once again our author goes to Psalm 110, making us see, making his audience, his audience of believing Jews, see that the Lord Jesus has fulfilled that amazing prophecy of David, the one who is a priest forever. He has become a guarantee of a better covenant. Now, in the ESV, Nikki, you were telling me that the wording was that He has become the guarantor of a better covenant. Talk to me about what you were thinking of what that means, and essentially the meaning is the same, but it was such a great insight you had.
Nikki: Well, you know, I had read about guarantee in Ephesians 1:13 and 14, so when I read this again in Hebrews and I saw guarantor, it just made me think, okay, wait, what does that mean? And I looked it up.
Colleen: Uh-huh.
Nikki: Can I read you what I found?
Colleen: Um-hmm.
Nikki: It says that guarantor is a financial term describing an individual who promises to pay a borrower’s debt in the event that the borrower defaults on his or her loan obligation. Guarantors pledge their own assets as collateral against the loan. And then I thought about Ephesians 1:13 and 14, where it says that the Holy Spirit is given as a pledge of a guarantee. This is incredible security related to our salvation.
Colleen: [Laughter.]
Nikki: Jesus is our guarantor. He has promised to take care of anything we default on. He has promised to do this, and He has given the pledge of the Holy Spirit to guarantee that He’s doing this.
Colleen: And this is for those who have believed in the gospel of our salvation. This is not universal salvation, that Jesus died and so everybody is just automatically saved unless they opt out, as many Adventists say today. This is talking to believers who have trusted Jesus and have been declared righteous by Him. He’s our guarantee. That is such a wonderful insight.
Nikki: It’s very clear in verse 19 that this hope is for those who draw near to God through Christ.
Colleen: And then, in verse 22, He has become the guarantor, or He is the guarantee, of a better covenant, and I just don’t want our listeners to miss that. Anybody from an Adventist past, even those of you who might not have been Adventist but have been taught that there’s one great covenant, this is very clear, that Jesus is guaranteeing a different covenant than the covenant Israel had. Israel had a covenant, a law, that was built on and depended on a fallible, human priesthood, a priesthood that was a shadow of the perfect, eternal priesthood of Jesus. A perfect, eternal priest mandates a change of law. And Jesus is the guarantee of this New Covenant, which includes a new law. This is not the same thing Israel had. Do you mind reading 23 to 25?
Nikki: “The former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing, but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. 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.”
Colleen: It just kind of makes me want to cry, actually. It’s an amazing passage. What does this say to you, Nikki? What do you understand when you read this?
Nikki: Well, I remember when I first read Hebrews as a believer, and I remember just staring at these verses and realizing that the priesthood required all of these different men all down through time because they had to constantly be burning sacrifices and taking care of the sins of the people. This clarified for me the once-for-all nature of His sacrifice, because He is indestructible, like you said. He is eternal. And so it only needed to happen once. He holds His priesthood permanently.
Colleen: And all those other priests lived out normal lifespans, so in the history of Israel there were hundreds and hundreds of priests, if not thousands. There were so many priests, and every generation there was a new batch of priests because the old ones died. That’s not true of Jesus. Those priests were shadows of the real priest, Jesus. What really is interesting to me here in verses 24 and 25 is that this is the guarantee that sin will not catch us by surprise in eternity. I know, as an Adventist, people often asked, “What if sin rises again? I mean, after all, it rose with Adam and Eve. What if it rises again somewhere in eternity?” These verses are the proof that it will not. Those of us who have trusted Jesus and are with Him in eternity are eternally safe because He saves forever those who draw near to God through Him, and He always lives to make intercession for us. It’s because of Jesus’ eternal blood of the covenant, His eternal intercession between us, the saved, and His Father, and His identification with us, that we are eternally secure. His blood can’t, in the future, suddenly cease to cover our sin of the past and stop providing the justification that we need to be there. This is an eternal transaction. He has taken our sin, He took it to the cross, our imputed sin, He died, He rose from death, and when we believe, He gives us His imputed righteousness. This is an eternal transaction, and His eternal priesthood is the guarantee. We can’t fall out of this.
Nikki: Before we started recording this podcast, I had been studying this chapter in the ESV, and the ESV says that He saves to the uttermost. And I looked into that word there, and that word means “completely and at all times,” and so this really puts away the idea, “You do your best and God does the rest,” that, you know, He saves some of it, you’ve got to do some of it, or He saves some of it and then you can undo it. All of that stuff doesn’t work when you have an eternal priest who saves to the uttermost, completely, for all time. The other thing that jumps out to me here is that it says that He saves forever those who draw near to God through Him. It doesn’t say He saves forever those who vindicate God’s character and keep the law, those who give their life for the Sabbath, those who – fill in the blank. It says those who draw near to God through Him, which means they’re in Him, they’re born again, they’re His children, and He saves them.
Colleen: Yeah. Let’s read the last three verses.
Nikki: “For 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 this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. For the law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints a Son, made perfect forever.”
Colleen: This is just summarizing what the chapter has already said. It was fitting for us, in the New Covenant, to have a high priest who is utterly perfect, utterly holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and He was separated from sinners because He never sinned, and yet He took our imputed sin to the cross, separated from us both spiritually and physically, He was crucified outside the camp, away from the community of the Jews into which He had been born. He was separated from sinners, but He has been exalted to the heavens. And He never needs to offer another sacrifice because His own perfect blood was enough for everybody for all time, and he summarizes it again by saying the law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which we read about in Psalm 110 from David, “I have sworn and will not change my mind, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek,” God’s oath appoints Jesus forever. And it’s important just to remind us all, this is not saying we’ll carry the law along but now we have Jesus to help us keep it. This is saying something completely different. We have Jesus, a new priesthood, so we can’t have that old law anymore. That old law pointed to Him. It revealed who He was when He came. Now we have a New Covenant, a new priesthood, and we’re under a new administration, not the one under which the Israelites lived.
Nikki: And I want to say too, you know, when I first came out of Adventism and had these conversations with some Adventists in my life, I was often told that it was just the priesthood that was set aside. The priesthood was no longer needed. The Decalogue stayed, but the priesthood was no longer needed, the sacrifices and all of those weird laws, you know, that were sitting on the outside of the Ark, they’re the ones that got thrown out. But I want to say, if you’ve heard this argument, hang in there with us because Hebrews 8 and 9 is going to destroy that. I also want to point out that we did read that there was a setting aside of the covenant, a setting aside of the law, as well as the priesthood.
Colleen: And it’s important to remember, the thing I never understood as an Adventist, the law is built on the priesthood, not the other way around. So if the priesthood is changed, the law has to be, of necessity, also changed. And that’s how we can know we don’t live under the Old Covenant.
Nikki: And I just want to say, this does not mean that we are antinomian, which is an argument that we very often get from people when we try to explain what Hebrews is talking about here. Absolutely we are under the Law of Christ.
Colleen: Right.
Nikki: We are under the commands of Christ. God said, “This is my Son, listen to Him.” Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.” He said, “Go and make disciples of men, teaching them all that I have commanded you.” There is a law for us to live under and to live by, but it is not the law that God gave to Israel specifically for a time.
Colleen: That’s so important, Nikki. It’s a much more demanding law, and it’s a much more comprehensive one. But we have the Holy Spirit in us when we trust Jesus, and through Him we are hidden with Christ in God, and we are ableto do the will of God because He literally indwells us. And if you haven’t trusted Christ with your sin, if you haven’t admitted that you need a Savior and you can’t please God, we just invite you to really seriously consider this. If you have believed that your job was to vindicate God by keeping the law, we just ask you to ponder the words of Hebrews 7 and realize you can’t. None of us can. Jesus is the only one who could please God, and when we trust Him, we’re hidden in Him, and God credits us with the actual righteousness of Christ. And our prayer is that you will know that safety, security, and that new life that comes from trusting Jesus. If you want to write to us, don’t forget you can email us at formeradventist@gmail.com. You can subscribe to our magazine, to our weekly emails, or donate to Life Assurance Ministries by going to proclamationmagazine.com. And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram, write us a review, rate our podcasts wherever you listen to podcasts. We just appreciate your hanging with us through this walk through Hebrews, and we hope that the amazing reality of who Jesus is in the order of Melchizedek as our high priest will forever change your life. So we’ll see you again next week.
Nikki: Bye for now.
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