The Epistle to the Hebrews proclaims the superiority of the new to the old, the second to the first. Israel had its luxuriant wilderness sanctuary, its venerable Aaronic priesthood, its complex of sacrifices and offerings, all features of a first covenant. That has now been surpassed by a second, new covenant. Christians no longer worship at an earthly tabernacle, but enter the original heavenly sanctuary. Our great high priest, disqualified from priestly office under the fleshly rules of Torah, holds the office by virtue of resurrection, what the epistle’s author calls “the power of an indestructible life.” The blood of bulls and goats was always impotent; what was needed was the human sacrifice of total obedience, fulfilled in the cross.
It’s not a conservative gospel, but a revolutionary one in which first things change place with last things. At its heart, the epistle announces the supremacy of Jesus, through whom the Father has spoken in the last days, who is himself sacrifice, priest, and sanctuary, the new covenant incarnate.
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