Christ—Once For All

Many Jews—and Christians—long for the rebuilding and restoration of the Temple in Jerusalem. Some even believe that the Ark of the Covenant is hidden somewhere deep underneath the mount of the original temple. Within the original temple (and the earlier Tabernacle / Tent) were two holy areas, accessible only by the priests. The first section held the lamp stand and the table for the bread of the Presence (Exodus 25:23-30). It was called the Holy Place.

The Holy Place was divided from a second section by a massive curtain. Behind that curtain was the Most Holy Place. In it was the golden altar of incense and the Ark of the Covenant. In the Ark were the golden urn containing some of the original manna from the wilderness journey, Aaron's staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant—all very ancient and very sacred (Exd 25:10-21; Exd 26:33; Exd 37:1-5; Exd 39:35; Exd 40:3,20,21). But all part of the past. We do not expect the temple ever to be rebuilt. 

The writer to the Hebrews says that all that went on in the Temple, the sacrifices and rituals in the courtyard and in the two holy places dealt only with food, drink and various bodily washings, plus the blood of goats, calves and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer. All that did nothing to cleanse hearts and souls. What does? That is the prime question of chapter 9. What truly brings the forgiveness of sins? What is better? The answer: Jesus Christ!

For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. - Hebrews 9:24-26 ESV

What is this end of the ages? The word end actually refers to completion or consummation. This is what the former ages pointed to, what they were leading up to. The time of the Temple and all the sacrifices, washings and drinks is over. They were the shadows. Christ is the Body. They were symbolic. Christ is the fulfillment. His coming is the once for all event that has brought all the rest to its completion.

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. - Hbr 9:27-28 ESV

Once for all. It is over and complete. All that the earlier system pointed toward has now been fulfilled. Christ came. He finished the work. By raising Jesus from the dead the Father has announced His acceptance of the sacrifice of His Son with whom He is well pleased. Jesus will now appear a second time to save all of us who eagerly await Him. To Him be all glory and praise!  

The OT Sacrificial System, A Pattern of What Was To Come

Jesus celebrated the Passover with His disciples on the very night that he was betrayed by Judas, one of Jesus' own chosen disciples. The Gospel of John records one stirring event that night that has been imitated again and again by Christian communities as they remember and celebrate the Lord's Supper  in Holy Week. Jesus laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel wrapped around Him. This was, of course, the lowly task of a servant in the household of a great lord and certainly not the work of the Messianic King—or at least so the disciples thought.

Peter objected to what Jesus was doing, saying, "You shall never wash my feet."

Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.". . . And then he went on to explain, "You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. - John 13:8,13-16 ESV

The writer of Hebrews 8 uses this same word, example (hypodeigmä in Greek), to describe the entire Old Testament sacrificial system. He also calls it but a shadow (skia in Greek) of the heavenly things. God had given Moses specific instruction to make everything according to the pattern (typos in Greek) given to him. The tent had to be just so in size with a specific number of rooms. In each room certain specific objects were to be fashioned and placed. The high priest, in turn, was to be dressed in specific clothing and he had detailed instructions about how and when to carry out his duties.

The ministry or service that the high priest performed, says Hebrews, was not what goes on in heaven before God. All these rituals and sacrifices were but copies or shadows of what was to come when Christ, the true promised Messiah, came. They pointed forward to the substance or the living body and ministry of Christ (Col. 2:17). The entire law, Hebrews will go on to say, was but a shadow of the good things to come. It was not the true form (icon in Greek). 

In the next chapter he will use yet one more word to describe the various gifts and bloody sacrifices offered by the high priest for himself and the worshippers. He calls them all a parable ( parabolē in Greek) for that particular time, a period that came to an end when Christ, the true High Priest, fulfilled his duties upon the cross (John 19:30). 

So Hebrews practically exhausts the Greek language in order to point out that the whole sacrificial system, with the Tabernacle and later the Temple, the high priest and his helpers, the thousands of sacrifices of bulls, sheep and goats and all the various rituals—the entire system— was not and never was intended to be anything other than a . . . 

• shadow
• example
• copy
• pattern and
• parable

. . . of what was to come and what Christ completed once and for all in the presence of God, in the heavenly places. Watch how again and again the writer makes that point. In the words of Christ, "It is finished!" No more sacrifices, no more blood and no more death. It is over. The debts are paid. And what a comfort it is for all of us who put our faith and trust in Jesus, our true High Priest. 

The Christmas Priesthood Of Believers

We continue our meditation upon the Scriptures that speak about the birth and early life of our Lord Jesus.

And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, "Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord") and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, "a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons." - Luke 2:22-24 ESV

According to Jewish law, the firstborn male child belonged to God (Exod 13:2-18), and the parents had to "buy him back" on the 40th day after his birth by offering a sacrifice of "a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons" (Luke 2:24) in the temple (thus the "presentation" of the child).

Luke refers to the story of the Exodus when the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt. During the tenth plague the LORD passed over the Israelites when he killed all the firstborn of the Egyptians. From that time onward all the firstborn were to be set aside for the LORD. 

The verb to pass over is also a commentary on the pagan practice of child sacrifice. Pagans of the ancient Near East would take a child and pass him over or through the fire as a child sacrifice. The LORD forbad such barbarism. 

There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer - Deut 18:10 ESV (cf. 2 Kings 16:3)

Rather than child sacrifice the LORD wanted the firstborn to be set apart and devoted to His service as the priests of God. The Israelites were not to pass over their first offspring in the fire to death, but they were to pass them over to God to life. As the LORD passed over the Israelites during the plague, so now they were to pass their first offspring over to Him as priests who would teach, judge and offer sacrifices on behalf of all of Israel. In fact, the LORD wanted all of Israel to be a kingdom of priests. He declared: 

You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel." - Exod 19:4-6 ESV

However, Israel forfeited her priesthood when the people were unfaithful to the covenant and fell into idolatry by worshipping the golden calf (Exod 32:1-6).  Because of this great sin, they broke covenant with the LORD and lost the privilege of being His firstborn priesthood. They failed to reflect the LORD's holy character. So instead He chose the Levites who rose up on that day to stand on the LORD's side.

. . . then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, "Who is on the LORD's side? Come to me." And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. And he said to them, "Thus says the LORD God of Israel, 'Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.'" And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell. And Moses said, "Today you have been ordained for the service of the LORD, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day." - Exod 32:26-29 ESV

From that day forward the tribe of Levi served as the priests. The law about the firstborn remained, however, as a reminder of the LORD's intention that the whole nation was to be set aside for the LORD's service. As noted above, parents could "buy the firstborn back" on the 40th day after his birth with a pair of turtledoves or young pigeons.

The New Testament picks this up, pointing out that Jesus Christ is the pre-eminent firstborn. 

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. - Col 1:13-18 ESV

We who are reborn into Christ, we who are the members of His body, are now the restored priesthood. We are set aside (the meaning of the word holy) for the LORD. We are priests who serve in a living temple whose cornerstone is Christ. So the Apostle Peter writes:

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone," and "A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. - 1Pet 2:4-10 ESV

This then is how we celebrate Christmas and every day of the year. Set aside, made holy in Christ, our entire lives are devoted to Him. We are the priesthood of believers.