with Elder Elico Manenji
✝️As the Levitical high priest entered once in the Most Holy Place whence was the Ark of the Covenant and the Shekinah glory, Christ the great high priest lives in the actual presence of God for ever with the sacrifice of Himself and not with animal sacrifices.
The Levitical sacrifices which were offered were symbolic and a picture of Christ’s true sacrifice and heavenly tabernacle which the Lord Himself pitched and not man.
As the old priesthood failed, so also the old covenant failed but God established a new covenant with a greater priesthood and better promises in Christ.
This new covenant cannot fail because it depends not on people’s obedience to a set of laws but on God’s grace in changing people from within as He provides people inner spiritual life that makes them loyal to Him and enables them to do His will.
In this new covenant, Priests are no longer necessary to mediate between people and God because all believers know God personally as each has a direct fellowship with Him as the laws are written within their hearts to take away their sins because he has taken away their sins.
1️⃣Hebrews 8:1- 5: Christ's high priestly ministry better than that of Aaron.
⏹️The principle and most important point is that Christ is the high priest sitted at the right hand of God in heaven and so is better and higher than all the priests that ever ministered on behalf of the people to God.
The Apostle says, "Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession."
(Hebrews 4:14)
"Where the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchizedec."
(Hebrews 6:20)
⏭️That the sacrifice which He offered for the sins of the world once and for all was sufficient and more effectual and as such accepted by God such that He has all power in the heaven and on earth to save and defend to the uttermost all that come to God through Him.
The Apostle says, "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and to them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin to salvation."
(Hebrews 9:28).
⏹️That He need not to come out of the Holy of Holies as did the Levitical priesthood after having offered the atonement between God and the people but only once after finishing His work of intercession.
The prophet Isaiah says, "And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation to him; and his righteousness, it sustained him."
(Isaiah 59:16)
⏭️That He remains a minister of the sanctuary which the Lord pitched and ordained Him to offer His all atoning sacrifice as He officiates in the true tabernacle as high priest, He must make atonement for His people until He put all His enemies under His footstool. The Psalmist says, *"The LORD said to my Lord, Sit you at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool."
(Psalm 110:1)
2️⃣Hebrews 8:6-13:Christ is a Mediator of a better covenant founded on better promises.
⏹️As Christ is high priest, He is so a Mediator making our cause heard and represented before God and prevail. Without a Mediator, repentance even if it were genuine would not have been availed.
The Apostle Paul says, "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." (1Timothy 2:5)
⏭️Whereas with a Mediator, repentance wrought in us by God’s Spirit is made as a condition of our admission into God’s presence and kingdom. Without a Mediator, prayer even if from pertinent heart would not bring down any blessing from above but whereas with a Mediator prayer has only to be the prayer of faith and it will prevail in the presence of the Father in heaven.
The Apostle says, "And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance."
(Hebrews 9:15)
⏭️ For without a Mediator the effort to keep God’s commandments, even if made with all diligence and sincerity would do nothing towards removing sin and the curse of sin, whereas with a Mediator our imperfect obedience though void of any merit whatsoever can be graciously accepted as a proof and token of our faith and noted by God who out of His exuberant mercy would forgive our iniquities and cancel our debt of sin so offering mankind the righteousness we receive from the merits of His Son, Jesus Christ.
The Apostle Paul says, "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
(Romans 8:3-4)
⏹️Now, that Christ entered a better sanctuary with a better sacrifice to offer a better ministry in the presence of God Himself, so a better covenant based on better promises should subsist. God had promises to write His laws on the heart and inside of mankind so that there is no person who will teach the other to know the Lord. So this covenant relation should subsist between God and every believing saint.
The prophet Jeremiah says, "Behold, the days come, said the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.... But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, said the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people."
(Jeremiah 31:31,33)
🅰️Appeal
Christ availed a better ministry than that of Aaron, He obtained for us a better and excellent covenant promise than the Levitical priesthood. He began a new dispensation of the covenant of grace than that of the Levitical dispensation of the law which was based on daily sacrificial offerings as Christ's sacrifice was for once and sufficient for all.
So, the Apostle says, "Why, holy brothers, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus."
(Hebrews 3:1).
Amen!!!
Elico Manenji
(+263712952704).
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