In With The New, Part 1 – Hebrews 7:15-22

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In With The New, Part 2 – Hebrews 7:15-22

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Let's bow together before we begin. Father, if it were not for the indwelling of the

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Spirit and the enabling of the Spirit in the speaker and the illuminating work of your Spirit in the hearer, then your word could only be darkness to us.

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We would be left to ourselves, unable to understand the hidden mysteries and the deep things of your word.

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And we pray for grace today in our understanding and in the speaking of your word that your

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Spirit would be here to teach us and to guide us and help us to understand what scripture says. Help us in that to appreciate your glory, what

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Christ has done, and the holiness of our great God. May you be glorified through this time, we pray, in all that is said and done.

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We ask it in Christ's name, amen. Turn now, if you would, to Hebrews chapter seven, please.

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Hebrews chapter seven. I'm gonna read through a passage here in a moment, but while you're turning there,

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I would just remind you, we are in the middle of an extended section in Hebrews that is lauding the superiority of one particular priest over other priests and one particular priesthood over other priesthoods.

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And that point is something that is easily lost on us because we're 2 ,000 years removed from a system and a covenant and a religious system that all revolved around tribal identities and animal sacrifices and temple worship and a priesthood and all of the accoutrements that go on with the priesthood and that are attached to it.

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And so it's somewhat lost on us the significance of Hebrews chapter seven, but the author is trying to show the inadequacy of the old covenant and the inadequacy of the

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Old Testament priesthood and all that was attached to that in order to show that Christ has replaced that and is superior to that.

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And I think it is difficult for us, 2 ,000 years removed from that, to appreciate what it would have been like for our first century

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Jewish counterparts in the early church to be involved in temple worship and the sacrifices and the priesthood and all of that and then to be told that everything that your nation had been involved in for 1 ,000 years and everything that your family had done for generations now was entirely set aside and done away with and something different had come and replaced it.

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It is difficult for us to appreciate the uncertainty and the lack of confidence and kind of the hesitation that one might have to simply give up and abandon everything that they had been raised with and that their nation had participated in for 1 ,000 years for something different.

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And Christ was certainly different. And the author of Hebrews needs to make the case that that old system is inadequate and having made the case that the old system is inadequate, he has to then make the case that the new thing that has come is not just something different and it's not just something added, it's something better.

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It's not just a different way of doing things and it's not that our Christ and our Christianity and Christian truth is added into the old covenant, but it has replaced the old covenant.

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Christ didn't come to simply gloss over the inadequacies of the animal sacrifices and to sort of fill in where they fell short.

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He didn't come to simply sort of patch that up and polish that and make it better. He came and in coming, he replaced it entirely.

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So that entire sacrificial system, the temple worship, the priesthood, everything associated with the old covenant, it's gone and it's gone entirely.

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But a Jew would need to be convinced that what has replaced it is better because it is easy to replace one inadequate thing with another inadequate thing, would it not?

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You could have argued that Christ has come and he has replaced that, but a Jew would need to be convinced that if he was going to abandon that, that what he was abandoning that for was in fact better and superior to what he had enjoyed for all of those years.

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He would need to be convinced that Christ was not just different, he was better. Because you were not going to convince any

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Jew to abandon the Levitical sacrificial system with all of its animal sacrifices and priesthood.

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You weren't gonna convince any Jew to abandon that just because there was something else that had come along.

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They needed to be convinced that what has come along is superior to all of that. And that really is the heart of Hebrews 7, 8, 9, and 10, these chapters, the author is trying to make the case

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Christ has come, he has fulfilled that, he has replaced that, that is all done away with.

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And what we are left with, as it were, what we have now is far superior and better in every way.

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Because a Jew would want to know, let's say I buy your argument that the old priesthood was inadequate in some way.

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And let's say that I buy your argument that it could not perfect the worshiper. And let's say that I buy your argument that it needed to be replaced.

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I can grant all of that, now prove to me that what has come and replaced it is superior.

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And that's what Hebrews is doing here. We have looked in verses one and three at the divine similarities.

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I'm gonna give you a quick overview of the whole chapter so you can see, because now we're coming to the end where all of these arguments that we've been making through the course of chapter seven are all kind of coming to a head.

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And it's important to have all of it in our minds so that we see what the author is doing here. In verses one through three, the author lays out the case that Mechizedek in the

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Old Testament bore striking similarities to the Lord Jesus Christ. And that those striking similarities were not coincidences.

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They were, in fact, divinely orchestrated, divinely intended pictures and foreshadowings of the ministry and life of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. That was Melchizedek. Melchizedek was not some rando pluck from an

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Old Testament story that he begins to allegorize and draw similarities. He is, in fact, divinely intended by God to foreshadow the coming

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Messiah Prince, the Messiah King who would come and reign and rule in Jerusalem, the Lord Jesus Christ. Then in verses four through 10 of chapter seven, the author makes the case that Melchizedek is, in fact, superior to Abraham and to the

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Levites. And if Melchizedek is superior to Abraham and to the Levites, then the priesthood that Melchizedek served is superior to that which came from Abraham through the

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Levites. Then in verses 11 through 22, and that's where we're at today, through verses 11 through 22, the author is demonstrating the inadequacy of that old priesthood.

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He's simply showing that old priesthood could not perfect the worshiper. It was unable to do certain things. It was not intended to do certain things.

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It was what we saw last week, a divinely intended, a designed inadequacy. God designed that into the system that it would not take away sins.

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It wouldn't erase sins. It wouldn't cleanse the conscience. It couldn't change the heart. It couldn't do any of those things.

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It couldn't actually pay for sins at all. In fact, it was inadequate to do those. What it was intended to do was to remind us of sin and to show us the gravity of sin and what was necessary to atone for sin, and it was intended to simply cover over sins for a period of time until one could come who would pay the full cost of sin.

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And what the Old Testament and the old system was intended to do, it did quite well, but it wasn't intended to perfect the worshiper.

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It was inadequate to do that. So now last week, we got through the end of verse 14, and we saw that another priesthood was necessary because the old priesthood could not perfect the worshiper and because God had promised that he was going to send another priest.

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If the Levitical system of animal sacrifices was able to take away sin, then no further sacrifice or priest was necessary.

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But the fact that a new priest has come and a new sacrifice has been made, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, shows the inadequacy of that old priesthood, and God had promised that he was going to replace it.

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Then beginning in verse 15, where we're picking it up today, beginning in verse 15, we see a series of five contrasts.

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So he has demonstrated in verse 11 through verse 14 the inadequacy of that old priesthood to perfect the worshiper.

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Now beginning at verse 15, he's going to lay out a series of five contrasts between Jesus and the Old Testament priests in order to demonstrate that Jesus is better in every way.

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I'm gonna give you the five statements, and then we're gonna read the passage, and I'm gonna show you how the author's making that case.

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And then today, we're gonna look at the first two, and next week, Lord willing, we're gonna look at the last three of those five. Here are the five ways in which

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Jesus is better. Number one, he possesses a better priesthood. He possesses better qualifications.

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He has a better commission. He has performed a better work, and he has inaugurated a better covenant. He possesses a better priesthood, better qualifications.

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He's been given a better commission. He has done a better work, and he has inaugurated a better covenant. That's the idea of verses 15 through 22.

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Now let's read the passage together, and I'll highlight how each one of these is sort of brought out in the text. Beginning in verse 15.

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And this is clearer still if another priest arises according to the likeness of Melchizedek. That's the higher priesthood, and he's already argued that this priesthood is greater,

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Melchizedek's, up in the previous verses. He's already argued that the priesthood is greater. Now he's just simply saying,

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Jesus possesses that priesthood. Then beginning in verse 16, Jesus has better qualifications.

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Who, that is Jesus, has become such, not on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of an indestructible life.

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He is qualified because of his indestructible life, not a law of physical requirement. We'll look at what that means here in a moment.

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Then in verse 18, or verse 17. For it is attested of him, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

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That is his greater commission. A greater priesthood, greater qualifications, indestructible life, and a greater commission.

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The Father has sworn concerning him with an oath, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

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See, the other priests, they were made priests because they had the right dad. The Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, he is a priest ordained and declared and commissioned by God the

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Father by means of an oath. That's a better commission. Look at verse 18. For if on the one hand, there is a setting aside of the former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness, for the law made nothing perfect.

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And on the other hand, there is a bringing in of a better hope through which we draw near to God.

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That is Christ doing a better work. He has actually drawn us near to God. That is the better work that he has performed.

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Now look at verse 21. Sorry, verse 20. 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, you, the

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Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, you are a priest forever. That's again, the better commission. Verse 22, so much the more also,

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Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant, a better work and a better covenant. Today, we're looking at a better priesthood and better qualifications.

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Now we've spent, so back to verse 15. We spent a good deal of time talking about the better priesthood, that this is what Christ possesses.

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The priesthood that is better is that which belonged to Melchizedek. Notice that verse 15 begins with the words clearer still.

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Now the question we have to ask is clearer still than what? What is he saying is clearer still? And what is it clearer than?

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The nearest antecedent, as it were, in the context would be verse 14, where the author says that it is evident that Christ did not come from the tribe of Levi, that he came from a different tribe, the tribe of Judah.

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And so then we get down to verse 15, and he says it is clearer still. So it is as if he is making a case of a series of patently obvious, self -evident truths all the way through chapter seven.

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And he gets to verse 15 and he said, all of these other things are evident, and here is something that has become clearer still.

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Now if it is evident or clear that our Lord Jesus Christ did not come from Levi, but from Judah, and if it is clear and it is that the

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Lord Jesus Christ was appointed a priest, then it must be clearer still, verse 15 to 16, that he was appointed such, not on the basis of his genealogical requirements, but on the basis of something else, his qualifications.

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That's what it is that is clearer still. The author is saying it's obvious that Melchizedek is a type, it is obvious that the similarities are striking.

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It is obvious that he is intended to be a type by divine foreshadowing in the Old Testament. It is obvious that his priesthood is greater than any other priesthood since he blessed

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Abraham. And it's obvious that his priesthood is greater and he is greater since Abraham gave him a tithe.

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And it's further obvious that he's greater than Levi since Levi was in the loins of Abraham when Abraham gave him the tithe.

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And it's obvious that he is greater than Levi since Levi was in the loins of Abraham when Melchizedek blessed

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Abraham. So it's obvious that he has a greater priesthood. And not only that is obvious, but it is further patently obvious that that old priesthood has been set aside since God promised another priesthood, and that that priesthood could not perfect the worshiper since after the institution of that old priesthood,

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God promised that another priest was gonna come and another sacrifice was gonna be made and that that priest would serve as a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

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That's all obvious, is it not? And is it not further obvious that if that priesthood has been set aside, then all of the law that regulated the attributes of that priesthood have also been set aside and that all of that is cast off?

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Is it not obvious that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one that is appointed to possess that priesthood? And it is further obvious that he does not come from the tribe of Levi.

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And if all of those things are true, then this is even clearer still. He has been appointed a priest, not on the basis of his genealogical requirements, but he has been appointed a priest on the basis of an indestructible life because of the nature of who he is and what he has done.

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That is clearer still. Look what the author says about this being clear. Not only is that clearer still that he has been appointed and that means in that way, but he is also another priest.

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Verse 15, if another priest arises according to the likeness of Melchizedek, he has become such not on the basis of that law, but of an indestructible life.

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He talks there about another priest. And this is one of those places in the New Testament where the word that is translated as such into the

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New Testament does not quite come through in the New Testament quite the way that you might want it to. There are two words and it's the word another.

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It's that there are two words that the Greek uses that are translated another in the New Testament. The author chooses one of these words, except for, and not the other one, for a specific theological reason.

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He's making a point. Now the two theological words are alas and heteros. Alas is a word that means another and it is translated another when it's used in the

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New Testament. And so is heteros, it also means another, and it's translated another in the New Testament. But our English translations don't make the distinction to tell us which one of those words is being used.

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But the choice of those words is significant here in this context and here's why. Here's the word that he does not use.

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He does not use the word alas and here's why. The word alas means another and it's translated another, but it speaks of another of the same kind.

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Another of the same kind. Meaning this is the word that you would use if you wanted to describe another priest who would come who was just like all the other priests who would come.

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If Jesus had been a Levitical priest from the line of Aaron of the tribe of Levi, we would have said he is another priest, meaning he is another of the same kind as all of the other priests that have come.

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But that's not the word that he uses here. Instead he uses the word heteros, which describes another of a different kind.

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This is the word you would use to describe one who comes along who is also a priest, so he is another priest in that sense, but he is another of an entirely different kind.

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And that's the word that the author uses here. Now if some of this sounds familiar, it may be because you've seen this in Galatians chapter one, if you've ever studied

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Galatians chapter one, where Paul actually, his whole theological point hinges on the use of these two different words when he describes the false teachers preaching a false gospel, and he says, it is another gospel, but it's really not another.

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Now you read that in Galatians 1, 6, you say, what do you mean it's another gospel, but really not another? How can it be another and not another at the same time?

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It's either another or it's not another, which is it? Well it's kind of both, because Paul's playing on these two words.

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He says the false gospel that the Judaizers preached was another gospel, but it is another of a different kind. And it's really not another gospel of the same kind.

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In other words, the false gospel is not a God -centered gospel, it's a man -centered gospel. It's not a gospel of grace, it's a gospel of works.

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It's not a gospel that saves, it's a gospel that damns. It is another gospel in the sense that it's another message that purportedly gives good news, but it's not another gospel of the same kind that can save you just like the real saving gospel.

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It's another gospel of an entirely different kind. It's a heteros gospel, not an olos gospel. And so here the author uses the word heteros.

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Jesus is a priest, but he is another priest of an entirely different kind. What kind? The kind of Melchizedek.

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This is another way of him drawing this distinction and making this distinction and saying to us, Jesus Christ is a priest.

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He has offered a sacrifice, it's his own blood. He has done the work of a high priest in mediating between God and man.

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And he has ascended to heaven where he sits at the Father's right hand and he continually makes intercession for us. He has done a priestly work.

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He is another priest, but he is entirely different from everything else that you're familiar with. And this is yet another one of those evidences that what we have in the

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New Testament is not the polishing and the making better of the old covenant. It is the replacing entirely of the old covenant.

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And that's something we have to get in our minds if we are to understand the role of the law and the aspects of the

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Old Testament that we are to obey and to embrace. So he is another priest. And then the last thing

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I want you to notice in verse 15 before we move on to verse 16. If another priest arises according to the likeness of Melchizedek, that word arises.

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Anistemi is the word and it means to rise up, to stand up, to make to stand up. It is sometimes used and translated as arose or rising again or risen or raised again and raised up.

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So probably it's not going to surprise you to find out that that is the word that is sometimes translated resurrection or risen or risen again in the

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New Testament when it speaks of a literal bodily physical resurrection. And it is impossible. In fact,

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I don't think that we can say that it is not in the mind of the author. I don't think it is in the author in this point that he has the resurrection in mind.

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I think he does. I think it is obvious that the author has the resurrection of Christ in this context in his mind.

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Why would I say that? Because the next verse refers to what? The power of his indestructible life.

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That is a reference to the resurrection of Christ. Because he possesses indestructible life, he is the one who has arisen to possess the priesthood of Melchizedek.

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It is his resurrection that qualifies him to serve as a priest because death no longer has dominion over him and he dies no more and he will never die again.

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Therefore, he can hold his priesthood permanently, endlessly, and forever. Why? Because he has an indestructible life.

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So another priest has been raised to possess the priesthood of Melchizedek. What is one of the evidences that the priesthood that the

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Lord Jesus Christ has is superior to all the other Old Testament priests and the Levitical priesthood? The fact that he had to rise from the dead in order to possess that priesthood and therefore, he possesses it forever.

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His resurrection qualifies him to serve as our priest forever because death no longer has dominion over him.

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So therefore, he possesses a greater priesthood, a better priesthood. One that you have to be risen from the dead in order to possess and to work.

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Second, he has better qualifications. This is verse 16. He has become such, that is he has become a priest, not on the basis of the law of physical requirements but according to the power of an indestructible life.

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And this highlights the difference between the Levitical priest and how they became priests and what they did and the

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Lord Jesus Christ, how he became a priest and what he does. The Levitical, sorry, the word translated physical requirement is a word that's sometimes translated in the

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New Testament, carnal or fleshly. Sometimes it's used in its moral sense to refer to the flesh or the carnality of the flesh and the sinful nature.

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So that which is fleshly or carnal. So it's sometimes used in a moral sense. It's not used in a moral sense here. It simply refers to that which is of the physical, that which is not spiritual.

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The ESV translates it this, is not on the basis of the legal requirement concerning bodily descent. And I mention that because if you have a

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King James or a New King James, it will translate it as fleshly or carnal. And those English words are so often associated with moral connotations and moral qualities that we don't want to think that that's what he's describing here.

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He's not speaking in moral terms at all, simply a contrast between that which is physical and that which is spiritual.

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And what was true of the Old Testament priests is that the fundamental requirement for possessing the Old Testament priesthood, the

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Levitical priesthood, was your physical descent. If you wanted to be a priest, there was one question and one question only that you had to be able to answer in the affirmative.

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Are you of the tribe of Levi? If you were of the tribe of Levi, then you could qualify to serve as a priest, except for a whole bunch of other disqualifications that I mention here in a moment.

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But the primary consideration for serving as a priest in the Levitical priesthood was just, are you of the tribe of Levi?

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This is what it means when it says it is on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent.

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What is your lineage? That was the only consideration. Everything that pertained to the qualifications of the priest to serve at the altar had to do with external realities.

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And first and foremost among them was your physical descent, your bodily descent. But everything else about the priesthood was also physical.

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All the other requirements to serve as a priest were physical things, external things, things outside of the heart.

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But if somebody could trace their lineage through the family of Aaron and anywhere else in the tribe of Levi and trace back to Levi as opposed to any of the other 11 tribes of Israel, if they could trace their lineage back through Levi, then they could serve as a priest.

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They would qualify to serve as a priest. That was the bodily descent that is mentioned here.

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But there were a whole bunch of other qualifications to serve as a priest in the priesthood of the Old Testament. And listen, they were all physical.

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None of them were moral. None of them were spiritual. None of them were internal. None of them had anything to do with the heart.

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And you get a list of the things that disqualified you in Leviticus 21 and 22 if you wanna read that sometime. There's a whole list of things that would disqualify a priest.

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Listen here to some of them. You could be disqualified if you had a wife who was not a virgin when you married her. You could be disqualified if a priest could be disqualified or a

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Levite could be disqualified if he had sexual relations with somebody who was close to him in his family or was married to somebody who was too close to him.

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If he married the wrong woman who had been a harlot or had been divorced or was non -Jewish, he was disqualified.

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If he was bald or if he cut the corners of his beard or if he had cuts in his flesh, a priest could be disqualified.

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If he ate the wrong foods, touched a dead body, he was disqualified. Leviticus chapter 21, verses 16 to 21, here's a list of things that would disqualify a priest.

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Listen, then the Lord spoke to Moses and said, "'Speak to Aaron, saying, no man of your offspring "'throughout their generations who has a defect "'shall approach to offer the food of his

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God.'" That simply means shall approach the altar to offer the meat of the sacrifice on the altar.

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"'None of your descendants through all of your generations "'shall approach to offer the food of his

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God. "'For no one who has a defect shall approach, "'a blind man or a lame man or he who has a disfigured face "'or a deformed limb or a man who has a broken foot "'or broken hand or a hunchback or a dwarf "'or one who has a defect in his eye or eczema "'or scabs or crushed testicles.

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"'No man among the descendants of Aaron the priest "'who has a defect is to come near to offer "'the Lord's offerings by fire.

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"'Since he has a defect, he shall not come near "'to offer the food of his God.'" Now apart from the ancestry of the sons of Levi who could serve as priests, every other physical, every other requirement for being a priest all had to do with physical things.

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They had to bathe in certain ways, they had to wear the right clothes, they had to be ceremonially clean, they had to wear certain gems and breastplates and all of the stuff that went with the priesthood.

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All the concerns, all of the qualifications, they were all external. There was nothing spiritual, nothing moral, nothing regarding their character.

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Priests were not chosen because of their education, they weren't chosen because of their piety, their godliness, their ability to teach, their soundness in doctrine.

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They were not chosen because they were well -educated or because they were spiritually gifted. They weren't chosen because of their exemplary character or their list of achievements or anything else.

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What were they chosen by? The tribe of Levi, the tribe of Levi. Now a man might be of the tribe of Levi and he might be a moral man, he might be a godly man, a pious man who had married the right woman and born into the right family and his mother and father were both pious and he might be very devout.

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He might in fact have a Davidic kind of devotion to the Lord, a heart after God's own heart. He could be a godly, humble, spiritual, the type of man that you wanna have as a role model and he might come from the tribe of Levi.

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If he walked with a limp, he couldn't serve as a priest. If he had a lazy eye, he couldn't serve as a priest. If he's going bald, he couldn't serve as a priest.

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If he had a broken hand or a broken foot, he couldn't serve as a priest. What role did the moral life and the devotional life of a man in the

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Old Testament have to do with his priesthood? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Now I know what you're probably thinking, the same thing that I would be thinking.

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Why would the Lord do that? Right? Why is that? Did the

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Lord not see that coming? Did he not understand how significant the spiritual life of the priest would be to the nation?

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Why is it that every single qualification for an Old Testament priest would have to do with the external, the physical, the outward, and nothing to do with what is internal and in the heart at all?

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Now listen, don't get me wrong, if you had a pious and a godly and a righteous and holy priest, that was a good thing, but it wasn't required.

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It wasn't required. Why not? It was a designed inadequacy, because everything that pertained to that old system was all physical.

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It was all outward. It was all external. The entire priesthood, everything that they did was outside of you, external to you.

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Nothing that they did affected the heart or the moral character of the worshiper at all. It was unable to perfect the worshiper.

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It was a designed inadequacy. So that worshiper could come to the temple and he could offer a sacrifice and know that as he offers the sacrifice and gives the animal to the priest, that that priest is going to intercede for him and pray for him and offer the sacrifice on his behalf.

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And that priest may be a wicked, immoral, corrupt, licentious individual whose heart is far from God.

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In fact, the worshiper could be far more pious, far more spiritual and righteous than the man who is gonna offer his sacrifice and intercede for him.

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And every week, week after week, day after day, you would go up to the temple and you would be reminded,

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I'm giving my sacrifice to somebody and there's no spiritual qualifications for what he is doing.

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I might be more righteous and more pious and more humble than he is and he's offering a sacrifice on my behalf.

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And that reality would slap you in the face week after week after week. Everything related to what we are doing, it's all external.

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And it didn't matter if you went up to the temple and you were offering your first animal sacrifice or your 1 ,001st animal sacrifice.

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You could offer the 1 ,001st animal sacrifice on the altar and you are no closer to having a renewed heart and real faith and a regenerated life than you were when you offered your first sacrifice because those sacrifices could not turn a heart of stone into a heart of flesh.

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Those sacrifices could not make the worshiper more holy, could not make the worshiper more righteous, couldn't cleanse the conscience, couldn't take away sin, couldn't grant them a new heart.

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Those sacrifices were unable to do all of that. And therefore the priesthood that offered those sacrifices, that was not even a qualification, not even a consideration.

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It was all external. And everything about it should have reminded the Jews nothing about what we are doing can change inside of us.

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This is all outside of us. It's all external. Nothing changes my heart. It was a designed inadequacy to show that that old priesthood cannot perfect the worshiper.

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And they would have been reminded we need something else that can perfect the worshiper. We need somebody whose qualifications are not his lineage and whether he walks with a limp or whether he has had a broken hand or a broken foot or a lazy eye or whether he is bald.

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We need somebody whose qualifications far exceed all of those. Really what we need is a priest, a high priest, who has indestructible life.

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That's the qualification of the Lord Jesus in verse 16. Look it. He has become such not on the basis of the law of physical requirements, all the external things associated with the priesthood, but according to the power of an indestructible life.

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An indestructible life. That word indestructible is used in two different ways. It's used to describe something that cannot be brought to an end.

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It cannot be made to perish. It cannot be made to stop or to cease. It was also used qualitatively to describe the quality of a thing, something that was intact or in its original condition or something that was, even better, uncorrupted and uncorruptible.

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It was used to describe something that went on forever and ever and did not change. And that describes the life of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. He has a life that is indestructible. It can never be brought to an end. It can never cease.

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The man Christ Jesus died on a cross, but his soul did not die. His spirit did not die. He rose again.

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Why? Because he has a life indestructible and it cannot be brought to an end. It cannot be made to cease or to stop.

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And that is the essential quality of the Lord Jesus that qualifies him to serve as our high priest because he has an indestructible life.

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And the best understanding of this, some people have said that the word indestructible life probably refers to his resurrection. I think that's true.

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Some have suggested that the word indestructible life refers to his nature as a divine being, as a divine

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God, the God -man, and the one who possessed and shared fully the divine nature of the Father, that he himself dwelt in light and approachable and had an indestructible life.

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I don't see how you can separate the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ from the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. I think those two have to go together.

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He was declared to be the Son of God with power by resurrection from the dead, Romans 1 .4 says. So because he is

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God and he possesses life immortal and because he possesses indestructible life, he therefore rose from the dead.

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So those two do have to go together. And I think the author has in mind both of those. The fact that he has indestructible life puts him at odds with and in complete opposition to all of the

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Levitical priests who themselves were always dying and stayed dead. In fact, the author later in chapter seven makes the same point if you look down at verse 26.

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Sorry, verse 23. The former priests on the one hand existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing.

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But Jesus on the other hand, because he continues forever, holds his priesthood permanently. It is significant to the author and it's significant to the argument of Hebrews chapter seven, that our

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Lord Jesus possesses his priesthood perpetually and that is something that no Old Testament priest could do. They couldn't start serving until they were 25 and they couldn't serve beyond the age of 50.

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And they were prevented by death from continuing. And this is again something else that should have struck the Jews every time they went up to offer a sacrifice.

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So go up to the temple and take your animal and give it to the priest to offer on your behalf and you might be looking into the face of a man this year who would be completely different than the face of the man next year because he might die or he might be replaced.

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And it would have reminded you every year, I'm coming up here because I need life.

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I am dead. And I'm giving my sacrifice to somebody who is going to die. This sacrifice cannot possibly give me life.

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The work of this priest cannot possibly give me life. This priest might be dead inside of a year. I might be giving it to a different priest next year.

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And if I need life and these sacrifices cannot give me life and that priest cannot give me life, if anybody could receive life from all of the work of the priesthood, it would be the priest himself.

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And if our fundamental need is life and you're giving your animal sacrifice to die in your stead to a man who will be dead within a year, what does that say about his ability to give you life or to grant you life?

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What do we need? I need a priest, a high priest with indestructible life because my fundamental need is spiritual life.

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And I need a priest who can give me spiritual life. And all those offerings and all those sacrifices that the priest offered could not provide life.

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Our Lord Jesus Christ is our high priest. He is perfectly suited to provide our most fundamental need which is spiritual life.

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You and I are born dead in our trespasses and sins, alienated from the life of God, cut off from the life of God, totally depraved, totally wicked, totally separated from God.

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We are enemies of God in our minds through wicked works. And over the course of our years as we express that depravity, we express further and further each and every year our rebellion against God.

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And we heap up against him a rap sheet of crimes against his holy law that would threaten to undo us.

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And that sin and that death which we have earned and which we deserve, if it is not repented of, if it is not atoned for, if it is not taken out of the way by one who can take away that sin, if it is not taken from us, it will be hung around our necks as we are cast into the bottomless ocean of God's wrath forever and ever.

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That is what we are promised. And that is what we deserve. What we need is life. I need to have all of my sins taken away and totally paid for.

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I need to be given a new heart with new affections and a new life and a new nature and a new mind, all of it renewed.

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I need to be given the most fundamental thing that I need is life and I need to be given that because I'm dead in trespasses and sins and I have no life in myself.

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And that's what regeneration is. We are made alive by the power of the spirit. We are born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead because he is atoned for us and he has paid that sin debt and because he is a priest who has paid that sacrifice, he sits at the

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Father's right hand and he intercedes for all who are his, for every last one for whom he has paid that price, for every last one for whom he has made that sacrifice.

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He intercedes on our behalf and he gives us life. And here's the promise of Christ, our high priest. All that the

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Father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me, I will not cast out. I've come down from heaven to do the will of my

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Father and this is his will. And of all that he has given me, they all come to me and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my

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Father's hand or out of my hand. That's the promise of the Savior. He gives life and he will raise up to eternal life all who are his, why?

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Because he is our high priest who has indestructible life. He has become our intercessor, not on the basis of outward physical perfections and not on the basis of outward physical genealogical descent.

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He has become our high priest on the basis of inner perfection that he is God in human flesh who paid the sacrifice and purchased our salvation and he lives forevermore with an indestructible life.

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If you're sitting here today and you don't have eternal life, there's only one place you can turn. There is only one intercessor between you and God who has life indestructible, who can take away your sin, forgive your sin, cleanse you from your unrighteousness, make you righteous and give you life and renew your heart.

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A million animal sacrifices cannot do that. A billion of your good works cannot do that.

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But Christ can do that when you repent and believe. Let's pray. Father, you are gracious and good and kind.

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We thank you that you have not left us in our sin but that those who have named the name of Christ and know him, that we have been taken out of darkness and transferred into light and in the kingdom of your dear son.

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We thank you for your mercy and your goodness and grace which has made all of this happen, that you have caused us to be born again, that you have given us new life, that you have renewed our hearts, you have done what no multitude of animal sacrifices could ever do, taking away our sin and giving us what we need, that we may stand faultless before your throne with exceeding joy on that last day.

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That is our hope and it is our hope because of what Christ has done. And so we gladly adore you and thank you and express our gratitude for all that you have done for us in your son, in whose name we pray, amen.