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Christ is the merciful, faithful, and great High Priest (2:17; 3:1; 4:14-15; 5:5, 10; 6:20; 7:26—8:1):
１
Christ is able to be a merciful and faithful High Priest because He is both the Son of God with divinity and the Son of Man with humanity; His being merciful corresponds to His being a man, and His being faithful corresponds to His being God (1:8; 2:5-18).
２
As our great High Priest, Christ is great in His person, in His work, and in His attainment; He has passed through the heavens, and He sympathizes with our weaknesses (4:14-15).
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Christ is the Forerunner, who has entered within the veil (6:19-20):
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The heavens into which the Lord Jesus entered are today the Holy of Holies within the veil (v. 19).
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As the Forerunner, the Lord Jesus took the lead to pass through the stormy sea and enter into the heavenly haven to be the High Priest for us according to the order of Melchizedek (v. 20).
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Christ is the surety of a better covenant (7:22):
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In verse 22 the word surety means that Christ has pledged Himself to the new covenant and to all of us.
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He is the Bondsman, the guarantee, that He will do everything necessary for the fulfillment of the new covenant.
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Christ is the High Priest who is able to save us to the uttermost (vv. 25-26):
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Christ as our High Priest undertakes our case by interceding for us (v. 25).
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Christ appears before God on our behalf and prays for us that we may be saved and brought fully into God's eternal purpose (v. 26).
Ｍ
Christ is the Minister in the heavens (8:1-2):
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Christ, as a Minister of the true (heavenly) tabernacle, ministers heaven (which is not only a place but also a condition of life) into us so that we may have the heavenly life and power to live a heavenly life on earth, as He did while He was here.
２
Whatever Christ carries out as the heavenly Minister, He applies to us as the Spirit; whatever He ministers is transmitted into our spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).
Morning Nourishment
Heb. 7:25-26 Hence also He is able to save to the uttermost those who come forward to God through Him, since He lives always to intercede for them. For such a High Priest was also fitting to us, holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners and having become higher than the heavens.How is Christ able to be a merciful and faithful High Priest? Because He is the Son of Man with the human nature and the Son of God with the divine nature. He is fully qualified. Aaron was a good high priest, but he only had humanity. He did not have divinity. Although Aaron could have been merciful, I doubt that he was truly faithful. But our High Priest, Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Man, is both merciful and faithful because He is both God and man. (Life-study of Hebrews, p. 142)
Today's Reading
Our High Priest, Christ, who is great in His person, qualification, work, accomplishment, and attainment, has passed through the heavens (Heb. 4:14).Although Christ is so high and capable, He is able to sympathize with our weaknesses.
As our High Priest, Christ has been tried in all respects like us, but without sin (4:15). Since He has been tried, He is qualified and able to help us who are being tried (2:18). In all His trials, He was never stained with sin. He suffered the trials without being touched by sin. He is truly equipped to help us to pass through trials and to keep us from any entanglement of sin.
In Hebrews 6 all the believers are encouraged to go on to reach maturity (v. 1), that is, to go on to the heavenly ministry of Christ in the Holy of Holies in the heavens. To go on to this ministry, we must learn how to follow the Pioneer, the Christ who has become the Forerunner within the veil. In order to go on to this heavenly ministry, we have to enter the veil.
As the Forerunner, the Lord Jesus took the lead to pass through the stormy sea and enter the heavenly haven to be the High Priest for us according to the order of Melchizedek. As such a Forerunner, He is the Author of our salvation (2:10). As the Forerunner, He cut the way to glory, and as the Author, He entered into glory.
Christ is not only the consummator of the new covenant; He is also the surety, the pledge that everything in that covenant will be fulfilled....Christ pledged
Himself to the new covenant and to us. There is no possibility for Christ to change His mind. The effectiveness of the new covenant is guaranteed because He pledged Himself to us. This pledge depends completely on His divine priesthood.
Christ is able to save us because He intercedes for us (Heb. 7:25b). As our High Priest, Christ undertakes our case by interceding for us. He appears before God on our behalf, praying for us that we may be saved and brought fully into God's eternal purpose. We need to simply rest in His intercession, trust in it, and enjoy it....Many times we have been saved by His intercession. We have a perpetual, constant, and eternal Intercessor.
In 8:2 Minister refers to one who ministers as a priest. As a minister of the true (heavenly) tabernacle, Christ ministers heaven (which is not only a place but also a condition of life) into us that we may have the heavenly life and power to live a heavenly life on earth, as He did while He was here. In verse 2 the Greek word for holy places, used as a noun, is plural here. It refers to all the holy places in the tabernacle; strictly, it refers to the Holy of Holies, the holiest of all the holy places (9:8, 12, 25; 10:19; 13:11).
How can Christ minister the heavenly, spiritual, and eternal things from the heavens to us on the earth? It is by the heavenly "television" within us. Christ is "televising" the "scenery" in the heavens into our spirit. Christ is now far away in the heavens to minister all the heavenly, eternal, and spiritual things to us by the transmission of the eternal Spirit. Whatever is now in the heavens is immediately transmitted into our spirit. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 3751, 3753, 3789-3790, 3797, 3782-3784)
Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msgs. 76, 372, 375-376