Title: The Case for The Christ
Intro:
26 For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens;
27 who has no daily need, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because He did this once for all time when He offered up Himself.
28 For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the Law, appoints a Son, who has been made perfect forever.
- Jesus compared to the mortal, earthly High Priests
-Jesus is holy (without sin), humans are all stained with sin
-Jesus is innocent (without guilt), humans are all guilty before a God who demands perfection
-Jesus is undefiled (pure), Christian humans are FORGIVEN, but they are not INNOCENT
-Jesus is separated from sinners (though born into a human body, Jesus was able to do what Adam could not; live and die without sin). This distinction separates Jesus from sinners, though he is like us and in every way human, he is the original design of humanity, not marred with the curse of sin.
-Jesus is exalted above the heavens. Though humans were made in the image of God, Jesus is superior. He IS God, one with God and the Spirit. He is the creator; we are the creation.
II. Because of all the truths listed in v.26, Jesus does not need what the human high priests need.
-They need to offer daily sacrifice (They are continually in a state of sin)
-They need to first offer sacrifice for themselves, before they can offer any sacrifice on behalf of others. (Jesus needs no such self purification; he is, and always has been, and always will be perfect.)
-Jesus’s sacrifice is once for all; it does not need to be repeated, it does not need to be added to. Like Jesus, it is perfect.
III. The Law was meant to demonstrate the imperfection of Man’s status without Christ; the Law pointed forward to a need for Christ.
-“The Law appoints men as priests who are weak” The POINT of the Law was to demonstrate the weakness of mankind. In part so that we don’t deceive ourselves into self reliance, the Law demonstrates the imperfection of man.
-The word of the oath (the promise of the Messiah) came AFTER the Levitical Law to do what the Law could not do: once and for all forgive the sins of man through the sacrifice of Christ.
-Like Melchizedek, Jesus was “made perfect” forever. The author is really hitting the longevity of Jesus a key point of his superiority.
Conclusions/Application:
-Simply put, there is nothing/no one like Jesus. He is singular. He is, and can do, the one thing we need (redemption before God) Every other method falls short.
-Bridge Illustration