Study

Reading Time: 4 minutes

This text (Hebrews 8:1–9:10) is at the heart of the writer’s argument about how the high priesthood of Jesus interfaces with the old and New Covenants.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

As the writer moved his argument along about Jesus’ priesthood and New Covenant, Melchizedek became the perfect type of Christ in the Old Testament to connect some interpretative dots between Jesus and his non-Aaronic tribe.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

No one can simply decide they want to be a priest, let alone the high priest. God alone can do this. Not even Jesus just showed up and expected to serve in that office. He needed to be designated by God—and he was.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Jesus experienced the full weight of what it meant to be human. His humanity and suffering qualified him to be a high priest. His death paid the punishment for sin. His temptations gave him compassion for those tempted.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Jesus is the ultimate mediator, and he mediates a superior covenant, between heaven and earth.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

When Jesus was done, he sat down at the right hand of God. These days, people sit down to work. By contrast, in the ancient world when someone sat down, it meant their work was finished (John 19:30)

Reading Time: 4 minutes

The writer of Hebrews makes the case that Jesus was superior to everything and everyone, including the ginormous person of Moses. Was Moses in fact a “type” of Christ (Deuteronomy 18:15-18)?

Reading Time: 4 minutes

If Galatians and Colossians addressed a “Jesus-plus” type of faith, then Hebrews addressed a “minus-Jesus” type of faith. Hebrews says that any step away from Jesus is regression. The reason is simple: Jesus is superior to anyone and anything. Four lessons highlight this superiority.