The Supremacy of Jesus

If you’re friends with me on Facebook, you probably saw something I posted earlier this morning.  There has been an article making the rounds for the past few days called, “Marriage Isn’t For You.”  It’s good.  It’s nice.  It points us in the right direction.  But for me, it’s really just kind of ho hum.  In my post, I shared Ephesians 5:22-28 and said that it’s much bigger, better and beautiful than the article that’s been going around.

Why?  Some might say I’m a killjoy or curmudgeon.  Many that know me would say you’d be right on the curmudgeon part.  But it’s because I believe that the way of Jesus – which is the way of the Word of God – is far superior to some words written by a mere man about not being selfish in marriage.  Ephesians 5:22-28 is far superior to “Marriage Isn’t For You” because Ephesians 5:22-28, and the entirety of Scripture, is about Jesus and his supremacy and superiority over everything.

Today’s reading from Hebrews 8 continues on with the overarching theme of Hebrews in laying out the supremacy of Jesus.   The focus today in this chapter is about the supremacy of the priesthood of Jesus. 

Hebrews was written to a group of Jews who had become Christians.  Shocking, I know, especially given the name of the letter.  We see throughout Hebrews that God is providing instruction to these people, and to us today, about the efficacy of the priesthood of Jesus and how it is far superior to the Levitical priesthood established under the Old Covenant in the Old Testament. 

Verse 1 establishes the fact that the priesthood of Jesus is superior because he is a priest ministering on our behalf in the throne room of heaven, at the right hand of God.  This is great news for us today, just as it was for this group of Jewish Christians nearly 2,000 years ago.  Many followers of Jesus today have a limited understanding of how atonement for sin was accomplished in the Old Testament under the Old Covenant that God established with his people through the prophet Moses. 

Because God is perfectly holy and righteous, He cannot tolerate sin.  To be in right relationship with God requires atonement for sin, and under the Old Covenant, God demanded a blood sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin.  The demand of a blood sacrifice for sin is an incredible picture of the reality of sin in our lives – sin leads to death.  Through the sin of Adam and Eve, sin brought the punishment of physical death for the human race.  And sin also brings with it the punishment of spiritual death in our separation from God.

Under the Old Covenant, priests were continually offering sacrifices on behalf of the people of God.  The book of Leviticus prescribes many different types of sacrifices for different types of sin, many of which required that the blood of perfect animals be offered as atonement for sin. 

I don’t know if you’ve ever killed and cut open an animal before.  As a hunter, I have many times.  It’s messy.  It stinks.  It’s labor intensive with an animal as big as a deer.  This was life for the Israelites.  Day after day.  Week after week.  Month after month.  Year after year.  It was a never ending process.

And what made it all the more difficult was that many of these sacrifices were required to be offered by a priest who was a sinful and broken as the people for whom he offered the sacrifice. 

I would imagine that for the people and for the priests, the process of offering sacrifices caused a lot of anxiety and fear.  Is my animal perfect?  Did I offer the right sacrifice for the right sin?  Are there any sins I forgot to make sacrifices for?  Am I offering this sacrifice with a clean heart and clean hands?  Will God accept my sacrifice and offering?

All of these things – the process, the doubt, the never-ending nature of offering sacrifices – point to the supremacy of Jesus as our Great High Priest.  John the Baptist called Jesus “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”  Jesus not only stepped into the role of priest and performed the function perfectly, but he was – and still is – the only perfect sacrifice that has ever been made for sin. 

V.3 tells us that, “Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer.”  What Jesus offered was Himself.  On our behalf.  Because he loves us and wants to free us eternally from the punishment of sin.  This is why, “. . . the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is the mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.” 

What does it mean for us?

It’s a matter of the heart.  Verse 10 tells us this. “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

Our right standing with God happens when our hearts and minds are made new by the power of Jesus and the supremacy of his sacrifice for our sin. It means that Jesus is all that we need to be made right with God, and to experience forgiveness that is full and complete and eternal.  Our forgiveness and our right standing with God come through Jesus and Jesus alone.  No priest or pastor makes us right with God.  No ritual or ceremony makes us right with God.  Good works and being a good person don’t make us right with God.  Only the sacrifice of Jesus, and trusting fully in that sacrifice make us right with God.

In a culture whose highest virtue and value is tolerance, what God’s Word teaches us is dangerous and world-tilting.  Jesus is our only hope.  Jesus is our only salvation.  Jesus is the only way to be made right with God.  This is the supremacy of Jesus.