Bible Commentaries
Hebrews 8

XXI

JESUS CHRIST, HIGH PRIEST OF THE NEW COVENANT, GREATER THAN AARON, HIGH PRIEST OF THE OLD COVENANT

Hebrews 4:14-8:5.

The letter to the Hebrews is an inspired exposition of the Sinaitic covenant, and particularly of the book of Leviticus. Our analysis and exposition of the Sinaitic covenant (Ex. 19:1-24:9) shows that this covenant consisted of three distinct elements:

1. God and the normal man, or the moral law (Exodus 20:1-17) as a way of life; not simply an obligation but a condition of life – they that do these things shall live, they that do them not shall perish.

2. God and the nation, or the ordinances that set forth the principles of civic righteousness (Exodus 21:1-24:9); in obedience to which the nation lives, and in disobedience dies.

3. God and the sinner, or the Law of the Altar (Exodus 20:22-26), or the way of the sinner’s approach to God in order to find mercy.

We learn that all subsequent statutory legislation in the Pentateuch was developed from these constitutional elements or principles. Deuteronomy was developed from the first and second, and from the third was developed the last sixteen chapters of Exodus, all of Leviticus, and most of the legislation in Numbers. The Altar part, or God and the sinner, was typical of the new covenant, and contained in figures the way of grace and mercy, and revealed the only way by which Parts 1-2 could be kept. Hence it was the most important element of the Sinaitic law.

In the Pentateuch we find also these elements of the law of the sinner’s approach to God:

1. The sanctuary, holy of holies, or a place where the sinner might find God.

2. A means of approach to God in the sanctuary, or vicarious, expiating sacrifices placating the divine wrath against sin.

3. A mediator to go between the sinner seeking mercy, and God bestowing mercy. This mediator, or priest, took the blood of the vicarious expiation and carried it behind the veil and offered it upon the mercy seat, where God dwelt between the cherubim. That mediator, on the basis of that offered blood, made intercession for the people.

4. Times in which to approach God are set forth elaborately in that book – daily, weekly, monthly, annually, septennially, and every fiftieth year. Those were the times that they could go before God, but the heart of Leviticus, as well as the heart of Hebrews, was a particular time, to wit: On the great day of atonement, when the people appeared before God to receive through an offering presented by the priest, the remission of their sins, we find a prescribed ritual that gave the steps involved.

5. Then we find what place there was for penitence, faith, and prayer. We find penitence to indicate that the man approaching God came as a confessed sinner. We find faith set : forth by the laying on of hands upon the head of the victim – the victim to take his place. We find the prayer part to be the petitions that went with the high priest and were presented by him when he made the offering. All that ia, presented in the book of Leviticus.

So we find that the sanctuary of God was that part which was called the holy of holies, and that there God was visibly manifested, according to all Jewish interpretation, in the Shekinah of fire between the cherubim on the mercy seat. We find the victims to be bullocks, goats, and lambs. We find the mediator to be, and particularly upon the great day of atonement, Aaron. We find the sacrifices constantly repeated every year; on the ’great day of atonement the priest bad to go for the people, carrying the names of the tribes on his breastplate, going for them into the holy of holies. In the letter to the Hebrews, which expounds the Altar part of the Sinaitic covenant, Paul does not discuss the Temple of Solomon, nor of Zerubbabel, nor of Herod, but the tabernacle of Moses, because his plan is to go back to origins, and to the dignity of founders. It would have been incongruous if after discussing angels, Moses, Aaron, and the prophets, he had skipped to the ritual of the Herodian Temple.

He makes this argument: AB Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is greater than the prophets, greater than the angels, greater than Moses, greater than Joshua, so he is greater than Aaron. We do not discuss in this chapter superiority of the new covenant over the old, but the superiority of Jesus Christ over Aaron as high priest.

In some respects Aaron and Jesus Christ are alike – neither one took the honor to himself. Aaron did not appoint himself high priest to go before God, and Jesus Christ did not appoint himself to be mediator. The Father appointed them. Aaron was one of the people. Christ was like Aaron in that respect – he was one of the people. He took upon himself the nature of man and became as one of those who became his brethren.

So we have not yet arrived to the point of discrimination between Christ and Aaron, but we do now come to the dividing line: Aaron being a priest under the covenant made upon Mount Sinai, was himself of the tribe of Levi. Jesus Christ did not belong to that tribe. He was of the tribe of Judah, therefore the priesthood of Christ does not come within the law of the covenant established by Moses on Mount Sinai. It was not his office to go to the Temple at Jerusalem and there officiate as priest. He had no such place there. That is a distinction. It shows that the priesthood of Christ must be according to an entirely different covenant, otherwise he would have to be a son of Levi to be a priest.

In getting to this point of distinction, Paul takes up a fragment of the history of Genesis, about an ancient king of Jerusalem – Melchizedek. Before Abraham had any possession there, this man was both a king and a priest of God – before the call of Abraham, before the segregation of the Jewish nation, when there was no distinction between Jew and Gentilei He had no pedigree of which there is any record, but when we come to Aaron’s time, no man could officiate as an Aaronic priest unless he could trace his Levitical descent. Melchizedek had no such genealogy, and therefore in a genealogical sense’ he is said to be without father or mother, and held his office as king and priest directly from God. He was recognized as greater than Abraham, the father of the Jewish people, for when Abraham was returning from the victory over Chedorlaorner he paid tithes to the king of Salem and received a blessing from him.

In the days of the psalmist a reference is made to that history: "The Lord hath sworn, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." This makes another distinction – Christ, not Aaron, was made priest by oath of God. So a distinction between Christ and Aaron is that Aaron is after the order of Levi and his priesthood is under the Mosaic covenant made upon Mount Sinai, and Jesus Christ is a priest after the order of Melchizedek anterior even to Abraham, much less Moses, and greater than Abraham, receiving tithes from the whole Jewish people in the person of Abraham, and inducted by the oath of God. It shows, too, that no scripture is of private interpretation. The prophets spoke and wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, and when you go to interpret a passage of Scripture which the Holy Spirit indicted, you get the meaning through the illumination of the Holy Spirit.

The next point is that when Aaron, under the Levitical law was preparing to offer a sacrifice for the sins of the people, he must first offer for himself because he was a sinner, and before he offered for others he must himself be cleansed; but this Man was holy, "tempted in all points as we are tempted, yet without sin." That distinction in character is very strong between the two persons – between the two orders of priesthood. Aaron was a sinner; our priest was not a sinner. No man ever convicted him of sin.

Then Aaron died and could not continue to live to intercede for the people, but this priest ever liveth to make intercession for his people.

We now take up the general superiority of the New Covenant, and it embraces items 10-12 of the analysis, only in expounding this I will follow a more orderly and logical method than we have in the analysis. This section extends from Hebrews 8:5-13:16, and it even includes one verse of Hebrews 7.

So far, our exposition has had to do with the person and most of the offices of the Mediator of the new covenant, but here we contrast the covenants themselves. Notwithstanding the previous statements of the elements of the Sinaitic covenant, we must restate them here briefly in order to clearness in this exposition. The old covenant is set forth in Exodus 19:1-24:11, and consists of three distinct elements:

1. The Decalogue, or God and the normal man.

2. The fundamental principles of civic righteousness, or God and the theocratic nation.

3. The altar, or God and the sinner, or the law of the sinner’s approach to God.

From the first and second elements are derived a part of Numbers, and all of Deuteronomy; from the third element, God and the sinner, or the law of the altar, are derived the last 16 chapters of Exodus, the whole of Leviticus, and a part of Numbers.

Our first question now arises: What are the faults of the old covenant, for our text says that God found that old covenant faulty? If we know what the faults are, we can then ’ consider the superiorities of the new covenant. Evidently the one supreme fault of the first and second elements, that is, the moral code and the national code, was the inability of a fallen, sinful people to keep the law, as a way of life for the individual, or a way of life for the nation. The reason is that the moral element was written outside of the people and on tablets of stone; they had no internal personal knowledge – spiritual knowledge – of the law. So written, it discovered sin and condemned sin, but there was nothing in it to overcome this inability and render the obedience efficacious. The normal man – Adam before his fall, and his descendants – could have kept the Decalogue if he had not fallen and corrupted their nature derived from him, could have constituted a successful theocratic nation. But after the fall no lineal descendant from I Abraham, nor circumcision of the flesh, could impart a new nature.

And now what the faults of the third part of that covenant – that is, the Levitical code – the last three chapters of Exodus, the whole of Leviticus, and a part of Numbers? The faults of that element were:

1. It was in whole and in all its parts but a shadow merely of heavenly things to come; in its nature and in its intent it was only transitory and educational.

2. The lack of intrinsic merit in the expiating sacrifices to atone for sin.

3. The emptiness of its nonexpiatory sacrifices arising from the want of the heart back of them.

4. Conforming to it could never relieve the conscience from the sense of sin, guilt, and condemnation, and give peace and rest.

5. The repentance of the sinner on human go-betweens, or third parties in making offerings, and in the administration of cleansing ordinances, the limitation of one fixed place to meet God, and the further limitation of set times in which to meet God – that is, the sinner could not for himself directly approach God at all times, in all places, and in all emergencies.

From these faults what our text declares necessarily and inevitably followed, to wit: "They continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord." Their whole national history is but the record of a series of breaches of the covenant on their part, and of God’s disregard of them on his part. They broke the covenant first in the very shadow of Sinai, before its tablets were completed, in the matter of the golden calf. They broke the covenant again at Kadesh-barnea, and the whole generation of adults were disregarded and perished. They broke the covenant again throughout the period of the judges, and at the close of that period their rebellion culminated in the rejection of God as King, and in the demand for a human monarchy. After that monarchy was established, the ten tribes broke the covenant at the very start in erecting the calves to worship at Dan and Bethel, and kept on breaking it without cessation until they perished. The Judah part of the monarchy, while more faithful than the ten tribes, repeatedly broke the covenant, and finally, at the downfall of the monarchy by Nebuchadnezzar, they were swept away. The hierarchy which, through the clemency of Persia, succeeded the monarchy and continued throughout the Grecian and Roman supremacies, repeatedly violated the covenant, and the culmination of their rebellion was in the days of our Lord when they rejected him and killed the Prince of Glory, bringing upon themselves the terrible denunciation in Matthew 21-23 – the gravest judgment that was ever assessed against a people. This on account of the faults in that covenant. In every period of their probation they broke it and disregarded it.

This review of the faults enables us to sum up in one sweeping, inclusive generality the superiority of the new covenant, to wit: Our text says, "It was enacted on better promises," so that our next question arises: What are these better promises? Here it is all important to make no mistake. If we do not discern these better promises clearly and retain them permanently in our hearts, we will utterly fail to master the priceless lessons of this book. Notwithstanding the importance of discerning and retaining these promises, what a sad thing it is, that if the preachers of Christendom were called up and asked to state what these better promises are, probably not more than one in a hundred could give them correctly, and three-fourths of so-called Christendom have never seen them. I will give them to you in the next chapter.

QUESTIONS

1. Hebrews is an exposition of what covenant, and what Old Testament book in particular?

2. Where is the record of the old covenant, and what are its constituent elements?

3. What subsequent parts of the Pentateuch developed from each of these elements?

4. What are the elements of the law of the sinner’s approach to God, and what the particulars of each?

5. What do we find as to the sanctuary, the victims of sacrifice, the mediator, the times and the work of the high priest under the old covenant?

6. Why does the author of the letter to the Hebrews discuss the tabernacle of Moses and not the Temple of Herod?

7. In what respects are Aaron and Christ alike?

8. In what particulars is Christ greater than Aaron? (See analysis.)

9. Who was Melchizedek, and how does he illustrate the order of Christ’s priesthood?

10. What are the fault of the first and second elements of the old covenant?

11. What are the faults of the third element of the same covenant?

12. From these faults what necessarily and inevitably followed, and what particular illustrations of this in the history of Gods people, Israel?

13. Sum up in a sweeping generality the superiority of the new covenant and show its importance.

Verses 6-39

XXIV

PROMISES OF THE NEW COVENANT

Hebrews 8:6-10:39.

The fourth promise of the new covenant is that all Christians shall be priests unto God, and shall directly offer to him spiritual, nonexpiatory sacrifices, anywhere, at any time, and in all places. The negative value of this promise is itself incalculable. It forever set aside and dispenses with:

1. The old covenant’s one place of meeting God. Whether tabernacle, temple, earthly Jerusalem, or land of Canaan, their mission and sanctity are ended forever. Holiness no longer attaches to any of them. All are as empty as the sepulcher of our Lord. The efforts of the Crusades to recover a city and land no longer holy was a foolish quest. As says our Lord himself to the woman of Samaria: "Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when neither in this mountain [i.e., Gerizirn, the site of the Samaritan temple] nor in Jerusalem shall ye worship the Father . . . The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be his worshipers. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and in truth" (John 4:21-24).

2. It dispenses with all the third party – human go-betweens – that officiated between the soul and its God. The Greek and Romanist priestly hierarchies of human gobetweens, and all their imitations in other denominations, are sinful degenerations into the obsolete and superseded old covenant.

3. It sets aside all the doctrines of consubstantiation and transubstantiation, which in any form affirm and repeat and adore a real expiatory sacrifice in the Memorial Supper of our Lord, or attach saving efficacy to the memorial rite of baptism. In other words, connecting two and three it sweeps away the whole system of sacredotalism which makes the office of a human third party necessary to the salvation of the sinner.

4. All the Old Testament sabbatic cycle, whether seventh day, lunar, annual, seventh year, or fiftieth year – the limited fixed times in which to come before the Lord.

5. All the Old Testament nonexpiating sacrifices.

6. Israel according to the flesh as the people of God.

POSITIVELY

1. It affirms a spiritual Israel, every one of whom is a priest unto God. In the book of Hebrews this doctrine ’if embodied in the phrase: "church of the first-born" (Hebrews 12:23)., which means that the Old Testament type, which gave to the first-born of a family the right of primogeniture, including the authority of priesthood, and which was exchanged for the tribe of Levi, is fulfilled in each one born of the Holy Spirit under the new covenant. In other words, every one born of the Holy Spirit is a priest who may at all times, m( all places, and under all emergencies go for himself directly to God.

The doctrine of this new and spiritual Israel – a people of God’s own possession – is elsewhere presented by Paul (2 Cor. 6:17-7:1; Titus 2:14). Here the language of Peter is the most explicit: "Ye, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ . . . Ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." To these we may add: "And he made us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto his God and Father; to him be the glory and dominion forever and ever, Amen.” Revelation 1:6). "And makest them to be unto our God a kingdom and priests, and they reign upon the earth" (Revelation 5:10). "Blessed is he that hath part in the first resurrection; over these the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years" (Revelation 20:6).

(1) Our own selves: "I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service." And concerning the Macedonians Paul says, "And this, not as we had hoped, but first they gave their own selves unto the Lord, and to us through the will of God" (2 Corinthians 8:5).

(2) Contribution to Christ in his cause and people. We recall the case of the Philippians: "And ye yourselves also know, ye Philippians, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church had fellowship with me in the matter of giving and receiving but ye only; for even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my need. Not that I seek for the gift, but I seek for the fruit that increaseth to your account. But I have all things and abound: I am filled, having received from Epaphroditus the things that come from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God" (Philippians 4:15-18).

(3) The testimony of this letter: "Through him then let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of lips which make confession to his name. But to do good, and to communicate forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased" (Hebrews 13:15-16).

(4) All the testimonies from the prophets introduced in the last chapter (See Job 17:3; Psalm 119; Isaiah 38:14; 1 Samuel 15:22; Psalms 51:16-17; Isaiah 1:11-17; Jeremiah 7:21-23; Hosea 6:6; Micah 6:6-8.)

But this idea of the priesthood of all Christians is so closely associated with another thought that we cannot separate them. One of the passages cited says, "A royal priesthood"; another says, "He has made us a kingdom and priests," while this letter says, in commenting on the service of the Christian priesthood, "Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace, whereby we may offer service well pleasing to God with reverence and awe." Everything relating to the old covenant was shaken, and soon, in the destruction of Jerusalem, would pass away forever. But this royal priesthood would continue – this kingdom would never be moved. As Daniel prophesied, the kingdom set up by the God of heaven would be an everlasting kingdom and would never pass to another people. Or, as our Lord expresses it: "The gates of hell shall never prevail against the church he established. These priests are all kings, and their kingdom is eternal!"

The fifth great promise of the new covenant is the final advent of our Lord to raise the dead and judge the world. The passages in this letter are very striking: "So Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him unto salvation."

1. On this passage particularly note the negative: "apart from sin," i.e., not this last time as a sin offering. That was the object of his first advent. There is no gospel to be preached after this final advent – no intercession – for he vacates the mediatorial throne and the high priest advocacy

2. "Not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day drawing nigh. . . . For ye have need of patience, that, having done the will of God, ye may receive the promise" (Hebrews 10:25-37).

Here the speediness of his coming is emphasized, as in very many other New Testament passages. But it is not "quickly" as man counts, but "quickly" as he counts, "with whom a thousand years is as a day." As Peter declares:

Knowing this first, that in the last days mockers shall come with mockery, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they wilfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth compacted out of water and amidst water, by the word of God by which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: but the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word, have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But forget not this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness; but is long-suffering to youward, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with a fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing that these things are thus all to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness, looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, by reason of which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? But according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. – 2 Peter 3:3-13.

It was the apparent tardiness of his coming, as men Judged, that was tempting these Asia Minor Jews to apostatize. And it is in this very connection and on this precise point that Peter bears the direct testimony of Paul’s authorship to this letter: "And account that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote unto you" (2 Peter 3:15).

3. He comes in his last office, not as a prophet, sacrifice, priest, and not even as king to continue his mediatorial session at God’s right hand, for he will turn over the kingdom to the Father ( 1 Corinthians 15:24-25), but he comes as judge to wind up earth’s affairs.

(1) In the dissolution of the material universe: "And thou, Lord, in the beginning, didst lay the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the works of thy hands: they shall perish, but thou continuest; and they shall wax old as doth a garment; and a mantle shall thou roll them up, as a garment, and they shall be changed; but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail" (Hebrews 1:10-12). "But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken" (Matthew 24:29). "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them" (Revelation 20:11); and particularly: "But the heavens that now are and the earth, by the same word, have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. . . . But the day of the Lord will come as a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up" (2 Peter 3:7-10).

(2) In the everlasting punishment of the wicked: "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a fierceness of fire which shall devour the adversaries. A man that hath set at naught Moses’ law dieth without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses; of how much sorer punishment, think ye, shall he be judged worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know him that said: Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:26-31).

"For the land which hath drunk the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them for whose sake it is also tilled, receiveth blessings from God; but if it beareth thorns and thistles, it is rejected and nigh unto a curse; whose end is to be burned" (Hebrews 6:7-8).’ "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? which having at first been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard" (Hebrews 2:3). "See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not when they refused him that warned them on earth, much more shall not we escape who turn away from him that warneth from heaven: whose voice then shook the earth, but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more will I make to tremble not the earth only, but also the heaven. . . . For our God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:25-26; Hebrews 12:29).

4. In the better resurrection of the righteous: "Women received their dead by a resurrection: and others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection" (Hebrews 11:35), and the consummation of their salvation: "For not unto angels did he subject the world to come, whereof We speak. . . . And again I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold, I and the children God hath given me. . . . For ye have need of patience, that, having done the will of God, ye may receive the promise" (Hebrews 2:5; Hebrews 2:13; Hebrews 10:36).

On two and three as simultaneous: "The men of Nineveh shall stand up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, a greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South shall rise up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon: and behold, a greater than Solomon is here" (Matthew 12:41-42). "But when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all the nations; and he shall separate them one fro goats; and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand: Come ye, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. . . . Then shall he say also unto them on his left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels. . . . And these shall go away into eternal punishment; and the righteous into eternal life" (Matthew 25:31-46).

"And to you that are afflicted rest with us, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus; who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that believed (because our testimony unto you was believed) in that day" (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10).

"And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heavens fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, the great and small, standing before the throne; and books were opened; and another book was opened, which was the book of life, and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and hades gave up the dead that were in them, and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hades were cast into the lake of fire. And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire" (Revelation 20:11-15).

QUESTIONS

1. What is the fourth promise of the new covenant?

2. What is the negative value of this promise?

3. What its positive value?

4. What passage in the book affirms the first element of positive value?

5. Cite passages from other New Testament books supporting this view?

6. What new and additional idea attaches to this priesthood, what the proof of it, and what the conclusion therefrom?

7. What are the spiritual sacrifices offered by this new priesthood?

8. What is the fifth great promise of the new covenant?

9. What, passage shows the negative object of his coming, and what the explanation of it?

10. Cite the passages which emphasize the speediness of his coming?

11. Is this a speediness in man’s sight or God’s sight, and what the proof from Peter?

12. Prove from Peter on this point that Paul wrote the letter to the Hebrews.

13. In what offices does he not come, and the resultant doctrines?

14. In what office does he come?

15. What, without citing passages, the three objects of his final advent?

16. What passage in this book shows the effect of his coming on the material universe, and what correlative passages from other books?

17. What passage from this book show that he comes to judge and punish the wicked?

18. What the passages in this book which show that he comes for the consummation of the salvation of the righteous?

19. Cite passages from other New Testament books that the salvation in glory of the righteous is simultaneous with the everlasting punishment of the wicked.

20. In view of the fourth promise, will there ever be a restoration of the Jews, as Jews, and a restoration of the earthly Jerusalem and its temple worship?

21. What then, is the meaning of the restoration of the Jews as a nation?