Message 35
Scripture Reading: Heb. 1:2-3; 2:14; 3:1; 4:14-15; 6:20; 7:22, 25-26; 8:1-2; 9:11-12, 24-28; 10:5-7, 9-10, 19-21; 12:2, 24; 13:21
This message, which will focus on Hebrews as an exposition of Leviticus, is a concluding word to all the foregoing messages on the offerings and the priesthood.
In the book of Hebrews there are many references to the book of Leviticus, especially to the offerings and the priesthood. For example, Leviticus often speaks of the high priest. No other New Testament book speaks as much about Christ as the High Priest than the book of Hebrews does.
In the book of Leviticus itself we cannot see how great, excellent, wonderful, all-inclusive, and inexhaustible is the Christ whom we offer and enjoy as the offerings. In Leviticus we can see that all the offerings typify Christ, but we do not get the realization and the sense of how great Christ is. No word can express the greatness of the Christ who is all the offerings.
For a revelation of the all-inclusiveness of Christ, we need to come to the book of Hebrews. Let us now briefly survey the aspects of Christ revealed in Hebrews.
Hebrews 1:2 and 3 tell us that Christ is the Maker, the Creator, of the universe and that He is also the Upholder of the universe He created. Furthermore, God has appointed Christ to be the Heir of all things of the universe.
In verse 3 we see that Christ is the effulgence of God’s glory and the express image of His substance. The effulgence of God’s glory is like the shining or brightness of the light of the sun. Christ is the shining, the brightness, of the Father’s glory. The express image of God’s substance is like the impress of a seal. Christ the Son is the expression of what God the Father is.
“Since therefore the children have partaken of blood and flesh, He also Himself in like manner shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who has the might of death, that is, the Devil” (2:14). The wonderful One, who is the Maker of the universe, partook of blood and flesh in order to destroy the Devil, to bring him to naught. In the fullness of time, the Son of God came to become flesh (John 1:14; Rom. 8:3) by being born of a virgin (Gal. 4:4), that He might destroy the Devil in man’s flesh through His death on the cross.
In Hebrews 3:1 we see that Christ is “the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.” As the Apostle, Christ is the One sent to us from God and with God. As the High Priest, Christ is the One who went back to God from us and with us. As the Apostle, Christ came to us with God to share God with us that we may partake of the divine life, nature, and fullness. As the High Priest, Christ went to God with us to present us to God that we and all our case may be fully cared for by Him. Thus, 4:14 and 15 say, “Having therefore a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast the confession. For we do not have a high priest who is not able to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tried in all respects like us, yet without sin.” As such a High Priest, Christ bears us in the presence of God and cares for all our needs.
Hebrews 6:20 reveals that Christ is our Forerunner. The Lord Jesus as the Forerunner took the lead to pass through the stormy sea and to enter into the heavenly haven, “into that which is within the veil” (v. 19), to be the High Priest for us according to the order of Melchisedec, the order of the priesthood that is in both humanity and divinity. As the Forerunner, He has cut the way into glory.
“By so much also Jesus has become the surety of a better covenant” (7:22). In this verse Christ is the surety of a better covenant. Christ’s being the surety of a better covenant is based on His being the living and perpetual High Priest. The word surety here means that Christ has pledged Himself to the new covenant and to all of us. He is the bondsman, the guarantee that He will do everything necessary for the fulfillment of the new covenant.
“Wherefore also He is able to save to the uttermost those who come forward to God through Him, seeing He is always living to intercede for them. For such a High Priest befits us, holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and become higher than the heavens” (7:25-26). Having passed through the heavens (4:14) and even being higher than the heavens (7:26), the Lord Jesus is always living to intercede for us. Christ as our High Priest 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 have such a High Priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the holy places, even of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man” (8:1-2). The heavenly Christ is ministering in a tabernacle pitched by the Lord and not by man. This tabernacle, this sanctuary, is in the third heaven, in which is the heavenly Holy of Holies. Christ, as a Minister of the true (heavenly) tabernacle, ministers heaven (which is not only a place but a condition of life) into us, so that we may live a heavenly life on earth as He did while He was here.
“Christ having come a High Priest of the good things that have come, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by hand, that is, not of this creation, nor through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, entered once for all into the Holy of Holies, having found an eternal redemption” (9:11-12). Since Christ as the Lamb of God took away the sin of the world (John 1:29) by offering Himself on the cross as the sacrifice for sins once for all (Heb. 9:14; 10:12), His blood, which He sprinkled in the heavenly tabernacle, has accomplished an eternal redemption for us. Through this, Christ “found an eternal redemption.” Here the word found really means obtained, procured. By sprinkling His blood in the heavens before God, Christ has found, obtained, procured, eternal redemption for us.
Christ appeared the first time to take away our sin and our sins, and He will appear a second time apart from sin (9:24-28). Hebrews 9:24 says that Christ is now appearing “before the face of God for us.” He “has been manifested for the putting away of sin by His sacrifice” (v. 26b). This indicates that He is the sin offering. Verse 28 goes on to say that He has been “once offered to bear the sins of many.” This indicates that He is also the trespass offering.
Hebrews 10:5-10 tells us that when Christ came, God had no more desire for or pleasure and interest in the animal sacrifices (vv. 6, 8). Christ’s coming annulled the Levitical offerings. Nevertheless, the significance of all these offerings remains with Christ.
God prepared a human body for Christ, the incarnated God-man (v. 5), so that He could be the replacement of all the Old Testament offerings. By replacing the offerings of the first covenant with Himself, Christ did the will of God (vv. 7, 9), taking away the first, the offerings of the Old Testament, and establishing the second, Himself as the reality of all those offerings.
In Leviticus we have the first category of the offerings. As the replacement of these offerings, Christ is the second category of offerings. He is now the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering. He is also the wave offering, the heave offering, the consecration offering, the freewill offering, and the offering for thanksgiving. Therefore, God no longer has any pleasure in the sacrifices of the first covenant. Today God’s pleasure is only in a unique person — Jesus Christ. He, the all-inclusive Christ, is all the offerings.
All the aspects of Christ revealed in Hebrews are inexhaustible. He is the Creator, the Upholder, the Heir, the One who has destroyed the Devil, the Apostle, the High Priest, the Forerunner, the Surety, the heavenly Minister, the One appearing before God on our behalf, and the replacement of all the Old Testament offerings. Christ is the reality of every positive thing (Col. 2:16-17), including you and me (Phil. 1:21; Gal. 2:20).
Such a wonderful Christ is our perpetual due. This means that the all-inclusive Christ is our eternal portion for us to enjoy. We not only offer Christ to God — we also enjoy Him as we offer Him to God. We thus enjoy Christ with God, for we and God are co-eaters, eating Christ together in fellowship. This enjoyment is marvelous, and it is impossible for human words to describe it adequately.
Christ is God’s gift to us. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16). In the offerings, Christ is also the gift we offer to God. (The Hebrew for offering in Leviticus 1:2, corban, means a gift or present.) What gift could be greater than Christ? Christ is surely the greatest gift!
We enjoy Christ as God’s gift in the “gift shop” of the church. Every local church is a gift shop displaying Christ. This unique gift has thousands of aspects. Just as a diamond has many facets, so Christ has a great many facets. In one facet He is the Father, while in another facet He is the Son.
Enjoying Christ in His aspects and facets is for our worship of God; it is also for our fellowship with Him and with one another and for our eating in our daily living. Worship that is humanly manufactured is an abomination in the eyes of God. Real worship is to give Christ to God as a present, as a gift, and then to enjoy this gift with God. Hence, Christ is for God and also for us. In our worship we may say, “Father, I offer Your Son as a present for You to enjoy.” When we do this, the Father may say, “A portion of this gift is for you and for all your brothers and sisters to enjoy.”
The central thought of Leviticus is that the universal, all-inclusive, and inexhaustible Christ is everything to God and to God’s people. Today we can speak of the enjoyment of Christ, but one day all things will be headed up in Christ (Eph. 1:10). At that time, Christ will be everything to God and man. The enjoyment of this one person will be the unique celebration in the universe. This wonderful One has thousands of aspects, titles, and names, and every one is for us to enjoy.
Hebrews 13:21 tells us that God equips us for every good work in the doing of His will, doing in us that which is well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ. This verse indicates that the great, wonderful, and inexhaustible Christ is now in us. This Christ in us is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). As the Spirit within us, He is so available and easy to experience. If we would simply pray a little, we would pray ourselves into our spirit to touch this One and enjoy Him. He is inexhaustible yet so available. As we enjoy Him in the above-mentioned aspects, we will be led into the experience of His humanity, His divinity, His death, His resurrection, and His ascension, and we will grow in Him in all these aspects.
