For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.

Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.”

Hebrews 7:26-8:5 ESV

In our previous text, the author of Hebrews took us through a marvelous journey as he explained the mysterious prophesy that the Christ (David’s Lord) would be a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. As we noted, the purpose of Melchizedek’s brief appearance in Genesis 14 and in Psalm 110 must have been one of the greatest lingering questions for God’s people throughout the ages. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit revealed Melchizedek’s purpose as a type and prefiguring of Jesus.

In essence, we were shown that Jesus is a priest-king, just like Melchizedek. Although Melchizedek’s name means king of righteousness and he was the king of Salem, which means peace, Jesus is the true King of righteousness and King of peace. In the text of Genesis 14, Melchizedek appears suddenly and is given no exit or genealogy, making his priesthood seem unending; however, as the eternal Son of God, Jesus truly is unending.

Next, the author walked us through how Christ’s priesthood, which was resembled by Melchizedek’s priesthood, is superior to the Levitical priesthood. After laying his arguments before us, the author concluded by pointing toward why all of this was necessary: it is the proof that Christ can legally be our great high priest, mediating between us and God, and guaranteeing our salvation through His better covenant.

IT WAS INDEED FITTING // VERSES 26-28

With that nutshell of verses 1-25 set before us, we continue in this sermon-letter with verse 26: For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. Of the first part of this verse, Richard Phillips notes:

A better translation would be, “Such a high priest was fitted to us.” The point is that Jesus as high priest is perfectly fitted for the predicament in which we find ourselves; he is appropriate in every way to be the Savior of sinful humankind.[1]

Like most things in Hebrews, the author already introduced us to this notion earlier, for he said in 2:10: “For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.” Like puzzle pieces must be fittingly arranged in order to complete the puzzle, our salvation through Christ’s suffering is perfectly fitting to the eternal purpose of God. In the same way, Jesus Himself is also the exact Savior that we needed (and still need!). There is no other means of salvation from our sin because there is no other savior who is fit to save us. Christ alone is qualified to be the guarantor of the better covenant and to be the captain of our salvation, leading us as adopted sons and daughters of God onward to the eternal glory of God.

Again, 7:1-25 was ultimately concerned with Christ’s legal qualifications to serve as our great high priest. Here the author lists five rapid-fire qualities that qualify Jesus in His very person to be our high priest: holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. Several commentators have made the case that the first three of these descriptions can be taken together to display Christ’s perfect moral character. Holy describes His sinless perfection before God, innocent describes His sinless perfection before other people, and unstained describes His sinless perfection within His own heart. Of course, like so many things, the distinctions are made for our own benefit of understanding. One cannot be holy before God without also being innocent before others, and one cannot be innocent before others without also being unstained in one’s own conscience. These descriptions truly apply to Christ alone, and we ought to be thankful that they do. As Owen reminds us:

Unholy sinners do stand in need of a holy priest and a holy sacrifice. What we have not in ourselves we must have in him, or we shall not be accepted with the holy God, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.[2]

Although it is heresy today to speak of any insufficiency in us at all, we doth protest too much. Our society’s very fixation with affirming one another reveals that the internal paradise is a sham. We have not ascended beyond the basic moral compass that God has ingrained upon our hearts, and we have not transcended above truth itself. As I have said before, depression and anxiety statistics reveal that we are not as free and happy as we keep telling ourselves; instead, we are a society that is collectively caught in Giant Despair’s dungeon.

While we refuse to admit it, we are just as in need of a Savior as any other people throughout history. As the author of Hebrews has noted, we certainly have need of a Savior who is like us and is able to sympathize with our weaknesses. However, we also require a Savior who is separated from sinners. Consider Owen’s reflection on this point:

He was not set apart from them in his nature, for God sent his Son “in the likeness of sinful men” (Rom. 8:3). He was not set apart from men during his ministry on earth. He did not live apart from everyone in a desert. He spoke with tax collectors and prostitutes, and the hypocritical Pharisees rebuked him for this. His holy and undefiled… He was separate from sin, in its nature, causes, and effects. He had to be like this for our benefit. He became the middle person between God and sinners and had to be separate from those sinners in the thing he stood in their place for.

We cannot be saved by one who is altogether like us. In the Pilgrim’s Progress, Help was able to pull Christian out of the Slough of Despond because he was not in the bog himself. Likewise, our salvation is dependent upon Jesus being what we are not, that is, without sin.

The fifth and final description of Jesus’ qualification to be our high priest, exalted above the heaven, will be expounded upon by the author himself in verses 1-5 of chapter 8.

Because these qualities are true of Christ, verse 27 is also a reality: He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. This verse contains such wondrously good news that the author will essentially spend 9:1-10:18 unpacking this thought in detail. For the moment, let us simply consider what is being introduced to us for the first time in this sermon-letter. Jesus is qualified to be our high priest because He belongs to a superior priesthood than the Levites and because He is holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. Amen!

Yet unlike the Levitical priests, Christ does not need to go on making sacrifices daily, for both Himself and for His people. First, because He is holy, innocent, unstained, and without sin, He needs no sacrifice for His own sins. Second, He does not need to make daily sacrifices because He has already made a once for all sacrifice, which was made when he offered up himself. Thus, Jesus is indeed our perfect high priest, but He is also our perfect sacrifice. The blood that He sprinkled upon the altar to atone for our sins was His own.

But, again, that is the subject of the very heart of Hebrews, for the moment we are still considering the priesthood of Christ. Upon this subject, verse 28 almost functions as a summary statement of chapter 7: For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever. Remember that every mention in Hebrews of Jesus as the Son ought to take us back to the author’s sevenfold description of Jesus in 1:2-3. The high priest who intercedes for us is not a mortal, sinful man as we are; instead, He is the eternal Son who is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact imprint of His nature.

NOW THE POINT IS // VERSES 1-3

Within the first verse of chapter 8, the author gives one of the most practically helpful statements for understanding this sermon-letter: Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.

Here the author literally tells us, “This is the main point! Here is what I am trying to say!” Therefore, if you have had trouble following the argumentation and logical framework of Hebrews so far, listen up now! This is the big idea and the central message.

We have such a high priest.

Let’s read that again: we have such a high priest.

How good is that! It’s okay if you need to pinch yourself to make sure that this isn’t all a dream. Again, while we have been wading into deeper theology than many people are used to, we are not dealing in theoretics and hypotheticals. No, Jesus is actually the eternal Son of God. He really did come to earth by becoming a human like us. And He truly has become our undying high priest.

He is presently seated at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. This almost a word-for-word repetition of Hebrews 1:3, and it is also synonymous with verse 26’s description that Christ is exalted above the heavens. God’s throne is the majestic throne of the Creator ruling over His creation. The separation between a king and his servants is nothing compared to this gulf. Indeed, as the Scriptures repeatedly remind us, God’s kingly rule over us is more akin to how a potter rules over his clay than any earthly king ruling over his people. And Jesus, through whom the Father made the world and is remaking the world, has been exalted to the Father’s right hand, the place of utmost honor and authority. And He sits there now, at this very moment, interceding on our behalf before the Majesty Himself.

Indeed, notice how verse 2 describes what Jesus is doing as He sits and reigns beside the Father: He is a minister. R. Kent Hughes writes:

This willingness to serve others runs counter to the natural grain of humanity, because those in exalted positions characteristically view their role otherwise… Jesus’ footwashing service here on earth was not an aberration of the Incarnation. Serving is part of his divine being. Think of it! Jesus, our eternal priest who sits at the Father’s right hand in ineffable glory enthroned on emerald atop a crystal sea amongst the adoration of millions, serves on our behalf! “God serves me!” It is a ludicrous expression but true. Take a deep breath, swallow your incredulity, no lapses, no disaffections, no uneven devotion—only a loving constancy of intercession—serving, serving, serving…[3]

Difficult as it ought to be for us to believe, hear these words again: we have such a high priest. A priest that is eternally and omnipotently using His exaltation in order to serve us. Priests primarily served in two functions. They offered sacrifices to atone for sin, and they made intercession, praying to God on others’ behalf. Presently, Jesus is serving as our high priest by praying for us to the Father, which is the kind of praying that kept Peter from falling away like Judas.

But He is able to make this present intercession because He has already ministered to us by offering a sacrifice to atone for our sins. Verse 3 alludes to that sacrifice: For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. “A priest without a sacrifice,” notes Geoffrey Wilson, “is like a childless mother, for his expressly appointed in order to make such offerings.”[4] But, again, the author is not yet going to explore Christ’s magnificent offering of Himself. That will come in chapter 9. He is merely priming us for that entrance into the most holy place, but for the moment, we are setting our gaze upon Christ’s ministry in the holy places.

ACCORDING TO THE PATTERN // VERSES 4-5

Verse 4 brings back the notion of Christ’s qualification to minister as our high priest: Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priest who offer gifts according to the law. In other words, if Jesus were ministering as priest in the temple, He could not be a priest whatsoever because there were already an inaugurated priesthood serving under the institution of the God’s law. But Jesus is not on earth.

T. Desmond Alexander makes a solid argument for why the author of Hebrews is so greatly emphasizing the heavenly status of Jesus:

We can only surmise, but there are good grounds for believing that his readers were troubled by what they perceived to be the invisibility and remoteness of Jesus Christ. Why could they not see him? Why did Jesus not continue to appear to them, as he had to the earliest disciples? In addition, coming from a Jewish background, those addressed in the letter no longer participated in the visible rituals that had for centuries been perceived as God-given ways of atoning for sin. They missed the sacrificial worship at the Jerusalem temple, which with all its rituals was thought to offer atonement for their sins. Their loss of reassuring ceremonies and the absence of Jesus Christ may well have caused a crisis of faith, especially when the cost of following their Lord and Savior entailed suffering, insult and persecution, imprisonment, and the confiscation of property (cf. Heb. 10:32-34).

In light of such challenges, the author of Hebrews focuses on the heavenly dimensions of Jesus’ priesthood. Christ is a high priest in a sanctuary not made by human hands; he serves in heaven seated at God’s right hand.[5]

The author made that very point in verse 2 when speaking of Christ as a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. By holy places and tent, the tabernacle is clearly being brought into view, yet for all the wonderful, Spirit-led craftsmanship, the tabernacle was still very much made my men. But Jesus did not serve as a priest within the tabernacle nor within its more permanent setting, the temple; instead, Jesus’ superior priesthood ministers in the superior tabernacle, the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.

Indeed, in verse 5, the author notes that the Levitical priests ministered a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. Thus, as appealing to our physical sight as the tabernacle and temple might have been, they themselves were only shadows upon the earth of the real thing in heaven. Although the beauty of the temple was such that one of Jesus’ disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings” (Mark 13:1), Jesus unflinchingly promised that it would be destroyed entirely. As abominable as that desolation would seem, it was simply the destruction of the copy and shadow of the true and heavenly temple, which can never be destroyed.

But how can the author of Hebrews make such a claim? How can he call the very center of worship to the true and living God, the one and only temple to Yahweh in all the earth, a copy and a shadow? As with everything that the author has revealed to us under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, it was already revealed in part in the Old Testament. This time he cites Exodus 25:40: For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” The true, heavenly tent is that pattern that earthly tabernacle and temple were designed to be a copy and shadow. Thus, Jesus as our superior priest ministers not within the copy but the pattern, not within the shadow but the reality.

The difficulty, of course, is that we cannot see this reality by sight; it requires faith. Chapter 11 displays powerfully how the Old Testament saints did this. Indeed, notice how Abraham’s faith parallels our present passage:

By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

vv. 9-10

Or consider how he generally speaks of the Old Testament saints:

These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

vv. 13-16

Throughout their earthly lives, they set their faith upon the heavenly realities. They lived in the shadow but set their eyes upon the substance. The same is still true for us, except that we have a clearer vision of the heavenly realities. They looked forward in faith to an unknown salvation, but we look upward in faith to a person, to our great high priest, who is seated at the Father’s right hand. Therefore, let us set our gaze upon Him, so that the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

Indeed, as we come to the Lord’s Supper, we have before us our own copies and shadows of realities past, present, and future. Looking backward, the bread and cup testify of Jesus’ own body and blood which He offered as a sacrifice to atone for our sins once for all.

Looking forward, the bread and cup reset our hope upon the day when we will feast together with resurrected bodies in the new heaven and the new earth, dwelling forevermore by sight with our Lord.

In the present, the bread and cup summon us both to look around and to look up. By the bread, we look around at our brothers and sisters here, the body of Christ on earth, knowing that this congregation is only a copy in miniature of the gathering that will come. By the cup, we look up to the heavenly places by faith where in Jesus is ministering at this very moment for us to the Father. O brothers and sisters, as we eat and drink, let us taste and see the goodness of God in this remembrance: we have such a high priest.

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[1] Richard Phillips, Hebrews, 255.

[2] Cited in Robert Paul Martin, Hebrews, 378.

[3] R. Kent Hughes, Hebrews, 217.

[4] Geoffrey Wilson, New Testament Commentaries Vol 2, 391.

[5] T. Desmond Alexander, Face to Face with God, 5.