Hebrews 8:1-6

The idea of Christ's priesthood, merely suggested in Hebrews 1:3, expressly affirmed in Hebrews 2:17, has been from Hebrews 4:14 onwards enlarged upon and illustrated. It has been shown that Christ is a priest, called by God to this office and proclaimed by God as High Priest. The superiority of His orders as belonging not to the hereditary Aaronic line, but as being “after the order of Melchisedek,” has also been exhibited. Passing now from the person and qualifications of the Priest, the author proceeds in chap. 8 to illustrate his greatness from a consideration of the place of His ministry. It is in heaven He is seated, a minister of the real tabernacle, not of that which had been pitched by Moses as an image and symbol of it. The priesthood to which God called Him must be a heavenly ministry, for were He on earth He would not even be a priest, not to say a High Priest. His ministry, therefore, being in the heaven of eternal realities, is a “better ministry,” in accordance with the fact that he is mediating a “better covenant”.