Hebrews 8:3-6

Hebrews 8:3-6. For a new proof is now given that Christ is in the heavenly sanctuary. There is no priest without sacrificial functions (Hebrews 8:3); and if Christ were here on earth He would not be a priest at all (Hebrews 8:4), there being already those who offer the gifts and do temple service for what is a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. Christ's office, therefore, must be discharged elsewhere, as it really is. And the dignity of His office is measured by the superiority of the covenant to which He belongs. The following verbal explanations are important.

Hebrews 8:3. ‘Ordained' is simply appointed. ‘This man' is rather this high priest. Hebrews 8:4. ‘For' is by reading ‘now,' and marks the continuance of the statement, not a reason. Hebrews 8:5. ‘Who' means ‘those namely who,' and calls attention to the description. Hebrews 8:5. ‘Serve' describes always in N. T. the service of God. It occurs in Luke eight times, in St. Paul's acknowledged Epistles four times, and this Epistle six times. ‘What is a copy;' the word means either a model, the archetype which is to be followed (Hebrews 4:11), or it is (as here and in Hebrews 9:23) an after-copy made from an original: And ‘shadow' of the heavenly things: the shadow cast by a solid body or a mere outline that gives an idea of the form only without revealing the true substance. This language is clearly depreciatory, not because the writer questions the Divine origin of the things he speaks of, but because the true priest having come, the glory of the legal priesthood and of the tabernacle sinks to its proper level as the mere shadow or outline of the great reality.

That this is its true character is now proved from Exodus, Even as Moses is admonished of God (not was, the present tense shows that the admonition still stands in Scripture and may be used to explain the nature of the tabernacle), when about to make (literally, to finish, i.e to take in hand and complete) the tabernacle, for (not part of the quotation, but a proof of the assertion just made), see, saith he ... the pattern showed to thee in the mount. These words may mean either the reality, the veritable heavenly things which are the original of the earthly resemblances, or a plan of the tabernacle itself which had the spiritual meaning here given to them. As Moses, however, could hardly have seen Christ's priest-hood and offering as actual facts, it must have been the symbolical, the parabolical (Hebrews 9:9) representation of them in the form of the earthly tabernacle. Anyhow, the priesthood and offering of Christ belong to the heavenly state.

Hebrews 8:6. But now as the case is; not the temporal now, but the logical now so common in this Epistle, Hebrews 9:26; Hebrews 11:16; Hebrews 11:8; Hebrews 12:26, and in Paul's writings hath he obtained a more excellent ministry (see Hebrews 8:2); by how much he is the mediator of a better covenant also. Jesus is surety (Hebrews 7:22) and mediator, both; and herein He has qualities which Aaron never had. He is Moses and Aaron (Mediator and Priest), and the ratifying, the sealing blood of the victim all in one.

Which (i.e better in this that it) was a law-based constitution, like the first, but resting upon better promises, as the following quotations prove. ‘A law-based and a law-enacted constitution' (as the Greek implies) is the very character Paul gives to the Gospel. It is ‘the law of faith,' ‘the law of spiritual life in Jesus Christ,' ‘the law of righteousness,' Romans 3:27; Romans 8:2; Romans 9:31.