A NEW YEAR,A NEW PRIESTHOOD, A NEW LAW

‘Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor by the border of the land of Edom, saying, “Aaron will be gathered to his people; for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the sons of Israel, because you (plural) rebelled against My command at the waters of Meribah.’ Numbers 20:23-24.

‘So if perfection was through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the people received the Law), what further need was there for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be designated according to the order of Aaron? For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also.’ Hebrews 7:11-12.

God said, “I make all things new.” For we who are New Covenant believers and have trusted in the Messiah, this statement comprehends the entirety of our life before God. Life under this Covenant can be expressed by that one word, “new.” The Old Covenant, as beautiful as it was, was temporary and contingent on something completing it. When the New Covenant was inaugurated by the coming Messiah, the Old was completely fulfilled (not replaced) in every conceivable way. Understanding what all the ‘new things’ are and how to live in light of them is the key to knowing how one should live his or her Christian life. How the two covenants relate, that is their points of continuity and discontinuity, is one of the least understood and most important relationships found in the Bible. It is a ‘big picture’ concept that will most likely not be discovered in the weeds of daily Bible reading. It is a hermeneutical paradigm precious in the mind of God and revealed slowly and mysteriously in the pages of Holy Scripture but fully understood as one stands back and looks at the entire scope of revelation. It is a mystery, a mystery that invites investigation and when understood yields a largess of beautiful fruit. But know this, the relationship between the covenants is a pragmatic, blue collar truth, not merely a theoretical abstraction discussed in the ivory halls of seminary classrooms. It is a useful paradigm by which we can understand the entire Bible. And when anyone better understands his or her Bible it has a profound impact on how he or she lives. One way we can see the continuity and discontinuity of the covenants is by examining the things that are ‘new’ in the New Covenant. We shall discuss this important topic in several installments.

As the above texts suggest, the Old Covenant Aaronic priesthood and the Old Covenant Law, represented by Aaron and Moses respectively, maintained the Jews in their holy status before God until the coming of the Messiah. It was a two-sided covenant with rewards for obedience and punishments for disobedience. Embedded in the system were sacrifices that could wash away the guilt of sin. This provision was truly a testimony to the mercy of God. But the system was never designed to be permanent or efficacious. Sinful humanity could never draw nigh to God if it had to present itself perfectly holy to God. God, knowing this, fore-ordained that another covenant would come which would satisfy the demands of righteousness that the Old Covenant could never deliver. Enter the New Covenant, a covenant clearly predicted by the Old Covenant prophet Jeremiah (31:31-34) and by many others as well. In this New Covenant, God would freely and permanently grant free and limitless forgiveness of sins to all who would simply believe that God had fulfilled His covenant promises in Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah.

This being the case, all things in the Old Covenant serve as a predictive shadow of the fullness and superiority of the New Covenant. This makes the reading of the Old Testament text an exercise in looking for and reveling in the great and wonderful things that shall be fulfilled in the Messiah. Furthermore it makes the reading of the New Testament an exercise in enjoying all those benefits as described by duly appointed apostolic authors. We begin in the Book of Numbers where we see the people of Israel being led through the wilderness for forty years. They are sinners - inveterate sinners- and God according to His promise of a great sacrifice to come, sustains that nation through the aforementioned system of animal sacrifices. Two men in particular are raised up to represent this covenant: Moses who is the giver of a covenant law by which the Israelites are bound and through which the character of God is revealed, and Aaron who is anointed the High Priest who mediates the sacrificial portion of that law whereby sins are forgiven. But neither the Law Covenant or the sacrificial system can long sustain itself. The law cannot be kept and the sacrificial system is defective in that it cannot intrinsically forgive the blot of sin on the consciences of the people. Both the law covenant and the sacrificial system are imperfect as are the men who are anointed to mediate those respective systems. In the passage quoted above in Numbers, God shows the imperfection of both these men by announcing their deaths before entering the Promise Land. This is a stunning development. But God reveals the demise of Moses and Aaron to to shake us up. Neither the Old Covenant Law or the Old Covenant Priesthood can bring a soul to the Promised Land. Moses and Aaron must die and something, or should I say someone, must take the baton and enter the land.

Well, the Jews do enter the land but it is in no wise a triumphant entry. They fail to keep the divine law and abuse the sacrificial system at every point. Centuries later a man named Jesus will come along and become the New High Priest and the New Lawgiver. As the High Priest He will offer up a sacrifice that will actually forgive sins. As the New Lawgiver He will give a law, a law that He will put in their hearts that can be obeyed. Aaron’s death, then, is a foreshadowing of the ultimate death of the entire priestly system and Moses’ death later on, foreshadows the failure of the Sinaitic Law which could only condemn sinners.

We will spend the balance of this post discussing the beauty of this New Covenant Priesthood in Christ and how it excels the weak and beggarly Old Covenant Priesthood. In the next post we compare the Old Covenant law with that of the New.

First and foremost the new priesthood in Jesus Christ actually does forgive sins. In the Old Covenant the priest could only slay an animal but that transaction never actually forgave any sin, “For the blood of bulls and goats can never take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4). The Old Covenant Priesthood could only forgive sins as it was attached to a future sacrifice by the faith of the recipient. But in the New Covenant the High Priest, Jesus Christ, offered up HIs own blood, human blood, that could actually forgive the sins of those whom He represented. The Old Covenant priest offered up an animal that was external to himself, whose blood bore no connection to humanity, but when Jesus died, His blood was perfectly efficacious and it actually wiped away the sin and the guilt of those humans who believed. When New Covenant believers see their High Priest “offering up Himself without spot to God” they know this is a sacrifice they can lean the weight of their guilty souls upon. Second, in the Old Covenant the transaction for forgiveness of sins could only happen in the Temple precincts where God dwelled. Forgiveness was limited by space. But in the New Covenant, because the Priest Himself is the very image of the invisible God, sacrifice occurs not in any place but in a person. And when that person can manifest Himself in every place by the agency of the Holy Spirit, the New Covenant believers may know that they can connect with Jesus at all times and be in a suitable place to receive forgiveness. Third, Old Covenant believers were forced to deal with a fallible priest who may or may not have actually known God or been accepted by God. We see several examples of priests who were woefully distant from God though they wore the priestly tunic; Nadab and Abihu and the sons of Eli being several examples. But in the New Covenant, the High Priest is the most pure and holy man who has ever lived. The Father called Him, “My beloved Son” and Jesus Himself said, “I always do the things that please the Father” (John 8:29). As New covenant believers we can be assured that we always go a priest who knows God and is known by God intimately. These reasons and others ought to cause every New Covenant believer to rise up with joy unspeakable and to cry out, “Hallelujah what a High Priest!”

Next we look at the New Commandment that flows out of this new and better priesthood.