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.
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