Hebrews Chapter Seven, Transference Of Power

 

Hebrews 7:12 For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law. [13] For He of whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no man has officiated at the altar.

 

The Aaronic priesthood was implemented as a teaching tool. As stated previously, the Law was to magnify sin, or rather to identify it for what it was. Also, the Law was to lead the penitent to Christ. The endless round of sacrifice the priests of Levi ministered to, by very definition of their repetition, indicated not completion or salvation, but a reminder that the issue of sin was unresolved during the dispensation of the Law. 

Every lamb slain reminded Israel that death was sin’s consequence, and that shed blood remitted that sin. Sin was blotted out by either the substitute of the lamb slain on the penitent’s behalf, or the shed blood of the sinner himself, whose death (eternal separation from God as the sentence for sin) satisfied God’s justice.

 

But the Law and its priesthood were ceremonial; the blood of an animal shed upon the Jewish altar cleansed the flesh; it atoned. The Hebrew concept of atonement hails back to Genesis. When God commanded Noah to build an ark, He instructed him, “Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shall pitch it within and without with pitch,” Genesis 6:14, KJV. The Hebrew for “pitch” is the word, “kopher” received from the word, “kaphar.” Both mean to cover, but both have other connotations as well. “Kopher” suggests to cover something with bitumen, or tar. “Kopher” can also be translated as “redemption price,” and is variously translated as, “ransom, satisfaction, or sum of money,” in the Old Testament.

 

“Kaphar,” its prime root, means, “to cover, cancel, expiate, placate or condone.” In the Old Testament it is translated “atonement” no less than 75 times. So what does it mean to atone? It apparently means to cover something over. When Aaron atoned for the Holy of Holies with the shed blood of animals on the altar, he was covering the holy things with the reminder of the Coming One. It is through that lens—acknowledging the coming redemption by the blood of Jesus Christ—that God looked upon the ministering priest and the penitent Jewish worshipers. We read of the necessity of atonement, or “Kaphar,” on the Day of Atonement, “There shall be no man in the tabernacle of meeting when he goes in to make atonement in the Holy Place, until he comes out, that he may make atonement for himself, for his household, and for all the assembly of Israel,” Leviticus 16:17. The high priest entered with the blood of another to make atonement, first of all for himself. A sinful man, full of the infirmities we all possess, ministers on behalf of his fellow sinners. Then he atones for his household: those by blood or by marriage he names family. Finally, he atones for all of Israel. In this symbolism we see our Lord. Unlike fallen man, He did not need to atone for Himself; He WAS the atonement. He is the covering blood that remits sin. But like the high priest in Aaron’s day, He atones for the household of faith upon whom His blood is most efficacious because we receive it by faith. Then He atones for all mankind as well. Calvinism cannot answer to the Day of Atonement and how the high priest atones even for those who did not ask for it and do not want it. Christ shed His blood for the unholy and unthankful; this at one point included you and I.

 

We further read of atonement a little later, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul,” Leviticus 17:11. The blood covers man’s sins. God gave it to Israel upon the altar; only here, and dispensed by God’s appointed ministers, is it efficacious to the one who brings it. God prescribes a way of approach to Him, to reconcile fallen man to a holy God, and He asks Israel to believe that it is the only way. It was only through Levi. It was only in the tabernacle and later the temple. It was only through bloodshed—the death of the victim. The death of another substituted in our stead atones for sin. In this instance, in the camp of Israel and by the hand of Levi, the blood of animals performs in a manner similar to the pitch Noah employed on the ark. It covers sin until the time when the Coming One would take away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

 

That is the profound difference in the priesthoods. Levi covered sin, by God’s command, with shed animal blood during the dispensation of the Law for Israel, and only for Israel. If one approached Israel’s God in the temple service one must become a proselyte to Judaism. As stated before, God ordered things in a manner that is clear and purposeful. But the Law, which was not meant to save or govern forever, did not clear the conscience of the penitent. Animal sacrifice reminded the Jews, year after year, of sin’s penalty and God’s righteous judgment upon sin. The eternal priesthood of Melchizedek, of which God the Father ordained Christ our Lord High Priest, offers a permanent solution to sin.

 

Aaron’s order was a shadow of the eternal order glimpsed in Genesis chapter 14, mentioned in Psalm 110, and finally witnessed and realized through the gospels. It both preceded and succeeded it, since the priesthood itself is derived from the power of Christ’s endless life, by default defining the Melchizedekal priesthood as eternal, Hebrews 7:16, 24. When Christ our Lord received this honor, by necessity the law changed. Let us return to verse 12 for a moment. “For the priesthood being changed (Greek, metatithemi), of necessity there is also a change (Greek, metathesis) of law.” The first Greek term, “metatithemi” indicates, “to remove a person or thing from one place to another.” In layman’s terms, a transfer. In Hebrews 11:5 (KJV rendering) twice the author speaks about Enoch being translated from earth to Heaven. The term “metatithemi” is used here. “Metathesis” is a different type of change. While similar to our first term, this one stresses permanence in the nature of the transference involved, while also being defined as transference from one place to another. The priests of Aaron, being types of the great High Priest to come, were vested in a glory that was a shadow of His own, reflecting however dimly the perfect ministry our Lord would complete “once for all” when He came to redeem mankind. The priesthood left Levi, and one might add also this earth, to be vested in the Lion of the tribe of Judah in Heaven. The Law, which was preoccupied with ceremonial things, likewise changed to become preoccupied with the Lord’s sacrifice. Now the shed blood not only atoned (or covered) the penitent, it cleansed them and set them free from the moral guilt of sin, sin’s power to condemn, sin’s overwhelming influence in our daily lives, and finally sin’s presence when we (freed from our sin) enter into God’s holy presence.

 

The Law of love that Christ taught His disciples, and they another generation until His teaching arrived intact to us, is our rule and guide. “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law,” Romans 13:8, 10. The Law’s essential truth lies in expressing our love for our neighbor by never visiting harm upon him. The Law was always communal; it was never meant to be kept for the betterment of the keeper. It was intended to preserve the safety and joy of the keeper’s neighbors, who would benefit from its preservation. “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you,” John 15:12. How does Jesus define His love for us? “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends,” John 15:13. A self-sacrificing love that puts the needs of others before our own is the ultimate principle behind the Law. Jesus our Lord restated it this way, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind…and…you shall love your neighbor as yourself,” Matthew 22:37, 39. A love for God manifesting in our good works towards others is the Law exemplified and properly utilized. I believe this is the crux of what Paul was getting at when he wrote, “Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary we establish the law,” Romans 3:31.