Information Related to "The High Priest Essential to Salvation"
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With this chapter we begin addressing passages in five New Testament letters that are regularly misunderstood and seriously misinterpreted. Four of these-Galatians, Romans, Ephesians and Colossians-explicitly declare the writer to be the apostle Paul. The other, Hebrews, is traditionally attributed to him, which is likely. Though every section of the Bible is often misinterpreted, passages from Paul's letters in particular are consistently distorted (see 2 Peter 3:15-16), especially where the New Covenant and the law of God are concerned.
We begin in Hebrews, which contrasts the role of Jesus Christ as the mediator of the New Covenant with the role of Moses as mediator of the Old or Sinai Covenant.
Moses was the historical giant of first-century Judaism. When early Christians accepted Jesus Christ, the mediator of the New Covenant, as the Messiah and as a Prophet greater than Moses, most Jews-especially the religious leaders-were highly offended. They refused to accept Jesus as their High Priest or as a prophet greater than Moses.
The implications of this problem are addressed in the book of Hebrews. It was written to explain the superiority of Christ's priesthood over that of the Levitical high priest appointed under the Sinai Covenant and to verify from the Scriptures that Jesus Christ is a greater prophet than Moses.
In this context, Hebrews covers the distinctions between the Sinai Covenant and the New Covenant-and the role of God's law in each.
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