One of the most difficult subjects in the Bible is the relationship between the Christian and the Old Testament Law. This matter has been one of great controversy throughout the history of the Church, as we in evidence initially in Acts 15 (the Council at Jerusalem, led by James our Lord’s brother, dealt with this critical issue). Closer to home, it has also been the focus of much debate between the Lutheran and Reformed traditions, as Luther and Calvin certainly had their differences on the question of the Law’s validity for Christians.

In the Epistle to the Hebrews this subject is addressed at length, and in painstaking detail! In fact, we might say that from chapter 5 through chapter 10, and then again in chapters 12 and 13, the author focuses almost exclusively upon this question.

Perhaps you are like many of us and have often wondered just how we are to think about the Law, the Levitical system of sacrifices, and the Old Covenant. Is the Law still valid for us? And is there anything that the Old Covenant, and its commandments, contributes to us? What, if anything, happened to the Law when Jesus came?

Well, it seems that the original readers of Hebrews also struggled with such questions. And in this ‘Epistle-sermon’ the author gets down into the details in order provide them (and us!) with a definitive answer.

Over the next serval weeks in our Sunday messages, we will be picking our way through these chapters. And we will deviate from our normal course of taking one passage after another as it appears consecutively in the text, and will jump around a bit in order to better trace key themes and subjects concerning the old Covenant.

This Lord’s Day our sermon passage will be taken from Hebrews 7:11-22, with a special focus upon verses 11-14 which speak of Jesus as the better Priest who has given us a better Law.