Reformer, Heinrich Bullinger on the supremacy of the heavenly High Priest. (Heb. 8:4-5)

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Regi Addictissimus

Completely sold out to the King
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For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law: who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle. For, ‘See,’ saith he, ‘that thou make all things according to the pattern shown to thee in the mount’. Hebrews 8:4-5
Norton, David, ed. The New Cambridge Paragraph Bible with the Apocrypha: King James Version. Revised edition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Print.

ONLY Christ, THE HEAVENLY PRIEST, CAN OFFER A TRUE SACRIFICE.

Now the author restates the arguments he has made regarding his second point, namely, that Christ was not made a priest after the order of Aaron, but after the order of Melchizedek, not by the fleshly law, but by a perpetual and heavenly order. For the ideas that the Levites were ordained into a fleshly order, but Christ into a heavenly one, so that he holds a single and unchangeable priesthood, are all treated more extensively in chapter 7. Then as a new element he attaches to these things a testimony of Moses, selected from Exodus 25. By this he even more firmly achieves his point that those things that pertained to the old Levitical order were merely shadowy and derivative. Hypodeigma means the mold and model that provides the pattern according to which something is made.… Now, then, observe with me the import and distinctness of this declaration and testimony. It says, “The model of the true things is in the heavens, in the likeness of which these Levitical things on earth were copied.” So the truth itself is in heaven, and the shadow on earth. Therefore, that which is in the heavens is older, but that which is on the earth is recent. Hence those who served as priests were not true priests, but mere shadows of the heavenly priesthood. Therefore, as the true and eternal priest, Christ ascended into heaven, so that he might truly serve as the true, unique, and perpetual priest. From this it is as clear as can be that the universal priesthood of making offerings for sin has been translated into the heavens. For he who was offered just once always appears in the sight of God. He is not offered anymore, but by a single sacrifice he has absolved and purified all who are sanctified for all time. You utterly senseless sacrificial lackeys of the Roman prelate! Why do you fight for your earthly order of making offerings? How can you not see that by your teaching, or rather by your incoherent incantations, the entire Aaronic or Jewish priesthood has been introduced into the church of Christ? Why don’t you give God the glory and abandon your profane, Jewish, and earthly priesthood to take hold of the One by whom those who believe will never be put to shame? COMMENTARY ON HEBREWS 8:4–5.7

Rittgers, Ronald K., and Timothy George, eds. Hebrews, James: New Testament. XIII. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2017. Print. Reformation Commentary on Scripture.
 
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