Hebrews 7:27 Commentary and Bible Study

More will be said later in the epistle about the repetitious nature of the tabernacle and temple sacrifices, but here two points are made. First of all, the priests who ministered under the law were all flawed, because they were themselves sinners. The law prescribed specific sacrifices which Aaron was to offer for himself (Leviticus 16:6,11), and that was necessary because, as an individual, he too was a sinner and needed forgiveness. By prescribing these sacrifices, the law testified to its own inability to actually do anything other than point to something better than itself. The fact that the Levitical priests needed to do this meant that they were not qualified to act as true priests to the people; their sin invalidated all the sacrifices that they offered. They were not the holy, harmless, and undefiled priests that alone could present the blood of their sacrifices in the true sanctuary in heaven. By contrast Christ could say to his enemies, who had the most reason to find fault with him, ‘Which of you convinceth me of sin?’ (John 8:46). He was made ‘in the likeness of sinful flesh’, but did not inherit a sinful nature from Adam (Romans 8:3); God ‘made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin’ (2 Corinthians 5:21); he was ‘was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin’ (Hebrews 4:15); he ‘committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth’ (1 Peter 2:22); and ‘and in him there is no sin’ (1 John 3:5). He therefore did not have to offer up any sacrifice for himself, and both as our high priest and as the sacrifice which the high priest offered, he was in all respects perfect. This meant that his work as high priest could be effective in truly presenting his people to God. The second point which will be expanded on later is that unlike the Levitical priests who offered up for sins daily, he offered just one sacrifice for sin, and then his work was complete; he had achieved entirely the redemption of his people on a single day.