INFINITELY BETTER

"The Lord spoke to Moses: 'Take Aaron, his sons with him, the garments, the anointing oil, the bull of the sin offering, the two rams, and the basket of unleavened bread, and assemble the whole community at the entrance to the tent of meeting.' " (Leviticus 8:1-3 HCSB)

I awoke this morning to the news that the Pope had appointed twenty two new members to the College of Cardinals. Here's part of the report from the CNN Wire:

The College of Cardinals was established in 1150. Its main role is to advise the current pope and pick his successor.

"This is the most exclusive club in the Catholic Church," said John Allen, CNN's Vatican analyst. "In many cases, you also become, at least informally, a candidate to be the next pope, because the next pope will almost certainly come from the roughly 120 cardinals under the age of 80."

Once a cardinal reaches 80, he is no longer able to participate in the election of the pope or enter the secret conclave where cardinals gather when the time comes to select the next pope, typically upon the prior pope's death.

The new cardinals each professed their faith and swore an oath of obedience to Pope Benedict and his successors during Saturday's ceremony, called the Consistory, at the Vatican.

They will then walked one by one to the pontiff, knelt in front of him and received the traditional red hat, a gold ring, and a document with the name of the cardinal's titular church in Rome. The pope and newly-created cardinal then embraced.

All of this is without Biblical support at best and is a perversion of true faith at worst. It is an attempt to impose a hierarchy within Christianity--and reinforce an elaborate system of ritual that does not move the church forward, but takes it backward.

When I read of the service setting apart these new Cardinals, I could not help but think of our text today in Leviticus. There we read of Aaron and his sons ordination as priests--the public ceremony consecrating them, replete with special robes and a turban placed on their heads.

My purpose is not to critique Roman Catholicism, but to show that to move in the direction of Old Testament ritual and sacrifice is folly! There was a time and place for it, but that time has passed. God paved the way with the former sacrificial system for something infinitely better! The New Testament is crystal clear about that! An attempt to compromise and mingle law and grace--which like oil and water cannot be done--brought forth the most scathing denunciation by Paul in Galatians. The superior nature of the work of Christ in establishing the New Covenant with His blood to the temporary nature of the Old Covenant sacrifices, which are now superseded and set aside, is the theme of the book of Hebrews.

There was a time, I ravenously consumed baby food--a now disgusting goo of vegetables without seasoning, having every appearance of being pre-chewed. But, in my toothless state of immaturity, it was nourishing and served its purpose.

Now, I have tasted steak, grilled over mesquite smoke, potatoes lathered in butter and sour cream, with a side salad where garlic croutons, shredded cheese, bacon bits and blue cheese blanketed that bed of lettuce, and all washed down with syrupy sweet tea--followed by warm pecan pie, topped with vanilla bean ice cream, accompanied by freshly ground coffee! Do you think I want to go back to baby food? I have tasted something infinitely better!

Four things are mentioned in Leviticus 8:1-3 which have now given way to something infinitely better: the service, sanctification, sacrifice and sanctuary. These were important for the spiritual infancy of God's people, teaching the need for a mediator, the importance of consecration to God, the requirement of shedding blood to gain forgiveness and having a meeting place with God. But, what they promised, they could never deliver in themselves. The priests were sinners themselves needing forgiveness (read Leviticus 10). The anointing oil that set the priests apart was merely symbolic, which would be washed away the next time they scrubbed their face. The sacrifices were offered over and over, century after century, to underscore that the blood of animals could never cover sin. The tabernacle was a temporary tent, where only one man, the High Priest, could enter one day a year into the Holy of Holies, on behalf of all the people, but where the people themselves could never go. All of this was meant to nourish their infantile understanding of God, to feed their faith and grow them up to see the need and nature of Christ and His atonement. It is vital to study Leviticus for it helps open our understanding of Christ's redemptive work.

The Old Covenant ritual properly done was good--and for that time commended by God. His seal of approval was dramatically given,

"Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them. He came down after sacrificing the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the fellowship offering. Moses and Aaron then entered the tent of meeting. When they came out, they blessed the people, and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. Fire came from the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell facedown [on the ground]." (Leviticus 9:22-24 HCSB)

The Old Covenant was good.

The New Covenant is infinitely better! The Levitical system was a shadow of what was to come, but Christ is the substance of what was promised, fulfilling what was foreshadowed.

Christ's service is infinitely better. Here are just a few verses,

"So Jesus has also become the guarantee of a better covenant.

Now many have become [Levitical] priests, since they are prevented by death from remaining in office. But because He remains forever, He holds His priesthood permanently. Therefore, He is always able to save those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them.

For this is the kind of high priest we need: holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He doesn't need to offer sacrifices every day, as high priests do-first for their own sins, then for those of the people. He did this once for all when He offered Himself. For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak, but the promise of the oath, which came after the law, [appoints] a Son, who has been perfected forever." (Hebrews 7:22-28 HCSB)

Christ's sanctification is infinitely better. Consider this, "You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; this is why God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of joy

rather than Your companions." (Hebrews 1:9 HCSB) The oil that anointed the Aaronic priests for ministry was symbolic of the Holy Spirit setting them apart for ministry. But, Jesus was literally anointed by the Holy Spirit, sanctified for his ministry, "After Jesus was baptized, He went up immediately from the water. The heavens suddenly opened for Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on Him. And there came a voice from heaven: 'This is My beloved Son. I take delight in Him!' " (Matthew 3:16, 17 HCSB)

Christ's sacrifice is infinitely better. A sampling from many verses in Hebrews says,

"Since the law has [only] a shadow of the good things to come, and not the actual form of those realities, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year. Otherwise, wouldn't they have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, once purified, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in the sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Therefore, as He was coming into the world, He said:

You did not want sacrifice and offering,

but You prepared a body for Me.

You did not delight

in whole burnt offerings and sin offerings.

Then I said, 'See-

it is written about Me

in the volume of the scroll-

I have come to do Your will, God!'

After He says above, You did not want or delight in sacrifices and offerings, whole burnt offerings and sin offerings (which are offered according to the law), He then says, See, I have come to do Your will. He takes away the first to establish the second. By this will [of God], we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.

Every priest stands day after day ministering and offering the same sacrifices time after time, which can never take away sins. But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. He is now waiting until His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are sanctified. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. For after He says:

This is the covenant I will make with them

after those days, says the Lord:

I will put My laws on their hearts

and write them on their minds,

[He adds]:

I will never again remember

their sins and their lawless acts.

Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin." (Hebrews 10:1-18 HCSB)

Christ's sanctuary is infinitely better. We read,

"But the Messiah has appeared, high priest of the good things that have come. In the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands (that is, not of this creation), He entered the most holy place once for all, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow, sprinkling those who are defiled, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of the Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to serve the living God?

Therefore, He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance, because a death has taken place for redemption from the transgressions [committed] under the first covenant. According to the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be purified with these [sacrifices], but the heavenly things themselves [to be purified] with better sacrifices than these. For the Messiah did not enter a sanctuary made with hands (only a model of the true one) but into heaven itself, so that He might now appear in the presence of God for us." (Hebrews 9:11-15, 22-24 HCSB)

So, let the redbirds nest in the Vatican, I will look to One infinitely better, seated in heaven!