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flesh, and no perfection can come that way. God's answer is Christ, the priest in the
power of an endless life. The sacrifices, both in their nature and by their repetition, failed
to touch the conscience. God's answer is Christ. He said "Lo, I come", and, coming,
set aside all types and shadows by the offering of Himself.
A blessed change.
The new section, commencing with verse 11, therefore opens with the words "But
Christ". Dispensational and doctrinal changes are introduced by some such expression in
other places. For example, in Acts 17: 30:--
"And the times of their ignorance God winked at, BUT NOW commandeth all men
everywhere to repent."
So, in Rom. 3: 21, when the apostle had brought the whole world in guilty before
God, with no hope of righteousness in themselves, he then introduces the wondrous
provision of grace with the word:--
"BUT NOW the righteousness of God without the law is manifested."
Both the doctrinal and dispensational portions of Eph. 2: are marked in the same
way:--
"BUT GOD, Who is rich in mercy . . . . . made us alive" (4, 5).
"BUT NOW in Christ Jesus . . . . . made nigh" (13).
When the apostle had clearly shown both the weakness and unprofitableness of the
dispensation of type and shadow, he swings the door of the new dispensation upon the
same small hinges "BUT CHRIST":--
"But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come" (Heb. 9: 11).
The good things to come must not be interpreted only of the new life and the glory yet
to be, they include, and perhaps principally refer to, the dispensational change which set
aside the types and shadows and provided the antitype, Christ. This may be seen by
consulting Heb. 10: 1:--
"For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the
things."
We remember the opening words of chapter 8:, and that the "principal thing" is a
seated priest in a heavenly sanctuary. This important fact is again prominent. We have
such a high priest of good things to come, in contrast with those priests whose ministry
was confined to shadows. At 9: 11 we have the subject of 9: 1-5 resumed in the
words, "By a greater and more perfect tabernacle". Not only is this tabernacle "greater
and more perfect", it is "not of this creation", for so the word rendered "building" should
be translated. The use of this word "creation" is noteworthy, for in II Cor. 3:-5: the