The author of the epistle to the Hebrews exhorts the Jewish Christians, whose zeal for Christianity is flagging, to remain faithful to Christ. They are in danger of drifting away (2:1), but he encourages them to "hold on to our first confidence firm to the end" (3:14). He warns them against falling away after "they have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come" (6:4). He finally admonishes them with strong language:

For if we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. (10:26–27)

The Jewish Christians had lost their first love, and the centrality of Jesus Christ in their faith had weakened. They had begun to long for the glories of the Old Covenant. They extolled the angels, through whose mediation they had received their message (2:2), Moses, their exalted leader, their sanctuary services with the Aaronic priesthood, and especially the sacrifices.

The author from the very beginning of this epistle wants to bring his readers back to focus on Jesus as the center of their faith. God was behind the Old Covenant, but his message came to them in bits and pieces through various channels ("God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets" [1:1]), but now he speaks to them by one who is a Son, "who is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being" (1:5).

In other words, Christ is the ultimate, final, and comprehensive revelation of God, which the prophets of the Old Testament could only partially and insufficiently express.

Then the author shows the superiority of Christ over all the agencies God used in the Old Testament.

1. Christ is superior to the angels (1:5–2:18). The Jews attributed their message to the mediation of angels (2:2; Acts 7:38; Gal. 3:19). It seems strange to us that the author needs to show that Christ was superior to the angels, but it was important to show that the source of the Christian message was superior to that of the Old Testament.

2. Christ is superior to Moses, their revered leader. The author of the epistle says that Christ is superior to Moses as a builder is to a house. Moses is a servant, whereas Christ is Son.

3. Christ’s priesthood is superior to the Aaronic priesthood. Christ’s priesthood is the Melchizekan priesthood. It is an eternal priesthood—like that of Melchizedek—who was "without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life" (7:3) It was superior to that of Levites because Levi was in the loins of Abraham when he paid tithes to Melchizedek. Obviously, the one who receives tithes is superior to the one who gives them.

4. Christ’s sacrifice is superior to the Old Testament sacrifices, "[f]or it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins" (10:4). His sacrifice is once and for all because it is totally efficient.

Nor was it to offer himself again and again as the high priest enters the Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own; for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself. (9:25–26)

The types of the Old Testament are inadequate to describe the realities of the New Testament, especially as they refer to Christ. For example, change is a constant in the Aaronic priesthood since it involves the service of mortals, but Christ’s priesthood is eternal. In fact, the Aaronic and Levitical priests were not and could not be the model for Christ’s priesthood. The author finds his model in the priesthood of Melchizedek as portrayed in the Old Testament, that is, he appears without any biographical details and disappears without record of his death. Thus he serves as a model of Christ’s eternal priesthood. The same goes for Christ’s sacrifice. The blood of animals could never take sin away. Even perfect animals are a far cry from the divine, eternal Son of God, who, unlike the animals, gave himself willingly for us.

The most significant thing for the author is the reconciliation of sinners to God through the forgiveness of sin. When he has made "purification for sin," then he can sit down at the right hand of the Majesty of high" (1:3; 10:12–13). He shared flesh and blood so that he "might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people" (2:17). He came to achieve "perfection" (7:11), that is, to complete efficacy in the forgiveness of sins (7:25), which makes perfect and purifies the conscience (9:9, 14; 10:14).

The first tent with the barrier between it and the Most Holy Place symbolized the period before Christ’s sacrifice (9:8). This curtain symbolized the barrier that existed between God and humans because of sin. Christ’s sacrifice broke it down, bringing forgiveness and reconciliation. Now we can come boldly before the throne of grace (4:16). Now there is no barrier to the presence of God. We can now enter "the inner shrine, behind the curtain, where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek (6:19–20).

Thus the epistle to the Hebrews is totally about Christ, who brings perfection that the Old Covenant could not. At its climax the epistle focuses on Christ as eternal High Priest and once and for all the completely efficacious Sacrifice.

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