Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Hebrews 7:18-19

Hebrews 7:18-19. These verses summarize the argument of the previous verses.

For what takes place is on the one hand an annulling of the former commandment (concerning the priesthood) on account of what in it was weak and unprofitable (for the law made nothing perfect), and on the other hand [there is] a bringing in over the law of a better hope such a bringing in as supplies the deficiencies of the law and practically supersedes it.

By means of which hope we draw nigh to God. ‘What in it was weak' is the expression the writer employs, not the wider expression, the weakness thereof. He simply calls attention to what in it has that quality. The law made nothing perfect; it finished nothing; it created hope, but failed to satisfy it; it awakened a consciousness of the need of an atonement, but provided no sacrifice; it set up the ideal of a holy life, but failed to give the strength needed to realize the ideal; it created longings for closer fellowship with God, but opened no way whereby we could draw nigh. ‘ We draw nigh,' and not priests only. The access to God is free to all who believe. The Holy of Holies has still to the eye of flesh its veil; but Christ has entered for us, and so to the eye of faith it has no veil at all. The title and the fitness to enter there is the perfection which the law could never give. This note has been struck already (Hebrews 4:16; Hebrews 6:19); by and by it swells into a whole strain of impassioned argument (Hebrews 9:24; Hebrews 10:19-25).

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Hebrews 7:18-19

Old Testament

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