Tag Archives: high priest

A Better Sanctuary

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A BETTER SANCTUARY

Now the main point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by a mere human being. Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer. If He were on earth, He would not be a priest for there were already priests who offer the gifts prescribed by the law. (Heb. 8: 1-4).

Having established by a careful argument, that Jesus is a superior high priest to the Levitical priests by virtue of His sinless nature and His indestructible life, the writer now moves to the work of this high priest. He does not serve in the earthly tabernacle which is only a picture of the true tabernacle in heaven but in the heavenly sanctuary.

The phrase, “He sat down” has far more significance than that Jesus merely sat next to His Father. The work of the Levitical priesthood was never complete. There were no chairs in the tabernacle. When priests had finished ministering in the Holy Place, tending the lamp, offering incense on the golden altar and replacing the bread once a week on the altar of Showbread, they left the tabernacle because there was no place for them to rest.

Likewise in the outer court there were no chairs. Their work of offering sacrifices was never complete. They had to offer the morning and evening sacrifices as well as those prescribed for every person and situation in the camp. There was no time or occasion to rest. Only when the high priest had sprinkled the blood on the mercy seat on the Day of Atonement and had returned to the outer court did he sit down, signifying that God had accepted the sacrifice offered for the sin of the people for another year.

Jesus sat down at the right hand of God in heaven by invitation and because His work was complete.

The Lord says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet’ (Psa. 110:1).

There was special significance in sitting at the right hand of the one who had high rank.  The “right hand” is traditionally the strong hand.  To sit at the right hand of a king was to be given equal authority, equal dignity and equal honour with the reigning monarch.

“The term “God’s right hand” in prophecy refers to the Messiah who is given power and authority to subdue His enemies (Psa. 110: 1; Psa. 118: 16). . . The fact that Jesus Christ is at “the right hand Of God” was a sign to the disciples that Jesus had indeed gone to heaven.”  http://www.gotquestions.org/right-hand-God.html

After the Lord had spoken to them, He was taken up into heaven and He sat at the right hand of God (Mark 16: 19).

To sit down at God’s right hand meant that Jesus was the Messiah as He claimed; His   once-for-all sacrifice for sin had been accepted; His work was complete; He was given equal authority with God to reign over His enemies. He was, therefore, the true, legitimate and permanent high priest over the house of Israel.

But, as high priest, He had to have a sacrifice to offer. Since His priesthood was superior to that of the Levitical priests, His sacrifice had to be a better sacrifice than those of the Levitical priests. In what way? Better than the blood of animals which could only cover but not remove sin. Better than the blood of animals because they had to be offered over and over again.

His sacrifice had to be the blood of a sinless man and therefore able to remove sin once for all. Did Jesus qualify? Since He was not a priest in the order of Levi but in the order of Melchizedek, He did not offer animal blood in an earthly sanctuary but He offered His own blood in the heavenly tabernacle. Hence even the sacrifice He offered was superior to that of the earthly priests.

Everything Jesus did to deal with and do away with sin took place on a higher level than on earth. What happened on earth was nothing more than a picture of the real thing.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

A Perfect High Priest

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A PERFECT HIGH PRIEST

Such a high priest truly meets our need – one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, He does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for His own sin, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when He offered Himself. For the law appoints as high priests men in all their weakness but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever (Heb. 7: 26-28).

What confidence we can have in our high priest!

Unlike the Levitical priests who went before Him, He does not have to offer another sacrifice, not for Himself or anyone else – “It is finished!” No one will ever succeed Him as high priest – He lives forever. No one is more qualified than He – He is the Son of God, no less. He is a perfect high priest in every way – holy, blameless, pure set apart from sinners and exalted above the heavens.

How can a Levitical high priest ever come anywhere near Him in fitness for their office?

When we consider Jesus, who He was, how He lived, what He did, what He said, how He treated people, how He loved and obeyed the Father, how He stood for and upheld the truth, how He suffered and died without resistance, how He rose from the dead, it is difficult to understand why His own people did not recognise who He was. Both then and now, how can they ignore the evidence? How can they reject Him, and refuse to acknowledge that He is both Son of God and their Messiah?

There can be only one reason – prejudice. They have been deceived. Prejudice and blind unbelief caused the religious leaders to reject Him and to crucify Him. They refused to examine the evidence. Today we have a world of people who would rather believe the lies that are being propagated about Him as a substitute for the truth and the unsubstantiated claims that are made about Jesus and His word, than search for the truth for themselves.

Take the claim from the Muslim world, for example that the Bible has been corrupted. On what grounds can such as statement be made and where is the evidence? It does not become true because someone said it. What about those who deny that Jesus is God? When the religious leaders rejected Jesus’ claim, He pointed them to the evidence.

For this reason they tried all the more to kill Him; not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God (John 5: 18).

This was His defence:

If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who testifies in my favour, and I know that His testimony about me is true. You have sent to John and He testified to the truth . . . I have testimony weightier that that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish – the very works that I am doing – testify that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has Himself testified concerning me . . . You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me (John 5:31-33; 36-37a; 39).

On what grounds, then, can we have absolute confidence in the high priest God has appointed on oath to stand before Him for us? Our confidence lies in the evidence and witness of who He is. Whatever people may say about Him, based on their refusal to believe the truth, Jesus is, in every way, a perfect high priest, both the Son of God and representative of the Father and the Son of Man and representative of humanity.

Unlike the Levitical priests who all died and were replaced, Jesus died and rose again, and lives forever in an indestructible body as both sacrifice and firstfuits of the resurrection. We have every reason to trust Him. His blood speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. He ever lives to make intercession for us.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

From And For The People

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FROM AND FOR THE PEOPLE

Every high priest is selected from among the people and is appointed to represent the people in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness. This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sin, as well as for the sins of the people. And no one takes this honour on himself, but he receives it when called by God just as Aaron was. (Heb. 5:1-4)

What makes the difference between a high priest and the rest of the people and what gives him the right to carry the office of high priest?

He is ‘called by God’. He is set apart by divine appointment to stand between God and the people and to offer sacrifices on their behalf – sacrifices acceptable to God because He prescribed what was to be done and how it was to be done in order to forgive their sin and to bring His people near to Him.

What qualified him to be a high priest? He was chosen from among the people. That meant that he had to be one of them. He had to be human, subject to the same sins and weaknesses as they were so that he would not consider himself better or a cut above the rest. Why was this? He needed to be gentle with his fellow sinners because he walked in their shoes. He needed to approach God with his people on his heart, not as a judge but as one of them.

He was also chosen to represent the people to God. He was the go-between, standing between his sinful compatriots and a holy God to bring blood to atone for their sin. Before he could atone for the sin of anyone else, however, he had to remember that he was also guilty before God. He also need blood to cleanse him from the guilt and pollution of his own imperfections before he could represent the nation to God.

The high priestly office was ongoing because death brought an end to the ministry of one man, and the office had to be handed on to the next and to the next as each succeeding generation passed on. It was, therefore, an interrupted function. No one was able to carry on standing before God for his people indefinitely.

How frustrating for God’s people when a kindly and sympathetic high priest died and was replaced by a man who did not carry the weaknesses of his people on his heart! The people were at the mercy of those who represented then, good or bad. This office was both a blessing and a curse for them, depending on the qualities of each man who stood before God for them.

In the same way, Christ did not take on Himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to Him, ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father.’ And He says in another place, ‘You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.’ (Heb. 5: 5-6)

What was the writer trying to prove? Jesus was fully qualified to take on the office and function of high priest for His people. He was one of them – born and raised as a Jew. He was appointed by God to be high priest, not of the tribe of Levi who had to pass the office on because of death. He was of the order of Melchizedek – a mysterious figure who appeared on the scene briefly during the time of Abraham. We shall learn more of him as the letter proceeds.

Why Melchizedek? He was both king of Jerusalem and priest of the Most High God, and Jesus was to be both king and high priest, both offices to be fulfilled in one man which was forbidden of the Levitical priests. Jesus was both the Son of God, making Him eligible to be a priest and a descendant of David, putting Him in line for the throne of David.

Why was this so important to these Jewish readers? As true Jews, they had to be sure that Jesus was no usurper. He had to have the qualifications laid down in God’s word to fulfil the offices of king and priest, of which Melchizedek was the forerunner. Did He qualify? Yes. Was He eligible? Yes. In every way Jesus was superior to the Leviticus priesthood, and fully qualified and competent to represent His people to God.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Jesus, Our Great High Priest

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JESUS OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the hope we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet without sin. Let us then approach God’s throne with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Heb. 4: 14-16)

How well we know this passage of Scripture!

For those of my readers who do not have a Jewish background, that Jesus is our high priest may not mean much to you.  After all, you have not been schooled in the teaching that you need a representative before God. For as long as you have been believers in Jesus, you have known that He represents you to the Father because He is God’s Son. But what if you have been born into an Israelite family on the journey through the wilderness?

They knew what it was like to be terrified of a God who had the power destroy an entire country with one disaster after another. They saw what He did to the Egyptians. They saw the devastation the plagues did to their crops, their homes and even their families when He rained down death on everything, including their firstborn sons. They saw the bodies of the Egyptian army floating in the Red Sea after they had crossed on dry land. Would they ever forget the terrible spectacle of walls of water swallowing up an entire army with their horses and chariots?

They heard God’s voice thundering from the fiery mountain top when He came down to cut His covenant with them. Not even an animal was to touch the mountain lest it die. They felt heat of God’s anger when He wiped out great numbers of them through plagues of disease and fiery serpents when they complained about their circumstances instead of trusting Him. O yes, they had enough proof of His terrifying power!

They knew they needed a go-between, someone who would stand between this fearful God and them to negotiate and intervene on their behalf. They needed someone to plead for forgiveness when they sinned against Him through their disobedience and rebellion when they could not get their own way. In His great love He appointed Moses’s brother, Aaron to be their mediator, their high priest who stood before Him on their behalf.

As long as Aaron approached God the way He prescribed, he was preserved from death. He had to take blood with him – the blood of a goat onto whom the sins of the nation had been pressed, and then slaughtered in the prescribed way. He had to make sure that he did it exactly as he was commanded or he would also die right there in the Holy of Holies where God’s presence was represented by an unearthly flame.

It seemed that this God was looking for reasons to kill them. He was so holy and so unapproachable that only Moses, their leader and Aaron, their high priest could get anywhere near Him. As for the rest of the people, they stayed as far away as possible and only ever went near the tabernacle if they had a sacrifice to offer.

As Jesus drew His last breath on the cross and died, something unthinkable happened. The great thick, heavy curtain that kept everyone except the high priest out of the Most Holy Place, suddenly split right down the middle. There was the unearthly glow of God’s presence hovering over the mercy seat, visible to everyone in the Holy Place – AND NOTHING HAPPENED TO THEM. No one was struck dead as they glimpsed what they had never been allowed to look at. Even the high priests had never see God’s glory because the smoke of the incense they carried into the Holy of Holies shielded their eyes from the sight.

How did that happen? God’s anger against sin had been satisfied once and for all. Never again would He demand a sacrifice. Sin’s debt had finally been paid, and by no less a person than His own Son. Not only that, but Jesus also represents us to the Father in the heavenly sanctuary. He is a perfect high priest because He experienced all the weaknesses of human flesh without breaking under the tests. He died but He rose again and lives forever to represent us to the Father.

And the Father is satisfied.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

A Faithful And Merciful High Priest

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 A FAITHFUL AND MERCIFUL HIGH PRIEST

For surely it is not angels He helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason He had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that He might make atonement for the sins of the people, Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted. (Heb. 2: 16-18)

Those who deny the humanity of Jesus destroy everything He came to do as both high priest and sacrifice. Take for example the Roman Catholic doctrine of the immaculate conception of Mary. If Mary was conceived without sin, and Jesus was so-called born of a sinless mother, then He could not have been made like us, fully human in every way.

To be fully human is to carry the potential to sin, as Adam did. But He was without sin, not because He was born of a sinless mother, but because He suffered and overcame temptation so that He could be our faithful and merciful high priest.

Jesus was not conceived through a human father but through the Holy Spirit. He had the nature of God and was fully God, but He was born of a human mother, which gave Him the nature of man. She carried Him in her womb for nine months, and gave birth to Him as does every human mother. He was suckled at her breast and nourished with human food. He had to learn from infancy to be a human being as does every other child.

In the course of His growing up, He had to learn the power of temptation and suffering in order to qualify as our faithful and merciful high priest. How much more intense it must have been for Him, as the son of Mary and the Son of God, to withstand the subtleties of Satan’s deception from a tiny child onwards! He could not give in to the temptation to follow the example of His peers and react as they did in the rough and tumble of life not even for a moment in His thoughts, attitudes and actions.

He did not just suffer (experience) temptation; He suffered when He was tempted. That made temptation far more intense to Him than for us because He had to resist to the end. Our temptation ends when we give in. His temptations never ended because He did not give in.

Listen to the testimony of His Father after thirty to years of growing up from infancy to manhood in a normal human family, through the ‘terrible’ twos’, the teens and early adulthood, with awakening hormones coursing through His veins, and sinful people all around Him and pressing in on Him:

As soon as Jesus was baptised, He went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on Him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.’ (Matt. 3: 16, 17)

Jesus had no one to mentor Him, not even an earthly father and mother who were without sin. He was wholly dependent on His fellowship with His heavenly Father, of which He was aware from His earliest years, and the union He had with Him, to take Him through His growing-up years without faltering.

His own conscience bore witness to His perfect record. In the heat of debate with His ever-present opponents, the religious leaders, He challenged them:

Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? (John 8: 46)

Much to their frustration, no one could! No sin, Jesus? Not even a stray thought? Not an under-your-breath threat or insult? Never an attitude of hostility – never? Always, always, nothing but perfect love? Yes! With a perfectly pure conscience He could challenge them and be met with . . . silence! This must have angered them even more, because their own consciences screamed at them and refused to be silenced.

No need then, ever, to replace Jesus as our high priest. He does the job to perfection because He is one of us; He succeeded when every other high priest failed, and died; He qualified as both a sinless human and a perfect sacrifice. He fulfils the office of high priest perfectly and forever. He didn’t just offer blood to atone for our sin; He offered His own blood, once and for all. No other sacrifice and no other high priest is needed.

And, what’s more, because He is also God, He helps us – with the power of His own Holy Spirit, to overcome just like He did. He understands the inner strength of the temptations we face because He’s been there. He knows how to ‘succour’ (King James Version) those who are tempted. The Free Dictionary defines ‘succour’ as ‘giving help or assistance, especially in times of difficulty.’

That’s it! That’s what He is able to do because He was made just like us. . .

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.