For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever. (Hebrews 7:26–28)A priest mediated between the divine and human realms. Functions included teaching God’s precepts, performing sacrifices and rituals, receiving tithes, pronouncing blessings, and distinguishing between clean and unclean. Now Jesus is called our high priest:
The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever.’ This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:21–25)Because Jesus lived and died and rose again, He is my High Priest. He did what God promised He would do to change His people, something the law could not do or any efforts to keep it:
I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” (Hebrews 8:6–12)The OT shows that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Thus God sent His Son and Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands, but into heaven itself, to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own. He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:22–28)
So I eagerly wait. I know that my High Priest forgave and accepted me, enables me to love Him and obey Him, and to not turn away from Him. His blood is called the “blood of the eternal covenant” and God will “work in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ.” I am in awe that Jesus Christ bought this blessing in the salvation purchased at Calvary. My security is in Him, the High Priest that was modeled by the OT priests, imperfect as they were and imperfect as any effort I could attempt to be righteous without Jesus, my forever Priest.
PRAY: The richness of what is recorded in Your Word, Jesus, is almost too much for my feeble mind to fully grasp. I’m so thankful that You also give understanding and let me have glimpses of Your glory, so undeserved on my part yet such a great gift of grace rooted in Your love and mercy.
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