Jesus, The Great High Priest
"For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin...yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered." (Heb. 4:15, 5:8)
Ever since the rebellious fall of man, man is incapable of approaching a holy God on his own merit. We need someone to mediate for us and who will stand before God to represent us or make a sacrifice on our behalf. We need to look beyond ourselves.
This is why God introduced the role of a priest, since only a priest is able to offer gifts and sacrifices that are acceptable and pleasing to God ON OUR BEHALF. In the Old Testament, a person could not just aspire to be included among the priesthood but must rather be an age appropriate male who was born into the tribe of Levi. In other words, you had to be wearing spiritually form- fitting "Levi genes" so to speak.
A priest's work was never done since there was always a need to daily offer the necessary blood sacrifices of the appointed animals chosen by God, which revealed the seriousness of our sin and God's holy standards that required atonement whenever there was any transgression against God.
The primary role of a priest was to represent a group of people before God, along with:
A high priest would go even further since he would wear the Ephod with the 12 stones representing all the tribes over his heart. He would go into the Holy of Holies once a year to offer the sin offering and the scape goat the would atone for all of the unknown or unintentional sins that may have been missed throughout the year on the Day of Atonement.
Although it is true that sinful man COULD NOT approach a Holy God,
it is always possible for a Holy God to approach sinful man.
This is what God did when He sent Jesus into the world as the holy, sinless Lamb who was sent "not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:17).
Since every priest was in need of forgiveness themselves, there was always a need for one who would eventually rise up to be the perfect priest and the ultimate sacrifice and this, or course, was Jesus. The Bible says, "For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time" (1 Tim. 2:5-6)
Jesus waited until the priestly age of 30 to begin His ministry and to be tempted in all points without sin and to show us that where the first parents of the human race failed, He would succeed and birth a new race where we could become "born again" as new creations in Christ.
As Scripture says, "For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly" (Rom. 5:6) and "so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation" (Heb. 9:28).
It is because of this glorious truth that we can "come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb. 4:16). We don't have to climb over any religious hoops or bring any animals to be sacrificed or perform some religious ceremony or ritual. Why? Because what God did through Jesus was perfect, sufficient, and singular.
His perfect blood covered our imperfect acts of disobedience and made us forever clean.
Instead of being condemned for every evil or wrong thought, word, or action, we can approach God as those who are fully clean, freely forgiven, and favorably acceptable before God.
For when God sees us, He first sees His Son...and thus the righteousness of Christ allows us to come not to a throne of condemning judgment but of saving grace.
This is all because Jesus chose to suffer for our behalf as He continually remained faithful to His Father, learning how to hold His tongue, restraining any right to defend Himself, and choosing to lay down His life freely for us. Hebrews 5:8 states, "He learned obedience by the things that He suffered", so that we might receive salvation by His perfected obedience. This is what we call "amazing grace!"
"And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:16-17).
THIS WEEK’S “New Covenant” EXHORTATION:
Ask God to open your eyes to see your full access to His Throne of Grace.
Come to Him fully believing that you will receive whatever you need in the moment.
Ever since the rebellious fall of man, man is incapable of approaching a holy God on his own merit. We need someone to mediate for us and who will stand before God to represent us or make a sacrifice on our behalf. We need to look beyond ourselves.
This is why God introduced the role of a priest, since only a priest is able to offer gifts and sacrifices that are acceptable and pleasing to God ON OUR BEHALF. In the Old Testament, a person could not just aspire to be included among the priesthood but must rather be an age appropriate male who was born into the tribe of Levi. In other words, you had to be wearing spiritually form- fitting "Levi genes" so to speak.
A priest's work was never done since there was always a need to daily offer the necessary blood sacrifices of the appointed animals chosen by God, which revealed the seriousness of our sin and God's holy standards that required atonement whenever there was any transgression against God.
The primary role of a priest was to represent a group of people before God, along with:
- Holiness as their distinctive quality
- Wearing specific priestly garments
- Eating consecrated temple food
- Living separately from the other tribes
- Offering gifts, sacrifices, and prayers
- Handling the blood of animals on a daily basis
A high priest would go even further since he would wear the Ephod with the 12 stones representing all the tribes over his heart. He would go into the Holy of Holies once a year to offer the sin offering and the scape goat the would atone for all of the unknown or unintentional sins that may have been missed throughout the year on the Day of Atonement.
Although it is true that sinful man COULD NOT approach a Holy God,
it is always possible for a Holy God to approach sinful man.
This is what God did when He sent Jesus into the world as the holy, sinless Lamb who was sent "not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:17).
Since every priest was in need of forgiveness themselves, there was always a need for one who would eventually rise up to be the perfect priest and the ultimate sacrifice and this, or course, was Jesus. The Bible says, "For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time" (1 Tim. 2:5-6)
Jesus waited until the priestly age of 30 to begin His ministry and to be tempted in all points without sin and to show us that where the first parents of the human race failed, He would succeed and birth a new race where we could become "born again" as new creations in Christ.
As Scripture says, "For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly" (Rom. 5:6) and "so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation" (Heb. 9:28).
It is because of this glorious truth that we can "come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb. 4:16). We don't have to climb over any religious hoops or bring any animals to be sacrificed or perform some religious ceremony or ritual. Why? Because what God did through Jesus was perfect, sufficient, and singular.
His perfect blood covered our imperfect acts of disobedience and made us forever clean.
Instead of being condemned for every evil or wrong thought, word, or action, we can approach God as those who are fully clean, freely forgiven, and favorably acceptable before God.
For when God sees us, He first sees His Son...and thus the righteousness of Christ allows us to come not to a throne of condemning judgment but of saving grace.
This is all because Jesus chose to suffer for our behalf as He continually remained faithful to His Father, learning how to hold His tongue, restraining any right to defend Himself, and choosing to lay down His life freely for us. Hebrews 5:8 states, "He learned obedience by the things that He suffered", so that we might receive salvation by His perfected obedience. This is what we call "amazing grace!"
"And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:16-17).
THIS WEEK’S “New Covenant” EXHORTATION:
Ask God to open your eyes to see your full access to His Throne of Grace.
Come to Him fully believing that you will receive whatever you need in the moment.
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