Friday, May 3, 2019

Our Great High Priest: A Study Of The Book Of Hebrews. Day 22, A High Priest Who Meets Our Needs

It's impossible to live in this fallen world and not have needs. First of all, we need redemption from our sins. We also have the need for strength, encouragement, and healing. The Lord Jesus Christ, because He has been where we are, is capable of supplying every need we have.

First the author wants us to understand that nothing is going to cause God to change His mind about appointing Christ as our great high priest forever. God's word alone is unbreakable, but because we are weak and doubtful, God made the promise on oath. "And it was not without an oath! Others became priests without any oath, but He became a priest with an oath when God said to Him: 'The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind: You are a priest forever.'" (Hebrews 7:20-21) The writer quotes the words of David from Psalm 110:4. In that psalm we find God the Father promising God the Son an eternal kingdom and an eternal priesthood.

The Levitical priests weren't sworn into office by an oath from God, but the Son was. This demonstrates to us the superiority of the Son's priesthood over the Levitical priesthood. "Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant. Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus lives forever, He has a permanent priesthood. Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them." (Hebrews 7:22-25) The Levitical priests were ordinary human beings just like us. They oversaw the sacrifices and offerings of the people and they interceded for the people with God. But they couldn't save the souls of anyone because they weren't perfect themselves. They had to make sacrifices and offerings for their own sins as well as for the people of Israel. They had to ask God to forgive them for their own mistakes as well as asking Him to forgive the mistakes of the nation as a whole. These priests couldn't redeem anyone's soul, anymore than one of our church pastors today can redeem anyone's soul. But Christ, our high priest who is perfect and who lives forever, can!

This is the type of high priest we require: one who can meet all our needs. "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 sins, 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." (Hebrews 7:26-28) Amen! Only One who is perfect can make us perfect. Only One who gave a perfect sacrifice is capable of redeeming us forever through that sacrifice. This priesthood will never change, and our great high priest is forever in the presence of God making intercession for us.

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