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In Hebrews 4 through 7, we see that Christ is the One better than Aaron, who as a high priest is a type of Christ. The Lord Jesus first was sent from God to us through incarnation (2:14) to be our Apostle (3:1), our Author, our Leader (2:10), the One superior to Moses (3:3), and our real Joshua (4:8) to bring us, His partners (1:9; 3:14), into glory and rest (2:10; 4:11). He then went back from us to God through resurrection and ascension (5:5-6) to be our High Priest to bear us in the presence of God and to care for all our needs (2:17-18; 4:15).
As the High Priest, Christ is continually in the Holy of Holies. Our High Priest is not at the altar offering the sacrifices, nor in the Holy Place preparing the bread of the Presence, lighting the lamps, and burning the incense. He is in the Holy of Holies. Most Christians only have a Christ who is at the altar, that is, a Christ on the cross. Many hymns speak of the crucified Christ. Some Christians only have a Christ in the Holy Place. The highest attainment in their spiritual seeking is that of a Christ preparing the bread of the Presence, lighting the lamp, and burning the incense in the Holy Place. They have missed the High Priest in the Holy of Holies. The main function of our High Priest today is neither at the altar nor in the Holy Place but in the Holy of Holies, where God’s presence and shekinah glory are. Yes, He was once on the cross, but as 1:3 reveals, His work on the cross has been finished. Now, having finished His work, He is sitting at the right hand of God in the heavens. No place is closer to God than this. The book of Hebrews was written to help us come forward to this Christ, who is now in the presence of God.
The Christ who is in the Holy of Holies is not merely our Savior, Redeemer, Apostle, or Captain of salvation; He is our High Priest. In the Holy of Holies He is ministering God into us. We should forget our environment, weaknesses, troubles, and even ourselves and remember that today Jesus Christ is our High Priest in the Holy of Holies. As long as we have such a High Priest, we have everything we need.
According to the Old Testament, whenever the high priest went into the presence of God in the Holy of Holies, he bore upon his shoulders two onyx stones on which were engraved the names of the children of Israel (Exo. 28:9-12). He also wore the breastplate in which were set twelve precious stones engraved with the names of the children of Israel (vv. 15-30). This signifies that the people of Israel were on the shoulder and breast of the high priest. Since the shoulder signifies strength and the breast signifies love, the people of God were on the strength and in the love of the high priest. When the high priest was in the Holy of Holies, he brought all the people of God along with him. In the eyes of God, when he was there, all the people of God were there with him. Likewise, when God looks at Christ, our High Priest in the Holy of Holies, He sees us upon His shoulder and breast. Our High Priest in the Holy of Holies in the heavens bears us and wears us before God. Even now we are upon His shoulder and upon His breast in the Holy of Holies. We are there with Him in the shekinah glory of God.
As Christ bears us before God in the Holy of Holies, He ministers God into our being. When the apostle Paul prayed to the Lord, asking Him to remove the thorn (2 Cor. 12:7-8), the Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness” (v. 9). Instead of removing that thorn, the Lord imparted Himself into Paul as grace, enabling the apostle to know how precious and sufficient He is. This experience of Christ as our High Priest who bears us on His shoulder and breast and ministers God into us is an experience in the Holy of Holies, where we enjoy God Himself and all His riches. When we enter into this experience, it is difficult to say where we are or what is happening. We can only say that we are upon the shoulders and breast of our High Priest and that He is ministering something comforting and strengthening into us. This experience of Christ as our High Priest is the highest experience and enjoyment. We all must learn to stay here on His shoulders and on His breast in the Holy of Holies. We should not be content to remain as outer-court Christians; neither should we be Christians staggering in the Holy Place. We must press on into the Holy of Holies, where God’s presence and shekinah glory are.
This experience of Christ as our High Priest undoubtedly is in the heavens. However, it is also in our spirit and in the church because the church today is God’s habitation in our spirit. Christ, the heavenly ladder which joins earth to heaven and brings heaven to earth, is in our spirit. By the habitation of God and the heavenly ladder, the Holy of Holies in the heavens is joined to our spirit. The wonderful Christ is both in the heavens and also in our spirit. Romans 8:34 says that Christ is at the right hand of God interceding for us, and Romans 8:10 says that Christ is also within us. There are not two Christs, one in the heavens and one within us; neither is it a matter of one Christ at two different times. Just as the electricity in the power plant is joined to our homes, so the Christ in the third heaven is joined to our spirit. If by the flow of electricity two places can be made one, how much more can our wonderful Christ be both in the heavens as well as in our spirit!
Hebrews 4:14 says, “Having therefore a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God.” In this verse the title Jesus refers to His humanity, whereas the title Son of God refers to His Godhead. In 7:26 we are told that Christ is the High Priest, who is holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and having become higher than the heavens. In verse 28 we see that Christ as the Son is perfected forever. Verse 11 of chapter 9 speaks of Christ as a High Priest of the good things; 10:21 speaks of Christ as the great Priest over the house of God. These verses reveal that Christ is a great High Priest of the good things, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners, having become higher than the heavens, and perfected forever.
According to 4:14, Jesus, the Son of God, is a “great High Priest.” The word great in this verse means “excellent, wonderful, glorious, and most honorable.” Christ is great in His person (1:5, 8; 2:6), work (1:3; 2:17, 9, 14-15, 10; 3:5-6; 4:8-9; Acts 2:24, 27), and attainment (Heb. 6:20; 9:24; 2:9).
First, our High Priest, Christ, is great in His person. He is the Son of God, God Himself (1:5, 8). He is also the Son of Man, man himself (2:6). He, being both God and man, has the divine nature and the human nature. He not only knows the things of God and the things of man; He also is in the things of God and the things of man. No other high priest has ever been like Him.
Our High Priest, Christ, is also great in His work. He has made purification of and propitiation for our sins (1:3; 2:17). He has taken away sin and has solved the problem of sin. He tasted death not only on behalf of every man but also on behalf of everything (v. 9). By tasting death, He conquered and subdued it. Death could not hold Him (Acts 2:24, 27). He also destroyed the devil who has the might of death (Heb. 2:14). By His death on the cross, Christ annulled Satan, the power of death. By conquering death and destroying the devil, He has released us from the slavery of death (v. 15). We have been freed by Him not only from the slavery of sin but also from the slavery of death. Through His suffering, He has been perfected to be the Captain of our salvation (v. 10). He fought the battle and entered into glory. As the Pioneer, He is leading us on in the same way to glory. He is now taking care of God’s house as Moses did (3:5-6). As the Builder of the house, He surely knows how to take care of it. He is now also bringing us into rest, as Joshua did (4:8-9). He has given us the Sabbath rest in the church age, and He will bring us into the Sabbath rest of the kingdom age. As our High Priest, He is great in all these wonderful and excellent works of His, which no high priest in the Old Testament had ever accomplished.
Moreover, our High Priest, Christ, is great in His attainment. His attainment is so high that He entered into the Holy of Holies in the heavens and was crowned with glory and honor (6:20; 9:24; 2:9). He is no longer on earth bearing the crown of thorns; He is now in the highest heavens wearing the crown of glory. No high priest can exceed Him in His attainment; no one can even compare with Him in this matter.
Our High Priest, Christ, who is great in His person, qualification, work, accomplishment, and attainment, has passed through the heavens (4:14). After He was crucified and before He was resurrected, Christ walked through Hades, having a good sightseeing tour. Although Satan and all the powers of death tried to hold Him, at the time of His resurrection, He rose from the grave (Acts 2:24, 27). Later, as He was ascending to the heavens, He overcame the gravitation of earth. The demons desperately tried to prevent Him from leaving the earth, but He made a wonderful takeoff. Then He ascended to the heavens. As He was passing through the air, the evil spirits, the principalities and powers, tried to grasp Him and hold Him back, but He stripped them off, making a display to the whole universe. This is the meaning of Colossians 2:15, which tells us that Christ stripped off the rulers and the authorities and “made a display of them openly, triumphing over them.” In this verse we see three main points: that Christ stripped off the rulers and the authorities, that He made a display of them, and that He triumphed over them. Now, having risen from Hades, having stripped off the rulers and the authorities, and having passed through the heavens, He is sitting on the throne at the right hand of God, where He is restfully enjoying a Sabbath. But He desires to see that all His members come into His Sabbath rest. The way to enter into His Sabbath is by experiencing Him as our High Priest. We simply need to come forward to the throne of grace on which He is sitting and receive mercy and find grace. When we do this, we are immediately in the Sabbath rest of the church life, waiting with Him for the better Sabbath to come in the age of the millennial kingdom.
Hebrews 7:26 says that “such a High Priest was also fitting to us, holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners.” Christ is holy, guileless, undefiled, and separated from sinners. As such a perfect One, He surely is fitting to us. Having a fallen and corrupted nature, we need such a High Priest to save us all the time.
Verse 26 also says that He has “become higher than the heavens.” In His ascension, Christ “has passed through the heavens” (4:14). Now He is not only in heaven (9:24) but also “higher than the heavens,” “far above all the heavens” (Eph. 4:10). None of our troubles is higher than the heavens. Because our High Priest is higher than the heavens, He is able to rescue us and save us to the uttermost (Heb. 7:25).
Verse 28 says that the Son of God has been perfected forever. This verse proves that the Son of God must not be simply the only begotten Son but also the firstborn Son. The only begotten Son of God needed no perfection, because He was eternally perfect. But in order for Christ to be the firstborn Son of God, He needed a great deal of perfection. He had to put on humanity in His incarnation and live on earth for thirty-three and a half years, passing through all the experiences of human living. Then He needed to pass through death, tasting, overcoming, subduing, and swallowing up death. After that, He had to come out of death in resurrection. After His resurrection, He, as the firstborn Son of God with humanity, was fully perfected. Now He is not just the eternal only begotten Son of God but also the perfected firstborn Son of God. Therefore, now He is completely perfected, equipped, and qualified to be our divine High Priest. We may trust in Him with our full confidence because He has been so perfected.
Verse 15 of chapter 4 says, “We do not have a High Priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all respects like us, yet without sin.” Verses 17 and 18 of chapter 2 say, “Hence He should have been made like His brothers in all things that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in the things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For being tempted in that which He Himself has suffered, He is able to help those who are being tempted.” These verses indicate that Christ has been made like us in all things, able to sympathize with our weaknesses, having been tried in all respects like us, yet without sin. Although Christ is so high and capable, He is able to sympathize with our weaknesses. In a very real sense, He is the same as we are in all respects, except that He is without sin.
As our High Priest, Christ has been tried in all respects like us, but without sin (4:15). Since He has been tried, He is qualified and able to help us who are being tried (2:18). In all His trials, He was never stained with sin. He suffered the trials without being touched by sin. He is truly equipped to help us to pass through trials and to keep us from any entanglement of sin.
As the One who has been tried in all respects like us, our High Priest, Christ, is able to sympathize with our weaknesses (4:15). He is easily touched with the feeling of our weaknesses and quickly enters into a fellow-suffering with us in our weaknesses. Whatever happens to us and whatever suffering we may have, He feels it with us and sympathizes with us.
In 5:2 we are told that a high priest was “able to exercise compassion toward the ignorant and erring since he also is encompassed with weakness.” The Greek in this verse implies a feeling toward the ignorant and erring that is neither too severe nor too tolerant. To exercise compassion is to be moderate or tender in judging their situation. The thought in this verse is a continuation of the thought in 4:15. Though not encompassed with weakness like the high priest taken from among men, Christ as our High Priest was tempted in all respects like us. Hence, being touched with the feeling of our weaknesses, He is able to exercise compassion toward us, the ignorant and erring ones.
Christ can be touched with the feeling of our weaknesses because the ascended, heavenly Christ is still with us and is therefore able to be touched with our feeling. Day by day we have the feeling of weaknesses, of infirmities, of being weak and inadequate. But there is a High Priest who is able to be touched with our feeling. Therefore, He must be One who is not only in the heavens but also with us in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). This is possible because today Christ is not only the ascended Christ in the heavens but also the Spirit in our spirit. Hence, today He is with us.
Christ is a great High Priest who can always be touched with our feeling. Whatever we feel, He feels. He is being touched continually with our feeling, because He is in our spirit. He sympathizes with everything that we feel, because He is one with us. Today we need to appropriate Christ experientially by realizing that the heavenly Christ as the living Spirit dwells in our spirit for us to touch. We must learn how to discern our spirit from the other parts of our being. Then we will meet Christ in our spirit, be in His presence, and experience Him as the High Priest who sympathizes with our feeling all the time.
Verse 28 of Hebrews 9 tells us that Christ has been offered once to bear the sins of many (v. 14; 10:12). In the eyes of God, sin is gone and has become history. We should not believe Satan, our feelings, or our failures. They are lies. We must declare that sin was put away by Christ in His first manifestation.
According to 7:27, our High Priest “does not have daily need, as the high priests do, to offer up sacrifices first for his own sins and then for those of the people; for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.” This does not refer to what Christ is doing today but to what He did in the past. This verse assures us that never again need we be bothered by sin, for Christ offered Himself for sins once for all. On the cross He solved the problem of sin once for all. Now on the throne, He is carrying out His priesthood forever.
Christ offered Himself to God for our sins (7:27; 9:14, 26; 10:10, 12). The first thing that our Lord did in His priestly ministry was to offer Himself to God for our sins. He was the real sin offering, the unique sin offering. From the foundation of the world, Christ was the unique sin offering (Rev. 13:8). As such an offering, He offered Himself to God for our sins. Christ offered Himself to God for our sins once for all, and He does not need to do it again. It was accomplished once for all for eternity.
We all must declare and announce the good tidings that the problem of sin has been solved. We should not listen to lies. Even our experience is a lie. Sin is no longer here. We all must declare that sin has been taken away. Christ’s offering of Himself put away sin. Thus, John 1:29 says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” However, many Christians do not realize or believe that sin has been taken away. We should believe that sin has been taken away. Even if we have a failure or defeat, we must tell Satan that we do not believe him and that we believe the holy Word, which says that sin has been taken away. We must forget our experiences and what we are, strongly take the Lord’s word, and declare to the enemy and to the whole universe that sin has been taken away and that sin has nothing to do with us any longer because Christ offered Himself to God to take it away.
Aaron, as the high priest, took care of things pertaining to God on behalf of the people (Heb. 5:1). Christ is superior to him in taking care of the people’s cases before God. Aaron offered both gifts and sacrifices for sins in type for the people and for himself (vv. 1, 3), but Christ offered Himself as the sacrifice for sin in reality.
Verses 4 and 5 say, “No one takes the honor upon himself, but only as he is called by God, just as Aaron also was. So also Christ did not glorify Himself in becoming a High Priest, but it was He who said to Him, ‘You are My Son; this day have I begotten You.’” Christ did not glorify Himself to become a High Priest but was called by God, even as Aaron was.
Aaron did not take honor unto himself but was called and established by God to be the high priest (vv. 4, 1). This is even more true with Christ. He did not glorify Himself to become a High Priest; He was ordained by God in His resurrection, according to the order of Melchizedek (vv. 5-6).
As the High Priest, Christ was glorified through resurrection. In verse 5 the word glorify replaces honor used in the foregoing verse. With the high priest taken from among men, there is only honor, a matter of position. With Christ as the High Priest, there is not only honor but also glory, not only the preciousness of His position but also the splendor of His person.
Verse 5 contains a quotation from Psalm 2:7, saying, “You are My Son; this day have I begotten You.” This refers to Christ’s resurrection (Acts 13:33), which qualifies Him to be our High Priest. For Christ to be our High Priest, He had to partake of our humanity, as mentioned in Hebrews 2:14-18, and enter with this humanity into resurrection. In His humanity He can be touched with the feeling of our weaknesses and be merciful to us (4:15; 2:17). In resurrection, in His divinity He can do everything for us and be faithful to us (7:24-25; 2:17).
