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Scripture Reading: Heb. 2:17; 3:1; 4:14-16; 5:5-6, 10; 6:20; 7:27-28; 8:1; 10:21; Rom. 8:34
As you are probably aware, the Bible tells us that Christ has three offices: prophet, priest, and king. Christ came the first time mainly as the Prophet foretold in Deuteronomy 18:15 and 18. In His earthly ministry He spoke for God, spoke forth God, taught the disciples, and prophesied. This was His role as prophet. Then in the last part of His earthly ministry He began to offer Himself to God until finally on the cross He offered Himself as the reality of all the sacrifices to God for us. In this He was fulfilling His role as priest. From that point on, He has had this function.
In Levitical times the priests did two kinds of work. The first was the offering of sacrifices to God in the outer court around the altar. Once the offerings were made, the priests entered into the Holy Place. The high priest entered the Holy of Holies. Here he would minister to God on behalf of His people.
The first priestly work typifies Christ’s earthly priesthood; the second, His heavenly. When Christ offered Himself on the cross to God for us, He was a priest, offering on the earth in the outer court. Then after His resurrection He entered into the third heaven, which is the Holy of Holies. Here He continues to serve as the heavenly priest. It is this second aspect of His priesthood that we shall consider now.
This priesthood in the heavens is what mostly occupies Christ today. It is a vast subject for us to cover. The book of Hebrews deals with this matter quite comprehensively. Since we are limited by time in our consideration of it here, I recommend that you read the Life-study messages on Hebrews that deal with it (especially Messages 13, 27, 28, 31, 32, 33, and 35).
For Christ to be a priest, He must be a man (Heb. 2:16-17). The high priest was “taken from among men” (5:1). If he had been an angel, he would not have had any understanding of human problems. Because the priest was taken from among men, he could sympathize with man’s weakness. Our High Priest today, Jesus Christ, is a man. He has partaken of our nature. He has shared in blood and flesh. He has been made like us in all things. He had to eat and drink. Sometimes He even wept. He shed tears at the tomb of Lazarus (John 11:35), He wept over Jerusalem at the end of His earthly ministry (Luke 19:41), and He prayed “with strong crying and tears” (Heb. 5:7) in the Garden of Gethsemane. Even today He is a man, a man in the glory. “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” (4:15). Because He thoroughly knows all our weak points and problems, He sympathizes with us. Such is our High Priest as a man.
Our High Priest is also God. Because He is human, He can sympathize with us. But because He is also divine, He can take care of us. In the Old Testament the high priest Aaron could sympathize with the people, but many times he could not help them, because he was not divine. Our High Priest, however, is according to the order not of Aaron but of Melchizedek (5:6, 10; 6:20). Of Melchizedek no genealogy is recorded in Genesis (14:18-20; Heb. 7:3) so that he might be a proper type of Christ as the eternal One to be our High Priest perpetually. As a man, Christ knows our case and sympathizes with us; as God, He is able to take care of all our needs. Hallelujah for this God-man who is our High Priest!
The priesthood of Christ is “not according to the law of a fleshy commandment but according to the power of an indestructible life” (v. 16). Aaron was constituted a high priest according to the powerless letter of the law, but Christ, according to the powerful element of an indestructible life. Our High Priest is constituted of a life that nothing can conquer but rather that conquers everything. It is a life that cannot be destroyed and a life that saves to the uttermost. It is the endless, eternal, divine, uncreated life, the resurrection life that has passed the test of death and Hades.
Our High Priest is now serving God for us in the Holy of Holies. He is our Representative in the supreme court of the heavens. He is our Attorney, presenting our case to God. We do not fully realize how much Christ is doing for us there. Although His redemptive work has been accomplished, His heavenly service to us never ceases.
How much we need Him!
Surely every hour we need Him. From hour to hour we do not know what situations will confront us. We may say Hallelujah or Amen in the meeting, but when we get home, our joy may vanish, and instead of Hallelujah and Amen there will be silence and a long face. A problem has arisen. Or we may get chilled and catch cold. Whatever the problem is, Christ is there taking care of our case. He bears us when we have a long face or are ill. His interceding never ceases. His ability to take care of us is unlimited because He is the almighty God. His priesthood is an interceding ministry in the heavens, in the Holy of Holies, before God for us.
You are often unaware of His interceding, but sometimes you do realize that He is thus caring for you. You may be in the midst of an argument with your wife when suddenly your words fail. Why do the angry words no longer come tumbling out? Before you were saved, did you ever have such an experience? In my own case I used to go into a rage that could last the whole day, even overnight. Since I have been saved, however, I have never been able to get fully angry. The most my anger has lasted, as far as I can recall, is a few minutes. How about your case? How long can you stay angry? Not very long, because Christ is there interceding for you at the throne of God, and His interceding is heard.
Sometimes troubles come to us, and we get anxious. Before we were saved, these worries were endless. Now, when anxious thoughts arise, we soon sense a soothing comfort, saying to us, “Why don’t you pray? You don’t need to worry.” Christ has begun to intercede for us, and this is the effect it produces. Then we respond to Him, “Thank You, Lord. You bear my worries. All my cares are in Your hand.” We pray just a few short words, and the anxiety is lifted. We can enjoy Him. This is Christ’s priestly intercession for us. It is unending.
In Romans 8:34 Paul asks, “Who is he who condemns? It is Christ Jesus who died and, rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.” There is no one who can condemn us. Christ surely does not; He died for us, was resurrected, and is now in the heavens interceding for us. His heavenly ministry is to take care of us.
We have all had many experiences of our faithful High Priest’s care for us. Many times we have been reminded, comforted, strengthened, and even carried by Him. If we had time, we could hear testimony after testimony of how the help has come, not so much from the outside as from within. The help comes also from the heavens. There is something within and something from above that strengthens, sustains, comforts, and enlightens us. Without this support from our High Priest’s intercession, we would long since have been gone. We have been preserved not by ourselves but by our High Priest.
Our High Priest is well qualified for His office. The book of Hebrews gives us His qualifications. He is the Son of God (1:5), the Son of Man (2:6-9), the Author of our salvation (v. 10), the Apostle sent from God to us (3:1), and the real Joshua bringing us into rest (4:8). This well qualified One is now caring for us in every detail. His intercession is precious to the Father. God on the throne treasures the priesthood of His Son. So must we.
He is praying for you day and night. You may have been away from the Lord and the church life. You turned a deaf ear to everyone who tried to help you. But one day, perhaps while you were far away on a mountaintop, the thought came to you, “Why not go back to the church?” You were all by yourself, away from the influence of others, but still you heard this word within. How do you explain that? Surely it was the effect of Christ’s priesthood. His intercession touched you while you were far off and brought you back.
We really do not need much help from the outside. We have a Helper in the heavenlies. Our help comes from the heavens to our spirit. Eventually, the help comes from within. We have such a High Priest.
“Having therefore a great High Priest...Let us therefore come forward with boldness to the throne of grace” (vv. 14-16). After picturing for us our High Priest caring for us in our weaknesses, the writer of Hebrews then exhorts us to come to the throne of grace. It is by thus coming forward that we correspond to His heavenly intercession.
Where is the throne of grace? We must answer that it is both in the heavens and in our spirit. If it were only in the heavens, how could we come to it? As our experience bears witness, the throne is also in our spirit. To illustrate, let us say that we have some anxiety. To be anxious is a characteristic of an intelligent person. Only those who are foolish are happy-go-lucky no matter what happens to them. If we are alert, thinking people, many things will cause us anxiety. When we are single, our thoughts are occupied with our own concerns. Once we are married, we have two people to worry about. Instead of thinking only of ourselves, we shall be wondering about our spouse. What about that conversation we had last night? What about our future? What if one of us gets sick? We need a way to cope with all the troublesome thoughts and situations that come to us. Thank God that our spirit is connected to the Holy of Holies. When we turn from our mind to our spirit, we enter into the Holy of Holies. Once there, it is hard to figure out whether we are in heaven or on earth. The Holy of Holies has two ends, one in the heavens and the other in our spirit. Here in the Holy of Holies is the throne of grace.
What do we do at the throne of grace? We pray, worship, and look to the One on the throne. We praise and thank Him. From this throne flows the river of life. If we stay here a while, we shall have the sense that something from the throne of grace flows into us, through us, and out of us. We are experiencing the eternal life as the supplying grace. We receive mercy and “find grace for timely help” (v. 16). By coming to the throne of grace we are corresponding to Christ’s heavenly priesthood. Whenever we turn to the spirit and come to the throne of grace, we correspond to His heavenly interceding. His interceding and our praying constitute a traffic between heaven and earth.
When the high priest entered the Holy of Holies, he bore on his shoulders the names of the twelve tribes (Exo. 28:6-12). These names were also inscribed on the breastplate (v. 21). Today our High Priest bears all of us before God in the heavenly Holy of Holies. He goes to God to bring us there and to bring our need to Him. In this Holy Place all our problems are solved. He is serving us at the throne of grace. Let us therefore come forward with boldness, that we may receive mercy and find grace for timely help.
The throne of grace is the only place where our problems can be solved. As we come, we are corresponding from our side to the intercession on His side. This communication goes on all day long. Although none of this can be seen with our physical eyes, our spirit senses that something is going on in the Holy of Holies for us. Come to the throne of grace!
This office of High Priest is the greatest part of Christ’s heavenly ministry. We are meeting Him there at the throne of grace, hour after hour, enjoying, experiencing, and touching Him. As He intercedes for us, we are coming boldly to the throne to receive mercy and to find grace. These are always available to us. However, we need to receive mercy and find grace by exercising our spirit to come to the throne and to touch our High Priest, who sympathizes with us in all our weaknesses.
How great is our High Priest! “He is able to save to the uttermost those who come forward to God through Him, since He lives always to intercede for them” (Heb. 7:25). The high priests who served under the law had weakness, so they had to offer up sacrifices first for their own sins and then for the sins of the people (v. 27). Our High Priest, in contrast, is “holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners and having become higher than the heavens” (v. 26). He has no need to offer up sacrifices, “for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself” (v. 27). Rather than the weak men who served as high priests under the law, our High Priest is “the Son, perfected forever” (v. 28). “We have such a High Priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens” (8:1). He is the great Priest over the house of God (10:21).
