Jesus as Our High Priest

A couple of weeks ago, my pastor preached about Jesus being our High Priest, and how BECAUSE of that, God views us in the same manner in which he views Jesus. Just today,
I ran into this SAME topic in my devotions. Anyways, I'm here to share what I've been taught. Hopefully this will bless you and open up your eyes to the AMAZINGNESS of God (:

So back to what I was saying about Jesus being our high priest. Hebrews discusses how Jesus Christ came as a high priest.

Hebrews 9 says,

"When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!"

Hebrews 9:11-14

Basically the verses talk of the process in which Jesus was the high priest that CLEANSED us of all sins ONCE and for ALL.

Hebrews 10:10-12 says,

"And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God."

Now, let's backtrack for a bit. In the Old Covenant, high priests were the REPRESENTATIVES of their HOMELAND to God. Therefore, if you wanted God's blessings, all you needed was a very good high priest who did all his duties, did the right things, etc etc. If you had a bad high priest, your nation was doomed for the next year. Reason? Because high priests were people's representatives to God.

High priests represented the entire NATION from which they came from. As an example, Aaron was a high priest. He was, therefore, the representative of the Israelites to God. In other words, when God looked at the Israelites, He wasn't looking at the Israelites.... He was looking at Aaron, and what HE did. Furthermore, Aaron had to be the one to please God if he wanted blessings. Even if the rest of Israel was good, if Aaron was BAD, then it reflected POORLY on the Israelites. Likewise, even if the nation was BAD, if they had a GOOD high priest, they would still be blessed.

Let's take a look at some biblical examples to support this:

Exodus 28-29 talks about the ordination of Aaron and his sons as the high priests. They were ordered to wear certain clothing, and if they didn't, they'd die. They had to "sacrifice a bull each day as a sin offering to make atonement. Purify the altar by making atonement for it, and annoint it to consecrate it. For seven days make atonement for the alter and consecrate it. Then the altar will be most holy, and whatever touches it will be holy....For the generations to come this burnt offfering is to be made regularly at the entrance to the Tente of Meeting before the LORD. There I will meet you and speak to you; there also I will meet with the Israelites, and the place will be consecrated by my glory. .. Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God."

Moreover, because of SACRIFICE, God was able to dwell among the Israelites. And the only people allowed to go into the tabernacle, along with the altar, was Aaron and his sons.

Only the PRIESTS were allowed to go in, and even they had to wear certain clothes and be consecrated.

Exodus 29:44: "So I will consecrate the Tent of Meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests."

Anyways, so in other words, the High priest was the intermediary between God and the Israelites. Any sense of communication came through the High Priest or the Prophets.

Prophets were God's representative to the people; High Priests were the PEOPLE's representative to GOD. :)

So yes, back to the point about Aaron being the high priest. So long as Aaron kept up with the offerings, God guaranteed that he would dwell among them, and so would the blessings of God. Since God is a HOLY God, He couldn't dwell with them before, because of their guilty sins. However, because the Tent of Meeting and the altar and Aaron/sons were consecrated, God was able to. Thus, God's presence, and hence, blessings, depended on the annual/weekly/on and off sacrifices that had to be made.

Moreover, the more sacrifices, the better off you were, because God's presence would be there.


In the same way as high priests are representatives of people to God, so is Jesus. And as OUR high priest, when God sees US, he doesn't see us in our sinful nature, He sees us as He sees JESUS- no matter HOW MANY TIMES we fail, mess up, or whatever. He forgave ALL our sins, past, present, and even FUTURE sins, on that cross in Cavalry 2000 (or more) years ago.

When Jesus came as the ultimate SACRIFICE, he took away ALL sins, and then He SAT down.

What's interesting to note is that Jewish priests NEVER sat down; the tabernacle and the temple did not have seats. They did their work standing up as a symbol that it was never finished. However, having finished the work of a priest once for all, Christ SAT DOWN, indicating that it was FINISHED.

Now, I don't know about you, but I find that INCREDIBLE. That God looks at us as He views his SON, Jesus Christ. That He forgave all our sins ONCE and for ALL, even FUTURE sins were forgiven; all sins forgotten.

Hebrews 10:17-18 says,

Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more. And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin."

Let us thank God for His amazing nature, His love, His kindness, and more importantly, His gift of GRACE that comes to those who believe in Him, who ask Him to come in and become Lord over their life.

God is SO amazing. <3