THE OFFICE OF THE HIGH PRIEST

THE OFFICE OF THE HIGH PRIEST

                “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 6:19, 20

               

                In the mid 1800’s a Baptist preacher named Willian Miller thought he had figured out the exact day when Jesus would return. Using the 2300 day prophecy of Daniel 8:14 and applying the day for a year principle, he pinpointed the time to October 22, 1843... Later revised to 1844.

                There was a resulting revival over the coming advent of Jesus Christ and a great excitement and expectation. This was accompanied by a great worldwide revival around the same time as the Welch Revival in Europe and many people came back to the Lord at that time. Many people sold their farms and went out to preach and or to await the Lord’s return. So when the expected date came and went it became known as the great disappointment. Thousands who had left their churches and their homes in the expectation of Christ’s return now either returned to their churches, or in some cases lost faith altogether.

                In  the midst of all of this a small group of Advent believers, rather than giving up on William Miller’s date, sought for some explanation as to what the cleansing  or restoring of the Holy Place might mean if not the return of Jesus. And along this line someone decided that this was a real event and that rather than restoring the earth by coming here, Jesus must have restored or cleansed the Greater Sanctuary in heaven by moving from the Holy Place into the Most Holy place to take up His work of atonement which is what happened once a year as the High Priest entered the Most Holy Place to sprinkle the blood of an animal upon the mercy seat.

                Today we understand the feasts much better than perhaps the pioneers did at that time.  Even the above text refutes the theory that they came up with at that time. According to the writer of Hebrews Jesus had already entered into the Most Holy Place as our High Priest in his day. So if Jesus did not enter into the antitypical Most Holy Place in heaven as our High Priest, that would mean that Jesus did not enter into His role as our High Priest until 1844. This we now know to be simply not true. Jesus, in fact went directly to heaven after His resurrection to present Himself as the first fruit of a great harvest to come. He presented Himself to the Father at the exact same time as the wave sheaf was being waved before God in the earthly sanctuary. He was presenting Himself to the Father as the first fruit of the resurrection with many to follow.

                Hebrews  4:14 says, “since we have a great high priest who HAS passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.” So again he places this event as having already happened in the writer’s day. Hebrews chapter nine puts the clincher on this whole thing by saying:

                “Now when these things have been thus prepared, the priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle performing the divine worship, but into the second ONLY THE HIGH PRIEST ENTERS ONCE A YEAR, not without taking blood which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance. The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the (Most) holy place has not yet been disclosed while the outer tabernacle is still standing, which is a symbol for the time then present according to which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshipper perfect in conscience.

                Now let’s try to simplify this. The Levitical Priests used to minister daily in the sanctuary. But once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would enter the Most Holy Place to sprinkle blood upon the Mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant in the Most Holy Place. The writer of Hebrews although failing to make it clear by calling it the holy place rather than the Most Holy Place, he nevertheless speaks of this yearly event when the  High Priest entered the Most Holy Place on the Day of Atonement. And whereas the regular sacrifices happened daily in the temple, the High Priest went in once a year to atone for the sins of Israel. It was a very tense time in Israel for both judgment and redemption were taking place for Israel as a nation. If the sacrifice was unacceptable then Israel would be without God’s blessing and that could spell disaster. His hedge of protection could be removed and the enemies of Israel could overrun them and take the captive.

                Likewise it was when Jesus presented Himself to the Father in heaven. Would His sacrifice be sufficient to redeem the whole world… indeed all of creation? So when Jesus sent down His Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost 50 days later, this not only became the sign and seal for the believers as a guarantee of their Salvation, but it also meant that Jesus’ sacrifice had  been sufficient to pay in full all that had been lost in the fall of Adam. So the gifts of the Holy Spirit serve both as a sign that Jesus’ sacrifice was enough, but a seal upon God’s people assuring them that God had entered their house and sealed them for redemption. Therefore we have become temples of the Holy Spirit.

                Now the point of all this is not to argue doctrine or to point fingers, but to make it clear what the bible teaches. When Jesus rose from the dead, He went directly to the Father in heaven where He offered His own blood upon the Mercy seat and His own blood is infinitely more powerful than the blood of animals.

                It was Jesus Himself that said: “Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me, HAS eternal life and does not come into judgment, but HAS PASSED out of death and into life.” John 5:24. By faith we stand with Jesus at the foot of the cross on the Day of Atonement. The verdict is read. We are guilty and doomed to die. But Jesus steps in and says to the Father. This one has asked to receive My death in his place. I will cover this one with My blood Father. So this is why Jesus said in John 5:24 that if we believe in Him, we HAVE ETERNAL LIFE and we do not come into judgment but passes from death into life.

                In other words, if we have received Jesus as our High Priest and we have by faith received His death in our place and His blood as the propitiation for our sins, then we need not come into judgment in the future, for we have been judged in Christ and His has died in our place. We Christians can breathe a sigh of relief and be a whole lot happier if we really understand and walk in that which Jesus has provided for us in His atonement on the cross.

                We were judged as guilty, so Jesus paid the death penalty by dying in our place and then He rose up to become our new High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, there to sprinkle His own blood upon the true mercy seat in heaven.

                Like I said in my article called “Of Slaves and Sons”, I mentioned that even if we ask dumb questions, God will give us very good answers and we will grow and learn. Sometimes by following Jesus and His Word over and about our own weak interpretations, we can learn greater truths than the ones we grew up with. Jesus IS that High Priest and He HAS entered the Most Holy Place in heaven to offer His own blood upon the altar on our behalf and because it is His own infinite blood, our sins are forever wiped away and we no longer need to fear judgment for we have been judged in Christ and He died… He was judged in our place.  Hallelujah!

                Jesus became our eternal High Priest on the day that He sprinkled His blood on the Mercy Seat in heaven and there He ever intercedes for us before the Father as our High Priest. We need not fear a future judgment, because we have already been judged, found guilty and “crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, we live and not us, but Christ dwells in us and the life that we now live in the flesh, we live by the Son of God who loved us and gave His life for us.” Gal. 2:20

                We can quickly get into deep trouble if we do not allow the Bible to interpret itself. This sis also why Isaiah condemned a certain kind of doctrine forming, using line upon line, here a little and there a little until we stumble and fall backward. Using the bible to prove our doctrinal interpretations is a bad way of proving what we believe. We can make the Bible say anything we want it to say if we pick and choose texts that will support our view. And this is why there are so many denominations. Everyone has their own slant on it, when if we would keep our eyes on Jesus, the Author and finisher of our faith and we used the scriptures to continually paint a better and more complete picture of Him, then Jesus would be the center of our focus and not the many doctrines that we think will save us.

                All of the promises in the Bible were written to one Seed that is Christ. We go through the Bible seeking out promises like good luck charms or something, when in fact they were not written to us. They were all written to Jesus, so that when we receive Him, we receive all that was promised. Thus we all become Abraham’s seed and heirs according to promise… and remember if you will that it was to Melchizedek, the king of Salem and priest of the Most High God. It is to this priest that we turn in the New Covenant in the blood and body of Christ.

                Ours is not a partial salvation. It is not based upon mortal priests that die, or upon the blood of animals, but upon the divine and eternal blood and body of the Son of God. His death on the cross and His blood on the mercy seat in heaven is the guarantee that we have been saved, not by any works of our own but by His works on our behalf. But more than that, Jesus has now entered into our hearts and lives to live His perfect life in and through us… and to prove this Jesus has sent us His Holy Spirit as a down payment or a guarantee of our salvation.

                “In Him you also after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation- having also believe you were sealed in Him with the Holy spirit of promise who is given as a pledge of our inheritance…” Eph. 1:13, 14

                “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” Eph. 4:30

                The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Most Holy Place, from where Jesus went upon His resurrection. His first High Priestly duty was to sprinkle His own infinite blood upon the mercy seat. His second act was to send forth His Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. This we must believe and this we must receive.

                Salvation then is very simple. We believe in the one Person Jesus Christ. We enter by faith into His death and resurrection. We begin to live by His power. We remain faithful to Him. We take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. He becomes our everything. We receive Him as Savior and we honor Him as Lord. And this High Priesthood can take us from our first confession of faith to becoming the revealed sons of God for whom all creation waits with eager anticipation (Rom. 8:19) and beyond that to reign with Him over all of creation. Does not the Melchizedek Priesthood of Jesus deserve our best attention?