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Christ our High Priest
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1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
- 6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be
testified in due time.
Because of Jesus Christ and the sacrifice
He made with His own life, He has become the mediator between God
and mankind. There is only one now. Before we had priests and
prophets who interceded between the people and God. Now this is no
longer necessary. We can go to Jesus Christ which is our mediator to
God. We do not have to go through an earthly priest, prophet or
minister but through Jesus Christ we can now pray straight to the
Father. Isn't that great?
We still need preachers, prophets and
teachers to lead us into worship, right living and into
understanding the Word of God. Everyone in the body of Christ or
church has a calling or ministry to edify and build up the
believers, but in praying and confessing sins, we can go straight to
God. Sometimes it helps to confess our faults to one another as the
bible teaches but ministers, priests and our fellow believers cannot
forgive sins, only God can.
As long as any one of us has received
Jesus Christ as savior we can go straight to God and do not really
have to have a priest anymore to intercede for us. We are still to
pray for one another and intercede for one another when one person
is sick or has a problem, but for forgiveness of sins, we can go
straight to God.
This is wonderful. We now can have access to God
Himself. Just like the prophets of old, we can talk to God daily. We
can walk with God now. We don't have to be a Daniel, Moses or
Elijah. We can walk with God ourselves because of what Jesus did for
us. We can receive all this by faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and
savior. This makes my soul rejoice. I can walk with God.
Prophecy in the Old Testament
This was prophesied in the Psalms about
the Messiah being a priest forever after the order of Melchizadek.
Melchizadek represented a priest that had
no end. The priesthood usually ends when the priest dies. Another
priest would then take over his duties. Jesus Christ died but rose
again and remains a high priest forever to made intercession for our
sins. He is our mediator now and we have no other.
Fulfillment in the New Testament
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Hebrews 5:5-6 So also Christ glorified not himself to be
made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to
day have I begotten thee.
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As he saith also in another place, Thou
art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
God made His Son Jesus Christ an eternal
priest.
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Hebrews 2:17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to
be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and
faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make
reconciliation for the sins of the people.
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18 For in that he himself
hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are
tempted.
Since Jesus Christ became like one of us
and suffered temptation, without sin, He is able to make
reconciliation for all our sins. Had Jesus sinned even once, He
would have become an imperfect sacrifice and would not have been
able to die for our sins. He was the perfect sinless sacrifice and
is now risen, at the Father's right hand to be our high priest
forever.
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Hebrews 3:1 Wherefore, holy
brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the
Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;
What great promises the Jewish people had
through Jesus Christ. Promises that was also given to Gentiles or
people that were not Jewish or of Israel.
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Hebrews 4: 14 Seeing then that we have a great high
priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let
us hold fast our profession.
- 15 For we have not an high priest which
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in
all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
- 16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the
throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in
time of need.
Not only do we have continual access to the
throne of God, we can come boldly. Oh my, if only people could see
how necessary, how valuable, and how wonderful coming to Christ for
salvation is.
The priests of the Old Covenant had to
first offer sacrifices for their own sins and then offer
sacrifices for the people. Jesus offered Himself as a sacrifice only
once. That was all that is needed. We no longer need to offer any
sacrifices. It was done once when Jesus died on the cross over 2000 years
ago.
- Hebrews 8:1 Now of the things which we have spoken
this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the
right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;
- 2 A minister
of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord
pitched, and not man.
- 3 For every high priest is ordained to offer
gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man
have somewhat also to offer.
- 4 For if he were on earth, he should not be
a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according
to the law:
- 5 Who serve unto the example and shadow of
heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to
make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things
according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.
- 6 But now hath
he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the
mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better
promises.
- 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should
no place have been sought for the second.
- 8 For finding fault with them, he saith,
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
- 9 Not
according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day
when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt;
because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
- 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the
house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws
into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to
them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
- 11 And they shall not teach every man his
neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all
shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
- 12 For I will be
merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their
iniquities will I remember no more.
- 13 In that he saith, A new
covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and
waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
The Old Covenant was gone when the
Messiah, Jesus Christ came and died on the cross. Now a new covenant
is in effect. This is so beautiful. Now each one of us can know God
personally. This is what the New Birth is all about. We become a new
creature in Christ Jesus. We become people who belong to God. We
don't have to be part of literal Israel but through Jesus Christ we
become children of God. God is now our Father. Faith in Jesus Christ
makes us children of God.
When we repent of sins and believe in
Jesus Christ to save us from sins, we become Children of God. We are
His. The New Covenant puts the law of God into our hearts instead of
outward religion or sacrifices, offerings and rituals. The new
covenant brings God into our innermost being. We have God living
within us. Jesus did more than our minds can understand. He made a
new way, a better way and an everlasting way. He is the way to God
and no other.
God came into the flesh to be born of a
women. This was Jesus Christ. Now through faith in Jesus Christ, God
can come into the flesh again. When we are born again through faith
in Jesus Christ, He sends His Holy Spirit to dwell in us. God in the
flesh. God with us. And one thing that is sometimes hard for us to
remember......God forgets our sins. He makes us "Just as if we never
sinned."
Born again, free from sin. I'm happy night
and day. Makes me shout, there's no doubt, I know I've been born
again.
- Hebrews 9:6 Now when these things were thus
ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle,
accomplishing the service of God.
- 7 But into the second went the high
priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered
for himself, and for the errors of the people:
- 8 The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the
way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the
first tabernacle was yet standing:
- 9 Which was a figure for the time
then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that
could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to
the conscience;
- 10 Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers
washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of
reformation.
- 11 But Christ being come an high priest of
good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not
made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;
- 12 Neither by
the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in
once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
- 13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats,
and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to
the purifying of the flesh:
- 14 How much more shall the blood of Christ,
who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God,
purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
- 15 And
for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by
means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were
under the first testament, they which are called might receive the
promise of eternal inheritance.
The gift of God, redemption, eternal
life, forgiveness of sins is now possible through faith in Jesus
Christ. God made it simple. We don't have to understand every detail
of the above scriptures but we need only to understand that Jesus
died for our sins, and rose from the dead and is now at the right
hand of God the Father. He is the only way of salvation now. The old
law of sacrifice and ordinances is done away with and we live under
a New covenant of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ
Messiah Index
Messiah part 25
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Son of Abraham
part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4
part 5The
Anointed One
part 1
part 2
part 3
The Messiah's Birth
part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4
part 5
The Forerunner
part 1
part 2
part 3
The Son of God
part 1
part 2
His Ministry
part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4
Prophet & Priest
part 1
part 2
Suffering Messiah
part 1
part 2
part 3
part 4
Death & Resurrection
part 1
part 2
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