Jesus, Our High Priest

• Print
• Email

High Priests Old Testament
The High Priests of the Old Testament were appointed directly by God to intercede between God's people and God Himself. Only one person served as High Priest at any given time. In this special role, the High Priest had a duty unlike anyone else. Once a year, the presiding High Priest would enter into a special inner chamber, called the Holy of Holies, inside the temple and offer atonement for the sins of the people. This was necessary because the atonement, which included sprinkling the alter with the blood of a slain animal, was the only way God could forgive the sins of His chosen people and, yet, the people did not have the holiness to approach Him directly. The High Priest, who had to follow certain rituals to purge his own sins, was deemed holy by God and able to approach Him on behalf of those who lacked the holiness to do so.

Jesus, Our High Priest
The need for an Intercessor to represent us before a perfectly righteous and holy God has not changed. Jesus Christ, Scripture tells us, serves as High Priest between believers and God:

Hebrews 4:14-16:

¹⁴ Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.
¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.
¹⁶ Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

While Jesus Christ had no sin of His own to atone for, He graciously became the sacrificial Lamb of God and, through His death on the cross, offered His own blood to God for the sins of all who will believe on Him. Jesus, who is the embodiment of holiness, serves as the ultimate High Priest, interceding with the Father on behalf of His people.

Hebrews 4 tells us that our High Priest is able to empathize with our weaknesses. Having lived in the flesh for 33 years, Christ faced the same temptations as we do, but without sin. He experienced many of the same trials and troubles as you and I. He faced the same Devil as we do. He faced ridicule from friends and strangers. He even experienced death, although in a more horrendous than any of us could ever suffer. He did this so that He can relate to the Father exactly what it is like to be a human being. The Father, who knows everything, was not without this knowledge before Christ came into the world, but He removed mans' excuse for ever saying to God, "You don't know what it's like to suffer as a human being." Jesus not only knows, He sympathizes.

Jesus, having entered the Holy of Holies of Heaven and seated Himself on the right hand of the Father, invites us to come before God. Not as sinners who aren't worthy to approach God, but as the very children of God, washed clean of sin by the blood of Christ and clothed in His own righteousness. We are to come confidently and boldly to the throne of God in prayer so that God can pour His mercy out on us and so we may receive His grace, which empowers us in times of need.

Hebrews 7:25 tells us more of Jesus perfectly fulfilling His role as our High Priest:

" Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them."

Reason Enough to Pray
What a comfort it is to know that we have a Savior with a heart of flesh, interceding for us before His Father and ours day and night. When we pray for God to meet our needs, Jesus reminds the Father that He promised to meet those needs by His own riches (Phillipians 4:19). When we sin and pray for forgiveness, Jesus reminds the Father that He paid in full the debt for our sins (Collians 2:13-14) and that He has given us His own righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). Even when we don't feel God's presence and cry out to Him from a heart of doubt and pain, Jesus understands and He tells the Father all about it, for He remembers the cross and the sense that God had forsaken Him.

With such a wonderful gift as Jesus Christ, our own Intercessor with the Father, why would we ever fail to pray fervently and often?

Additional Scriptures
Hebrews 3:1
Hebrews 5:5-6, 10