THE HIGH PRIEST-JESUS CHRIST

Today I just want to discuss what it means to me when i hear Jesus referred to as a High Priest. For me, that is the utmost position in heaven and in earth. The Word talks about his role as our ultimate High Priest. JESUS had to be the one to go before the holiest of holies and present the perfect blood sacrifice upon the altar of the Lord. An altar that was the diagram for the altar here on earth that mortal priest, the levites, had to come before on behalf of the people in the old testament. A lamb had to be presented without a blemish. That Lamb was Jesus Christ. He came to be sacrificed without uttering a word. He was the presenter of the sacrifice and he was the sacrifice.

Jesus is our High Priest. He goes before the Father on our behalf. He pleads our case to the Father and he ask for Mercy and Grace towards us. He presented himself so that our sins would not be remembered anymore. Blood had to be shed because it is the source of life so he shed his to give us a chance at Eternal life if we want it and he has sprinkled this blood upon the heavenly altar as it was required of the priest at the earthly altar. The Word in Hebrew 7 tells us about the priest hood of Melchisedec. Melchisedec was a priest of the most high God. Abraham met him after returning from battle and paid him tithe from what he gained. He was a priest continually just like Jesus. The Word ask the question, 'What further need was there that another priest be raised up after the order of Melchisedec and not be called after the order of Aaron?'

Aaron was of the levites he was mortal man. Man dies and if he is a priest, this means he has to be replaced each time. Jesus died only once and he can remain the High Priest forever. If the Law was made in effect under mortal man then shouldn't the coming of Jesus change that Law ? Jesus comes from the tribe of Judah not from the Levites. He was a different priest coming from a different direction with a different mission. His mission was to save souls and offer eternal life. The Law only offered death as the price to pay for your sins. The Word in Hebrews 7:24 says But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.' This means he can not pass this on to another due to death because he can not die again. He is alive and he is interceding on our behalf. Jesus is the high priest that came down from heaven and put on an earthly body that he may truly know what we go through in the flesh. He can relate very well.

According to Hebrews 7:26 says 'For such a high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens.' Yet, he gave it all up to come to earth for a short time. He offered up his self once for our sins and he does not have to do it again as did the High Priest in the Old Testament who had to constantly go before the Lord concerning the sins of the people. There was not a blood sacrifice great enough to wash away the stench of the sins of the people THEN along came Jesus. He was and is a priest without any infirmities. God swore him to be a priest forever. He is now seated on the right hand of God the Father Almighty with all POWER in his hands. He is a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle in Heaven which God directed Moses to pattern the earthly tabernacle after.

Jesus came because the Lord promised a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. The old covenant was under the Law and it was not perfect but Jesus fulfilled a new covenant. The Lord saith in Hebrews 8 :10-13

10For 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:
11And 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.
12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
13In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

Because of the sacrifice and obedience of Jesus Christ we now have a high priest that gave his blood for the errors of our ways and had to only do it once. The earthly high priest under the law had to enter into the second tabernacle alone and had to offer a blood sacrifice of goats, calves, lambs etc...every year for himself and the people. Jesus entered into the holy place with his own blood ONCE and it was not necessary anymore according to Hebrews 9:13-14

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;
12Neither 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.
13For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
14How 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?

15And 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 Word of God says 'and almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission .' So Jesus had to shed his blood for our sins to be forgiven there was no other way he had to follow the pattern of the old to bring about the new. He is the ultimate HIGH PRIEST because he presented his own blood upon the altar to free us from sin so that we may be forgiven and have salvation when he returns. AMEN.