Our Priest and Sacrifice

Jesus is the High Priest of the Heavenly Sanctuary “made without hands” foreshadowed by the Tabernacle in the wilderness.

Jesus is our glorious High Priest who serves in the “True Tent pitched by the Lord and not man,” the greater tabernacle and place of worship foreshadowed by the religious structures and rituals of Israel. The Son of God has become our “priest forever” who ministers for us “at the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty in the Heavens” – (Hebrews 8:1-2).

Because of Christ’s Death and Resurrection, questions about the proper location or maintenance of the Temple building are irrelevant. As Jesus told the Samaritan woman, “The hour is coming and now is when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.” Holy ground is found wherever Jesus and God’s Spirit are present - (John 4:20-24).

[Barrier Lake, Alberta - Photo by Haley Truong on Unsplash]

The fullness of God now dwells in His Son and Jewish and Gentile believers alike who worship the Father in the Spirit are circumcised by the Holy Spirit with the circumcision made without hands - “We are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh” – (Philippians 3:3. See also Colossians 2:11).

Once restricted to the outer courts of the Temple complex, Gentile followers of Jesus have full access to the presence of God in His inner sanctum regardless of their present location, nationality, or uncircumcised state. The restrictions of the Levitical System no longer apply to the Assembly of Jesus Christ:

• “Formerly, the Gentiles in the flesh who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called Circumcision in the flesh made with hands, that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both one and dismantled the middle wall of partition, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself of the two one new man” – (Ephesians 2:11-15).

Christ’s self-sacrificial death demolished the wall of separation between Jews and Gentiles. Erecting it again by rebuilding the old structures is contrary to what God is doing through His Son “who, upon the last of these days, achieved the purification of sins,” something the repeated animal sacrifices of the Levitical priesthood could never hope to accomplish.

The Son now sits in the very presence of God interceding for us as our High Priest in the True and Greater Sanctuary:

• “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the very image of his essence, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had made purification of sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on High” – (Hebrews 1:3).

• “We have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the Sanctuary, and of the True Tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man” – (Hebrews 8:1-2. Compare Hebrews 9:11-12).

The Letter to the Hebrews presents Jesus in several roles when describing God’s superior act of redemption. He is the sacrificial victim whose death “achieved the purification of sins,” but Christ also is the priest who officiates in the Heavenly Tabernacle as he intercedes for his people. He is the Son in whom God has spoken His definitive “word” and the living expression of the Divine Nature (“He is the brightness of his glory, and the very image of his essence”).

The last attribute is conceptually parallel to the Gospel of John’s declaration that the ‘Logos,’ the “Word of God,” has been manifested in Jesus of Nazareth, that in Christ, the glory of God “tabernacles” among His people - (John 1:14, 11:40, 14:6-9 [“He who has seen me has seen the Father”]).

This is not to say that the Letter to the Hebrews ignores the historical Jesus and instead gives us a mystical and nonhuman spiritual being. The purification of sins was achieved through the very real death of Jesus of Nazareth, and his exaltation to the perpetual priesthood “according to the order of Melchizedek” is based on his bodily resurrection. He holds the priesthood “unchangeable” because he now “lives forevermore” - (Hebrews 2:9, 7:23-24, 9:14).

We, Christ’s disciples, are purified by our Heavenly High Priest. No longer are we subject to the calendrical cycles, dietary restrictions, repeated animal sacrifices, and designated holy spaces of the Levitical System, the “shadows of the coming good things” that are fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

God never intended to achieve perfection through the Levitical System; otherwise, He would not have promised another high priest (“after the order of Melchizedek”) and a “better sacrifice” for sin.

The change of priesthood meant also a “change of law.” The old rules and rites were powerless to cleanse and perfect us; therefore, Jesus became the “guarantor of a better covenant,” appointed to a better and “non-transferrable priesthood” after he offered himself as the “once for all sacrifice” for sin - (Hebrews 7:11-28, 10:10).

The Son inaugurated the “new and better covenant” that is “legislated on better promises.” The old covenant was “not faultless.” It proved incapable of achieving the “purification of sins” we so desperately need, and the installation of this “better covenant” has rendered the old one “obsolete, and near to vanishing” - (Hebrews 1:1-3, 8:13, Jeremiah 31:31-33).

HIS SUPERIOR PRIESTHOOD

The Son is the superior High Priest, the mediator who entered the “greater and more perfect Tabernacle, one not made-with-hands,” where he appears in the presence of God to intercede for us. Jesus is the “Light of the World” and the dwelling place of God, not the old portable tent made from goatskins, or any stone building constructed by man in Jerusalem or anywhere else - (John 1:4-9, 1:14, Luke 1:78-79, 2:32, Acts 26:23, Hebrews 9:11-24).

The mission given to Ancient Israel to be a light to the nations has now fallen to Jesus and his disciples. The Son completes that role because he is the true Israel of God, the light that enlightens men, and the High Priest “forever after the order of Melchizedek.” Likewise, we are his people and therefore lights in this world as we reflect him - (Matthew 5:14, Philippians 2:15, 1 Thessalonians 5:5, Revelation 1:20).

Jesus came to the “circumcision to confirm the promises made to the fathers,” including the promise that the “Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.” As Isaiah prophesied, Christ was the “root of Jesse risen to reign over the Gentiles.” He is the messianic “Ruler of the Kings of the Earth” who “shepherds the nations,” and the high “priest forever” who mediates before God in the Heavenly Sanctuary for “his brothers” - (Psalm 2:6-9, Psalm 110:1-4, Romans 15:8-9, Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:17-18, Revelation 1:4-6, 12:5).

When he testified before the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, the Church’s first martyr, Stephen, reminded the priestly authorities that “the Most High does not dwell in places made by hand.” The Temple building and the Tabernacle were man-made structures – Shadows and Types of the true habitation of God’s Spirit, namely, Jesus Christ and his Body, the Assembly of the Saints – (1 Corinthians 12:27, Ephesians 4:4).

Because of Christ’s victory over Sin and Death, the time of shadows has expired. The Son of God is the ‘telos,’ the “goal” of the Mosaic Legislation, as well as the true and greater Sanctuary and nonrepeatable “sacrifice for sin.” The structures of the Levitical System have reached their intended conclusion, and therefore, the time for their replacement by something and someone vastly superior:

• “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” - (Romans 10:4).

• “For however many are the promises of God, in him is the Yea. Wherefore also through him is the Amen, for the glory of God through us” – (2 Corinthians 1:20).

• “But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry since he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then would no place have been sought for a second” - (Hebrews 8:6-7).

The New Testament does not abandon the promises of an ideal Sanctuary “not made with hands” and pure worship of God as described in the Hebrew Bible, but it interprets those prophetic promises in consideration of the Teachings, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

The promises of God are not forsaken or replaced but fulfilled in Jesus Christ. His “once and for all sacrifice” has achieved the “purification of sins” and thus reconciled us with our God, Father, and Creator.

[PDF Copy]

SEE ALSO:

• The Purification of Sins - (Having achieved the purification of sins, Jesus sat down at the right hand of God to intercede for his people as their faithful High Priest)

• Priest Forever - (The priesthood of Jesus is superior because it rests on his endless resurrection life, the priest after the order of Melchizedek)

• The Tent Pitched by God - (Jesus intercedes without ceasing for his people in the true heavenly Tabernacle, one not made with human hands)

• God has Spoken! - (God has spoken His definitive word in His Son. All previous words given by the prophets were preparatory, promissory, and partial)