Children, what is a priest? What does a priest do? A priest offers sacrifices to God on behalf of man, and brings the blessings of God to man. In the Old Testament, the priests would offer animal sacrifices to God, and God promised that he would forgive the sins of the people. And so a priest is one who intercedes for sins through a sacrifice. 

Hebrews 9:1-10 talks about this. After briefly describing the tabernacle in verses 1-5, Hebrews turns to the role of the priests. The priests' regular duties were performed in the "first section"--the Holy Place. This is where the daily sacrifices were performed. But Hebrews reminds us that these daily sacrifices "cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper" (9:9). They were simply preparing Israel to understand "the time of reformation." But, Hebrews points out, there was also a second section of the tabernacle, the Most Holy Place, but even the priests could not enter the Most Holy Place. Only the high priest could go in there--and that only "once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people" (9:7). 

Why was that? Why could the high priest only go into the Most Holy Place once a year? Hebrews tells us: "By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing (which is symbolic for the present age)" (9:8-9). The temple has two parts representing two ages: the Holy Place, representing this present age, and the Most Holy Place, representing the age to come. As long as this age is standing, the people of God could not enter the age to come. The Old Testament high priest could enter the age to come symbolically, once a year, in order to show that the people of God could only enter the age to come through a sacrifice.

But that sacrifice had not yet happened.

Last time we asked (Q. 23), "What offices doth Christ execute as our Redeemer?" A. Christ, as our Redeemer, executeth the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, both in his estate of humiliation and exaltation.

So we should remember that Christ's priestly office has two aspects: what he did in his estate of humiliation--in other words, while he was here on earth--and what he does now in his estate of exaltation, as he sits at the right hand of the Father.

So today we will look at question 25: 

Q. 25. How doth Christ execute the office of a priest?

A. Christ executeth the office of a priest, in his once offering up of himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, and reconcile us to God, and in making continual intercession for us.

Christ offered himself as a sacrifice for our sins. Jesus the Messiah appeared "as a high priest of the good things that have come." Hebrews 9:11-12 tells us that when Christ appeared, "then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places." The Old Testament high priest entered the Most Holy Place once a year, for a few minutes. Jesus has entered "once for all" into the holy places made without hands. Christ has entered the new creation! And he got there, "not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption" (9:12). The problem with the Old Testament sacrifices was that they could not really deal with the conscience. But read 13-14: "For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God."

Jesus sacrifice deals with the conscience. His blood is able to cleanse your heart-to truly remove sins. The Old Testament rituals could not accomplish that which they pictured, but Hebrews points out that all of the Old Testament rituals were necessary in order to show us a picture of what Christ would accomplish: 

"Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." (9:23-26)

So Christ executes the office of a priest in his humiliation through his death, his sacrifice on the cross. But that work is not complete until he was raised from the dead, and exalted to the right hand of the Father, where he offered his sufferings and death to the Father as satisfaction for our sins. Hebrews 10 quotes from Psalm 40: [Heb. 10:5-10] Now the Hebrew of Psalm 40:6 says, "you have given me an open ear," but the Greek translation, the Septuagint, says, "a body you have prepared for me." Hebrews quotes the Septuagint, emphasizing that it is through the body of Jesus Christ that we have been sanctified. So Hebrews uses a poor translation to make a theological point.

This bothers many modern people. They wonder whether this undermines the inspiration and inerrancy of scripture. After all, they wonder, if God inspired the words "you have given me an open ear," but then allowed the author of Hebrews to use a bad translation, then how concerned is God for the full verbal accuracy of scripture? This is only a problem for modern people with modern ideas of translation and "accuracy." If we desire to have a biblical understanding of inspiration and inerrancy, then we will accept the Bible's own perspective on translation and accuracy. God chose to inspire Hebrews' use of a poor translation. At the time that David wrote Psalm 40, God wanted to communicate one thing. But by the time Hebrews was written, God wanted to communicate something else, so he allowed the translators of the Septuagint to alter "ear" to "body." 

It's important for us to recognize this, because this passage calls us to accept ancient ideas in many things. Modern people tend to be offended by the idea of a human being offered as a sacrifice. The idea that God demanded the death of one man in place of others is repulsive to many. What they are missing is the difference between the abomination of human sacrifice (which God prohibited) and the voluntary sacrifice that Christ offered. It is a heinous sin to offer another human being as a sacrifice. But it is glorious act of righteousness to lay down your life for others. The one is an act of hatred and murder. The other is an act of love and mercy. As Paul puts it in Romans 5:7-8, "For one will scarcely die for a righteous person-though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die, but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Or as Hebrews says it (10:14-18), "And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds," then he adds,   "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more." Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

Because Christ has removed our sins through his once-for-all sacrifice, there is no longer any need for an offering for sin. When we come to worship God, we enter worship on the basis of a sacrifice. But we don't actually offer a sacrifice, because the only sacrifice we need was offered on the cross two thousand years ago.

Last time we saw that because Christ is a prophet, we also are prophets in him. And Hebrews 10 continues to point out that just as Christ is our great high priest, so also we are priests in him. [Hebrews 10:19-25] Hebrews is drawing on the language of the Old Testament, and if you're not familiar with the Old Testament, you might miss it. But Hebrews says that we may enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus. We may draw near to God himself "with a true heart in full assurance of faith." How? "With our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." The Old Testament priests were consecrated for service through the sprinkling of blood and the washing with water. Hebrews 9 has already told us that the sprinkling with blood foreshadowed the cleansing of the heart, and the reference to our bodies being washed with pure water clearly connects to the cleansing language of baptism. So Hebrews 10:22 says that in your baptism, you have been consecrated as a priest. YOU now may draw near to God in a way that only a high priest could do in the Old Testament. Indeed, the high priest only made it into a picture of the heavenly holy places, but you actually "enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus." You are now priests of the Most High. We do not offer bloody sacrifices, but the sacrifice of praise. Indeed, as Paul says in Romans 12:1 "Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." Just as Jesus offered his body to the Father, so now we are to do the same. We are to lay down our lives for one another. And therefore we also fulfill the second task of the priest: to mediate the blessings of God to others. Christ does this through his continual intercession as he reminds the Father daily of his once-for-all sacrifice, mediating the blessings of eternal life to us by his Holy Spirit. We then become instruments of that grace as we pray for one another, as we encourage each other daily, "stirring up one another to love and good deeds... and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."

Copyright © 2003 Peter J. Wallace