City Life Starter

Written by Efe Abbe

The Word

23 The former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing, 24 but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. 25 Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

26 For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; 27 who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. 28 For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the Law, appoints a Son, made perfect forever.

Hebrews 7:23-28 NASB

1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. 3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.

Hebrews 1:1-4

Reflection

The author of Hebrews has a single point to the entire letter: Jesus, the Son of God, is unequivocally God’s permanent solution for restoring holiness to humanity. Throughout the letter, the author drives this point home to an audience of Jewish Christians very familiar with what we call the Old Testament, that everything in the Law, Prophets, and the Writings point to God ultimately making men holy through His Son.

They would have known the responsibility of the Levitical priesthood intimately and understood that human priests, even high priests, eventually die. Being called by God to the priesthood didn’t exempt the priests from sin’s consequence, i.e. death. They would have grasped that the daily sacrifices and the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement, repeated for thousands of years, couldn’t rid them of their sins forever and that even the priests had to make atonement for themselves first before making atonement for the people.

Enter Jesus.

Jesus is the “exact representation of [God’s] nature” (Hebrews 1:3) and as our high priest, He is “holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners” (Hebrews 7:26). He doesn’t have the need to first make atonement for Himself before making atonement for us (7:27) and the best part is that Jesus’ single act of atonement for our sins by dying on the cross was and is forever sufficient because He is risen and lives forever to make intercession (7:23-25). He is the far better high priest.

Application

Let us try to place ourselves in the perspective of the audience of this letter. Before Jesus’ coming to earth, their experience of remaining holy in God’s sight required an unending slaughter of animals and paying the most meticulous attention to every instruction God gave to Moses. Now, those sacrifices were obsolete because a better high priest completed the work of atonement (Hebrews 1:3). This would have been earth shattering to them and it should be to us.

We should be in awe of the kindness and grace of God that He has decided we, the ones who have offended Him, should not have to earn or work to make ourselves holy. He chose to do it entirely for us in His Son, whom He sacrificed for our sins and raised from the dead to represent us before His throne, forever and forever (Hebrews 7:24).

Prayer

Dear holy God and Father, thank You for Your kindness and mercy in Jesus to me. Without Jesus, I would have no hope of a life with You. Because of Your gift of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection, He is the great High Priest that mediates between You and me – the only way for me to live with You in eternity. Amen.