Scripture Reading: Heb. 2:17-18; 4:14-16; 7:27; 8:1; 9:12, 14, 26, 28
Ⅰ
"Having therefore a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God"—Heb. 4:14:
A
As a great High Priest, Christ is great in His person (1:5, 8; 2:6), in His work (1:3; 2:9-10, 14, 17), and in His attainment (6:20; 9:24; 2:9).
B
Our High Priest ministers God and the riches of the divine life to us—8:2; 4:16.
C
The Lord came from God to us through incarnation, and He went back to God from us through resurrection and ascension to be our High Priest to bear us in the presence of God and to care for all our needs—2:17-18; 4:14-15:
１
In the Old Testament the high priest typifies Christ as our High Priest:
ａ
Whenever the high priest went into the presence of God in the Holy of Holies, he bore upon his shoulders and upon his breast the names of the children of Israel before God—Exo. 28:9-12, 15-30.
ｂ
Today Christ is our High Priest, and we are on His shoulders and on His breast; He is in the heavens as the High Priest bearing us before God—Heb. 9:24.
２
As Christ bears us before God in the Holy of Holies, He ministers God into our being—8:2.
Ⅱ
"Christ…offered Himself without blemish to God" (9:14); "Christ…having been offered once to bear the sins of many" (v. 28); "this He did once for all when He offered up Himself" (7:27):
A
The first thing that the Lord Jesus did in His priestly ministry was to offer Himself to God for our sins; He is the real sin offering—Rom. 8:3; Heb. 9:26:
１
From the foundation of the world, Christ was the unique sin offering; as such a sin offering, He offered Himself to God for our sins—Rev. 13:8.
２
Christ offered Himself to God for our sins once for all; this was accomplished once for all for eternity—John 1:29; Heb. 7:27; 9:12, 26.
B
As the High Priest, Christ made "propitiation for the sins of the people" (2:17), thereby satisfying the demand of God's righteousness and appeasing the relationship between God and us so that God may peacefully be gracious to us— Rom. 3:25.
C
"Having made purification of sins, [Christ our High Priest] sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high"—Heb. 1:3:
１
In the Old Testament the propitiating priests stood daily, offering the same sacrifices again and again and could never sit down—10:11.
２
Christ took away sin and accomplished the purification of sins once for all; thus, He sat down forever—John 1:29; Heb. 1:3; 8:1.
Ⅲ
"We do not have a High Priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all respects like us, yet without sin"—4:15:
A
Christ was "made like His brothers in all things that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest" (2:17); here, merciful corresponds with His being a man, and faithful corresponds with His being God.
B
As the One who has been tried in all respects like us, our High Priest is able to sympathize with our weaknesses and help us who are being tried—v. 18; 4:15:
１
He is easily touched with the feeling of our weaknesses and quickly enters into a fellow-suffering with us in our weaknesses—v. 15.
２
Whatever happens to us and whatever suffering we may have, He feels it with us and sympathizes with us—cf. Acts 9:1-5; Rom. 8:26.
３
Christ is a High Priest who is always touched with our feeling; whatever we feel, He feels—Heb. 4:15:
ａ
He is touched with our feeling because He is in our spirit—2 Tim. 4:22.
ｂ
He sympathizes with everything that we feel because He is one with us—1 Cor. 6:17.
ｃ
As we turn to our spirit, we meet Christ in our spirit, we are in His presence, and we experience Him as the High Priest who sympathizes with our feeling all the time—Phil. 4:23; 2 Tim. 4:22; Heb. 4:15.
Ⅳ
"We have such a High Priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens"—8:1:
A
The ascended Christ is the present Christ, who is now in the heavens as our High Priest, ministering to us the heavenly life, grace, authority, and power and sustaining us to live a heavenly life on earth—4:14-16.
B
As our great High Priest in the heavens, Christ is our daily salvation and our moment-by-moment supply—1:3; 10:21.
C
Christ, as our High Priest in the heavens, brings us into heaven, from the earthly outer court into the heavenly Holy of Holies, which is joined to our spirit by Him as the heavenly ladder—Gen. 28:12; John 1:51; Heb. 4:16; 10:22:
１
This experience of Christ as our High Priest is in the heavens and also in our spirit and in the church because the church today is God's habitation in our spirit—Eph. 2:22; Heb. 2:12; 4:12, 16; 12:22-24.
２
Christ, the heavenly ladder that joins earth to heaven and brings heaven to earth, is in our spirit—John 1:51; 3:6; 4:24; Gal. 6:18; 2 Tim. 4:22.
３
By the habitation of God and the heavenly ladder, the Holy of Holies in the heavens is joined to our spirit—Eph. 2:22; John 1:51; 1 Cor. 6:17.
４
The wonderful Christ—the Christ who is our great, merciful, and faithful High Priest—is in the heavens and in our spirit—Heb. 8:1; 2 Tim. 4:22.