Read Hebrews 4:14-15 NLT
So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.
This week we are going to continue to pull apart some of the verses in Hebrews chapter 4. We’ll focus on the last half of verse 14, where we are encouraged to “hold firmly to what we believe.” That section of scripture begs us to ask the question – What do we believe that we should hold so firmly to? We will work through some of those things this week. But we need to start at the beginning; from an understanding – not of what, but WHO informs all the other things that we believe. Today we start at the beginning of verse 14 and our “great High Priest.”
The great High Priest, referred to in this passage, is Jesus. But before we can truly understand what this means in the context of the verse and what it should mean in reference to what we believe, we need to understand the role of a High Priest in Biblical times.
The High Priest, like other priests or those who served at the temple, came from the tribe of Levi. This was a tribe who did not receive any land when the Israelites entered the land that God had promised – instead they were given the duties of carrying out religious rites and rituals for the nation. They were a tribe set apart from all the rest. The High Priest’s job was essentially a mediator. Once a year the High Priest would make a sacrifice for himself and a sacrifice for the people of Israel on the Day of Atonement to make reparation (atone) for the sins they had committed. Only the High Priest could make these sacrifices and they were in preparation of presenting himself, and interceding on the people’s behalf, in the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies was where the very presence of God was, resting above the Ark of the Covenant. This job wasn’t for the faint of heart for if he did not atone for the sins properly he would die in the presence of God for being unclean. In short, the High Priest was a person who went before God to present himself as a substitute for the sins of others and intercede on their behalf for God’s forgiveness.
Jesus was the ultimate High Priest! The average Joe High Priest was human and therefore he sinned, making it necessary to offer sacrifices both for his own sins and the sins of the people. But Jesus, being the very son of God, never sinned…and so he offered himself as the sacrifice when he went to the cross to atone for our sins. His sacrifice put an end to a need for other sacrifices. And so He presented Himself to God – blameless, interceding on our behalf to the Father, so that we might be seen through the lens of His sacrifice and have full access to God forever. What extraordinary love for us brought Him to do that for us!
So – today spend some time in prayer considering what it means to have Jesus as our High Priest, how that may inform what we believe, and why it is important to hold firmly to those beliefs.
