The Greatest High Priest — Anton Bosch

Jesus as the Sympathetic High Priest

All right, Hebrews chapter 5, I'm going to start reading in 4, but we're getting into chapter 5 now. So just to get the context, we'll begin in Hebrews chapter 4, verse 14, and we'll read through chapter 5, verse 6.

So Hebrews chapter 4, verse 14, seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.

He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness. Because of this, he is required, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sins.

And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was. So also Christ did not glorify himself to become high priest, but it was he who said to him, you are my son today, I have begotten you.

As he also says in another place, you are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. And so he's introduced the idea of Jesus being a high priest, verse 15, we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses.

Aaron's Lineage and the Old Testament Priesthood

Now he's going to compare the high priestly ministry of the Lord Jesus with the high priestly ministry of Aaron or Aaron's family, Aaron's lineage. Now you remember that in the Old Testament, God set aside the Levites to serve him as priests in the tabernacle, originally the tabernacle, later on in the temple.

They were given various tasks, they had to carry the tabernacle, they had to erect it, they had to break it down and move it from one place to the other. Once it had been erected, they had to serve in the tabernacle in terms of doing the sacrifices, putting out the showbread in the holy place, lighting the lamps in the holy place, and burning the incense on the altar of incense.

And so the priest's function extended from the altar court, where the altar of sacrifice was, and where the labor of washing was, into the holy place where you had the lampstand on the left and then the altar of incense and the table of showbread.

That was their domain. We also know they had other functions, they were also the health officers, so if you had an infectious disease, you would go to the priest and they would diagnose and say, this is just an eczema and you're fine, you can go ahead, no, this is leprosy, you need to quarantine.

So they had other functions as well. They also lived in their own cities where they would function as judges in manslaughter cases. So the provision is made so that if you kill the man by mistake, and the scripture actually gives the example of men going to get firewood or wood for building purposes, and the axe head comes off the haft of the axe and kills your friend, you need to flee to the city of refuge.

There the priests would listen to your case. And if you were innocent, if it was pure accident, it wasn't murder, then you would be protected by them. And the avenger of blood could not come in and kill you.

Remember that it was up to the avenger of blood, the nearest of kin, to avenge the blood of someone who was murdered. So this was their function. But then God selects Aaron's family to be the high priest.

The High Priest's Atoning Ministry

And the high priests have another function. The high priests also preside over or manage the affairs of the temple or the tabernacle originally. But the high priest also had a very specific function in that he went into the holiest of all, into the third compartment, if you will, where he would go in there once a year, and there he would make, on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, he would make atonement for the sins of the people.

And so he has a separate function. And it was to be Aaron and his sons who would be the high priest. It was a hereditary thing. So when Aaron died, one of his sons would take over and so on. So he is now saying that Jesus is not just our priest, but he is our high priest.

Now, he then discusses some of the qualifications and functions of a priest. The first is, he says, every high priest is taken from among men. He is taken from among men. In other words, he is not an angel.

He is not an alien. He is a human being, just like the people that they serve. Now, we say, well, you know, that's logical. But remember that he is not just making a point about the priests and the high priests in the Old Testament, but he's making a point about Jesus.

Christ's Humanity and Representation

And so the high priest had to be a human. Therefore, Jesus has to be a human. Jesus had to become a man, and he introduced those thoughts in the previous chapters. So every high priest is taken from among men.

So Jesus could not come as God and be the high priest. And he's going to explain the reasons why. And in fact, he's already told us why. Because if he was just God, and he had not lived as a man, he would not be able to sympathize with us when we are tempted and in our weaknesses.

And so he had to be taken from among men. And he is appointed for men in things pertaining to God. So he is appointed to represent the people. And obviously, that's another reason why he has to be a man.

Jesus, in his divinity, before he became a man, just as the second person of the Trinity, as God, could not represent us if he was going to be true to the human priesthood, to the Aaronic priesthood, because he was God.

He was not a man. So how does he represent us as a man? But he becomes a man so that he can now, as a man, represent us to God. And of course, Jesus has this dual function, because he is able to relate to us and he's able to relate to God.

You remember that Aaron was Moses's brother. But Moses is a type of the Lord Jesus in many ways. And Moses is a type of Jesus as the high priest in this sense, that Moses was raised in the courts of Pharaoh as a prince.

And yet he was a Jew. He was born a Jew. And so he had a dual citizenship, if you will. He was both a Jew and an Egyptian. And so when it came to speaking to Pharaoh, he could speak Pharaoh's language.

And I'm not just meaning speaking Egyptian, but he could speak at the level. He could communicate with Pharaoh at his own level, because he was an Egyptian in that sense. But he could also speak to the people of Israel because he was a Jew.

So he was able to be both a Jew to the Jews and an Egyptian to the Egyptians. And Jesus, of course, has that same dual function. He becomes a man so that he's able to relate to us. But he is God, so he's able to relate to God.

It would be very... These high priests, some of them were obviously better at the job than others, but even the best high priest ever could only relate to the people. They couldn't really relate to God.

Their understanding of God was limited to what they understood from the first five books of Moses. That's about as much as they understood. But Jesus is God. And so Jesus is able to be a perfect representative of us before the Father.

So he is appointed among men, for men, in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. The word gifts here really... It's difficult to understand exactly what the author is meaning because he is lumping this with sacrifices.

Gifts here is not in the sense of bribes, but it is in the form of sacrifices and offerings that were brought to God. And that were brought to God primarily for sins. Some of these offerings were brought as thank offerings.

So if you had a very good harvest, you would give God a little extra as a thank offering. If God did something that blessed you in some way or the other, there would be some offering that you would bring, which was voluntary, and would be an expression of worship.

But most of the offerings and the sacrifices had to do with sins. So that was the prime function of the priesthood. The whole purpose of the tabernacle, and later the temple, was simply to make sacrifice for sins.

It was not primarily a teaching center. Churches today, well, they serve different purposes, different churches, but there's an element in which we come together to worship. There's an element in which we come together to pray.

But a lot of what we do is also to teach, as we're doing right now. The tabernacle was not a center of worship as such. It was not a place where they were taught. That would happen later on. They would institute the synagogues, and that would become the community center where they would teach, and all of these kinds of things would happen.

The tabernacle had one function, and that was a place at which sacrifice could be made, and a place where they could meet with God. That was the only function it had, and that was the function of the priests, and it had to do with sins.

Now, remember that all of these sacrifices in the Old Testament were pointing to the one ultimate final sacrifice, the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus at the cross of Calvary. So they were appointed in things pertaining to God that they may offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.

Compassion, Ignorance, and Willful Sin

He, an earthly high priest, can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness. So there he's emphasizing what we saw in the previous chapter, chapter 4, that he is able to sympathize, Jesus is able to sympathize with us.

Earthly high priests are able to understand the issues that people have, because he also is human. And so he can have compassion. He can be gentle on those who are ignorant and going astray, because he has the same issues.

Problem is, today we have many preachers who think they don't have these issues. They do, but they think they don't. They live in a different world, and they're not accountable, they don't face up to the issues that they struggle, and so they cannot relate to other people.

But the high priest understood the issues, and he says then that they may have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray. Going astray is a result of their ignorance. Now, why does he bring this idea in?

Again, does God then institute the priests so that stupid people can be accommodated? Obviously, that's not what it's about. When he uses the word ignorant here, remember that the people that he's writing to understand the Old Testament.

And so every word here has meaning for them based on the Old Testament. And in the Old Testament, in the law, provision is made for sins that are done in ignorance. Sins that are done in ignorance. And the Old Testament separates between sins done in ignorance and sins that are done willfully.

Now, that's quite a thing. Because does that idea come forward in the New Testament? Does God deal differently when we sin out of ignorance and when we sin willfully? Yes, I believe there's a difference.

The blood of Jesus still is able to cleanse both. Now, here's the problem. In the Old Testament, I can find nothing, no sacrifice that is offered for sins that are done willfully. I've not found it. That's quite scary.

Now, we thank God that in the New Testament, all sin is dealt with by the blood of the Lord Jesus. But I do still think that God takes a different view and may chasten us differently and deal with us differently when we sin out of ignorance and when we sin willfully.

And that's the problem. I don't know, I don't think that I reflect God very well. But I do have personally a tremendous problem with people who willfully sin. People who know better and still continue to sin.

Now, it's not that we don't have compassion on people who struggle, people who have weaknesses, because I also have weaknesses and I struggle with those things. But when there's a rebelliousness and I'm just going to do whatever I want to do and I don't care, I personally have a problem with that.

And I believe God has also. And so that's why he uses the word ignorant. And so they've gone astray because they didn't know better. And having then found out, oh, I sinned, there's a sacrifice. What would happen to those who sinned out of ignorance, found out that they had actually sinned?

They'd done something. Remember, the law was very difficult in the Old Testament. Remember, there was the man who went and picked up some sticks on the Sabbath to cook his meal. And they come to Moses and say, what do we do with this guy?

And Moses said, I don't know, I'm going to ask God. Moses asked God, God says, kill him. So at what point did you break the law? And of course, the rabbis afterwards made all these thousands and thousands of laws to try and define what is the law and what may I, may I not do.

Now, we thank God that we're in the New Testament, we have grace, we don't have those kinds of strictures and limitations. But if you did sin in ignorance, you needed to bring a sacrifice. In the New Testament, the same idea, you have to repent.

You can't just blindly continue in your sin that grace may abound, Paul says. And so when we sin, whether it's in ignorance or whether it's willfully, there needs to be repentance so that the sacrifice may be applied.

And so again, the law does not tell us what happens to someone who sins out of ignorance and somebody points out to them, the priest or whoever points out to them, but you sinned. And they say, oh, it doesn't tell us what happens to someone like that.

But I can imagine that that sin stands, that sin is not covered. I'm going to deal with this issue of covered at a later stage. Sin is not, is not hidden. So it's on the record. And so I think that there's an important lesson there for us in the way that we deal with sin.

It doesn't mean that ignorance is bliss. And I know there are Christians who say, well, you know, I'd rather not know because then I become accountable. Well, that's a, you know, it's just a stupid way of doing things.

We need to know and we need to be accountable. And the rules are not there. God doesn't make rules to make life hard for us. He makes rules for our good, for our protection. And so he can have compassion.

Christ's Sinlessness and the Day of Atonement

He can have mercy on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness. And of course, that's the Lord Jesus. He has compassion on us. He has touched with the feelings or the sympathizers with our weaknesses because he became like us.

He became human. And while he did not sin, he had struggles. He struggled with tiredness. He struggled with temptation. He struggled with all of the things that we struggle with. And yet he didn't sin.

So he's able to be a faithful high priest. Now, verse three says, because of this, he's required as for the people, so also for himself to offer sacrifices for sins. So on the Day of Atonement, so this only happened once a year, what the Jews still call Yom Kippur, and because we have many Jewish people in the city, invariably on the news, you will hear it's Yom Kippur.

It's the highest of their holy days, the Day of Atonement. On the Day of Atonement, on Yom Kippur, the high priest would first of all go, and he would go through the cleansing process. He would have to wash and so on, put on clean linen clothes without all of the fancy jewelry and the breastplate and the tunic that he would normally wear because all of these things were symbolic.

They represented various things. But he would just wear a plain linen cloak, and he would go and sacrifice a bull. And that bull would be for his own sin and for his family, for him and his family. Once he had done that, later in the day, he would then go and he would sacrifice a bull and a goat.

And that would be for the sins of the people. So in order for him to be able to go into the holy place and to act as a mediator, to act as the one who would bring the blood into the presence of God in the holiest of all, he first needed to deal with his own sin by making a sacrifice.

Having done that, he can now offer the sacrifice for the people. Of course, this is where, and of course the parallels between earthly high priests and the Lord Jesus, there are areas that are similar and there are areas that are very, very different.

This is one of the areas where there is a huge difference because Jesus never sinned. He was perfect. And the previous chapter, a few verses before, we just saw that he was without sin. So there was no need for him to make a sacrifice for his own sins.

And remember, as we've said, what sacrifice would he have to bring? Well, he would have to bring the sacrifice of himself. So if he has to sacrifice himself for his own sin, then what sacrifice has he got left for us?

But he doesn't sin, so he's not like an earthly high priest who first has to make a sacrifice for his own sins. No, he only makes one sacrifice, and that is for the sins of the people. And so it is required as for the people, so also for himself to offer sacrifices for sins.

Divine Calling and the Sonship of Christ

And no man takes this honor to himself. Interesting that he uses the word honor. In fact, and obviously in the Old Testament, it was an honor to be the high priest. It was an honor, although it was scary at the same time, because God could kill you in his presence if that high priest had not made a sacrifice for his own sins, or if he had sinned between the time he made the sacrifice, and he comes to bring the sacrifice or sprinkle the blood, because remember, he would have to go into the holiest of all, and he would take the blood of the sacrifice for the people, not his own, but the sacrifice for the people, and he would have to sprinkle the mercy seat with that blood.

Now, if he entered in there and he was not in the right place, God could probably would have killed him in his presence. So it was scary, but it was a great honor to be the one that was able to represent the whole nation in the presence of God.

And so it's an honor, but it's not an honor you can take on yourself. Now, later on, things changed. And at the time of Jesus, and we'll see when we come to Jesus' crucifixion or Jesus' trial in the book of Luke, we'll see the role of the high priests.

And at that stage, remember, there were two high priests at that point. These were political appointees. They were not necessarily of the descendants of Aaron. They were not appointed by God. They were political appointees.

Some of them actually bought the office. Now, obviously, Hebrews is contradicting that and saying that no man takes this honor to himself. Nobody can just say, I'm going to be the next high priest. And as far as I know, there was never an insurrection to say, well, we don't like the high priest.

We want our own high priest. No, the high priest was appointed by God. But he who is called by God, just as Aaron was. So obviously, if you could not have a high priest in the Old Testament who was not appointed by God, and here he's talking about being called by God, then obviously Jesus could not be, or no one else could be a high priest for us unless he had been called by God.

And so no man takes this honor to himself. So Jesus didn't decide one day, I'm going to be the high priest of the people. And obviously, we understand that he's in the context of the Trinity. He doesn't function independently or even think independently, I do not believe, of the other members of the Trinity.

But God says, who will I send and who will go for us? Remember Isaiah chapter 6, speaking to Isaiah. But in a sense, there's a discussion, I guess, if you want to put it in human terms, between the Father, Son, and the Spirit.

Who will go? And Jesus goes. And so he is called by God. I'm not going to say too much about modern preachers who appoint themselves. There are way too many people in pulpits who have appointed themselves and have not been called by God.

While today we are not priests in the Old Testament style, we are not even priests at all, because every one of us is a priest. At the same time, we do represent God, and no preacher should be preaching unless he is called of God.

The Father's Authority and Jesus' Eternal Priesthood

All right, now verse 5. So also Christ did not glorify himself to become high priest, but it was he, the Father, who said to him, you are my son, today I have begotten you. So we say, well, this is just a technical thing.

Well, maybe in a sense it is a technical thing, because could Jesus not take this upon himself and say, I'm going to be the high priest? I think he could have. And I think he could have done so legitimately.

But the point that he is making is that Jesus comes with the full authority and blessing and anointing of the Father, that he didn't come on his own mission, but he came as the representative of the Father.

He came appointed by the Father. And so he didn't take this position to himself, but it was the Father who said, you are my son, today I have begotten you. Remember, we've seen this verse over and over and over, taken from the Old Testament from the book of Psalms.

But I think that there's also a reference back to Jesus' baptism. When the Father speaks from heaven, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. So, you know, there's a lot of spiritual leaders that have lived over the years.

There's Buddha and Confucius and Muhammad, and the list goes on and on and on, all sorts of men. Who appointed them? They appointed themselves. Or maybe people elected them. But not one of them had the voice from God saying, this is my man, hear him.

But Jesus has the stamp of approval from heaven itself. This is my beloved son, hear him. You are my son. Today I've begotten you. And so Jesus' priestly ministry is founded on his sonship as the son of the Father.

So he is, as much as Aaron's sons would be high priests after him, Jesus, in a sense, is the son of the Father, and he enters into that ministry. Now, verse 6, as he also says in another place, and this is also in the book of Psalms, Psalm 110, I think verse 4, and just by the way, Psalm 110 is very important.

We're going to see that Psalm comes up in Luke again, won't be this Sunday, but the next Sunday we'll come back to Psalm 110, another part of Psalm 110. And so he's referring to the scriptures where God says, you're my son, and then he says also in another place in Psalm 110, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

You're a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. All right. So now, how long would he be, how long were earthly priests for? How long were earthly high priests for? Well, they didn't have term limits, so he would be the high priest until he died.

But the fact is that they all died, and the book of Hebrews is going to pick this thought up later on, where none of them had a continuing ministry. All of their ministries came to an end because they would eventually die.

But Jesus is a priest forever. So Aaron had to be replaced by one of his sons, he had to be replaced by one of his, and so the list went on and on and on. But Jesus would never be replaced because obviously he is eternal, he lives forever.

And does he still have that ministry? Yeah, the scripture says that he ever lives to make intercession for us. Now, he doesn't have to continue to make sacrifices because Hebrews is going to deal with this later on, where he's going to speak about the fact that those priests had to make sacrifices over and over and over.

Jesus makes one sacrifice, and he sits down, the work is done, it's finished. And so he doesn't have to continue to make sacrifices, but he still acts as our intermediary. The same way as the high priest would go into the presence of God and in a sense plead the blood for the people, sprinkling the blood.

So Jesus continues that while he's not shedding his blood, he's continually pleading our cause. The devil we know is there and he's accusing us. And he's saying, did you see what he did? And of course, Jesus isn't a politician who just says, well, yeah, no, it never happened.

Of course it happened. The man sinned, you sinned, I sinned. But Jesus is there and he's saying, but my blood is still effective. And my blood paid for that sin. And so he is still, while he is not, he is not presenting his blood, he is still appealing on the basis of that blood and making intercession for us.

Every time we fall, he is there and he's pleading our cause. And he's saying, Father, forgive them because my blood has dealt with that. My blood has washed that away. And so he is forever a priest. Will he need to be a priest or a high priest in the new Jerusalem?

Well, there wouldn't really be no need for that there. Because remember, I don't believe we'll be sinning in the new Jerusalem in heaven. There won't be any sin there. But will he still have that office?

Yes, he'll still have the office. He may not need to function as a high priest, but he will still have that office. Because this is a lifetime appointment. The only problem is, or the only issue is, that his lifetime is forever and ever.

And so he is high priest for eternity. So you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Now, I'm not going to get into Melchizedek in detail because chapter seven goes into a lot of detail on Melchizedek and the comparison between Jesus's ministry and that of Melchizedek will get there.

Melchizedek's Greater Priesthood

I don't want to preempt that. But just to remind you who Melchizedek was, remember that Abraham had gone out to rescue his nephew Lot, who had been captured by four kings. Four kings had ganged up against Sodom and Gomorrah, and they had ransacked the city.

They'd taken the people captive, taken all the possessions, and run off with them. And Abraham goes after them. Abraham has 300-odd, 318, I think, men, and they're armed, and they go after and they tackle these four kings, and they win the battle, and they bring back Lot, and they bring back all of the stuff.

And as they come back, this man Melchizedek appears. Now, he is called King of Salem or King of Peace, and he is called a priest. Who he is, we don't really know. There's no reference to him elsewhere in Scripture except in the Old Testament.

And then, of course, Hebrews, I think, eight times, his name appears more times than eight times, but this phrase, according to the order of Melchizedek, appears six times in Hebrews chapter 5, 6, and 7.

So this is an important concept, the order of Melchizedek. What does he mean by that? Well, obviously, the high priests in the Old Testament were of the order of Aaron. So Aaron was the head of that line of high priests.

Today, I don't know that there's a... I suppose the closest thing you get is in the Catholic Church where you have orders. And so there are the Jesuits, and they are of that line, of that family. They may not be physically born out of that family, but they line up with that concept.

You have others, Franciscans, and so on, and they are orders in a sense that all of those that follow are similar in their theology and in the kind of work they do and the stuff that they're about to the previous generations.

So the Franciscans have a particular area of ministry and particular ways of thinking and doing things, and so that flows all the way down from St. Francis to modern Franciscans. So those are orders that you have.

And so we have the order of Aaron, and so all of the priests that came after Aaron out of his order were of the same family. They had the same function. They had the same work. Now, Jesus is not a high priest according to the order of Aaron.

Why not? Because he's not born in that tribe. Remember, it's very specific. They had to be born of the tribe of Levi, and not just out of Levi, but also out of the family of Aaron to be the high priest.

So Jesus does not qualify, if you will, to be of the order of Aaron. But also, Aaron is—the Aaronic priesthood is not that great. There were many problems with some of these high priests. So Jesus starts something new, in a sense, something fresh, and he becomes the priest according to the line of Melchizedek.

Now, we're going to speak about Melchizedek, as I said, in much detail. But Melchizedek—I don't believe that Melchizedek is Jesus in the Old Testament, and I'll give you reasons for that when we get to chapter 7.

But he appears, and he clearly represents God, because Abraham recognizes him as great, and gives him tithes of everything that he had taken. And so, Aaron—one of the points that the Scripture will make is that we need to consider how great Melchizedek is, because Abraham pays tithes to him.

And the point that we'll see in chapter 7 is that the lesser pays tithes to the greater. So what was Abraham doing when he paid tithes to Melchizedek? He was saying, Melchizedek is greater than me. But what's that point?

The point that we will see is that Abraham represents the nation. All of the nation was in his loins, if you will, in his DNA. And on behalf of the whole nation that would come, Aaron says, here is one that's greater than me.

Sorry, Abraham says, here's one that's greater than me. So included—now, follow my thinking, I'm almost through. But included in Abraham's line would be Aaron. So Abraham is representing the nation, including Aaron, and saying, Melchizedek is greater.

So what Abraham is doing when he tithes to Melchizedek is he's saying, Melchizedek is not just greater than me, the patriarch of the nation, but he's also greater than Aaron, and he's greater than Moses.

And so Jesus becomes a priest of a greater order, the order of Melchizedek. And I know that leaves many questions concerning Melchizedek, but as I said, because chapter 7 goes into this in a lot more detail, and we'll get into more detail in that as we go along.

Jesus' Obedience and Perfect High Priesthood

Now, the next verses, which we're going to move on next week, now deals with the very practical basis of his humanity, and of the fact that he was a high priest who was made like unto his brethren, who in the days of his flesh, verse 7, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with vehement cries and tears to him, was able to save him from death, was heard because of his godly fear.

And then verse 8, though he was a son, yet he learned obedience. These are going to be difficult verses to deal with, because they are very deep and very complex. But this now flows from this idea that Jesus is not just this divine figure who just glibly says, I'm going to stand before men and God.

You remember Moses, we spoke about Moses as this intermediary. But then when Moses comes and he wants to lead the people out, what do they say? Who are you? We saw what you did to that Egyptian. Because remember, the Egyptian was mistreating a Jew, and he killed the Egyptian, buried him, thought nobody saw it.

But in fact, somebody did see it. But they reject him, because they didn't think he was a fit representative of them. When in fact, God had appointed him. Remember, Moses, again, wasn't elected. He didn't appoint himself.

In fact, he didn't want the job. He was going to run as far from that job as possible. But God called him, and God appointed him to that high priestly ministry, in a sense, not in that he made sacrifices, but in standing between Israel and Egypt.

And so, Jesus, then, is this perfect high priest. All of the weaknesses of the Old Testament high priests, Jesus doesn't have them. All their limitations, Jesus goes beyond. They're limited by death. They're limited to the degree to which they're able to make atonement.

They can only make atonement for past sins. They can't make atonement for future sins, for example. Yet Jesus makes one sacrifice, not just for the sins of the world up to that point 2 ,000 years ago, but he makes sacrifice for the sins for us today, 2 ,000 years later, until Jesus comes.

So, his high priestly ministry is far, far more superior. But at the same time, he is made like unto his brethren. And we're going to see this in a very graphic way in the next few verses. Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus.

We thank you, Lord, that he is not just a faithful high priest, but he is the greatest high priest of all time. And Lord, we thank you that you, even though there was no man found that could stand in the gap, there was no man found that would be able to adequately represent us before your throne, but you found the Lord Jesus, that the Lord Jesus was there, and he was willing to come to be made, to be qualified as a high priest by living amongst us and being one of us, and then found that sacrifice of himself, not of bulls and of goats, but of himself upon that cross of Calvary.