The Replacements

Jesus Christ is our High Priest.  He is a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.  These are powerful words because Jesus changed everything.  He changed the priesthood forever.  No longer would the priesthood be based on genealogical pedigree but on grace!  In the Old Testament, the Levites were the priests.  They handled all of the priestly business, but the book of Hebrews eloquently makes the case for why the priesthood was replaced.  It was merely a copy of what was in heaven.  It was a shadow of what Jesus made real.

The priests, the high priest in particular, was responsible for making the atoning sacrifice on the Day of Atonement.   A very elaborate procedure is laid out in Leviticus 16.  Everything had to be done down to the letter.  A bull for the sins of the priest, two goats for the people- one to be slain as a sacrifice, the other to be sent off into the wilderness.  The priest would take the blood into the holy of holies, the inner most part of the tabernacle where God’s presence was, and make atonement for the nation.  This would be done year after year- perpetually.  No one else had the privilege of going behind the veil.  Aaron’s sons were killed because of it- well, actually, they dropped dead in God’s presence because they burned the wrong fire before Him (Leviticus 10).

The book of Hebrews depicts Jesus not only as our High Priest, but as the perfect High Priest.  One that does not need to offer sacrifice for Himself, but one that offered the ultimate sacrifice for the people.  He offered Himself as the atoning sacrifice and then assumed the role as High Priest in that he went behind the veil for all of us.  His sacrifice on Calvary was the finished work of atonement for sins, going behind the veil fulfilled the entire Law in that the high priest, after atonement, made purification for the elements in case they were defiled by sin (see Leviticus 16).  When the song says that Jesus paid it all, He really did pay it all!

Hebrews 6:20 says that Jesus went behind the veil as a forerunner.  The Greek word for forerunner is the word prodrosmas and it literally means one who goes ahead to reach the destination before others.  Totally different from the Levitical high priest, who went behind the veil alone as a representative for the people, Jesus went behind the veil as a pioneer- as one that the people could actually follow into the presence of God!  The bible says that when Jesus was crucified, the veil in the temple was torn in two (Matthew 27:51; Mark 15:38)!  What Jesus did as our High Priest gave the believer unfettered access into God’s presence!  We can now approach the throne of grace confidently (Hebrews 4:16) because of Jesus and the sacrifice that He made at Calvary.

Here is some good news: because Christ did away with the Levitical priesthood and the genealogical requirements necessary to be a priest, all of His followers are also priests of the Lord.  Not high priests, but priests that serve the living God.  Isaiah 61:6 says you will be called PRIESTS of the LORD!  Under the New Covenant, the one in Jesus’s blood, 1 Peter 2:9 says “But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light…”  Earlier in the same chapter, Peter expresses this thought again but in a different way: “you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Being a part of God’s priesthood with Jesus as our High Priest is an awesome task.  We are to serve God with gladness and minister to each other.  We are to edify one another and encourage each other daily as we see the day approaching.  Let us honor our role in God’s kingdom and offer sacrifices to Him.  Not burnt offerings, sin offerings and the like, but the sacrifice of obedience to His word.  May God bless you and make His face shine upon you.