The priestly office of Christ occupies a major place in the NT and includes not only a discussion of the office itself, but also of Christ’s sacrificial death to redeem sinners from their sin.
In Hebrews we are told “to fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess” (Heb 3:1). We are informed that we “have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God” (Heb 4:14). Jesus is the kind of high priest “who meets our needs-one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people,” for this high priest “sacrificed for their sins once for all when He offered Himself” (Heb 7:26-27). Thus Christians are able to take heart, for our high priest, when he had completed his work, “sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven” (Heb 8:1).
Not only does Christ the high priest offer an all-sufficient sacrifice for sin, but He also is Himself the all-sufficient sacrifice for sin! The Psalmist, who records for us the prophetic words of the Messiah himself, declares “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire…burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. Then I said, ‘Here I am, I have come-it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart’” (Psa 40:6-8).
Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death is the fulfilment of the types and shadows of the Mosaic system. The author of Hebrews makes it very clear that Jesus Christ, through His one sacrifice, has done something that the blood of bulls and goats could never accomplish. The blood of the Messiah is that through which “we have been made holy” (Heb 11:10).
Though Christ took his place at the right hand of his Father, because his redemptive work was finished (Heb 11:12), He continues his priestly work as He presently intercedes for us when we sin (1 John 2:1-2). While we are correct to focus on what Christ has done for us as our high priest, we must not forget those things He is doing for us even now. He prays for our sanctification (John 17:17). He is now our “great high priest who has gone through the heavens,” so too we can now “approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Heb 4:14-16). Even now, our great high priest is building us “into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 2:5).
What comfort we can take, knowing that our Lord is in heaven, preparing for us to see His glory (John 17:24). For the great high priest who intercedes for us never sleeps nor wearies, He never prays without full effect, and He is ever mindful of our continuing struggles with the world, the flesh, and the devil (Heb 2:18). Jesus Christ is both the author and the finisher of our faith (Heb 12:2). He is our great high priest and the good shepherd, who even now guards His flock. No one shall ever snatch us from His hand (John 10:28-29), and nothing will ever separate us from His love (Rom 8:37-39).