Sunday: A Priest on Behalf of Human Beings
Read Hebrews 5:1-10. What is the role of the priesthood and, according to this passage, how does Jesus fulfill that role?
The basic purpose of the Levitical priesthood was to mediate between sinful people and God. Priests were appointed by God in order to minister in behalf of human beings; therefore, they needed to be merciful and understanding of human weaknesses.
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In Hebrews 5:5-10, Paul shows that Jesus perfectly fulfills those purposes: God appointed Him (Hebrews 5:5-6, ), and also Jesus understands us because He also has suffered (Hebrews 5:7-8, ).
There are some important differences, however. Jesus was not “chosen from among men” (Hebrews 5:1, ESV). Instead, Jesus adopted human nature in order, among other things, to serve as a priest in our behalf. Jesus did not offer sacrifices for His own sins (Hebrews 5:3) but only for our sins, because He was sinless (Hebrews 4:15, Hebrews 7:26-28).
Hebrews says that Jesus prayed “to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard” (Hebrews 5:7, NKJV). Hebrews was referring to the second death, from which God saved Jesus when He resurrected Him (Hebrews 13:20). Hebrews also says that Jesus “learned obedience through what he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8, ESV). Obedience was new to Jesus, not because He was disobedient but because He was God. As sovereign over the universe, Jesus did not obey anyone; instead, everyone obeyed Him.
Jesus’ sufferings and death on the cross are an essential part of His priestly ministry. Sufferings did not perfect Jesus in the sense that He improved morally or ethically. Sufferings did not make Him merciful. To the contrary, Jesus came to this earth because He always was merciful, which is why He had compassion on us (Hebrews 2:17). What Hebrews means is that it was through sufferings that the reality of Jesus’ brotherly love, the authenticity of His human nature, and the depth of His submission as representative of humanity to the will of the Father were truly expressed and revealed. He was “perfected” in the sense that His sufferings qualified Him to be our High Priest. It was His life of perfect obedience, and then His death on the cross, which constitute the sacrificial offering that Jesus presented before the Father as our priest.
| 1 Peter 2:9 says that we are “a royal priesthood.” What does Jesus’ life tell you that your relationship with other human beings should be because we are in this sacred role? |
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Whatever happened between Eden and the Exodus, there was an enormous loss of connection between the creator and the created. From the God who talked with his creation to gods who needed to be appeased to stop them from being angry was an enormously backward step in the relationship. During the Exodus period, God was working on a group of people who needed to understand the sort of relationship that God really wanted to have with his people. That was where the priesthood, as the restorer of the relationship came in.
In many ancient cultures, gods were often associated with disaster and death and the only way to work with them was to appease them. They were remote, often angry and capricious. God wanted us to learn about his true character. At the very beginning, he had said, "Let us make man in our image!" and part of the work of the priesthood was to reveal the significance of that statement. I know that this next statement can be seriously misinterpreted, but God wanted us to see him in human terms so we could understand him better. Not a god who had to be appeased but one who walks and talks with us. That was the work of the priesthood.
This notion of God, understood at the human level is emphasised in one of Jesus' names. "Emmanuel" - God with us.
And the corollary is that if we are a "Royal Priesthood" it is our responsibility to share that "God with us" relationship with others.
Very well said.
Wow, thank you for this comment
Understood
I believe that the last statement of today's study guide sums up the plan of salvation succinctly -
It was His life of perfect obedience, and then His death on the cross, which constitute the sacrificial offering that Jesus presented before the Father as our priest.
From the Sanctuary system we are taught that the lamb had to be 'perfect' and it had to be sacrificed in order to make atonement for the person.
Jesus said: Matt 26:28. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
Paul also outlines the two aspects- justification through His death and sanctification through His life.
Rom 4:20-22. 20 (Abraham) did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. 22 And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.”23 Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, 24 but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.
Rom 5:8-11. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
Very few of you will know me - other than what you see in my writings. And I acknowledge my writings are at times controversial. It would be easy and understandable for you to assume what kind of person I might be and what might motivate me to raise topics that are controversial. Am I someone who likes to focus on poking holes in things for the sake of doing so? Am I someone how likes to provoke just because?
I do not want the focus of any contributions I write to be on me. I want the opposite. So, to try and help this, I paradoxically need to let you 'see' just a little about myself. I have been raised within Adventism - from Adventist primary school all the way to Adventist university. I have been employed within the Adventist organisation. My nature is to be gentle and not provoke conflict. Somehow in amongst that, many (I'm not exaggerating) people over the years have opened up to me about their life and faith journey - people from all levels within and beyond Adventism. And some of those people have told me outright that they have shared stuff with me that they haven't felt able to share anywhere else. So what happens when lots of people share things with you? You get to see clusters of commonly experienced issues emerging. What do you do with that if you want to try and help? Do you keep silent about the things that are affecting people, or do you try and constructively raise awareness and facilitate opportunity for exploration of issues - especially issues that appear so subtle in their expression as to pass as seemingly inconsequential (ie, making a mountain out of a molehill) - but in actuality are very significant in their impacts? But like I said, I don't want the focus to be on me so I will slip back into the background in order that the issues that I raise will be the focus in an effort to try and talk about the 'elephants in the room' in a constructive manner that is meant to help, not hinder, people's faith walk and growth.
Good morning Phil
Thanks for sharing some biographical information with us. It helps me to understand somewhat why you are sometimes controversial. However, one of my observations is that often your comments are "way above my head" and difficult to understand. Can you use simpler language so that your points are clear to me?
Thank you and have a great day
Hi Erma (and anyone else who finds the same difficulty)
Thanks for taking the time and effort to speak up - it is appreciated.
Unfortunately forums don't naturally have the same freedom of talking back and forth and, therefore, refining my understanding of the bits you do understand and the bits that are going over your head. I would therefore invite that you provide feedback when you are having difficulty understanding something in particular. For example, please ask me "what do you mean when you say ...". That way we can engage in a 'conversation' (in writing) that hopefully better meets your needs.
Thank you Phil, for that addition infos. Much I used your point of views, it helps a lot to consolidate each lesson. God bless you and your family.
Thank you Phil. I find your comments very insightful.
Thank you for sharing a little about yourself. From my interaction with you, both on this blog and privately, I totally believe that your "nature is to be gentle and not provoke conflict." Yet, a back-and-forth discussion is helpful to foster clarity of understanding and does not have to be interpreted as "conflict." as the wise man says in Proverbs 27:17. Paul even suggests "provoking" one another (KJV) in Heb 10:24 😉
Thank you for taking the time out to share your understanding on this blog.
Hi Inge
Thanks for your response. I am absolutely all for constructive back-and-forth discussion to help foster clarity of understanding - as you and I are doing. I do not see that as conflict in any way. I only mentioned what I said so people might know I am not out to try to 'provoke' controversy for the sake of provoking controversy - in the way 'provoking' is typically understood. However the 'provoking' that Paul refers to in Hebrews 10:24 is what motivates me to take the risk of speaking up about things - even if they risk being controversial.
Today's lesson states that, "The basic purpose of the Levitical priesthood was to mediate between sinful people and God." To help stimulate deeper consideration of this dynamic, think back to when humanity was first created in Genesis 1 and 2. Humanity and God were in a state of 'at-one-ment'. In Genesis 3, humanity was craftily deceived (Genesis 3:1,13) into mistrusting God and instead resorting to doing what seemed good in their own eyes (as per Deuteronomy 12:8; Judges 21:25). And in doing so, humanity took itself outside of the 2 core things that are absolutely needed in order to stay connected with true (eternal, abundant) life:
(a) ongoing relationship-connection with The Source of the breath of life (God: Genesis 2:7; Job 34:14-15) and
(b) maintaining harmony with the principles of life that are the mechanisms through which God promotes and sustains life within created beings (eg, Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Romans 8:13).
Thus, humanity functionally disconnected itself from 'at-one-ment' just as God had cautioned against in Genesis 2:16-17. This disconnection was irreversibly terminal from humanity's perspective - there was nothing that humanity could do in and of itself to fix this (Romans 5:12-14; 7:24).
Now consider what God, through Jesus has done. This life-severing disconnection between Divinity and humanity was addressed by actually 'reversing' what had happened. In order to do this Jesus, the Son of God also become Jesus, the Son of Man. And as the Son of Man, Jesus retraced the same path of the first Adam - that is, being tempted by Satan to violate the two above-outlined conditions needed for life. However, Jesus succeeded where the first Adam fell by instead holding to trust in God and harmony with (ie, obedience to) the principles of life even when it cost Him his life to do so (John 15:13). Thus it was 'obedience' that restored 'at-one-ment' exactly as Romans 5:19 and Philippians 2:6-8 assert. Because Jesus as the second Adam did not violate the two required preconditions for life that I outlined above, He retained connection with eternal life. And thus, once again, a member of humanity that did not have a fallen and therefore terminal condition was in existence. Put another way, one member of humanity was 'immune' against the terminal condition that previously all humanity had been subject too (as per Romans 5:12-14).
Then Jesus, via involvement of the Holy Spirit, set/s about to share His inheritance as the successful second Adam with every human who authentically wants to do so via rebirth (to a new heart and right spirit: John 3:3-6; Ezekiel 36:26) and progressive character restoration (I am not talking about 'legalism' or 'perfectionism'). Thus, every human who authentically wants to do so is brought back into 'at-one-ment' again (John 3:16). Thus the mediating ministry of Jesus our second Adam, Jesus our High Priest, Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, Jesus the antitypical fulfilment of the atonement sacrifice (Leviticus 17:11) is brought about by one who is both Divine and human and therefore able to 'perfectly' and directly bring about 'at-one-ment' by reuniting the two 'sides' from both sides.
I have read, and listened to things pertaining to the plan of redemption. I take away from these happenings in in the lives of mankind,that the sole reason, purpose was/is/promises to be all about love. Why God loves us so much that he sent Jesus, and why Jesus loves us so much that he suffered and died for somebody like me,I understand not. But because both processes happened, I am truly blessed, grateful and happy. I claim no human perfection, I just know God and Jesus loves Audrey and many more like Audrey. In today's world 🌎, who you know that's gonna do what God and Jesus did for undeserving mankind. So I am privileged and forgiven and blessed to say: THANK YOU God For Jesus, And THANK YOU JESUS FOR LOVING US.
IT is very clear to me in Hebrews 5:1-10 that Jesus and Melchizedek are "one and the same." Jesus is King and Priest, Melchizedek was also King and Priest. There was only "one" King and Priest Melchizedek in the Old Testament in Genesis that meets Abraham and blesses him. and there was and is only "one" king and Priest Jesus that meets us and blesses us ever since He rose from death and sits at His Fathers' right hand now.
"1 Peter 2:9 says that we are “a royal priesthood.” What does Jesus’ life tell you that your relationship with other human beings should be because we are in this sacred role?"
Priests mediated between the people and God, and they ministered to the people. We can do this:
- By helping people understand the true character of God, both in our actions and by sharing God's Word with them in a way that relates to their lives. As it has been said, "Your life may be the only Bible someone ever reads." Everything Jesus did was an expression of God's character of love; are we doing the same?
- By meeting people's needs, even if all that we can do is to listen to their troubles and pray for them; and if God leads us to do more, to obey His will for that situation, in order to bring hurting, broken people into restoration with God's love. Jesus ministered to the people at their level. He went to the outcasts, misfits, and rejects, to bring them hope and love. He did not preach to them in fancy words that showed how educated He was, and He didn't wait for them to come to Him.
- By keeping ourselves in close communion with God so that we may always be ready to hear His voice "today", as we studied last week. Jesus spent much time in prayer and close communion with His Father, so that He would always know His Father's will. If we are far from our Father, we may not hear His voice. And if we do not hear Him telling us what we can do to minister, the person we are meant to help may miss out on the blessings we were meant to share with them.
It is very refreshing to hear your words. It enclines me to jump for joy that you understand this truth. It is food from heaven. The newest insight that Jesus reveals to me is that without this character in our hearts we fail miserably in having the first few commandments in our hearts. If we love God with all our hearts, we will have him on our minds in every situation. In this way we draw closer to Him everyday and His voice (not audible but Spiritual) will be clearly heard. Thank you for your blessed heart.
Thank you for your kind words and your additional insight, Celeste!
What a high calling Jesus has designed for us, to be part of a royal priesthood. So, royals are the ruling class. Priests are the spiritual leaders. I understand that our destiny as redeemed humans is to belong to the ruling class as spiritual leaders. I say ruling class because Jesus wants us to share a seat on His throne. To have an active role in heaven as belonging to secure and stable government, we must be holy in character, so that we are fair, just, merciful, and pure in our judgements. Will we be in this role as part of the government of the universe? EGW says "Higher than the highest thought can reach is God's ideal for man."