Some days we need someone to represent us. It can feel like even our self is against our self! The evidence can be stacked against us and we know more than others know. We are simply not good enough for this world we live in. And as for another world after this one? Well, if we don’t qualify for this one then how will we make the next one?
We need a lawyer to get us through this season. We need a lawyer who though might know the truth about us can masterfully still defend us and find some mitigating factor that means though we are guilty that we survive.
I’m thankful this morning that we have someone who is far better than the best lawyer. The actual need is not for a lawyer but a High Priest.
“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to feel sympathy for our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:14-16
Jesus the Son of God is our great high priest.
The Pastor has told this community already that Jesus is greater than the angels and the prophets. But there is a higher position because of its function and that is Jesus is the great high priest.
The priest was crucial to the life of a believer in that they taught the law of God and represented God to the people but they also stood on behalf of the people before God and did so through the sacrificial system. They were the intermediary, pleading to God for the people.
But it was the high priest who was most important in keeping the relationship with God good for the people and the special Day of Atonement was his day as he went into the Holy of Holies to cleanse the people through the blood sacrifice.
Today I want to tell someone who needs to know this truth. No matter what this world throws at you and you might deserve everything, there is one who stands in the gap for you, Jesus your High Priest.
Your prosecutor, the devil, wants to stop you from approaching God and if he cannot then he definitely wants to remove your confidence in doing so. He wants you to fall away and if he cannot make that happen then he definitely wants you to approach God with your head down and await your judgment and condemnation.
There is a gap though and Jesus is standing in it. More than a lawyer. A High Priest. More than the best High Priest of history. One that has ascended to the throne room, the place of judgment, as the one who knows what is to be fully human, he knows how you are feeling, he knows how you are thinking, he knows not only because he sees but because he has been where you are today. Maybe you have fallen into temptation and perhaps you have failed the test but He had the same experience but He didn’t. He is your confidence because He didn’t sin. He is your confidence because He became your sacrifice.
And today the throne is one of grace and mercy and the greatest lawyer, intermediary, High Priest is there representing you, calling out your name. So hold on, stand firm, not because you are right but because He is your righteousness.
Missions Paul 