What does it mean that Jesus is our High Priest?

"Wherefore it behoved [the Lord Jesus Christ] in all things to be made like to his brethren, that he might be a merciful [to you and me] and faithful [to God] high priest in things relating to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people; for, in that himself has suffered, being tempted, he is able to help those that are being tempted" (Heb. 2:17-18). The Lord Jesus could not be a priest on earth because He was not of the tribe of Levi but from Judah, but in calling Him to Priesthood God has seated Him at the pinnacle of the universe, He has crowned Him with glory and honour and majesty and splendour. He filled God the Father's heart when He was on earth, He was the Bread of God, God fed upon Christ daily (what are we feeding on?), and now He is filling all heaven and He is coming back again soon to fill the whole universe with the glory of God. This is the One who has been called to Priesthood.

What a Succourer or Helper this One is. He has walked this path before, He wept at the grave of Lazarus (John 11:35), He has been hungry (Luke 4:2) and thirsty (John 4:7), He has been "tempted in all things in like manner, sin apart" (Heb. 4:15), He was homeless, He did not have place to lay His head (Luke 9:58). As He has been tested in all areas, sin apart, He can succour us. Not only does He succour us but in Hebrews 4:14-16 we are told that He sympathises with us, "Having therefore a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast the confession. For we have not a high priest not able to sympathise with our infirmities, but tempted in all things in like manner, sin apart. Let us approach therefore with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and find grace for seasonable help". So the Lord Jesus in this office as our great High Priest mediates for us, succours us and here He sympathises with us. Who can sympathise more than Jesus (humanity), the Son of God (Divinity). How He, a true Man, can be "over all, God blessed for ever" (Rom. 9:5) goes beyond human comprehension but it is certainly true. This is where faith comes in and lays hold of this truth. So He is human, He is Divine, and He is compassionate, merciful and accessible (you can talk to Him in your car going to work, or in your closet, or in your bed, or coming to the meeting, in fact in any circumstance night or day).

Jesus lives at the right hand of God for us. His active intervention on our behalf never ceases for a single moment. He has passed through the heavens, in virtue of accomplished atonement, and there He ever carries on His perfect advocacy for us before our God. He is there as our subsisting righteousness, to maintain us ever in the divine integrity of the position and relationship into which His atoning death has introduced us. Thus we read, in Romans 5:10, "If, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." So also, in Hebrews 4, we read, "Seeing then that we have a great high priest that has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast the confession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted, in like manner, 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." Again, in Hebrews 7: "But this man, because he continues for ever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them." And in Hebrews 9: "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us."

But He is also our High Priest, that is, He has gone in to God for us. As Apostle He came out to represent God to us, and to bring God to us; as High Priest He has gone in to represent us to God, and bring us to God. He is our High Priest, He has gone in, and He has opened up the way for us, a new and living way which He has dedicated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh. The holiest is the place for the holy brethren. The blood is there, the precious blood, and where the blood is sins cannot be, but the holy brethren can be there, cleansed and consecrated, because the High Priest is there.

The grace needed the High Priest procures. Able to succour them that are tempted (2:18), He is also able to sympathise with His people, having been in all points tempted like as they are - sin apart. He knows what is needed, and intercedes for us with God, that we coming to the throne of grace may reap the fruit of His intercession by receiving mercy and seasonable help. (4:14-16.) Having then a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, i.e. has gone up to the throne, Jesus, Son of God, let us hold fast the confession. A great High Priest He is called. Aaron was high priest. Jesus, the Son of God, is greater. The Hebrews then were in this no losers by embracing Christianity. The Jews might boast of the Aaronic line of priesthood; these Hebrews could say, "The Son of God is our High Priest."

We have a High Priest who has passed through the heavens — as Aaron through the successive parts of the tabernacle — Jesus, the Son of God.

He has, in all things, been tempted like ourselves, sin apart; so that He can sympathise with our infirmities. The word brings to light the intents of the heart, judges the will, and all that has not God for its object and its source. Then, as far as weakness is concerned, we have His sympathy. Christ of course had no evil desires: He was tempted in every way, apart from sin. Sin had no part in it at all. But I do not wish for sympathy with the sin that is in me; I detest it, I wish it to be mortified — judged unsparingly. This the word does. For my weakness and my difficulties I seek sympathy; and I find it in the priesthood of Jesus. It is not necessary, in order to sympathise with me, that a person should feel at the same moment that which I am feeling — rather the contrary. If I am suffering pain, I am not in a condition to think as much of another's pain. But in order to sympathise with him I must have a nature capable of appreciating his pain.

Thus it is with Jesus, when exercising His priesthood. He is in every sense beyond the reach of pain and trial, but He is man; and not only has He the human nature which in time suffered grief, but He experienced the trials a saint has to go through more fully than any of ourselves; and His heart, free and full of love, can entirely sympathise with us, according to His experience of ill, and according to the glorious liberty which He now has, to provide and care for it. This encourages us to hold fast our profession in spite of the difficulties that beset our path; for Jesus concerns Himself about them, according to His own knowledge and experience of what they are, and according to the power of His grace.

Our Lord in the glory as our great High Priest is deeply concerned about our need. He is constantly saving us from the ten thousand difficulties and perplexities which cross our path. In this way He saves us to the uttermost, or right on to the end. Having saved our souls, saved us from the wrath to come, He saves us day by day from the things of men, and Satan, and the world, which sometimes threaten to swallow us up. For this, too, He is ever living to intercede for us. His intercession then as our High Priest is not about our sins, but about our need. We are therefore enjoined to "come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." (Heb. 4:16.)

Of old, the high priest passed through the court of the tabernacle and the holy place to reach the presence of God, but Jesus, the Son of God, our great High Priest, has passed through the heavens to sit down upon God’s throne. He was great enough to make by Himself propitiation for sins, and He is great enough to pass through the heavens; and the One who has passed through the heavens once passed through this earth, and knows all that His people have to sustain in their trials in this world.

The Lord Jesus is a High Priest and, as such, intercedes for us (Rom. 8:34 and Heb. 7:25.26). Our High Priest is perfectly able to help those who are tempted (Heb. 2:18) because He became Man and, in this way, became ‘like unto His brethren’. He is perfectly able to sympathise with us in our struggles and problems because He “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15).

An additional argument is given. The priesthood of Christ was established by an oath, while that of Aaron was not. Swearing an oath God said as to Him, who sat down at His own right hand, "The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest forever, after the order of Melchisedec." How superior, then, this priesthood! By so much, also, hath Jesus become surety of a better covenant." And furthermore, they were many priests, for they were mortal men and died. But Christ continueth forever and hath the unchangeable priesthood. And this ever-living priest is able to save to the uttermost those that come unto God by Him, seeing that He always liveth to make intercession for them." He saves completely and keeps His own by His priestly, all-powerful intercession, for eternal glory. And what a high priest He is! Such a high priest! Well may His own in holy joy and praise cry out--"Such a high priest!" He is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. "In His official dignity and glory He is made higher than the heavens." And He has no need, day by day, as the earthly high priests, first to offer up sacrifices for His own sins, then for those of the people. This He did once for all when He offered up Himself. What a contrast with the Jewish priests. They were sinners--He, separate from sinners and absolutely holy; they with the many sacrifices, which could accomplish nothing for man--He with the one great sacrifice which has accomplished all. And so He maketh intercession for them who have believed in Him, the many sons He brings to glory. He is holy and heavenly--even so are all His own, saved by grace, holy and partakers of the heavenly calling (3:1).

Let us not leave verse 25 without noticing that in it believers are described as those "that come to God by Him." It is a very prominent thought in this epistle that the Christian has boldness and liberty to come to God, whereas in the former dispensation all true access to God was forbidden. These words also indicate that the great objective in all Christ's priestly service is to bring us to God, and to maintain us there. On the one hand there is no access to God save BY HIM. On the other, all His compassionate service on our behalf, sympathizing, succouring, saving, is a means to an end. The end being this, that thereby lifted above the things that otherwise would overwhelm us, we might be maintained in the presence of God.