This article is the twenty-second installment in our series "Christian, What Do You Believe: The Belgic Confession of Faith." Find the whole series here.
If you lived in Israel in the days of the Old Testament, you would have been familiar with the work of priests. Your family would have brought animals to the priests to kill and burn them on the altar. The priest was “the channel through which spiritual life was communicated.”
A priestly ministry feels far removed from us today. But it shouldn’t. The book of Hebrews reminds us, “We have a great high priest who has passed though the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God” (Heb. 4:14). Only through the priestly work of Jesus are we brought near and do we stay near to God.
The Reality of Christ’s Priesthood
“Jesus Christ is a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek—made such by an oath.” Israel’s priests descended from Levi and made sacrifices for the Jewish people. Christ is not a Levitical priest. He is like the mysterious Melchizedek who continued the work committed to the first prophet, priest, and king, Adam (Gen. 14:18–24; Ps. 110:4; Heb. 5–7). Christ offers intercession for people of every tribe and nation—as many as God calls to himself. Nor does the futility of the Levitical priesthood apply to Christ. He “offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins” (Heb. 10:12). And Christ, like Melchizedek, is bound to the priesthood with an irrevocable oath (Ps. 110:4). Since it is impossible for God to lie, his oath assures us “that the foundations of salvation are eternal and immovable.”
To fulfill his office as high priest, Jesus had to be completely innocent. The Levitical priests were ineffectual in part because, although they were symbolically without defect (Lev. 21:21) they were, in fact, sinners (Heb. 7:27). Jesus was truly undefiled (Heb. 7:26). The Jewish leaders couldn’t find witnesses to agree on a false charge against him (Mark 14:56). Three times Pilate said, “I find no guilt in him” (John 18:38, 19:4, 6; cf. Matt. 27:23, Mark 15:14). His wife warned him, “Have nothing to do with that righteous Man” (Matt. 27:19). The centurion who helped crucify Jesus testified to his innocence: “Truly this man was the Son of God!” (Mark 15:39). The earth itself revolted against receiving the blood of this innocent man (Matt. 27:51).
Christ could not have stood in our place and endured God’s hatred for sin for us if he was guilty himself. Jesus “suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18). Truly, though he had no guilt, he restored what was stolen (Ps. 69:4).
The Reason for Christ’s Priesthood
Christ’s ministry as high priest helps us understand how Jesus “save[s] his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21).
As Priest, Christ Appeases God’s Wrath
God is right to be angry at our sins. God is love. But without anger, mercy is impossible. So Christ became a “merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Heb. 2:17; cf. Rom. 3:25; 1 John 2:2, 4:10). Christ “felt the terrible punishment which our sins had merited” so that God’s anger toward our sins might be calmed (cf. 1 Peter 2:24). The merciful and just “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God” (Rom. 5:8–9; cf. 1 Thess. 1:10).
As Priest, Christ Forgives Our Sins
Christ endured unimaginable grief and pain “for the forgiveness of our sins.” The Old Testament priests did not themselves suffer for sin. They caused the suffering of the animals. But Christ offered himself “in agony” (Luke 22:44). His whole life in body and soul, he “humbled himself unto the very deepest reproach of anguish and hell” to pay the penalty that we deserve. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1).
Isaiah 53 movingly describes Christ’s priestly ministry. He carried our griefs, was wounded for our transgressions, chastised for our peace, and lashed that we might be healed. “He bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors” (vv. 4–6, 8, 11, 12).
Our Response to Christ’s Priesthood
Christ’s priestly ministry was effective for the salvation of the elect; we can’t bring anything to God to perfect Christ’s work. But God’s people actively use his ministry to receive salvation.
Know Nothing but Christ Crucified
Don’t misunderstand Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 2:2. Scripture requires you to know much more than Jesus’ crucifixion. You must know your sin, how you are delivered from sin, and how you are to thank God for delivering you from sin. Every reflection on Scripture, every sermon, need not center on the cross; it should center on whatever the text says. Carl Trueman makes the point well: “It is the cross of Christ set within the context of the biblical story of humanity’s creation and fall that has significance.” We find comfort in Christ as we grow in his grace and in knowledge of the whole counsel of God. But when it comes to the ground of your salvation, Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is central. You should know nothing else.
Seek No Other Means of Being Reconciled to God
Count everything else—all your accomplishments, all your righteousness, every accolade—a loss (Phil. 3:8). When Jesus said, “It is finished” (John 19:30) he meant it. Christ has finished his work of atonement and has sat down at the right hand of the Father. His death doesn’t make salvation possible; in Christ’s death God saves sinners. He secured total salvation for those who come to God saying, “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.”
Find Comfort in Christ’s Wounds
When you fear that God is angry with you, trust Jesus as your propitiating high priest. Christ fully absorbs God’s wrath toward believing sinners. When you doubt that God could ever look on you with favor, believe that your life is unbreakably united by faith to the Son of God (Gal. 2:20). You live in the merits of the obedient, crucified Savior. Christ lovingly gave his life for yours. The love the Father shows him, he now shows you. He who suffered for sinners never sinned. In his innocence, Christ answers for us God’s demand for perfection.
In Christ, we have our only high priest “who has delivered us by the one sacrifice of his body.”
