Why We Need a Priest

When I first began planting the church that I now pastor, I seriously considered naming it “Christ Our Priest Presbyterian Church.” After all, there were already thousands churches that had “Christ the King” (or some variation of it) in the name. I still find it utterly shocking that there are no churches named “Christ Our Priest.” After all, everyone needs a priest. No one can approach God without a mediator. It is for this reason that the High Priesthood of Jesus Christ is one of the most glorious truths in all of God’s revelation in Scripture. Christ’s role as the High Priest of believers has a far-reaching impact on our Christian lives and experiences.

Believers rightly love to talk about the “finished work of Jesus.” After all, Scripture puts the once-for-all atoning sacrifice of Christ in the driver’s seat of redemptive history and of the Christian life. However, the atoning sacrifice of Jesus is only one-half of His priestly work. The work of the priest under the old covenant was to sacrifice and to intercede. As the Great High Priest, Jesus now “always lives to make intercession” for those for whom He has sacrificed Himself to God (Heb. 7:25). The writer of the book of Hebrews focuses on both sides of Jesus’ priestly work—His “finished work” of offering Himself to God as the perfect sacrifice and His “unfinished work” of continual intercession. The Christian life can be lived only in light of these two sides of Christ’s role as the High Priest over the house of God.

When we consider what bearing the priesthood of Jesus—in its finished and unfinished aspects—has on the Christian’s life, we must seek to draw out all that we can from the book of Hebrews. The writer of Hebrews had a profound interest in the grandeur of this subject. Writing to a people beleaguered by suffering—a people who were tempted to turn back from Christ to a ritualistic form of Judaism in order to avoid persecution—the author went to great lengths to help believers understand the significance of the priestly work of Jesus for their continuance in the faith. He did so by setting out the following benefits of the priesthood of Christ. Read More