Jesus: The Priest

I. Introduction

The prophet was one figure that mediated between the Lord and the people by receiving the word of God and then delivering it directly to the people from God. Tonight, we look at the second of three mediators in the Kingdom: the priest. Like the prophet, the priest intercedes for the people, but in a very different way. Robert Letham has put the relationship in these terms, “If the prophet is God’s representative before humanity, the priest is humanity’s representative before God” (The Work of Christ, 105).

II. The Old Testament Priesthood

The work of the priest in the Old Testament was a very important one, essentially dealing with the idea of mediation. In the early days of God’s covenant dealings with His people, there was no formal priesthood, so patriarchs served as priestly mediators (e.g. Abraham & Job offered their own sacrifices). At the inauguration of the Mosaic Covenant, the entire nation of Israel is called to be mediators between Yahweh and the pagan nations (Ex. 19:5-6). Later, God set apart an entire family (Aaron) and an entire tribe (the Levites) to do this mediatorial work, consecrating them by the washing with water and the anointing with oil (Ex. 29:4, 7).

The priest had to remain “clean” in order to act as mediator. This cleanness had to do with his contact with impurity and death. Coming in contact with something that was deemed impure or dead (a human or animal corpse, a menstruating woman, certain diseases) meant that the priest became “unclean” and thus unable to come into the presence of the “living” God whose very name means life (HE IS WHO HE IS). These strict requirements reflect the fact that God is holy and cannot be approached flippantly. For the priest, his every action had to be monitored and examined to ensure that he remained clean and thus, ensure his ability to serve. If the priest came before the Lord in an unclean state, he would be killed by the holiness of God.

The work of the priests in Israel varied depending upon their respective position in the Levitical priesthood and the time of year in the Jewish calendar. The work of any priest consisted of the following:

1) Offered gifts and sacrifices for sins of both himself and the community

2) Interceded for those whom he represented – Lev. 16

3) Taught the people

4) Pronounced the blessings of the LORD upon the people – Numbers 6

III. Jesus and the Problem of the Priesthood

One of the major objections by a Jew in calling Jesus a “priest” would have been that he could not actually be a priest; he was not from the line of Aaron and he was not from the tribe of Levi (the NT makes clear that he was from the line of David and from the tribe of Judah). However, from the earliest stages of the church, Jesus was most certainly viewed in priestly terms. Settling this tension is one of the objectives of the epistle to the Hebrews, chapters 7-9. To do so, the author appeals to the figure of Melchizedek as found in Genesis 14:17-20 and Psalm 110:4. Melchizedek was a mysterious priestly figure to whom Abraham paid tithes after a military victory. Melchizedek was neither Aaronic nor Levitical (in fact, he had no earthly lineage at all), but his priesthood is still legitimate because it comes directly from God. So it is with Jesus Christ.

The author summarizes his argument in Hebrews 8:1-6 by saying that the earthly system of priesthood and sacrifice existed to copy or mirror the heavenly one and in knowing that Jesus Christ entered the heavenly tabernacle and offered the sacrifice of himself once and for all, why would we want to continue in the earthly way? Clearly, his method and his result is better.

IV. Jesus’ Work as the Great High Priest

There are a variety of perspectives or angles in looking at Jesus’ own priesthood. I will do so by looking at several theologically laden terms that have to do with his priestly work of mediation:[1]

Obedience: As we mentioned earlier, the priests of old had to live a life of purity and/or cleanness which meant that they could not come in contact with anything unclean lest they be disqualified for service before a holy God. Christ too fulfilled this requirement, but in a most unlikely way. He actually came in contact with the so-called “unclean” on many an occasion: Mark 5 – the man with the unclean spirit, the hemorrhaging woman, and the deceased little girl. He made clear in his teaching that is not what goes into a person (the external) that makes him unclean, but what comes out of a person (the internal), Through all this, Jesus retains his cleanness not by avoiding external impurity (dead bodies, disease, blood), but by avoiding internal impurity, which we call sin. The sinlessness of Jesus is a sine qua non of the gospel, because without this aspect of his person, there could be no unblemished offering made to God (John 8:46, 2 Cor. 5:21, Heb. 4:15, 1 Pet. 2:22).

By means of our faith in his finished work, we have this sinless record imputed to us. Theologians often speak of this in two ways: the active and passive obedience of Christ.[2] The active obedience means that Jesus Christ, the second Adam, stood in place of the first Adam and completely fulfilled the command given by God in the Garden of Eden. By doing so, Jesus obtained for us the promised gift: eternal life. The passive obedience means that Jesus Christ bore the just penalty and punishment for our sin and thereby cleared our debt to God. These two aspects are not separate or disconnected, but form two sides of the one work.

Penal Substitution: The Latin word poena means simply “penalty” and thus penal substitution means that Jesus was substituted for us in receiving a penalty. This idea finds it background in the Old Testament system whereby a person would lay their hands on the head of an animal, confess their sins, and then slay that animal as a penal substitution for themselves. The New Testament image sees Jesus Christ not only as the priest mediating between God and his people, but even as that spotless, sinless, and righteous Lamb of God who bore the weight of the sin of his people. Two explicit references are found in 2 Corinthians 5:21 and 1 Peter 3:18, both speaking of the sinless/righteous who dies for the sinful/unrighteous. Jesus mentions this himself at the Last Supper when he presents the bread and the wine as representing his body and blood which would be given “for you.” In this way, Christ intercedes with his body.

Propitiation: We find this strange sounding word in Romans 3:25 and 1 John 4:10. With legal connotation, the word means “removal of wrath” and it signifies (negatively) the way in which Christ takes away the righteous anger of God toward our sin and (positively) the way in which Christ bestows the love of God upon us. Some people have rejected the idea of “wrath” in thinking about God, preferring to think of God wholly in terms of “love.” However, scripture is clear that if any attribute of God is controlling for the others, it is his holiness. God’s holiness requires that sin (unholiness) be paid for. Propitiation is the way Christ has accepted the wrath of God on himself and deflected it from his believers.

Redemption: This word has an economic flavor to it, meaning “to buy back.” In the same way that we would “redeem” a coupon for a certain amount at the grocery store, so Christ has redeemed us from Satan through the cost of his own life and death. The word ransom is used in keeping with the redemption image (Matt. 20:28).

Reconciliation: Through his death on the cross, Christ has made us who were enemies of God friends of God and sons of God. One could say that the fellowship that Adam enjoyed in the Garden of Eden before the fall has been restored through the work of the second Adam. This is precisely Paul’s understanding in Romans 5:1-11 and 2 Corinthians 5:18-21. The Biblical model is not that only one side is reconciled (us to God), but that both sides are reconciled to one another. God initiates this actions, performing 100% of the work of reconciliation and then requires us to devote 100% of ourselves to following him with. This is not a 50/50 deal. Reconciliation in the gospel is 100/100. God’s wrath is removed and our unbelief is conquered and thus, two estranged parties have fellowship.

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[1] These terms are drawn from Robert Letham’s book The Work of Christ (Downer’s Grove: InterVarsity, 1993). For a more exhaustive list, see pages 124-157.

[2] This terminology can be confusing because we have the concepts of “active” and “passive” in English. For example, “Johnny threw the ball” is an active idea, while “the ball was thrown by Johnny” is a passive idea. This is not what the active and passive obedience of Christ refers to. Rather, the active deals with Christ’s actions in obeying and fulfilling the covenant of works while the passive deals with his suffering (from the Latin patior meaning “to suffer”).