photo credit: Versify – Heb. 4:15, For we do not have a High Priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all respects like us, yet without sin.
In His ascension, the Lord Jesus Christ is our High Priest doing so many things. He is offering the incense at the golden altar (Rev. 8:3), He is bearing us on His shoulders and on His breast before God (Exo. 28:9-29), He cares for God’s need, and He is the Mediator and Executor of a better covenant (Heb. 7:22; 9:15-17).
The high priest in the Old Testament typifies Christ – he was bearing the names of the tribes of Israel on his shoulders and on his breast (inscribed on the precious stones he wore on his shoulders and breast), and today Christ as our High Priest is bearing us with His strength (His shoulders) and He is holding us with His love (on His breast).
He is the High Priest walking among the churches to establish them as shining lampstands, trimming the lamps and adding oil as needed, caring for our need and most of all for God’s need.
Christ as the High Priest is also the surety and the Mediator (the Executor) of the new covenant. The entire New Testament with all that God is and has accomplished in Christ is our portion for our enjoyment – and Christ as the High Priest makes sure of that.
Hallelujah for such a Christ, our High Priest in ascension who makes sure that we enjoy all the divine blessings!
Christ as Our High Priest Takes Care of Us According to God
The high priest in the Old Testament bore the names of the twelve tribes of Israel on his shoulders and on his heart – he bore the names of God’s people before God (see Exo. 28:9-10, 12, 21, 29). Christ in His ascension is our High Priest bearing us before God with His strength and He is holding us with His love.
He is a merciful and faithful High Priest in the things pertaining to God (see Heb. 2:17), and He is able to sympathize with our weaknesses (Heb. 4:15). Our High Priest, Christ in ascension, takes care of us – He sympathizes with our weaknesses since He was tempted in all respects like us (yet without sin).
However, we all have our own idea of what God should do for us and of what we really need – but Christ takes care of us for our good, and this good is not according to our interpretation but according to His (see Rom. 8:28-29).
We think we know what we need, and we think we can tell the Lord what is “good for us” – but the Lord has a different thought. He may allow a certain sickness to stay with us, or He may allow us to not be rich but rather lack.
But His intention and care for us is always positive. Don’t interpret or try to understand why this or that has happened – simply trust in the Lord and His perfect care for us, and you will have a strong faith.
As our High Priest, Christ in ascension cares more for God’s need than for our need. Our lives are worthwhile and full of meaning when they are for the meeting of God’s need. We want our whole life to be in the context of His need.
His need is to have a corporate expression of God in man, and for this Christ is the High Priest establishing the lampstands, trimming the lamps, adding the oil, and caring for the churches so that they may shine brightly for God’s expression (see Rev. 1:13; 2:1).
Today, Christ as the High Priest in His heavenly ministry is building up the church as the living testimony of Jesus and He is taking care of every saint individually for God’s need. Hallelujah for our Christ, the ascended One, as our High Priest!
Christ as Our High Priest is the Surety and the Executor of a Better Covenant
photo credit: Bible Encyclopedia – Heb. 7:22, By so much Jesus has also become the surety of a better covenant.
As our High Priest, Christ in ascension is the surety and the Mediator of the better covenant (see Heb. 7:22). Through His death on the cross, Christ enacted the will, and now He is in the heavens as the living Executor of the will He has bequeathed to us.
Wow, God has willed all that He is, has, and has accomplished to us, and Christ makes sure we enjoy it all! The entire New Testament is a new will for our inheritance – it has many bequests, all of which are the divine blessings bequeathed to the churches. Christ in ascension as the living Executor of the will is applying to us all the bequests of the blessings of God (see Eph. 1:3; Gal. 3:14).
We are blessed with the unsearchable riches of Christ. Our God is a blessing God, and He wants us as His people to enjoy all His blessings. God is the richest person in the whole universe, and He wants us, His believers, to be the happy inheritors of all His wealth! Right now Christ is in the heavens as the living executor of His will, and He is trimming the lamps and walking among the local churches to establish them.
He wants to bless the lampstand, add the oil, increase the shining, and add Himself to us until the end will come! O, what a Christ we have! He is the living, resurrected, and ascended One who constantly applies to us all the blessings of the new testament established in His blood. And He does this for our growth and maturing in life, and also for God’s need to be met!
The ultimate goal of Christ’s ministry as the High Priest in the heavens is the New Jerusalem. We are slowly slowly becoming the New Jerusalem by daily enjoying all the blessings of the new covenant made in the Lord’s blood.
Just allow the Lord to apply His death, His humanity, His resurrection, and His ascension (among the many things He is daily applying to us) to your being.
We just need to subjectively experience and enjoy Christ by being one with Him for His Body, for the heading up of all things in Christ. As we enjoy Christ’s heavenly ministry as the High Priest, we are being headed up in Christ – we become more and more organically one with the ascended Head (1 Cor. 6:17).
Lord Jesus, thank You for being our High Priest, the One caring for us and bearing us before God. Lord, You know what we really need. We open to You to allow You to care for us according to God. We don’t know what we need; we don’t know where we are; we don’t know anything – we just open to Your heavenly ministry as the High Priest that we may have You infused into us, ministered into us, and dispensed into our being. Keep us enjoying all the blessings in the New Testament – keep us open to Your heavenly ministry as the High Priest!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration (besides the Word of God and my Christian experience): bro. Dick Taylor’s speaking in this message and portions from, Life-study of Luke (msg. 79), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Entering into the Fourth Stage of the Experience of Life to Arrive at a Full-Grown Man for the Fulfillment of God’s Purpose, week 3 / msg 3, The Fourth Stage of the Experience of Life (2) – Knowing the Ascension.
- Hymns on this topic:
# He’s pledged to save us to the full, / His life is operating; / He’s doing everything for us / ’Tis all for our perfecting; / Our life’s a failure at its best, / Only His life can stand the test: / His life brings full salvation!
# For we do not have a High Priest who cannot / Be touched with the feeling of our weaknesses, / But One who has been tempted in all respects like us, / Yet without sin, yet without sin. / Let us therefore come forward / With boldness to the throne of grace / That we may receive mercy and find grace / For timely help.
# The great high priestly robe He wears, / For every church He fully cares: / He trims the lamp, the oil supplies; / He makes them burn, flames in His eyes.
