Christ is Fully Qualified and Able to be our Merciful and Faithful High Priest

Our Christ is a merciful and faithful High Priest (Heb. 2:17); He is fully qualified to be such a High Priest because He is both the Son of God with divinity and the Son of Man with humanity.

Many believers know Christ only as their Lord and Savior, and they treasure the four Gospels and the record concerning what the Lord spoke, did, and accomplished while on earth. But not many realize that today Christ is in His ascension, and He is busy doing many things based on what He is and what He has accomplished.

In His heavenly ministry Christ is a kingly and divine High priest to minister God into us and to save us to the uttermost. He is the King bringing in peace and righteousness, and He as a kingly High Priest ministers the processed God into us for our supply, refreshment, and nourishment.

He is a divine High Priest who always lives to intercede to save us to the uttermost. Christ’s divinity constitutes Him a High Priest who is living, full of life, forever living, and able to continue His priesthood perpetually. Hallelujah for our Christ as such a wonderful kingly and divine High Priest in His heavenly ministry!

Another aspect of Christ as the High Priest is that He is a merciful and faithful High Priest. Christ, the Son of God, was made like us – His brothers – in that He partook of blood and flesh.

The purpose of Him partaking of blood and flesh was that He would destroy the devil, who is in the flesh, and to be our merciful and faithful High Priest who has the human nature to sympathize with us in all things.

Hallelujah, Christ is God becoming man to destroy the devil in the flesh, and now in His ascension He is our merciful and faithful High Priest who sympathizes with us in all things, helps us who are being tempted, and imparts God into us!

Christ in Ascension is Fully Qualified to be our Merciful and Faithful High Priest

The first two chapters in the book of Hebrews reveal to us that Christ is fully qualified to be our High Priest. When you read these chapters, verse by verse, you will realize that the processes He went through and the things He has accomplished and has done qualifies Him to be our High Priest, even a merciful and faithful High Priest.

There are at least 12 qualifications of Christ as our High Priest spoken of in these two chapters:

1. Christ is the Son of God with the divine nature (Heb. 1:8). Jesus Christ, the Man, is the Son of God, having the divine nature of God; on the one hand He is a Man, and on the other, He is called “O God, Your throne is forever and ever”. Him having the divine nature qualifies Him to be a divine High Priest.

2. Christ is the Son of Man with the human nature (Heb. 2:6, 9). Psa. 8 spoke of Him when it said, What is man, that You bring him to mind, or the son of man that you care for him? Christ is the Son of Man, who was made a little lower than the angels because of the suffering of death. As the Son of Man, He has the human nature.

3. Christ was incarnated to be like us (Heb. 2:14, 17). He partook of our blood and flesh, since we all are men, so that through death He might destroy the devil. In all things He was made like us, men, so that He may be a merciful and faithful High Priest. He was made even more like a man than us because He suffered many more things than us, as a Man. This is why He can sympathize with our weaknesses.

4. Christ was tempted, tried (Heb. 2:18). No other person has been subject to so many troubles, attacks, misunderstandings, and rumors like the Lord Jesus. He was tempted in all respects just like us, yet without sin. He was persecuted, tried, and tempted; on the one hand God tried Him, on the other, man persecuted Him, attacked Him, and gave Him many troubles. His experiences as a Man qualify Him to be our merciful and faithful High Priest.

5. Christ suffered death (Heb. 2:9). He was made a little inferior to the angels so that, by the grace of God, He might taste death on behalf of everything. He was baptised with the baptism of death (Mar 10:38), He crossed the ricer and entered into the region that is full of God’s expression, full of God’s glory. He didn’t die a normal death but a painful, excruciating death on the cross, according to God’s plan.

6. Christ made propitiation for our sins (Heb. 2:17). How we thank Him that, through His death, He made propitiation for the sins of the people! Now we, who used to be enemies with God because of our sins, can be at peace with God because of Christ’s propitiation for our sins. Christ appeased God’s righteousness with all of God’s requirements on us, meeting all God’s requirements on the cross, and He settled all the problems between us and God on the cross.

7. Christ destroyed the devil (Heb. 2:14). Through His death on the cross Christ destroyed the devil, the one who has the might of death. On the one hand He made propitiation for our sins and tasted death for us, and on the other, He destroyed the devil. Christ solved the problem of our sin and he also solved the problem of the devil. In God’s eyes, Satan has been destroyed on the cross. Praise the Lord!

8. Christ released us from the slavery of death (Heb. 2:15). Through His death on the cross, Christ destroyed the devil and took the keys of death and Hades, and He has released us from the slavery of death. All human beings are held in slavery because of the fear of death, but Christ has released us from this slavery. Praise the Lord, we are no longer enslaved by sin or death, for Christ has set us free!

9. Christ brought forth many brothers in resurrection to form the church (Heb. 2:11-12). In His resurrection Christ brought us all forth – He brought forth His many brothers, the many sons of God, and He is not ashamed to call us “brothers” as He sings hymns of praises in the midst of the church. He is the Firstborn Son of God in resurrection, and we are His many brothers. He is the Head of the church, and we are the members of the church, His Body. He and we are the same in life and nature, and we have the same Father.

10. Christ was crowned with glory and honor in His exaltation (Heb. 2:9). After He tasted death on behalf of everything, Christ was crowned with glory and honor in His ascension by God. This qualifies Him to be our faithful High Priest. He was exalted by God, given glory and honor by Him, and He can now minister to us as our merciful and faithful High Priest in ascension. He has both the qualification and the possibility to be such a High Priest forever!

11. Christ is the Author, Captain, of our salvation (Heb. 2:10). Christ didn’t pass through sufferings, death, exaltation, and glory only for Himself; rather, He was perfected to be the Author, the Captain of our salvation, so that we as His believers may be led as many sons into glory. He passed through this long process so that all those who believe into Him would be perfected by Him to be the same as He is – in glory with Him!

12. Christ helps us (Heb. 2:16). Some may say that the Lord now in ascension takes care of so many angels, but the Bible clearly says that He passed through this long process so that He may be qualified to be a merciful and faithful High Priest who helps us, His people. We are the spiritual seed of Abraham, the sons of Abraham by faith, and Christ as the High Priest helps us.

Praise You Lord for passing through a long process to be qualified to be our merciful and faithful High Priest! You are the Son of God with the divine nature and the Son of Man with the human nature. You were incarnated to be like us, and You were tried and tempted – yet without sin! Thank You Lord for suffering death on the cross for us and for making propitiation for our sins. Thank You for destroying the devil and releasing us from the slavery of death. Thank You for bringing us forth as Your many brothers in resurrection! Hallelujah, now You are the Captain and Author of our salvation, leading us into glory and helping us! Praise You, Lord!

Christ is fully able to be a Merciful and Faithful High Priest because He’s the Son of God and the Son of Man

Christ in ascension is able to be a merciful and faithful High Priest because He is both the Son of God with divinity and the Son of Man with humanity. Because He is the Son of Man, He is a merciful High Priest. Because He is the Son of God, He can be a faithful High Priest.

In order to be faithful you need not only virtue (which a man has) but ability; Christ is not only an honest man who was tried and tested, but He is also the faithful God.

Our God is faithful (Heb. 10:23) – He is faithful and able to fulfill whatever He says. Our God never lies; rather, whatever He has spoken, He will also fulfill (Heb. 6:18). Christ is able to be a merciful and faithful High Priest because He’s both God and man, possessing both divinity and humanity.

Christ’s divinity and humanity are typified by the gold and the linen in the ephod worn by the high priest.

In Exo. 28:6-14 and 39:2-7 we see that there is the weaving together of the gold and the linen with blue, purple, and scarlet strands, all which typify the mingling of divinity and humanity in Christ.

Gold typifies Christ’s divinity, blue – His heavenliness, purple – His royalty and kingliness, scarlet – His redemption accomplished by the shedding of His blood, and fine twined linen – the fine human living of Christ.

The ephod worn by the high priest typifies the composition of Christ’s divinity, His kingliness and heavenliness, His redemption, and His fine humanity for the expression of His divine glory and human beauty.

The fact that these were all weaved together with gold and fine linen threads in the ephod signifies the mingling of divinity and humanity in Christ, the God-man. These two natures who were mingled didn’t form a third nature, but they were mingled together.

The fact that these were thin threads indicates a process; first the gold was beaten into thin sheets, then it was cut to threads, and then it was worked into the linen. Also, the linen had to pass through a process to become twined thread.

This shows us that Christ became a man by passing through a process; He was incarnated, passed through the sufferings of the human life on earth, and therefore both His divinity and His humanity were processed and were mingled together.

As such a One, Christ in ascension is fully qualified and fully able to be a merciful and faithful High Priest.

Thank You Lord for being fully qualified and fully able to be a merciful and faithful High Priest because You are both the Son of God and the Son of Man. Thank You for the process You went through to have divinity and humanity mingled together and become our merciful and faithful High Priest. Lord, we come to You as we are, for You can sympathize with us in our weaknesses and You can minister God to us to meet our need. We want to experience You and enjoy You as our merciful and faithful High Priest day by day.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru C. for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Hebrews, msg. 13, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Cooperating with the Heavenly Ministry of the Ascended Christ (2017 Spring ITERO), msg. 5 (week 5), The Revelation, Experience, and Enjoyment of the Ascended Christ as a Merciful, Faithful, and Great High Priest.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # His life is fully qualified / To bring us through to glory; / Were it not for His tested life, / ’Twould be another story / His life was fully tried on earth, / To crucifixion from His birth: / He passed through death and Hades. (Hymns #1130)
  # We worship Thee that Thou didst leave Thy throne, / To come as our High Priest with sin to deal. / Lord Jesus, Thou hast offered Thine own blood, / And settled once for all our peace with God. (Hymns #1091)
  # Christ is the Author of my faith, / And its Perfecter too, / My Mediator, Guarantee, / And faithful Witness true. (Hymns #510)