In His Ascension Christ is the Divine High Priest according to an Indestructible Life

The Lord Jesus has two ministries: His earthly ministry of 3.5 years and His heavenly ministry (from the time of His ascension until today and for eternity). Today we as the believers in Christ are enjoying His heavenly ministry in which He has many statuses and offices such as Lord of all, King of kings and Lord of lords, the Head over all things to the church, the Minister, the High Priest, etc.

This week we will dive a bit deeper into the matter of Christ as the divine high priest interceding for us. In Psa. 110 – a psalm on Christ’s ascension – God told Christ to sit at His right hand until God will make His enemies as a footstool; this Christ is a king, a priest, a warrior, and a Victor.

Christ being a High Priest is a very central and important matter in the Bible, especially in the book of Hebrews. He is a merciful and faithful High Priest, and we need to set our mind on, perceive, and focus on this One (Heb. 3). May we not be dull of hearing and thus hinder God in His speaking to us concerning Christ as the High Priest; rather, may we grow in life unto maturity so that we may take not only the milk in the word of God but also the solid food, the word concerning Christ as the High Priest (Heb. 5).

He is a heavenly high priest, one who is not only caring for our weaknesses but also a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek, one who ministers God and the heavenly things into us (Heb. 7-8). He has sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high (Heb. 1:3), and His ministry on the throne in heavens ministers to us the overcoming of sin. We need to press on to enter into the enjoyment of Christ’s heavenly ministry on the throne.

Today we would like to see how in His ascension Christ is the divine High Priest according to an indestructible life, the resurrection life which nothing and no one can hold back or destroy. Our High Priest, Christ, is living, full of life, and able to continue His priesthood perpetually because of His divinity which constitutes Him a High Priest to us in the heavens. Praise the Lord for our Christ, the divine high priest interceding for us in the heavens!

Hymns #1130 stanza 3 says,

Our Lord was constituted priest
To be a real life-giver;
Life is the nature of this One
Who can from self deliver:
His life is indestructible,
By it He saves us to the full:
Praise God, He’s fully able!

In His Ascension Christ is the Divine High Priest according to an Indestructible Life

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In His ascension Christ has passed through the heavens (Heb. 4:14) and He is not only in the heaven (Heb. 9:24) but He is higher than the heavens and even far above all the heavens (Heb. 7:26; Eph. 4:10). In His ascension Christ is the divine high priest; the basic element that constitutes Him our High Priest is His divinity.

Christ is a High Priest who is living and full of life so that He may be able to continue His priesthood perpetually. Hallelujah, Christ has been constituted the divine High Priest according to the powerful element of an indestructible life! Christ’s life is not only the divine life but the resurrection life which is the divine, eternal, uncreated life that has passed through death and Hades and has overcome death (Heb. 7:16; John 11:25; Rev. 1:18).

Hymns #639 says,

Death cannot hold the resurrection life,
The life of God eternal manifest;
’Tis uncreated, indestructible,
’Tis Christ Himself, unconqu’rable, expressed.

Because of this indestructible life, the divine priesthood is the presence of life and the absence of death. Christ as the divine High Priest is living, full of life, and He brings life into us – His life swallows any death, and death cannot usurp or damage this life.

It was not possible for Christ to be held by death (Acts 2:24); even if you try to quench the resurrection life, it comes out stronger! Christ has conquered, subdued, and swallowed death; with Him there’s no death but only life.

Christ has passed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, and in His ascension Christ was fully equipped and qualified to be made our High Priest who is living, full of life, and life-giving all the time. Christ has been constituted a High Priest according to the power of an indestructible life (Heb. 7:16), and in His indestructible, eternal life we participate and enjoy Him as our High Priest.

He is able to save us to the uttermost (Heb. 7:25) in and by His divine life which has passed through the test of death and Hades and came out in resurrection. Such a High Priest is in the heavens ministering before God and interceding for us, and at the same time He is in our spirit; between our spirit and the heavens there’s a heavenly ladder on which there’s much traffic, because Christ’s priesthood is continually flowing from the throne into our spirit.

Whenever we exercise our spirit to touch the Lord, we enjoy the continual flow of the indestructible life of God flowing from Christ as our Divine High Priest. The more death there is in our situations and circumstances, the more the divine life can be manifested and break forth.

Many thought that when brother Watchman Nee was put into prison, his ministry would be over; but the books he wrote were propagated all over the earth and helped many to know God deeper and advance in their growth in life.

As believers in Christ, we have the divine life in us, and this life is indestructible; Christ as our divine High Priest serves according to the power of an indestructible life and He constantly transmits His divine life into us. With us there’s death and sin, but with Christ there’s the absence of death; we need His divine priesthood day by day.

Lord, we praise You for being a divine High Priest according to the powerful element of an indestructible life. Praise the Lord, the divine, uncreated, eternal, resurrection life that has passed through death and Hades and has come out in resurrection is now in our spirit! Hallelujah, our spirit is connected to the heavens, and Christ as the divine High Priest is constantly transmitting His indestructible divine life into us! Lord, keep us enjoying this divine life that cannot be quenched by death but constantly flows to conquer, subdue, and swallow up death so that life may be manifested!

The Ascended Christ with His Divine Priesthood must become Subjectively Objective to us in our Experience

How can we experience and enjoy the ascended Christ as the divine High Priest? We need to realize that Christ has two ministries: His earthly ministry and His heavenly ministry. In His earthly ministry of 3.5 years He brought God into man, expressed God in humanity, did God’s work, accomplished an all-inclusive, all-terminating, life-releasing death, and entered into His resurrection.

We need to pass through the realm of Christ’s earthly ministry and enter into the mystical realm of Christ’s heavenly ministry. Christ is now no longer in His earthly ministry but in His heavenly ministry as a great High Priest, forever serving God and ministering God into man in the heavens.

On the one hand Christ is objective – He is in the heavens, serving God continually; on the other hand, Christ is subjectively objective to us – He is constantly transmitting His life into us. The ascended Christ with His divine priesthood must become subjectively objective to us in our experience (see Heb. 9:12-15; 8:1; 1:3; 13:21; Rom. 8:34, 10; Col. 3:1; 1:27; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 6:17). As hymns #536 says,

Objective and subjective Christ is to us,
In heaven He’s pleading objectively thus;
Subjectively now in His members He lives
And inwardly to them His being He gives.

Our Christ did not merely accomplish a lot of things and attained to great things in an objective way (something apart from us), but He is continually, unceasingly, and perpetually transmitting Himself into us. The physical electrical power may go out, but the divine transmission from the divine and mystical power plant never goes out – it always transmits the indestructible life of Christ into the believers!

Our Christ is the High Priest ministering to us the heavenly life, grace, authority, and power, and He is sustaining us to live a heavenly life on earth. He is the Christ now, the Christ today, and the Christ on the throne in the heavens, who is our daily salvation and moment by moment supply (see Heb. 1:3, the footnote in Recovery Version Bible). Praise the Lord!

Lord Jesus, we want to pass through the realm of Your earthly ministry and enter into the mystical realm of Your heavenly ministry to enjoy Your divine priesthood. Lord, may Your divine priesthood in Your ascension become subjectively objective to us in our experience. Keep us connected to You by exercising our spirit to receive the divine transmission of Your indestructible life. Lord, we want to experience You as the Christ now, the Christ today who is both on the throne in the heavens and our daily salvation by ministering His indestructible life into us!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Andrew Yu’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 56 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Vision and Experience of Christ in His Resurrection and Ascension, week 5 / msg 5, The Vision and Experience of Christ in His Ascension (2) – Christ as the Divine High Priest Interceding for Us.
• All verses are taken from, Recovery Version Bible.