What does it mean that Jesus is our High Priest?

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Question 03047

The book of Hebrews develops the high-priestly ministry of Christ more fully than any other portion of Scripture, yet many Christians have only a vague sense of what it means that Jesus is our High Priest. The doctrine is not peripheral devotional language. It is one of the great explanations of how the believer is kept, sustained, represented, and brought into the presence of God. Understanding it transforms prayer, assurance, and the practical experience of faith.

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The Background of Old Testament Priesthood

The high priest in the Mosaic system stood between God and the people. He represented Israel before God in worship and represented God before Israel in instruction. He alone entered the Most Holy Place once a year on the Day of Atonement, carrying blood for the sins of the nation (Leviticus 16). He wore the names of the twelve tribes on his shoulders and over his heart, symbolising the people he carried into the presence of God. He offered sacrifices, made intercession, and pronounced blessing.

The whole system was provisional. The high priests were sinners themselves, requiring sacrifice for their own sins before they could offer for the people (Hebrews 7:27). They died one after another, so that the priestly office had to be passed on continually. The blood they offered could not actually take away sin (Hebrews 10:4); it covered and pointed forward to a sacrifice that would. The whole arrangement was a shadow of something better to come.

Christ as High Priest After the Order of Melchizedek

Hebrews argues that Jesus is High Priest not after the order of Aaron but after the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 5:6-10; 7:1-28). Melchizedek appears briefly in Genesis 14, blessing Abraham as priest of God Most High. Psalm 110 prophesies a coming priest-king after Melchizedek’s order, and Hebrews identifies this figure as the Messiah. The point is that Christ’s priesthood does not depend on Levitical descent or Aaronic succession. It is a different order entirely, established by divine oath and grounded in the indestructible life of the risen Son.

This matters because the Aaronic priesthood was tied to the Mosaic covenant, which has ended. Christ’s priesthood belongs to the new covenant, in His own blood, exercised in heaven itself rather than in any earthly tabernacle. He is not a priest who learned the trade and might be replaced. He is the eternal Son who became human in order to represent humanity before God, and whose qualification rests on who He is rather than on family lineage.

The Once-for-All Sacrifice

The first dimension of Christ’s high-priestly ministry is the sacrifice He offered for sin. Hebrews emphasises the once-for-all character of the cross. The Old Testament priests offered the same sacrifices repeatedly, which could never take away sins (Hebrews 10:11). Christ offered Himself once for all, sat down at the right hand of God, and waits for His enemies to be made a footstool (Hebrews 10:12-13). The seated posture is significant. Old Testament priests stood, because their work was never finished. Christ sat down because His was.

The sacrifice He offered was Himself. He was simultaneously the Priest who offered and the Victim offered. His blood actually took away the sins to which Old Testament blood could only point. Hebrews 9:12 states that He entered once for all into the holy places by means of His own blood, securing an eternal redemption. The believer’s standing before God rests on this finished priestly work, not on continuing efforts to maintain favour.

The Ongoing Intercession

The cross is not the whole of Christ’s high-priestly ministry. He continues to serve as priest now, in heaven, on behalf of His own. Hebrews 7:25 states that He always lives to make intercession for those who draw near to God through Him. Romans 8:34 echoes the same point: Christ Jesus is the one who died, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

This ongoing intercession is not a continual re-offering of the sacrifice but the ongoing pleading of the finished sacrifice on behalf of the believer. He prays for His people. He represents them at the throne. He sustains them through every difficulty. Luke 22:32 records Jesus telling Peter that He had prayed for him that his faith would not fail. That same priestly prayer continues now for every believer. The security of the Christian rests not only on the cross behind us but on the High Priest above us.

The Sympathetic Mediator

Hebrews emphasises that Christ is a High Priest who can sympathise with our weaknesses, having been tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). The incarnation was not incidental to His priestly qualification. He took our humanity in order to represent it, and in His earthly life He experienced the full pressure of human existence. He was hungry, weary, sorrowful, tempted, abandoned, and ultimately killed. There is no human suffering He cannot enter into, no temptation He has not faced, no weakness He cannot understand from the inside.

This pastoral reality matters. The throne of grace is not the throne of a remote deity. It is the throne where a sympathetic High Priest receives His people. Hebrews 4:16 draws the application: let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. The confidence is grounded in the High Priest’s qualifications, not in the worshipper’s merit.

So, now what?

Christ as High Priest means the believer has access, security, sympathy, and ongoing representation before God. The cross provides the basis, the resurrection provides the qualified Priest, and the heavenly intercession provides the continuing ministry. Prayer is approach to a throne where someone is already speaking on our behalf. Assurance rests on the unbroken intercession of the One whose blood has already secured eternal redemption.

“Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” Hebrews 7:25