Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Luke 24:46-47, 51 Then He said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem" ... Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven.
REJOICE! JESUS HAS ASCENDED TO BE YOUR PRIEST!
When He was on this earth, Christ fulfilled what we call His three offices, namely those of Prophet, Priest, and King. He fulfilled those offices on earth, but He did not abandon them when His redemptive work was done. He continues to carry out these offices in eternity in behalf of the Church.
Christ also fulfilled and continues to occupy the office of High Priest. He carried out the office of High Priest while here on this earth when He willingly sacrificed Himself, upon the cross for the sins of all people. Christ was both the Priest and the Sacrifice. John the Baptist called Jesus "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).
The writer to the Hebrews wrote of Christ that "such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; who does not need daily, as those high priests [i.e. in the temple], to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people's, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself" (Hebrews 7:26-27).
But a Priest does not only offer sacrifice. Having offerend Himself once for all, Christ continues to work as our High Priest today. Another job of the priests was to pray on behalf of the people. This is what Jesus does for us in eternity. He speaks in our behalf before the Father.
We read in 1 John 2:1-2 that "If anyone sins, we have an Advocate [i.e. Someone to argue in our behalf] with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world." As our High Priest Christ continues to appeal to His sacrifice in our behalf before God so that, "[Whenever] we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).
Rejoice! Christ sacrificed Himself to pay for your sin, and has risen and ascended bodily to pray to the Father for you!
