Hebrews 7:24-25

Hebrews 7:24-25 “…he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever. 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.”

In my guy bible study we have been going through Hebrews and yesterday this just kind of stuck out. It stuck out because in the midst of the Christian life we talk about salvation and the cross and we talk about how Christ died for us and we talk about how we now live in Christ and on and on. All of this needs to be talked about and needs to be stressed and emphasized to the utmost. But there is one topic that at least in my experience takes a back seat. And that is Christ as our high priest.

Now I understand why it takes a back seat. It is one of the harder and more foreign concepts to us Gentiles. The priest hold is not that big of a deal for us. But for the listeners of Hebrews, it was a big deal. For the people still living in the midst of Judaism with a temple and priesthood, this is central to their lives and their faith. The priesthood offered sacrifices for the people’s sins and it was through this that people could be considered clean and in good standing with God. And so the writer of Hebrews seeks to make it clear that while they lived under that priesthood, Jesus is a better high priest that only offered one sacrifice, himself, and that was all that is needed.

What really struck me as I was reading and thinking on these two verses and on the larger passage as a whole, was that Christ is seating on the right hand of God interceding for us. Just think about this for a second. That no matter what, Jesus sits by God and speaks on our behalf. Some people can get caught up in this great guilt spiral about their sins and start to think that they can not really be a Christian anymore or maybe aren’t one of those elusive “good Christians” everyone talks about. This can weigh on people and start to really crush their spirit. But if they truly grasped the fact that Christ is interceding for us I think this would not happen. Now it is important that we experience remorse and are repentant for our sins. It is good and healthy to realize the seriousness of continuing in sin and also the gravity of our sin. But for those who trust in God and for those who call on Jesus as Lord and Savior, this shouldn’t paralyze us from striving to live out our faith even though all to often we fail and fall.

Christ is always making intercession for us! So when we do that bonehead act or when we get out of line or when we are just plain stupid and sinful, we need not worry about the state of our relationship with God. All we have to do is confess and Christ intercedes for us. I get this great picture of God and Christ sitting beside each other in Heaven. They look down on us Christians and watch as we make those stupid decisions and mess up. The Holy God can’t be in a relationship with anyone like us, but then Christ leans over and says, “Its cool. I already paid for that one. Its on me.” Christ intercedes for us to the most Holy God. And it is one because of this that we can have a relationship with Him.

Praise be to God! For we look upon the great mystery of salvation and tremble. We tremble because the Almighty God, the Maker of the Universe, Creator of this world and everything in it, loves us so much that he planed and executed this plan of salvation and redemption through the whole course of human history, all to draw us to Him.

(side note: I love in verse 25 where it says he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him. I love it because in one short sentence it lays out this pattern or people drawing near to God and being saved, but they are drawing near to God through Jesus. It is all through Jesus.)