High Priest!

For Wednesday, July 2, 2025:

Hebrews 5:1 NLT: “Every high priest is a man chosen to represent other people in their dealings with God. He presents their gifts to God and offers sacrifices for their sins.”

The high priest stood between God and the Hebrew people. Since God called him, Jews believed their priest possessed holy authority. They could confess sins to their priest and present gifts of atonement. The gifts were actually for God.

On the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, the priest would symbolically place the sins of the people onto the back of a goat, and shoo the goat into the wilderness, thereby separating the populace from their sins. That’s where we get the term “scapegoat.”

Jesus was endowed with that “high priest authority” by God. “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.” But Jesus was eventually crucified and ascended back to the Father. So, where does that leave us?

When Jesus died on the cross, the curtain in the Holy of Holies was torn from top to bottom, destroying the separation between God and mankind. God did the tearing. Believers no longer need or desire a high priest. If we need to pray to the Lord, we can pray directly to him. If we need to confess and repent, we can speak with the Almighty. We pray to God “in Jesus’ name,” since Jesus is now our intercessor, the one who opened the gateway, clearing the path between God and mankind.

Unlike his predecessors, our high priest was perfect!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship