Scripture: "We have such an High Priest, who is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them."—HEB. vii. 25, 26; viii. 1.
In Israel, what a difference there was between the high priest and the priests and levites. The high priest alone had access to the Holiest of All. He bore on his forehead the golden crown, "Holiness to the Lord," and by his intercession on the great Day of Atonement bore the sins of the people. The priests brought the daily sacrifices, and stood before the Lord, and came out to bless the people. The difference between high priest and priest was great. But still greater was the unity; they formed one body with the high priest, sharing with him the power to appear before God to receive and dispense His blessing to His people.
It is even so with our great High Priest. He alone has power with God, in a neverceasing intercession, to obtain from the Father what His people need. And yet, infinite though the distance be between Him and the royal priesthood that surrounds Him for His service, the unity and the fellowship into which His people have been taken up with Him is no less infinite than the apparent diversity. The blessing that He obtains from His Father for us, He holds for His people to receive from Him through their fervent supplication, to be dispensed to the souls among whom He has placed them as His witnesses and representatives.
As long as Christians simply think of being saved, and of a life which will make that salvation secure, they never can understand the mystery of the power of intercession to which they are called.
But when once they realize that salvation means a vital life union with Jesus Christ, an actual sharing of His life dwelling and working in us, and the consecration of our whole being, to live and labour, to think and will, and find our highest joy m living as a royal priesthood, the Church will put on her strength, and prove, in intercourse with God and man, how truly the likeness and the power of Christ dwell in her.
Oh that God would open our hearts to know and prove what our royal priesthood is—what the real meaning is of our living and praying in the name of Jesus, that what we ask shall indeed be given us! O Lord Jesus, our Holy High Priest , breathe the spirit of Thine own holy priesthood into our hearts. AMEN.
