Who Is Our Only Priest, Our High Priest

Christ did not Glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was God who said to Him: “YOU are My Son, Today I have begotten YOU.”  As God also says in another place: “YOU are a Priest Forever According to The Order of Melchizedek”; who, in The Days of His Flesh, when Jesus had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to God who was able to Save Him from death, and was heard because of His Godly Fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned Obedience by the things which He Suffered.  And having been Perfected, Christ became The Author of Eternal Salvation to All who obey Him, called by God as High Priest “According to The Order of Melchizedek.”

If perfection were through The Levitical Priesthood, what further need was there that another Priest should rise According to The Order of Melchizedek, and not be called according to the order of Aaron?  For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of The Law.  For Jesus, of whom these things are spoken, belongs to another tribe, from which no man has officiated at the altar.  For it is evident that Our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood.  And it is yet far more evident if, in The Likeness of Melchizedek, there Arises another Priest who has come, not according to The Law of a fleshly commandment, but According to The Power of an Endless Life.  For God Testifies: “YOU are a Priest Forever According to The Order of Melchizedek.”  For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness, for The Law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a Better Hope, through which We draw near to God.

And inasmuch as Jesus was not made Priest without an Oath (for they have become priests without an oath, but Christ with an Oath by God who said to Him: “The Lord has sworn and will not relent, ‘YOU are a Priest Forever According to The Order of Melchizedek’”), by so much more Jesus has become a Surety of a Better Covenant.  But Jesus, because He continues Forever, has an Unchangeable Priesthood.  Therefore He is also able to Save to the Uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He Always Lives to make Intercession for them.  For 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, 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.  The Word of The Oath, which came after The Law, Appoints The Son who has been Perfected Forever.

Now this is The Main Point of the things We are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is Seated at The Right Hand of The Throne of The Majesty in The Heavens, a Minister of The Sanctuary and of The True Tabernacle which The Lord erected (and not man).  For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this One also have something to offer.  For if Jesus were on Earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to The Law; who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make The Tabernacle. For God said, “See that YOU make all things according to the pattern shown YOU on the Mountain.”  But now Jesus has Obtained a More Excellent Ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a Better Covenant, which was Established on Better Promises.

For if that First Covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a Second.  Because finding fault with them, God says: “Behold, The Days are Coming, says The Lord, when I will make a New Covenant with The House of Israel and with The House of Judah — not according to The Covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My Covenant, and I disregarded them, says The Lord.  For this is The Covenant that I will make with The House of Israel after those days, says The Lord: I will put My Laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My People.  None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know The Lord,’ for All shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.  For I will be Merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”  In that God says, “A New Covenant,” He has made the First obsolete.  Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

But Christ came as High Priest of the Good Things to come, with The Greater and More Perfect Tabernacle (not made with hands), that is, not of this creation.  Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His Own Blood He entered The Most Holy Place Once for All, having Obtained Eternal Redemption.  For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall The Blood of Christ, who through The Eternal Spirit offered Himself without Spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve The Living God? And for this reason Jesus is The Mediator of The New Covenant, by means of death, for The Redemption of The Transgressions under The First Covenant, that those who are Called may Receive The Promise of The Eternal Inheritance.

For Christ has not Entered The Holy Places made with hands, (which are copies of the True), but into Heaven itself, now to Appear in The Presence of God for Us; not that He should Offer Himself often, as The High Priest enters The Most Holy Place every year with blood of another — Christ then would have had to suffer often since The Foundation of The World; but now, Once at The End of The Ages, Jesus has Appeared to put away sin by The Sacrifice of Himself.  And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this The Judgment, so Christ was Offered Once to Bear the sins of many.  To those who eagerly wait for Him, He will Appear a Second Time, apart from sin, for Salvation.

Therefore, when Christ came into the World, He said: “Sacrifice and Offering YOU did not desire, but a Body YOU have prepared for Me.  In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin YOU had no pleasure.  Then I said, ‘Behold, I have Come — In The Volume of The Book it is Written of Me — To do Your Will, O God.’”  Previously saying, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin YOU did not desire, nor had pleasure in them” (which are offered according to The Law), then Jesus said, “Behold, I have Come to do Your Will, O God.”  He takes away the first that He may Establish The Second.  By that Will, We have been Sanctified through The Offering of The Body of Jesus Christ, Once for All.

But this Man, after Jesus had Offered One Sacrifice for sins Forever, sat down at The Right Hand of God, from that Time waiting till His Enemies are made His Footstool.  For by One Offering Christ has Perfected Forever those who are being Sanctified.  But The Holy Spirit also Witnesses to Us; for after God had said before, “This is The Covenant, that I will make with them after Those Days, says The Lord: I will put My Laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”  Now where there is Remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

Therefore, Brethren, having Boldness to Enter The Holiest by The Blood of Jesus, by a New and Living Way, which He Consecrated for Us, through The Veil, that is, His Flesh, and having a High Priest over The House of God, let Us draw near with a True Heart in Full Assurance of Faith, having Our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and Our bodies washed with Pure Water.  Let Us hold fast The Confession of Our Hope without wavering, for He who Promised is Faithful.  And let Us consider one another in order to stir up Love and Good Works, not forsaking The Assembling of Ourselves Together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting One another, and so much the more as YOU see The Day approaching.

For if We sin willfully after We have Received The Knowledge of The Truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain Fearful Expectation of Judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.  Anyone who has rejected Moses’ Law dies without Mercy on The Testimony of Two or Three Witnesses.  Of how much worse punishment, do YOU suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled The Son of God underfoot, counted The Blood of The Covenant by which he was Sanctified a common thing, and insulted The Spirit of Grace?  For We know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will Repay,” says The Lord.  And again, “The Lord Will Judge His People.”  It is a fearful thing to fall into The Hands of The Living God.

But recall the former days in which, after YOU were Illuminated, YOU Endured a Great Struggle with Sufferings: partly while YOU were made a Spectacle both by Reproaches and Tribulations, and partly while YOU became Companions of those who were so treated; for YOU had Compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that YOU have a Better and an Enduring Possession for yourselves in Heaven.  Therefore do not cast away your Confidence, which has Great Reward.  For YOU have need of Endurance, so that after YOU have Done The Will of God, YOU may receive The Promise: “For yet a little while, and Jesus who is Coming, will come and will not tarry.  Now The Just shall Live by Faith.  We are of Those Who Believe to The Saving of The Soul.