THE BOOK OF HEBREWS gives a lengthy development of Jesus as a unique High Priest, singular in his motivations and actions. Of him, it explains, “First he said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them.’ Then he said, ‘Here I am, I have come to do your will.’ He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Heb. 10:8-10) And Jesus himself, knowing of the cross to come, said “yet not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42)
The former priesthood was insufficient. “If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood, why was there still need for another priest to come? When the priesthood is changed, the law must be changed also.” (Heb. 7:11-12) A completely different blood sacrifice was necessary to appease the wrath of God; the old covenant had been defiled through the culpability of corruption. “All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.” (Psa. 14:3) A new high priest was required, and the Father combined in one flesh both the eternal and the temporal, the sacrifice and the priest. “For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah, and in regard to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests. And what we have said is even more clear if another priest like Melchizedek appears, one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life.” (Heb. 7:14-16)
It seems incredulous to us upon first glance that one man could live a life so completely free from the corruption of this world that this single life could effectively balance God’s scales of justice; that one life lived perfectly in his will could offset the iniquities of not only the seven billion that live now, but also the seven billion that went before, as well as those who will come after. “By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” (Heb. 10:14)
But a second look becomes a third, and then a steady gaze. We are irresistibly drawn to what was, but is now no longer impossible. Our sins can be forgiven! Our sense of discontent with life, whether vague or of a dark intensity that is unbearable, is seen in a new light. Hope rises. Not just the possibility of parole, but the assurance of full exoneration from our crimes and release from our bondage beckon us onward toward your very great promise: “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds. Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. (Heb. 10:16-18)
David, living under the covenant of the Law, longed for, and received, the renewal he so desperately needed after he had been broken by sin: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” (Psa. 51:10)
Restoration is also ours in the new covenant of grace in Christ Jesus. In this covenant, we see what God sees: “Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other.” (Psa. 85:10) In Jesus, our high priest, wrath and appeasement are balanced on God’s scales of justice at last, and forever. And in him, our souls find rest at last. We not only hear, but also feel the prayer of the Apostle Paul, “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.” (1 Thess. 5:23-24) And together, we who are called to be holy say ‘Amen.’
Q. Do I hear the voice of the one who calls?
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