Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; 24 but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore he is able to save completely[c] those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. 26 Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. 27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. 28 For the law appoints as high priests men in all their weakness; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.
Introduction
In this section, we will look at the New Covenant that God Almighty established through His Son, Jesus Christ, to save humanity. In this covenant, we also look at Jesus Christ, our great and eternal High Priest who serves.
First, as we know, God Almighty Himself came to Adam to save humanity that had fallen into sin. He did this to reconcile humanity with Himself. Then, when God Almighty gave the Law to the people of Israel, He also provided various animal sacrifice rites meant for the atonement of sins. Thus, under the former covenant, the priests served in the tabernacle of meeting by offering various sacrifices daily and from time to time, while the high priest offered a sacrifice once a year for the forgiveness of sins for himself and for the people within that limited former covenant (Lev. 9:8–15). However, all of this was merely a fleshly system that could not cleanse the conscience of the people or the priests, nor save them.
For this reason, God Almighty set aside this former covenant and willed His only Son, Jesus Christ, to become the true sacrificial Lamb; He came, lived as fully God and fully man, died, and inaugurated the New Covenant. This New Covenant took place at God's appointed time and successfully reconciled us with God. As we see in this section, through His Son Jesus Christ, this New Covenant provides us with:
- One who lives forever to intercede for us (v. 25)
- A High Priest who lives forever and possesses a permanent, unchangeable priesthood (v. 24)
- One who is able to save completely those who come through Him (v. 25)
- A perfect sacrificial Lamb—holy and innocent (v. 26)
- One who does not need to offer sacrifices daily, having accomplished it once for all (v. 27)
After saving completely those of us who have come to Him through this New Covenant in Jesus Christ, He also expects something from us: to make this great work of salvation known to others so that they, too, may be reconciled with God.
Written by: Blen Mulugeta