The two last qualifications for the priestly office included in my text are, separate from sinners; made higher than the heavens.' Now, the separation' intended, is not, as I suppose, Christ's moral distance from evildoers, but has what I may call a kind of half-local signification, and is explained by the next clause. He is separate from sinners' not because He is pure and they foul, but because having offered His sacrifice He has ascended up on high.
He is made higher than the heavens.' Scripture sometimes speaks of the living Christ as at present in the heavens, and at others as having passed through' and being high above all heavens'; in the former case simply giving the more general idea of exaltation, in the latter the thought that He is lifted, in His manhood and as our priest, above the bounds of the material and visible creation, and set at the right hand of the Majesty on high.'
Such a priest we need. His elevation and separation from us upon earth is essential to that great and continual work of His which we call, for want of any more definite name, His intercesion. The High Priest in the heavens presents His sacrifice there for ever. The past fact of His death on the Cross for the sins of the whole world is ever present as an element determining the direction of the divine dealings with all them that put their trust in Him. That sacrifice was not once only offered upon the Cross, but is ever, in the symbolical language of Scripture, presented anew in the heavens by Him. No time avails to corrupt or weaken the efficacy of that blood; and He has offered one sacrifice for sins for ever. Such a priest we need, to-day, presenting the sacrifice which, to-day, in our weakness and sinfulness, we require.
We need a priest who in the heavens bears us in His heart. As His type in the Old Testament economy entered within the veil with the blood; and when he passed within the curtain and stood before the Light of the Shekinah, had on his breast and on his shoulders, --the home of love, the seat of strength--the names of the tribes, graven on flashing stones, so our priest within the veil has your name and mine, if we love Him, close by His heart, governing the flow of His love, and written on His shoulders, and on the palms of His pierced hands, that all His strength may be granted to us. Such a priest became us.'
And we need a priest separated from the world, lifted above the limitations of earth and time, wielding the powers of divinity in the hands that once were laid in blessing on the little children's heads. And such a priest we have. We need a priest in the heavens, whose presence there makes that strange country our home; and by whose footstep, passing through the gates and on to the golden pavements, the gate is open for us, and our faltering poor feet can tread there. And such a priest we have, passed within the veil, that to-day, in aspiration and prayer; and to-morrow in reality and person, where He is, there we may be also. Such a priest became us.'
We need no other; we do need Him. Oh, friend! are you resting on that sacrifice? Have you given your cause into His hands to plead? Then the great High Priest will make you too His priest to offer a thank-offering, and Himself will present for ever the sacrifice that takes away your sin and brings you near to God. It is Christ that died, yea! rather, that is risen again'; and whose death and resurrection alike led on to His ascension to the right hand of God, where for ever He maketh intercession for us.'
