HOilULETICS. Vers. 1-10.-The high priesthood of Ohrist. In these verses the author proceeds with his disLussion of the priestly character and work of the Lord Jesus, as typified by the Aaronical priesthood. I. WHAT A HIGH PRIEST IS. The office is a most honourable one; it is referred to in ver. 4 as "the honour." This will appear from a consideration of the high priest's functions and qualifications. 1. His functions. 'l'he most important of these aro indicated in ver. 1. (1) He acts for other men in things respecting their relations to Gc,d. The root-idea of the office is that, while access to God is denied to sinner3 on the ground of nature, he has been pleased to grant it in connection with special arrange- ments of grace. (2) He offers sacrifices, both free-will offerings and sin offerings. As men are guilty, this is indispensable; and thus in common speech the terms "priest" and "sacrifice" are correlatives. There can be no priest without a sacrifice. 2. His qualifications. (1) Be must be human (ver. 1)-a partaker of the nature that is to be redeemed. (2) He must be humane (ver. 2)----capable of considerate sympathy with the people for whom he mediates, How sadly opposite in character to this havo the world's priests almost always been I How dark are the thoughts suggested by the word "priest craft" I Priests have been arrogant, cruel, tyrants over conscience, enemies of progress, patrons of ignorance and error, But the typical priest is a man of culturo and refinement, who has abjured the motto, "Odi profanum vulgus et arceo," ancl who, realizing hie own frailty, "can bear gently with the ignorant and erring." (3) He must have a sacrifice (ver. 3)-" somewhat to offer." Without a sin offering priestly mediation would be impotent, and the holy and just God would remain inaccessible. (4) He must be appointed by God. (Ver. 4.) It is for God to decide whether he will alfow himself to be approached at all on behalf of the guilty, a.ad it belongs to him also to select the person whoFe mediation will be acceptable to him. IL THE REALITY OF CHRIST'S HIGH PRIESTHOOD, 'fhe apostle goes on to show-but arranging his thoughts for the most pa.rt in the reverse order-that the Lord Jesus poss866es all the needful qualifications for the high priesthood, and that he actually discharges its duties (vere, 5-10). 1. He has the g_oolifications of a high priest. (1) He waa appointed by God. (Vere. 5, 6.) The reference to Pa. ii. suggests his perfect fit11ess for the office, and the quotation from Ps. ex. is a proof of his orclination by the irrevocable oath of God. (2) He is a man. (Vers. 7, 8.) Although God said to him, "My Son," be had taken "the form of a servant," and "in the days of his flesh" had" learned obedience." (3) He is able to sympathize. (Vere. 7, 8.) He passed through a coursp of the deepest affliction and the most dreadful temptation, that he might acquire the necessary experience for his work. He" suffered," not .only at :Nazareth and Capernaum, and during the whole period of his public ministry, but ~specially by means of the unparalleled agonies of Gethsemane and Gol~otha. (4) He offered himseif cu a sacrifice. (Vera. 7, 8.) By his" obedience" Jesus effected complete reconciliation for sin. His trembling agony in the garden and the woe which he bore upon the tree are inexplicable on the principle that he was only a martyr, or on any other J?rinciple than that in some mysterious way he was thus bearing the wrath of God agamst siu. 2. He discharges the duties of a high priest. (Ver. 9.) 'l'he Saviour's acquisition of all the qualifications "made him perfect," i.e. officially all-accomplished as the Pricijt of mankind. He has procured for us everlasting salvation, and he bestows it. uvon all who obey him by faith. He has expiated 8in. He has rendered God propitious. He gives his people access. He prays to God for them. In short, he performs all th" du1i~ o! a high priest,_lllld his prieiithood has super~edcd ovory other. CH, V, 1-14.) 'l'HE EPISTLE TO THE llE_BREWS. 143
.III. THE CONTRAST BETWEEN CHRIST'S PillEBTHOOD AND THE AARONICAL, 1. Being personally holy, Jesus needed not to offer any sacrifice for himself (ver. 3). 2. He 18 both Priest and Victim (vers. 7, 8). 3. His priesthood really procures salntion (ver. 9), and not merely typically. 4. It is of a higher order than Aaron's and was more fully represented by that of Melchizedek (ver. 10); for it is (1) intransf;rable and everlasting ; (2) a royal priesthood, Christ being King as well as Priest. LEssoNs•. 1. We, bein~ guilty and sinful, can have intercourse with God only through Christ as our Priest. 2. We ought to cherish absolute confidence in his priestly power and sympathy. 3. Christian ministers are not "called of God" to be priests (ver. 4), and must beware of importing sacerdotal conceptions into the idea which they entertain of their office; yet every pastor should, like the model bi"h 0 prie~t of ancient times, "bear gently with the ignorant and erring."