Having an high priest over the house of God means Jesus Christ is the enduring high priest over God's household of believers, His beloved people with Himself as Head. Having offered Himself once for all as the sinless sacrifice to take away sins and perfect forever those who are sanctified, He sat at God's right hand and now stands in God's presence as Mediator and Intercessor. By His blood He opened a new and living way through the veil, so that when He died the temple veil was rent to show the way into God's presence is open to all without dependence on an earthly priest or ceremonial sacrifice. On that ground believers have boldness and free access to enter the holiest and are to draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with conscience cleansed and hearts sprinkled from evil. They are to hold fast their profession of faith without wavering because He who promised is faithful, and to stir one another to love and good works while assembling together as the day approaches.
High Priest and Household
Hebrews 10:21 identifies Jesus Christ as the high priest over the house of God, God's household and people. God's household has a high priest over it, and Jesus is that High Priest over God's household and house, giving believers access to God through the new and living way opened by His sacrifice. His once-for-all sacrifice and His place at God's right hand make it possible for believers to approach God through His blood with confidence, and His priesthood following that once-for-all sacrifice provides the ground to draw near in faith with cleansed hearts and to live in love and good works.
The house is God's household of believers, His beloved household, with Christ as its Head. Christ gave Himself and is now standing in the presence of God as High Priest over the house of God, and through Him and with Him believers may enter the true tabernacle not made with hands, this hallowed temple, the true heavenly tabernacle. He stands in God's presence for His people as their Head, and they are His beloved household.
He is the enduring and only true high priest heading an unchangeable priesthood, unlike the human high priests who served as types. Unlike those human high priests, He offered Himself once as a complete sacrifice for sin and now lives to intercede for His people. The child presented at the temple was the eternal, long-expected Messiah who came to His temple to become its head and intercessor, fulfilling the priestly service foreshadowed by the sanctuary. Though He was an infant when brought to the temple, He is eternal, the One who would become its head and the true High Priest over God's house.
Sacrifice Opening the Way
His priesthood follows His once-for-all, complete sacrifice in which He offered Himself and gave Himself as the atoning sacrifice. He bowed His head and died as a sinless offering, was crucified to take away sins, and rose again. After making one offering for sins forever to perfect forever those who are sanctified, He sat at God's right hand until His enemies are made His footstool. He gave Himself and now stands in God's presence as High Priest over the house of God.
By His blood a new and living way consecrated through the veil of His flesh was opened for bold entrance into the holiest. When He died the temple veil was rent in twain by God's unseen hand, by the Almighty's unseen hand, to show the way into God's presence is open to all and that all can now approach God and draw nigh to Him through His merits. His death ended the need for people to wait for an earthly high priest to enter the Most Holy Place on their behalf. No one need depend on a human priest or ceremonial sacrifice, for liberty is given to all to go directly to God through a personal Saviour, and the temple offerings pointed to His sacrifice as the reality to which they had pointed.
This fulfills the covenant in which God puts His laws into hearts and minds and remembers sins and iniquities no more, so no more offering for sin is needed. His sacrifice meets the full demands of God's broken law, and God did not lessen His claim upon men in order to save them. His sacrifice and offered salvation are for all mankind, not the Hebrews alone.
Heavenly Ministry and Intercession
The work in heaven after death and resurrection completes the work begun by death and is essential to salvation. That heavenly ministry reflects the light of the cross and gives clearer insight into redemption. Through His mediation sincere requests offered in faith are brought before God.
Through Him and with Him believers may enter the true tabernacle not made with hands, this hallowed temple, within the veil where He has gone before them. He is now standing in the presence of God as High Priest over the house of God, Head over His beloved household. After shedding His blood He enters the holy place to cleanse the sanctuary, and His blood is used in the work of reconciling God and humanity.
He ministers in the heavenly sanctuary in the most holy of holies where God reveals Himself to His appointed ones. From October 1844 He ministers in the heavenly Most Holy Place pleading for sinners who come to God through Him. This is solemn and important truth held as faith since 1844, opened step by step with clear light. It is to be held without misrepresentation, denial, or controversy, pressing forward and upward united as lightbearers lest the weak in faith be turned out of the way.
When this priestly work is finished He will leave His priestly role and execute judgment on the living wicked. The day of God's wrath and the seven last plagues come after His priestly work ends. He continually lives to intercede as Mediator, Advocate with the Father, personal Intercessor, chosen and appointed ever-living Advocate, Substitute and Surety. He has opened His heart to His people, presents their petitions to the Father, grants the blessings they seek, and gives mercy and help and receives help for those who come to Him.
In Him humanity and divinity are combined, and all sufficiency is provided for every soul. As Substitute and Surety He imputes His own righteousness and employs in their behalf the infinite fund of moral power and perfect obedience provided by His atonement and obedience. He pities sinners who realize they cannot save themselves, looks on them with compassion, raises up every trembling suppliant, and neglects no one who surrenders to Him. In heaven His merits, self-denial and self-sacrifice are treasured as incense to be offered with the prayers of His people. As sincere humble prayers ascend He mingles them with the merits of His life of perfect obedience to make them fragrant, and because He has pledged Himself to intercede and the Father always hears His Son, an answer is sure.
Drawing Near in Faith
Because such a high priest stands over God's house and entrance has been made by His blood, believers have boldness to enter the holiest and free access into God's presence. That boldness is sanctified boldness to come with confidence, and liberty is given to all to go directly to God through a personal Saviour without dependence on a human priest or ceremonial sacrifice. The veil of the temple was rent in twain by God's unseen hand to open a new and living way, so all can now approach God and draw nigh to Him through the merits of Christ. Through the sacrifice made for sinners sins may be perfectly forgiven, and when the soul surrenders wholly and fully believes the blood cleanses from all sin. Dependence is therefore not in what man can do but in what God can do through Christ.
On that ground they are to draw near with a true and sincere heart in full assurance of faith. They draw near with hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and bodies washed with pure water, with cleansed hearts and cleansed conscience. The conscience is freed from condemnation, and His once-for-all sacrifice and His place at God's right hand make confident approach through His blood possible. Because He is their High Priest they have access to God through the new and living way opened by His sacrifice, and through Him and with Him they may enter the true tabernacle not made with hands, this hallowed temple.
Through faith they may enter the holy of holies and commune with the Father and Christ. Christ is the Redeemer and Saviour who cleanses sinners by His blood. Christians who seek purity and truth through Scripture, meditation, and prayer may thus enter God's presence, their prayers reaching within the veil. That intimate fellowship with God refines and ennobles them.
They are to hold fast the profession of faith and hope without wavering. The reason is that He who promised is faithful, and they are to trust God's faithfulness. The surrounding instruction calls believers to draw near to God, hold fast their hope, and encourage one another.
They are to consider one another to stir up love and good works. They are not to forsake assembling together but to exhort and encourage one another, so much more as they see the day approaching. His once-for-all sacrifice and His place at God's right hand make possible this life of cleansed hearts issuing in love and good works. Through His priesthood and the blood of Jesus believers both draw near to God with faith and a clean conscience and are called to encourage one another toward love and good works.
Transformed Life and Prayer
Having such a high priest over the house of God means sins may be perfectly forgiven through the sacrifice made for sinners, so sins can be brought into the light, confessed and pardoned. Truly converted sinners who are washed and sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit, raised from moral degradation and sin by repentance and faith in a sin-pardoning Saviour, are to be taken by the hand as one in Christ. Dependence is not in what man can do but in what God can do through Christ, and when the soul surrenders wholly to God and fully believes, the blood cleanses from all sin and frees the conscience from condemnation. Through faith in His blood all can be made perfect in Christ Jesus, claim sanctification and enjoy the favor of God, for God is not dealing with impossibilities. There is no need to be anxious about what Christ and God think of sinners, but about what God thinks of Christ their Substitute, for the repenting believing one is accepted in the Beloved and Christ accepts the surrender of the soul to mold and fashion it after His own likeness.
This truth gives spiritual life to the soul and builds sound Christian experience and growth in grace through deep understanding and appropriation of Scripture. It calls for daily conversion to simple obedience, with the follower daily converted and fitted for every work and every trial and divinely adapted to meet all obstacles. Christians who seek purity and truth through Scripture, meditation and prayer draw near to God and may enter His presence with sanctified boldness. Their prayers reach within the veil, and intimate fellowship with God refines and ennobles them. His people wear no yoke of bondage but only the yoke of Christ, keeping the Father's commandments as Christ kept them. They live and act as children of the light and representatives of Christ, made a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men, in contrast to those who follow pernicious ways and corrupt the word of God.
Because He works for them, they are to work to restore those who err and promote unity with one another. Souls must bind themselves to Him as Mediator day by day by talking with God and following on to know the Lord, and by leaning on Him the life is hid with Christ in God and made partaker of the divine nature. Led by His Spirit there is genuine faith, and by believing fully in the efficacy of His atoning sacrifice and trusting in His merits believers become laborers together with God, working out their own salvation with fear and trembling because God works in them both to will and to do of His good pleasure. By always keeping hold of Christ they come nearer and nearer to God. Believers should lay hold of Him by faith and pray without ceasing, for He has pledged to pray the Father for each person and, since the Father always hears Him, an answer is sure. Their sincere humble prayers ascend mingled with the merits of His life of perfect obedience to make them fragrant, and reach within the veil.
He is the ladder between earth and heaven by which sinners enter into the holiest by His blood, and ascending is climbing the whole height of His work step by step by holding fast to Christ and climbing by His merits. It is mounting by the Mediator while keeping hold on the Mediator, stretching from one round to the next above in perfect obedience to all the commandments of God, with the eye directed upward to God who is at the top of the ladder. It is obtaining the mansions for the blessed by being a partaker of the divine nature and escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust, by laying hold of the hope set before in the gospel, by fastening to Christ and straining every nerve to leave the world behind and diminish distance from God. It is being in Christ and yet led by Christ, believing and working upon the plan of addition and constantly mounting upward toward God, while to let go is to cease to climb and to fall and perish, so constant striving is necessary and there is fearful peril in relaxing spiritual diligence for a moment. The verse belongs to the call to enter the holy of holies to hear what God says. The seeker for truth who accepts the Bible as God's inspired Word lays aside every previous idea and takes the Word in its simplicity, renounces every sinful practice, and comes with a heart softened and subdued, ready to listen.
Having an high priest over the house of God means Jesus Christ is the enduring high priest over God's household of believers, His beloved people with Himself as Head. Having offered Himself once for all as the sinless sacrifice to take away sins and perfect forever those who are sanctified, He sat at God's right hand and now stands in God's presence as Mediator and Intercessor. By His blood He opened a new and living way through the veil, so that when He died the temple veil was rent to show the way into God's presence is open to all without dependence on an earthly priest or ceremonial sacrifice. On that ground believers have boldness and free access to enter the holiest and are to draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with conscience cleansed and hearts sprinkled from evil. They are to hold fast their profession of faith without wavering because He who promised is faithful, and to stir one another to love and good works while assembling together as the day approaches.
High Priest and Household
Hebrews 10:21 identifies Jesus Christ as the high priest over the house of God, God's household and people. God's household has a high priest over it, and Jesus is that High Priest over God's household and house, giving believers access to God through the new and living way opened by His sacrifice. His once-for-all sacrifice and His place at God's right hand make it possible for believers to approach God through His blood with confidence, and His priesthood following that once-for-all sacrifice provides the ground to draw near in faith with cleansed hearts and to live in love and good works.
The house is God's household of believers, His beloved household, with Christ as its Head. Christ gave Himself and is now standing in the presence of God as High Priest over the house of God, and through Him and with Him believers may enter the true tabernacle not made with hands, this hallowed temple, the true heavenly tabernacle. He stands in God's presence for His people as their Head, and they are His beloved household.
He is the enduring and only true high priest heading an unchangeable priesthood, unlike the human high priests who served as types. Unlike those human high priests, He offered Himself once as a complete sacrifice for sin and now lives to intercede for His people. The child presented at the temple was the eternal, long-expected Messiah who came to His temple to become its head and intercessor, fulfilling the priestly service foreshadowed by the sanctuary. Though He was an infant when brought to the temple, He is eternal, the One who would become its head and the true High Priest over God's house.
Sacrifice Opening the Way
His priesthood follows His once-for-all, complete sacrifice in which He offered Himself and gave Himself as the atoning sacrifice. He bowed His head and died as a sinless offering, was crucified to take away sins, and rose again. After making one offering for sins forever to perfect forever those who are sanctified, He sat at God's right hand until His enemies are made His footstool. He gave Himself and now stands in God's presence as High Priest over the house of God.
By His blood a new and living way consecrated through the veil of His flesh was opened for bold entrance into the holiest. When He died the temple veil was rent in twain by God's unseen hand, by the Almighty's unseen hand, to show the way into God's presence is open to all and that all can now approach God and draw nigh to Him through His merits. His death ended the need for people to wait for an earthly high priest to enter the Most Holy Place on their behalf. No one need depend on a human priest or ceremonial sacrifice, for liberty is given to all to go directly to God through a personal Saviour, and the temple offerings pointed to His sacrifice as the reality to which they had pointed.
This fulfills the covenant in which God puts His laws into hearts and minds and remembers sins and iniquities no more, so no more offering for sin is needed. His sacrifice meets the full demands of God's broken law, and God did not lessen His claim upon men in order to save them. His sacrifice and offered salvation are for all mankind, not the Hebrews alone.
Heavenly Ministry and Intercession
The work in heaven after death and resurrection completes the work begun by death and is essential to salvation. That heavenly ministry reflects the light of the cross and gives clearer insight into redemption. Through His mediation sincere requests offered in faith are brought before God.
Through Him and with Him believers may enter the true tabernacle not made with hands, this hallowed temple, within the veil where He has gone before them. He is now standing in the presence of God as High Priest over the house of God, Head over His beloved household. After shedding His blood He enters the holy place to cleanse the sanctuary, and His blood is used in the work of reconciling God and humanity.
He ministers in the heavenly sanctuary in the most holy of holies where God reveals Himself to His appointed ones. From October 1844 He ministers in the heavenly Most Holy Place pleading for sinners who come to God through Him. This is solemn and important truth held as faith since 1844, opened step by step with clear light. It is to be held without misrepresentation, denial, or controversy, pressing forward and upward united as lightbearers lest the weak in faith be turned out of the way.
When this priestly work is finished He will leave His priestly role and execute judgment on the living wicked. The day of God's wrath and the seven last plagues come after His priestly work ends. He continually lives to intercede as Mediator, Advocate with the Father, personal Intercessor, chosen and appointed ever-living Advocate, Substitute and Surety. He has opened His heart to His people, presents their petitions to the Father, grants the blessings they seek, and gives mercy and help and receives help for those who come to Him.
In Him humanity and divinity are combined, and all sufficiency is provided for every soul. As Substitute and Surety He imputes His own righteousness and employs in their behalf the infinite fund of moral power and perfect obedience provided by His atonement and obedience. He pities sinners who realize they cannot save themselves, looks on them with compassion, raises up every trembling suppliant, and neglects no one who surrenders to Him. In heaven His merits, self-denial and self-sacrifice are treasured as incense to be offered with the prayers of His people. As sincere humble prayers ascend He mingles them with the merits of His life of perfect obedience to make them fragrant, and because He has pledged Himself to intercede and the Father always hears His Son, an answer is sure.
Drawing Near in Faith
Because such a high priest stands over God's house and entrance has been made by His blood, believers have boldness to enter the holiest and free access into God's presence. That boldness is sanctified boldness to come with confidence, and liberty is given to all to go directly to God through a personal Saviour without dependence on a human priest or ceremonial sacrifice. The veil of the temple was rent in twain by God's unseen hand to open a new and living way, so all can now approach God and draw nigh to Him through the merits of Christ. Through the sacrifice made for sinners sins may be perfectly forgiven, and when the soul surrenders wholly and fully believes the blood cleanses from all sin. Dependence is therefore not in what man can do but in what God can do through Christ.
On that ground they are to draw near with a true and sincere heart in full assurance of faith. They draw near with hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and bodies washed with pure water, with cleansed hearts and cleansed conscience. The conscience is freed from condemnation, and His once-for-all sacrifice and His place at God's right hand make confident approach through His blood possible. Because He is their High Priest they have access to God through the new and living way opened by His sacrifice, and through Him and with Him they may enter the true tabernacle not made with hands, this hallowed temple.
Through faith they may enter the holy of holies and commune with the Father and Christ. Christ is the Redeemer and Saviour who cleanses sinners by His blood. Christians who seek purity and truth through Scripture, meditation, and prayer may thus enter God's presence, their prayers reaching within the veil. That intimate fellowship with God refines and ennobles them.
They are to hold fast the profession of faith and hope without wavering. The reason is that He who promised is faithful, and they are to trust God's faithfulness. The surrounding instruction calls believers to draw near to God, hold fast their hope, and encourage one another.
They are to consider one another to stir up love and good works. They are not to forsake assembling together but to exhort and encourage one another, so much more as they see the day approaching. His once-for-all sacrifice and His place at God's right hand make possible this life of cleansed hearts issuing in love and good works. Through His priesthood and the blood of Jesus believers both draw near to God with faith and a clean conscience and are called to encourage one another toward love and good works.
Transformed Life and Prayer
Having such a high priest over the house of God means sins may be perfectly forgiven through the sacrifice made for sinners, so sins can be brought into the light, confessed and pardoned. Truly converted sinners who are washed and sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit, raised from moral degradation and sin by repentance and faith in a sin-pardoning Saviour, are to be taken by the hand as one in Christ. Dependence is not in what man can do but in what God can do through Christ, and when the soul surrenders wholly to God and fully believes, the blood cleanses from all sin and frees the conscience from condemnation. Through faith in His blood all can be made perfect in Christ Jesus, claim sanctification and enjoy the favor of God, for God is not dealing with impossibilities. There is no need to be anxious about what Christ and God think of sinners, but about what God thinks of Christ their Substitute, for the repenting believing one is accepted in the Beloved and Christ accepts the surrender of the soul to mold and fashion it after His own likeness.
This truth gives spiritual life to the soul and builds sound Christian experience and growth in grace through deep understanding and appropriation of Scripture. It calls for daily conversion to simple obedience, with the follower daily converted and fitted for every work and every trial and divinely adapted to meet all obstacles. Christians who seek purity and truth through Scripture, meditation and prayer draw near to God and may enter His presence with sanctified boldness. Their prayers reach within the veil, and intimate fellowship with God refines and ennobles them. His people wear no yoke of bondage but only the yoke of Christ, keeping the Father's commandments as Christ kept them. They live and act as children of the light and representatives of Christ, made a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men, in contrast to those who follow pernicious ways and corrupt the word of God.
Because He works for them, they are to work to restore those who err and promote unity with one another. Souls must bind themselves to Him as Mediator day by day by talking with God and following on to know the Lord, and by leaning on Him the life is hid with Christ in God and made partaker of the divine nature. Led by His Spirit there is genuine faith, and by believing fully in the efficacy of His atoning sacrifice and trusting in His merits believers become laborers together with God, working out their own salvation with fear and trembling because God works in them both to will and to do of His good pleasure. By always keeping hold of Christ they come nearer and nearer to God. Believers should lay hold of Him by faith and pray without ceasing, for He has pledged to pray the Father for each person and, since the Father always hears Him, an answer is sure. Their sincere humble prayers ascend mingled with the merits of His life of perfect obedience to make them fragrant, and reach within the veil.
He is the ladder between earth and heaven by which sinners enter into the holiest by His blood, and ascending is climbing the whole height of His work step by step by holding fast to Christ and climbing by His merits. It is mounting by the Mediator while keeping hold on the Mediator, stretching from one round to the next above in perfect obedience to all the commandments of God, with the eye directed upward to God who is at the top of the ladder. It is obtaining the mansions for the blessed by being a partaker of the divine nature and escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust, by laying hold of the hope set before in the gospel, by fastening to Christ and straining every nerve to leave the world behind and diminish distance from God. It is being in Christ and yet led by Christ, believing and working upon the plan of addition and constantly mounting upward toward God, while to let go is to cease to climb and to fall and perish, so constant striving is necessary and there is fearful peril in relaxing spiritual diligence for a moment. The verse belongs to the call to enter the holy of holies to hear what God says. The seeker for truth who accepts the Bible as God's inspired Word lays aside every previous idea and takes the Word in its simplicity, renounces every sinful practice, and comes with a heart softened and subdued, ready to listen.