The fact that Jesus assumed human nature primarily in order to be our complete Saviour argues that the human nature He assumed was our sinful human nature that needed redeeming. Only when we fully identify Christ's humanity with the humanity of those He came to redeem, can we truly present the full gospel and Adventism's unique doctrine of Christ's priestly ministry in the heavenly sanctuary.
One of the Bible's major insights about Christ, especially in the book of Hebrews, is that He is our great High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary. In Hebrews chapter 4, the writer (who I believe was the apostle Paul), urges his readers to enter God's "rest," a term he uses to define righteousness by faith, and of which, he says, the Sabbath is a sign. This is the context in which the apostle introduces Christ as our great High Priest (see Hebrews 4:14-16).
Our faith in Christ as our righteousness, as well as our assurance of salvation, must not be limited only to what He did during His earthly mission some 2,000 years ago. Our faith must also encompass Him as our great High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary. His earthly mission—His birth, life, death, and resurrection—obtained for all humanity a righteousness that fully qualifies us for heaven, now and in the judgment, a salvation that is full and complete (see Romans 5:18). But in His heavenly ministry, as our great High Priest, Christ intercedes and defends that righteousness for all those who by faith have received His righteousness, who have entered into God's rest and are standing under the umbrella of justification by faith alone (see Romans 4:25; 8:34; 1 John 2:1). Based on these two facts—Christ as our perfect Saviour, and Christ as our great High Priest—we can have full confidence in our salvation.
Now, the word priest means one who represents the congregation before God. And the first thing we need to know about our great High Priest, Jesus Christ, is that He is able to represent us before the Father because He knows our human condition. It is not something He has heard about; it is something He knows by personal experience as a man. He was "in all points tempted as we are" (Hebrews 4:15, emphasis supplied)—not as God, but in the humanity He assumed at the incarnation, a humanity which was identical to our humanity (see Hebrews 2:16-18). He was tempted in all things as we are, but, of course, He never sinned.
The main point the apostle is making is that Christ, as our great High Priest, can sympathize with our weakness, and therefore we must not be afraid to approach Him as our representative. In other words, there is no barrier between us sinners and our sinless High Priest, because He fully understands our struggles with sinful flesh. He "became flesh" in the incarnation (John 1:14), and "was in all points tempted as we are" (Hebrews 4:15). But more than that, He is also able to help us in our need, since "in the likeness of sinful flesh," He "condemned sin in the flesh" (Romans 8:3).
We sinners need mercy because we have failed God so often. We also need strength because without it we cannot live the Christian life. As our great High Priest, Christ is able to supply both these needs. This is what is so wonderful about Jesus: not only is He our perfect Saviour, but He is also our faithful, sympathetic, and merciful High Priest!
Having established this truth in Hebrews 4:14-16, Paul goes on, in chapter 5:1-4, to point out four requirements that the Torah, the Book of the Law, stipulates for one who would be considered for the office of high priest. Then in verses 5-10, he shows how Christ fully meets each of these four qualifications (although he does not do so in the same order as he presents them in verses 1-4).
He also shows that although Christ meets all four requirements, there is a contrast between the Levitical priests who served in the earthly sanctuary, and Christ who serves as our great High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary. His point is that Christ's priestly ministry in heaven is vastly superior to the earthly priesthood.
Let's look at these four qualifications for those who would be high priest, and see how the apostle presents Jesus as fully meeting each one.
1. He must be chosen from "among men" (Hebrews 5:1) to represent them before God. In the Old Testament priesthood, the high priest could not be an outsider; he had to belong to and be one with those he represented. This was also true of Christ as our great High Priest. "In all things He had to be made like His brethren" (Hebrews 2:17). If in any way Christ did not identify Himself with our humanity, that is, with our sinful nature as we know it, if in any way Christ did not have to battle with indwelling sin and be an over-comer, then He is immediately disqualified to be our great High Priest.
If we insist that Christ was like us only in the physical sense of being prone to fatigue, hunger, aging, etc., but that He was unlike us in His spiritual nature, we really are disqualifying Him to be our "merciful and faithful High Priest" (Hebrews 2:17) who can "sympathize with our weaknesses" (Hebrews 4:15). The only difference the apostle makes in the book of Hebrews between Christ's human nature and our own is that Christ never sinned. It is in this sense that He is "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners" (Hebrews 7:26).
In His human nature, He was one with us. But because of His total victory over our sinful flesh, He is not only our Saviour, but also our perfect representative or High Priest.
2. He must be able to "have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is beset by weakness" (Hebrews 5:2). In the Old Testament, the high priest shared the same human weaknesses of those he represented. Thus, he was not indifferent to moral lapses, yet neither was he harsh with the people. And by weakness the writer of Hebrews meant more than just physical weaknesses, as some insist. The word weakness in Greek denotes both physical and moral frailty.
Hebrews 5:7 brings out the reality of Christ's identification with the weaknesses of our struggling, sinful humanity. "In the days of His flesh, . . . He... offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears." It's true this is primarily a description of Gethsemane, something none of us humans has experienced. But the apostle is also referring to Jesus' whole life on earth as shown by the phrase, "in the days [plural] of His flesh."
Verses 8 and 9 also clearly refer to Jesus' entire experience as a human on this earth. Christ was the Son of God, but as a man who became one with us, "He learned obedience by the things which He suffered" (verse 8).
What did Paul mean by this, and in what sense did Christ suffer?
Since Christ never yielded to a single temptation, His human nature was deprived of the sinful desires it wanted to experience (see 1 Peter 4:1). His victory over the flesh meant that His flesh suffered as a result—something that He would not have experienced if His spiritual human nature had been like that of Adam before the Fall.
3. He must be able to offer sacrifices for the sins of the people he represents (Hebrews 5:3). In the case of the earthly high priests, they had to offer sacrifices for their own sins as well as for the sins of the people. Since Christ never sinned (see Hebrews 4:15), He had no sacrifices to offer for Himself, but He did bear our sins on the cross, because He bore us there (see 1 Peter 2:24).
Paul points out in Hebrews 9 and 10 that the animal sacrifices, which the earthly priests offered repeatedly, had no power to forgive sins or provide salvation. Salvation came in reality only when Christ offered the one sacrifice of Himself for all time (see Hebrews 10:14), ascended into the heavenly sanctuary, and sat down at the right hand of God to intercede for us as our great High Priest. He will continue to do this until His enemies (and ours) are completely defeated.
4. He must be appointed or "called by God" (Hebrews 5:4), not self-appointed. The office of high priest in the Old Testament was only by divine appointment; it was not a self-appointed position. Paul quotes Psalm 2:7 and Psalm 110:4 to prove that Christ "did not glorify Himself to become High Priest" (Hebrews 5:5), but was called and appointed to this position by the Father.
What a wonderful Redeemer we have in Christ! Not only is He our perfect and complete Saviour, but He is also our sympathetic and merciful High Priest. Because He fully identified Himself with our sinful humanity, apart from sinning, there is no area of our battle against the sin problem He does not understand from His own personal experience. He can, therefore, fully sympathize with our struggles against the flesh.
But even more than that, there is no area of our sin problem He has not combatted, overcome, and redeemed us from. Speaking of our slavery to sin, Jesus said, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. . . . Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed" (John 8:32, 36). No wonder the apostle Paul could say, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13). As our High Priest, Jesus is not only able to "sympathize with our weakness" (Hebrews 4:15), but He is also "able to aid those who are tempted" (Hebrews 2:18). Thank God for that!
As Christians who have put our whole trust in Christ and His righteousness, we can come boldly to the throne of grace with full assurance, knowing full well that God is able to save us to the uttermost because in His gift, Jesus Christ, our Elder Brother, Redeemer, and High Priest, we have everything necessary for our salvation. No longer do we need to have the law of sin reign over us. Yes, the law of sin may remain in our natures until Christ comes, but we need no longer be slaves to it, for He who stepped into our shoes has set us free (see 2 Corinthians 3:17, 18).
It is, therefore, my sincere prayer that the material presented in the rest of this book will help to clarify the issue of the human nature of Christ in the light of the full gospel. I believe God has raised up the advent movement with a global mission to proclaim the everlasting gospel, a message that will one day lighten this earth with His glory.
Key Points in Chapter Three Christ, Our Sympathetic High Priest