Jesus is both the only-begotten eternal Son of God and the only perfect human being.
It’s his identity as the eternal Son incarnate that grounds the excellence of Christ’s priesthood. ‘It is Christ’s Divine, eternal nature as the Son of God that shapes his priesthood and gives it its uniqueness. His Divine, eternal Sonship makes his priesthood what it is in distinction from every other kind of priesthood.’1Gaffin, ‘Priesthood of Christ,’ 65; see 61-68 for fuller discussion.
‘A priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life.’
Measured by the Covenant
That excellence is in turn measured by the superiority of the covenant he mediates — a covenant shown to accomplish what the old could never achieve: the everlasting redemption and inheritance of God’s people.
Hebrews states the point twice. First in terms of the covenant’s superior basis: ‘Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises’ (Heb 8:6).
Then in terms of what it secures: ‘Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant’ (Heb 9:15).
He Did Not Volunteer
Christ did not take the priesthood upon himself but was called to this supreme honour: ‘So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a High Priest, but was appointed to it by God the Father, who said to him, “You are my Son …”’ (Heb 5:4-6).
This was no passing commission but a sworn, permanent office. The LORD swore an oath, ‘and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever”’ (Psa 110:4; Heb 7:21).
By consequence of his death and resurrection, Christ’s Divine-human priesthood is never-ending: ‘he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever’ (Heb 7:24).
A Different Qualification Entirely
Jesus’ priestly appointment rested on a wholly different basis than the old Levitical priesthood.
Christ became ‘a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life’ (Heb 7:16).
Notice what that disqualifies and what it replaces. Levitical priests qualified by ancestry — the right family, the right tribe. Christ qualifies by being ultimately unkillable. Not a better pedigree but a different order of life altogether.
That ‘indestructible life’ is rooted in who the Son himself is. Hebrews opens by describing Jesus as ‘the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature’ (Heb 1:3). Because of his eternal deity — God the Son — that Divine appointment shaped the whole orientation of his earthly life.
Accordingly, rather than seeking glory purely for himself, he glorified the Father on earth, ‘having accomplished the work’ he was given to do (John 17:4). This charge received from the Father focused on laying his life down that he might ‘take it up again’ (John 10:17-18), obtaining the benefits of the new covenant by bleeding and dying (Matt 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20).
Great High Priest
In this way he became not only a Priest (hiereus) but a High Priest (archiereus), and not only a High Priest but ‘our great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God’ (Heb 4:14).
‘High priest’ is the dominant expression, appearing only in Hebrews and in about 70% of the occasions where the nature of Christ’s priesthood is discussed.2Gaffin, ‘Priesthood of Christ,’ 50.
He not only offers gifts and sacrifices for sins (Heb 5:1) but, once for all, offers up himself (Heb 7:27), bringing and bearing his own blood to atone for the failures of God’s people.
Hebrews traces the efficacy of that offering from the sanctuary he entered, through the conscience it cleanses, to the sin it finally puts away — and looks ahead to the day it will be completed in his return:
‘He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. … [So] how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. … But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him’ (Heb 9:12-14, 26-28).
Not to Deal With Sin
That last clause deserves its own moment.
When Christ returns it will not be to deal with sin. That work is finished — done once, at the end of the ages, by the sacrifice of himself. The second appearance has an entirely different purpose: to save those who are eagerly waiting.
Merciful, and Faithful
Christ’s sacrifice reveals the Father’s love (1 John 4:10) by taking away the sins of the world (John 1:29), lifting the curse (Gal 3:13), defeating the devil and so releasing us from fear of death (Heb 2:14), and reconciling us to God together with all things on earth and in heaven, ‘making peace by the blood of his cross’ (Col 1:20).
All of this — love shown, sin removed, the curse lifted, death’s fear broken, peace made — is the fruit of one office. He does it as ‘a merciful and faithful high priest,’ on the basis of his ‘propitiation for the sins of the people’ (Heb 2:17).
And this propitiatory work isn’t the whole of his priestly ministry. It also has a profoundly personal and pastoral dimension: ‘The God of peace … brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant’ (Heb 13:20).
Priest and shepherd, in the same sentence, secured by the same blood.