Scripture: He is the kind of high priest we need because he is holy and blameless, unstained by sin. He has been set apart from sinners and has been given the highest place of honor in heaven. – Hebrews 7:26

Observation: The Hebraic author wrote a nice treatise on how and why Jesus is the perfect high priest. The argument is made that the Levitical priesthood was temporal and required a sinful man to offer up sacrifices first for himself and then for the Israelites. This ritual was done annually for the people and periodically when sins were committed. Yahweh determined a time when this system would end by offering his Son as the final sacrifice, once and for all. Just as any animal sacrifice was required to be pure and unblemished, how much more was Jesus required to be sinless and holy!

Application: Can you imagine what life would be like in this day if animal sacrifices were still required for the atonement of our sins? There are nearly 8 BILLION people on the earth now! Even if the people of Yahweh, both Jew and Gentile, were required to support a human priesthood, I reckon there’d soon be little animal life on earth! Now, we have the blessed hope of Jesus returning one day to establish his kingdom on earth and for those who are saved by the blood he shed on the cross in that ultimate act of love – sacrificing himself to pay for the sins we’ve committed!

In order for Jesus to do that, he had to be pure, holy, blameless, sinless, and perfect! The priests of old were born of man and woman and were given the same sinful nature that existed in our forefather, Adam. Thus, Jesus (in human form) had to be born to a woman through a miracle from God. This act prevented him from being born with the original sin of Adam. Then, as Jesus grew up and lived his physical life here on earth, he had to be submitted in humility to the will of God and live a perfect life in order to fulfill the requirements of the law as a perfect sacrifice! Tainted sacrifices, whether spots, cuts, or broken bones in an animal or sin in the life of a human, were not acceptable to God!

Jesus chose to live life as the Father required down to the minutest of details in the law! He succeeded in doing what humans could not in the Levitical order. He loved us to point of death on a cross! He took upon himself the pain and misery of a criminal’s capital punishment of execution in order that we may be reconciled unto the Father and live with him for eternity! This is why we need a high priest who is holy, blameless, and unstained by sin!

Prayer: Father, thank you for loving us so much that you gave your only Son to die for us and that anyone who believes in him should not die but have everlasting life! We know that payment for sin is death, but your gift is eternal life through Jesus! We cannot have that eternal life without Jesus having lived a perfect life and being a perfect sacrifice. Thank you for arranging so great a plan of salvation that we cannot save ourselves but must believe by faith through grace in the gift of love that you provided! Thank you, Jesus, for being submitted to the will of the Father and doing what no other could do for us! Thank you, Holy Spirit, for raising Jesus from the dead to prove and to show to the world that there is only one way to God the Father, and that is through the sacrifice of Jesus! Amen.