³ For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; so it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer.

These things, the priesthood and tabernacle, were not just precursors to what was coming; they were not only symbolic. But they were imitations of something else, divinely appointed, designed to give a first glimpse of God’s glory. For the 21^st century readers the repeated teaching about the priesthood can be laborious. Do we not get the picture already?

The reality, however, as this passage today points out, is that “this high priest,” namely the Son of God, Jesus, was compelled by necessity to offer a sacrifice for us. It was necessary because there was no other way to accomplish the desired outcome, that we might find rest from our religious efforts to find spiritual rest with God. Is not life full of stress and anxiety, fears and insecurities? Underlying the turmoil of life is the spiritual restlessness, the striving for the divine, yet always coming up short. The religions of the world continually put the onus on the individual to achieve a higher consciousness, nirvana, perfection—anything that can calm the restless soul.

Is it any wonder that many who have found little solace in religious efforts have turned to drugs, alcoholism, media obsessions—all things which promise escape but only bring bondage? The restless soul plods along now, and then at other times sprints after something new with promise! Like a parched lost desert wanderer seeing mirages, expending what little energy is left, they flame on and they flame out in search for peace.

God was compelled by His own love and compassion to provide a solution. Thus it was “necessary” for Christ to have something to offer—something that would bring final satisfaction, rest and peace. In order to convey this truth, God chose the sacrificial idea, of substituting one thing for another. This was emblematically demonstrated, albeit imperfectly, in the Levitical priesthood and sacrificial system. But what was done then was multiplied, over and over. What Christ has done was done once (notice the singular “something”).

So what compels God to necessity? He could not be obligated by a higher moral standard, because there is nothing higher than God. He could not be induced to love us by something we have done, for He did not need to create us in the first place. His compulsion cannot be rooted in any contingency outside of Himself. He was compelled solely by His own character, namely His capacity and necessity to love, because “God is love” (1 John 4:8).

Lord, I rest secure in Your love because it is not because of what I have done, but because of who You are, the God of Love.