²¹ and since we have a great priest over the house of God …

A second “given” that leads to the “so what” of this chapter, is that “we have a great priest over the house of God.” We again await the logical conclusion of these two great summaries which come in the next verses, as we dwell on this great truth: we have a great priest over us!

Other Scripture affirms this: “But Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope” (Heb 3:6). We are “the household of God, which is the church of the living God” (1 Tim 3:15). In a sense, Christ is our personal, household priest. But He is a “great” priest. This is the Greek word from which we get our prefix “mega.” He is the mega-priest! There is no one greater, no one does it better.

Now a priest has the particular function of representing us to God by bringing sacrifices to restore or maintain our relationship with Him. Scripture makes this clear throughout the book of Hebrews and elsewhere. “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5). A priest mediates, and since Christ is the mega-priest, we do not need to waste time with any other priests who claim to represent us.

This is significant in light of those religions and denominations today that insist upon a modern day priesthood, a clergy rank that supposedly provides the go-between for people. The book of Hebrews completely undermines this poor imitation of the Levitical priesthood as being not only useless, but also a gross disrespect and denigration of the priesthood of Christ. Even to say that a human “priest” is enacting the priestly function in the place of or on behalf of Christ is to go way beyond Scripture, and insults His perfect and great high priesthood.

To be sure the Old Testament Levitical system had its priesthood, but as has been said all along in the book of Hebrews, it was vastly inferior to Christ’s priesthood, which is of a completely different, higher order, that of Melchizedek. There is absolutely no reference to a separate priestly class of people in the New Testament in the sense of a clergy class. In fact, the Scripture teaches that all of us are priests, no one is higher or has better access to God than anyone else. We believers are all on the same level. In fact, we “…as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5). We have direct access to God, through the God-man, our great priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. And this has tremendous implications for us, as we shall see next.

Heavenly Father, I come to You through the priesthood of Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank You for this direct access into Your presence.