9.46 Praying through Jesus our High Priest

Yesterday, we shared that Jesus has reconciled us to the Father. He represents us in the presence of the Father. This is the role of Jesus our High Priest. Jesus is the perfect High Priest because He can understand us, and He is perfect. He can help us when we are weak. He is always effective in interceding on our behalf before Father God.

(Hebrews 4:14-16)
Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Sometime, we may feel unworthy though Jesus has made us worthy. When we feel unworthy, there is always a tendency for us to try to approach God through someone else. Many have a tendency to look at other people whom we feel are closer to God. By looking at other people instead of looking at Jesus our perfect High Priest, we are actually putting ourselves further from our Heavenly Father.

God doesn’t want us to approach Him through anyone else. There is only one mediator between man and God – Jesus our High Priest. When we depend on Jesus, He brings us close to the Father.

(1 Timothy 2:5-6)
For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all…

This is our hope in the New Covenant. This is our confession – that Jesus is our High Priest. Hebrews 3:1 says that Jesus is the High Priest of our confession. Another version says that it is the confession of Jesus as our High Priest.

(Hebrews 3:1)
Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him…

Let us hold fast to our confession – of Jesus as our High Priest. When we pray, remember that our prayers go through Jesus, our High Priest. It is not about how good our prayers are. It is about how great our High Priest is. When we have that confidence in Jesus, we can come freely to talk to our heavenly Father.