Gracious High Priest

[WordSword]

If Adam, Eve and their progeny would have continued without the sin offence, there would be no intermingling of the spirit of man with God, that indwelling of the Life of His Son, Spirit, New Heaven and an endlessness of other blessings; such is what God would desire of nothing less!
NC

 

 

 

 

Gracious High Priest

The redemption of Israel out of Egypt is typical of the Church. We have done with Egypt, the world, altogether. The Red Sea put death and judgment between the journeyers and Egypt; and so with the saint now. Death and judgment form the starting-point of the believer.

There is that which goes before it in exercise of heart; and when a soul sets out to leave this world of ruin and condemnation, it often finds itself, as Israel did, on the banks of the Red Sea, the waters before and their enemies behind them. There they were completely shut in to this judgment, where Satan was driving them. But the moment they had passed over the Red Sea, all that was entirely and finally closed. What had been a barrier, when Israel could go no further, was now left behind, and served as a barrier against Egypt.

Similarly, death and judgement are a securing barrier between us and all that is against us. It is not that there may be no conflict, no weariness after, but there is no question of deliverance after that (saints are continuously delivered from opposition, mostly from the indwelling old man, where faith is exercised the most; we continually learn to manifest in our walk all that we already are in Christ—NC). If Israel was not faithful, they failed in gaining victories, and there was no question of God being against them (concerning their ways, but was yet His people—NC). Next comes this journey through the wilderness, the judgment of the flesh by the Word, and then the priesthood of the Lord Jesus, which is exercised for us.

When I come to see where He is, I find the very One who has gone through the death and judgment that were due to me, and has taken His place in the presence of the Father, where He is exercising His priesthood. He has settled the point as to where I belong, where I worship; and it is in the presence of my Father—that is my position. All that belongs to me, as in the first Adam, is done with (Ro 8:9) in my relationship with my Father—not as regards conflict with it, but as regards my position with Him.

The old man is still there (Ro 7:17, 20), and the Word comes and judges all the movements of it that would hinder me in my path and fellowship. But the place where the Lord Jesus exercises His priesthood is outside of the flesh altogether; it is in heaven. “Such a High Priest was fitting for us, Who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens” (Heb 7:26). Israel had a place on earth, and a priest on earth; we have a place in heaven, and a Priest in heaven.

The Lord Jesus exercises this priesthood because we belong to a place where flesh (“old man”—NC) cannot enter, for He has set aside in death all that we were in connection with the first Adam. He gives us access into the presence of the Father, and there He ever maintains us. The high priest in Israel taken from among men, was not there; they did not even go in figure within the veil, save once a year and that was with clouds of incense, to hide the glory of God from them. They were men in the flesh, and therefore could not be connected with the Holiest (Heb 9:8). We are men in the Spirit, and therefore we are in the Holiest; but the flesh has no part there in any way.

We are associated with the Father in the new place that He has made for us in His Beloved. But the Lord Jesus, as our High Priest, is the very contrast of the Jewish high priest taken from among men. Our High Priest must be separate for sinners, and made higher than the heavens, thus we are. All the questions of our capacity to go on with joy, as being there, depends upon the intercession of the Lord Jesus on our behalf.

—John N Darby (1800-1882)

 

 

 

MJS online devotional excerpt for December 1 

“There is no way to a full abiding fellowship with our Father, but through the rent veil of the flesh; through a life with the old man crucified in the Lord Jesus. God be praised that the Holy Spirit ever dwells in us to keep the old man in the place of crucifixion and condemnation (Gal 5:17—NC), and to give us progressive liberty from all the old.” – Andrew Murray (1828-1917)
http://www.abideabove.com/hungry-heart/