Hebrews 7:23-25

²³Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; ²⁴but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood.

²⁵Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him,

because he always lives to intercede for them.

A Permanent Priest

As Protestants, we don’t think about priests very often. We don’t think about making sacrifices through priests, we don’t think about confession to priests, and we don’t think about the consequences of having a mortal or perishable priest.

When we do think of priests today, we tend to associate them with scandals or hypocrisy. We tend to focus on human frailty when we think of priests. And yet we need a priest, one who is not frail. We need a priest to intercede for us both today and forever. The good news of today’s Scripture reading is that Jesus is our permanent priest: he is the one who can save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

Jesus fulfills the role of a priest in a very different way from others. He is the one that made the ultimate sacrifice for us in his dying on the cross. He is the one to whom we confess. Only he is eternal. And he is the one who can save us completely. The text clarifies why this is: Jesus always lives to intercede for us.

We often gloss over Jesus’ purpose for living forever. He lives forever so that he can intercede (pray) for us.

Prayer: Dear Lord, thank you that you live forever. Thank you that you pray for us and that we are justified through you. We pray that you will intercede for us to gradually sanctify us. We pray this in the name of our great Priest, Jesus Christ.