"A Priest in the Presence of God" (Hebrews 4:14-5:3)

Welcome to the Reformed University Fellowship at UNCW Podcast! Each week, we will post the messages from our RUF Large Group meetings at UNCW. This semester, we are looking at the big storyline of redemption that is laid out for us in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. In these passages from Leviticus and Hebrews, we look at an Old Testament figure-- the priest; and an place— the temple. And we learn how what God promises through the priests and the temple places is fulfilled in the work of Jesus. We see that, throughout the Bible, God provides mediators: priests, temples, and sacrifices, that enable his people to enjoy his holy presence. “With Christ’s death and resurrection, we do not need priests who offer sacrifices and mediate between God and us. Jesus’s sacrifice has paid for all our sins and given us direct access to God. We are a priesthood of believers, set apart to serve God (1 Pet. 2:9). We are called “to present [our] bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God” (Rom. 12:1). We live our lives coram Deo, in the presence of God.”- Rachel Green Miller  Q. How does Christ execute the office of priest? A. Christ executes the office of a priest, in his once offering up of himself as a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, and reconcile us to God, and in making continual intercession for us. “What should we have said to the Israelite, who, on bringing his lamb to the tabernacle, should puzzle himself with questions, as to the right mode of laying his hands on the head of the [lamb], and who should refuse to take any comfort from the sacrifice, because he was not sure whether he had laid them aright—on the proper place, in the right direction, with adequate pressure, or in the best attitude?  ... Should we not have told him to be of good cheer; not because he had laid his hands on the victim in the most approved fashion, but because they had touched that victim, however lightly and imperfectly, and thereby said, Let this lamb stand for me, answer for me, die for me? The touching had no virtue in itself, and therefore the excellency of the act was no question to come up at all: it simply intimated the man's desire that this sacrifice should be taken instead of himself, as God's appointed way of pardon; it was simply the indication of his consent to God's way of saving him, by the substitution of another. The point for him to settle was not, Was my touch right or wrong, light or heavy? but, Was it the touch of the right lamb—the lamb appointed by God for the taking away of sin?  The quality or quantity of faith is not the main question for the sinner. That which he needs to know is that Jesus died and was buried, and rose again, according to the Scriptures. This knowledge is life everlasting.”— Horatius Bonar, 19th C. Scottish Preacher