Was He Unqualified?

Now if He were on earth, He wouldn’t be a priest, since there are those offering the gifts prescribed by the law. These serve as a copy and shadow of the heavenly things.  Hebrews 8:4-5

When Jesus went to the temple, He didn’t enter the holy of holies.  On earth, He was not qualified to perform the duties as High Priest.  Man hadn’t disqualified Him.  He had disqualified Himself since He, as God, was the One who had set up the law.  He had established the protocol of the tabernacle and the role of priests. To be legitimate, all priests were to originate from the tribe of Levi.  He came from the line of Judah.

This perceived limitation did not prohibit the plans of heaven.  He did not need to assume an earthly, priestly role. After His resurrection, He would take His throne and assume a royal priesthood from the new sanctuary, the sanctuary of heaven.

A priest offered gifts and sacrifices to God for the forgiveness of sins.  But priests were not needed anymore after Calvary!  There are more than a few reasons for this.

1. The blood of animals can no longer atone for sin. Only Jesus can.
2. The presence of God is no longer in an earthen temple. The holy of holies is empty.  God’s presence rests in new temples – in the hearts of His children.
3. Priests once entered the holy of holies in great fear, knowing they could be struck dead if they were unclean. We enter God’s presence with great confidence, knowing that we have been made perfect by the blood of Jesus.
4. Animals were slaughtered continually but Jesus only had to die once.

Jesus offers the gift of salvation through the sacrifice of Himself.  His one-time death is good, for all time, for any who believe and make Him Lord.  Across the world, sacrifices are still being made to appease angry gods.  They either don’t know that Jesus was the sacrifice, or they don’t accept that He was their Lamb and insist, instead, of living in the shadow of what has already transpired.  They are playing copycat but are losing their lives because their confidence is misplaced.

The next day John saw Jesus coming unto him, and said, Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.  John 1:29 

For every person who is trying to reach you in ways that won’t work, grace them with the eyesight to see what John saw.  Amen