CONSIDER JESUS, THE HIGH PRIEST OF OUR CONFESSION.
TEXT:
"Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;" (Hebrews chapter 3 verse 1, King James Version).
In our Scripture reading for today, the word "profession" simply means "confession". The word "confession" is taken from the Greek word "homologeo" which simply means "saying the same as" God has said.
Christians generally are "partakers of the heavenly calling" as opposed to the mere earthly and natural calling by men. Our calling is also known as an “holy calling” (2nd Timothy chapter 1 verse 9); the "high calling of God in Christ Jesus"
(Philippians chapter 3 verse 14).
Jesus Christ is not only the Author and the Finisher of our calling in God, but also the High Priest of our confession. As the High Priest of our confession, it means that He's before God's presence in heaven on our behalf to carry out certain functions, part of which is to intercede for us; particularly with regards to the confession of our faith in Him. In this regard, He ensures that His Word doesn't return unto Him void (Isaiah chapter 55 verse 11) and that He hastens to perform it (Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 12).
The implication of this is that as we believe and say the same as God has said, particularly about what Jesus has done for us as the Bible has affirmed, we make the words of our mouths agree with the Word of God. It's very important that we agree with God! We need to understand that there's a whole lot of power released on our behalf when we proclaim the victory of Jesus in a bold and personal way. Until we do this, we are not going to see the Lord intervene for us as we expect of Him.
It's a pity that the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ as our High Priest remains largely untapped by His Church. Truth is, as we put God's Word in our mouths by way of confession, we invoke Jesus' ministry as our High Priest to bring our needs before God the Father, thus releasing the entire authority of heaven on our behalf. This is what it means to have God's Son as our High Priest before God the Father. We honestly need to put Him to work for us!
If we fail to confess our faith in this way, we give the Lord Jesus, our High Priest no basis on which to intervene for us. According to the Bible, “with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Romans chapter 10 verse 10).
In other words, salvation does not come until after confession is made. The spiritual principle is that we must believe and confess before we experience what we believe God for. I have said time without numbers that if there's to be salvation, there must be confession. Conversely speaking, there is no such thing as salvation without confession. In accordance with Scriptures, It is always confession to salvation; never possession before confession. After we have made our confession, the Lord Jesus, the High Priest of our confession, takes over and presents our requests before the Father. Through His intercessory ministry as our High Priest, we can be sure of our requests being granted because God the Father hears Him always (John chapter 11 verse 42).
All glory to Jesus because it's a privilege to have Him as our High Priest. Let's take advantage of His being at the right Hand of Majesty interceding for us continually.
The songwriter has rightly penned as follows:
"What a Friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
Oh, what needless pain we bear -
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer! "
PRAYER:
Father, thank You for the gift of Jesus, our High Priest. With You, dear Lord Jesus at the right Hand side of Majesty interceding for me, I'm assured of victory always.