" For if He were on earth, He should not be a priest" (Heb. 8:4) does not say, as has long ago been noticed, that He was not a priest on earth. The connection shows that it does not refer to that subject. He was not of the earth; not a priest of the earthly tabernacle. He was of heaven, of the tabernacle not made with hands. But owing to the need of redemption, He became man, and as High Priest, made propitiation for sins by the cross, and returned to heaven. Of this Aaron was a type, though He who accomplished this work was of the Melchisedek order.
Let us briefly consider the doctrine of Scripture.
"We have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens" (Heb. 4:14) surely refers to Aaron passing through the tabernacle into the holiest, thus teaching us that Christ as a priest passed from earth into the presence of God in heaven. "For we have not a High Priest who cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are-sin apart"; taken in connection with the preceding passage, it tells us of One who can now feel for us above, because on earth as our High Priest He passed through a time of temptation.
"And no man taketh this honor to himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made a High Priest, but He that said unto Him, Thou art My Son, today have I begotten Thee." Are we not by this scripture directed to Christ's baptism by John as His call to the Priesthood ? Aaron was anointed with oil, and Peter tells Cornelius (Acts 10:38) that Christ was "anointed with the Holy Spirit, and went about doing good." "And there came a voice from heaven saying, Thou art My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Mark i:11); and now there is added in Hebrews to complete the declaration of this call to the priesthood, "As He saith also in another place, Thou art a Priest forever after the order of Melchisedek."
Now between this call and His being "saluted" on high as High Priest, come the testings and trials of His path of service down here. "Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him out of death, and was heard in that He feared; though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; and being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him; saluted of God a High Priest after the order of Melchisedek." "Saluted" is the word here, not called. In ver. 5 we have His "call" and in ver. 10 He is "saluted" according to His office. Between the two is recorded His life of trial in which was manifested His glory and His preparedness for His office.
"For such a High Priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for His own sins, and then for the people's:for this He did once, when He offered up Himself" (chap. 7:26, 27). So Aaron offered the offering on the altar, on the day of atonement (Lev. 16).It is true the victim must die before the priest could officiate; but that in no wise shows that Christ was not a priest till after death:or it would prove that He must yet suffer after His second coming, since Aaron offered the burnt offering, and the sin offering was consumed, after he came out from the holiest. All must be viewed in the light of the doctrine of the New Testament:and by that we understand that, included in the death of Christ, was both the burnt offering and the sin offering aspect. His work was acceptable to God, a sweet savor, and on the other hand He was made sin for us; He who knew no sin. All was included of course in the one offering. And as High Priest, we have learned, He offered up Himself. He was the true Aaron on the great day of atonement, in the work of the cross, and He was the victim as well. In all this His glory shines out. Is it not harmonious with His sympathy for us on high, that it was as our High Priest that He passed through all down here? What else is harmonious with the truth as to this matter, and why should anyone desire to have it otherwise?
We come now to the second part of our subject. Propitiation was made on the cross:for when the Lord died, the veil of the temple was rent. The work that propitiates was finished. "Purification for sins" (Heb. i:3) was made at the cross. This work being complete, Christ sat down "at the right hand of the Majesty on high." Therefore He entered heaven not to make propitiation, but because it had been made. So, "by His own blood" He entered; therefore that blood was accepted before He entered. On that basis alone could He enter as our Saviour and High Priest. "By His own blood He entered in once into the holy place," and then it is added, "having obtained eternal redemption"(Heb. 9:12). -"having obtained eternal redemption"! Nothing was left to be done. On the basis that propitiation had been made, He entered heaven and is now our propitiation, "the propitiation for our sins "before God.
Let these statements be noted:-
"Having made purification of sins" He entered heaven (1:3).
" By His own blood " he entered heaven (9:12).
"Having obtained eternal redemption" He entered heaven.
Therefore it was on earth, not in heaven, that as " a merciful and faithful High Priest" He made "propitiation for the sins of the people" (2:17). He made it by the cross. Nothing else could make it.
The first error in this matter has led to the second. If He was not a priest on earth, how could He make propitiation on earth ? However this error does not involve the denial of the "finished work; "it only adds something about making propitiation in heaven which is not found in Scripture, and is without any true meaning. A shadow is cast upon the clearness of the truth, but foundation truth is not denied.
Was it not as priest that the Lord interceded for Peter, and for us all as recorded in the 17th chapter of John ? This is truth too precious to be let go. Priest and Prophet and King He was while on earth, but publicly proclaimed such after He was received up into glory. The death of the cross, so far from denying His eternal priesthood, was a triumphant testimony to His glory in that very thing:just as He was manifested as the Eternal Life in this world and then passed through death in victorious power. He laid down His life and took it again. Let not the thought enter the mind that the glorious death of the cross was anything inconsistent with His eternal priesthood. He passed through death in the power of un-discontinued life.
Priests that died are put in contrast with Him that liveth, it is true (Heb. 7:8), but these priests that died ceased to exist in their office. The Lord's death had no such meaning, but altogether the contrary as we have seen.
He ever liveth. He made propitiation at the cross, and on that basis He is now our Great High Priest in heaven. Therefore He who was Melchisedek-Priest, nevertheless passed through this scene and died on the cross and ascended into heaven, as typified by Aaron and his work, while the parable as to Aaron is of necessity a parable of contrast. But the Aaronic type is there in Scripture and answers to the New Testament doctrine. E. S. L.