"But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son who has been perfected forever." (NKJV)
The best middle managers are those who can wisely and adroitly balance implementing their bosses’ mandates and represent the interests of the employees to those bosses. Usually middle managers are good at one or the other of these two skills. Either they are good at telling the employees what to do (and representing the bosses) or they are good at representing the employees to the bosses. Lindsay Cross, in her blog, represents the reality of this difficulty perfectly:
"There’s simply no way to win. If you follow orders from upper management, your team will be angry. If you stand with your employees, the executives will not be pleased. When the whole thing is said and done, one side will leave feeling less than fulfilled. That’s the reality of the situation" (http://www.thegrindstone.com/2012/06/14/office-politics/managing-men-the-balancing-act-of-middle-management-157/#ixzz3GxtBVcDC).
My guess is that many of us think of the Lord Jesus as some kind of middle manager. He stands between the Father and us, trying (not too successfully) to get us to "be good" and then groveling in front of the Father to love and accept these people mired in sin.
That is such a powerless and inaccurate way of looking at what is actually happening in heaven!
I’ve been reading through Leviticus. For me, it’s a hard book to get through, all rules and regulations . . . and lots and lots of blood. "Sprinkle the blood here." "Pour the blood here." I can’t imagine the kind of life the priests in the Old Testament had to live surrounded by hot, rotting blood. The smell must have been horrible. In fact, if you read the book—really read it—you’ll find that the altar wasn’t shiny and new at all, but covered with dried blood. Blood and ashes. A much better description of the consequences of sin than the Hollywood fantasies. What God required (as a representation of the sacrifice the Lord Jesus would make for us) wasn’t pretty or sanitized. It was awful!
And it was necessary . . . because sin isn’t pretty. We desperately needed (and still need) a Savior. The Father knows this and He provided One out of Himself! He provided His only begotten Son.
The Lord Jesus became our Savior, but more than that, He became our High Priest. The High Priest was someone who would take the person’s sacrifice, place it on the altar, kill it, drain all its blood, and then destroy it with fire. The representation was that the sin was then destroyed, after the pouring out of the life blood of the sacrifice. This is what the Lord Jesus has done for us! But even as He is our High Priest, He also became our sacrifice. He was killed, drained of blood, and then destroyed by death. And now He—the perfect sacrifice—is standing before the Father, interceding for us.
The Lord Jesus—God Himself—is pleading with Himself for us. Do you see what’s happening? God so loves us that He provided a sacrifice—Himself—and then intercedes with Himself on our behalf. He knew that there was no one else in all creation who would be able to fully provide salvation in this way for us. And so He became the provision!
The Lord Jesus is no middle manager, ineffectively trying to balance the interests of upper management with the employees. Rather, the Lord Jesus is the upper management (in fact, the owner) representing both the interests of the Trinity to us and then representing us to Himself. How marvelous is that! God has become our representative to Himself! He became our sacrifice. He has become our High Priest, and He is our Savior.
"So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it" (Hebrews 4:16 NLT).
© 2014 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved.
For permission to copy, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com
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