The explanation of Jesus as our Great High Priest reaches it’s pinnacle in these verses closing out chapter 7 and entering into chapter 8. Jesus’ eternal, unending, unchanging priesthood has given Him the power and authority to “save to the uttermost” through His sacrifice and his constant intercession. Our salvation is described as “all complete and perfect”. The Levitical priests offered a sacrifice that covered sin until the next was committed, Jesus offered and became the sacrifice that paid sin’s wages and death’s debt in full, forever. We are no longer saved until our next stumble, we are both saved and being saved, we are in the present and in the future, the work of grace in salvation and intercession is a continual constant work in which we are being freed, forgiven and forged all at once but also continually. Yes, there is a moment of salvation, but there is also a work of salvation that is beautiful and unending.
The author goes on to reveal Jesus as our prefect Priest not only in death and in resurrection but in life as well. I believe we overlook Jesus’ perfection or just write it off as part of His divinity, but He was a man just like us, tempted on all counts and He defeated sin, not just on the cross, but in life so that He could be perfect on the cross. If Jesus would have had sin in His life His death would have paid for His own sin instead of ours. He is our High Priest and our sacrifice but He is also our example of the power to overcome sin. We give in too easy and make far too many excuses. The reality is that “the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in you” and He quickens us not only to resurrection but I believe resist, overcome and defeat sin in our own lives by Jesus’ power. His perfection in life gives us hope to defeat sin rather than just endure it!
Finally, the author tells us that Jesus’ sacrifice was “once for all”. I believe this has a double meaning, first, He made one sacrifice that would take the place of every other sacrifice, there will be no other. How precious and powerful is the blood of Jesus if in it’s one spilling it ended the need for any other covering and erased the lack of the millions upon millions of animals that had been sacrificed prior? “Once for all” means that there will be no other sacrifice because Jesus was perfect in power, perfect in sufficiency and perfect in the will of God. “Once for all” also means that this one sacrifice pays for all sin and all sinners that will ever put their trust in Jesus. Jesus didn’t die a million deaths, He is not continually crucified, He died once for all sin and now all sin is able to be atoned for through His blood. He ended the sacrificial system because he finished it, just as He fulfilled the law, He fulfilled the need for blood to be spilt to cover and cleanse man of his sin. Jesus actually finished the saving mission, “It is finished” and has now taken up the mission of intercession that leads men to receive His gift of love and grace. “Once for all” means that nothing can or should be added, nothing else is needed and anything else that we come up with is our own foolish imagination. I pray today that we will celebrate and worship Jesus for His grace, His power and His perfection. How great is our Savior that He was not only willing but able to be a perfect High Priest and the perfect sacrifice, “once for all”?