Christ's Priestly Office
Quest. 15. How does Christ execute the office of a Priest?
Resp. In his once offering up of himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, and reconcile us to GOD, and in making continual intercession for us.
(Hebrews 9:26) Now once in the end of the world has he appeared to put away sin; by the sacrifice of himself.
Quest. What are the parts of Christ's priestly office?
Resp. Christ's priestly office has two parts, his satisfaction and intercession.
1. His satisfaction, and this consists of two branches: 1. His active obedience, (Matthew 3:15) He fulfilled all righteousness. Christ did everything which the law required; his holy life was a perfect commentary upon the law of God; and he obeyed the law for us.
2. His passive obedience: Our guilt being transferred and imputed to him, he did undergo the penalty which was due to us: He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. The Paschal lamb slain, was a type of Christ who was offered up in sacrifice for us. Sin could not be done away without blood, (Hebrews 9:22) Without blood is no remission. Christ was not only a lamb without spot, but a lamb slain.
Quest. Why was it required there should be a priest?
Resp. There needed a priest to be an umpire, to mediate between a guilty creature, and a holy God.
Quest. How could Christ suffer being God?
Resp. Christ suffered only in the human nature.
Quest. But if only Christ's humanity suffered, how could his suffering satisfy for sin?
Resp. The human nature being united to the divine, the human nature did suffer, the divine did satisfy: Christ's Godhead as it did support the human nature that it did not faint, so it did give virtue to his sufferings. The altar sanctifies the thing offered on it, (Matthew 23:19) so the altar of Christ's divine nature sanctified the sacrifice of his death, and made it of infinite value.
Quest. In what way does the greatness of Christ's sufferings appear?
Resp. In the sufferings of his body, he suffered truly, not only a [⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩], an appearance; the Apostle calls it Mors Crucis, The Death of the Cross, (Philippians 2:8). Tully when he speaks of this kind of death, Quid dicam in crucem [reconstructed: tollere]? though he were a great orator, he wanted words to express it. The thoughts of this made Christ sweat drops of blood in the garden, (Luke 22:44). It was an ignominious, painful, cursed death; Christ suffered in all his senses. 1. In his eyes, they beheld two sad objects, he saw his enemies insulting, and his mother weeping. 2. In his ears, his ears were filled with the revilings of the people, (Matthew 27:42) He saved others, himself he cannot save. 3. In his smell, when their drivel fell upon his face. 4. In his taste, when they gave him gall and vinegar to drink, bitterness and sharpness. 5. In his feeling, his head suffered with thorns, his hands and feet with the nails, —Totum pro vulnere Corpus; Now was this white lily dyed of a purple color. 2. In the sufferings of his soul, he was pressed in the wine-press of his Father's wrath. This caused that vociferation and outcry on the Cross, My God, my God; Cur deseruisti? Christ suffered a double eclipse upon the Cross, an eclipse of the sun, and an eclipse of the light of God's countenance. How bitter was this agony? The evangelist uses three words to express it, [⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩], He began to be amazed, (Mark 14:33). [⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩], He began to faint. [⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩], To be exceedingly sorrowful, (Matthew 26:37). Christ felt the pains of hell in his soul, though not locally, yet equivalently.
Quest. Why did Christ suffer?
Resp. Surely not for any desert of his own, (Daniel 9:26) The Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself; it was for us, (Isaiah 53:6) Unus peccat alius plectitor; He suffered that he might satisfy God's justice for us. We by our sins had infinitely wronged God, and could we have shed rivers of tears, offered up millions of holocausts and burnt-offerings, we could never have pacified an angry deity; therefore Christ must die that God's justice might be satisfied.
It is hotly debated among divines, whether God could not have forgiven sin freely without a sacrifice? Not to dispute what God could have done, but when we consider God was resolved to have the law satisfied, and to have man in a way of justice as well as mercy; then, I say, it was necessary that Christ should lay down his life as a sacrifice:
1. To fulfill the predictions of Scripture, (Luke 24:46) Thus it behooved Christ to suffer.
2. To bring us into favor with God: It is one thing for a traitor to be pardoned, and another thing to be made a favorite. Christ's blood is not only called [⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩], a sacrifice whereby God is appeased, but [⟨ in non-Latin alphabet ⟩], a propitiation whereby God becomes gracious and friendly to us. Christ is our mercy-seat from which God gives answers of peace to us.
3. Christ died that he might make good his last will and testament with his blood: There were many legacies which Christ bequeathed to believers, which had been all null and void had not he died, and by his death confirmed the will, (Hebrews 9:17) A testament is in force after men are dead: The mission of Spirit, the promises, those legacies, were not in force till Christ's death; but Christ by his blood has sealed them, and believers may lay claim to them.
4. He died that he might purchase for us glorious mansions: Therefore Heaven is called not only a promised, but a purchased possession, (Ephesians 1:14) Christ died for our preferment; He suffered that we might reign; he hung upon the cross, that we might sit upon the throne; Heaven was shut, etc. Crux Christi clavis Paradisi: The cross of Christ is the ladder by which we ascend to Heaven. His crucifixion is our coronation.
Use 1. In the bloody sacrifice of Christ, see the horrid nature of sin: Sin (it is true) is odious as it banished Adam out of Paradise, and threw the angels into hell, but that which does most of all make it appear horrid, is this, it made Christ veil his glory and lose his blood. We should look upon sin with indignation, and pursue it with a holy malice, and shed the blood of those sins that shed Christ's blood. The sight of Caesar's bloody robe incensed the Romans against them that slew him: The sight of Christ's bleeding body should incense us against sin; let us not parley with it, let not that be our joy which made Christ a man of sorrow.
Use 2. Is Christ our Priest sacrificed, see God's mercy and justice displayed: I may say as the Apostle (Romans 11:27), Behold the goodness and severity of God. 1. The goodness of God in providing a sacrifice. Had not Christ suffered on the Cross, we must have lain in Hell for ever satisfying God's justice.
2. The severity of God: Though it were his own Son, the son of his love, and our sins were but imputed to him, yet God did not spare him (Romans 8:32), but his wrath did flame against him. And if God were thus severe to his own Son, how dreadful will he be one day to his enemies? Such as die in willful impenitence must feel the same wrath as Christ did; and because they cannot bear it at once, therefore they must be enduring it for ever.
Use 3. Is Christ our Priest who was sacrificed for us, then see the endeared affection of Christ to us sinners: The Cross (says Austin) was a pulpit in which Christ preached his love to the world. That Christ should die was more than if all the angels had been turned to dust: And that Christ should die as a malefactor, having the weight of all men's sins laid upon him: That he should die for his enemies (Romans 5:10). The balm-tree weeps out its precious balm to heal those that cut and mangle it; Christ shed his blood to heal those that crucified him. And that he should die freely; it is called the offering of the body of Jesus (Hebrews 10:10). And though his sufferings were so great that they made him sigh, and weep, and bleed, yet they could not make him repent (Isaiah 53:11): He shall see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied. Christ had hard travail upon the Cross, yet he does not repent of it, but thinks his sweat and blood well bestowed, because he sees redemption brought forth to the world. O infinite amazing love of Christ! a love that passes knowledge (Ephesians 3:19), that neither man or angel can parallel. How should we be affected with this love, if Saul was so affected with David's kindness in sparing his life? How should we be affected with Christ's kindness in parting with his life for us? At Christ's death and passion the very stones did cleave asunder (Matthew 27:5): The rocks rent. Not to be affected with Christ's love in dying, is to have hearts harder than the rocks.
Use 4. Is Christ our sacrifice? then see the excellency of this sacrifice. 1. It is perfect (Hebrews 10:14): By one offering he has perfected them that are sanctified. Therefore how impious are the Papists in joining their merits, and the prayers of saints with Christ's sacrifice. They offer him up daily in the Mass, as if Christ's sacrifice on the Cross were imperfect; this is a blasphemy against Christ's priestly office.
2. Christ's sacrifice is meritorious, he not only died for our example, but to merit salvation: The person who suffered being God as well as man, did put virtue into his sufferings; and now our sins are expiated, and God appeased. No sooner did the messengers say, Uriah is dead; but David's anger was pacified (2 Samuel 11:21). No sooner did Christ die but God's anger is pacified.
3. This sacrifice is beneficial; out of the dead lion Samson had honey; it procures justification of our persons, acceptance of our services, access to God with boldness, entrance into the holy place of Heaven (Hebrews 10:19). Per latus Christi pa[reconstructed: patescit] nobis in coelum. Israel passed through the Red Sea to Canaan; so through the Red Sea of Christ's blood we enter into the heavenly Canaan.
2. Use of Exhortation: Branch 1. Let us fiducially apply this blood of Christ: All the virtue of a medicine is in the applying; though the medicine be made of the blood of God, it will not heal unless by faith applied. As fire is to the chemist, so is faith to a Christian; the chemist can do nothing without fire, so there is nothing done without faith. Faith makes Christ's sacrifice ours (Philippians 3:8): Christ Jesus my Lord. It is not gold in the mine that enriches, but gold in the hand: faith is the hand that receives Christ's golden merits. It is not a cordial in the glass that refreshes the spirits, but a cordial drunk down. Per fidem Christi sanguinem sugimus, Cypr. Faith opens the orifice of Christ's wounds, and drinks the precious cordial of his blood. Without faith Christ himself will not avail us.
Branch 2. Let us love a bleeding Saviour, and let us show our love to Christ by being ready to suffer for him: Many rejoice at Christ's suffering for them, but dream not of their suffering for him: Joseph dreamed of his preferment, but not of his imprisonment. Was Christ a sacrifice? Did he bear God's wrath for us? we should bear man's wrath for him. Christ's death was voluntary (Psalm 40:7): Lo, I come to do your will, O God. (Luke 12:50) I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished. Christ calls his sufferings a baptism: he was to be (as it were) baptized in his own blood; And how did he thirst for that time — How am I straitened! Oh then let us be willing to suffer for Christ! Christ has taken away the venom and sting of the saint's sufferings: there is no wrath in their cup. Our sufferings Christ can make sweet. As there was oil mixed in the peace offering: So — God can mix the oil of gladness with our sufferings. The ringing of my chain is sweet music in my ears, Landgrave of Hesse. Life must be parted with shortly, what is it to part with it a little sooner, as a sacrifice to Christ, as a seal of our sincerity, and a pledge of thankfulness.
3. Use of Consolation: This sacrifice of Christ's blood may infinitely comfort us. This is the blood of atonement; Christ's Cross is, Cardo salutis, Calv., the hinge and foundation of our comfort. 1. This blood comforts in case of guilt: O says the soul, my sins trouble me; why, Christ's blood was shed for the remission of sin (Matthew 26:28). Let us see our sins laid on Christ, and then they are no more ours but his.
2. In case of pollution: Christ's blood is a healing and cleansing blood. 1. It is healing (Isaiah 53:5): With his stripes we are healed. It is the best weapon-salve, it heals at a distance: though Christ be in heaven, we may feel the virtue of his blood healing our bloody issue. 2. And it is cleansing: it is therefore compared to fountain-water (Zechariah 13:1). The Word is a glass to show us our spots, and Christ's blood is a fountain to wash them away; it turns leprosy into purity (1 John 1:7): The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all our sin. There is indeed one spot so black that Christ's blood does not wash away, namely, the sin against the Holy Ghost — not but that there is virtue enough in Christ's blood to wash it away; but he who has sinned that sin will not be washed, he contemns Christ's blood, and tramples it under foot (Hebrews 10:29). Thus we see what a strong cordial Christ's blood is: it is the anchor-hold of our faith, the spring of our joy, the crown of our desires, and the only support both in life and death. In all our fears let us comfort ourselves with the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ's blood: Christ died both as a purchaser and as a conqueror. 1. As a purchaser in regard of God, having by his blood obtained our salvation. 2. And as a conqueror in regard of Satan, the cross being his triumphant chariot, [reconstructed: wherein] he has led hell and death captive.
Final use: Bless God for this precious sacrifice of Christ's death (Psalm 103:1): Bless the Lord, O my soul. And for what does David bless him? Who redeems your life from destruction. Christ gave himself a sin-offering for us, let us give ourselves a thank-offering to him. If a man redeem another out of debt, will not he be grateful? How deeply do we stand obliged to Christ, who has redeemed us from hell and damnation (Revelation 5:9): And they sang a new song, saying, you are worthy to take the book, and open the seals, for you were slain, and have redeemed us to God by your blood. Let our hearts and tongues join in consort to bless God, and let us show our thankfulness to Christ by fruitfulness; let us bring forth (as spice trees) the fruits of humility, zeal, good works. This is to live to him, who has died for us (2 Corinthians 5:15). The wise men did not only worship Christ, but presented him with gifts, gold, and frankincense, and myrrh (Matthew 2:11). Let us present Christ with the fruits of righteousness, which are to the glory and praise of God.
