“For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins” (Hebrews 5:1)
One cannot read the Old Testament without recognizing the crucial role of the priesthood. The Lord provided its inception, guidelines, upkeep, sustenance, and workplace. But there was one thing that the Lord asked Israel to provide: the sacrifices. Without these offerings, the priest would be no true priest. The altars would be empty; the tabernacle vacant. For what’s a priest without a sacrifice? Without a sacrifice, the priest could not minister to man, for there would be no means of making atonement. And without a sacrifice, the priest could not minister to God, for there would be nothing to offer up to Him—“Command the children of Israel, and say unto them, My offering, and My bread for My sacrifices made by fire, for a sweet savour unto Me, shall ye observe to offer unto Me in their due season” (Num. 28:2). A priest without a sacrifice is no priest at all.
Although we aren’t Levitical priests, that principle holds true today. Sacrifices are an essential part of our priesthood: “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 2:5). Every believer has the priestly privilege and duty to offer up spiritual sacrifices. And what are these spiritual sacrifices?
• Service (Php. 2:17). Many of us know what it is to sacrifice for our houses and our hobbies, but how many of us are pouring our time and energy and resources into the Lord’s work?
• Giving (Php. 4:18). Do we, like the Philippians, sacrifice more than a token of our physical blessings to help the Lord’s people and service?
• Praise (Heb. 13:15). How much time do we spend praising the Lord and giving Him thanks?
• Doing good works and sharing (Heb. 13:16). This isn’t always easy or convenient. It doesn’t always fit with our schedule. In fact, it can require a sacrifice!
• Our bodies (Rom. 12:1). We’re to glorify God in our bodies. Everything the body does, every place it goes, every object that passes through its hands, every word on its lips, every moment it is granted—all of these belong to the Lord and should be offered up to Him.
In the Old Testament, very little was more odious than priests who kept for themselves that which should have been offered up to God. It is no different today. Are we faithfully exercising our priestly duties and offering up our spiritual sacrifices? Sacrifices were mandatory for the Old Testament priesthood; and they are an essential part of the New Testament priesthood.
But, of course, that’s not the real point. The real point is that a sacrifice was the key to the greatest priesthood of all. The Lord Jesus Christ is our great High Priest. It was as the Scriptures say, “necessary” for Him to have something to offer (Heb. 8:3). He had to have a sacrifice. And what a sacrifice it was! “And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God” (Heb. 10:11f).
The Levitical priests offered countless sacrifices, day after day—all of them useless in fundamentally and permanently dealing with sin. But Christ offered “one sacrifice for sins for ever,” and it was enough. More than enough. “But now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Heb. 9:26).
The priesthood that surpasses every other is founded on the greatest sacrifice of all.