From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

Part one of a five-part series.

What is the answer to both the advancement of Romanism, and the degradation of politics, in our time? J. Sidlow Baxter declared that it is something most Evangelicals disregard and even disdain today: doctrinal preaching of the Word of God.

Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man. (Hebrews 8:1-2)

Commenting on this monumental declaration, the late preacher and author J. Sidlow Baxter (1903-1999) wrote this:

There is accentuated need today for doctrinal preaching. Our Protestant congregations need to hear the great doctrines of the Bible again. It is mainly due to a lack of grounding in New Testament doctrine among our Protestant churches that the Roman church makes strident advance.

To this also is due the present-day degrading of national politics to the inferior level of expediency rather than that of moral principle. I still believe that the destiny of the great democracies is in the hands of the Protestant pulpits, if only they will recapture the passion to teach the great evangelical doctrines of the New Testament again. Apropos of this is our text, which focus-points one such great doctrine in the four short words: "We have a priest." This simple sentence, so brief, so big, advertises three great truths concerning us human beings in our relationship with God. (1) We need a priest. (2) We have a priest. (3) We need no other priest.

Reflect on our need of a priest. The Hebrews epistle is one of the two main theological treatises in our New Testament. Its main argument is based on the assumption that we need a priest, and that we need a priest such as only Jesus can be for us. Yet we do not hear much today about the priesthood of Christ.

Do some of us wonder why? I think that probably one reason is our nervous reaction away from priesthood such as we see in the Church of Rome. The corrupt Romish doctrine of priesthood has maybe soured our minds against the very idea of a mediating priest. Yet we ought not to let the false priest-craft of Rome keep us from the true doctrine of priesthood as taught in the Word of God.

Then, also, the comparatively scant reference to our Lord's priesthood may be due to our present-day neglect of emphasis on the divine holiness. Our need of a priest to mediate between God and ourselves arises from the difference between what God is, and what we are. In His utter, awful, glorious holiness, God can only be as "a consuming fire" to us fallen, defiled human sinners, unless there is an atoning sacrifice and a sinless, qualified, mediating priest. Even after we have found a full and forever forgiveness through the finished work of Calvary, we are still sinners; so the further problem remains: how can even forgiven sinners who are still sinners hold fellowship with the inviolably holy God?

That is just where the high priestly ministry of Jesus comes in. By His finished work on the Cross we have a full, free, final and forever forgiveness from God; by His intercessory priesthood we are kept in continuous fellowship with God. What was the first high-priestly request our Lord made when He returned to heaven? He told in advance: "I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete ... " (John 14:16). It was in response thereto that the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost (Acts 2:27). "God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba Father" (Gal. 4:6). Yes, the Spirit begets a yearning for fellowship with God as our Father; yet it is that which also wakens us to our need of Jesus as High Priest; for the divine holiness is a "consuming fire", whereas we who fain would draw near as "sons" are still sinners. How then can we hold "fellowship with the Father"? See the answer in Hebrews 4:16, Ephesians 1:17, and 1 John 2:1.

The passages to which Baxter last refers tell us:

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)

...that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him... (Ephesians 1:17)

My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. (1 John 2:1)

[Adapted from J. Sidlow Baxter, Awake My Heart (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Kregel Publications, 1960 and 1994), page 125.]

Next: "We Have Such a High Priest"

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