HEBREWS 5


1 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:

2 Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.

3 And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins.

But, some insist, by himself, apart from the race, did Christ need a purifying bloodshed sacrifice? It is utterly impossible to consider Christ "by himself, apart from the race." There is no such thing: we are playing with hypothetical nothings.

He was purposely created of the race and IN the race. His whole purpose of existence was to save the race, to represent the race, to BE the race, to incorporate the whole race into himself. He IS the whole human race, as far as God is concerned. And God's view is eternal reality, and the only eternal reality.

We just prattle when we speak of Christ "'apart from the race." His very name tells us this: Christ Jesus, Anointed Savior. Anointed for what? Savior of whom? A man's name, scripturally, is himself: all he is and means. Can he be Christ Jesus at all, apart from the race he was specifically "anointed" to "save"?

But granted, just for a moment, as brother Roberts sometimes very reluctantly did under pressure, to try to make the point clear - granted that we consider Christ "apart from the race." Does he need a purifying sacrifice (bloodshedding)? Or could we say he just needed purifying from mortality (as by simple death)?

The purifying sacrifice was ordained by God from the Garden of Eden to lay a foundation of righteousness; to publicly repudiate and condemn sin; to erect this holy banner and standard, so that God might show mercy to actual sinners, without compromise of His holiness and righteousness.

Now, if we were considering Christ alone (though this is an impossible "if"), then there are no actual sinners to consider; no need to arrange that mercy may be shown; no need to publicly condemn sin and justify God's righteousness. Christ's own perfect obedience would have already sufficiently done that as far as HE was concerned (and there would be no one else to be concerned); and his sinlessness would have obviated any necessity for mercy.

So we see we are immediately in an entirely different constitution of things where a blood-shedding sacrifice would be completely irrelevant. This clearly demonstrates the unprofitability of "if"-ing.

Christ is an essential, inseparable part of the human race. He immediately ceases to be Christ, or to have any meaning, as soon as we attempt to consider him separately. His very sinlessness that makes him Christ was God's work in him for the sake of the race. He is God's creation specifically for the race.

The Purifying Of The Heavenly



This he did once when he offered up himself

Those who maintain a contrary opinion do not comprehend the glorious plan of redemption that God has wrought out in Christ. Paul wrote to the brethren in Corinth saying,

"Now, I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment" (1 Cor. 1:10);

and John wrote in his second epistle,

"Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house ('spiritual house,' see 1 Pet. 2:5), neither bid him God-speed."

Thus saith the Lord—the Spirit—by his apostles: and experience teaches us that we cannot compromise the truth on this question without introducing an element of discord that would ultimately cause not only the disruption, but the entire obliteration of the unity of the one faith.

Therefore we are persuaded that whenever the false doctrine is boldly put forward, it is incumbent upon every child of God to oppose it with resoluteness and earnestness, and to maintain the truth in its purity.

They should not be dismayed if they are persecuted for so doing, for such in the present day would not be the first to suffer on this account, as those who have taken a foremost part in the past in opposing this error, by showing the fallacy of its arguments and pointing out the fact that we cannot fellowship those who continue to advocate the theory, have been frequently "spoken against," and their action has been stigmatised as "popery."

To all such the Saviour's words apply:

"Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake (Matt. 5:11).

B. J. Dowling.

The Christadelphian, Jan 1889


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7 Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;

...the doctors of the apostasy fall back upon the saying of Gabriel, in Luke 1:35, that the child to be born of Mary was a "holy thing," and consequently of an immaculate nature. But they forget that all the first-borns of Israel were "holy things." Jesus was Yahweh's first-born by Mary; and therefore one of the first-borns of the nation: so that the law of the first-borns applied to him equally with the rest.

"All the first-born are mine; for on the day that I smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt I hallowed unto me all the first-born in Israel, both man and beast: mine shall they be: I am Yahweh." Hence, the holiness of Mary's babe was not of nature, but of constitution by the law. Gabriel declared his legitimacy, in styling it a "holy thing"-a declaration ratified by Yahweh himself, before the multitude, when he acknowledged Jesus as his Son, in whom He delighted, Matt. 3:17.

In conclusion, upon this point we may remark, that previous to the resurrection of the first-fruits, the Scripture knows nothing of two kinds of flesh, one immutable, immortal, and incapable of acting otherwise than in conformity with the will of the Creator; and another flesh mutable, mortal, and capable of acting contrary to the will of God; it knows but of one kind of flesh, and pronounces condemnation upon those who deny that in that one kind came the Son of God to do His will, as it is written of him in the volume of the book. Christ made sin, though sinless, is the doctrine of God-a deep and wonderful scheme, that the wisdom and power of Deity could alone devise.

Such was Jesus "in the days of his flesh," when "through weakness he was crucified" for sin; but now, no longer weak, "he lives by the power of God." In power he rose from among the dead, and ascended into glory. The revival of his body was its begettal as Yahweh's first-born from the dead; not first in order of immortalization, but first as pre-eminent over all. Of his resurrection, it is written,

"Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee."

This was his second begettal by the spirit; at the first, he was begotten of Mary after her nature; at the second, of the grave, with a nature incorruptible, glorious, and powerful-a spiritual body, or life-imparting Spirit; flesh and bones "perfected" for evermore.

This is a higher nature, and one to which few of Adam's race have yet attained. Paul styles it in Rom. 1:4, πνευμα ῾αγλωσυνηζ, pneuma hagiosunes, spirit of holiness, an hebraical expression for πνRνμα ϝαγιον, pneuma hagion, holy spirit. His words are,

"Jesus was made of the seed of David according to flesh: and decreed Son of God in power according to holy spirit, by resurrection from the dead."

Hence, resurrected spiritual body is holy spirit; because "that which is begotten from the spirit  is spirit"-a clean and perfect nature. Such is the Son of God now; and such will "the brethren" be, when he shall have made them  "equal to the angels," or holy spirit.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Dec 1856



10 Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec.

Christ Jesus our Lord; "who is now the High Priest of our confession, made a High Priest after the order of Melchizedec for the Age"-eis ton aiona; -but even now, "a High Priest over the house of God," "whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end"-Hebrews 3: 1, 6; 5: 6; 10: 21. Thus, what he is now doing in the presence of God for "the Heirs of the Kingdom"-making reconciliation for his household-is but the earnest of what he will do for the subjects of his dominion, when, with his reconciled ones, he shall occupy "the thrones of the house of David."

Now, "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. It is clear from the testimony quoted, that sin, sinners, death, and national sacrificial worship, will obtain in the world till "the end" of the thousand years beginning with the appearing of Christ in his glory. "Gifts and sacrifices," therefore, will all that time be necessary because of sin; and being necessary, there, must be a high priest to offer them for men to God, in the place appointed.

Now, the nature of the kingdom being Melchizedec, or royal and priestly, its covenant, or constitution, provides that its king shall unite the two offices in his own person. This applies also to all the joint-inheritors with him in the same kingdom. Hence, they are all styled, "kings and priests to God." The kingdom is, therefore, mediatorial. It stands, when established, sacerdotally between Yahweh and all who are not office-bearers and dignitaries of the kingdom. -

Herald 03/53