Christ Our Great High Priest
by Martin Luther (1483-1546)
The following short sermon is taken from volume VII
of The Sermons of Martin Luther, published by Baker Book House (Grand
Rapids, MI). It was originally published in 1909 in English by The Luther
Press (Minneapolis, MN), as Luther’s Epistle Sermons, vol. 2.
This e-text was scanned and edited by Shane Rosenthal, it is in the
public domain and it may be copied and distributed without restriction.
HEBREWS 9:11-15: But Christ being come an high
priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle,
not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by
the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once
into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For
if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling
the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more
shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself
without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve
the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament,
that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that
were under the first testament, they which are called might receive
the promise of eternal inheritance.
1. An understanding of practically all of the Epistle
to the Hebrews is necessary before we can hope to make this text clear
to ourselves. Briefly, the epistle treats of a twofold priesthood. The
former priesthood was a material one, with material adornment, tabernacle,
sacrifices and with pardon couched in ritual; material were all its
appointments. The new order is a spiritual priesthood, with spiritual
adornments, spiritual tabernacle and sacrifices—spiritual in all
that pertains to it. Christ, in the exercise of his priestly office,
in the sacrifice on the cross, was not adorned with silk and gold and
precious stones, but with divine love, wisdom, patience, obedience and
all virtues. His adornment was apparent to none but God and possessors,
of the Spirit, for it was spiritual.
2. Christ sacrificed not goats nor calves nor birds;
not bread; not blood nor flesh, as did Aaron and his posterity: he offered
his own body and blood, and the manner of the sacrifice was spiritual;
for it took place through the Holy Spirit, as here stated. Though the
body and blood of Christ were visible the same as any other material
object, the fact that he offered them as a sacrifice was not apparent.
It was not a visible sacrifice, as in the case of offerings at the hands
of Aaron. Then the goat or calf, the flesh and blood, were material
sacrifices visibly offered, and recognized as sacrifices. But Christ
offered himself in the heart before God. His sacrifice was perceptible
to no mortal. Therefore, his bodily flesh and blood becomes a spiritual
sacrifice. Similarly, we Christians, the posterity of Christ our Aaron,
offer up our own bodies (Rom 12:1). And our offering is likewise a spiritual
sacrifice, or, as Paul has it, a “reasonable service”; for
we make it in spirit, and it is beheld of God alone.
3. Again, in the new order, the tabernacle or house
is spiritual; for it is heaven, or the presence of God. Christ hung
upon a cross; he was not offered in a temple. He was offered before
the eyes of God, and there he still abides. The cross is an altar in
a spiritual sense. The material cross was indeed visible, but none knew
it as Christ’s altar. Again, his prayer, his sprinkled blood,
his burnt incense, were all spiritual, for it was all wrought through
his spirit.
4. Accordingly, the fruit and blessing of his office
and sacrifice, the forgiveness of our sins and our justification, are
likewise spiritual. In the Old Covenant, the priest with his sacrifices
and sprinklings of blood effected merely as it were an external absolution,
or pardon, corresponding to the childhood stage of the people. The recipient
was permitted to move publicly among the people; he was externally holy
and as one restored from excommunication. He who failed to obtain absolution
from the priest was unholy, being denied membership in the congregation
and enjoyment of its privileges; in all respects he was separated like
those in the ban today.
5. But such absolution rendered no one inwardly holy
and just before God. Something beyond that was necessary to secure true
forgiveness. It was the same principle which governs church discipline
today. He who has received no more than the remission, or absolution,
of the ecclesiastical judge will surely remain forever out of heaven.
On the other hand, he who is in the ban of the Church is hellward bound
only when the sentence is confirmed at a higher tribunal. I can make
no better comparison than to say that it was the same in the old Jewish
priesthood as now in the Papal priesthood, which, with its loosing and
binding, can prohibit or permit only external communion among Christians.
It is true, God required such measures in the time of the Jewish dispensation,
that he might restrain by fear; just as now he sanctions church discipline
when rightly employed, in order to punish and restrain the evil-doer,
though it has no power in itself to raise people to holiness or to push
them into wickedness.
6. But with the priesthood of Christ is true spiritual
remission, sanctification and absolution. These avail before God—God
grant that it be true of us—whether we be outwardly excommunicated,
or holy, or not. Christ’s blood has obtained for us pardon forever
acceptable with God. God will forgive our sins for the sake of that
blood so long as its power shall last and its intercession for grace
in our behalf, which is forever. Therefore, we are forever holy and
blessed before God. This is the substance of the text. Now that we shall
find it easy to understand, we will briefly consider it.
“But Christ having come a high priest
of the good things to come.”
7. The adornment of Aaron and his descendants, the
high priests, was of a material nature, and they obtained for the people
a merely formal remission of sins, performing their office in a perishable
temple, or tabernacle. It was166 evident to men that their absolution
and sanctification before the congregation was a temporal blessing confined
to the present. But when Christ came upon the cross no one beheld him
as he went before God in the Holy Spirit, adorned with every grace and
virtue, a true High Priest. The blessings wrought by him are not temporal—a
merely formal pardon—but the “blessings to come”;
namely, blessings which are spiritual and eternal. Paul speaks of them
as blessings to come, not that we are to await the life to come before
we can have forgiveness and all the blessings of divine grace, but because
now we possess them only in faith. They are as yet hidden, to be revealed
in the future life. Again, the blessings we have in Christ were, from
the standpoint of the Old Testament priesthood, blessings to come.
"Through the greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation."
8. The apostle does not name the tabernacle he mentions;
nor can he, so strange its nature! It exists only in the sight of God,
and is ours in faith, to be revealed hereafter. It is not made with
hands, like the Jewish tabernacle; in other words, not of “this
building.” The old tabernacle, like all buildings of its nature,
necessarily was made of wood and other temporal materials created by
God. God says in Isaiah 66:1-2: “What manner of house will ye
build unto me?....For all these things hath my hand made, and so all
these things came to be.” But that greater tabernacle has not
yet form; it is not yet finished. God is building it and he shall reveal
it. Christ’s words are (Jn. 14:3), “And if I go and prepare
a place for you.”
“Nor yet through the blood of goats and
calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the
holy place, having obtained eternal redemption.”
9. According to Leviticus 16, the high priest must
once a year enter into the holy place with the blood of rams and other
offerings, and with these make formal reconciliation for the people.
This ceremony typified that Christ, the true Priest, should once die
for us, to obtain for us the true atonement. But the former sacrifice,
having to be repeated every167 year, was but a temporary and imperfect
atonement; it did not eternally suffice, as does the atonement of Christ.
For though we fall and sin repeatedly, we have confidence that the blood
of Christ does not fall, or sin; it remains steadfast before God, and
the expiation is perpetual and eternal. Under its sway grace is perpetually
renewed, without work or merit on our part, provided we do not stand
aloof in unbelief.
“For if the blood of goats and bulls,
and the ashes of a heifer,” etc.
10. Concerning the water of separation and the ashes
of the red heifer, read Numbers 19; and concerning the blood of bulls
and goats, Leviticus 16:14-15. According to Paul, these were formal
and temporal purifications, as I stated above. But Christ, in God’s
sight, purifies the conscience of dead works; that is, of sins meriting
death, and of works performed in sin and therefore dead. Christ purifies
from these, that we may serve the living God by living works.
“And for this cause he is the mediator
of a new covenant [testament],” etc.
11. Under the old law, which provided only for formal,
or ritualistic pardon, and restored to human fellowship, sin and transgressions
remained, burdening the conscience. It—the old law—did not
benefit the soul at all, inasmuch as God did not institute it to purify
and safeguard the conscience, nor to bestow the Spirit. It existed merely
for the purpose of outward discipline, restraint and correction. So
Paul teaches that under the Old Testament dispensation man’s transgressions
remained, but now Christ is our Mediator through his blood; by it our
conscience, is freed from sin in the sight of God, inasmuch as God promises
the Spirit through the blood of Christ. All, however, do not receive
him. Only those called to be heirs eternal, the elect, receive the Spirit.
12. We find, then, in this excellent lesson, the comforting
doctrine taught that Christ is he whom we should know as the Priest
and Bishop of our souls; that no sin is forgiven, nor the Holy Spirit
given, by reason of works or merit on our part, but alone through the
blood of Christ, and that to those for whom God has ordained it. This
matter has been sufficiently set forth in the various postils.