“A Royal Priesthood (Exodus 28-29)" | 6/25/23
Exodus 28-29 | 6/25/23 | Will DuVal
You’ve probably heard the joke about the priest who walked into a bar, but what about the one where 150 priests walk into a sanctuary? It’s actually not a joke; it’s CHURCH, THIS, what we’re doing here right now. Listen to how the Bible describes the CHURCH, this gathering of God’s people, all those who’ve been redeemed by Christ: “you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Pet 2:9)
If you grew up Catholic or Episcopalian, and you’ve ever wondered why we don’t have “priests” in the evangelical church, the answer is: we DO… it’s YOU! ALL of us are priests; we call it the “priesthood of all believers”.
It’s an idea that’s not even limited to the New Testament; a few chapters back in our study through Exodus this year, God called the entire nation of Israel in ch19: “you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” If a prophet was someone who spoke on behalf of GOD, to the PEOPLE - like MOSES, here in Exodus - then a PRIEST represented the PEOPLE back to GOD, like Moses’ BROTHER, AARON, as we’ll see this morning. We’re gonna be in chs 28 & 29 of Exodus, if you want to begin turning there in your Bibles. We’re gonna survey God’s instructions for the priesthood, those who were specifically assigned to represent Israel before the Lord. And yet we need to remember that ALL Israel had received that calling - to be a “kingdom of priests” - because God said He was choosing Israel from among all nations so that He might CONSECRATE them - set them apart, as holy unto Himself - and then BLESS them… in order that THEY might then turn around and serve as a blessing to ALL nations… pay it forward… “shine Jesus’ light”, as we learned this week in VBS. That was Israel’s calling.
And that’s what makes these chapters for this morning, filled with even more minutiae - just like the blueprint for the tabernacle from last week, you’re gonna see detail after detail here… what the priest’s garments were supposed to look like, their ordination ceremony - seemingly outdated, irrelevant stuff; what does ANY of this have to do with US, 3,500 years later, living under the NEW covenant, in Christ?!
Well, we know GOD hasn’t changed in 3,500 years. He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever. So when God gives us PRINCIPLES here - TWELVE principles, I see in these 2 chapters - for how God desires to be SERVED - that is a priest’s ultimate calling, we’re gonna see in ch28,v1: “to serve me as priests”; not only did they represent the people, more importantly, the priests served GOD! And if WE are a “royal priesthood” today - if WE have been charged, not only with “shining Jesus’ light” and being His ambassadors to the world, but even more importantly, to “SERVE GOD” - then we need to know how it is that God DESIRES to be “served”, worshiped, honored. That’s why these chapters are so important: in describing the OT priesthood - even their attire and installation service! - God is showing us how to fulfill our OWN calling to be a “royal priesthood” unto Him.
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So WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A “PRIEST”? 12 things. We’ll cover the first half (6) this morning, and we’re gonna have to save the last 6 requirements for the priesthood for NEXT Sunday; there’s just too much good stuff here worth discussing that I don’t want to leave out or rush through. Which just means if you’re a visitor (maybe from VBS…), you’ve gotta come join us again NEXT week to get the FULL message. 🙂
#1- For starters, Priests must be CUSTODIANS (27:20-21) - A custodian is “a person who has custody; a keeper or guardian”. We actually begin in ch27, where we left off, in v20:
“You shall command the people of Israel that they bring to you pure beaten olive oil for the light [for the golden lampstand we heard about last week in ch25], that a lamp may regularly be set up to burn. 21 In the tent of meeting, outside the veil that is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons [the PRIESTS] shall tend it from evening to morning before the Lord. It shall be a statute forever to be observed throughout their generations by the people of Israel.”
These are the HINGE verses that transition us from the description of the TABERNACLE to the description of the PRIESTS - those called to “TEND” to the tabernacle. And I think it’s so significant that the very first thing we hear about the priests here is that they’re essentially CUSTODIANS. The first thing listed on their job description is “refill the oil in the lamp”. And I think it’s because God KNEW that with such a high calling - to represent the entire NATION before GOD daily, and then once a year, to literally MEET with God Himself, inside this tent of meeting, in order to atone for the sins of the people, so that Israel could be forgiven and stay in relationship with God… and they get special clothes to wear, so there’s no forgetting how important their job was - in light of ALL that, I think God knew the priests would be tempted to let it go to their heads. OR for the PEOPLE to be tempted to put their priests up on a pedestal, like they were special. And forget that the priests themselves weren’t special; what made their job so special wasn’t the person SERVING in the role, but the One being SERVED. Don’t worship the janitor, who serves in the king’s palace; worship the KING!
This is relevant for you and me BOTH, friends. First of all, please don’t EVER put me up on a pedestal, as your pastor. Let me just shatter that pedestal this morning - I’ll put my sin up against yours any day of the week; I am “CHIEF of sinners”. Yet in His mercy, God allows me to serve as His custodian. And I really DO have the most important job in the world, not because I’M the one serving in it, but because of the one I get to SERVE. I love serving y’all - the people of West Hills - …MOST of the time. One week of VBS a year is MORE than enough for me. 🙂 But it’s a great honor to humbly serve you all, secondarily. But it’s an INFINITELY GREATER honor, first and foremost, to serve THE LORD!
Isn’t that the greatest honor of YOUR life as well, brothers and sisters? To serve Him as a priest? The next time you get asked “So what do you DO? Where do you WORK?” You ought to reply, “Well, I get a paycheck from Boeing… from BJC… from Parkway Schools… But my REAL job is PRIEST. I’m a Custodian… for the King.” God put you here on earth primarily to serve Him.
But if I ever start to get a little too big for my britches, y’all can just add into my job description: “Refill soap dispensers at church”. But even then we’ve got to recognize: that’s important work. Because as we sang already: this is the “house of the Lord”; those are GOD’S soap dispensers! So the Bible exhorts “Whatever you do, work heartily, as [if you’re working] for the Lord” (Col 3:23).
Even when it means being a CUSTODIAN - cleaning up puke cuz SOMEONE fed the kids WAAAY too much sugar; if that VBS plays a role in that child’s SALVATION, if they come to know JESUS this week as their Lord and Savior, isn’t it all WORTH it?!
#2- Priests must be CALLED (28:1); ch28 now; God instructed Moses:
“Then bring near to you Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the people of Israel, to serve me as priests—Aaron and… Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
They didn’t APPLY for the job. It wasn’t based on MERIT - Israel’s history includes some famously bad, immoral priests, including some on this LIST - Aaron led the Golden Calf rebellion, Nadab and Abihu defiled the tabernacle with “unholy fire” - the priesthood wasn’t a meritocracy. In fact, to REALLY drive the point home, God made it HEREDITARY. Only men from the tribe of Levi could serve as priests, and only descendants of AARON could serve as HIGH priests.
Why? Because the Levitical priesthood was just like the NEW covenant priesthood of believers: “it depended not on human will or exertion [Romans 9], but on God, who has mercy… on whomever HE wills”. Election to the priesthood and election unto SALVATION both depend on the sovereign will, and CHOICE, of God. He must be the one to CALL you - Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. ” (Jn 6:44)
Two really important, direct applications of that principle for us today:
First, NONE of us can get “too big for our britches” as believers, because you and I contributed absolutely NOTHING to our own salvation; God chose you and saved you IN SPITE OF you, for His OWN glory. The fact that YOUR name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life - if it IS; that’s not EVERYONE in this room! - but for those of us who are destined for Heaven when we die, we get absolutely NO credit for that whatsoever. It wasn’t 50-50, not even 99% God’s doing; NO, God gets 100% of the credit for your salvation, because “he chose us in [CHRIST] before the foundation of the world… [Ephesians 1 declares] In love he predestined us for adoption… according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace” (Eph 1:4-6).
And second application: it means we really, REALLY need to PRAY for the folks in our lives - INCLUDING some in this room - who are NOT yet believers, because ultimately only GOD can call and save them. We are powerless too; but HE is all-powerful. That’s part of our PRIESTLY function; priests are INTERCESSORS. Aaron’s gonna be called here in just a moment to “BEAR the people’s BURDENS before the Lord”. We do that too, in prayer. There is no greater “BURDEN” than being UNSAVED. DEAD in your sins. HELL-bound. We know, because we were once those people. But God, being rich in mercy, CALLED us and RESCUED us. And NOW He calls us to be intercessors on OTHERS’ behalf - to lift them up in intercessory prayer; as priests, to bring them before God. AND to bring GOD… to them, in evangelism and discipleship.
#3- Priests must be CONSECRATED (28:2-5; 29:31-44); they must be “set apart as HOLY unto the Lord”. Of all 12 requirements for the job, HOLINESS is perhaps the most important; it is the FOCUS of the entire passage - both chapters, really. Ch28 is all about the priests’ GARMENTS and ch29 is all about their INSTALLATION. The reason for the special clothes was to CONSECRATE the priests, and the reason for the special ordination ceremony was, once again, to CONSECRATE them. It’s ALL about consecration. As we read, beginning in ch28,v2:
2 And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty. 3 You shall speak to all the skillful, whom I have filled with a spirit of skill, that they make Aaron's garments [WHY??] to consecrate him for my priesthood. [Note: It’s GOD’S priesthood; so anyone who serves in it MUST be “set apart”, unto Him].
And then let’s skip down to Ch29, v31, and God’s instructions for their ordination; we won’t read it ALL, for sake of time, but it says: “You shall take the ram of ordination and boil its flesh in a holy place. 32 And Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram and the bread that is in the basket in the entrance of the tent of meeting. 33 They shall eat those things with which atonement was made [we’ll come back to that, next week…] at their ordination and consecration, but an outsider shall not eat of them, because they are holy. [CONSECRATED; skip down to v35]... “Thus you shall do to Aaron and to his sons, according to all that I have commanded you. Through seven days shall you ordain them, 36 and every day you shall offer a bull as a sin offering for atonement. [Again, coming back to that…] Also you shall purify the altar, when you make atonement for it, and shall anoint it to consecrate it. [And then God lists even MORE instructions for the anointing and consecration of the altar, but let’s skip down to v43 now, where God reminds them AGAIN why all this “consecrating” is so important; He says…] There [in the tabernacle, the “tent of meeting”] I will meet with the people of Israel, and it shall be sanctified by my glory. 44 I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar. Aaron also and his sons I will consecrate to serve me as priests.”
EVERYTHING involved in their worship had to be consecrated - MADE “holy” - because GOD is holy, and everything He TOUCHES is holy, so if He’s gonna meet with Israel in the tabernacle, IT had to be holy, but the only way to MAKE it holy and KEEP it holy was through SACRIFICE, so then the altar ITSELF had to be consecrated, and then the priests MAKING the sacrifices, and SERVING in the tabernacle had to themselves be made holy as well.
And the big takeaway from ALL of this is that God is HOLY! REALLY holy. “Holy, HOLY, holy” - He is superlatively holy. And because we now belong to Him, God calls US, just as He called these priests, just as He called ALL of Israel, to “BE holy, as I am holy” (that’s Lev 19-21 for them, in the OT, and 1 Pet 1:16 for us, in the NT).
Serving God STARTS with HOLINESS. Once you’ve BEEN called and saved by God, INTO the priesthood of all believers, what’s NEXT? Once you realize your life is NOT your own, that you were put here by GOD for HIS good purpose and pleasure, and so you surrender your life BACK to him in faith… you say, “God, I’ve wasted enough time down here living for MYSELF; I want to live the REST of my days for YOU, for YOUR glory, to make YOUR name famous; you just show me how to DO it”... Here is God’s reply: “Be HOLY, as I am holy.” THAT’s how you serve me, worship me, honor me, bring me glory.
1 Corinthians 6:20 “you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
How? 2 Timothy 2:21 “if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to [God], ready for every good work.” We’ve gotta be CLEANSED, consecrated.
So “therefore” - Romans 12:1 - “by the mercies of God, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Take my life and let it be CONSECRATED, Lord, to thee. I want to FOLLOW you; I’ve been FREED for the sake of following You.
#4- Priests must be CARRIERS OF BURDENS (28:6-30) - I’m gonna read the description of these priestly garments now, while I show YOU some artistic renderings:
6 “And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and of fine twined linen, skillfully worked. 7 It shall have two shoulder pieces attached to its two edges, so that it may be joined together. 8 And the skillfully woven band on it shall be made like it and be of one piece with it, of gold, blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen. 9 You shall take two onyx stones, and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel, 10 six of their names on the one stone, and the names of the remaining six on the other stone, in the order of their birth. 11 As a jeweler engraves signets, so shall you engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel. You shall enclose them in settings of gold filigree. 12 And you shall set the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod, as stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel. And Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders for remembrance. 13 You shall make settings of gold filigree, 14 and two chains of pure gold, twisted like cords; and you shall attach the corded chains to the settings.
v15: “You shall make a breastpiece of judgment, in skilled work. In the style of the ephod you shall make it—of gold, blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen shall you make it. 16 It shall be square and doubled, a span[b] its length [about 9 inches] and a span its breadth. 17 You shall set in it four rows of stones. A row of sardius,[c] topaz, and carbuncle shall be the first row; 18 and the second row an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond; 19 and the third row a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst; 20 and the fourth row a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper. They shall be set in gold filigree. 21 There shall be twelve stones with their names according to the names of the sons of Israel. They shall be like signets, each engraved with its name, for the twelve tribes. [And we’ll skip ahead, but God instructs them to make CHAINS and RINGS for attaching the breastplate to the ephod and the shoulder pieces; but in v29…] So Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breastpiece of judgment on his heart, when he goes into the Holy Place, to bring them to regular remembrance before the Lord. 30 And in the breastpiece of judgment you shall put the Urim and the Thummim, and they shall be on Aaron's heart, when he goes in before the Lord. Thus Aaron shall bear the judgment of the people of Israel on his heart before the Lord regularly.
The symbolism with these engraved stones on BOTH the shoulder pieces AND the breastplate, is that Aaron - AS the priestly representative OF the people, TO the Lord - he is called to “BEAR” Israel on both his SHOULDERS and on his HEART. Shoulders symbolize strength, and your heart, of course, symbolizes emotion. So God is calling Aaron here to WORK for the people, and to LOVE the people. That’s a priest’s job. When you consecrate yourself to serve the LORD, He instructs you to serve his CHILDREN, because our God is a loving Father. We are precious JEWELS, in God’s sight. That’s how Israel is depicted here.
Again, consider the implications and applications for us both. My job, as your pastor, is to help “shoulder” your burdens, to bring them… and to bring YOU… before the Lord, regularly in prayer. And to LOVE you while I’m doing it, to “bear you on my HEART” as well. I LOVE the people of this church; a pastor HAS to - it’s in the JOB description!
And it’s in YOURS as well; remember: we’re ALL priests. You too are called to “Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2). What is Christ’s LAW? John 13:34 - “A new law I give to you, [Jesus said] that you love one another”. So the entire priesthood of all believers is called to WORK for one another - to SERVE one another, in practical ways (1 Pet 4:10) - and to LOVE one another while we’re doing it.
And I’ll just take this opportunity to remind you that you can do BOTH those things here at West Hills, by serving on one of our volunteer teams - to help “shoulder” the burdens of the church (discipling kids, fixing sinks, supporting missionaries, mixing sound, PRAYER), AND by joining one of our SMALL groups - a life group, or a discipleship group, so you can “bear one another’s burdens” on your HEART as well, “love one another as Christ has loved you”. He said, “By this all people will know that you are [truly] my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Is there enough EVIDENCE to convict you? Could an outsider look at your relationships with others here at West Hills and say, “I don’t understand how people that different who aren’t even RELATED could LOVE each other so much. There’s something different about that community of people. And it’s attractive; I want it too.”
Now, what are the “Urim and Thummim”? Well, all we know for SURE is that they were objects used BY the high priest to DISCERN the will of God. Eleazar used them in Numbers 27 to help Joshua know when to go into battle; Saul used them in 1 Samuel 14 to discern who had broken his vow. Scholars best guess is they were two additional stones, maybe different colors, representing God’s “YES” and “NO”, placed in a pouch inside the breastplate, and they essentially functioned like those old “Magic 8 balls”. Except that God ACTUALLY spoke through them! God USED to speak to His people in these kinds of ways - Prov 16:33 says “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord”; in OT times, they would literally throw DICE to discern God’s will! But the last occurrence of it that we see in the Bible is in Acts ch1, just before God pours out His SPIRIT on His people. And we no longer need the Urim and Thummim today because we’ve got something even BETTER: we have God’s own SPIRIT to guide us. You don’t need a MAP when you’ve got the map-MAKER driving the car. And we’ve also got God’s WORD - his finished, complete self-revelation, the BIBLE. THAT is how we discern God’s will today. And it’s another way that we serve one another as priests, as well: by helping one another discern God’s will, FROM his word, BY His Spirit, IN community.
#5- Priests must be CAREFUL (28:31-35, 42-43). We’ve seen this OVER and over again, ALL throughout Exodus now - God first appeared to Moses in the FIRE (the burning bush), He appeared to Egypt in the PLAGUES (an Angel of DEATH), He appeared to Israel out in the desert in a STORM (thunder and lightning that shook all of Mt. Sinai). Our God is not SAFE; not for sinful man. So you better be CAREFUL; ch28, v31:
31 “You shall make the robe of the ephod all of blue… v33: On its hem you shall make pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet yarns, around its hem, with bells of gold between them, 34 a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, around the hem of the robe. 35 And it shall be on Aaron when he ministers, and its sound shall be heard when he goes into the Holy Place before the Lord, and when he comes out, so that he does not die…[skip down to v42…]
42 You shall make for them linen undergarments to cover their naked flesh. They shall reach from the hips to the thighs; 43 and they shall be on Aaron and on his sons when they go into the tent of meeting or when they come near the altar to minister in the Holy Place, lest they bear guilt and die. This shall be a statute forever for him and for his offspring after him.
So there’s a ROBE underneath the ephod, with bells and pomegranates around the hem, and linen underwear underneath THAT. Why?
God TOLD us why, TWICE: “so that [the priest] does not DIE… bear guilt and DIE”.
See, God is SO holy that His mere presence, there in the Holy of Holies, to meet with this high priest once a year on Yom Kippur, it posed an existential THREAT to the priest. So they sewed BELLS on his robe to make sure he was still alive in there, gentle jingles; if they heard a loud CRASH of bells… not good. In fact, Jewish tradition tells us they also tied a ROPE around the priest’s waist or foot, in case God’s holiness DID overwhelm him and they needed to pull his lifeless corpse back out.
The robe was BLUE probably to remind the priest that He was entering the presence of a God who can in no way be CONTAINED by, LIMITED to this little tabernacle they’d built Him, but a God who instead, according to Isaiah 57:15 “inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: [who declares] “I dwell in the high and holy place” - in the HEAVENS. Hence the blue robe. It’s a reminder of God’s utter transcendence, His BIG-ness, His Holiness. In Deuteronomy 26:15, Moses asks God to “Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven”. God himself asks rhetorically in Jeremiah 23:24 “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” You better be CAREFUL, in the presence of THAT kind of God.
On the opposite end of the holiness spectrum, if the robe was a reminder of God’s HEAVENLINESS, the POMEGRANATES were a reminder of the peoples’ SINFULNESS. Remember: EVERYTHING in the tabernacle harkens back to the Garden of Eden, the last time we could be in God’s presence WITHOUT Him posing an existential threat. The fruit that Adam and Eve ate was probably a pomegranate. They are native to the Middle East, unlike apples - it DEFINITELY wasn’t an apple, let’s get that straight; that was the influence of later, medieval European painters. Jesus wasn’t white either, sorry. Plus: apples are GROSS; no one would be tempted by an apple. But pomegranates are DELICIOUS, and seductive. So having pomegranates sewn all around the hem of his robe would remind this priest of his SIN, and thus his need for CAUTION in God’s holy presence.
Lastly, the undergarments covered the priest’s NAKEDness. Cuz you don’t want to accidentally FLASH God, or MOON Him; God is HOLY!
And as I warned us last week, by way of application: we TOO should be CAREFUL with how we approach God. Jesus is not your “homeboy”; “He is the radiance of the glory of God… and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.” (Heb 1:3). “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him ALL things were created, in heaven and on earth… all things were created through him and FOR him. He is ABOVE all things, and IN him all things hold together.” (Col 1:15-17) THAT’S who JESUS is, friends. So let’s show a little respect. A little REVERENCE.
Lastly, for this morning anyway, #6- Priests must be CONDUITS (28:36-38). A “conduit” is a “means of transmission or conveyance”. And the priest’s job was to transmit, to convey the people’s SIN, from them, onto the ANIMAL they’d brought as a sacrifice in their place, and then to bring that animal’s BLOOD into the tabernacle to make expiation for the people’s sin. The priest was a CONDUIT of both Israel’s atonement, and God’s forgiveness in response. This is where the CATHOLICS got the idea of going to a priest - a middleman, a mediator - to confess your sins, and to receive PARDON. Because in the OLD Testament, that’s how it WORKED; The priest was the GO-between, the conduit; v36:
36 “You shall make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it, like the engraving of a signet, ‘Holiness to the Lord.’ 37 And you shall fasten it on the turban by a cord of blue. It shall be on the front of the turban. 38 It shall be on Aaron's forehead, and Aaron shall bear any guilt from the holy things that the people of Israel consecrate as their holy gifts. It shall regularly be on his forehead, that they may be accepted before the Lord.
Aaron “bears”, he CARRIES, the GUILT from the people’s offerings, on their behalf, into the tabernacle. But lest AARON be struck down DEAD with all that sin and guilt - with all that BLOOD on his hands, quite literally - God gives him this holy turban to MARK him as “holy”, God’s consecrated conduit. “Don’t shoot the messenger, PLEASE! I’m just here delivering their guilt to you, God.”
And God would look down - in all His HOLINESS - and instead of seeing nothing but SIN and GUILT - not just the PEOPLE’S sin and guilt, that this priest was “bearing”, bringing before God, but HIS OWN as well! That high priest was every bit as sinful as anyone ELSE in Israel’s camp. Sure, he was COMMANDED NOT to be. He was CALLED to be CONSECRATED, set apart, HOLY unto the Lord. But then again, so was ALL of Israel. And they FAILED, time and time again. Hence the need for a conduit, a sin-bearer. A MEDIATOR of man’s atonement, and God’s forgiveness. And how astounding, that when He looked down, God would see not just the sin and guilt, but see His OWN words there, on the priest’s forehead, marking him: “HOLY to the Lord”. Was the priest “holy”?
Yes and no. Certainly not intrinsically. If that priest dared to enter the Holy of Holies counting on his OWN holiness, his OWN righteousness to protect him, he better be wearing a ROPE! Cuz he couldn’t EVER hope to measure up to God’s perfect standard of holiness on his own merit. No, this priest needed GRACE. God’s GIFT of holiness, “ALIEN holiness”, a holiness that came not from himself, internally, but that came down from above, from God. He had to be DECLARED “holy”, MADE holy. That’s what the turban was about; that’s what the entire OUTFIT was about! Consecration.
How do we APPLY this last point, and ALL these points, in CONCLUSION?
Friends: if you would dare enter God’s holy presence counting on your OWN “righteousness” to protect you, you better be wearing a ROPE. When you die one day (which you will) and you stand before the Judgment Seat of God (which you will), and He ASKS you “Why should I let you into HEAVEN?” (which He WILL), if your answer starts with the words “Because I…” then you are in TROUBLE. Because NOTHING you have done or could do in your entire life could EVER measure up to God’s perfect standard of holiness. The ONLY way sinners like you and me can get in is by being DECLARED “holy”, MADE holy, by an alien righteousness that is not our own. God’s gotta be able to look down and see you not just in your sin and guilt, but see His OWN word covering you: “HOLY to the Lord”.
Now listen to this prophetic promise from God; 700 years AFTER Moses, God gave His people a glimpse of this glorious day when they would all shout: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10). Now listen to God’s FULFILLMENT of that promise, 700 years after Isaiah prophesied it, the apostle Paul writes: “as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ,” literally, you have been “DRESSED in Christ” (Gal 3:27).
If you are in Christ Jesus this morning, when God looks down at you, He no longer sees your SIN and GUILT; He now sees you as clothed in “garments of salvation”, “the robe of RIGHTEOUSNESS”, and that robe is CHRIST! The NT says Jesus is “our holiness” (1 Cor 1:30). HE is the turban we wear, that marks us: “Holiness to the Lord”. It’s HIS holiness that protects us.
And because we’ve FAILED to be the selfless custodial, consecrated, careful, burden-carrying conduits that God has CALLED us to be, friends, we’ve got to trust in JESUS. Our BETTER high priest.
*Jesus came as a custodian. “Though he was in the form of God… He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant… he humbled himself by becoming obedient to [HIS CALLING, from God the FATHER; to] the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Phil 2:6-8)
*Jesus was truly CONSECRATED. HOLY to the Lord. He lived the perfect life of holiness that we owe God but neglect.
*And yet, in His LOVE for us, Jesus bore us on his HEART, and bore our SIN on his SHOULDERS, carrying our burdens all the way to the CROSS.
*Jesus was the PERFECT conduit of our atonement, and God’s forgiveness, the BETTER high priest. Just listen to how Hebrews ch7 (vv26-28) describes Jesus - I’ll close with this, cuz I can’t top it; the Bible says: “it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27 He has no need, like those [OLD] high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. 28 For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the [NEW covenant], which came after than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.”
Amen and amen. Trust in Jesus, and be saved.