Definition · Webster 1828 · Scriptures · Corruption · Roots · Usage · Related
📖 Biblical Definition
The priestly office of Christ is that part of His mediatorial work whereby He, as the great High Priest, offered Himself once for all a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice and reconcile us to God, and now ever lives to make intercession for His people. A priest is one ordained for men in things pertaining to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins; and Christ is the true and final Priest, of whom Aaron and his sons were but shadows. He is a priest after the order of Melchizedek—not by fleshly descent from Levi, but by the power of an endless life, and confirmed by the oath of God: “Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” His priesthood is supreme in two great works. First, the oblation: He offered not the blood of bulls and goats, which can never take away sins, but Himself, His own body and blood, a single, sufficient, and unrepeatable sacrifice that perfected for ever them that are sanctified; He is at once the Priest who offers and the Victim who is offered. Second, the intercession: having entered the holy place by His own blood, He appears in the presence of God for us, our Advocate, ever living to make intercession, so that He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him. This office answers the deepest need of the sinner—not merely to be taught (the prophetic office) but to be reconciled, his guilt expiated and the wrath of God propitiated. Because Christ is our Priest, the way into the holiest is opened, the conscience is purged, and the believer may draw near with boldness to the throne of grace.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Webster 1828 defines PRIEST as one who officiates in sacred offices and offers sacrifices; Christ is the great High Priest who offered Himself and intercedes.
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PRIEST, n. — ...2. In the Scriptures, one who officiates in sacred offices, among the Jews; also, Christ himself, who is called a high priest. 3. Christ, the great High Priest, who offered himself a sacrifice for the sins of men, and ever liveth to make intercession.
PRIESTHOOD, n. — The office or character of a priest; the order of men set apart for sacred offices.
📖 Key Scripture
Hebrews 4:14 — "Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession."
Hebrews 7:17 — "For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec."
Hebrews 9:14 — "...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?"
Hebrews 7:25 — "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Christ’s priesthood is corrupted by Rome’s repeated sacrifice of the Mass and its earthly sacrificing priesthood, which obscure the once-for-all, unrepeatable, and sole priesthood of Christ.
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The priestly office of Christ is corrupted most gravely by the Roman doctrine of the Mass and its sacrificing priesthood. The Mass is held to be a true and propitiatory sacrifice in which Christ is offered again and again upon the altars of the church, and the ordained priest is held to possess the power to effect this offering. But the epistle to the Hebrews labors precisely to overthrow such a notion: Christ offered Himself once, a single sacrifice for sins for ever, and by that one offering perfected for ever them that are sanctified; where there is remission of sins, there is no more offering for sin. To repeat the sacrifice is to deny its sufficiency and finality, and to erect an earthly sacrificing priesthood is to obscure the truth that Christ alone is Priest, and His priesthood untransferable, held by Him perpetually because He continueth ever.
A subtler corruption diminishes the priestly office by neglect—treating Christ chiefly as teacher and example (Prophet) or ruler (King) while passing over the cross and the heavenly intercession that are the heart of His priestly work. But it is in His priesthood that the sinner’s deepest need is met: not merely instruction or government, but expiation of guilt and reconciliation with a holy God. To recover the priestly office is to behold Christ as both the Priest who offers and the Lamb who is offered, whose single sacrifice satisfied divine justice, and who now appears in the presence of God for us, ever living to intercede. Because of His priesthood there is no more offering to be made and no other priest to be sought; the way into the holiest is opened, and the believer draws near with boldness, not through any human mediator, but through the one great High Priest who has passed into the heavens.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
The office fulfills the hiereus / kōhēn (priest) after the order of Melchizedek, offering one thusia (sacrifice) and making intercession (entunchanō).
Usage
"As Priest, Christ offered Himself once for all and ever lives to make intercession for His people."
"He is at once the Priest who offers and the Victim offered—a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek."
"Rome’s repeated Mass and sacrificing priesthood deny the once-for-all, sole priesthood of Christ."