From the ministry archive
The Priesthood of Christ
I would like to make a point today on what it actually takes for a person to have the remission of their sins. According to Jesus, the remission of sins is the essence of the new covenant, so it surely behooves us to understand how and when this takes place in ta person’ts life (Mat. 26:28). The remission of sins can only come by the atonement made by the new testament high priest, even as it was under the old covenant with the Levitical priesthood (Heb. 9:7). Now we know that Jesus is the high priest of the new covenant, so what we need to ask is, when did he become the high priest and thus make the atoning sacrifice, or offering? Was it on the cross? Let’s allow the scriptures to show us the answer: “For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law” (Heb. 8:4). So we see that he could not be the high priest while still on earth, and we also see by this scripture that the old covenant and the Levitical priesthood was still in effect while Jesus was on the earth. “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” (Heb. 9:11,12). So the priesthood of Christ could only be effected after he went back to heaven, where, as the preceding scripture states, he offered his own blood. But let’s look at more confirming detail on this: “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared [in heaven] to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Heb. 9:24-26). So then, as the scripture plainly says here, the atoning sacrifice of Christ was made after he went back to heaven, where he “put away sin by the sacrifice [offering] of himself.” And to these things we can add; “But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God… Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us” (Heb. 10:12-15). Now it is evident that Jesus did not "sit down at the right hand of God" after he died on the cross. He went to the heart of the earth for three days, and he stayed on the earth forty days after his resurrection (Mat. 12:40; Acts 1:3).
The atoning sacrifice of Christ and his subsequent priethood, was accomplished AFTERhe went back to heaven, and that is how the “holy Ghost is [the] witness to us” of these things. And this is why Jesus had told his disciples, “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you” (Jn. 16:7). And this is also why the apostle Paul informed us that the holy Ghost is what washes us from our sins, and thereby sanctifies and justifies us (I Cor. 6:11). And this is why the last instuctions that Jesus gave to his disciples before he ascended to heaven was; “… but wait for the promise of the Father… For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence” (Acts 1:4,5). And what all of this means is that the same holy Ghost baptism that Jesus commanded those first believers to wait for, was and is the only remission of sins that exists under the new covenant. As it was then, so it is now: Everyone who fully repents and turns their life wholly over to God, is baptized by Jesus with the holy Ghost, and the witness of speaking with other tongues accompanies the experience even as it did in the beginning (Acts 2:4). There simply is no other scriptural possibility, as we have seen solidly laid out to us by the scriptures themselves. And what all of these things mean as well, is that all of the new birth methodologies that have been invented by modern Christianity are false. There is no such thing as “getting saved” in the Bible. It simply did not happen. No one in the scriptures ever “accepted the Lord as their personal savior.” It just isn’t in the Bible anywhere. And there is no instance in scripture where anyone ever “repeated the sinner’s prayer.” And those who were instructed to “confess Jesus” were already in the body of Christ by means of the Spirit baptism (Rom. 10:8-10; I Cor. 12:13). Note the eighth verse in Romans 10, where the apostle told those to whom he was writing: “The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart.” The only way that God’s word could be in someone’s heart and mouth is if they have alreadt received the Spirit of truth that imparts that word (Jn. 16:13; I Cor. 2:11,14; Rev. 2:7). And beside that, nobody can confess Christ until they have Christ in them TO confess (I Cor. 12:3; II Cor. 3:17). So it is easily evident that none of the supposed new births that are dictated by Christianity are not at all supported by anything in the Bible. The baptism of the holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking with other tongues, is the witness of the priesthood of Christ, and the only experience of faith that takes away anyone’s sins. Anything apart from this experience that is called the new birth, or remission of sins, is a lie and needs to be eliminated. Period. Amen.
