Priesthood is the divine provision of grace to sustain those who have been set in God’s righteousness before Him in Christ. It reconciles the condition of a poor, feeble creature on earth, liable to fall at any moment, with the glorious position which is his in Christ. I believe that Hebrews is the complement of the Epistle to the Romans — the one setting us, through redemption, before God in Christ and the other maintaining us there. In its prime aspect, it is preventive and sustaining. “Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe.” You find at the end of Hebrews 4 the provisions made in order that we may not fall in the wilderness — the detective power of the Word of God to deal with the will and the supporting priesthood of Christ to support us in our weakness.
The priesthood of Christ is to sustain us in our weakness and keep us from falling. The advocacy of Christ is to support us before God if we sin. “If any man sin, we have an advocate” (1 John 2:11And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: (John 2:1)). He is engaged before and with the Father for us. The result of His advocacy is to turn the Word in its convicting power on the conscience by the Spirit. When confession is produced, the soul having bowed under His action, then restoration follows.
F. G. Patterson