The High Priest

The High Priest brings Him before us in heaven, as the One who is qualified to sustain us in the circumstances of faith. He is the One who lives within the veil and is touched with the feelings of our infirmities.
His advocacy is another thing. It is the grace which restores our souls if we wander and sin. "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." 1 John 2:1. Here it is the Lord as restorer of our souls. He brings the soul back into communion of the relationship into which we have been brought.
His high priestly service is His sustaining us in the midst of difficulties, and we are exhorted to consider Him in this capacity. In chapter 5 of Hebrews, the priesthood is the position to which He has been called, and there He sustains us. How precious that makes the Lord to us—He who has felt what we feel, has entered into all that we pass through. Do we know what it is to consider the Lord in this way? It is a wonderfully sustaining truth in sorrow to know Him who lives in sympathizing love for us.
He occupies a position in the house of God. God has a house on the earth. "That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God." God's dwelling place on earth is in the midst of His people. The place that the Lord Jesus occupies in the house is not as a servant in the house, but He is a Son over it. Moses was a servant in it and was faithful to Him who called him. The Lord Jesus is a Son over the house, and "faithful to Him that appointed Him." We get Him in Revelation, chapters 1-3, as Son over the house in the addresses to the churches. "I have not found thy works perfect before God," etc. Here it is the Lord maintaining what is becoming to the house of God. The Beginner and Completer of Faith Who Endured In Heb. 12 we find the Lord, not as Apostle, not as High Priest, but as what? The beginner and completer of faith. He began and completed that path in all perfection. How far is it our habit to consider the Lord in the path of faith?
In these three ways we are called upon to consider Him; as Apostle, as High Priest, and as beginner and completer of faith "who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." This is very precious. He was sustained in that path of faith. What sustained Him? That which was at the end—"who for the joy," etc. What can sustain us in the path of faith filled with difficulties from beginning to end? One way to be overcome is to get occupied with the difficulties. We need to look at Him and to "consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest." etc. If we get occupied with the circumstances, we faint in our minds; we need an object before us.
Paul said. "If by any means I might obtain." The object was before him. In going up a steep hill, if the mind gets occupied with something else, one is soon there. Keep the eye on an object, and the heart is sustained. If we go back to the first chapter in Hebrews, we find Him at the right hand of the Majesty on high. This is another viewpoint. With these few thoughts before us, let us consider Him: the Apostle, High Priest, and the One who endured lest we be weary and faint in our minds. Long or short, the way is difficult. What enables us to surmount the difficulties is to consider that One who has gone before and has reached the goal. W. Potter