The Son as Humanity’s Priest – Chapter 8, Part 6

​This week we’ll continue our review of chapter 8 in Isaiah Decoded – The God of Israel, King of Zion. In this week’s review, we’ll consider how Yehovah-Yeshua, the Son, is Humanity’s Priest.

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​Review
Last week we saw that the responsibilities of priests under the law of God to be reconciled with God included a standard of personal conduct, teaches the law, is accountable/answerable for the transgression of the people and administered priestly ordinances.

​Priesthood Being Reconciled with God

​Maintain a Standard of Personal Conduct Teaches the Civil and Religious Law Answerable/Accountable for Peoples Sins Administers Ordinances – Baptism, Receiving God’s Name, Sacrificial Ordinances.

We’ll now examine how these four responsibilities play-out with the Son as Humanity’s High Priest.
 
 
The Son’s Perfection
The first responsibility required of priests is to maintain a standard of personal conduct. We saw this when the sons of Levi refrained from participating in the golden calf incident. We see this same concept in the Son but on a higher level. For the Son to be the High Priest for all Humanity, He had to achieve the highest standard of perfection. The scriptures set out three aspects of Yehovah-Yeshua’s conduct of perfection. The first of which is portrayed in Israel’s temple menorah. These seven perfections of Yehovah-Yeshua include – Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Valor, Knowledge, Fear(Respect), and Justice – Isaiah 11:2;42:1.

​The Son’s Seven Perfections The Seven Lamps of the Menorah

Wisdom

Understanding

Counsel

Valor

Knowledge

Fear(Respect)

Justice

The second demonstration of the Son’s perfection is that He showed us that He could overcome the temptations of the flesh when He overcame the weakness of the flesh that we see in His three temptations in Matthew chapter 4. These three temptations tested the Son’s ability to overcome the natural/carnal man in terms of the passions, power, and pride of the flesh

​The Son as Victor over the Flesh

Overcame the physical passions of the flesh Overcame the desires for power. Overcame Pride

​The third aspect of perfection that we see is the scriptures that the Son possesses and for which He taught in the Sermon on the Mount is to have a pure heart and clean hands. The Law by and large defines what God expects of what we do, what our actions should be to have clean hands. Even though the Law does give us commands about the condition of our heart, Yeshua make special except in His teachings to purify our hearts.
 
“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” – Matt. 5:48
 
“By serving as saviors in the pattern of Jehovah himself, we become like him. To the degree that we are “holy” and “valiant” as he is, we resemble him. Our highest role model for “loyalty” to God and “compliance” with his will is the Son’s loyalty to the Most High God and compliance with his will in redeeming humanity from evil.” – P. 289
 
“The counsel Jesus gives to “call no man your father on the earth, for One is your Father, who is in heaven,” sets the highest standard for God’s people to follow. (Matthew 23:9; emphasis added.) Jesus thus encourages us to live a higher law that accepts the Most High God as our Lord (emperor), just as he does. In other words, he invites us to become sons (vassals) and heirs of the Most High God just as he is. That counsel is of the same order as Jesus’ saying, “Be perfect even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48.) We achieve such perfection by ascending higher and higher until we are one with Jesus, who is one with the Father, which oneness defines the nature of God.” – P. 293, 294
 
 
The Son’s Teachings
One thing that we must remember when we look at what Yeshua said is that He was instructing His fellow Jews who were already familiar with His Law. So when we look at His teachings we see the broad categories of spiritual salvation and physical salvation.
 
Physical Salvation
Yeshua taught that He had to save Humanity from the effects of eternal death that came through Adam and Eve’s transgression – “believe and be saved”! By taking on us His name and acknowledging Him as our Redeemer, we are saved from eternal physical death.
 
Spiritual Salvation – Everlasting Life
The second primary teaching that Yeshua needed to make is that He needed to get His fellow Jews not to sin against His Law. Not sinning against His Law would qualify them to live in His presence and receive everlasting life. But that required them to change their heart, which we see in Ezekiel 36:26,27. We see this theme in His teachings at the Sermon on the Mount and His teachings on being Born Again.
 
Once they could keep His Law they were prepared to receive of His fullness namely – the Melchizedek Priesthood – Matt 5:17
 
Those who are saved AND receive everlasting life don’t suffer the second death of being shut out of God’s presence.
 
 
The Son as Humanity’s Savior
Our third aspect of priesthood is that there needed to be a savior for all humanity to be accountable and answerable for Universal Sin - Adam and Eve’s transgression - and for Personal Sin.
 
Universal Sin
“From the beginning, after Adam and Eve had descended to a lower level, all humanity required “salvation.” Salvation had to include deliverance from death, the curse all had inherited when Adam and Eve transgressed.” – P. 265
 
“As Jesus was to reverse the consequences of Adam’s and Eve’s transgression, we can know that the Fall was an integral part of God’s design (see Figure 114).” – P. 272
 
“Persons on the seraph level may do miracles such as raising the dead, but they cannot abolish death, which was a consequence of Adam’s and Eve’s transgression. Only God can do that.” – P. 286
 
Personal Sin
Personal Sin are those transgressions for which we alone are responsible. Yehovah gave Israel His Law that defines Personal Sin. Moreover, we previously learned that Jacob/Israel needed to repent and be reconciled with God for Personal Sin until they became transformed into Zion/Jerusalem who kept His Law and Word.

​Jacob/Israel	Transformed ​>	​Zion/Jerusalem
Repenting, Returning, Renewing ​Reconciled with God through the Son	​New Heart and New Spirit  A New Creation of God’s Spirit	Keeps His Law and Word

“As King of Zion—as emperor/savior to his people—Jehovah is obliged to deliver those who keep his law and word from any mortal threat.” “Those who qualify for these blessings comprise all on the Zion/Jerusalem level and above.” – P. 284, 285
“However, God is not obliged to deliver any on the Jacob/Israel level…” - P. 285
 

The Son Administers Saving Ordinances
The two saving ordinances that we see Yeshua perform was first the Atonement and second His Sacrificial Death.
 
Sacrificial Death
For Yeshua-Yehovah to deliver Humanity from eternal death brought on by Adam and Eve’s transgression, He had to function as a proxy to pay the price of justice, which is death for Adam and Eve’s transgression, so Humanity could escape eternal physical death. We also see this apply to Personal Sin as well for those who are in covenant with God.
  
“From this we can conclude that Israel’s God, when performing the role of a proxy savior to deliver his people from death, would (1) be a firstborn or birthright son (as was Isaac to Abraham); (2) be a righteous person in the prime of life; (3) be slain by the shedding of blood; and (4) be a Davidic king.” – P. 296
 
“As the Son and Firstborn of his Father, he was slain so that death might pass from all who accepted him as their Father/Savior.” – P. 297
 
We see in the scriptures that those who take-on the Name of Yeshua/Yehovah (Jesus) as their redeemer are saved from death, which we can call the Messianic Covenant with the sign of Yeshua’s nail prints.
 
Atonement
When it comes to the Atonement, we see the same scheme – a general application for all Humanity and an individual application for those in covenant with God.
 
Yeshua suffered for the injustice of all Humanity to maintain order in the Universe. But for those who aren’t in covenant with God, these suffer a second death who are saved but don’t qualify for everlasting life in the presence of God. These go to an eternal realm without the presence of the Son or the Father – the realm or glory of the Spirit.
 
Whereas, those who repent and renew God’s covenant, and want to be reconciled with God – Jacob/Israel - access the power of the Atonement until they are transformed and overcome Personal Sin that we see in those who become Zion/Jerusalem who thus qualify for everlasting life in the presence of the Son.

​The Atonement and Everlasting Life with the Son

​Jacob  (believers in God) >

​Israel (repents, returns and renews the covenant) and Atonement >

Transformed – Born Again >

​Zion/Jerusalem (overcome Personal Sin) >

​Everlasting Life with the Son

We also saw that those who follow their conscience in Mortality and receive the the fullness of the Gospel in the Post-Mortal Spirit Realm also receive Everlasting Life.
 
“While human proxies could merit degrees of salvation, Israel’s God alone, as both priest and sacrifice, could truly “make atonement” for sin and overcome death for all time. Thus, Jesus’ sacrifice was not only retroactive to the Passover but applied to all generations—past, present, and future—who had inherited mortality.” – P. 300
 
“While the resurrection [of life] of God’s people could begin with Jesus’ atonement for transgression, [spiritual] death could now also be abolished.” – P. 311, John 5:29

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Memorializing Yeshua-Yehovah's Saving Ordinances

Though not a commandment, believers may want to memorialize Yeshua-Yehovah's saving ordinances with a sacrament of wine and bread.