Leviticus 21

Those who represented Israel before the Lord and the Lord before Israel were to be pictures of the holiness of Jesus Christ. We who are represented before God now by this One who is the fulfillment of all that a High Priest could be are called to be priests to God and to pray for one another. See Revelation 1:6 and James 5:16.

The regulations that called the Old Testament priests to be holy, have also called us to see Christ as perfectly holy and to be holy “priests” in the presence of the Lord and among all the faithful. Whatever requirements a right New Testament view of these regulations has placed upon us, we cannot be distracted from this truth: Christ Jesus is our holiness.

Holiness required that the Old Testament priests make choices. It was a good thing to go to the house of mourning and to be with those who grieved there, but the priests could not do this except for their very closest relatives. They had to let others bury the dead, lest they became ceremonially unclean. Their obligations to the Lord were more significant than their duties of sympathy, even though there was a way to be ritually cleansed after physical contact with the dead.

The priests could not leave others with the impression that they were casual about their duties to the Lord. They needed to attend to even their outward appearance in a way that would be appropriate for those who had been set apart as the Lord's priests. How much more did their hearts need to be in right relationship with the Almighty!

Their marital relationships were also the Lord's concern. They could not marry a prostitute or a divorced woman. This was part of their required holiness to God. The Lord would know if a priest's relationship with his wife was out of order, even if men did not know. A man's family also needed to be in order. His daughter could not be a prostitute or an immoral woman.

The priest had received the Lord's holy anointing oil. He could not present himself before God and man in ways that were obviously out of accord with God's standards of holy joy. How was his hair worn? Were his clothes torn in anguish? Had he been near a dead body? None of these were permissible for him. He was to be dedicated to the Lord and to His sanctuary.

He needed to choose a wife who had never before been with a man intimately. Thus his children would be holy, for his sons would be future priests to the Lord. Why were such rules required? The God of Israel added these words: “for I am the Lord who sanctifies him.” The Lord is holy. He is the one who makes His priests holy. This attribute of holiness was not only for God's Old Testament priests. The New Testament Church is made up of “saints.” That word means “the holy ones.” But the power of Christ's sanctification in the church is so great, that we are told in 1 Corinthians 7 that the child of even one believing parent is “holy.”

Just as everything offered to the Lord had to be without spot or blemish, God required His Old Covenant priests to be a holy offering to Him. The rest of the congregation needed to set them apart as holy, for they were holy to the Lord. They could not have certain outward deformities that ruined the picture of a perfect personal offering of our bodies to God. The Lord gave a long list to Moses and Aaron of prohibited people who could not serve as priests in the tabernacle. No one who had a blemish, no blind or lame, no one with a mutilated face or a limb too long, no one with an injured foot or hand, no one with a deformed back or a skin disease could “come near to offer the Lord's food offerings.” He was permitted to “eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy things,” and thus live, but he could not “go through the veil or approach the altar.” A blemished person would have profaned the Lord's sanctuary in that day simply by his presence before the Lord. He was unacceptable as God's priest.

But now Christ has not only taken our outward deformities upon Himself. He has accomplished something far greater than this. He has removed far away from us every inner deformity of heart, mind, and will. He is the Lord who sanctifies us. Now we do not have to look the perfect part in order to be priests of the Lord. All of those who have believed and even their young children can be marked as holy to the Lord. They are all to be a part of the priesthood of the faithful.

This is exciting news for broken people. No longer do they have to stay far away from God for their own safety and for the well-being of the Lord's congregation. The sanctuary of God in heaven has been purified by the perfectly holy blood of Jesus. He is a perfect Mediator for all who are weak and lowly. They can come to God with simple trust in His Name and bring all their deformities; a broken heritage, a ruined body, even a messed up soul before Him who washes the unacceptable and sends forth the oil of gladness to the weak. Now the joy of the Lord has become our strength forever.