The Priesthood of Believers & Entering God's Most Holy Place

P4

We are to embrace our New Covenant priesthood and ability to enter God's Most Holy Place through our High Priest Yeshua.

Category: Priesthood

Type: Positive

Form: Implied

Source dataset: Old Testament

Uniqueness: Unique

Classical commandment: Yes

New Covenant Literal Application

Applies to Person Categories: Everyone

Literal Application: mandated, recommended

More explanation about New Covenant Literal Application

The New Covenant Literal Application Code (NCLA) is an interpretive guide used by the authors to indicate which person categories a mitzvah applies to, and at what level of literal compliance.

It combines person categories such as Jewish, K'rov Yisrael, and Gentile, together with male/female distinctions and an application level such as mandated, recommended, optional, or prohibited.

This code reflects the authors' interpretive opinion and is provided for prayerful consideration. On this page, the technical code is summarized into plain language to help new readers understand it more easily.

Read the full explanation from the source

Bible references

Key NT Scriptures

Hebrews 7:8-27
Hebrews 9:6-14
Hebrews 10:15-22
Matthew 27:46-54
1 Peter 2:4-10

Key OT Scriptures

Leviticus 16:2-22

Supportive NT Scriptures

Hebrews 8:6-13

Supportive OT Scriptures

Exodus 26:31-35

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Commentary

Rabbi Michael Rudolph

One of the most significant aspects of the New Covenant brought by Yeshua's sacrificial death and resurrection is elevating to priesthood, those of us that repent of our sins and receive him as Lord. In the Mosaic Covenant, Israel was made by God to be a kingdom of priests, and later in the New Covenant, he extended priesthood (not the same priesthood) to all believers in Yeshua - Jews and Gentiles alike. There was another priesthood that was part of the Mosaic Covenant - the Levitical Priesthood - in which Aaron was the High Priest. Only Aaron could enter the Most Holy Place and then, only once a year on Yom Kippur . Under the Levitical Priesthood, ordinary priests could not enter the Most Holy Place, and were therefore limited in how close to God they could come. Today's Priesthood of Believers is a superior priesthood in that through our High Priest Yeshua, all believers in Yeshua can enter the Most Holy Place in Heaven, and draw closer to God than the Levitical priests could. It is one of the reasons that Hebrews 8:6 can state: But now the work Yeshua has been given to do is far superior to theirs, just as the covenant he mediates is better. For this covenant has been given as Torah on the basis of better promises.

Classical commentators

Maimonides and HaChinuch each wrote their mitzvot (RN68 and C184 respectively) as though the Holy Temple of God was still standing. They state that the High Priest can only enter the Temple's sanctuary at a prescribed time once a year. Meir did not write a mitzvah on the subject.

Classical sources

Maimonides

Maimonides (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, 12th century) organized all 613 Torah commandments into a structured list. These linked items show where this Law of Messiah commandment overlaps with that classical framework.

Source and License

Based on The Law of Messiah - Torah from a New Covenant Perspective by Michael Rudolph and Daniel C. Juster.

Volume 1 & 2 | Volume 3

License: CC BY-ND 4.0 (Attribution required, NoDerivatives). CC BY-ND 4.0

Disclaimer: the original content is authored by Rabbi Michael Rudolph and Rabbi Daniel Juster; additional notes or implementation details on this website are not part of their original work and do not represent their views.

Record source: The Law of Messiah - Torah from a New Covenant Perspective - Volume 1 & 2

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