If Jesus is the High Priest...?

Question

... a "go-between" or mediator between God and man, how is it that he is also considered God himself by some? Does anyone else see the contradiction?

1 Timothy 2:5 "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, a man, Christ Jesus,"

Hebrews 4:14 "Seeing, therefore, that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold onto [our] confessing of [him]."

Father K: Why not a reference from the scriptures?

Andrew S: Not that old saw! Try to stay focused. How can Jesus be oiur mediator if he is also God Almighty. Is he playing both sides?

rockinweasel: Is that the only scripture that those who believe in the trinity have to fall back on? How about some concrete evidence from somewhere else in the Bible if this is such a basic tenet of Christianity? And where does the holy spirit come in in all this? Can't very well have a TRInity with only two!

rev r: are there scripture to back up all of those statements? You know very well that all of that doctrine couldn't have all come from the words "and the Word was God." So where did it come from?

Answer 1

Jesus is a high priest; sometimes called the Great High Priest

Answer 2

God is a spiritual being, or Deity, if you prefer. Jesus the Christ or Messiah, was "God with us" (the translation of Jesus or Yeshua), meaning that God dwelt awhile with us, as has been quoted from the book of John, and referred to by others here recognizing a "trinity". Jesus also prayed to "the Father" while on earth, according to the scriptures, showing that there is some sort of a duality, or separation. God, as Deity, cannot be touched with our physical sorrows, and espcially not with our sins and temptations to them. God as the Son of God, or Begotten of God, was able to feel as humans feel, and therefore can better understand and "go between" Men and Deity - bringing one to the other (just as no man has seen the Father but the one who left the heavenly places). There are, indeed, some things which are hard to understand. Even the passages which I copied into the other answer that I sent you about the priesthood explain, because we are human and have not experienced the Divine and the heavenly places yet. Now we see through a glass dimly, the KJV says, but then, face to face. Until then, live up to what you have attained - understanding that as God is recorded to have said in Genesis "let Us make man in Our image" and "He was with God in the beginning" means that God - or Godhood, or Godhead - is not a singular man-type, as was Jupiter.

Answer 3

TO MRS_NMDUCOTE (question asker)

FIRST OF ALL YOU AS ONE OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES
SHOULD KNOW THAT THE "WORD" OF GOD IS MORE THAN JUST NAMING VERSE. IT IS ALSO GUIDANCE BY THE HOLY SPIRIT AND RECIEVING UNDERSTANDING FROM GOD.

NO MATTER WHAT VERSES I PUT HERE YOU WILL STILL FIND SOMETHING WRONG WITH THEM.

MY PROOF?

"FATHER K" - HE TOLD YOU ABOUT THE TRINITY (HE BELIEVES AND TEACHES IT) YET YOU DENIED HIM.

"MYSELF" MY ANSWERE EXPLAINED AWAY THE TRINITY ( I DON'T BELIEVE OR TEACH THE TRINITY) AND YOU DID THE SAME WITH ME.

YOU HAVE YOUR OWN BIBLE, THE SAME THINGS THAT I STATED CAN BE FOUND BY STUDING IT AND PRAYING FOR GUIDANCE FROM THE HOLY SPIRIT.

(IF) YOU BECAME A CHRISTIAN WHEN YOU WERE BAPTISED AT THE AGE OF 11 YOU HAVE HAD MANY YEARS TO UNDERSTAND AND LEARN WHAT I AM SAYING.

IF YOU CAN'T DO IT (DON'T YOU HAVE ELDERS?) ARE NOT THEY SUPPOSED TO TEACH THIER FLOCK?

YOU ARE LOOKING FOR EITHER

1. TO HAVE A GOOD TIME MESSING AROUND WITH PEOPLE

OR

2. AN EASY FIX BECAUSE YOU ARE STARTING TO HAVE DOUBTS ABOUT YOUR OWN BELIEFS.

IF YOU HAVE DOUBTS WRITE THEM DOWN AND EMAIL ME AND I WILL BE GLAD TO HELP YOU OR PUT YOU IN TOUCH WITH SOMEONE WHO MAY BE CLOSER TO YOUR AREA.

I DON'T HAVE TIME TO PLAY YOUR SILLY GAMES, I AM TOO BUSY HERE IN THE PHILIPPINES TEACHING PEOPLE WHO (HAVE NO BIBLES) BUT! WANT TO LEARN AND UNDERSTAND.

I, (AS I AM SURE MANY OTHERS DID) CAME TO THIS PAGE TO TRY TO SHED LIGHT ON QUESTIONS OTHERS MIGHT HAVE AND MAY NOT BE ABLE TO FIND ANSWERS TO ANYWERE ELSE.

I CAN SEE ALREADY FROM THE SHORT TIME I HAVE BEEN HERE THAT THERE ARE MANY WHO REALLY NEED ANSWERS YET BECAUSE OTHERS LIKE TO PLAY GAMES, THEN THE TRUE SEEKERS ARE ALSO LED ASTRA.

SIRY ITNOFJ GOTP-AMEN!

NO: there is no contradiction,

everyone seems to forget that there was also a human life involved here too.

Look at it this way:

Spiritual = God
Jesus the human = the Son of God

When the human body of Jesus rose from the dead, so did the human mind and being of Jesus the human.

When Jesus ascended to Heaven it was the Human body and being that was transformed to spirit...

The God part did not need to be transformed (it's already God).

Jesus the Human that was transformed into spirit is now in Heaven acting as our "High Priest".

That is why there is no longer any need for the office of priest here on this earth.

A priest offered the cleansing sacrifices (Jesus made the final sacrifices)

A priest was mediator between man and God..(Jesus is now that mediator)

Jesus the Human transformed to spirit is our "mediator" our "High priest".

Answer 4

Yes...Jesus is referenced as a High Priest according to Melchizedek in Hebrew 6:20

Answer 5

We pray to the living God in the name of Jesus. Jesus was 100% man and 100% God.

Because we couldn't get it right (salvation) God had to do it for us, which he did by sending Jesus (See John 3:16-17)

God is spirit, Jesus was God in the flesh. (See John 1:1, 14)

Jesus is the only way to the living God (see John 14:6). He was the blood sacrifice that wiped out the wrath of the living God. Sin, any sin is an abomination in the eyes of the living God. That is why he gives us grace through the blood of Jesus Christ.

Peace be with you.

Answer 6

in the first couple of verses of John, it says the "Word was with God and the Word was God." "The Word" there refers to Jesus, so Jesus is God. He is God as a part of the holy trinity, although he is also the high priest, a "go-between" between God and man. It's something we can not understand.

Answer 7

No contradiction, IF you understand basic Christian Doctrine 101: The Holy Trinity.

Here....read and learn:

http://www.ccel.org/creeds/athanasian.creed.html

Answer 8

No...
John 1:1-2
In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.He(Jesus) was in the begging with God.

John 1:14
And the word became flesh and dwelt among us...

Word=God
Word=flesh=(Jesus)
Word=Jesus

The Bible says that Jesus is Lord...and God.

Answer 9

I got this off the www.watchtower.org website:

Philippians 2:5-8
Keep this mental attitude in YOU that was also in Christ Jesus, who (hos), although he was existing (huparcho - to begin below, to make a beginning; archomai means to be the first to do (anything)) in (en) God’s (theos - if theos needs 'ho' before it to mean the Supreme God, where is it here?) form (morphe - external appearance), gave no consideration (hegeomai - to lead, to go before; as in hegemony?) to a seizure (harpagmos - seizing, robbery), namely, that he should be equal (isos - elsewhere translated as 'agree together', or 'as much') to God. No, but he emptied himself and took a slave’s form and came to be in the likeness of men. More than that, when he found himself in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient as far as death, yes, death on a torture stake.

Paul is encouraging everyone (hekastos) to look after other people's things, not just their own. Although Jesus was esteemed as God (prior to appearance on earth, perhaps as the word of God in scriptures such as Jonah 1:1?), he did not lead a seizure to agree together with God. In the book, "Collapse of Chaos", it says that metaphor is a step up from comprehension because "comprehend" means "with grasping". Monkey's tails are prehensile because they can grasp things. Jesus certainly didn't lead a procession of animals to take God's position. It might seem odd until you consider the very odd capability of the demons (meaning 'distributors of fates and fortunes') to complain in a grandiose way just to get their jollies - and I think they're involved with the misbehaviour of wild beasts as well, which is why I am reticent to believe that first century Christians were really torn apart by them. Consider Daniel in the lion's den. Tacitus only said that it was those 'called Christian' who were subject to brutal treatment. He also said that they were criminals who deserved punishment which doesn't fit with 1 Peter 3:14, or maybe it might, on second glance. The word translated "yea" in Genesis 3:1 ('aph) means "furthermore, indeed". It could be a challenge to the longevity of God's decrees. Did he really mean it for keeps? This is the sort of nit-picking the Devil and the demons need to go to to find something wrong with God's ways.

The Bible is metaphor. The procession of animals (and it's a tenuous link, I think, because I volunteered the meaning of monkey's tails for an understanding of "comprehension"; although, compare Romans 1:23) could be applicable to the parable at Matthew 13:47-50. "Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." It's not enough just to be "in the net" if Jesus has no intention of leading processions of animals. So what does this mean about being a mediator?

Colossians 1:19 says: "because [God] saw good for all fullness to dwell in him." I don't know why people insist on putting "God" or the "Father" to show who it was pleasing to. Fullness here is "pleroma" - that which is (has been) filled - a ship inasmuch as it is filled (i.e. manned) with sailors,
rowers, and soldiers.

This fits with the stake/cross analogy being part of a boat or ship. Compare Habakkuk 1:14, 15 for the wicked foe's use of a dragnet.

Why a seizure? This fits with the Biblical understanding of epilepsy - seleniazomai (moonstruck). Hysteria is similar to epilepsy, I think, because women might not want to, or be able to, or commit adultery and lose ability to (due to the interference of a moralising doctor) have their own children (although they might want to adopt) depending on their reaction to scenarios such as Isaiah 57:5, such as Freud's patients, Katharina and Lucy R. This goes back to Romans 1:26. I would like to know why the cow jumps over the moon! I think the influence of other women, who may or may not be good examples of Biblical femininity (probably not, for the purposes of this argument) might be part of the equation here. This explains the "gay" appearance of Lucifer. He doesn't mind taking the stereotypical female role on if he feels like it. Jesus wouldn't resort to those sorts of carryings-on because he's in a different ballpark.

However Philippians 1:9-11 shows why people exalt Jesus - because God already has. It says that every knee should bend, although it doesn't say to pray to him.

The effect of making Jesus' words the power behind his message is that it becomes mythology, superstitious and criminal. Criminals depend absolutely in getting the wording right. They can't see metaphor, because cults play havoc with people's sense of fine culture. Jesus was the Word, but he did his Father's will. The apostle Paul also said that he came with words AND power (to heal). Healing does take place by means of prayer. Without it, we would be at the mercy of doctors with no conscience.

Answer 10

he is part of God .. the physical part ... the emodiment of the sacrifice and covenant with man and without going through Him there is no way to be justified in Gods eyes ... that makes Him the high priest ...