Today’s text brings us back to where the epistle started, picking up the theme once again of Christ sitting down on the “on the right hand of the greatness on high” (Heb. 1:3). The Lord Jesus has sat down on the throne of God at His right hand.

We have a High Priest who is exalted to the highest place—there is no place higher than the “right hand of the throne of the greatness in the heavens.” In fact, His place is also described as “higher than the heavens” (7:26). If there were a higher place, He would be there, for He is worthy.

In our modern vernacular, we throw around superlatives and adjectives in a rather loose way to the point where they can lose their meaning. We say for example that an everyday mundane event or subject is “awesome.” However, the Bible is not so free with its descriptions. When it calls the throne of God the throne of “greatness,” it is exactly that. And our High Priest is seated there! The One who bore my sins on earth is now crowned with glory and honor at the right hand of God. Where, then, are my sins? Every ray of that glory is a testimony to the fact that my sins are gone. He is “always living” to intercede for us and appears “before the face of God for us” (7:25; 9:24).

J. N. Darby once said, “Since the resurrection of Christ, any thought or teaching which presents an earthly priesthood is satanic.” This is important to remember. There is a story of an elderly woman dying in the hospital when a “priest” entered her room to give her “the last rites.” She said, “Let me see your hands,” which the cleric did. She then said, “Please leave my room, for my Priest has nail prints in His hands.”