# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1928_S8
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

8 Proceedings of the thirty-first convention

shown. They simply preached Jesus as the divine High Priest. They painted
him before their contemporaries, in inspired words, in his high-priestly glory.
Paul says in 1 Cor. 2:2: "I held myself not to know anything among you except
Jesus Christ, the Crucified." In this way
they overcame the enmity against him as the right, true High Priest. In other
words, the message of Jesus' high-priestly office proved itself divine and
overcame the hearts that at first resisted it. It is a wonderful property of
the Word of the cross that it contains in itself the power to produce faith in
its truth and its divine origin. Thus it came about, for example, that when
Paul preached this Word in Thessalonica, the people who were converted there
received it not as the word of men but, as it truly is, as the Word of God.
"The words that I speak, they are spirit and they are life," says
Christ of his own preaching, and this contains precisely the chief part of the
Gospel that we are now discussing. This we also want to keep well in view in
our discussions this year, if God gives us grace. We do not want to try to
develop and establish the doctrine of Jesus' high-priestly work
philosophically; rather we want simply to go to Scripture, where this doctrine
stands, and what is written there we want to tell one another and bear
witness to one another. This will help us in our glorious calling to proclaim
and teach this part of the divine truth with power and clarity. We shall come
to know this precious message better and therefore be able to preach it
better to our fellow men. When we go into the supposed arguments of the
opponents and refute them, we want to remain aware that such demonstrations
are not the main thing and that only one thing can win hearts for the truth,
namely the Gospel itself, whose core is precisely the doctrine of Jesus'
high priesthood.

What Scripture says on this subject I have tried to summarize in the
following propositions:

1. Jesus is called our High Priest in Scripture, and his work is described
in terms taken from the sacrificial service. It is also attested that God
himself called him to this office.

2. Jesus Christ, true God and man, possesses the qualifications needed to be
our true High Priest.

3. Jesus' high-priestly work lies in part in the past. This part consisted in
his bringing about reconciliation between God and the world.

4. Jesus accomplished this reconciliation through his vicarious fulfillment of
the Law and through his vicarious suffering and death.

5. As High Priest, Jesus fulfilled what was foreshadowed or prefigured by the
high priests of the Old Covenant and by their sacrifices.

6. Jesus is our only High Priest; outside him there is no salvation. But he is
also our eternal High Priest; his work is fully valid for all eternity.

7. While Jesus' high-priestly work took place for all, only those become
partakers of the blessing of this work who cling to him in faith.

8. Jesus is still at work now as our High Priest, in that he represents us
before God and blesses us.