So that's why I faltered a little when Nancy Guthrie told me I needed a priest.
In The Lamb of God, she writes not about the Catholic priesthood but the Old Testament priesthood, She carefully explains the significance of their tribal headship (being of the tribe of Levi) and their clothes and their customs and why God gave them such specific duties. The people of Israel needed priests, she wrote. They needed someone to intercede before God on their behalf and to offer atonement for their sins. They couldn't atone for their sins on their own. That's why the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies once a year and that's why priests offered sacrifice after sacrifice.
We today still have the same problem. We cannot atone for our own sins. But we don't need Old Testament priests anymore. That's because one Priest has offered atonement once and for all. That Priest has done for us what we could not do for ourselves. He has offered not the blood of bulls or goats but His own blood, shed for the forgiveness of our sins. That Priest is Jesus - and we need Him.
It is said that Jesus fulfills the three primary Old Testament roles - prophet, priest, and king. People often talk about both Jesus' kingship and His prophecies but it is rare that we soak in the priesthood of Christ. The author of Hebrews loved this concept, though. His writings are rich and heavy with the theme of Jesus' betterness as a priest. See this in the following passage:
"The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he [Jesus] holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever." - Hebrews 7:23-28
We cannot wash away our sins ourselves. We need a priest to do it for us. But thank God that we have one, one named Jesus, who intercedes for us. Nancy Guthrie writes:
"Do you need to humbly acknowledge your need for this priest? You can have all the suspicion you'd like about the religious establishment, but you simply cannot ignore your desperate need for this priest. He who is clothed in holiness, glory, and beauty will represent you before God so that when God looks at you, he will see only absolute holiness, radiant glory, and rapturous beauty."
That is good news for us Protestants today, for we need a Priest.