"Our High Priest"

by

Lee Frances Heller

A word about our High Priest, Jesus Christ, who was the sacrificial lamb without blemish. God would not accept the person who offered a sacrificial animal which had a blemish.

"That you may be accepted, you shall offer a male without blemish of the young bulls, the sheep or the goats. But you shall not offer anything which has a blemish, for it will not be acceptable for you." (Leviticus 22:19-20)

"But you were purchases with the precious blood of Christ, the Messiah, like that of a sacrificial lamb without blemish or spot." (1 Peter 1:19)

"Whereas the one (Christ), after He had offered a single sacrifice for our sins( that shall avail) for all time, sat down at the right hand of God." (Hebrews 10:12 All quotes from the Amplified Bible)

Bear with me. There is a point to all of this.

"Let us, then, hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we have a great High Priest who has gone into the very presence of God - Jesus, the Son of God. Our High Priest is not one who cannot feel sympathy for our weaknesses. On the contrary, we have a High priest who was tempted in every way we are, but did not sin. Let us have confidence then, and approach God's throne where there is Grace. There we will receive Mercy and find Grace to help us just when we need it." (Hebrews 4:14-16. The Good News Bible, Today's English Version. Am. Bible Society.)

As crossdressers (CDs), we are all prone to feel something is standing between us and God. It is not the "sin" of Cding, for the simple reason Cding is not a sin. What stands between us and God is the sinful nature with which we were born. Cding does not add to our sinfulness. This is the universal sin we were born with; inherited from Adam. Thus the "Adamic nature" we hear about. Our first expression of it was in babyhood when we couldn't even talk yet, when we learned what no-no meant, but went ahead and did it anyhow. Rebellion. If we were forcibly stopped from doing something we wanted to but shouldn't do, we fussed and fumed, or, in some cases, threw a temper tantrum which is a display of the Adamic (sinful) nature.

"Yes, I crossdress, but …." Wow-dee-dow! Now comes the litany of "(But) I am not an immoral person, I don't lie or cheat, I am not a greedy person, I never deliberately hurt my fellow man. I am an upstanding member of my community and a credit to my employer and I am a good provider and love my family dearly. The only fault I have is Cding and that hurts no one." With all of that rationalization and pacification, you are uncomfortable in your relationship with God. Could it be you are attempting to justify your self before God on the basis of what you are not? Let's see.

There was a fellow in Jesus' time, a Pharisee, who was going to the temple to pray. Another fellow was going for the same purpose, but he was a tax collector. In those days tax collectors were independent contractors The government told them how much money they expected from a given area. A tax collector was assigned and he was the one who determined the amount of you tax, and they really laid it on everyone, and especially the poor suffered under the tax burden. The tax collector kept for his remuneration everything above this specified amount the government wanted from his territory. The collector was a hated, miserable worm and a poor excuse for a human being.

So there they go. Two men widely divergent in philosophy and social station in life; yet both seeking the same God. The self-righteous Pharisee prayed:

"The Pharisee took his stand ostentatiously and began to pray thus before and with himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not as the rest of men, - extortioners, swindlers, unrighteous in heart and life adulterers, - or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and I give tithes of all that I gain.' (Luke 18:11-12 Amplified Bible)

Pity the poor tax collector listening to all the "Holy am I" stuff.

"But the tax collector, (merely), standing at a distance, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but kept striking his breast. Saying, 'O God, be favorable (be gracious, be merciful) to me, especially wicked sinner that I am!'

But I tell you, this man went down to his home justified (forgiven and made upright and in right standing with God) rather than the other man; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke 18:13-14 Amplified)

There is no sense in being Pharisee-like before God. To try to justify our Cding by saying, "Well, women wear pants and men's shirts and now men's boxer shorts," followed up by what a good person you are. That rationalization just won't fly. It's only when we realize the toll sin has taken on our lives and become aware we can in no way make up to God; it is then that we can avail ourselves of the impact of the Cross. God, in the person of Jesus Christ, paid the death penalty He demanded for sin (the soul that sins shall die Ezekiel 18:4). He paid for our sins. We could never pay for our sins, nor can we repay the Christ of God for what He has done for us.

In all of this I am trying to say that God takes no joy in our suffering. The satanic forces do. As long as we believe the lie that Cding is a cardinal sin against God is just how long we will suffer. In faith, do what the tax collector did.