Day 2244 – Hebrews-8 – God's Son - Our High Priest – Daily Wisdom

Welcome to Day 2244 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
Hebrews-8 God's Son - Our High Priest – Daily Wisdom
Putnam Church Message – 06/04/2023

“God’s Son – Our High Priest” Hebrews 5:1-10

Last week, we continued our extended series through the book of Hebrews in the New Testament. We learned how the Great Physician will perform Spiritual Surgery in Hebrews 4:12-16. Today, we will learn how God’s Son is also our High Priest.

 

In the first section of Hebrews (1-4), we saw clear and compelling proof that Christ is superior in His person. We saw Him standing in a place of preeminence over the prophets (1:1–3) and shining brighter than the angels (chapters 1–2). He stands out over Moses and Joshua (chapters 3–4). And His ministry provides a more significant spiritual rest than the Law, while His word reaches deep into our hearts to heal us (chapter 4).

 

In the second part of Hebrews (5–10), the author delves deeper into another side of the book's central theme. He expands on the concept of the Messiah’s preeminence over the old covenant Law and priesthood already touched on in chapter 4. Now he presents specific examples of how Jesus’ heavenly priesthood is superior to the earthly priesthood (chapter 5), just as much as the new covenant promises are greater than those of the old covenant (chapters 6–7), and His once-for-all sacrifice for sin is greater than the whole Mosaic sacrificial system (chapters 8–10).

The Jewish believers in Jesus, who were the original recipients of the book of Hebrews, needed to firm their understanding of the Messiah’s superior priesthood. At the time, the Jews usually thought of the Messiah as a future, earthly king who would sit in Jerusalem as a powerful monarch. The idea of the Messiah performing a heavenly ministry as their High Priest—at the Father's right hand—wasn’t something they would have pondered. By showing that the Messiah was not only meant to be King but also a Priest, the author of Hebrews further strengthens his theme: Christ is superior in His person and work.

Let’s begin by reading today’s passage in the Pew Bibles on pages 1866-1867.

5 Every high Priest is selected from among the people and is appointed to represent the people in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness. 3 This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people. 4 And no one takes this honor on himself, but he receives it when called by God, just as Aaron was.

5 In the same way, Christ did not take on himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him,

“You are my Son;
today I have become your Father.”[a]

6 And he says in another place,...

Welcome to Day 2244 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
Hebrews-8 God's Son - Our High Priest – Daily Wisdom
Putnam Church Message – 06/04/2023

“God’s Son – Our High Priest” Hebrews 5:1-10

Last week, we continued our extended series through the book of Hebrews in the New Testament. We learned how the Great Physician will perform Spiritual Surgery in Hebrews 4:12-16. Today, we will learn how God’s Son is also our High Priest.

 

In the first section of Hebrews (1-4), we saw clear and compelling proof that Christ is superior in His person. We saw Him standing in a place of preeminence over the prophets (1:1–3) and shining brighter than the angels (chapters 1–2). He stands out over Moses and Joshua (chapters 3–4). And His ministry provides a more significant spiritual rest than the Law, while His word reaches deep into our hearts to heal us (chapter 4).

 

In the second part of Hebrews (5–10), the author delves deeper into another side of the book's central theme. He expands on the concept of the Messiah’s preeminence over the old covenant Law and priesthood already touched on in chapter 4. Now he presents specific examples of how Jesus’ heavenly priesthood is superior to the earthly priesthood (chapter 5), just as much as the new covenant promises are greater than those of the old covenant (chapters 6–7), and His once-for-all sacrifice for sin is greater than the whole Mosaic sacrificial system (chapters 8–10).

The Jewish believers in Jesus, who were the original recipients of the book of Hebrews, needed to firm their understanding of the Messiah’s superior priesthood. At the time, the Jews usually thought of the Messiah as a future, earthly king who would sit in Jerusalem as a powerful monarch. The idea of the Messiah performing a heavenly ministry as their High Priest—at the Father's right hand—wasn’t something they would have pondered. By showing that the Messiah was not only meant to be King but also a Priest, the author of Hebrews further strengthens his theme: Christ is superior in His person and work.

Let’s begin by reading today’s passage in the Pew Bibles on pages 1866-1867.

5 Every high Priest is selected from among the people and is appointed to represent the people in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness. 3 This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people. 4 And no one takes this honor on himself, but he receives it when called by God, just as Aaron was.

5 In the same way, Christ did not take on himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him,

“You are my Son;
today I have become your Father.”[a]

6 And he says in another place,

“You are a priest forever,
in the order of Melchizedek.”[b]

7 During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8 Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9 and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him 10 and was designated by God to be high Priest in the order of Melchizedek.

Let’s start with a story of Job in his suffering. Crumpled in a pile of ashes and scraping himself with a shard of broken pottery, Job bemoaned his condition, as three well-meaning friends tried desperately to find the cause for his seemingly unjust plight. Amid his moans of pain and sorrow, his lament turned upward and forward. Deep in his soul, he yearned for someone—anyone—to rise from the dust and ashes of earthly suffering to present humanity’s case before the throne of God. Job longed for an advocate, a mediator, a representative who could stand for his cause. Job speaks for all suffering humanity with his pitiful words in Job 9:32–35:

“God is not a mortal like me,

so I cannot argue with him or take him to trial.

If only there were a mediator between us,

someone who could bring us together.

The mediator could make God stop beating me,

and I would no longer live in terror of his punishment.

Then I could speak to him without fear,

but I cannot do that in my own strength.”

The good news for which Job longed with prophetic anticipation is that we have such an Advocate. As if answering Job’s plea, the apostle Paul proclaimed, in 1 Timothy 2:5, There is one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus.

As both God and man, Jesus Christ is the perfect Advocate. The one for whom Job searched has appeared as the Apostle Paul wrote in Gal. 4:4–5: 4 But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. 5 God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.[a]

 

Jesus Christ mediates between God and us as our great High Priest,/ continually interceding on our behalf. We no longer need a frail,/ mortal human priest to present our cause before God, /offer sacrifices for us, /or represent God to us. Because of our relationship with the heavenly High Priest, we can draw near to God through Him. We can confess to Him our sins,/ bring Him our needs, /and present our requests. And most importantly, our High Priest is not some subordinate—a finite creature who needs his own mediator or has to cope with his sins. /He is the eternal Son who has made humanity perfect because of His full divinity. He is superior as our High Priest.

 

The original, first-century Jewish readers of Hebrews would have fully grasped the idea of a high priest. They were well acquainted with the system of sacrifices, rituals, blood, altars, fire, incense, and prayers, offered on behalf of God’s chosen people, Israel. So when the author of Hebrews begins to compare and contrast the heavenly, eternal priesthood of the Messiah with the earthly, temporal priesthood of the Tabernacle and Temple, they would have had a clear picture. As we work through Hebrews 5:1–10, we’ll try to paint that picture for our twenty-first-century mindset and grasp the significance of Christ as our High Priest.

5:1–4

Hebrews 5 isn’t the first time the author referred to the high priestly office of Jesus. In 2:17, he wrote, 17 Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters,[a] so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. In 3:1, he urged his readers to, think carefully about this Jesus whom we declare to be God’s messenger[b] and High Priest. And at the end of Hebrews 4:14-15, he describes Jesus as the great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. 15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.

(Bulletin insert)

But in Hebrews 5, he earnestly begins his exploration of the Messiah as our High Priest. He starts by reminding his readers of something they were no doubt familiar with: the qualifications of the earthly priests. He lists three simple yet vital qualifications. First, the earthly Priest had to represent the people in matters related to God. He was their stand-in, representing the people before God and God before the people.

 

Second, he was to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. If people wanted to worship God by offering a gift, they had to do so through the Priest (5:1). There were no stipulations for bypassing the Priest in worshipping God. None of the people of God had the freedom to draw near to God apart from the Priest.

 

Third, he to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray. (5:1–4). Note the indications of the High Priest’s deficiencies:

He was a mere man from among men. (5:1)
He was hampered by common weaknesses. (5:2)
He was also sinful, like the people he represented. (5:3)
He had no honor in himself, but only from God. (5:4)


In these few verses, the author of Hebrews set up a fixed pattern of qualifications for the office of the High Priest and a tacit acknowledgment that every man who filled the office was imperfect. The concept of an advocate or a mediator was fine. The problem was in the nature of the mediator himself.

 

As the very first High Priest of the Hebrew people, Aaron is named as the primary model for the office (5:4). Yet even Aaron, /as great as he was,/ had been chosen from the people,/ was weak,  /sinned like all people,/ and had no honor in himself. Of course, they could dress him in priestly garments, give him a grand title, and endow him with holy responsibilities; but at the end of the day, he was just a human like you and me.

 

The fact is this: Such an imperfect priesthood was never meant to be permanent. God never intended for a priest to continually offer up sacrifices in an ongoing inadequate system. All along, God planned to pronounce “It is finished” one day and establish a permanent priesthood with a perfect Priest.

5:5–10

In Hebrews 5:5, the author compares and contrasts the earthly priesthood typified by Aaron and the heavenly priesthood established in Christ. The words “In the same way” compare with Aaron’s calling as Priest. In this respect, Jesus and Aaron are similar. Just as Aaron was “called by God” and was given honor (5:4), so Jesus, too, was appointed to His office by God the Father and endowed with glory in His capacity as High Priest (5:5). Yet here the comparison ends, because the author of Hebrews makes it clear that Christ’s honor and glory were not something merely bestowed, but something that was rightfully His as the divine Son of God.

 

By citing Psalm 2:7 again (Heb. 1:5), the author reminds us that Jesus is not merely qualified to be a priest, but also exalted as the Anointed King. Then, quoting Psalm 110:4, he draws the two offices together, firming up this identification of the Messiah as both King and Priest—a priest in the order of Melchizedek rather than the order of Aaron (Heb. 5:6, 10; see Gen. 17-20). 17 After Abram returned from his victory over Kedorlaomer and all his allies, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley).

18 And Melchizedek, the king of Salem and a priest of God Most High,[a] brought Abram some bread and wine. 19 Melchizedek blessed Abram with this blessing:

“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Creator of heaven and earth.
20 And blessed be God Most High,
who has defeated your enemies for you.”

Then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the goods he had recovered.

 

Melchizedek was the little-known King of Salem and High Priest BEFORE God established Aaron's priesthood. Here, the difference between Aaron’s earthly priesthood and Jesus’s heavenly priesthood stands in sharp contrast. In the order of Melchizedek, Christ is a “priest forever” (5:6). With that different priesthood comes many other distinctions to be addressed in more detail in Hebrews 7.

 

The author provides a brief glimpse in 5:7–9 of the life and character of Jesus as he operated in his priestly function during his earthly ministry, that is, “days of Jesus’ life on earth” (5:7). The next few statements remind us once again of His perfect, sinless humanity. Yes, He is God’s unique, one and only, only-begotten Son, enthroned eternally in the heavenly realm. But to prevent us from thinking of Jesus as otherworldly—as the aloof, cosmic figure like the “Jesus” of many icons and much artwork—the writer of Hebrews paints a picture of our Priest with realistic, earthy tones.

 

The Son of God submitted entirely to the Father’s will; he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death (5:7). Of course, Jesus was without sin because of His impeccable divine nature (4:15), and God ultimately answered His prayer for salvation from death by raising Him from the dead. In His submission as a true human who was subjected to the suffering of this world, the eternal Son of God also “learned obedience from what he suffered” (5:8). The verb translated “learned” is manthanō, which means here not simply “to acquire book smarts,” but “to come to a realization … less through instruction than through experience or practice.” Thinking of the nature of Christ’s “learned obedience,” one commentator put it: In considering the divine Son, it may be difficult to attach any meaning to the learning process, but in thinking of the Son as the perfect man, it becomes intelligible. When Luke says that Jesus advanced in learning (2:52), he means that by a progressive process, he showed by his obedience to the Father’s will a continuous making of God’s will his own, reaching its climax in his approach to death. The cry of acceptance in the garden of Gethsemane was the concluding evidence of the Son’s obedience to the Father.

 

In this way, the author of Hebrews can describe the Son of God as being made “perfect,” that is, complete. Jesus had completed His tasks on earth as a human. The continual life of obedience to the Father began when God the Son took on humanity in the Incarnation and climaxed in complete obedience with His “death on a cross” (Phil. 2:5–7)

5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.

6 Though he was God,[a]
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges[b];
he took the humble position of a slave[c]
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,[d]
8     he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

 

It’s not that the Son was imperfect and needed to be made perfect or that He was disobedient and needed to learn obedience. Jesus’ mission of total obedience was accomplished with His suffering and death. The earthly phase of His eternal priesthood was complete. As a result, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him  (Heb. 5:9).

 

APPLICATION: HEBREWS 5:1–10

Christ’s Perfect Priesthood … Applied – (Bulletin Insert)

Jesus is not one among many priests in a pantheon of heavenly intermediaries. There is one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus. (1 Tim. 2:5). Nor is He the heavenly High Priest over an earthly order of priests...