Hebrews 5

Hebrews 5:1-4

The Typical Priesthood of Aaron In the first four chapters of this epistle, the Holy Spirit has shown us the superiority of our Lord Jesus Christ over the angels, over Moses, and over Joshua. All these were highly venerated by the Jews. Perhaps the only thing more highly venerated by them was their sabbath observance. In the fourth chapter, he displayed Christ’s superiority over that as well, showing us that Christ is the true Sabbath and that the sabbath rest of faith in him is indescribably better than the observance of legal sabbath days. In the chapter before us we see the superiority of Christ as our great High Priest over Aaron and all the Levitical priest of the legal dispensation. This seems to have been in the back of his mind all along. I say that because he has mentioned Christ’s priesthood twice before (Hebrews 2:17-18; Hebrews 4:14-15). Only One Priest The Holy Spirit’s purpose, throughout this epistle, is to show us that the Lord Jesus Christ is the sinner’s only access to God. He is the only priest there is between God and man. In fact, he is the only Priest there ever was between God and man. All the priests of the Old Testament were only types and pictures of him. All the pretended priests of all religious orders since the end of the Mosaic age are impostors. The Lord Jesus Christ is the only Priest by whom sinners may draw near to God and God draws near to sinners. When God gave the law to Moses at Mt. Sinai, he instituted an earthly, human priesthood, a priesthood by which sinners could approach him, worship him, and offer gifts and sacrifices to him. The Lord decreed that these priests must be descended from the tribe of Levi and the family of Aaron. Therefore, it is referred to as the Levitical or Aaronic priesthood. There was one other divinely ordained priesthood mentioned in the Old Testament, that of Melchizedek. You will remember him from Genesis 14. It was this man, Melchizedek, who brought bread and wine to Abraham and blessed him, to whom Abraham paid tithes. This was done long before any law was given by God concerning either the priesthood or tithes. That fact is important because, in Hebrews 5, the Holy Spirit shows us that the Lord Jesus Christ is, like Melchizedek, a priest in every way superior to Aaron. In Hebrews 5:1-4, he gives us a description of Aaron’s priesthood and shows us how it was a type and picture of our Lord’s priesthood. A Man Every typical high priest under the law was a man. He was a common man, taken out from among them (Exodus 28:1). He was ordained and invested with this great office by that special anointing with oil ordained by God. He was made a priest that he might represent the people of the chosen nation in things pertaining to God. The high priest presided over Israel in all matters of worship in the name of God, appeared before God in their stead, presented their gifts and sacrifices to God, and blessed them in God’s name. God’s high priest stood between God and men. The Lord Jesus Christ is our High Priest. We must never attempt to go to God except through Christ. We cannot expect any mercy or favor from God except through Christ. Israel’s high priest was a just a man. All the priests of the Old Testament were weak and sinful men. Yet, they were compassionate, men who understood and sympathized with the people in their ignorance and in their transgressions of the law. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, became a man and knows our frame (Hebrews 4:15; Psalms 103:14). A Sinful Man When the high priest brought a sin-offering and made atonement for the people, he first had to offer an atonement for his own sin, and then for the people. The priests were sinners, too. As such, they needed mercy. Israel’s high priest even had to make atonement for the holy things (Exodus 28:37-38). Our Lord Jesus Christ is different. He had no sin (Hebrews 7:27). Divinely Appointed No man volunteered for the office of high priest, but was called to it (Hebrews 5:4-5). The office of high priest was an office of the highest honor. It involved the work of representing the people before God. Only those men who were appointed and ordained of God were allowed to function as priests in Israel. Any who dared, like Uzziah the king, to take the honor to themselves would suffer grave consequences and be brought to public shame. Even Christ himself did not take this high and holy office unto himself. Neither did he receive it from men. He did not acquire it by family heritage, because he was of the tribe of Judah. He was not, as a man, of the Levitical, priestly, order. Our Lord was made a Priest. God the Father made him our High Priest. The Father appointed him to the office, anointed him with the oil of gladness above his fellows and sent him to execute it (John 8:54).

Hebrews 5:5-10

The Superiority of Christ Over Aaron In these verses the Holy Spirit shows Christ’s fitness as our great High Priest by contrasting his priesthood with Aaron’s. Aaron and the other high priests in Israel were types and pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ as our great High Priest. Like our Savior, those priests were men of flesh who understood and had compassion upon their fellow creatures. They were chosen and appointed of God to be high priests. They were intercessors, mediators between God and men. They offered blood sacrifices for sin. The Contrasts Yet, in many ways, the priesthood of Christ cannot be typified by men. Those priests of the Old Testament age were many. Christ is the one High Priest. – Their priesthood was only temporary. Our Lord’s priesthood is eternal (Hebrews 7:1-3). – Those priests offered many sacrifices. Our Savior offered only one (Hebrews 10:12). – Those priests offered the blood of others. The Lord Jesus gave his own life’s blood as an offering to God for us (Hebrews 9:12). – The sacrifices offered by those priests of the Mosaic age could not put away sin. The one sacrifice of Christ has effectually put away all the sins of all God’s elect forever (Hebrews 10:14). – The work of the priests of that carnal, ceremonial dispensation was never finished. – The Son of God, our Savior, finished the work given to him (John 17:4; John 19:30; Hebrews 10:11-14). The Days of His Flesh We are told, concerning our great High Priest, that “in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and (he) was heard in that he feared.” I have no doubt that there is much, much more in those words than I have yet understood; but that which is obvious is both delightful and comforting to my soul. “The days of his flesh” refer to our Lord’s temporary earthly life. He is still in that body in which he suffered the wrath of God for us and in which he was raised from the dead. There is a Man in glory! And that Man who is our God in human flesh will never put aside our nature. While our Savior dwelt upon this earth as our Representative, being numbered and identified with transgressors, he offered prayers, and supplications to the Father, with tears. Do you see how truly and fully human he is? He who is our Redeemer, our Savior, our great High Priest, is fully God and fully man. He lived in this world both in complete faithfulness and by perfect faith. When he knelt in the Garden, anticipating being made sin for us, the weight of our sin crushed his very heart. However, we must never imagine that our Savior prayed that he might be kept from dying as our Substitute, or even from being made sin for us. He came into this world for that purpose. His determination to fulfill his covenant engagements for the glory of his Father and the salvation of our souls never wavered. His prayer described here was a prayer of reverence, consecration, and worship. This Man “feared” God as no other man ever could, not that he might be kept from dying, but that he might be delivered from death. He was heard because he was perfectly righteous and holy in nature and in conduct. Having fully satisfied the law and justice of God for sin, our Savior was raised from the dead and declared to be the Son of God. He was thus “delivered” from death and the grave. We are delivered from death in him. He said, “He that believeth on me shall never die.” The Things He Suffered “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.” As a Man, as our Mediator and Substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ learned obedience by that which he suffered. If the Man Christ Jesus would be our Savior, he must be “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” God spared his Son nothing (Romans 8:32). He suffered all that we deserved, both in his life and in his death. Let no one deceive you in this matter. Suffering is not an indication of God’s disfavor or disapproval. None of God’s children in this world are exempt from suffering (John 16:33). We must all enter into the kingdom of God through much tribulation. Though he is the Son of God, the Lord Jesus himself could not bring in everlasting righteousness and could not put away the sins of his people, satisfying all the demands of God’s holy law and infinite justice, without the things he suffered as our Substitute (Luke 24:44-47). The Author of Eternal Salvation Rejoice in this. – The sufferings of our Savior are gloriously effectual! “Being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.” That salvation which Christ accomplished for and gives to his people is an eternal salvation. It is given to those, only those and all those, who obey him, who believe the gospel. Being perfect in his obedience in life and in death, Christ became the author of a perfect, eternal salvation to all who believe on him. He gives us a perfect righteousness before the law and a perfect justification before the throne (2 Corinthians 5:21). He gives his sheep eternal life, “and they shall never perish.” We are assured that our salvation in Christ is an “eternal salvation,” because he is an everlasting Priest with an everlasting priesthood. He is “an high priest after the order of Melchisedec.”

Hebrews 5:8

“Though He Were A Son…” The Lord Jesus Christ is uniquely and pre-eminently the Son of God. All who are chosen, redeemed, and born of God, all true believers, are the sons of God by adoption and grace. What a great, high honor and privilege that is (Galatians 4:6-7; Romans 8:17; 1 John 3:1). But our Lord Jesus Christ is uniquely and pre-eminently the Son of God in that he is the “only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Distinctive Sonship Christ is the eternally begotten Son of the Father, one with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the Holy Trinity (1 John 5:7). Our Lord Jesus Christ, as a man, is the only begotten Son of God in this sense also: – He is the virgin born Son (Galatians 4:4-5). And our great Savior is uniquely and pre-eminently the Son of God, the only begotten Son, in his resurrection glory and exaltation as the firstborn among many brethren (Acts 13:27-33; Psalms 2:7; Hebrews 1:5-6; Hebrews 5:5). Learned Obedience Though he lived in this world as the Son of God, uniquely and pre-eminently the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ learned obedience as a man by the things he suffered. Obedience is voluntary subjection to the will of another. If it is not voluntary, it is only outward compliance, not obedience (Hebrews 10:5; John 10:16-18). Obedience is owning the authority of another, performing the pleasure of another. When the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world, he came here, as Jehovah’s servant to do his will as a man. He was made under the law that he might obey, establish, fulfill and satisfy the law as a man. This obedience was essential to his priesthood and to our salvation. While he volunteered to become obedient, he actually entered into the experience of obedience by the things he suffered as a man. He learned obedience by the things he suffered. As Jehovah’s voluntary Servant, our Savior denied himself, pleased not himself (Romans 15:3), and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:5-8). Though he was and is the Son of God, uniquely and pre-eminently the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ learned obedience by the things which he suffered. What were those things which he suffered? They are the very things his people suffer in this world. He suffered poverty (Luke 2:12), endured the temptations of the devil (Matthew 4:3), and the unjustified slander of men (John 10:36). He suffered bereavement, misunderstanding and misrepresentation by both his own disciples and the world. He suffered the betrayal by one who claimed to be and should have been his friend, desertion by men who were loved by him, and sorrow like no man ever suffered sorrow (The Garden). He suffered being abandoned by his Father. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered death, the painful, shameful, ignominious death of the cross, as our Substitute!

Hebrews 5:11-6

“Let Us Go On” I am aware that Hebrews 6 is one of the most controversial chapters in the New Testament. Heretics frequently point to the opening verses of this chapter and use them to try to prove that saved men and women may be lost again, that those who are the objects of God’s grace today may be the objects of his wrath tomorrow. Of course, that is both nonsense and blasphemy. Immutable Grace The gifts and callings of God are without repentance. His mercy, love, and grace are unchangeable. The grace of God is both immutable and indestructible (Malachi 3:6). His salvation is forever. He gives eternal life to whom he will, and declares that those to whom eternal life is given in Christ are saved forever. – “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish!” Instruction, not Debate This is also a chapter about which faithful men, men who believe and preach the gospel of God’s free and sovereign grace in Christ, are often in disagreement. It is not my intention here to explore or settle those conflicts of interpretation. I gladly leave that task to those who enjoy such things. My desire is to give the instructions set before us in this passage of Inspiration, not to debate the questions men raise about it. The fact is, this is a very instructive, encouraging passage of Scripture. If you will read the entire passage carefully, beginning at chapter 5 Hebrews 5:11, you will see that the Spirit of God has specific reasons for giving us the instruction found in these verses. Please, take a moment now to read Hebrews 5:11 to Hebrews 6:3. Perseverance and Maturity These things are written to encourage us to persevere in the faith of Christ, to continue looking to, trusting, following, and obeying Christ. These words were written during a time of great apostasy, much like the day in which we live (2 Thessalonians 2:11-14; Revelation 20:7-9). The Holy Spirit here encourages believers to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. We do not grow in acceptance with God; but we must grow in grace. We do not grow in our position of favor before God; but we must grow in the knowledge of Christ. And this passage of Inspiration is intended to encourage those who are still babes in Christ to “go on unto perfection,” maturity in the things of God. – The passage is designed to encourage us to seek spiritual maturity, seeking to be strong, well-established, well-grounded, useful believers.