GOD HAS SPOKEN BY HIS SON
Meditations in Hebrews
Hebrews 5:5-6
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HAVING described the office of a priest, the apostle goes on to show how Jesus perfectly fulfils the office of priest in every respect and provides for his people a perfect meditation before God, and a full acceptance with God. He does this in the verses that follow and in the chapters that follow as he works out in detail the way Jesus completely fulfils all the duties of a priest, and so gains eternal redemption for those who accept him as their priest. With Jesus as such a perfect and all-sufficient priest, it is amazing why people should still look to, and cling to, an earthly and human priesthood, which in every way fails to meet our needs before God, but it is so, and is still seen in large sections of the church in the world. It is understandable that human beings aspire to the office of a priest because it gives a high position over other people and a power over them, but this is not a worthy motive, even if it includes the sincere desire to serve.
In these few verses in chapter 5 of Hebrews Paul gives a more general appraisal of the priesthood of Jesus, which he then enlarges upon in the chapters that follow. Nonetheless let us glean what we may from these verses to see how precious Jesus is as our priest for every believing soul.
In the first place we find Jesus fulfilling the essential qualification for a priest in that he received his priesthood by direct appointment and call of God. The office of a priest is one of great honour, and so only those who are called by God qualify for such an honour. It has been known with earthly ministry for men to desire the honour of being a minister over a congregation because of the authority and prestige it gives, but have been totally unsuited for this ministry because they have not been called by God. This is to fail the people to whom they minister, and endanger their souls. The priesthood of Jesus has all the authority of the call of God, and so he is entirely fitted for his priesthood. There is great glory in being a priest, but Jesus did not take this glory to himself but was called by God to it.
This call of Jesus to the priesthood is declared in two ways in the Old Testament. Firstly it is declared in the pronouncement of God revealed in Psalm two verse 7, where Jesus is declared by God to be the only begotten Son. Because Jesus is the only begotten Son of God he is fully qualified for the office of priest. This appointment by God of Jesus to his eternal priesthood was reaffirmed at the beginning of his ministry on earth, when after he had submitted to baptism, God spoke from heaven and declared Jesus to be his one and only Son in whom he was well pleased. Only one co-equal with God the Father, and co-eternal and truly God could possibly be fitted for this so demanding and high office. It is because Jesus is the Son of God, very God of very God, that he is fitted for this priestly office. No human being, even if they were without sin could be fitted for it. The Old Testament priesthood was appointed by God, but only until the true priest came, and in all their ministrations it was their office to point to and declare the true priest, even the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ.
The prophecy in Psalm 2:7 speaks of today as a time when Jesus became designated as the Son. This may suggest that the Sonship of Jesus was not eternal, and such a thought is not supported by the revelation of the whole Bible. The idea of today is, I believe, to accommodate to our conception of time, and so give us a point of reference for the authority of Jesus to be called to his priestly office. It does not mean that his priesthood was not eternal as the next evidence of his call makes clear. The priesthood of Jesus rises out of the counsels of the Trinity concerning the salvation of human kind before the foundation of the world.
The second evidence brought forward by the apostle here for the authority of Jesus to be the priest of God, and that he alone is the only one fitted for this office, and is the only one needed for this office is in verse 6, and is a quotation from Psalm 110:4. This Psalm is evidently a Messianic prophecy, showing the eternal glory of Jesus as King, Priest and Saviour. In this prophecy Jesus is declared to have an eternal priesthood after the order of Melchizedek. Later in Hebrews the significance and meaning of Melchizedek is dealt with in detail, so we need not discuss it here. However we can take to heart the fact that the priesthood of Jesus is an eternal priesthood. He is a priest for all eternity. He was appointed to this office before time. In time he carried out the office of priest in providing a perfect and all-sufficient sacrifice for sin, and so ending once for all the need of any further sacrifice for sin. He continues as a priest before God now in the heavenly glory eternally presenting his perfect sacrifice before the judge of all the earth as sufficient and full grounds for the justification of his believing people for ever.
Jesus still is our priest acting for us. We need no other priest to represent us before God, and to suggest that we do need some earthly human priest to represent us is dreadfully dishonouring to Christ, and makes him out to be an inadequate priest for us. Why turn to an earthly priest for mediation when we have a perfect advocate before God, Jesus Christ the righteous, who fully assuages the wrath of God against us for our sins, and wins for us the gift of eternal life and adoption in to the family of God.
We must leave off here, but we shall consider next time the perfection of the work of Jesus as priest here on earth from the next four verses.