GOD HAS SPOKEN BY HIS SON
Meditations in Hebrews
Hebrews 5:7-10
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HAVING had revealed to us the excellence of the qualifications of Jesus to be a priest before God, that is his divine eternal priesthood, verse 7 leads us into the greatness of his priestly achievements. I have been hampered in my understanding of verse 7 by being locked into seeing this prayer of Jesus as focused on his agony in the garden of Gethsemane before his crucifixion, and so seeing his prayer in terms of his cry that he might be reprieved from the cup of suffering waiting for him. In fact the verse is not directing our attention to Gethsemane, though Christ’s praying here is included.

Verse 7 includes the whole of Christ’s life on earth and the prayers he offered throughout that time, and particularly in his three years of ministry leading up to his death upon the cross. The one great concern of Jesus as high priest of his people was that he might make an all-sufficient and perfect sacrifice for the sin of the world, and so provide eternal redemption for sinners. During the days of his life on earth his prayers were directed to this end. He prayed with loud cries and tears that he might not fail in this all-important and tremendous task, and his prayers revolved around the plea to his Father in heaven that he might so make full atonement for sin by his life and death that in the end he might finish with death, and this is the meaning of his prayer that he might be saved from death.

Death, eternal death and separation from God and all that is good, is the result and penalty for sin. Jesus had to suffer this penalty in all its horrific completeness in order to atone for sin. If Jesus in his work as our priest, giving himself in sacrifice in the place of sinners, did not fully satisfy the demands of justice according to God’s holy law, death would have had to hold him. He must make such a full atonement for sin so that the judge of all the earth could declare that his law was satisfied, and sin atoned for, and so raise Jesus to life again as the victor over sin and death. This victory over death is what Jesus was praying for all through his life. He was praying every time he prayed, during those nights of prayer when he was alone with God, that he might be delivered from death the penalty for the sin of the world. If he was to be delivered he must completely atone for sin, and so his prayer for deliverance from death was a prayer that he might complete altogether the mighty work of salvation that he came to perform.

The end of verse 7 is such a declaration of triumph and victory. His prayer was answered. Jesus was enabled to make full atonement for sin, and so was delivered from death by resurrection. God declared by this deliverance from death that Jesus made full atonement for sin. The prayer of Jesus was answered. He was delivered from death, having been enabled to complete fully the full punishment for the sin of the world.

The next verse, verse 8, goes on to describe further this victory and achievement of Jesus as our great high priest. Again it is the whole of Christ’s life on earth as the incarnate redeemer that is being considered. As the eternal Word, the Son and second person of the one God, co-equal with the God, the Father, the Word was so one with the God, the Father, that there was in eternity that total unity of thought and will. Though Jesus was the eternal Son of God and so totally one with God in all things, and so totally in agreement with God in all things so that there could not possibly be any disagreement in will or purpose, in order to redeem sinful humanity he had to become like us in all things, except as far as sinning is concerned, and so when he became a man, he took on the relationship of created man to God his Father. So even though he was the Son by eternal generation, now becoming incarnate he became subject to God as a man, and subject to the law of God and the will of God. To redeem sinful humanity he had to become like us so that he could truly take our place before God.

Jesus learned obedience as he lived in this life, and suffered in this life all that humanity lives and suffers, and as our substitute and representative, the second Adam, he suffered in himself all that we suffer on account of sin. So he not only obeyed the Law of God perfectly as a human being, but he also bore in his body all the pains and sufferings, temptations and trials, which sin and its consequences has brought upon fallen humanity. In other words he became obedient to the will of God that he should be in the place of mankind and in the place of sinful mankind, because to save us he had to suffer all that we have to suffer and undergo. Through his experience of the totality of human life before God, he learned obedience perfectly. That is he was totally obedient in all things, never falling short of anything that obedience required, and so learnt by experience all that obedience to God and his law meant and required. It was important for his office as high priest that he should, on behalf of his people, fulfil altogether that totality of the obedience we are required to perform, and which due to sin and corruption we are unable to perform. This obedience included the experience of submitting to the penalty of sin, and so going down into death and experiencing hell in our place.

Jesus, by his perfect and full obedience to God of all that is required of created mankind, was made perfect as our priest and redeemer, and so is the source of eternal salvation to all who believe on him. Let us notice again what saving faith is all about. Faith that saves is the faith that submits in total trust and obedience to the Saviour, as Lord and God. This is why here in verse 9 Jesus is described as the provider of eternal salvation to all who obey him.

The work of Jesus as a priest has two main parts. Firstly, he had to provide atonement for sin through the sacrifice of himself, in a sacrificial life and a sacrificial death. This he did here on earth and became the author of eternal salvation. Secondly, Jesus now is busy making that eternal salvation available and applied to all his people for whom he died. The work of a priest is to make sacrifice for sin, and mediate the merits of the sacrifice to God on behalf of his people. This Jesus is doing now and will do eternally. Our eternal salvation and bliss in heaven will be eternally ours because Jesus as our High Priest is ever claiming for us the blessings he won for us on the cross. In this way and for this reason God has designated him a Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Jesus is our priest now and forever. He is an all-sufficient priest. We need no other. Let us rejoice in him and have faith-obedience towards him always and forever.