PART TWO
PART TWO
A High Priest Like No Other
In Hebrews 4:14 our author comes back to the theme of Christ as high priest, which we last saw in 3:1. He is showing us that Jesus is better than the Old Testament high priests. This time we are given more details about why that is the case, and about the difference it makes to us.
All of us are in a perilous position as we stand before the holy court of God. We need somebody to speak for us, act for us, intercede for us, and represent us. In the West, where everybody values independence, self-reliance, and the do-it-yourself mentality, we easily end up applying that to religion too. But the message of Hebrews 4:14 – 5:10 is that we need an intercessor.
The ancient Israelites had earthly high priests, who went before God on behalf of the people, and so they already had a sense that they needed such a person—that they couldn’t stand before the holy God on their own merits. But what we will find out is that those earthly high priests didn’t really get the job done. They only pointed toward the real, ultimate high priest—Jesus.
In 4:14-16 we will see three things that we need in a high priest in order to enable us to go before the throne of God confidently. Then 5:1-10 expands on this with a direct comparison between Jesus and all other high priests. Christ not only fulfills all qualifications for a high priest but actually surpasses them. And he is a model for our own lives as we seek to serve God and minister to others.
Effective Intercession
In ancient Israel, the earthly high priest would go into a little room in the middle of the temple called the Most Holy Place. There is a sense in which God’s presence was in that place; but at the same time, it was just a man-made building. It was a symbol of how man needs an intercessor between himself and God—someone to represent one to the other.
The high priest would enter once a year on the Day of Atonement and make a sacrifice for the people of God (see Leviticus 16). But this is not what Jesus did. The reason why he is a better high priest is because he presented himself as an intercessor in God’s own personal presence in the heavenly places. He “passed through the heavens” (Hebrews 4:14), entering not a man-made building but the real heavenly temple itself. (The author will pick up this point later, starting in 9:24.)
In other words, Christ has unique access to God—and therefore he can be with him in order to plead our case. He alone has the standing with God to be the intercessor we need. His intercession is effective.
But there is a second reason that Jesus’ intercession is so effective. The difference is made not just by where he does it but also by how long he does it for. Notice the language the author uses: he says, “Jesus, the Son of God.” He adds that title here very particularly. Jesus can intercede for us forever because he is the eternal Son of God.
If you are a follower of Jesus, he will never, ever stop loving you, pleading your case, and representing you before God. That means that when God looks at us, he sees the righteousness of his Son surrounding us. That is what it means to be represented by Jesus, and that never stops. We can have eternal security in heaven because we have someone who is able to intercede for us forever.
The implication of that comes at the end of 4:14: “Let us hold fast our confession.” Do not abandon what you believe about Jesus, because there is nothing better to turn to than this intercessor.
Full Sympathy
Jesus is the Son of God: eternal, divine, glorious. But can he relate to me? What we need is a high priest who not only enters heaven but also comes to earth. We need someone who has experienced what we experience and can sympathize with us. And this is what is amazing about Jesus. He doesn’t just act God-ward; he acts man-ward.
The author has already mentioned this point in 2:17-18, but here he breaks it down.
First, he sympathizes with our “weaknesses” (4:15). Jesus did not shield himself from the fallenness of the world. He was “despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). He really did experience everything in this life that is dark and difficult and problematic, from physical suffering to relational troubles. And when he hung on the cross, he was not only scorned by all around him but drank from the cup of his Father’s wrath—wrath that was poured out on him in the place of sinners.
Second, “in every respect [he] has been tempted as we are.” He was tempted by Satan in the wilderness: tempted by wealth, by power, and by comfort. He was tempted in the garden of Gethsemane to avoid suffering. Whatever you are tempted by, Jesus can relate to you in this way as well.
This means that Christ is the one we should come to for sympathy and compassion.
We spend a lot of our time and energy trying to solicit compassion from others, putting on display reasons why we deserve more sympathy and attention than other people. We have a deep human desire for sympathy. What we need to realize is that we have an eternal well of sympathy and compassion in Christ.
Once we realize this, we are freed to show deep compassion and sympathy to others. If we have drunk deeply of the compassion available to us in Christ, we no longer have to find ways to get it from others. Go to Christ, who fully sympathizes with your weaknesses, and then you can serve others by showing them the very sympathy and compassion that was shown to you.
True Purification
The last phrase of Hebrews 4:15 is very important. Jesus was “without sin.” Unlike any other high priest—unlike any other human—Christ has no sins of his own. He is the perfect man.
Jesus’ perfection and purity are important because his righteous deeds are credited to our account. By your faith in Jesus, God looks at you and views you as a pure person. You are perfect in his eyes because Christ’s righteousness covers you and wraps around you. All of this hangs on the fact that Christ was sinless.
The result is that we can “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace” (v 16). This is not the confidence that says, “I’ll be fine before God because I’m a pretty good person.” No, this is confidence not in yourself but in Christ and in his perfect representation. You can march right into the throne room of God, saying, “I am God’s child. Jesus has saved me.” We have amazing access to God by virtue of what Christ has done.
Beset with Weakness
In chapter 5 the writer to the Hebrews develops the theme of Christ’s priesthood more fully—why he is able to fully purify us from sin.
The author reminds us that Old Testament priests were human: “chosen from among men” (5:1). It was important that they experienced life like everyone else: the fallenness of the world, the problems, the temptations, the weaknesses and so on. This enabled them to “deal gently with the ignorant and wayward” (v 2).
But the disadvantage of the priests’ weakness was that it meant they sinned too. Therefore, when they made offerings, they did not just make them on behalf of the people. They had to make offerings on their own behalf (v 3).
We have already seen what the big difference is when it comes to Jesus. He is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, “yet without sin” (4:15). So he can relate, but unlike the priests he can also save. For this reason, he surpasses the Old Testament priests.
5:7-9 are tremendous verses which illustrate this similarity and difference.
The language in verse 7—“prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears”—likely refers to Jesus’ cries to his Father in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:41-44). So much did he dread what was coming—the wrath of his own Father—that his sweat was like drops of blood. This is the stress and the sorrow that Jesus endured. His suffering was very, very real.
But Jesus was without sin. He “was heard because of his reverence”. The Greek word translated “reverence” here captures a posture of submission before the Father. Submission is not easy; it is needed when you don’t want to do something or you don’t want to do it a particular way. It means willingly, humbly recognizing the authority of another over you.
Jesus’ cries expressed his willingness to submit to whatever God had prepared for him—however difficult it would be. His obedience was radical. God heard his prayer: “Remove this cup from me” (Luke 22:42). But he did not release him from suffering. God said no. And Jesus submitted to that, too.
The word “submission” is not a popular word today, but the Bible praises submission in all kinds of areas. God calls us to submit to whatever authorities are in our life (Titus 3:1): to our pastors and elders (Hebrews 13:17), to our government (1 Peter 2:13-14; Romans 13:1-6), and most importantly to our Father in heaven (James 4:7).
When God tells you no, it is hard to submit. But Christ models for us submission to what might be the greatest “no” that anybody has ever received.
The school of suffering is not an easy one. But it can teach us, train us, and shape us like no other school, making us more effective ministers to others. It can help to make us more sympathetic and compassionate. We are told that even Jesus “learned obedience through what he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8).
Of course, this language raises a natural question. How is it that Jesus “learned” obedience? Wasn’t he always perfect? Yes, he was always perfect. But to say Jesus learned obedience is not to suggest he was at one time disobedient. Rather it emphasizes Jesus’ experience as a human being who learned what it was like to obey God even in the midst of great suffering—an experience that allowed him, at a later point, to be “obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8).
Jesus’ example is the one to follow when we are suffering. We can, like him, ask the Father to relieve us and comfort us. But whether the answer is yes or no, we must remain obedient to God. And—praise God—we can remember that we have a great high priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses. We can with confidence draw near to him in prayer, asking for mercy and grace to help us in our need (Hebrews 4:16).
The Source of Salvation
Jesus’ suffering and obedience meant that he was “made perfect” (5:9). This doesn’t mean that Christ was made perfect morally or ethically: he was always sinless. He was made perfect in the sense that he was made our perfect high priest. His suffering and obedience made him a better representative for us. And as a result, “he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.”
This is how Jesus truly purifies us. His obedience is the reason why we have hope in his representation. He did not fall or waver or give up: he was obedient. He remained sinless, and that meant that he could be a sacrifice on our behalf instead of having to pay for his own sins. And his righteousness, his obedience, and his faithfulness are credited to us when we trust in him.
Whenever you read the Gospels, when you see Jesus’ obedience and purity, remember that he was winning salvation for us. Every time he obeyed, that was part of the redemption he has achieved for us. The crux comes poignantly at Gethsemane, where no doubt Satan wanted him to abandon his obedience. But Jesus stayed the course through suffering, becoming the perfect high priest that we desperately need.
Called by God
Verses 4-6 reveal another way in which Jesus was like the Old Testament high priest but better.
Priests were not self-appointed—they had to be called by God (v 4). We might think that that would not apply to Jesus. He is the Son of God, so he should not need to be humble and wait to be appointed by God. But the amazing thing is that Jesus was humble. He, too, was called. This is what we see laid out in the following verses. “Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed” (v 5).
To prove that Jesus was called, the author once again turns to the Old Testament, quoting both Psalm 2 and Psalm 110 (in Hebrews 5:5 and 5:6 respectively). Psalm 2 is a well-known messianic psalm that pictures the coming Messiah as both a priest and a king—a theme that will surface again later. Psalm 110 features Melchizedek, who is an important forerunner of Jesus because he was also a priest-king. We will return to this figure soon, in Hebrews 6:20 and into chapter 7.
But, for now, the main point to glean from these verses is that Jesus was appointed by God to this task. As glorious as he was, he did not appoint himself. He submitted to the Father not only in Gethsemane but also when he first came to earth—and in everything he did (John 6:38).
This principle of humility applies to us too. It is all too common to find self-appointed people in ministry who seek honor for themselves: they put on a show, surround themselves with people who love them, and take no advice from anyone else. This attitude is a danger for all of us, not just those who are in ministry. How much do we worry about how we look and what people think about us, rather than how Christ looks and what people think about him? Our job is to glorify Christ, not win the praise of man. Our number one goal should be to please God—as Jesus’ was.
Christ submitted obediently to the trials of suffering; he humbled himself to glorify his Father. He fulfills—and surpasses—the qualifications of a high priest in ancient Israel. What a great high priest we have, and what a great model for our own service.