Jesus Christ is the fulfilment of the Old Testament Jewish high priest in his Work, Sympathy, and Appointment.
From Shadow To Substance: Aaron to Christ
Hebrews 5:1-10
Jesus Christ is superior! He is superior to prophets because He is God’s final word to man. He is superior to angels because He is God made flesh. He is superior to Moses because He made Moses. He is superior to the Jewish High Priest, because he was only a shadow pointing to the substance, which is Christ.
The book of Hebrews is the only NT book that explicitly teaches us that Jesus Christ is our High Priest. And this truth is one of the primary themes of this book. The author launches into an extended discussion of Jesus as our high priest at 4:14-16. “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
The author will go on to teach us about Jesus as our High Priest in 5:1-10. From 5:11 to 6:20 he will go off on a bit of a bunny trail. But at chapter 7 he will come right back and continue teaching on Jesus as the high priest. He continues to weave this theme throughout chapter 9, and halfway through chapter 10. For about 4 and a half chapters, the author is taking us deeper and deeper into the doctrine of Christ as the High Priest of the Church.
As we study 5:1-10, we are going to see how we are presented with the Jewish High Priest in 5:1-4. We are going to see the Work, Sympathy, and Appointment of the Jewish High Priest. But remember, he was just a shadow pointing to the Substance of Christ! From 5:5-10 the author will show us how Jesus is the fulfillment of the Jewish High Priest. He has a similar but more exalted Work, Sympathy, and Appointment. But the author of Hebrews points out how Jesus fulfills these things, in reverse order. Instead of dealing with them as Work, Sympathy, and Appointment, he shows them to us as Appointment, Sympathy, and Work.
OK, with that as a little overview of this section, I think we are ready to dig into this chapter.
1. The Work of the High Priest
The Jewish High Priest:
5:1 “For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins”
Notice that the opening verses of this chapter are about the Jewish high priest – “taken from among men.”
So, just was the work of the Jewish high priest? He was “to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.” The entire Jewish sacrificial system and priesthood was introduced to deal with the problem of sins. Unless the appropriate sacrifice was offered, sinners could not approach God or be accepted by Him. The ordinary Jewish person could not offer sacrifices for their sins. They were completely dependent on the high priest to do that for them. They would bring a bull, goat, or lamb to the priest, but then the high priest’s job was to kill the animal, and offer it up to God on behalf of the person. Then he was to take the blood and sprinkle it on the mercy seat to make atonement on behalf of the people.
Sin had separated the people from God. An innocent life had to be taken. Blood had to be shed to enable the people to be accepted by God.
Now, I believe the Day of Atonement was in the mind of the author of Hebrews. He brings that particular day up in chapter 9. The word “atone” comes from the Hebrew word “kaphar” which means “to cover.” On the Day of Atonement, the high priest offered sacrifices for sins so that the sins of the people of Israel would be covered over. Consequently, God could continue to dwell in the midst of His people and now break out in wrath to consume them. However, this “covering” was temporary. It would last until the next Day of Atonement, and the whole ritual would have to be done all over again. It was like putting a band-aid over a sore. The band-aid covers the sore, but the sore is never entirely healed. Heb.10:4 says that “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” The sacrifice of these animals taught the people the devastating cost of sin, and prepared them to receive Jesus Christ as the once and for all Perfect Sacrifice for sin.
Christ the True High Priest:
Now, let’s take a look at how Christ fulfills and supersedes the shadow of the Jewish High Priest. When Christ comes into the world, there is a work He must do. He must save His people from their sins. He must give His life a ransom for many. He must give His life for the sheep.
Let’s look at the work of Christ in 5:8-9, “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation.”
How did Jesus “learn obedience from the things which He suffered?” He was put in situations in which He had to make the decision to obey His Father rather than give in to temptation. Real obedience requires suffering. If I tell you, “My kids are so obedient. Here, I’ll prove it. Kids, eat your ice cream!” See, look at how well they obey!” Well of course they do, but if you told them to go clean up their room, or go in and set the table when they wanted to watch their favorite show on TV, it would probably be a different story. Obedience to the Father was painful and involved great suffering for Jesus Christ. As a true man, He learned by experience obedience from the things which He suffered.
What does it mean that “He was made perfect”? We might jump to the conclusion, that Jesus was morally imperfect, and had sinned, and so had to work hard to improve to the point that He finally became perfect. The problem with that is that it flatly contradicts what we have already read in 4:15, “He has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” Jesus had no sin, and thus was always morally perfect.
The key to understanding this verse lies in the word “perfect.” It can mean “to be made complete.” In order for Jesus to become our complete and perfect Savior, He had to go through great suffering and ultimately die. But by obeying the Father in every instance, even unto death, Jesus became our complete and perfect Savior.
What was the point of all the suffering and anguish Jesus had to endure? Vs. 9 tells us, “He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation.” This was the work of Christ. The Jewish High Priest’s work was to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. Jesus’ work was to offer Himself as the ultimate, final, and perfect once for all sacrifice for sin. And having done that, He has become the source of eternal salvation! He doesn’t just cover over sins for a year, and go through the whole process next year. He doesn’t just put a band-aid on the wound. He heals the deadly wound completely so that it never comes back again! He doesn’t just cover over sins. He made purification of sins (1:3). He obtained eternal redemption (9:12). He put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself (9:26). He bore the sins of many (9:28). By one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified (10:14).
But wait… is there a catch? The text says He has become the source of eternal salvation to all those who obey Him. Does this mean our salvation is conditioned on obedience? If so, does this mean we are ultimately saved by our works? Well, let’s think this through. How does a person obey the gospel? If the gospel is the good news of what God has done in Christ to save us, how do we obey that good news? We believe it! We cling to it with all our might! We hold fast to it! We also turn away from anything and everything that would keep us from that good news. That’s repentance. And so, it’s no wonder that Mark 1:15 at the beginning of His ministry, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” No wonder the apostle Paul was called as an apostle to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake (Rom.1:5). The Bible is clear. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” He is the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, by trusting Him and turning from anything that would keep them from trusting Him.
Of course, the one who really does trust in Christ will manifest his faith in works of obedience, but the works are the fruit of a living faith, not the root.
The work of Jesus Christ is similar to but far superior to the work of the Jewish High Priest. Have you responded with the obedience of faith in Him? Have you received eternal salvation by trusting Him?
2.The Sympathy of the High Priest
The Jewish High Priest:
5:2 “he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness”
The Jewish High Priest, was just a sinner like the rest of the people of Israel. He had his own weaknesses and besetting sins. Because of that, he could relate to the people of Israel. He could deal gently with those that were ignorant and misguided, because he too had areas in which he was ignorant and misguided. He understood the people, because he was one of them.
Christ the True High Priest:
5:7 “In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.”
This almost certainly refers to Christ’s great trial in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before He died.
Mt. 26:38-39 “Then He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.” And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.”
Luke 22:43-44, “Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.”
These verses do not speak of “loud crying and tears” but that is not difficult to imagine at all. We do read of Him offering up prayers and supplications. He was so deeply grieved, that He says He was at the point of death. He was praying so fervently that His sweat became like drops of blood falling down upon the ground.
He was praying to the One able to save Him from death. Jesus did supplication His Father and ask Him to let this cup pass from Him. No doubt the cup He is referring to is the cup of the Father’s wrath against sin (Jer. 25:15; Rev. 14:10). Christ was able to peer into that cup and see what He would have to endure by drinking it, and in His humanity shrank from it. He wasn’t terrified of His physical sufferings alone, although they were ghastly. He also saw in that cup the sufferings He would have to endure by being made sin for us, and bearing the sin of many. We can’t even begin to conceive of what all He had to endure to reconcile us to God, but Jesus saw it and it caused His soul to be grieved to the point of death. He asked God to remove the cup. But He also said, “Yet not as I will, but as You will.” He yielded His will to the Father, even when it meant depths of suffering we can’t imagine.
Did His Father save Him from death? No. It was not possible for the Father to reconcile sinners to Himself without Jesus going to the cross. So Jesus went.
The point is that Jesus understands our struggles and pain and temptations and trials, because He has faced far greater ones than we ever will. Therefore He can sympathize with us. He understands us. He suffers with us. He does not condemn you when you face temptations and sometimes fail. He does what the Jewish High Priest did, but only in a superior fashion!
3. The Appointment of the High Priest
The Jewish High Priest:
5:4 “And no one takes the honor to himself, but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was.”
You just didn’t decide to become a high priest. You didn’t think, “Well that looks like a pretty cush job. I would have lots of power and people under me. It would come with a lot of prestige. I would get to wear all those fancy clothes. Yeah, I think I’ll be a high priest when I grow up.” It didn’t work like that. A person had to be called by God.
There were some people in the Bible that tried to take on the work of a priest when were not called.
King Saul got impatient waiting for Samuel to arrive, and so he offered animal sacrifices, hoping that God would give them victory over the Philistines. When Samuel did arrive, he told Saul that because of his foolishness, he had lost the kingdom. (1 Samuel 13)
When King Uzziah entered the temple to burn incense, God smote him with leprosy (2 Chron. 26).
You didn’t just decide to become a priest. If you did, it was not going to go well for you!
In Exodus 28, God called Aaron to be the first High Priest of Israel.
Christ the True High Priest:
5:5-6, “So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him, “You are My Son, today I have begotten You”; just as He says also in another passage, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”
God the Father chose and called His Son to become the High Priest of His people. Jesus didn’t glorify Himself. The Father glorified Him and gave Him this glorious work and position.
Christ’s authority to act in the position of our High Priest did not originate with Himself. It originated with His Father. It did not originate with some other human being. The Scriptures are clear that God called His Son to this role.
At this point I can’t help seeing the contrast in my mind between Jesus Christ being directly chosen and called to His ministry, and self-appointed or human-appointed people today who call themselves “apostles” and “prophets.”
In 1 Corinthians 9:1 the apostle Paul said, “Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?” Evidently, one of the prerequisites to being an apostle is to see Jesus the Lord. Jesus appeared to Paul on the Damascus Road and called him to be an apostle. The other 12 apostles had been with Jesus during His earthly ministry (Acts 1:21-22).
However, we have people today calling themselves apostles who have not seen the Lord nor were they present when Jesus ministered on the earth. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints recognizes 12 modern day apostles.
One such person right here in our own State of California is Kathryn Krick. She claims to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. Her “anointing” to function as an apostle was imparted to her by a man from Tanzania in Africa – Dr. GeorDavie. The problem is that one human being can’t call another human being to be an apostle or a prophet. Only God can issue that call. Among other things, allegations of accepting praise and worship from their followers have been made. GeorDavie accepted a giant golden statue of himself from his church followers. Krick accepts the praise and adoration of her followers who bow before her and say things, “Thank you for laying down your life that we might live.”
Similarly, Rick Joyner, Cindy Jacobs, C. Peter Wagner, Bob Jones, Kris Vallotin of Bethel Church in Redding, and Greg Locke, either identify themselves as apostles or prophets, or have accepted the title when others have assigned it to them.
So, what is the problem with a person claiming to be an apostle or prophet you might be wondering? The problem is that these two offices in the early church had great spiritual authority. In fact, in Eph. 2:20, we are told that the church was built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Folks, how many times do you lay a foundation when you are building a house? Do you lay a foundation, and then build on it for 300 years, and then lay another one? Of course not. That’s absurd. You lay a foundation once, and then you are done. I believe the same is true for the apostles and prophets in the church. They were given directly by Jesus Christ to lay the foundation for His church in the first century. But once they laid the foundation, God did not call more people in successive centuries to lay it again and again. Thus, we don’t have apostles or prophets like those that laid the foundation of the church.
Now, we do have missionaries today which would have a similar function in some respects to a Biblical apostle. We do have people who have a gift to speak to the church for edification, exhortation and consolation (1 Cor. 14:3). But we don’t have people today who have great spiritual authority over the entire church like what we see in Scripture.
And when we make the mistake of appointing people and calling them apostles today or recognizing someone that calls themselves an apostle as legitimate, we are in danger of granting that person power to exalt themselves over the church and manipulate and exploit it for financial gain and power.
Conclusion
So, what would the Holy Spirit desire us to learn and apply from this passage of Scripture?
- Jesus Christ is a perfect Savior. He is the source of eternal salvation. His work on the cross did not just cover sin temporarily like a band-aid. His death has accomplished eternal redemption. All our sins, past, present, and future were purified and removed by His finished work. That’s why we are able to rest from our works as Heb. 4:10 says. That’s why we are saved by grace through faith, not of our works. His works were enough. His work was a perfect masterpiece. If you and I try to make it a little better by adding our works to His, we will spoil the masterpiece. It would be like a little kid drawing on the Mona Lisa to make it better.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart! Never trust in yourself! Never rely upon your innate goodness, and something good you have done, or the fact that you have a good heart, or are a good person. If you rely upon those things you will be damned. If you rely upon them, you are not relying upon Christ. Only Christ can save. You can’t save yourself. Put all your trust in Him alone!
- Jesus Christ is a sympathetic Savior. He understands our weaknesses and temptations. He does not condemn us for our weaknesses and temptations, but urges us to draw near to the throne of grace so that we might receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. He can relate to us because He also had mighty trials and struggles when He walked the earth. He faced an intensity of suffering that we will never face. He is not ashamed to call us His brethren. Therefore, when you sin, don’t run from Him. Run to Him! He is your only hope.
- Jesus Christ shows us the true purpose of prayer. You might think that the purpose of prayer is to get God to do what you want. Didn’t Jesus ask His Father to do what He wanted? He asked Him if it was possible to let this cup pass from Him. That’s true. But His prayer did not stop there. He also prayed, “Nevertheless, not My will but Yours be done.” After this intense and lengthy time of prayer, the Father made crystal clear to Jesus that it was not possible to let the cup pass from Him. Sinners could not be redeemed unless He went to the cross. Since it was the Father’s sovereign plan to redeem sinners, Jesus must drink the cup. Through prayer, the Father’s will was made clear to Jesus, and He submitted to the Father’s will and then allowed Himself to be arrested by the religious authorities.
The Bible says that Jesus was “heard because of His piety.” God heard Jesus’ prayer but did not answer them by giving Him what He asked. He hears our prayers too, but does not always give us what we ask. Why not? Because our requests do not always line up with His will. I’m really glad that God doesn’t always give us what we ask for! Did you ever have a crush on someone, and ask God to let you marry that person, and then years down the road thank God that He didn’t answer your prayer? God is wise, and we can trust Him when go to Him in prayer.
So, the purpose of prayer is not to get God to do what I want, but to align my will with what He wants. As you go to God in prayer, He is able to correct your faulty thinking and steer you down His path.
What happens if you only pray to get God to do what you want? When He decides not to give you what you want, you stop praying. You say, “Well that didn’t work. I prayed for that and nothing happened.” Prayer is more about us getting to know our Father and submitting to His will, than it is about us getting Him to do what we want. Prayer is about relationship with God. If prayer is only about you getting God to do what you want, then it is really all about you and is very selfish. Rather, it is all about God and getting to know Him and getting in harmony with His will.
May God help us to trust in our Savior, draw near to our Savior, and learn from our Savior!
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