Messiah’s Qualifications as our Great High Priest
5: 5-10
Messiah’s qualifications as our great High Priest DIG: What two qualities of Messiah allow the comparison with Melchizedek (verses 6-10 and Chapter 7)? What is the significance of our Lord’s full humanity? His sinlessness? How does that relate to your salvation? Read Psalm 110 and compare it with this passage. How does it describe Jesus Christ?
REFLECT: In what ways do you interact with Messiah as your Great High Priest? In what area of your life do you need the mercy and grace that can only be found when you come boldly to the throne of grace (4:16)? Think of a time when you have felt separate and distant from the LORD. Describe what you think it was like for Jesus Christ to be separate from God the Father and God the Holy Spirit on the cross for the first time in all eternity. What element of Messiah’s sacrifice as your Great High Priest touches you the most?
In this section, the author shows that Yeshua fulfilled the four qualifications necessary for the priesthood (to see link click Ax – Qualifications for the Great High Priest), but he doesn’t deal with them in the same order.
The High Priest Must Be Appointed by God: So, like Aaron, neither did the Messiah glorify Himself to become the Great High Priest (Hebrew: Cohen Rosh Gadol); rather, it was the One who said to Him, “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father” (Heb 5:5 CJB quoting Psalm 2:7 CJB). The writer quotes Psalm 2:7 to show that Christ’s priesthood is related to His resurrection. Only the Son of God could serve in the kind of priesthood the author will describe later. Also, as He says in another place, “You are a Cohen forever, to be compared with Melchizedek” (Heb 5:6 CJB quoting Psalm 110:4 CJB). This shows divine appointment; not only was Jesus divinely declared the Son of God in Psalm 27, He was also divinely appointed to the priesthood. Not the Levitical priesthood, but to be compared with Melchizedek in Psalm 110:4.
Melchizedek will be discussed in greater detail later (see Bd – The Priesthood of Melchizedek), but a brief word here is necessary. He was a king-priest who lived in the time of Abraham, and whose ancestry is completely unknown. He was king of Salem (the ancient name for Jerusalem) and was a priest of God Most High (see the commentary on Genesis Ed – Melchizedek: King of Salem and a Priest of God Most High). He lived many centuries before the Order of Aaron was established and continues as a priest for all time (7:3 CJB), unlike that of Aaron, which began in the time of Moshe and ended in 70 AD, when the Temple was destroyed. Melchizedek’s priesthood, therefore, was superior to Aaron’s in two ways. First, Melchizedek was a king, whereas Aaron was not, and secondly, his priesthood lasts forever, whereas Aaron’s was temporary. In the final analysis, Melchizedek’s priesthood is a better picture of Messiah than even that of Aaron’s.131
The High Priest Must Be Human: Yeshua was human and every priest had to be human. During Yeshua’s life on earth (John 1:14), He offered up prayers and petitions in a sense of urgency, crying aloud and shedding tears (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Lb – The Garden of Gethsemane). He cried out to the One who had the power to deliver Him from spiritual death when He became sin on our behalf (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Lv – Jesus’ Second Three Hours on the Cross: The Wrath of God), and to bring Him out of spiritual death to new life. It is believed, and with good reason, that our Lord uttered the entire twenty-second Psalm while hanging on the cross. His prayers and petitions were heard because of His godly fear (5:7 CJB). The word fear in Greek is not phobos, the usual word for fear, but eulabeia. The verb of the same root means to act cautiously, to beware, to fear. The verb picture in the word is that of a cautious taking hold of, and a careful and respectful handling. Therefore, it speaks of a pious, devout, and reverent Christ, who in His prayer, takes into account all things, not only His own desire, but also the will of the Father.132 His prayers and petitions at Gethsemane and on the cross were answered because of His reverent fear of the Father.
The High Priest Must Be Compassionate and Sympathetic: He was compassionate and humane. He learned to be compassionate by learning obedience because He also suffered. Even though He was the Son of God, He was given no exemption from hardship and pain. He learned obedience through His sufferings and death on the cross (5:8 CJB). The expression: learned obedience, does not mean that Christ disobeyed; it means that Yeshua learned what obedience cost Him. It cost Him suffering: And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8). For Him, the office of priest meant suffering and death.133 This is the kind of High Priest we need, one who knows and understand what we are going through.
Since God intends to make you like Jesus, He will take you through the same experiences Christ went through. That includes loneliness, temptation, stress, criticism, rejection, and many other problems. The Bible says Yeshua learned obedience through suffering and was made perfect through suffering. Why would ADONAI exempt us from what He allowed His own Son to experience? Rabbi Sha’ul said: We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with Him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with Him (Romans 8:17 The Message).134
The High Priest Must Offer Gifts and Sacrifices for Sins: Messiah does function in a priestly order. And once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him (5:9). The Greek word for perfect, teleiotheis, means the completion of a process or goal. Christ’s sufferings were completed on the cross. Teleiotheis has the same root, teleo, as the word used on the cross, tetelestai: It is finished (John 19:30). The cross marked the end of His sufferings for sin, and therefore, He could cry out: It is finished. The author repeats the point he made earlier: For in bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was only fitting that God the Father, the Creator and Preserver of everything, being consistent with God’s wisdom, should make the Author of their salvation perfect through what He suffered, death on the cross (2:10). Our Lord became to all who obey Him the Author of their eternal salvation. But this obedience is not by works, it is by faith (John 6:29; Acts 6:7; Romans 1:5; Ephesians 2:8-9).135
The specific priestly order in which Jesus functions, since He had been proclaimed by God as a Cohen Rosh Gadol forever, is to be compared with Malki-Tzedek (5:10 CJB quoting Psalm 110:4 CJB). By His death, Yeshua because the source of eternal salvation; a Great High Priest forever. All the priests of all time could not provide eternal salvation (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ms – The Eternal Security of the Believer). They could only provide momentary covering of sins. But by one act, one offering, one sacrifice, Jesus Christ perfected forever those who are His. The perfect High Priest makes perfect those who accept His perfect sacrifice and obey Him.136
It is difficult to resist the four qualifications of Jesus presented here. We must conclude with the writer of Hebrews that Yeshua Messiah, the Great High Priest, is superior to Aaron. It would be foolish for anyone to return to the inferior, momentary Levitical sacrificial system when they could enjoy the superior, eternal sacrifice of Messiah forever. But sadly and tragically, most do not believe and that’s exactly what we see in the first century Messianic community to which the writer was addressing, as we will see next.
Thank You, Jesus, merciful and eternal Great High Priest, for giving Your life for me. Thank you for opening the way to the Father through Your holy and perfect sacrifice.137
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