Hebrews 5:5-10 – Christ our Great High Priest

Here, in six verses, the author presented the superiority of the Priesthood of Jesus Christ. We see that the Lord’s Priesthood was not after the order of the Aaronic priesthood, but that of Melchizedek’s. In these five verses, the author briefly passed over the Lord’s Melchizedek Priesthood, but he would pick up and expand on the theme in chapter 7. In these verses, we see a reversed order of discussion that he did for the Aaronic priesthood. He began by talking about Christ’s appointment as High Priest after the order of Melchizedek in verses 5-6. Then he continued by talking about His identification with humanity in verses 7-8 before rounding up in verses 9-10 talking about His work as the High Priest.

Quoting Psalm 2:7 and Psalm 110:4, the author showed that although as God’s Son, Jesus did not seek for self-glory by seizing the position of High Priest by Himself. He left it entirely to God to designate Him. And God made Him a priest not after the order of the Aaronic priesthood, but after the order of Melchizedek. This is to say that Jesus did not presume the office of High Priest on His own accord, He left it to God Who appointed Him to that position.

In verses 7-8, he returned to clearly demonstrate the humanity of Jesus. As a human, He had to pray and learned obedience through suffering. The writer elaborated on Hebrew 4:15 where he spoke of the Lord’s humanity and how He was tempted in all things, yet never yielded to any. Thus, till today, He is the only sinless High Priest. But like any human priest, Jesus was able to identify with the weaknesses of the people whom He came to serve. But unlike any of them, Jesus had no sin of His own. Although He was God’s own Son, He had to pray earnestly with loud crying and tears to God. He knew that God alone could deliver Him from death. The Father heard His prayer because of His piety. And during His earthly life, His days in the flesh, He had to struggle with the fact that He had to take the sin of humanity on Himself. This was clearly bore out at Gethsemane and Calvary. He had to bear the suffering of being separated from the Father as He hanged between heaven and earth on the Cross, and bore the sin of humanity. This fact should encourage the readers to press on in the face of persecution and to persevere in prayers.

In verses 9-10, we see the work of Christ, our Great High Priest. The phrase, “… having been made perfect …” does not mean that Jesus was previously imperfect. The writer wanted his readers to see that He obediently suffered even to the point of death and that made Him more than qualified to be the Savior. He became the Source of eternal salvation. This eternal salvation was contrasted to the temporary result of the sacrifices of the Levitical priesthood, which could never perfect those who made the offerings. But the sacrifice of Jesus, the High Priest, made eternal salvation available once for all. Hence, to all who obey Him, Jesus becomes the Source of their salvation. The term “source” would be better translated as the “cause.” In other words, Jesus, the High Priest, cause for all who would obey Him to be recipients of eternal salvation. In verse 10, the author returned to emphasize the order of Jesus’ Priesthood. As the High Priest in the order of Melchizedek, Jesus was, and still is, infinitely more superior than any Levitical priest. The author’s intention was to present the superior priesthood of Christ Jesus. Hence, to return to the old system would be to return to an inferior system.

In these verses, we learn something from Christ’s suffering. Although the Lord has complete knowledge, yet as human He had to learn much through the experience of His sufferings. What He went through was real. The fact of His divine nature does not minimize the pain that He suffered. He experienced tear as well as fear. He went through the whole gamut of it. Here we catch a glimpse of how enduring He is in patience, how deep He is in love, and also how strong He is in character. In many ways, like Him, we can also learn much through suffering. It has a way of revealing hidden beauties that we could never know without it. Let’s not diminish whatever hardship we encounter, but allow God to bring His very best out of our trials!