Perfect High Priest

 By Danny Rush

Read Hebrews 5

We’re going to talk more in the second service about Jesus as our perfect high priest, our priest and king. But I want to talk this morning about the latter part of Hebrews 5, verses 9-14.

Verse 9 says, “And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation.” Let’s stop there for a moment. What are we getting here, what are we to understand from “having been made perfect”? Wasn’t Jesus just perfect from the beginning? How can something perfect be made perfect? It’s easy for us to look back now and say Jesus was perfect because we see his complete life, but that’s the distinction. We see His COMPLETE life, His full life to the end.

To be able to say Jesus LIVED a perfect life (past tense), or was MADE perfect, means His life had to come to an end. It had to be completed. And that’s what we’re getting here. Jesus was “made perfect” by the COMPLETION of his life. That brings to mind Jesus’s final words as he hung on the cross, He said, “It is finished”.

What was finished? Jesus’s work, which is our redemption, the salvation given to each of us. The text says that THROUGH HIS DEATH “He BECAME to ALL those who OBEY Him the SOURCE of ETERNAL salvation”. Do you obey Him? Do I? I sure try, though I confess I sometimes fail. I’m only human. How do we obey Him? We obey Him by keeping his command for us, right? And what is that?

Let’s look back to Mark 12:28-31

This is a bit of a paraphrase, but the bible says one of the scribes came to Jesus and asked which is the first commandment of all, and Jesus said, “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

John 13:34-35 would put it this way, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”   

Our study here of Hebrews links obedience to belief. That seems to make sense. If we truly believe, we’re going to WANT to be obedient. We’re going to find a sense of joy and satisfaction in being obedient. The flipside of that is if we find ourselves being disobedient, we’re likely to find sadness and disappointment in ourselves until we confess our wrongdoings to God. To right the ship as it were.

Remember in chapter 3, starting back in verse 12 the text says, “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end, while it is said, “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me.” For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.”

Here we see the sin of unbelief. Not believing in Jesus, our redeemer, our savior, is disobedience to God. When we believe, we give reverence to Christ. We acknowledge the ultimate price he paid in sacrificing Himself to redeem us from our sin. By the blood of this perfect spotless lamb, we have salvation.

This is, I think, in effect, is the teaching the writer is referring to starting in chapter 5 verse 11. He says, “Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.” Well, the “him” here is referring to Melchizedek, who I’ll talk a bit about in the next service, but what I want to highlight here in this verse is that the writer says there’s much to say that’s hard to explain since you’ve become DULL of HEARING. WOW, that must have been hard to stomach by a Hebrew reading this letter who would have spent their whole life learning about God.

But we know how it is, we hear something time and again, and eventually is just becomes this repetitious thing that we stop putting much thought into. We become COMPLACENT in our thoughts. Complacent Christianity could, and just might be, a whole other sermon. But realize that we may find ourselves in this in this trap. We take for granted this marvelous book we have, this word of God, this story of our redemption. We have grown up with the stories of the bible and likely know them well but how much thought do we put into them?

Though I think the memory verses we learn here month to month and are a great way to learn scriptures; are we simply committing them to memory to be able to repeat them, or are we really giving them some thought? Are we taking the time to look them up, to learn the context in which they’re used. Are we then taking what we’ve learned and sharing that full understanding with others?

The writer here continues in verse 12 by saying, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God (meaning the truth, or word, of God), and you have come to need milk and not solid food.” Let’s pause there again.

As disciples of Christ, we are all to learn of His purpose, which is our redemption, and in turn share that marvelous truth with others. The Hebrew people of this time, knowing full well the life of Christ, should have come to a full understanding, a revelation if you will, that Christ had fulfilled the Law and prophecies spoken of Him in the Old Testament; that He lived a perfect life, was crucified, died, and resurrected ALL for the purpose of their, and our, redemption.

The Hebrew people seemed to have forgotten the promise God made to Abraham that through him a SEED would come by which ALL MANKIND would receive the Spirit through faith, through belief in the Redeemer. Salvation would not come through the law or by works, but through faith. And salvation would not be for the Hebrew only, but all mankind. Paul said it well in Ephesians.

Let’s look at Ephesians 2

[And you (talking about gentiles, which would be us today) were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience (this is referring to Satan working in the unredeemed man). Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest (we’re all born into sin).

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions (even when we were sinners), made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him (redeemed us), and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 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. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Therefore, remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh (this is unredeemed man living by the ways of the world), who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands (referencing the Jewish religious leaders who were of the mindset that they were saving people by the physical act of circumcision), remember that you (again, the gentile) were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one (Jew and Gentile) and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity (the Jew’s hostile opposition to the Gentile having salvation). And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.]

The teaching, that Christ created all, fulfilled all, and that salvation would come only through His redeeming sacrifice, not by works, and to all people, should have been the solid food that the Hebrew people were chewing on. They should not, by this time, have been still trying to survive on the “milk” that was the law. The law mind you, was given well after God made the promise to Abraham that a savior would come from his line. It was given because of a disobedient people and was meant to be a guide to them until their ultimate shepherd arrived, their perfect high priest. It was never meant to replace God’s promise of the redeemer, Christ Jesus.

Referring to chapter 5 verse 13, how do we get from a spiritual diet of milk, as if an infant, and move to a diet of solid food? I’ll leave you with these things to think about.

Study the Word daily.

Meditate on what you learn.

Apply what you learn to your life.

And teach what you have learned to others.

If you will do this, you’ll find that not only will you have matured in your relationship to God, but you have also helped others to mature in theirs. And the greatest benefit of this is the glory given to God by the furtherance of His kingdom.  

Let’s Pray