April 14, 2019

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

I do not receive glory from men;

“How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?

Jesus answered, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’;

“He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him

“But I do not seek My glory; there is One who seeks and judges”

Jesus answered, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’;

For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.”

For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.

Schreiner: Just as Aaron didn’t appoint himself as high priest, neither did Jesus the Christ. He didn’t seek his own glory and exalt himself to be high priest. As the Son of God, he was appointed by God as the words of attest. Hebrews doesn’t pinpoint the moment when Jesus because high priest. Certainly, he functioned as a high priest on earth since his once-for-all sacrifice atoned for sin.

Ellingsworth

a divine quality which God shares with the Son (2:7, 9), and the Son with believers (2:10) The whole clause may be translated “he did not raise himself to the glory of the high priesthood”

Ellingsworth

may be understood as reflecting the gospel tradition of God attesting the Sonship of Jesus at his baptism and transfiguration (; ; Mark ), while the final quotation in the same series

(The Baptism of Jesus) and a voice came out of the heavens: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”

(The Transfiguration) Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!”

(How Christ is the Son of David) David himself said in the Holy Spirit,

‘The Lord said to my Lord,

“Sit at My right hand,

Until I put Your enemies beneath Your feet.” ’

But to which of the angels has He ever said,

“Sit at My right hand,

Until I make Your enemies

A footstool for Your feet”?

C.S. Lewis

“We don't use the words begetting or begotten much in modern English, but everyone still knows what they mean. To beget is to become the father of: to create is to make. And the difference is this. When you beget, you beget something o the same kind as yourself. A man begets human babies, a beaver begets little beavers and a bird begets eggs which turn into little birds. But when you make, you make something of a different kind from yourself. A bird makes a nest, a beaver builds a dam, a man makes a wireless set – or he may make something more like himself than a wireless set: say, a statue. If he is clever enough carver he may make a statue which is very like man indeed. But, of course, it is not a ream man; it only looks like one. It cannot breathe or think. It is not alive. Now that is the first thing to get clear. What God begets is God; just as what man begets is man. What God creates is not God; just as what man makes is not man. That is why men are not Son's of God in the sense that Christ is. They may be like God in certain ways, but they are not things of the same kind. They are more like statues or pictures of God.”

just as He says also in another passage,

“You are a priest forever

According to the order of Melchizedek.”

Calvin:And yet the Jews try all means to evade it, in order that they might obscure the glory of Christ; but they cannot succeed. They apply it to David, as though he was the person whom God bade to sit on his right hand which is wrong; for we know that it was not lawful for kings to exercise the priesthood.

Chesterton “Orthodoxy” # 3 the madman who called himself Christ. If we said what we felt, we should say, “So you are the Creator and Redeemer of the world: but what a small world it must be! What a little heaven you must inhabit, with angels no bigger than butterflies! How sad it must be to be God; and an inadequate God! Is there really no life fuller and no love more marvelous than yours; and is it really in your small and painful pity that all flesh must put its faith? How much happier you would be, how much more of you there would be, if the hammer of a higher God could smash your small cosmos, scattering the stars like spangles, and leave you in the open, free like other men to look up as well as down!”

In the days of His flesh, aHe 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.

Edwards: . Christ, in those strong cries and tears, wherein he wrestled with God in a bloody sweat for the success of his sufferings in the salvation of the elect, hath given us example how we should seek our own salvation, and the salvation of others whose souls are committed to our care, viz. as striving, wrestling, and agonizing with God. See , at beginning. When Christ says, , “Strive to enter in at the strait gate,” the word in the original for “strive” is ἀγωνίζεσθε, “agonize.”

Ø “in the days of his flesh” denotes the frailty and weakness characterizing life on earth. As one who was fully human, Jesus shared with other human beings “flesh and blood” and was plagued with the sorrows and heartache of human existence.

Ø aHe offered up both prayers and supplications” since he was fully human the great need he had was to depend on God. He looked to God to meet his needs and to answer his pleas.

Ø with loud crying and tears- his prayers were with crying and tears but without sin. Christians pray with tears. The text says this took place “in the days of his flesh” thus we know about Gethsemane, but the text seems to indicate other times of tearful prayers. Let us learn from Christ.

Ø to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.

God certainly did not deliver Jesus from death but the place of death. He was resurrected. So often, we see this is how God will place us in a situation to turn defeat into victory. The Kingdom of God comes through suffering