Take My Place

Hebrews 4:14–5:10 NIV

14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. 1 Every high priest is selected from among the people and is appointed to represent the people in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness. 3 This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people. 4 And no one takes this honor on himself, but he receives it when called by God, just as Aaron was. 5 In the same way, Christ did not take on himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.” 6 And he says in another place, “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” 7 During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8 Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9 and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him 10 and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

Chapter five places us well into the book of Hebrews now. We are past all the introduction stuff. We have looked in the last two weeks at the opening proclamations—chapter one was all about Jesus being fully divine as the Son of God, chapter two was all about Jesus being fully human as a brother to us. Today we get into the part of Hebrews that moves on from telling us about who Jesus is, and focuses in on telling us about what Jesus does. On the one hand, we see a picture of what Jesus does by reading the gospels. It is in the gospels that we see Jesus teaching and healing and performing miraculous signs. It is the gospels that tell us about the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, and the commissioning of the apostles to become the New Testament church. But Hebrews takes a different direction altogether in explaining for us what it is Jesus does.

Let me tug in a little bit of doctrine here to help make sense of this. Look at Heidelberg Catechism Q31.

Q. Why is he called “Christ,” meaning “anointed”?

A. Because he has been ordained by God the Father and has been anointed with the Holy Spirit

to be our chief prophet and teacher

who fully reveals to us the secret counsel and will of God concerning our deliverance;

our only high priest

who has delivered us by the one sacrifice of his body, and who continually pleads our cause with the Father;

and our eternal king

who governs us by his Word and Spirit, and who guards us and keeps us in the freedom he has won for us.

activity of Jesus in three categories: prophet, priest, and king

Book of Hebrews shapes for us how the events and activities of Jesus have a priestly role

Our theology breaks down the activity of Jesus into three categories: prophet, priest, and king. The book of Hebrews is really only interested in one of these categories—that of Jesus fulfilling the function of priest. This is the perspective we will be focusing on as we continue through Lent, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. The Book of Hebrews is going to start shaping for us how these events and activities of Jesus have a priestly role.

Let’s get into that today with these verses from chapters four and five which tell us something about what it means that Jesus serves as our priest, and why that matters for us today. The first ten verses of chapter five outline this for us. What does it even mean that Jesus is a priest? Take a closer look at the verses of this passage in Hebrews and see how the author lays this out for us to see. It is one of those structures we have noted many times before in the Bible as a mirror outline. It looks something like this.

A - vs 1: commitment of the priest B - vs 2-3: compassion of the priest C - vs 4: calling of the priest C’ - vs 5-6: calling of Jesus B’ - vs 7: compassion of Jesus A’ - vs 8-9: commitment of Jesus

A - vs 1: commitment B - vs 2-3: compassion C - vs 4: calling C’ - vs 5-6: calling B’ - vs 7: compassion A’ - vs 8-9: commitment

The first four verses describe for us the function of a priest as the Old Testament describes the priesthood in these three ways. (1) The priest is someone who has commitment—meaning, the priest has responsibilities to accomplish. (2) The priest is someone who possesses a character of compassion for the people being served. (3) The priest is someone who is called and assigned and appointed to the position of being a priest among the people. Then verses five through nine work backward through that same outline, this time applying each one of them to Jesus. (3) Jesus is a priest who is called—appointed by the Heavenly Father as a priest forever. (2) Jesus is a priest who is compassionate—offering fervent cries and tears as intercessory petitions for the people. (1) Jesus is a priest who is committed to accomplish the work on behalf of the people—providing himself as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the people.

commitment — task of the priest to be the representative for the people on their behalf before God

First (and last) the commitment of Jesus as the priest. It was the task of the priest to be the representative for the people on their behalf before God. The people of Old Testament Israel could not make intercession for their sins on their own. It was the role and responsibility of the priests to do that work of intercession for the people. The priests would stand in the place of the people before God. In this way, priests serve as mediators—they go between God and the people as representatives of the people.

Side note: the role of prophet is reverse of this. The prophet is the one who represents God to the people. And Jesus does this too. But as mentioned, Hebrews is not concerned about focusing on the prophetic work of Jesus, only the priestly work of Jesus.

compassion — the priest not only came before God on behalf of God’s people, but also as one of God’s people

Second (in the middle) the compassion of Jesus as the priest. In the Old Testament, there were rules for how the priest was supposed to purify himself before he could offer the sacrifices to make atonement for the people. This means that the priest not only came before God on behalf of God’s people, but also as one of God’s people. When Jesus came and took on that function of high priest, he fulfilled this atonement by not only bearing his sacrifice on behalf of us, but as one of us.

I have mentioned several times that while I was a seminary student living in Kalamazoo, my part-time job along with school was serving as a staff chaplain at Bronson Hospital in Kalamazoo. I had countless opportunities during those years to sit beside the beds of hospital patients. But at that time, I did not really know what it was like to be in their place. Then in 2015 I got sick, and I had the experience of tests and waiting and procedures and surgeries and hospital stays. Before that time, sure I had compassion for the people I would visit in the hospital, but once I myself lived through the experience of being the one laying in the hospital bed, the compassion became different. Jesus has a compassion that does not only know about our struggles, he has a compassion that has lived through those struggles himself.

calling — Jesus did not grab onto the glory himself - rather, it was given to him

Third, the calling of Jesus as the priest. Christ the Son has been appointed as the savior by the heavenly Father. Knowing that the one who brings salvation to all God’s people would be elevated to the highest level of worship and honor, Jesus did not grab onto this glory himself. Rather, it was given to him. Jesus received this assignment as a calling—just as the priests of the Old Testament had done.

we will look more closely at Melchizedek next week

Let me take a moment to call out a few features in this passage that might need a little further explanation. One of these I’m going to punt away for another time; the other one we’ll deal with. Twice in this passage is the mention of something called the ‘order of Melchizedek.’ What is the order of Melchizedek and how does that apply to Jesus? We’re going to have to hold onto that question because it will come up again later in Hebrews when we get to chapter 7. We will look more closely at Melchizedek next week; I won’t say anything more about that today.

The other confusing feature in this passage is in verses 8-9 which seems to suggest that Jesus was not always eternally obedient and perfect, but had to learn how to become perfect.

Hebrews 5:8–9 NIV

8 Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9 and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him

Greek manthano = “learn” — to experience Jesus came into this world in order to experience perfect obedience on our behalf

Greek teleios = “perfect” — brought to completion reference to the completion of Christ’s priestly task to atone for the sins of God’s people on the cross

A better understanding of a few Greek words is helpful here. The Greek word manthano is translated into our English Bibles as ‘learn.’ But the nuance of this word means to learn by experience. Jesus did not have to learn obedience as though he somehow did not know what obedience was before. No. Jesus came into this world in order to experience perfect obedience on our behalf, because none of us has ever been able to meet that standard of obedience. The other Greek word that needs a little explanation is teleios which is translated into our English Bibles as ‘perfect.’ Verse 9 says that once Jesus was made perfect—as though somehow Jesus was not perfect before?—he became the source of eternal salvation. ‘Perfect’ here means to be brought to completion. It does not mean that Jesus was somehow flawed and imperfect. Rather, it is a reference to the completion of Christ’s priestly task to atone for the sins of God’s people on the cross.

Alright, that’s a lot of careful attention to the way Hebrews describes Jesus functioning in the role of priest. So what? What is the takeaway from that for us here in the church today? That was actually given first in our reading for today. It is there for us in those closing verses of Hebrews 4. You can spot it in those verses because the two takeaways in that passage both begin with the words ‘let us…’

Verse 14 – let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. And verse 16 – let us approach God’s throne of grace with confidence.

let us hold firmly to faith

I think the author of Hebrews has something particular in mind when writing let is hold firmly to faith. In the church we often talk about faith as this wide umbrella term that includes a whole lot of things. Sometimes we generically use the term faith to mean all that we believe about Christianity. Let’s keep an eye on the specific issues only presented to us in this passage though. What in particular about faith is it we should be holding firmly?

we do not do religious things to prove ourselves worthy

Well, for the Jewish people of the Old Testament, it would mean letting go of their need to have the Levite priests continue to make atonement for them over and over according to the Old Testament Jewish law. For them it means holding firmly to a faith that Jesus now takes that spot of the priest who has atoned for their sin. We are not Old Testament Jewish people; we do not come from a social culture in which priests constantly prove our righteousness before God on our behalf. I think the truth of this application takes shape a bit differently for us here today. We live in a fiercely independent culture in which we advocate for ourselves; we constantly work our whole lives to prove our own self-worth before the rest of the world. We live in a world today which tells us it is up to you to make your own life and get it right. We live in a world today which tells you over and over that you need to prove yourself worthy. That message of our culture has been beaten so deeply inside of your heart that it leaves you constantly trying to do the same thing with God—doing religious things to prove yourself worthy.

we have a faith which screams out that you are accepted as a child of God because Jesus has intervened on your behalf and has made atonement for you so that you are now right with God

That is not the reason we do religious things. Hebrews reminds us today that we hold onto a faith which assures us that we are already accepted before the Father in heaven because Jesus has stepped in and taken care of that on our behalf. Even if the world judges you as unworthy because of mistakes you’ve made, or wrongs you have done; even if the world judges you as unworthy simply because of the person you are; we have a faith which screams out that you are accepted as a child of God because Jesus has intervened on your behalf and has made atonement for you so that you are now right with God.

do not let go for a single moment of the truth that you are loved by God and redeemed by God just as you are through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus for you

Hebrews tells us today, don’t just hear those words of faith, don’t just affirm or acknowledge those words of faith; hold firmly to that faith. Do not let go for a single moment of the truth that you are loved by God and redeemed by God just as you are through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus for you.

let us approach God with confidence

confidence in the mercy that you receive from God confidence in the help that God’s grace gives in your time of need

no longer does our sinful brokenness drive us farther away from God — because of Jesus we have confidence to draw near to God

And the second application—let us approach God’s throne of grace with confidence. Confidence in what? Verse 16 tells us: confidence in the mercy that you receive from God, and confidence in the help that God’s grace gives in your time of need. In this season of Lent God’s people meditate upon the reminder of our own brokenness and sinfulness. Lent is a time to remember how fallen we are and how great our need is for a savior. But Hebrews reminds us today that no longer does our sinful brokenness drive us farther away from God. Because of Jesus we have confidence to draw near to God—even in our broken sinfulness. Because of Jesus, we come before the Father now, not to receive the judgement of God, but to receive the mercy of God. You are not forsaken by God; Jesus took that in your place and you are now forgiven. You are not condemned by God; Jesus took that in your place and you are now accepted by God. You are forgiven, not forsaken. You are accepted, not condemned.

you are forgiven, not forsaken — you are accepted, not condemned