As we will see from this section, God the Father called Jesus to the honor of High Priest. The use of the name Christ instead of Jesus may emphasize that as Messiah, Jesus did not take the glory of the high priesthood on Himself but received a divine call to the office (John 8:54). The writer cites both Psalms 2:7 and 110:4. Psalm 2:7 is also quoted in 1:5 to prove Christ’s superiority to the angels, and now the writer uses the quote to prove Jesus’ special relationship with God the Father. Paul used this same verse in Acts 13:33 to support the resurrection of Christ. The quote from Psalm 110:4 highlights the eternal nature of Jesus’ priesthood. He will be Mediator between God and us forever.
5 So too Christ did not glorify Himself in becoming a high priest, but it was He who said to Him, “You are My Son, Today I have fathered You”; 6 just as He also says in another passage, “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.” 7 In the days of His humanity, He offered up both prayers and pleas with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His devout behavior. 8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. 9 And having been perfected, He became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey Him, 10 being designated by God as High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek. (NASB)
Key Takeaways:
- Unlike Aaron’s priesthood, nothing about Christ’s priesthood required improvement or change. It would last eternally.
- Verses 7-10 show that Christ developed His ability to sympathize as He passed through testing and suffering. This happened during His days on earth and guaranteed that our Savior could identify with the weaknesses and problems of human beings. Christ Himself was no stranger to hardship and affliction
- Christ’s ability to sympathize with sinners and His call from God qualify Him to be our High Priest.
Closer Look:
Verses 5–6: Verse 5 is the first of six verses explaining the relationship between Christ and the order of Aaron and introducing the priesthood of Melchizedek.
No one is to suppose, the author asserted, that Christ began His priestly functions without the appropriate call from God. On the contrary, the same One who declared Christ to be the King-Son, declared Him also to be “a Priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.” Christ did not call Himself to the office of High Priest; the Father called Him to the honor. In uniting as the author did here the text of Psalm 2:7, which they had quoted before (Heb. 1:5), and the text of Psalm 110:4, the author skillfully joined the two great truths about the Messiah which lie at the heart of this epistle. The declaration of Psalm 2 had proclaimed Jesus the Davidic Heir whose destiny was to rule the nations (cf. Ps. 2:8). The psalm presents an exalted view of Christ. It narrates the coronation of a Jewish king. The psalm affirms that God had appointed Christ as a king. The act of the resurrection showed that God had orchestrated this event. Christ had made it clear on earth that He regarded His work as a divine appointment (John 17:4). He had not sought out the job of high priest, nor had He refused it when God called Him to this task. His assumption of the function came from a divine appointment. This is why it is appropriate to say, Christ was performing the will of God.
But Psalm 110 had also been earlier quoted to much the same effect (cf. Heb. 1:13). Now, however, a further statement of Psalm 110 was cited to show that the future Conqueror is also a Priest of a special order. In this way the author united in the person of Christ the dual offices of Priest and King. In doing so the author was perhaps conscious of countering a sectarian position like that evidently current at Qumran, where both a lay, or kingly, Messiah and a priestly Messiah seem to have been anticipated.[1] In any case the two quotations given here from Psalms 2:7 and 110:4 provide the concentrated essence of the author’s thought about the Lord Jesus Christ. It is likely enough that the writer assigned the proclamations of both psalms to the moment when the Son “sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven” (Heb. 1:3).[2]
Three features of the Psalm 110:4 quotation are significant. First, it contains a general formula. “In another place” refers generally to Scripture and shows that God spoke the words and uttered the appointment to office. Jesus found the authority for His words in Scripture.
Second, the priesthood of Christ differed from that of Aaron in that it was forever. Nothing about Christ’s priesthood required improvement or change. It would last always. Third, the priesthood of Christ was according to the order of Melchizedek. The significance of this order is explained in chapter 7.
Melchizedek was a mysterious Old Testament figure who appears only in Genesis 14:18–20. Abraham accepted the priestly ministry of this unusual leader. Melchizedek possessed a certain quality which seemed fitting for the exalted role which he represented. He was both a king and a priest (Gen. 14:18). Since Jesus was both king and priest, He had a likeness to Melchizedek. Although Jesus’ role as Son was eternal, His function as High Priest could not begin until His incarnation. Christ’s priesthood served to reconcile sinners to a holy God. Jesus belonged to the tribe of Judah, not the tribe of Levi from which priests descended (Heb. 7:14). If Jesus were to serve as high priest, it became necessary for Him to serve as representative of a different order from that of Aaron.
Verse 7: But also in other respects Jesus is qualified for His priesthood. If it is a question of offerings (cf. v. 1), it can be pointed out that when Jesus was on earth, “He offered up both prayers and pleas” (petitions). Pleas (iketerias) appears only here in the New Testament. It shows a strong element of entreating God. But, we should be careful not to find too much difference in meaning between the two terms. In the expression “offered up” the writer employed the same verb (prospherō) they had used in verse 1. The added description, “with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death,” has often been thought to refer to the experience of Gethsemane (Matt 26:36-46). But the Greek here seems to reflect the Septuagint rendering of Psalm 22:24.[3] Since that psalm is messianic for this author (cf. Heb. 2:12), it is probable that the author actually has the sufferings of the Cross in mind, as does the psalm. This would be appropriate since the cries of the Savior would then be linked directly with His sacrificial work.
That these “cries and tears” were accepted by God is evidenced by the observation, “He was heard because of His devout behavior” (eulabeias). To this also Psalm 22 bears reference in that its latter half are the words of One who has emerged from suffering in triumph and praises God for that (cf. Ps. 22:22–31). In fact, the psalm’s first note of triumph has already been quoted (i.e., Ps. 22:22 in Heb. 2:12). Thus the “devout” (or reverent) Sufferer was indeed saved from death, and this by means of rising from the dead. Hence too the Resurrection furnishes the decisive proof of God’s acceptance of Jesus’ sacrificial activity.
Jesus prayed to God, who was able deliver Him out of death. Since Jesus did die, a question comes to mind, “In what sense did God hear His prayers?” Scholars have supplied two answers to this question. Some say that God heard the prayers of His Son in that Jesus fully accepted the divine will and pursued it (Matt. 26:42). In this interpretation God delivered Jesus from the fear of death. Another possible interpretation is that His prayer was not to be spared from dying but to be delivered from the consequences of death. This deliverance from death occurred in the resurrection. Either interpretation offers a biblical solution to the problem.
The fact that Jesus was heard because of His devout behavior or reverent submission may suggest that the Father heard Jesus’ prayers because of His devotion to God’s will.[4] Because Jesus submitted Himself to God’s will, His prayer was heard in a far greater way than we would ever have imagined. God raised Him from the dead in the glorious event of the resurrection and established Him as Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36).
Christ did not offer sacrifice for Himself. Rather, He “offered up” for us prayers, pleas, cries, and tears of an obedient life and death. He was heard and His sacrifice accepted because of devout behavior (reverent obedience). He was saved from death through the Resurrection.
The fact that Jesus experienced the cup of death qualified Him to sympathize with human beings all the better. In the wilderness temptations (Matt. 4:1–11), Jesus refused to appeal to angelic forces to rescue Him. He saw the road of the Father’s will and followed it without flinching. This caused Him great suffering. It also enabled Him to identify with the suffering of human beings. We have a merciful, sympathetic Savior. Jesus has experienced our trials, overcome them, and has the compassion to help us. It is a great blessing to have Him as our Savior.
Verses 8–10: The whole experience just referred to was a form of education for Jesus before He served His suffering people. His unique relation to God notwithstanding (“He was a Son”), He had to experience the true meaning of obedience in terms of the suffering it entailed. The phrase “He learned obedience,” means that Jesus did not need to learn to obey as if disobedient previously, but He did have to go through the experience of obeying His Father’s will. He learned the nature of obedience. That there is an element of mystery in all this need not be denied, but it is no greater than that found in Luke’s words: “And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and people” (Luke 2:52, NASB). In a real sense not fully comprehensible, the Incarnation gave the already infinitely wise and perfect Son of God the experiential acquisition of knowledge about the human condition. We should probably recognize that a divine mystery is involved in Jesus’ learning obedience in Hebrews 5:8. It is difficult to understand why the divine Son would need to learn. It is understandable that one who was the God-man might grow in wisdom, understanding, and in a grasp of the importance of obedience. In a sense that we cannot fully comprehend, the incarnate son of God acquired knowledge through suffering that allowed Him to learn the value of obedience. Jesus always possessed the attitude of obedience, but by practicing obedience He learned the value and importance of obeying. By making a response of obedience to His testing, He acquired the experiential knowledge of obedience. He learned what was involved in following obedience. Learning this trait equipped Him to understand better the struggles and weaknesses of human beings. It added to Jesus’ skills in showing sympathy with wandering sinners.
This is the sole New Testament verse in which Jesus is the subject of the verb learn. Jesus came with a commitment to obey, but in obeying He learned a new level of experience in obedience. His example and experience encouraged both the readers of Hebrews and today’s readers to persevere. We cannot experience a hardship in which He fails to identify with us.
Having done so, He was thereby “made perfect” (ESV; “having been perfected,” NASB) for the role He would play as His people’s Captain and High Priest. Made perfect (teleiotheis) describes perfection in the sense of completeness or fulfillment. Jesus was obedient to God’s will in that He endured suffering and death. In doing this Jesus brought God’s redemptive purposes to their fulfillment or completion. By enduring suffering Jesus attained the goal the Father had for Him. This enabled Him to become a perfectly equipped high priest. To say that Jesus was perfect does not suggest that He was imperfect before He suffered. During His human life Jesus’ perfection endured severe testing. None of this testing damaged a single feature of His perfection. Jesus’ perfection was the completion of someone who had faced trials, endured them, and learned to trust God through them. Jesus’ perfection developed in an atmosphere in which He had His obedience tested and strengthened by the trials He faced.
Suffering thus became a reality that Jesus tasted and from it He can sympathize deeply with His followers. (The Gr. has an interesting play on words in the verbs He learned [emathen] and He suffered [epathen].)[5] The phrase “having been perfected,” does not suggest that Jesus had not been perfect before. It means that He successfully carried out God’s plan for Him. He endured suffering and temptation so that He could truly function as our High Priest, understanding our weaknesses and interceding before God for us.
This is what the writer had in mind when they affirmed that “He became the Source” (aitios) “of eternal salvation for all those who obey Him.” Jesus’ obedience to the Father led to Calvary, His own death on the Cross. The sacrifice of this sinless One in our place makes Him the source of our salvation. The salvation here referred to cannot be distinguished from that which is termed an inheritance (Heb. 1:14). It is also to be identified with the “eternal inheritance” mentioned in 9:15. It should not be confused with the acquisition of eternal life which is conditioned not on obedience but on faith (cf. John 3:16, etc.). Once again, the writer had in mind final deliverance from and victory over all enemies and the consequent enjoyment of the “glory” of the many sons and daughters. After passing victoriously through suffering, Jesus became the Source of eternal salvation. This phrase carries a meaning similar to author of their salvation in 2:10. Jesus’ salvation is eternal because Christ accomplished salvation through a sacrifice which was thorough, effective, permanently valid, and never to be repeated or superseded.
This kind of salvation is explicitly contingent on obedience and indeed on an obedience modeled after that of Jesus who also suffered. It is thus closely related to the saying of the Lord in which He declared, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” (Mark 8:34–35, NASB). Jesus’ salvation applies only to those who obey Him. The practice of obedience does not mean that only the morally perfect receive salvation. We obey the Lord when we accept His provisions for our salvation. Obedience is our acceptance of God’s will. This response to salvation allows the privilege to be available to rich and poor, important and unimportant, Jews and Gentiles, and learned and uneducated. God’s gift of salvation is open to all. The One who learned to obey made salvation available to all who obey.
The author uses the term “designated” (v. 10) to introduce Christ’s formal title, “High Priest.” The High Priest has become the “Source” of this kind of salvation experience for those who are willing to live obediently. In describing Him this way, the author was chiefly thinking of all the resources that flow from Christ’s priestly activities that make a Christian’s life of obedience possible. Whatever one’s suffering, the High Priest understands it, sympathizes, and makes available the “mercy” and “grace” which are needed to endure it successfully. As the writer will later say, “Therefore He is also able to save forever those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25, NASB). With precisely this end in view Christ was “designated by God as High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek.”
Several features of this order differed from the order of Aaron. First, the order of Melchizedek had no hereditary succession. This feature stood in contrast to the Aaronic order, which saw wave after wave of priests succeeding one another. Second, it was a unique order because only Christ belonged to it. It was an order which was fit for Christ because it placed Him in an entirely different order from that of Aaron. We might expect the writer of Hebrews to plunge immediately into a discussion of the theme of Melchizedek, but instead the writer paused to consider some problems among their readers. Their spiritual immaturity was a serious concern to the writer, and they spent the final four verses of this chapter and most of the following chapter warning them of the dangers of their present attitude. When the author finished this warning, they returned to explain more about the significance of Melchizedek in chapter 7.
[1] Zane C. Hodges, “Hebrews,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, eds. John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1985), 790.
[2] Zane C. Hodges, “Hebrews,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, eds. John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1985), 790.
[3] Zane C. Hodges, “Hebrews,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, eds. John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1985), 790.
[4] Thomas Lea, “Hebrews” in Holman New Testament Commentary – Hebrews & James, vol 10, edited by Max Anders (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), np.
[5] Emathen – “to come to a realization, with implication of taking place less through instruction than through experience or practice, learn, appropriate to oneself.” Epathen – “In all other places, as always in LXX, in an unfavorable sense suffer, endure.” In this sense, it is to endure.