Jesus, not like any other High Priest!
The writer of Hebrews presents how different Jesus is from other high priests – “For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness. Because of this he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sins. And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was. So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him: ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You.’ As He also says in another place: ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek’; who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.” (Hebrews 5: 1-8)
Warren Wiersbe wrote – “The very existence of a priesthood and a system of sacrifices gave evidence that man is estranged from God. It was an act of grace on God’s part that He instituted the whole Levitical system. Today, that system is fulfilled in the ministry of Jesus Christ. He is both the sacrifice and the High Priest who ministers to God’s people on the basis of His once-for-all offering on the cross.”
At least one thousand years before Jesus was born, Psalm 2: 7 was written stating about Jesus – “I will declare the decree: the Lord has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You.”, as well as Psalm 110: 4 which states – “The Lord has sworn and will not relent, ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.’”
God declared that Jesus was His Son and a High Priest ‘according to the order of Melchizedek.’ Melchizedek was a ‘type’ of Christ as High Priest because: 1. He was a man. 2. He was a king-priest. 3. Melchizedek’s name means ‘my king is righteous.’ 4. There was no record of his ‘life’s beginning’ or his ‘end of life.’ 5. He was not made a high priest through human appointment.
In the ‘days of Jesus’ flesh,’ He offered prayers with cries and tears to God who could save Him from death. However, Jesus sought to do His Father’s will which was to give His life for a payment for our sins. Although Jesus was the Son of God, He ‘learned obedience’ by the things He suffered.
Jesus knows personally what we go through in our lives. He suffered temptation, pain, rejection, etc. in order to understand how to help us – “Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.” (Hebrews 2: 17-18)
If you are trusting in your obedience to the law, or are rejecting the idea of God altogether, please consider these words written by Paul to the Romans – “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” (Romans 3: 20-26)
REFERENCES:
Wiersbe, Warren, W. The Wiersbe Bible Commentary. Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2007.
