A Study Of The Apostle Pauls Letter To The Hebrews

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AStudyOf TheApostlePauls LetterTo The
Hebrews
How can we neglect so greata salvation?
Hebrews 23
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Hebrews Christ Is Superior! Superior Person
(11413) Superior to Prophets
(11-3) Superior to Angels (14218) Superior
to Moses (31-19) Superior to Joshua
(41-13) Superior Priest (414728) Superior to
Aaron (414612) but Well only study 54-10
today. Superior to Melchizedek
(61375) Superior to Levi (76-28)
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Hebrews Christ Is Superior! Superior Pact to
Moses (811018) Superior Promises
(81-13) Superior Sanctuary (91-15) Superior
Sacrifice (916-28) Superior Results
(101-18) Superior Principle (Faith) to Moses
(10191325) Superior Things (1019-39) Superio
r Actions (111-40) Superior Relationship
(121-29) Superior Way of Life (131-25)
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In our last study we concluded that 5 1-3
provide reasons why Jesus qualifies as a High
Priest by comparing Him with Aaron, the first
high priest 1. Both were chosen by God from
among men. 2. Both were appointed to
represent people before God. 3. Both were to
pray and offer sacrifices. 4. Both were to show
compassion. 5. Both experienced fleshly
infirmities.
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Now in 54-10 Paul demonstrated that Jesus is a
superior High Priest by con-trasting Him with
Aaron 1. Only Jesus is called Gods Son. 2. Only
Jesus was given an everlasting
priesthood. 3. Only Jesus was made a priest after
the order of Melchizedek. 4. Only Jesus
cried out to God in Geth- semane when He
faced His demise as the Lamb as well as the
High Priest.
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And no man takes this honor to him-self, but he
who is called by God, just as Aaron was.
Hebrews 54 ?
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And no man takes this honor to him-self, but he
who is called by God, just as Aaron was.
Paul was taking the minds of his readers back to
the thought in 51 Every high priest is
appointed by God he did this in order to build
on it with contrasts in-stead of compari-sons
this time.
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And no man takes this honor to him-self, but he
who is called by God, just as Aaron was.
Whats interesting about this verse is that
although the high priest was for man (51), man
was not allowed to pick his own high priest only
God had that privilege so when anyone tried to
usurp that position, there were severe
consequences.
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Numbers 16 tells of a man named Korah who tried
such, and the earth swallowed up him and all his
followers Jude refer-red to this incident as the
rebellion of Korah (v. 11). Second Chronicles 26
tells of a man named Uzziah who interfered with
the priestly office and became a leper. First
Samuel 13 tells of how king Saul lost his kingdom
due in part to presuming the work of a priest.
And First Kings 12 tells of Jeroboams
institu-tion of an unlawful priesthood, and the
kingdom of Israel came to destruction.
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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.
Hebrews 55 ?
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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.
This word might be better understood here as
exalt i.e., Jesus didnt exalt Himself to the
role of high priest, rather the One who claim-ed
Jesus as His Son exalted Him to that position.
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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.
In this verse Paul again, as in 51, quoted from
Psalm 27. The question I had was, Why not just
succinctly say, It was God who did? Well,
heres why I think Paul said so much ? ?
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Recall from our study of 15 that Jesus being
begotten and called Gods Son in Psalm 27 has
reference not to His birth, but to His
resurrection from death. So Paul was implying
that Jesus resurrec-tion and ascension to Gods
right hand (11-5) is directly linked to His
being wor-thy of the once-for-all High
Priesthood. Why? Because He lives evermore to
inter-cede for the saints, and because Hethe
Lamb as well as High Priestendured the lowest
depths of human suffering and death in order to
be perfected (as, inci-dentally, 57-8 go on to
talk about).
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As He also saysin another place, You are a
priest forever according to the order of
Melchizedek.
Hebrews 56 ?
Psalm 1104
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As He also saysin another place, You are a
priest forever according to the order of
Melchizedek.
Although Paul brot up the priesthood of Christ
being like that of Melchizedek, he strayed from
this subject in verse 12, getting back to it in
chapter 7. But ?
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As He also saysin another place, You are a
priest forever according to the order of
Melchizedek.
The point here for now is plain unlike the
Aaronic priest-hood, the priesthood of Jesus is
forever, just as that of Mel-chizedek who had no
beginning and no ending as far as any record is
concerned (73). By the way
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The word forever here refers to the idea of
throughout the age. In Exodus 4015 God told
Moses that the Levitical priest-hood would be an
everlasting priest-hood defined by God in the
next phrase as throughout their generations, and
we know that their generations ended at the
destruction of Jerusalem so, be-cause Jesus will
never cease to exist, His priesthood is
throughout the entire-ty of the Christian age.
Furthermore
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Unlike high priests such as Ananias in Acts 23
(who many believe usurped the office), Jesus,
even though He was not of the lineage of Aaron,
did not usurp the office, because it was
appointed by God that He would be High Priest
hun- dreds of years before He was even born
besides that, His priesthood would be like that
of Melchizedek who lived long before Aaron.
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Another interesting thought that this verse
brings up which will be discussed more in chapter
7 is that Melchizedek was not just a priest like
Aaron, but, unlike Aaron, he was a king (72).
Je-sus, therefore, is Priest and King, as
Zechariah 613 says of Him, He shall rule
and be a priest on His throne. Remember what
happened to king Uz-ziah when he tried to be both
king and priest? He was struck a leper by God!
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Jesus, in the days of His flesh, when He had
offered up prayers and sup-plications with
ve-hement cries and tears to Him who was able to
save Him from death, was heard because of His
godly fear.
Hebrews 57 ?
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Jesus, in the days of His flesh, when He had
offered up prayers and sup-plications with
ve-hement cries and tears to Him who was able to
save Him from death, was heard because of His
godly fear.
It seems obvious to me most commen-tators
scholars that this verse refers to Christs
prayers to God in Gethse-mane before He was
betrayed its also obvious that Paul brot this
up to en-force his argument that, although Jesus
did not commit sin as regular priests did, He did
suffer as they did.
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Jesus, in the days of His flesh, when He had
offered up prayers and sup-plications with
ve-hement cries and tears to Him who was able to
save Him from death, was heard because of His
godly fear.
Read Matthew 26 36-44, remembering that, because
things were so tough at this time, Luke add-ed
that God sent an angel to strengthen Him (Luke
2243).
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Jesus, in the days of His flesh, when He had
offered up prayers and sup-plications with
ve-hement cries and tears to Him who was able to
save Him from death, was heard because of His
godly fear.
This word was used of the priest who brought a
sacrifice to Gods altar so prayer is a sort of
sacrificea sacrifice of the lips (cf. 1315),
which is why the prayers of the saints are
referred to as a type of offering in Rev. 83-4.
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Jesus, in the days of His flesh, when He had
offered up prayers and sup-plications with
ve-hement cries and tears to Him who was able to
save Him from death, was heard because of His
godly fear.
When used separate- ly, these words are used
interchange-ably, but when used together they
refer to a prayer prompt-ed by a deep sense of
helplessness.
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Jesus, in the days of His flesh, when He had
offered up prayers and sup-plications with
ve-hement cries and tears to Him who was able to
save Him from death, was heard because of His
godly fear.
This simply means passionate.
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Jesus, in the days of His flesh, when He had
offered up prayers and sup-plications with
ve-hement cries and tears to Him who was able to
save Him from death, was heard because of His
godly fear.
The original term for save means to bring safe
forth from, and the original term for from means
out from within. So what does this mean to or for
us today? Well ?
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Jesus, in the days of His flesh, when He had
offered up prayers and sup-plications with
ve-hement cries and tears to Him who was able to
save Him from death, was heard because of His
godly fear.
Instead of meaning (as I once thought) that God
could save Jesus from dying, it actually means
that God could bring Him out from within the
state of death itself i.e., He could (and did)
resurrect Him (cf. 1117-19).
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Jesus, in the days of His flesh, when He had
offered up prayers and sup-plications with
ve-hement cries and tears to Him who was able to
save Him from death, was heard because of His
godly fear.
This word here is not the word which re-fers to
being afraid of something this word highlights
the idea of respect, which is why the adjective
godly was suitably added.
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Heres the idea Jesus prayer to His Father was
heard because of His re-spect for Him, not just
in His prayer wherein He clearly placed His
Fathers will above His own, but also through-out
His entire life. Jesus was raised from death,
taking us right back to the thought of Psalm 27
found in 55.
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Though He was a Son, yet He learn-ed obedience by
the things which He suffered.
Hebrews 58 ?
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Though He was a Son, yet He learn-ed obedience by
the things which He suffered.
This word doesnt refer to Jesus as be-ing the
Son of Man here, but to His be-ing the Son of
God.
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Though He was a Son, yet He learn-ed obedience by
the things which He suffered.
Learned here refers to understanding as a result
of experi-ence, not merely by instinct or
instruc-tion and we can know this because it
specifically says that He learned from the
sufferings that He experienced.
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Though He was a Son, yet He learn-ed obedience by
the things which He suffered.
The idea is that al-though Jesus as God knew what
obedi-ence was as far as head-knowledge goes,
He didnt know what it was from experience i.e.,
Jesus as deity minus humanity was never tempted
to disobey, so He learned obedience from a human
per-spective.
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Though He was a Son, yet He learn-ed obedience by
the things which He suffered.
One thing this verse clearly teaches is that
suffering is not always the conse-quence of ones
per-sonal sins rather, adversity is meant to
edify us. Also ?
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Though He was a Son, yet He learn-ed obedience by
the things which He suffered.
Here are some thot-provoking questions If Gods
Son had to learn obedience, shouldnt His
follow-ers learn it as well? And if Gods Son
had to obey, should we expect special favors such
as the right to disobey, especially with impunity?
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And having been perfected, He be-came the Author
of eternal salva-tion to all who obey Him.
Hebrews 59 ?
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And having been perfected, He be-came the Author
of eternal salva-tion to all who obey Him.
The basic idea behind the original word for
perfected refers to a persons attainment of
Gods goal for him so this initial phrase points
to how Jesus reached Gods goal for Him
concerning His eternal priest-hood, a goal that
was ultimately ful-filled in His death.
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In Philippians 28 Paul said, being found in
appearance as a man, Jesus humbled Himself
became obedient to the point of death. As Jesus
set His face toward Jerusalem and His death, He
told some Pharisees that He was headed there
be-cause thats where He would be per-fected
(Luke 1332). The word perfected could also refer
to consecration i.e., just as Aaron was con-
secrated to the priestly office through
sacrifices (Exo. 29), so Jesus was conse-crated
by the sacrifice of Himself.
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And having been perfected, He be-came the Author
of eternal salva-tion to all who obey Him.
Before talking about this phrase, lets re-call
210 where, writ- of Jesus, Paul said that it was
fitting to make the Author of salvation perfect
through sufferings.
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Although 210 is parallel in its primary thought
to 57-9, yet there is a slightly unnoticeable
difference in the NKJV. As I mentioned when we
studied 210, the NKJV wouldve been better off
in this case if it had retained the translation
of the old KJV where it was translated as
captain i.e., 210 refers to the idea of Jesus
being the leader of our salvationthe One who
paved the way for us. But the original word for
Author here in 59 is a word which, although
similar in meaning, actu-ally refers to the idea
of Jesus being the Cause or Source of our
salvation.
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And having been perfected, He be-came the Author
of eternal salva-tion to all who obey Him.
Christs salvation is described as eternal
neither the Law of Moses nor the Levi-tical or
Aaronic priesthood provided for eternal salvation
the sins of the people were merely rolled
forward until the perfected Jesus could author
and captain that perfect salvation.
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Hebrews 719a 11 read, The Law made nothing
perfect, and if perfection were through the
Levitical priesthood what further need was
there that another priest should rise according
to the order of Melchizedek and not ac-cording
to the order of Aaron? Then 728 says, The Law
appoints as high priests men who have weakness,
but the word of the oath which came after the Law
appoints the Son who has been perfected forever.
One more ?
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Hebrews 912 15 say that with His own blood
Jesus entered the Most Holy Place once for all,
having ob-tained eternal redemption. For this
reason He is the mediator of the new covenant for
the redemption of the transgressions under the
first cove-nant that those who are called may
receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
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And having been perfected, He be-came the Author
of eternal salva-tion to all who obey Him.
When we think of this, how can verses 7-8 not
come to mind? I.e., just as Jesus became Savi-or
by obedience, we become saved by obedience.
Since Jesus had to obey to become Savior, why
would anyone assume he could be saved without
obedience?
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Jesus was called by God as High Priest according
to the order of Melchizedek.
Hebrews 510 ?
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Jesus was called by God as High Priest according
to the order of Melchizedek.
There isnt a word in the original for as, and
the word for called means to dub or give a name
to, such as when par-ents-to-be ask each other,
What shall we call him or her?, meaning What name
should we pick to call him or her by?
So ? ? ?
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Jesus was called by God as High Priest according
to the order of Melchizedek.
This verse is simply saying that because Jesus
reached Gods goal for Him and be-cause He was
per-fectly qualified to be the once-for-all-time
High Priest between God and man, God dubbed Him
High Priest after the like- ness of
Melchize-dek. Actually ?
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As the word dubbed suggests, the word for called
carries with it the idea of performing this
dubbing publicly, meaning that just as God was
pleased to call Jesus His Son at His baptism, so
He was pleased to call Him High Priest. How was
this done publicly? By His resurrection, then His
appearances and ascension to Gods right hand.
So ? ? ?
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As Paul began talking about in 217, there can be
no doubt that, unlike Aaron, Jesus is perfectly
qualified to be a merciful and faithful High
Priest in things pertaining to God because He
learned obedience as a human through the
experience of enduring toils, trials, and
temptations that were even far greater than those
endured by mere men and without succumbing to
the pressure to sin.
This is why ? ? ?
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1. Jesus was appointed High Priest by God
Himself. 2. His appointment was after that of
Melchizedek not Aaron, therefore
everlasting. 3. He is the Source of eternal
salvation to all those who, like Him, obey.
And 4. He is the Helper of the faithful while
on this trying planet.