 The Obedience of Our High Priest
Hebrews 5:7-10
Rev. Michael G. Brown
Introduction
I want to draw your attention to vv.7-10 this morning and the
obedience of our high priest today. This is something that the
writer brings out in vv.7-10, and it is something vital to our
understanding of the gospel and our living of the Christian
life. The more we understand the obedience of our high priest
and Savior, the more hope we will have as we run the race before
us, even to our dying day.
This is illustrated so well in the dying days of J. Gresham
Machen. Machen was the founder of Westminster Seminary in
Philadelphia and of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. He died in
1937 from pneumonia. But as he laid suffering in a North Dakota
hospital bed, he sent a telegram to his friend and fellow
professor John Murray on the very morning of his death. The
telegram read: “I am so thankful for the active obedience of
Christ. No hope without it.”
Now, why would he say that? Why the active obedience of Christ
specifically? Well, let’s look at our text in order to answer
that question. Consider with me the obedience of our high priest
and how: 1) it was COSTLY; 2) it is COMPLETE; 3) it is the CAUSE
of our salvation. And as we consider this together, loved ones,
may we too be moved to rejoice for the hope given to us in all
that our high priest has accomplished, and may we respond in a
life of worship and gratitude.
I. The obedience of our high priest: It was COSTLY
How was his obedience costly? Well, notice what the writer says
in the text before us. He first says, “In the days of his
flesh.” We should stop there for a moment when we are
considering Christ’s obedience, because sometimes there is a
tendency for us to think of the Son of God as having inhabited a
body from eternity past – as if he were always Jesus of the
first century, even before the world was made. What we must
always remember, however, is that God is a spirit and doesn’t
have a body like men. A body is something created, something
finite, something limited. Those are all things that God –
Father, Son and Holy Spirit – is not! The wonder of the Incarnation, of
course, is that God became man. Christ was at the same time
Creator and creature; infinite and finite; limitless and
limited.
This was part of his obedience to the Father in that covenant
between them from all eternity. The Father gave to the Son all
those whom he elected for salvation. He gave the Son work to do
in order to redeem them from the sin that Adam would bring upon
them. The Son agreed and promised to complete this work given to
him by the Father. But this would require the Son to become a
real man like the first Adam. The justice of God requires that
the same human nature that sinned against God must make payment
for that sin. And the same reward of eternal life that Adam
could have earned for those he represented would be earned by
the Son. But this meant taking on human flesh – real body and
real soul – human in every way, yet without sin. His whole
incarnation was an act of his obedience to the Father.
But as we think about that, we must also be aware of another
tendency in us: the tendency to divinize his humanity. What do I
mean by that? Well, we have the tendency at times to think of
Jesus as a sort of superman, as if his life was easy because –
well, after all – he is God! We sometimes get the crazy idea in
our head that when Jesus was tired and hungry, or when he was
full of sorrow and sadness, or when he wrestled with temptation,
his divine nature sort of kicked in and gave him a turbo-boost,
as if he were some kind of a comic book superhero.
But when we think that way, we fail to do justice to what the
Bible clearly reveals about his life on earth, which is this:
his whole life was a life of real suffering. “He made himself
nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the
likeness of men.” says Paul in Philippians 2. He didn’t use his
divine powers when he felt like it, as if he were some kind of
magician. (Incidentally, that’s the kind of stuff that the
Gnostic gospels say about Jesus – his divinity swallowed up his
humanity, causing Jesus to function like some kind of wizard or
superhero.) But the Bible reveals to us that Christ fully
submitted himself to the Father. He only performed miracles by
the power of the Holy Spirit and never apart from the will of
his Father.
And the suffering that he experienced in the days of his flesh
was real suffering. As Louis Berkhof once put it:
The way of obedience was for him at the same time a way of
suffering. He suffered from the repeated assaults of Satan, from
the hatred and unbelief of his own people, and from the
persecution of his enemies. Since he trod the wine-press alone,
his loneliness must have been oppressive, and his sense of
responsibility, crushing.
This was part of the cost of his obedience. The Son knew
something that he never knew before the Incarnation: he knew
what it was like to need. This is why the writer goes on to say:
“In the days of his flesh he offered up prayers and
supplications.” There are several different words in the New
Testament Greek for prayer. The word that the writer uses here
for prayer is a word that specifically describes an urgent and
critical request to God to meet a need; these prayers and
supplications to which the writer refers are the pressing and
weighty prayers of our Savior that accompanied his life of
suffering.
And because the writer says that “he offered up” these prayers,
we should understand that they are part of his priestly activity
of offering up himself, his whole life, as a sacrifice to God.
He offered them up “ with loud cries and tears, to him who was
able to save him from death.” These are the groanings that he
knew throughout his life of obedience, but which culminated, of
course, in his death on the cross. These are the kind of
groanings spoken of in Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words
of my groaning?”
Part of the costliness of our Savior’s obedience was the sheer
anguish he experienced in the depths of his soul. We think
especially as he drew nearer to Calvary, to bear the full weight
of the Father’s unmitigated wrath against sin. We think of
Gethsemane, as Luke records (22.44): “And being in agony he
prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of
blood falling to the ground.” He was totally vexed by sorrow and
torment in his soul. He didn’t go to his death singing and
rejoicing; rather, he went to his death just as the prophet
Isaiah prophesied: “despised and rejected by men; a man of
sorrows, and acquainted with grief.”
This was part of the costliness of his obedience, this great
suffering that he experienced. As the writer says in v.8, “he
learned obedience through what he suffered.” That is, he
experienced it throughout his whole life. He learned obedience;
experienced it firsthand in the womb, as an infant, as a child,
and as an adult. He learned obedience as he had occasion to
fulfill the demands of the law; to exercise the graces of
humility, meekness and patience, even while suffering in a
fallen world. He learned obedience in resisting temptation and
still loving God and neighbor to the fullest. He learned
obedience in actively obeying the Father throughout his life,
remaining steadfast in his mission.
There was no easy way out; his obedience was costly. In fact, it
cost the Son of God EVERYTHING! Not only did he humble Himself
and take on human flesh for you, not only did he live in perfect
obedience under the law for you, not only did he go to the cross
and suffer the wrath of God for you, not only was he buried for
you, but now, after his resurrection and ascension, he remains –
and will forever remain – in human flesh as our Mediator and
eternal high priest. The statement in v.7, “In the days of his
flesh” does not mean that Christ is no longer in human flesh –
indeed he is! That statement by the writer simply refers to the
days of Christ’s humiliation, the days in which his life was
governed by his physical condition. But as we have learned from
the writer – especially at the end of chapter 4 – even NOW “we
have a great high priest,” one who is able to sympathize with
our weaknesses, one who feels for us and with us in all of our
temptations and sorrows.
This brings us to the next thing we must consider: the obedience
of our high priest was not only costly…
II. The obedience of our high priest: It is COMPLETE
There are two things that the writer says in this passage that
indicate the completeness of Christ’s obedience. The first is
found in the last part of v.7: “and he was heard because of his
reverence.” This is equivalent to saying that God accepted
Jesus’ offering.
When a Christian prays, he is not heard by God because of who he
is or what he has accomplished. Rather, the Father hears us ONLY
because we have a Mediator and high priest, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Yet, Jesus had NO mediator. He had no high priest
between him and God. His role as the second Adam demanded that
he perform all the duties of that covenant perfectly and without
a mediator or priest to go between him and God. And Jesus
fulfilled this perfectly. “He was heard because of his
reverence.” The offering of his perfectly obedient life was
acceptable to God. His obedience was lacking nothing; it was
complete!
But there is something else in the writer’s text that shows us
the completeness of Christ’s obedience: v.9: “And being made
perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who
obey him.” What does the writer mean when he says that Christ
was “made perfect”? He already mentioned this back in 2.10: “For
it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist,
in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their
salvation perfect through suffering.” He will mention this again
in 7.28, where he speaks of the “Son who has been made perfect
forever.” What does this mean? Is the writer suggesting that
Christ was somehow imperfect and needed to be made perfect?
We should understand that what the writer does NOT mean is that
Jesus was somehow flawed or sinful and finally became sinless.
He was, of course, always sinless and always without sin. What
the writer is saying is that Christ’s work was complete. Christ
was made perfect in the sense that he finished the course set
before him. He actively obeyed the Father and suffered
everything which he was called to suffer, even his death on the
cross. Having done ALL of this, he was “perfected.”
You see, his covenantal promises and oaths that he made to his
Father from all eternity were all fulfilled. Jesus said, “ I
have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of
him who sent me.” And he did. At the end of his life, he prayed
to the Father, “Father, the hour has come…I glorified you on
earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.” And
he did. On the cross, just before giving up his soul, he said,
“It is finished.” And it was. Throughout his life, even to his
last dying breath, he was completely conscious of this mission
he was sent to accomplish. He was determined to actively obey
the Father and finish his course of redeeming his people. And he
did. He crossed the finish line and was made perfect.
He is now perfected in the sense that, having suffered for us,
having remained perfectly obedient for us in his life and death,
he is now fully qualified to serve in his office as our eternal
high priest.
III. The obedience of our high priest: It is the CAUSE of our
salvation
Listen to v.9: “And being made perfect, he became the source of
eternal salvation to all who obey him.” You see, our salvation
required his work and obedience! It is not just that Jesus died
on the cross and our sins are taken away – it is much more than
that. If it were only the case that our sins were taken away,
than we would be like Adam in the Garden: back on the starting
line, back on probation.
But Christ, our high priest and representative CROSSED the
finish line for us. If you are in Christ then you have all the
comfort of knowing that he was obedient IN YOUR PLACE! He passed
the test! And his grade is yours!
God doesn’t just forgive you and provide you with a clean slate
– that is only half of what he does! He also provides you with
all of your Savior’s perfection and obedience. We are saved by
HIS works! That is why it is grace alone, through faith alone,
because of Christ alone! The only reason there is grace for you
is because of Christ. HE is the object of our faith, because he
fulfilled the laws demands, remained perfectly obedient
throughout his life of suffering and was perfected! His works
become yours, all through faith alone.
You see, this is precisely why someone like Machen could find
such hope and comfort, even as he suffered on the last day of
his life: he knew that while he was imperfect, while he
personally sinned and failed times without number, God – on
account of the Lord Jesus Christ – had not only forgiven all his
sins, but also counted the perfection of Jesus as if it were his
own! “I am so thankful for the active obedience of Christ. No
hope without it.”
Will that be your hope as you face death one day? Is it your
hope now, as you seek to live the Christian life? Where do you
look as you seek to live this life called the Christian life?
Where do you go when your own conscience accuses you of all your
shortcomings and sin? Are you able to confess with the
Heidelberg Catechism that “although my conscience accuse me that
I have grievously sinned against all the commandments of God,
and have never kept any of them, and that I am still prone
always to all evil, yet God, without any merit of mine, of mere
grace, grants and imputes to me the perfect satisfaction,
righteousness and holiness of Christ, as if I had never
committed nor had any sin, and had myself accomplished all the
obedience which Christ has fulfilled for me, if only I accept
such benefit with a believing heart.”
Because he has finished running his race as our representative
and high priest, because he has finished this race perfectly, we
too are able to “run with endurance the race that is set before
us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.”
Beloved, look away from yourselves and to the Lord Jesus Christ,
who was perfectly obedient for you - in your place.
Amen.
Rev. Michael G. Brown
Pastor and Church Planter
Christ United Reformed Church
Santee, CA
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