The Proclaimer

Christ - Our High Priest

“Though He was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which He suffered; and having been made perfect, He became to all them that obey Him the author of eternal salvation” (Hebrews 5:8, 9). 

The above passage reveals a great deal concerning Jesus, much of which is misunderstood or rejected by many people.  To begin with, while most in the denominational world receive the teaching that Christ is the exclusive source of salvation (cf. Acts 4:12), the vast majority of religious people reject the idea that obedience to the Lord is essential to that salvation.  But this passage clearly says that it is.  In fact, the word rendered “obey” is a present tense, participle form showing that those who reach eternal salvation are the “ever-obeying him ones.”

But if “He was a Son,” that is, the Son of God and as such omniscient, how did He learn obedience through the things which He suffered?  While Jesus was God (John 1:1), He was also man (Gal. 4:4).  It’s clear enough that Jesus did expand His intellectual capacity as He matured physically from a boy into a man (Luke 2:40, 52).  But this “learning” of Hebrews 5:8 was the direct result of His suffering on Calvary for the sins of the world.  For any human a part of the learning process involves experience.  But what Christ “learned” through obedience is more than this, for when a child obeys a parent and does some difficult task that they do not want to do, they “learn” obedience.

It must be remembered that Christ prayed in the garden, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matt. 26:39). Christ’s suffering was the direct result of His intense desire to do the Father’s will even as “He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:8).  It was through this human experience of suffering and death, an experience He had not heretofore endured, that He “became the author of eternal salvation.”  Christ suffered because there was no other way to atone for the sin of mankind (Heb. 2:14, 15; 1 Peter 2:21-25).  But His suffering accomplished even more, for through it He was “made perfect.”

The word translated “perfect” is from the word teleioo which means “to complete, i.e. (literally) accomplish.”  In the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament) it is used to refer to the high priest and carried the notion of being qualified to perform certain tasks (Lev. 4:5; 21:10).  This is exactly the use in the context of Hebrews 5.  The chapter begins by pointing out the qualifications of every high priest as he is to be “taken from among men” (v. 1) and “called of God” to the office (v. 4).  He “is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins” (v. 1).  This Jesus did when He offered the supreme sacrifice on Calvary’s tree for the sins of the world.

Directly before Christ died on the cross He said, “It is finished.”  His work on this earth was now complete.  But even more than this, through the bitterest of all trials, the suffering of Calvary, He not only learned perfect obedience, He became completely qualified as our High Priest.  “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way which He has consecrated for us, through the curtain, that is His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith” (Heb. 10:19-22).

                                                                                                -- Clark Dugger

The Proclaimer