Hebrews 5:6

These verses follow a long warning. Unbelief kept Israel in the wilderness out of God’s rest (Hebrews 3:7–19), and we are urged to “labour therefore to enter into that rest” (Hebrews 4:1–11). Then comes the word of God, living and powerful, which reaches the deepest parts of a person and lays every thought and intention open before the God who sees all (Hebrews 4:12–13). Verse 14 answers with comfort: “Seeing then that we have a great high priest.” The small word oûn, “then”, draws the consequence. The God before whom we stand uncovered has given us a high priest to stand for us.

A high priest, archiereús, was the chief priest, the head of Israel’s priesthood. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, he alone went into the Most Holy Place with sacrifices for the sins of the people (Leviticus 16). The first readers of this letter were most likely Jewish believers who knew that worship well and were under pressure to go back to it. Calling Jesus a “great” high priest, mégas, sets him above every high priest of that line, and the chapters that follow, through Hebrews 10, show why.

He “is passed into the heavens.” The verb diérchomai means to go through or pass through, and ouranós is the ordinary word for sky and heaven. Israel’s high priest passed through a curtain into the inner room of an earthly tent. After his resurrection Jesus went up through the heavens into the presence of God, to minister in the true sanctuary (Hebrews 8:1–2), of which the earthly one was only a copy and shadow (Hebrews 8:5). He entered there by his own blood and obtained eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:11–12). His going there shows that his work on the cross is finished and accepted by God, and he lives for ever to intercede for those who come to God through him (Hebrews 7:23–25, Romans 8:34).

His name and his title belong together. Iēsoûs, Jesus, is the name he bore as a man who lived among us and suffered. “The Son of God”, huiós and theós, declares that he is divine and stands in a unique relationship with the Father. Both are needed for his work as priest. He can stand for us because he is one of us, and he can bring us to God because he is God’s Son.

Because we have such a priest, “let us hold fast our profession.” To hold fast, kratéō, is to take hold of something and keep it. Our profession, homología, is the confession of faith we have made: that Jesus is the Son of God, that he died for our sins and rose again, and that he is our Lord. It covers the first confession and our going on in it, in word and deed. Hebrews makes the same appeal more than once (Hebrews 3:6, Hebrews 10:23), and it later urges us to draw near in full assurance of faith by the new and living way that Jesus opened (Hebrews 10:19–22). Our holding on rests on him. The Levitical priesthood was a shadow of his, and he is the priest after the order of Melchisedec that the psalm foretold (Hebrews 7:17). The blood of animals was powerless to take away sins (Hebrews 10:4), and he offered one sacrifice for sins for ever (Hebrews 10:12). Through him we have a better covenant than the one given through Moses (Hebrews 8:6).

“For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” The two negatives make a strong positive: we have a high priest who can. The verb sympathéō means to suffer with or to feel with someone, and his sympathy comes from having lived a human life himself. Infirmities, asthéneia, covers weakness of every kind: feebleness, sickness, sorrow, distress of mind and spirit, and the limits that come with being human. Jesus knew hunger, weariness and grief, so when we bring our weakness to God, the one who stands for us understands it from the inside.

Hebrews has already said that he was made like his brethren so that he could be a merciful and faithful high priest, and that because he suffered when he was tempted he is able to help those who are tempted (Hebrews 2:14–18). John calls him our advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1). All of this follows from the Incarnation. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14), and the Son humbled himself to take the form of a servant (Philippians 2:5–8).

“But was in all points tempted like as we are.” The verb peirázō means to test, try or tempt, and here it is the pull toward sin that every person knows. Jesus met it in the wilderness, when Satan tempted him (Matthew 4:1–11), and in the agony of Gethsemane (Luke 22:41–44).

“Yet without sin.” The word for sin, hamartía, covers both sinful acts and the sinful condition, and Jesus was free of both. He never gave in to temptation, and his nature was pure. This is what sets him apart from Israel’s priests, who first had to make atonement for themselves (Leviticus 9:7), and it makes him the spotless sacrifice and the perfect priest (Hebrews 7:26–28), the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace.” The “therefore” rests on the two verses before, so we come because of who our High Priest is. The word for boldly, parrhesía, means speaking out freely, with frankness and openness, and so it came to mean confidence. We come to God free to speak, knowing that we are welcome and heard. Paul says the same: in Christ “we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him” (Ephesians 3:12), and through him we have access by faith into grace (Romans 5:2). That confidence rests wholly on Christ, who offered himself once (Hebrews 7:27) and lives to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25).

This is a great change for God’s people. Under the old covenant only the high priest went into the Most Holy Place, and only once a year. On earth a king’s throne stood for power and judgment, and to come before one uninvited could cost a person his life. The throne here, thrónos, is a seat of authority, and this one is God’s own. It is called the throne “of grace”. The word cháris means favour and kindness, and among the Greeks charis was a favour given freely. Here it is God’s undeserved favour toward us, together with his power at work in us to help us stand. The God who sits on this throne has all authority, and he uses it in mercy toward those who come through his Son. When Jesus died, the veil of the temple was torn (Matthew 27:51), and the way into God’s presence stands open.

At this throne we “obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Mercy, éleos, is God’s pity and forgiveness for our sins and failures, holding back the punishment we deserve. Grace to help is his aid for what we face, and the word for help, boḗtheia, means aid or succour. “In time of need” renders eúkairos, well-timed, so the help comes at the right moment. Mercy answers what we have done, and grace meets what is in front of us. So Peter tells us to cast all our care upon him (1 Peter 5:7).

“For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God.” The high priest is a man, sharing the weakness of the people he serves. The verb kathístēmi means to appoint or to set someone in office, so the office is given to him. He acts on the people’s behalf in their dealings with God, in worship, in atonement and in coming into his presence. Under the Law the office passed down through the line of Aaron.

His work is to “offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins”. The gifts (dōra) could be offerings of many kinds, and the sacrifices for sins (thysías hypér hamartiōn) were the animal sacrifices for the forgiveness and covering of sins, hamartía. On the Day of Atonement these offerings were laid down in order (Leviticus 16:6–10). Hebrews later explains why blood had to be shed for forgiveness (Hebrews 9:22), and why those sacrifices were offered again and again until Christ offered one (Hebrews 9).

“So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest.” To glorify, doxázō, from doxa, glory, is to make glorious or to honour. Christ meets the rule of verse 4, and he received his priesthood from “he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee.” The words come from Psalm 2:7, and Hebrews has already used them to show that the Son is greater than the angels (Hebrews 1:5), in a letter that opens with God speaking to us by his Son (Hebrews 1:1–4). The one God named his Son is the one he named priest, so the priesthood rests on the sonship. Psalm 2 is a psalm about God’s anointed King, and the quotation ties Christ’s priesthood to his kingship.

The verse also shows the Son’s humility. He was worthy of every honour, and he received his office from the Father, as he received the whole path of humbling that led to the cross (Philippians 2:5–8). Because the Father appointed him, our access to God rests on God’s own will and choice.

Melchisedec appears in Genesis 14:18–20 as king of Salem and priest of the most high God, and he blessed Abraham. His name, Melchisedék in Greek, comes from the Hebrew Malki-Tzedeq, and Hebrews explains it as “King of righteousness”, and King of Salem as “King of peace” (Hebrews 7:2). Scripture records nothing of his parents, his birth or his death, and Hebrews takes that silence as a picture of a priesthood without end (Hebrews 7:3). Abraham gave him tithes, which shows his greatness (Hebrews 7:4–7). He was a priest long before the Law and before Aaron, and he was king and priest at once.

All of this points to Christ. Melchisedec is the type, and Christ is the one he foreshadowed. Christ is King as well as Priest, his priesthood stands apart from the Law’s line of Levi, and Hebrews shows why God needed to raise up a new priesthood (Hebrews 7:11–19). The whole comparison is set out in Hebrews 7.

“Who in the days of his flesh” turns to Jesus’ earthly life. The word sárx, flesh, means human nature in its frailty, and “the days of his flesh” are the years he lived in a real human body, subject to weakness and pain, though without sin. “Prayers and supplications” together cover his general prayers and his particular requests, and he offered them “with strong crying and tears”. The word for crying, kraugḗ, is a loud outcry of distress and urgency. The Gospels show us such an hour in Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed that the cup might pass from him (Matthew 26:36–44), and where his sweat was as great drops of blood (Luke 22:41–44). As that hour drew near his soul was troubled, and he went on toward it as the Father’s purpose for him (John 12:27–28).

He prayed “unto him that was able to save him from death”, the Father, who holds power over life and death. Even the Son of God, in his deepest anguish, leaned wholly on the Father, and here we see him as the pattern of earnest, honest prayer.

“Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.” The “though” expects our surprise. The Son, huiós, is the eternal Son who shares his Father’s nature, and still he learned. To learn, manthánō, is to learn in any way, by instruction, by practice or by experience. To suffer, páschō, is to undergo something, usually something painful. In Greek the two verbs sound almost alike, émathen, “he learned”, and épathen, “he suffered”, so the learning and the suffering are joined in the ear as well as in the sense. His sufferings took in his trials and temptations, Gethsemane and the cross, and Isaiah foretold this suffering Servant (Isaiah 53:3–5).

“And being made perfect” uses teleióō, to complete, to accomplish, to bring to its goal. Hebrews has already said that God made “the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings” (Hebrews 2:10).

“He became the author of eternal salvation.” The word aítios means one who causes something, its source. Salvation flows from Christ and his finished work. He gave his life a ransom for many (Mark 10:45), and “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). The salvation is “eternal”, lasting and complete, a deliverance from sin, death and judgment, because “by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us” (Hebrews 9:12).

“Unto all them that obey him.” The verb hypakoúō means to hear under, as one listening to a master, and so to listen attentively and to heed. The salvation is offered to all, and it belongs to those who obey him.

“Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec.” The English “called” here translates prosagoreúō, a different word from the kaléō of verse 4. It means to address or to name, and here God formally names Jesus high priest. “Of God” is hypo tou theou, “by God”, so God himself does the naming. The one who was tempted, who prayed with tears, who learned obedience and was made perfect, is the one God has named priest for ever. Hebrews goes on to set out this priesthood in full (Hebrews 7:11–28) and the one offering by which he made himself the mediator of a better covenant (Hebrews 9:11–14).

In these verses God provides the priest that sinners need. He chose his Son, named him, brought him through suffering, and set him in heaven as a priest for ever, and he has set a throne of grace where we might have expected only judgment. That is who God is: holy, sovereign, and merciful toward those who come to him through his Son.

Our High Priest knows our weakness from the inside. He was tempted as we are, he prayed with strong crying and tears, and he learned obedience by suffering, so the tempted and the weary have someone who understands them and never turns them away. Hebrews 4:16 tells us what we find when we come to God through him: mercy for our sins and grace that arrives in time. The confession we hold fast rests on a living Priest whose priesthood lasts for ever.