Daily Thought

We now return to the subject we left at chapter 2 verse 17, the high priesthood of Christ. The sheer greatness, the absolute deity, of the Lord Jesus is stressed. He is not indebted to man for the honours which are His. He is great in His own right, in His own essential Being. He is both truly man, and truly God. Note then, the following:

What He is, 4. 14; 5. 10, a great high priest. ‘We have’ is emphatic and suggests that there were some Hebrews who were claiming that Christians had no priesthood like the Aaronic. The writer insists that we have a greater high priest than Aaron. There were many high priests in Israel’s history, but none had been called great. The divine call honoured Aaron; it glorified Christ, 5. 4, 5. His call was based on His Sonship. None but the divine Son could have filled such an office. His priesthood was of a higher order than that of Aaron, ‘saluted of God’ a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Unlike Aaron’s, His priesthood is for ever.

Where He is, 4. 14. He has passed through the heavens and up to the throne of God. He has done more than Aaron prefigured. He has not passed through the veil only. His ministry takes place not in an earthly tabernacle, but in the presence of God Himself in heaven.

Who He is, 4. 14. He is Jesus, the Son of God. Jesus, the human name, gives us assurance of sympathy. One of the requirements of an earthly high priest was that he was taken from among men, 5. 1. Another was that he was compassionate, 5. 2. The phrase‘touched with the feelings of’, 4. 15, is rendered ‘compassion’, 10. 34. He sympathizes with our infirmities, not with our sins. The name Son of God speaks of His deity, and gives confidence in His strength. As Jesus He understands our need; as Son of God He can meet our need. He was tempted in all points like as we are with this difference, ‘apart from sin’. He knew no sin. There was no vulnerable point in Him, John 14. 30. Sin had nothing in Him. He was free and separate from it. In Him was no sin. He was ever the impeccable One.