Lesson 6, January 29 - February 4
Sabbath Afternoon
Read for This Week’s Study: Hebrews 5:1–10; Genesis 14:18–20; 1 Peter 2:9; Hebrews 7:1–3; 7:11–16, 22, 26.
Memory Text: “For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;” Hebrews 7:26
The gulf that existed between God and us was caused by sin. The problem was compounded because sin also implied the corruption of our nature. God is holy, and sin cannot exist in His presence; so, our own corrupted nature separated us from God, just as two magnets in the wrong orientation repel each other. In addition, our corrupted nature made it impossible for human beings to obey God’s law. Sin also involves misunderstanding. Human beings lost sight of the love and mercy of God and came to see Him as wrathful and demanding.
This week, we are going to study the amazing things the Father and the Son did to bridge that gulf. Hebrews 5-7 provides a careful analysis of Jesus’ priesthood. The author analyzes its origin and purpose (Hebrews 5:1-10) and then exhorts readers not to disregard it (Hebrews 5:11-6:8) but rather to hold fast to the assurance of hope it provides (Hebrews 6:9-20). He also explains the characteristics of His priesthood (Hebrews 7:1-10) and its implications for God’s relationship to believers (Hebrews 7:11-28). This week we will focus specifically on Hebrews 5:1-10 and Hebrews 7:1-28.
Sunday, January 30
Read Hebrews 5:1-10. What is the role of the priesthood and, according to this passage, how does Jesus fulfill that role?
The basic purpose of the Levitical priesthood was to mediate between sinful people and God. Priests were appointed by God in order to minister in behalf of human beings; therefore, they needed to be merciful and understanding of human weaknesses.
In Hebrews 5:5-10, Paul shows that Jesus perfectly fulfills those purposes: God appointed Him (Hebrews 5:5, 6), and also Jesus understands us because He also has suffered (Hebrews 5:7, 8).
There are some important differences, however. Jesus was not “taken from among men” (Hebrews 5:1). Instead, Jesus adopted human nature in order, among other things, to serve as a priest in our behalf. Jesus did not offer sacrifices for His own sins (Hebrews 5:3) but only for our sins, because He was sinless (Hebrews 4:15, 7:26-28).
Hebrews says that Jesus prayed “unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard” (Hebrews 5:7). Hebrews was referring to the second death, from which God saved Jesus when He resurrected Him (Hebrews 13:20). Hebrews also says that Jesus “learned he obedience by the things which he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). Obedience was new to Jesus, not because He was disobedient but because He was God. As sovereign over the universe, Jesus did not obey anyone; instead, everyone obeyed Him.
Jesus’ sufferings and death on the cross are an essential part of His priestly ministry. Sufferings did not perfect Jesus in the sense that He improved morally or ethically. Sufferings did not make Him merciful. To the contrary, Jesus came to this earth because He always was merciful, which is why He had compassion on us (Hebrews 2:17). What Hebrews means is that it was through sufferings that the reality of Jesus’ brotherly love, the authenticity of His human nature, and the depth of His submission as representative of humanity to the will of the Father were truly expressed and revealed. He was “perfected” in the sense that His sufferings qualified Him to be our High Priest. It was His life of perfect obedience, and then His death on the cross, which constitute the sacrificial offering that Jesus presented before the Father as our priest.
First Peter 2:9 says that we are “a royal priesthood.” What does Jesus’ life tell you that your relationship with other human beings should be because we are in this sacred role?
