Hebrews 5: The High Priest and our need to ‘grow up’

• v.1-4 The Role of the High Priest
• v.5-10 The Example of Jesus the High Priest
• v.11-14 We need to Grow Up in Understanding

[Preliminary Note: Having brought this double exhortation, not to fall away AND to enter fully into the whole of what God has for us, the writer returns to the example of Jesus (remember, to Jewish ears) acting as our high priest, acting with empathy on our behalf.]

v.1-4 The Role of the High Priest

v.1 Every high priest is selected from among the people and is appointed to represent the people in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.

v.2 He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness.

v.3 This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people.

v.4 And no one takes this honor on himself, but he receives it when called by God, just as Aaron was.

[Note: High priests represent the people and being like them they can be gentle with them, so he presents sin offerings for himself as well as them. He does it because he is called by God.]

v.5-10 The Example of Jesus the High Priest

v.5 In the same way, Christ did not take on himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.”

v.6 And he says in another place, “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”

v.7 During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.

v.8-10 Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

[Note: So similarly, Christ is our high priest because he is God’s Son [Psa 2:7] but he’s also similar to Melchizedek [Psa 110:4] who the writer will talk more about later. But Jesus prayed in anguish, relying on his Father, and was heard for his obedience; that obedience was his suffering on our behalf.]

v.11-14 We need to Grow Up in Understanding

v.11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand.

v.12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!

v.13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.

v.14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

[Note: This is difficult to understand because you should have grown more by now, but you’re still like infants struggling to understand righteousness; mature believers can take more solid teaching.]

[Additional Note: The Flow of Writing: Having introduced the idea of Jesus being our high priest at the end of chapter 4, in this chapter he expounds on the role of a high priest – one who is there to represent us before God, who offers sacrifices for us, one who is called by God to act on our behalf. He then further expands on Jesus being our high priest who prayed through (in Gethsemane) to obedience and became perfect (complete in all he was and did) in bringing salvation to us. But he recognizes that for many they had not grown up and matured in understanding and so we often find these things difficult to understand.]

For those who may wish to make a study of this chapter, to perhaps think some more about what you have been reading, use the link below: