Hebrews 5: 1 – 14
When Ya Gonna Grow Up
1 For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness. 3 Because of this he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sins. 4 And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was. 5 So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him: “You are My Son, today I have begotten You.” 6 As He also says in another place: “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek”; 7 who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, 8 though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. 9 And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, 10 called by God as High Priest “according to the order of Melchizedek,” 11 of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. 14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Have you ever heard or were told, ‘When ya gonna grow up?’ In a way it sounds kind of humorous, yet if you are on the receiving side of this comment it doesn’t sound so funny.
On this subject I read a few great quotes. I want to share a few of my favorites with you;
“I don't want to be a man," said Jace. "I want to be an angst-ridden teenager who can't confront his own inner demons and takes it out verbally on other people instead.""Well," said Luke, "you're doing a fantastic job.” ¯ Cassandra Clare, City of Ashes
“Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.” ¯ Anne Frank
“One of the oddest things about being grown-up was looking back at something you thought you knew and finding out the truth of it was completely different from what you had always believed.)” ¯ Patricia Briggs, (Bone Crossed
Yes, will you grow up? It sounds like a kind of a weird statement. Isn’t this a natural thing to do –to grow up? Yes we know that some children face mental difficulty and for them this cannot be done. But for a normal healthy adult it would sound quite ridiculous if we heard him saying, ‘momma or dada’, wouldn’t it?
In today’s study we see the author directly confront Christian believers that this is exactly what they are doing spiritually. They are not growing up. Even though they confess that they have been Christians for many years they are still babes in their knowledge of the truth of God.
As we begin this chapter we follow the writer’s continued thoughts regarding the High Priest. He will compare what was displayed on earth in comparison to what is going on in Heaven.
1 For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness. 3 Because of this he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sins. 4 And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was.
We begin with the characteristics of the earthly High Priesthood (5.1-4).
• 1) Is taken from among men (verse 1).
• 2) Is appointed for men for the offering of gifts and sacrifices (verse 1).
• 3) Can bear gently with the ignorant and erring, because like them he is weak and sinful, and so has to offer sacrifices for sins first for himself and then for his people (verses 2-3).
• 4) Has the honor given to him by God. (verse 4).
So, to summarize, the high priest is taken from among men, he is an earthly priest, both weak and sinful, he is appointed by God, on men’s behalf, and it is for the offering of gifts and sacrifices, which are for both himself and the people. As one from among them, although specially chosen, he acts for men before God in an earthly sanctuary.
In contrast our Wonderful High Priest Jesus Christ Is shown as having come from Heaven (1.3), as having humbled Himself but as not being sinful (2.9-18), was totally faithful (2.17-3.6) and while being appointed by God for the offering of a once-for-all sacrifice, did not have to offer it for Himself, but did it only for the people (7.26-27), finalizing the procedure in Heaven (4.14). It is clear therefore that He Is Superior, and Heaven’s High Priest, so that returning to submission to an earthly priesthood can only be seen as blasphemous.
5.1 ‘For every high priest, being taken from among men, is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.’
The nature of the high priesthood is defined. The high priest is taken from among men. He is one of the run of men. He is appointed to act for men. Yet his position is exalted in that he is appointed to act for them in relation to God and in things pertaining to God. He is the earthly mediator between man and God. He acted from men to God in the sphere of offering gifts and sacrifices for sins, as very much a man approaching God seeking mercy. ‘Gifts and sacrifices for sins’ covers the whole range of Old Testament offerings
Just as a side note, remember that all this was done away with once the Temple was destroyed. It was not recreated nor did our Holy El Shaddai create a new Christian man to serve on earth as His representative. Are we clear on this? Okay let us continue.
5.2-3 ‘Who can bear gently with the ignorant and erring, in that he himself also is compassed with infirmity, and by reason thereof is bound, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins.
Have you ever experienced the exact thing in your personal life that you are presently studying? It happens to me almost all of the time. Take a look again the words – ‘Who can bear gently with the ignorant and erring?’ My church just obtained a renewed membership in this discount bulk merchandise store. The store informed me to just stop in and have a new card printed up for me. When I first visited the store to do just that, they informed me that I would have to come back with another copy of the church’s tax exemption. So, with a copy of the tax exemption form I returned to the store. After an hour they could not figure out how to just record the tax exemption status. I am sure that there was just a box to check but I do not work there. The end result was that I wasted two hours and was told to come back some other time so that the proper recording could be made. Thank you Lord Jesus for helping me not lose my temper.
We see that this verse continues to speak of an earthly High Priest. He has one advantage that must not be despised. As a man he can identify himself with men, because he himself is ‘compassed with infirmity’, is weak and sinful and aware of his humanness and unworthiness, he can bear gently with, empathizing with, those who are the same, those who are ‘ignorant and erring’, lacking in knowledge of God and straying from His ways. (This excludes deliberate, high handed sin).
The High Priest must therefore be compassionate. He must be able to restrain his natural disgust at what he might see as unforgiveable behavior, must maintain constant and compassionate patience with those who frequently fall, must avoid taking in aversion those who appear to him to be hypocrites or superficial, and must not take up attitudes of disfavor against sinners of any kind. Rather he must see their approach as genuine unless he has good reason to think otherwise, because he is aware of how he too so often reveals himself as contrary to what he should be; and that if his inner heart were known, few would seek him out; and because his concern for them all is that they be reconciled to God.
I would also point out here that this same attitude should be with every minister of the Lord Jesus Christ.
However this ideal of the compassionate High Priest [and relative to Pastors] that entered into the feelings and needs of those he acted for had in fact become totally unrealistic. Their main thought had become what they could get out of it. But this emphasis here stresses the necessity that there was, for our great High Priest to also have experienced what it was to be human.
It is also stated that as well as offering sacrifices for the sins of the people the earthly High Priest had constantly to offer them for his own sins. He too was a failing sinner, the one qualification that our Master and King Jesus Christ did not have. On the other hand The Lord Jesus had experienced depths of temptation which sinful men knew nothing of.
5.4 ‘And no man takes the honor to himself, but when he is called of God, even as was Aaron.’
The High Priest most significantly is God-appointed. It is not something that a man can choose to do himself, his appointment comes from God, for he has to act towards God and it is finally to God that he is responsible. This is of course the ideal of priesthood. The later earthly priesthood had manifested few of these characteristics. It is a divine calling which comes from God and which he cannot refuse. He is in that position simply because God required it; and because God required it, He had no choice in the matter.
I am sure you all know the reference to Aaron, the brother of Moses, who was appointed ‘the priest’ in accordance with God’s instructions to Moses (Exodus 28.1).
The author will now, with great wisdom, explain how the Lord Jesus Christ Is therefore now revealed also to be God-appointed, experiencing humanness and weakness, and learning obedience (although never once getting less than 100%). We need to take special note though that nothing is said here about sacrifices offered for sin. For that had already been fulfilled in His death on the cross and there would be no more meaningful sacrifices for sin.
5.5 ‘So Christ also glorified not himself to be made a high priest, but he who spoke to him, “You are my Son, This day have I begotten you.” ’
Our Lord Jesus Christ also did not choose Himself. He did not glorify Himself. In His High Priesthood He was not self-appointed. He was declared to be so by God. The same words that indicated His true Son ship (taken from Psalm 2.7) also indicated His true Priesthood. As the appointed heir of David, chosen and begotten by God, He was automatically both a king and a priest after the order of Melchizedek, but His official appointment by God as such is now described.
Please take special note of the use of the word ‘Christ.’ The writer is careful with his use of names. This is the first mention of Christ. The One appointed and glorified is ‘the Christ’, the anointed of God, the Messiah. He received the kingship and the priesthood at the same time. We may well be intended to see this as indicating His anointing with the Holy Spirit (Acts 10.38) at His baptism. He Is The One sent from God as His anointed King.
5.6 ‘As he also says in another place, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” ’
And this was confirmed by the psalm in which God said, ‘you are a Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek’ (Psalm 110.4). Thus there could be no doubting His priestly credentials. The superiority of this position in Scriptural eyes will be established later.
To be such a priest was depicted in the Psalm as being a position of great honor. He Is such A One as Is set at the right hand of God with His enemies to be brought into submission. As such he will rule as priest-king (verse 2), and as a result of taking His place at God’s right hand as priest-king he will bring kings into submission and the nations into judgment (verses 5-6). The priest after the order of Melchizedek was seen as an important royal personage with a unique position which rendered him especially acceptable to God.
We should note here how easily the writer moves from ‘priest’ to ‘High Priest’. In his kingship Melchizedek was automatically ‘high priest’ in the eyes of his people.
5.7 ‘Who in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and having been (‘was’) heard for his godly fear.’
We now see that this Holy One Was also a human being, subject to all the trials of a human being. While in the flesh He feared death, and because of it He prayed and appealed to God, strongly and with tears, seeking the help of the One Who could save Him from death, and was heard for His godly fear (or ‘reverent submission’). For an angel came and strengthened Him (Luke 22.43). It was a reminder that He was not alone. The aim of these words is to demonstrate that He was truly a man among men, and that His trust was in God. He did not need to offer sacrifices for Himself, but He did need the means of prayer and supplication. The one would have been to admit to sin, and was unnecessary for One Who was without sin, the other was to admit to humanness, and was very necessary. It may well be that this example was as much for us as for Him, that we might learn the folly of standing alone without full reliance on God.
In the Garden He prayed earnestly with tears that the cup that He had to face might pass from Him. It is impossible for us to begin to conceive what dying must have meant to One Who was the source of life itself, Who throbbed with life, Who knew life in its fullest sense. Death was thus foreign to His very nature, to all that He was, as it could never be to us. It was so alien that in His manhood He feared it. And on top of that it was a death for sin, not His own, but the sin of the whole world. He was to die for the sins of men, and Himself take the full impact of God’s aversion to sin. No wonder He recoiled from it.
When you review the Gospels you know that He was constantly delivered from death during His ministry, and His prayer in Gethsemane was specifically subject to the will of God and was in the last analysis a prayer for strength to face what God willed. And in this His prayer was successful. He was heard for His godly fear, because of His reverent submission, and sustained through what lay ahead. He went into death, and through it, and emerged again as the Lord of life. He had been saved from death. Death had lost its sting.
5.8-10 ‘Although being Son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered, and having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the author of eternal salvation, named of God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.’
Now we see the summation of what He achieved at the cross. Though He was of the nature of ‘Son’, He learned obedience by the things that He suffered (2.9), and having thus been made perfect (2.10), He became to all those who similarly obeyed Him (4.1-11), the author of eternal salvation, in His appointment by God as High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. As King-Priest He too was High Priest.
We see quite a stunning remark here ‘Yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered.’ For Him this was a new learning curve. He had always been ‘He Who must be obeyed’. But He emptied and humbled Himself. He became the servant Who humbly obeyed like the Servant in Isaiah 53, even to the level of his extensive suffering. And in living out a humble life He learned what it meant to obey. And He was totally successful, for He obeyed fully (Romans 5.19; Philippians 2.5-8). Thus did He reveal Himself as truly the perfect man, fully obedient man, obedient to the will of God, and nowhere more so than in the Garden of Gethsemane where He revealed His absolute obedience to the will of God in the face of the utterly unbearable, which He expressed Himself as yet willing to bear, and went forward triumphantly to do so.
His obedience and His suffering, which He chose, made Him perfect, prepared in every way, for the task that lay before Him, to bring eternal salvation to man. It made Him the perfect Sanctifier (2.11), the perfect Leader (2.10), the perfect Sacrifice (2.14), the perfect Deliverer from the fear of death (2.15). His exaltation to God’s right hand completed His perfect preparation.
5.11 ‘Of whom we have many things to say, and hard of interpretation, seeing that you are become dull of hearing
Do you remember back in the book of Acts when the martyr Stephen gave a wonderful explanation of the Old Testament? Then after gaining his audience’s attention he went on the attack. See if you see the same thing here? The author commences with regret that his readers are in no state to hear what he would say to them because of their lukewarm state, having allowed their senses to be in a bad state. He then declares his intention to advance to this higher teaching, but warns that those who have turned away from Christ will be in no state to respond, although he then expresses his confidence that his readers are mainly not of this number.
He stresses that he has much more to say to them, which they may find somewhat difficult to understand, simply because they have become spiritually deafened. These men who should have been teaching others are themselves not in a position to be taught. They have lost their first spiritual understanding and eagerness to hear and have become bogged down. This may be because this group had sought to reconcile the new message with the old Judaism, using a new patch to repair an old garment (Mark 2.21), and had simply found that it was not possible, and that both were thereby spoiled.
5.12 ‘For when by reason of the time you ought to be teachers, you have need again that someone teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk, and not of solid food.’
This has resulted in the fact that while they had been Christians long enough to have been able to be teachers, they in fact needed again to learn the old truths that they had believed in the beginning when they had claimed to accept Christ. They needed again to be taught ‘the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God’. They needed to be bottle fed rather than given solid food.
For the truth was that they were all mixed up, and it remained to be seen whether ‘His anointing’ would restore them to the truth, or they would reveal themselves as not having been anointed (1 John 2.20) by turning from that truth. He will in fact point out that he still has much hope for them because previously they have given clear indications of fruitful service (6.9-12).
It has been a common problem through the ages that men can learn the simplicity of the true Gospel and then allow it to become blurred by incorporating other teachings and philosophies so that the Gospel is drowned out. The fascination of new ideas, or the desire to be well thought of, can be very deceptive. Here almost certainly it was their desire to incorporate Judaism into their form of Christianity which was blurring the Gospel and leading to their downfall. So the writer’s solution is that they return to the first principles of the Gospel.
‘The rudiments’, or as we would put it the ABC, the first steps in a subject. They need to start at the very beginning again, considering the first principles, not because they have not learned them but because they have neglected them. All teachers must ensure that they do not neglect the first principles; otherwise their congregations may become moribund.
5.13 ‘For every one who partakes of milk is without experience of the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.’
Those who are partaking of milk and not meat demonstrate that they are without experience of the ‘word of righteousness’. ‘The word of righteousness’ is probably intended to cover all aspects of righteousness as it pertains to God and His people. For God’s purpose is that His people be both accounted righteous and made righteous. Both are in the end part of one process, part of the righteousness of God. Those who but drink milk have no experience of the teachings concerning the righteousness of Christ as it applies to His people, both as imputed and imparted. They know nothing of justification, sanctification and growth in righteousness, of the deeper significance of the cross as a provider of righteousness and crucifier of the flesh, and thus no knowledge of the High Priesthood of Christ. They only know about the very basics of such things as sin and repentance, and general faith towards God, and outward ceremonies, and general resurrection and judgment (6.1-2). And this demonstrates that they are still totally dependent babes.
5.14 ‘But solid food is for full-grown men, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.’
For solid teaching is for full-grown adults who constantly use their minds and are thus able to discern between right and wrong, and what teachings are good and what are evil.
In dealing with people today these facts are evident. Our Lord Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 7, “Therefore by their fruits you will know them.” Therefore in counseling I recommend to those who advise others to first take a look at what state a person is in his/her spiritual life. It will greatly help you in guiding them as to what biblical food they can digest?
