From Shadows to Substance

Hebrews Five

The priesthood of Christ in where chapter four ended informing believers of the grand privileges of Christ as High Priest. Chapter five begins with an explanation of the priest’s ministry, his qualifications, and the purpose for his work under the economy of the Law (Heb. 5:1-3). The high priest’s purpose was to intercede between God and man with tenderness and compassion as he offered gifts and sacrifices to God for sins.

Accordingly, the priest had to be a man himself (Heb. 5:1) appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God. Again a High-Priest was chosen and placed by God into the priestly ministry (Ex. 28; Num. 16:1–40; 1 Sam. 16:1–3).  The priest was to officiate and minister to men in things that involve man’s relation to God. He belonged to a special order of men who served as intermediaries. The high priest was called to his office by the Lord God Himself. 

Just as the Aaronic priests were qualified to fill that office, so it is true of Jesus Christ who being God became a man and was called and appointed directly by God to the office of High Priest (5:4-6). Hebrews 3:1-3 informs that Christ was faithful to God who appointed Him as High Priest. He came to do the will of God observed Newell.

Through exercise of the priest’s ministry and the obedience he learned through suffering, Jesus Christ was perfected to serve as God’s unique High Priest. In fact Christ belongs to the everlasting priesthood of Melchisedec (Heb. 5:7-10). The Lord Jesus was made “perfect” as God’s appointed priest. “And being made perfect” (5:9) is a curious phrase and does not refer to Christ’s personal character or morality because the Lord Jesus was entirely faultless. The word “perfect” fundamentally refers to “the bringing of a person or thing to the goal fixed by God. The word speaks here of Messiah having reached the end which was contemplated in His divinely appointed discipline for the priesthood. This consummation was reached in His substitutionary death on the Cross” (Wuest, K. S. Wuest's word studies from the Greek New Testament). Newell observed, “Christ’s moral and spiritual perfection only emphasize this word concerning the end of the prescribed path of humiliation and suffering culminating at the Cross…[the] word reached its peak there.”

The mention of Melchisedec is also informative. The king-priest Melchisedec was an early and excellent representation of the person and eternal priesthood of Jesus Christ. This fact enables the Lord Jesus to be “the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him,” (Heb. 5:9) because he is “a priest after the order of Melchisedec” that is, his priesthood is eternal. The writer of Hebrews desired to ponder further this subject of Christ’s eternal priesthood and the natural implications, but the recipients are unable to receive it as yet. Their immaturity warranted a measured chastening first.

Clearly these believers had been taught and should be teaching others, but instead of growing forward they grew backwards and required remedial training again (Heb. 5:11-13). The writer so desired for them to be mature and skilled in the “word of righteousness.” Being skillful is the ability to grasp and apply the meaning of Scripture to daily decisions and actions. Skill suggests experience in living out the truth and the capacity to distinguish truth from error. Obviously, the word “unskillful” (5:13) carries the opposite meaning.

Again God prominently values mature and growing believers in Christ. The term “full age” (Heb. 5:14) is contrasted with verse 13. The focus is on the “babe” in Christ who is “unskillful” in the “word of righteousness” and still subsists on a diet of “milk.” But, “full age” refers to believers who are perfect or maturing and able to partake of “strong meat” (solid spiritual food). Such ‘adult’ or ‘full-grown’ believers, “by reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Heb. 5:14). That is the habitual use and vigorous exercise of their perceptive faculties (spiritual senses) results in the ability to discriminate between good and evil teaching. By adhering to the insight they receive from the Bible, these believers are able to form spiritual judgments—differentiate critically—and save themselves from moral and doctrinal dangers. Such believers would readily recognize the superiority of Christ’s message, priesthood, sacrifice, and purpose and decidedly cling to Him in faith. They can distinguish between shadows and substance, symbols and significance.