The Superiority of Christ, continued

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His Priesthood, (His Qualifications)

 ["Click here for Hebrews 5:1-10"]

In these verses we continue in the study of the "Priesthood" of Christ and find further qualifications. Eight other qualifications are found in these verses.

  1. He was the "kind of being" that He had to be. He was chosen of God from among men. The Old Testament stated that He had to be a man, a Jew, bone of their bone, flesh of their flesh, spirit of their spirit and partaker of their nature. He had to be able to "redeem". This implied that conditions existed in men's lives, that made redemption necessary. That God would not allow a sinful, un-redeemed man in His presence, that God was pleased to provide a High Priest that, through Him, they would be welcomed in to His presence. So this established the kind of being that He must be to be the "High Priest", one chosen of God.
  2. He was "ordained of God. Surly Christ was ordained by the Father. All Power on earth and in heaven was given to Him.
  3. He offered both gifts and sacrifices for sin. The gift that He offered was salvation, the sacrifice that He offered, was His life.
  4. He dealt gently with the "ignorant and the wayward". The ignorant are those who have never heard the Gospel. He had pity on them, He interceded on their behalf, He was willing to teach them. The wayward are those who have heard the Gospel, accepted Christ as their Savior, but have gone astray and followed the path of the un-godly. He had to be one who had compassion upon them and lead them back from their waywardness. This will require great patience.
  5. He was to have "two natures". He was to be both human and divine. Verse 4 says, "No man takes this upon himself. This qualification must be given of God to someone chosen by Him. Only the "chosen one" can function for man's good. Only when trusted by man can He serve man and bring comfort and hope to him.
  6. He had to be "humble". Verse 5 says that Christ did not exalt Himself. Even The Christ, the Son of God, did not assume glory in the process of becoming our High Priest. He said In John 8:50, "I seek not my own glory." He, as our High Priest, humbles Himself and became as one of us.
  7. He was called after the "Order of Melchizedek. His call was greater than Aaron's both in the manner in which He was called and in the "holiness" of His call. He was the Son of God. He became a man by the power of the Holy Spirit, and was appointed to His office by God Himself.

    Who was Melchizedek? He first appears in Gen.14 where he met Abraham returning from a battle with Chedorlaomer, King of Elam. He blessed Abraham and refreshed him with bread and wine. He was a Priest-king of Salem, earlier called Jebus, later called Jerusalem. He became a symbol of the ideal Priest-king of whose order Christ was called a member. Some scholars believe that this was an early appearance of Christ as the Bible says about him, he had no beginning nor end.

    Notice the difference of the calling of Christ over the calling of Aaron. The priesthood of Aaron was temporary. The Priesthood of Christ was eternal. Aaron's sacrifices were only temporary, Christ's sacrifice of Himself was for eternity. The Order of Aaron was successive, handed down from father to son. The Order of Christ was of the Order of Melchizedek, having neither beginning nor end. Aaron offered up sacrifices for the sins of himself and others, while Christ offered up Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.

  8. He was to have compassion and devotion for His office. This should be a qualification for any office in the church. No one should accept a job in the church unless they are enthusiastic about it and is willing to do whatever the job requires. Verse 7 says that in those days, He offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears.

Thus we see that Christ's qualifications were that He was chosen, ordained, able to offer gifts and sacrifices, both man and God, had compassion, was humble, was called after the Order of Melchizedek and was devoted to His office.

His Third Warning

["Click here for Hebrews 5:11-14"]

Here the Author talks about Spiritual Maturity or the lack of it. The Author, in writing to these Hebrews, had much he wanted to say to them, but they to immature to understand it. They had become "dull of hearing". Apparently, they had not always been that way. They had understood enough to become believers in Christ, but there their maturity stopped. They needed someone to teach them again the "first principles" of God's Word.

They had been Christians long enough to have become teachers, but instead they still needed to be taught, even the things that they had previously learned. This process of Spiritual growth is called Sanctification. We never remain stationary in our spiritual voyage. We are either growing or we are going backwards. These Hebrews were going backwards.

Unfortunately, there are people, who believe in Apostasy, that use this scripture to promote their fight against the doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints. Webster describes Apostasy as the abandonment of what one has professed, or, total desertion of the principles of faith.

The Author says in Chapter 6, verse 4 that it is impossible to restore again to repentance, those who have once been enlightened, if they commit apostasy. This scripture is one of the most convincing in the argument for apostasy. Now, how can we who believe in the Perseverance of the Saints, explain what seems to be obvious?

First, let us not be guilty of taking this portion of scripture out of context. Lets do, as we should do with any scripture, determine the following:

  1. What caused the Author to write it.
  2. What preceded it.
  3. What follows it.
  4. What central theme the Author is trying to convey.

We know that the central theme is spiritual maturity. Going back to verse 11 in chapter 5, we see why the Author was writing it. "They had become dull of hearing." This was the result of the three warnings that they had been given, neglecting their salvation (2:1-4), having a cold heart (3:7-19), and here in this chapter, their immaturity. These three problems brought on this condition described as "dullness of hearing".

Notice what it was that the Author wanted to tell them but could not because of their dullness of hearing. He wanted to tell them more about the Priesthood of Christ, particularly as it pertained to the Order of Melchizedek, for he says in verse 11, "About this, we have much to say which is hard to explain sense you have become dull of hearing. Keep in mind that this section is about spiritual maturity.

Because they had become dull of hearing, they had ceased to grow as Christians, actually they had regressed. They had had enough time to grow into teachers, to have been capable of taking the "solid food" of the Word, to have been able to distinguish between good and evil, but they could not, they were still on "Milk", unskilled in the Word, as a child.

To further get into this, we need to go on to the next chapter, Chapter 6.


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