Passage of the Day - December 13, 2012

Hebrews 5:1-10

5 For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins; ² he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness; ³ and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, so also for himself. ⁴ And no one takes the honor to himself, but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was.

⁵ So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him,

“You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You”;

⁶ just as He says also in another passage,

“You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek.”

⁷ In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. ⁸ Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. ⁹ And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, ¹⁰ being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

We have been examining different passages through the lens of Jesus being the Word/Message of God.  This perspective has made the Book of Hebrews much easier to understand.

Here we see that according to the Law, the high priest would offer sacrifices on behalf of the people and himself for their sins.  It was a shadow of things to come.  Jesus Christ has not only become the eternal High Priest; He is the eternal Sacrifice.

Since Christ is our eternal Sacrifice, we know that all our sins will forever be paid for.  Since Christ is our eternal High Priest, we know that we always have a mediator between us and God.  This is why Jesus could accurately say “No one comes to the Father except through Me”.

We learned yesterday that Jesus is the eternal Prophet and the eternal Prophecy.  That means we should listen to Him for what He says is what God says.  Today we learn that Jesus is the eternal High Priest.  That means we should communicate with God through Him.  We should honor Christ’s position as High Priest.  We also learn that Jesus is the eternal Sacrifice.  This means when we partake of His body and blood, we do so with the knowledge that it was our sins the His body had to be offered and His blood had to be spilt.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®,
© Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation

Used by permission." (http://www.lockman.org/)