The Source of Eternal Salvation

Hebrews 5:1–10 – Jesus Is Better
Baptism of the Lord – January 11th, 2026 (am)     

Last time I was with you in Hebrews, we were being urged to enter into the full experience of salvation rest that Jesus has provided for those who believe (4:11)—Sabbath rest (4:9), God’s rest (4:10). We were urged not to stray into disobedience (4:11) and be led away from His rest because we’re actually accountable to Him and He [sees] everything (4:13). His word of discerning judgment pierces through our every defense and knows us on the deepest levels (4:12).

Pastor Nick then walked us through the transition back into the subject of our great high priest (4:14-16) that we first met back at the end of c.2. There we learned the essential importance of the eternal Son becoming flesh, being made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might understand and fully identify with them, [might] become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God (2:14-18). Here we learn that, since we have just such a high priest, One Who can sympathize with our weaknesses (4:15) but has also passed through the heavens (4:14), having full access there, we should draw near and drink in all the mercy and grace available to us from God’s throne of grace! (4:16) This is precisely what we need in order to remain in His rest (cf. 4:14).

We need a high priest Who can sympathize with our weaknesses (4:15) but Who is Himself strong, inseparably connected with God, the One to Whom we must give account (4:13). Now that would be helpful! We need a high priest Who can keep us in God’s rest (4:10), Who can provide eternal salvation (9), not just momentary relief from which we’ll surely wander off if left to ourselves. Today’s text says that’s just what we have! There was a time when God’s people didn’t have it. Now we do! Let’s take this in three closely linked parts.

The Old Kind of High Priesthood – 1-4

As the author moves from the closing of our c.4 into the opening of our c.5, he retreats for just a moment from talking about our great high priest who has passed through the heavens (4:14), the One we remain grateful for today, to the old kind of high priesthood, the kind we didn’t experience but we read about it in the OT, the high priests who 1 … acted on behalf of [people] in relation to God under the old covenant, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins according to the Law of Moses, which set up the parameters both for that high priesthood and for the sacrificial system that covered sin and maintained relationship with God for all who obeyed His commands, all who walked according to His covenant requirements.

And each high priest in this system was naturally equipped to 2 … deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he was cut out of the same cloth; he himself [was] beset with weakness. Each one was fully qualified according to 2:17 (like his brothers in every respect).

Yet, 3 … this also left him in the place where he [was] obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. And it was a truly honored role (4). But it leaves any thoughtful person with a nagging question: how it is that imperfect sacrifices offered by an imperfect high priest on behalf of imperfect people can in any sense facilitate their relationship with a perfectly holy God? That just seems fatally flawed. I mean, it seems like God is being indescribably gracious to initiate and then honor such a system. But it also seems like the system itself is so intrinsically flawed that we truly wonder, how could it have been acceptable to God? If any such system were going to work at all, to cover sin and facilitate relationship, it just seems like God would have to take a more direct hand in the whole sacrifice part, doesn’t it?

4 And to some extent He did: no one takes this honor (of being high priest) for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. So, God appoints the high priests. He chose Aaron (Exo.28). And He designated the family of Levi as the priestly tribe (Num.3). But one of the first things we see Aaron doing after his appointment (Exo.28) is his enabling of Israel to worship the golden calf (Exo.32). Yes, the high priesthood is an honored role. 4 And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God…. But, wow, is it really okay for it to work this way?

The New Kind of High Priesthood – 5-6

Answer: No, from the very beginning this was intended to be only a temporary system. And the OT itself tells us that. Still talking about high priests, the author continued on to write: 5 So also Christ, back to our great high priest who has passed through the heavens (4:14), did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed…. God took the initiative to establish Jesus as high priest. But we shouldn’t miss the fact that this move departs from the requirements of the Law which He Himself revealed on the mountain regarding who should serve as priests. Even so, [Jesus] was appointed by him who said to him, quoting Psa.2:7, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you” (cf. 1:5), speaking of the exaltation of the Jesus, particularly His resurrection (Guthrie 1983 131), but really of every part of His saving work from His incarnation to His ascension. In this work, He’s displayed to be the promised eternal heir of David’s throne (1:5-13; cf. 2Sa.7:14-16)—God’s Son.

And that’s linked here with a quote from another Messianic Psalm, the most quoted Psalm in the NT, Psa.110:4. And suddenly this passage explodes with all manner of historic and hidden and hard-to-grasp significance that will roll on through the next three chapters here before it’s understood to whatever level it’s possible to understand it! 6 … You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek. This is the first appearance of this character in Hebrews. His name is mentioned eight times in cc.5-7, which is four times more than it’s mentioned anywhere else in Scripture added together! That means it’s mentioned twice elsewhere: once in Psa.110:4 and once back in Gen.14:18 where Melchizedek was introduced as king of Salem and priest of God Most High who brought out bread and wine to Abram after his return from [rescuing his nephew Lot] (Gen.14:16). Lot had been living in Sodom (Gen.13:12) when it came under attack by a coalition of kings (Gen.14:1-12). Gen.14:19 And [Melchizedek] blessed [Abram] and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; 20 and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand! And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. There’s the whole encounter. Ask yourself: If Genesis lacked this vignette, what would we be missing? Nothing, not that we can tell (Carson 2002). Then it was perhaps eight-hundred years before this name was mentioned again. But that mention was by David in Psa.110!

We’re not going to dig any further into this Melchizedek mystery this morning; that will come in c.7. But we are going to note two things about it here. First, it’s the OT itself that introduces the idea of a better high priesthood than that of Aaron and the tribe of Levi. So, whatever it means here to be after the order of Melchizedek, the eternal high priesthood filled by the incarnate, crucified, resurrected, and ascended Son of God (5) is surely going to surpass the high priesthood populated by a succession of sinful men (3) beset with weakness (2). What does this mean? It means the OT itself announces that its priesthood is obsolete (Carson 2002), insufficient to the task it needs to perform. Its best contribution is that it points beyond itself to something far better, something coming in the One Whom God will call His begotten Son (5).

Second, we’ll take one quick peek ahead to see what truly are some of the most important verses in [this] entire epistle (Carson 2002): 7:11 Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? There’s the key question. The question we posed a few minutes ago about how such a sin-saturated system could satisfy God’s holy standard. The OT Scripture had long-since told us subtly but quite clearly that it couldn’t! And a new priesthood was coming! V.12 goes with this here, but we’ll wait on that.

The Ways of the New High Priest – 7-10

The closing four verses describe the ways of this new high priest and how He truly get’s the job done that a high priest is supposed to do. 7 In the days of his flesh, while He was here on earth, present in weakness (Bruce 126), Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death…. Surely this is drawing our attention to Jesus struggling in prayer in Gethsemane while His disciples slept nearby. He was facing separation from the Father on their behalf, on our behalf, absorbing His full and just wrath against the sin all who would believe—becoming guilty before His Father for every sin we’ve committed. Here is a worthy high priest, addressing our need, and he was heard by the Father because of his reverence.

8 Although he was a son, or, Son though he was (Bruce 130), he learned obedience through what he suffered; it was achieved as a personal reality (Hughes 186), a personal experience. He learned just what obedience to God involved in practice in the conditions of human life on earth (Bruce 131). He learned what obedience costs in real life.

9 And being made perfect, being proven perfect through His perfect endurance of every form of suffering, having held the standard and achieved the end of perfect obedience, having completed to full perfection the work He came to do, and completed it to the full satisfaction of the Father, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, a word that isn’t intended to change how we receive this eternal salvation, from faith to obedience, but, in the spirit of this letter, forcefully [reminding its readers] that this great salvation belongs only to those who [through faith] persevere in obedience to Christ (Hughes 188). Jesus Christ is just the high priest we need.

And that’s proven with undeniable and irreversible clarity by His 10 being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. No new high priesthood will ever be needed again!

Conclusion

What does this mean for us? Two take-aways:

Big picture, it means that our reconciliation to God has been achieved by His appointed eternal high priest! That will never be reversed or taken away or displaced by something new. The job is finished, completed, now and forever!

Personally, it means that our high priest, the One Who reconciles us to God, knows the full weight of the suffering we endure in this broken world. He’s felt the full force of the temptations we face that press hard to pull us away from the path of obedience that displays the genuineness of our faith. He knows these things full well, to the point where [He] offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he [remained] reverent throughout (7).

So, Jesus not only provided for our eternal salvation through His perfect obedience, He modeled for us how we might cry out to the Father when our faith is under fire.

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Resources

Anders, Max, gen. ed. 1999. Holman New Testament Commentary. Hebrews & James, by Thomas D. Lea. Nashville: Broadman & Holman.

Arnold, Clinton E., gen. ed. 2002. Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary. Vol. 4, Hebrews to Revelation. Hebrews, by George H. Guthrie, 2-82. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Barclay, William. 1976. The Daily Study Bible Series. The Letter to the Hebrews, Revised Edition. Louisville: Westminster John Knox.

Beale, G. K., & D. A. Carson, eds. 2007. Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. Hebrews, by George H. Guthrie, 919-995. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.

Bruce, F. F. 1990. New International Commentary on the New Testament. Hebrews. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Calvin, John. 1553. Commentary on the Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews, trans. by, John Owen. Logos.

Carson, D. A. 2002. Hebrews Part 4. Hebrews 7; also 4-5: Jjesus’ Priesthood is Better than Aaron’s. The Gospel Coalition.org. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/sermon/part-4-jesus-priesthood-is-better-than-aaron-s-hebrews-7-also-4-5/.

                  , D. A., R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, & G. J. Wenham, eds. 1994. New Bible Commentary 21st Century Edition. Hebrews, by David Peterson, 1321-1353. Leicester, Eng.: InterVarsity.

Clendenen, Ray E., gen. ed., David S. Dockery, NT ed. 2010. The New American Commentary. Vol. 35, Hebrews, by David L. Allen. Nashville: Broadman & Holman.

Dever, Mark. 2005. The Message of the New Testament. Ch. 19, The Message of Hebrews: Sticking with the Best, 413-425. Wheaton: Crossway.

Fee, Gordon D., gen. ed. 1990. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. The Epistle to the Hebrews, Revised Edition, by F. F. Bruce. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Grudem, Wayne, ed. 2008. ESV Study Bible. Study notes on Hebrews, by David W. Chapman. Wheaton: Crossway.

Guthrie, George. 1998. The NIV Application Commentary. Hebrews. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Hubbard, David A., & Glenn W. Barker, gen. eds. Ralph P. Martin, NT ed. 1991. Word Biblical Commentary. Vols. 47a, Hebrews 1-8; Vol.47b, Hebrews 9-13, by William L. Lane. Dallas: Word.

Hughes, Philip Edgcumbe. 1979. A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Longman III, Tremper, & David E. Garland, eds. 2006. Revised Expositor’s Bible Commentary. Vol. 13, Hebrews-Revelation. Hebrews, by R. T. France, 17-195. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

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NEXT SUNDAY: God Is Not Unjust, Hebrews 5:11–6:12