In the first ten verses of Hebrews 5 a most weighty matter is introduced. In chapter 5:1 we get a general thought of priesthood. It is that which serves men in their relationships with God. Then the character of service is presented “that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.” He stands to conduct our interest with God in whatever form. He is “taken from among men” that He may have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way. He is not taken from among angels; therefore we read in Timothy, “The man Christ Jesus.” God in ordaining a priest for us has chosen One who can have compassion. We find at the close of chapter 7 that the Lord Jesus was separate from infirmity. But the priest here was one who, by reason of infirmity, could sympathize. The Lord Jesus had to learn how to sympathize, as well as learn obedience by the things which He suffered.
Under the Old Testament scriptures, two persons are distinctly set in the office of the priesthood Aaron in Leviticus 8 and 10 and Phinehas in Numbers 25. The difference between them was that Aaron was simply called into the priesthood; Phinehas acquired title to it.
We see both Aaron and Phinehas in the Lord Jesus. He was “called of God, as was Aaron.” Aaron was merely a called priest. The priesthood of Numbers 25 stands in contrast with Aaron’s. Phinehas acquired title. How? He made an atonement for Israel in the day of their great breach, touching the daughters of Baal-Peor, enabling the Lord to look with satisfaction again at His erring camp. Phinehas stood forward to avenge the quarrel of righteousness and to make atonement for the sin of the people. “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Phinehas... hath turned My wrath away from the children of Israel.... Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him My covenant of peace... even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood.” You could not have a more magnificent light in which to read the Christ of God than in that act. The Lord Jesus was the true Aaron and the true Phinehas. (He was also the true Melchisedec.)
The blessed Lord Jesus was called into office, as was Aaron, but He was in office because He made atonement. This earth was like the outside place of the temple where the brazen altar was. The Lord Jesus is now seated in the sanctuary of the heavens, which God has pitched and not man, because He has passed by the brazen altar on earth. He has passed it by and has satisfied it. How did God bear witness to the satisfaction of the brazen altar? By rending the veil. If God has rent the veil, am I to let it be rent for nothing? I have as much right to go inside as the Israelites of old were bound to keep outside. By satisfying the altar He has passed by the rent veil into the sanctuary in the heavens. He glorified not Himself to be made a High Priest.
Why is it a matter of honor to be made a high priest? The Son of God has been in battle and acquired honors that would never have been His if He had not taken up the cause of sinners, and dear and precious honors they are to Him! That word “called” is very sweet in the original. God “saluted” or “greeted” Him when He seated Him in the sanctuary as He greeted Him when He seated Him on the throne: “Sit Thou at My right hand.” The epistle to the Hebrews shows in the opened heavens a throne as well as a sanctuary.
In chapter 5:7-9 we find truths connected with ourselves. “Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death.” The scene of that conflict was eminently marked in Gethsemane. He properly shrank from undergoing the judgment of God against sin. “Having been heard because of His piety.” He was heard because death, the wages of sin, had no claim on Him. Instead of the judgment of God being sent to wither His flesh, an angel was sent to strengthen Him.
Yet He suffered death. He might have claimed His own personal exemption from it, yet He went through it. He learned obedience to His commission by traveling from Gethsemane to Calvary, and He now presents Himself to the eye of every sinner on earth as the Author of eternal salvation. We see the Lord there pleading His title against death. His title is owned; yet, though death has no claim on Him personally, He says, “Thy will be done.” He might have gone from Gethsemane to heaven, but He went rather from Gethsemane to Calvary, and being made perfect there, He became the Author of eternal salvation to all who receive Him. Then, when the altar was satisfied, the sanctuary received Him, and there He is. In creation God planted a man in the garden in innocence; in redemption God has planted a Man in heaven in glory. There is a glory that excels. Now we have got down to verse 10. Observe that the language of Hebrews 5:1010Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec. (Hebrews 5:10) is taken up again in chapter 6:20. The argument there has not advanced beyond chapter 5:10 because doctrinal evil hindered the writer from unfolding more. (From chapter 5:11 to the end of chapter 6 the Apostle turns aside to a parenthetic warning.) It was difficult for the Hebrew to detach himself from the things in which he had been educated, for he was “unskillful in the word of righteousness.” The mind is apt to take up righteousness as a thing demanded from us. God takes it up as a thing He will give us. Finding this hindrance among them, the writer of Hebrews sounds an alarm against one of the little foxes that spoil the vintage of God. It is a terrible thing, having known Christ, to go back to ordinances.
J. G. Bellett (from The Opened Heavens)