A Study Of The Apostle Paul’s Letter To The Hebrews

Don’t fall away! Don’t Depart! Don’t neglect your salvation! Don’t cast away your confidence! Don’t harden your heart! Don’t drift away! AStudyOf TheApostlePaul’s LetterTo The Hebrews How can we neglect so greata salvation? ~ Hebrews 2:3

Hebrews: Christ Is Superior! Superior Person (1:1—4:13) Superior to Prophets (1:1-3) Superior to Angels (1:4—2:18) Superior to Moses (3:1-19) Superior to Joshua (4:1-13) Superior Priest (4:14—7:28) Superior to Aaron (4:14—6:12)but… We’ll only get to 4:14—5:3 today. Superior to Melchizedek (6:13—7:10) Superior to Levi (7:11-28)

Hebrews: Christ Is Superior! Superior Pact to Moses’ (8:1—10:18) Superior Promises (8:1-13) Superior Sanctuary (9:1-15) Superior Sacrifice (9:16-28) Superior Results (10:1-18) Superior Principle (Faith) to Moses’ (10:19—13:25) Superior Things (10:19-39) Superior Actions (11:1-40) Superior Relationship (12:1-29) Superior Way of Life (13:1-25)

The last two sections we studied (3:7-19& 4:1-13) concern the reward of spiritual and eternal rest that God has provided for those who are faithful to Him regardless of the circumstances. Now…   

Beginning with 4:14 (which should pro-bably be 5:1), Paul resumed the topic of Christ’s priesthood that he began in 2:17, because the High Priesthood of Jesus is the main subject of Hebrews: In 8:1-2 Paul wrote, “This is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the sanctuary and the true tabernacle which the Lord erected and not man.” So…   

Let’s read 2:17-18 to get us back on Paul’s original track: In all things He had to be made like His brethren that He might be a merciful & faithfulHigh Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suf-fered being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted. After warning them to remain faithful, Paul, in 4:14-16, indicated that Jesus was willing and anxious to aid them in all their troubles.

Hebrews 4:14  Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed thru the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

So far Paul has de-monstrated that Jesusissuperiortoangels, the prophets, and even Moses and Joshua; now he pro- ceededtoprovethat Jesus is superior to Aaron, the very first high priest and the father of the Leviti-cal priesthood (Lev. 21). Notice the as-cending scale of im-portance:    Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed thru the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

The prophets gave the Word to Israel; the Word was given to the prophets thru angels; Moses led Israel out of Egypt; and Joshua led the nation into Canaan. But…    Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed thru the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

All this was worth-less if Israel didn’t have a high priest to mediate for them, so Aaron occupied the high point of importance among the servants of God. Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed thru the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

Why is Jesus great (or greater) than the Levitical priest-hood? Because, un-like the Levites who were sons of a mere human, Jesus is the Son of God! Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed thru the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

By saying this (cf. Acts1:9-11),Paulwas saying that Jesus was inthe third Heaven (cf. 2 Cor. 12: 1-4) at God’s throne, giving Him the auth-ority and power to fulfill the divinely promised rest. Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed thru the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

Unlike Aaron who could only go to the typical mercy seat in the holy of holies and offer the blood of animals, Jesus went straight to the real mercy seat in Heaven to offer His own blood. Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed thru the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

Later Paul wrote of Jesus that with His blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal re-demption (9:12). Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed thru the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

Paul began Hebrews referring to God’s Son as having purged our sins and sat down at God’s right hand (1:1-3). Then in 2:9 he used the name Jesus to bring His humanity to mind. Then in 2:17 he brought up the concept of a new High Priest. Now, so that there was no mis-taking what all he had been getting at, Paul here brought it all together in one verse: he wrote of Jesus (humanity) being the Son of God (deity), making Him the perfect High Priest or Media-tor between God and man.

This phrase means to cling to some- thingtenaciously;so, as when we studied 3:1, they were cau-tioned to cling ever so tightly tothecon-fession they made about Jesus when they were initially saved. Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed thru the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

Hebrews 4:15  For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sym-pathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points temptedasweare, yet without sin.

This original term for sympathizemeanstosufferwith,notmerelyduetoHis knowledge of us as our Creator, but due also to His common experience with us inbeinghumanHim-self (the point Paul also made in 2:17-18). For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sym-pathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points temptedasweare, yet without sin.

The original term for weaknesses refers to everything con-cerning our human susceptibility of be-ing tempted to sin. So…    For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sym-pathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points temptedasweare, yet without sin.

Paulwassayingthat,althoughJesusdidn’t have the same sus-ceptibility to do the deed—commit sin—that we do (else He would’ve sinned), He was still tempted in the same way we are. I.e….    For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sym-pathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points temptedasweare, yet without sin.

He was also tempted with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16); and, because of who Hewas,He wasvery likely tempted in ways we can’t even imagine! For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sym-pathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points temptedasweare, yet without sin.

In 7:26 Paul wrote, Such a High Priest was fitting for us [a High Priest] who is holy, … undefiled, [and] separate from sinners; the sinless-nessof Jesusisillus-lustrated at great length by Paul thru-out chapters 7—9. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sym-pathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points temptedasweare,yet without sin.

For those who might say something like, Well, if He never sinned, then He doesn’t really understand and sympa-thize, think about this: One who has never been beaten in a fight knows more about the strength of his oppo-nent than one who has experienced defeat. Why? Because he had to with-stand the most that the opponent could dish out. So…   

Christ, having never fallen to tempta-tion, knows more about the strength of temptation than the vilest sinner, especially since He was tempted by Satan personally and perhaps with more vigor than we ourselves have everexperiencedsince wearen’t deity like He was/is. So Jesus is better qualified to understand our temp-tations than anyone else. As Westcott once wrote…   

Sympathy with the sinner in his trial doesn’t depend on the experience of sin itself, but on the experience of the strength of the temptation to sin which only the sinless can know in its full in-tensity…. [Besides] Sin dulls sympathy by obscuring the idea of evil. By the way, there are myriads of scho-lars who believe in The Impeccability of Christ—the belief that, because He was 100% God (as well as 100% man), Hecouldn’tsin.(Just giving you something to think about if you haven’t already.)

Hebrews 4:16  Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may ob-tain mercy & find grace to help in the time of need.

The original term for let us come literally meanstoletuskeep on coming and is a reference to the idea of approaching God through a sin-sacrifice; under the first covenant this was an animal, whilenow it’s Jesus Christ. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may ob-tain mercy & find grace to help in the time of need.

The original term for boldly doesn’t mean arrogantly, but with confidence, more confidence than they could ever ap-proach God through the Old Testament high priests who were mere humans. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may ob-tain mercy & find grace to help in the time of need.

This is the real thing in Heaven which was typifiedbytheark of the mercy seat (Jer. 3:16f) in the holy of holies in the taber-nacle (1 Kgs. 8:6), that which only the high priests could approach(Heb. 9:25). As a reminder…  Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may ob-tain mercy & find grace to help in the time of need.

In the Old Testament economy, there was the high priest, regular priests (the Levites),andthepeople;intheNewTest- amenteconomywenolongerhavease-paration of regular priests and the peo-ple, for all Christians are priests (1 Pet. 2:5 & 9), with Jesus as our High Priest. Thismeansthat we’renotrestrictedac- cess to God’s throne through any human being; rather, we have free or direct access to the High Priest Himself who intercedes & mediates our case before God’s throneofgrace(cf.Eph.2:18 & 3:12).

Mercy is aid related to past offenses, whilegraceisaidfor future toil, tempta-tation, and trial. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may ob-tain mercy & find grace to help in the time of need.

Theoriginalwording for this clause refers to help before it’s too late; in this con-text it refers to help for them to avoid apostasy while there was still time to en-ter God’s rest. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may ob-tain mercy & find grace to help in the time of need.

Hebrews 5:1  For every high priest taken from among men is ap-pointed for men in things pertaining to God that he may offer both giftsandsacrifices for sins.

The original term for for here, of course, means because; i.e., Paul was providing more reasons why they could come to the throne of mercy and grace with con-fidence. For every high priest taken from among men is ap-pointed for men in things pertaining to God that he may offer both giftsandsacrifices for sins.

Though Jesus was unlike the Levites in that He’s the Son of God (4:14),He is like them in that He was also the Son of Man (2:14-17), someone who experienced temptation to sin against God (4:15, cf. James 1:13). Notice also that the high priest is for us, not for God. For every high priest taken from among men is ap-pointed for men in things pertaining to God that he may offer both giftsandsacrifices for sins.

Inthisverysentence this phrase is defin-ed as the offering of gifts and sacrifices for sins; i.e., those priests ministered in regards to man’s re-lationship with God. For every high priest taken from among men is ap-pointed for men in things pertaining to God that he may offer both giftsandsacrifices for sins.

Giftsreferstoblood-less offerings, and since it isn’t linked tothephraseforsins, then the gifts here likely refer to free-will offerings. Sacrifices, however, doesrefer to bloody offerings that were definitely for sins. For every high priest taken from among men is ap-pointed for men in things pertaining to God that he may offer both giftsandsacrifices for sins.

Hebrews 5:2  He can have com-passion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also beset by weaknesses.

Whilethewordsym-pathy in 4:15 mere-ly means to suffer with someone, the original term for compassion here meansto suffer with someone to a limit. I.e….    He can have com-passion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also beset by weaknesses.

The emphasis in this verse is obviously on how a morally weak high priest could have feelings forthoselikehim-self; but, because he was high priest with a job to do, he had to restrain his emo-tions to be effective. I.e….    He can have com-passion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also beset by weaknesses.

Not only was he not to allow himself to be too tolerant of sin, but he was also not to allow himself to be too severe to-ward the ignorant and erring. He can have com-passion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also beset by weaknesses.

Before talking about the ignorant and er-ring, it seems important to note that there appears to have been three primary types of sin in the Old Testament times (and may-be today as well). There were sins committed in ignorance (Lev. 5:17-19), sins committed in passion (Lev. 6:1-7), and sins committed in rebellion (Num. 15:30-31). It also seems that,accordingtothosepassages,sinscom-mitted in ignorance or passion could be atoned for, while those committed in an at-titude of rebellion could not (cf. 1 Sam. 15: 22-23 & Psa. 19:13). If that’s the case, then Paul obviously had the sins of ignorance and passion in mind here.

Since this word to-dayisgenerallyused as an insult, it ought to be noted that Paul simply used it inreferencetosome- one who lacked knowledge; later he wrote about sacri-fices offered for the people’s sins com-mitted in ignorance (9:7). He can have com-passion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also beset by weaknesses.

While this phrase seems to imply that they had not sinned yet, it actually comes from a term which refers to erring ones or those committing error or sin. He can have com-passion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also beset by weaknesses.

This word comes from the same term translated surround- ed in 12:1; however, there it’s usedposi-tively, while here it’s usednegatively. So…    He can have com-passion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also beset by weaknesses.

The last part of 5:2 would be better un-derstood today if beset were translated as plagued; i.e., being human, the high priests were likewise plagued by the moral weaknesses of the flesh. This also brings to mind the idea that, while the prophet cried out for the people to repent or be destroyed, the priests were to be sympathetic and cry out to God for those who asked forgiveness. Speaking of priests sinning, let’s don’t forget that Aaron was the one who took the lead in making the golden calf!

Hebrews 5:3  Because of this he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to of-fer for sins.

Leviticus 16:6 has God telling Moses to tell Aaron to offer the bull as a sin-offering,whichisfor himself, and make atonement for him-self & for his house. Because of this he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to of-fer for sins.

Leviticus 9:7 has Moses saying to his brother, Aaron, the high priest, Go to the altar, offer your sin-offering and your burnt offering, and make atone-ment for yourself. Because of this he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to of-fer for sins.

Obviously this didn’t apply to Jesus, be-cause not only was He a High Priest, but He was also the Lamb, and the lamb had to be without blemish—sin (cf. Lev. 22:19 & Heb. 4:15). So…    Because of this he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to of-fer for sins.

A Study Of The Apostle Paul’s Letter To The Hebrews