The Chosen High Priest

Rule over your surrounding enemies.

Your people will volunteer on your day of battle.

In holy splendor, from the womb of the dawn,

the dew of your youth belongs to you.

The Lord has sworn an oath and will not take it back:

“You are a priest forever

according to the pattern of Melchizedek.”

The Lord is at your right hand;

he will crush kings on the day of his anger.

He will judge the nations, heaping up corpses;

he will crush leaders over the entire world.

He will drink from the brook by the road;

therefore, he will lift up his head.

This psalm’s immediate fulfillment happened in David’s own kingship, but its ultimate fulfillment came later in David’s line—in the one who sits at the Father’s right hand, Jesus Christ. Given that Melchizedek seemingly has little to do with the messianic nature of this psalm, the inclusion of his name likely would have surprised the original audience.

“A priest forever” points to the messianic figure who fulfills this prophecy and distinguishes the order of Melchizedek’s priesthood from other priesthoods. Other priesthoods had a termination date because all other priests died. Death prevented them from serving as priests forever. Jesus Christ, however, on account of his resurrection from the dead, serves as a priest forever. His priesthood knows no end.

What does it mean for Jesus’s priesthood to be “according to the order of Melchizedek”? While it is tempting to think that “according to the order” refers to a Melchizedekian line of priestly succession or that Jesus came from outside the tribe of Israel as Melchizedek did, this is not the case. There was no Melchizedekian line of priestly succession, and only someone from within Israel could fulfill the Davidic monarchy. Therefore, “according to the order” must mean that Jesus’s priesthood, like Melchizedek’s, is born out of the sovereign purposes of God. The order—that is, the nature—of Jesus’s priesthood is of a sovereign order, a sovereign nature. Like Melchizedek, Jesus did not take the honor of priest upon himself; he was sovereignly appointed. And in his appointment and service as high priest, he was exalted above all others.

Hebrews 5:7-10

Here the author steps away from the theological groundwork he has been laying to turn his attention to the incarnated life of Jesus. “During his earthly life” points the reader to the ministry of Jesus. Even though Jesus was totally without sin, this did not make him exempt from the frailty of human experience. Even Jesus was beset with the heartache and grief associated with human existence. This is what Jesus’s prayers and supplications signaled. They signaled that he depended on God to meet his needs and to sustain him at all times. Jesus was just like any other human being in this regard.

“With loud cries and tears” recalls Jesus’s experience in the garden of Gethsemane. “To the one who was able to save him from death” certainly corresponds with this thinking. But this reference does not limit Jesus’s loud cries and tears to his experience in Gethsemane, for Jesus faced the anguish of becoming sin for those who believed in him and bore the burdens of human existence all the days of his flesh. Scripture shows us Jesus offering up prayers and supplications even before the cross. One example of this is in the high priestly prayer of John 17. Loud cries and tears were regular features in Jesus’s prayer life.

Christ’s prayers to “the one who was able to save him from death” were not prayers expressing a desire to escape the cross and the grave. He predicted his own death many times throughout the Gospels and said that death was the purpose for which he was sent into the world (John 12:27). Jesus did not pray in order to be saved from dying; he prayed in order to be saved out of death through the resurrection. Jesus’s prayer to be saved from death was a prayer to be raised from the grave. The One who was able to save Jesus from death answered his prayer when he delivered him from death in the resurrection.

The Father was not deaf to the loud cries and tears of his Son. He heard and answered the Son’s prayers “because of his reverence.” A good way to think of this reverence is in terms of awe, devotion, or submission. The Father heard the Son because Jesus feared God and because he totally submitted his will to his Father’s.

In verse 8 the author explains that Jesus learned obedience to God through what he suffered, even though he was God’s Son. That Jesus learned obedience should not cause us to think that Jesus needed to be taught obedience because he was disobedient at one point. Hebrews is clear that Jesus never disobeyed. Rather, this verse highlights his humanity. As Jesus experienced the trials associated with human existence, he learned how to obey his Father in them. Suffering taught Jesus how to submit his will to his Father’s will. We see this lesson at its sharpest point in Gethsemane and on Calvary. The cross meant terrible agony of heart and body for Christ, but he remained resolute in his willingness to be obedient, even obedient to the point of death (Phil 2:8). By faithfully enduring the suffering ordained by the Father’s plan to redeem sinners through his own blood, Jesus learned obedience.

Verse 9 tells us that Jesus “was perfected” through suffering—so much so that “he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” What does it mean that Jesus was made perfect? Wasn’t he already perfect? Furthermore, what does it mean that Jesus became the source of eternal salvation? We have already seen how suffering played a part in Jesus’s perfection in Hebrews 2:10. The author is echoing the same reality in this verse. Jesus was not made perfect in the sense that his nature was once impoverished and needed to be improved. Rather, he was made perfect in the sense that learning obedience through suffering was a prerequisite for becoming a qualified and sufficient high priest. In being made perfect through suffering and death, Jesus became “the source of eternal salvation.” This simply means that Jesus’s suffering stands as the basis for our salvation. Christ as the source of our salvation is synonymous with Christ as the founder of our salvation (cf. 2:10).

The eternal salvation that Jesus pioneers is only granted “for all who obey him.” It is fitting that the One who learns obedience through what he suffered would stand as the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. In keeping with one of the major themes of the book, the author of Hebrews is once again encouraging his people to obey Jesus and not abandon the faith.

The writer concludes his discussion about the priesthood of Jesus by returning to the reality that God designated Jesus to be a priest according to the order of Melchizedek. The assurance of our faith is in the fact that Christ himself is a priest forever after this order. Thus, the assurance of our salvation and our standing before the Father are rooted in Jesus’s priesthood—a priesthood that sovereignly comes from the Father’s appointment. It is a priesthood that was made perfect through suffering and death on a cross.