Questions for Littles: How long is Christ’s appointment as high priest (v6)? What did Jesus offer up in the days of His flesh (v7)? With what (in what manner) did Jesus offer up prayers and supplications? To whom did Jesus pray? Why was Jesus heard? What did Jesus learn most of all by this suffering (v8)? What does v9 say that He perfectly become? Who had designated Him for this (v10)?Jesus is fully God and fully man. In v5, we were reminded that as God, Jesus is the eternally, begotten Son. It belongs to the Father to beget the Son, and it belongs to the Son to be begotten. So, from all eternity, Jesus is God’s only begotten Son, even with reference to His divine nature. Of course, when the Lord Jesus adds also a human nature to Himself He does not stop being the eternal Son.
So, when God appoints Himself, His own Son, to be our priest, the Son as to take on flesh. That’s extraordinary. God never changes. God cannot change. So what does the second Person of the Trinity do? He enters time. He adds flesh to Himself. He brings to pass in history this new era called “the days of His flesh.” It is that era that we refer to as anno domini—year of our Lord. And those years continue even now. That’s why we refer to this year as 2017 a.d.
We see in this passage that Jesus adds to Himself not only a human body, but also a human soul. Yes, Jesus sinlessly thinks and sinlessly decides and sinlessly desires, but He does all of these things humanly. So, Jesus has always had, and still has, has His divine mind and will, which never changes. But, Jesus now also has His human mind and will, with which He has never sinned, but in which He grew. He grew in wisdom. He grew in understanding Scripture. He grew in applying Scripture.
This also means that Jesus is subject to emotion. As a man, He feels pain and grief and need. He feels comfort and joy and thankfulness. And He does so sinlessly which means, therefore, that in His time of need, He offered up prayers and supplications. The most intense example of this was in the garden, when He was in pain over the idea of the cross.
Jesus prayed to the only One who could spare Him of the cross if He willed, and could sustain Him on the cross if necessary, and could bring the cross to an end when it had accomplished its purpose.
A perfect High Priest would have to be obedient. But in His divine nature, Jesus couldn’t ever be obedient, because there is only one will in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Son became a man so that He could suffer, so that He could pray, so that He could submit Himself. And He was heard—not just because He is the eternal Son, but also because of His godly reverence, His living in wonder at and worship of the Lord.
His ultimate obedience was what happened as a result of His prayer in Gethsemane: having entrusted Himself to God, He also submitted Himself to God. “Not My will but Thine be done.” What was God’s will? That our perfect Priest would be our perfect Sacrifice, who would pray for us forever on the basis of that sacrifice. If we entrust ourselves to Jesus, and become those who submit ourselves to Jesus, He is for us the author of salvation not just from every earthly trouble and time of need—but eternally!
When you feel that you are too bad for God to hear your prayers, what hope do you have?Suggested Songs: ARP110B “The Lord Has Spoken…” or HB368 “My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less”
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