Jesus had to suffer and still remain without sin to become our high priest.

Why was it necessary for Jesus to suffer?ย  And why was it necessary for Him to remain without sin?ย  When did He become our high priest?

Tabernacle in heaven

Summary of this article: The main point in the letter to be Hebrews is that Jesus is our high priest, serving in the true tabernacle in heaven. To become high priest, He first had to suffer, because He learned obedience from what He suffered. Being made perfect, He offered Himself without blemish to God; one sacrifice for sins for all time. After His resurrection, Jesus sat down on His Fatherโ€™s throne. He then became our high priest, with the inauguration of the new covenant by the cleansing of the things in the heavens by His blood.

Purpose

Although no other letter in the New Testament explicitly teaches this, the โ€œmain pointโ€ of the letter to the Hebrews, to which about five chapters are devoted (4:14-10:31), is that Jesus is our high priest in the true tabernacle:

โ€œNow the main point in what has been said is this:
we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary and in the
true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not manโ€ (Heb 8:1-2).

The previous verse (Heb 7:28)ย identifies this high priest is as the Son of Godย .

Hebrews is one of the most difficult books in the Bible.ย  Not only are the concepts complex; the highly symbolic and idiomatic language of the letter makes it even more difficult.

The purpose of this article is to give a simple as possible overview of Hebrewsโ€™ teachings of Christ as our high priest. The relevant material from the letter is grouped into sub-topics and discussed below in what seems to be a logical sequence.

Unless otherwise indicated, all quotations are from the NASB.

Jesus was perfected through suffering.

As will be shown below, Hebrews uses the phrase โ€œmade perfectโ€ for people whose sins have been forgiven (for instance Heb 12:23). But Hebrews also describes Jesus as โ€œmade perfectโ€. He was โ€œmade perfectโ€ through what He suffered:

Heb 2:10 โ€œIt was fitting for Him (the Father) โ€ฆ in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation (Jesus) through sufferingsโ€.

Heb 5:8-9 โ€œAlthough He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered, and having been made perfectโ€ (5:8).

Heb 7:28 He was โ€œmade perfect foreverโ€.

Because He was made perfect, He was able to offer โ€œHimself without blemish to Godโ€ (Heb 9:14).

Jesus was fully human

That Jesus was made perfect does not mean that His sins have been forgiven, for He never sinned (Heb 4:15). This concept may be unfamiliar to us because we very often think of Jesus as God, which is not wrong, but we often fail to think of Him as a fully human being that had to learn like any other human being. Hebrews teaches that Jesus became a human being in every respect: โ€œHe had to be made like His brethren in all thingsโ€ (Heb 2:17). Jesus therefore indeed developed through what He suffered.

Hebrews, similar to the other letters of the New Testament, emphasizes Christโ€™s death, as we will see below. But Hebrews put more emphasizes on His life than what other letters do: specifically on His suffering, which also was His temptation:

Heb 2:18 โ€œHe Himself was tempted in that which He has sufferedโ€œ.

Heb 4:15 โ€œHe was tempted in all things as we are, yet without sinโ€.

Gethsemane

Donโ€™t miss this point: His suffering was His temptation.ย  He was tempted to prevent or lessen His suffering, for He was able to that (Matt 26:53), but he patiently โ€œendured such hostility by sinners against Himselfโ€ (Heb 12:3).

Through death, Jesus made purification of sins.

A question that arises, when reading Hebrews, is how people are saved, for Hebrews seems to say that people are saved through Jesus’ work as our high priest. But Hebrews also agrees with other letters that โ€œthrough death Jesus made purification of sinsโ€ (Heb 1:3). Each of the verses quoted below refers to both His death and to dealing with sin:

Heb 9:26 โ€œNow once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himselfโ€.

Heb 9:28 โ€œChrist โ€ฆ offered once to bear the sins of manyโ€.

Heb 10:12 โ€œHe โ€ฆ offered one sacrifice for sins for all timeโ€.

Heb 13:12 โ€œJesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gateโ€.

If this is so, what is the purpose of Jesusโ€™ role as our high priest, which is so prominent in Hebrews? The relationship between His death and His work as high priest, in the redemption of the world, is discussed in a separate article.

After His resurrection, Jesus sat down on His Fatherโ€™s throne.

This is a well-known New Testament teaching, based on Psalm 110:1.ย  Hebrews often confirms this truth, saying that Jesus, after His resurrection, passed through the heavens (Heb 4:14) and โ€œsat down at the right hand of the Majesty on highโ€ (Heb 1:3, cf. 13; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2).

Jesus became high priest when He sat down on His Fatherโ€™s throne.

When did Jesus become high priest?ย  Was He also high priest in Old Testament times?ย  The following indicates that Jesusโ€™ life and death allowed Him to become high priest:

Heb 2:17 Jesus โ€œhad to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priestโ€.

Heb 9:11-12 โ€œWhen Christ appeared as a high priest โ€ฆ, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle โ€ฆ through His own bloodโ€.

Jesus, therefore, became high priest after His death, namely when he โ€œsat down at the right hand of the Majesty on highโ€. These are one and the same event.ย  To understand Hebrews, one needs to get used to how the writer thinks. He knew the Old Testament extremely well, and the Old Testament passage that is most quoted in the New Testament is Psalm 110. Verse 1 of that psalm is interpreted by the New Testament as God saying to Jesus:

โ€œSit at My right hand Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feetโ€.

Then verse 4 adds

โ€œYou are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedekโ€.

The writer of Hebrews makes the assumption, since verse 1 applies to Jesus, that verse 4 also applies to Jesus. This is something that the writer of Hebrews often does, namely to link things that are not clearly linked in the original text. He, therefore, merges verses 1 and 4 into a single statement, which would mean that He became priest when He sat down on His Father’s throne.

But the writer goes further. Since Jesus, according to Psalm 110:1, enters Godโ€™s immediate presence, and since only the high priest was able to enter into Godโ€™s presence (Exo 25:22), the writer promotes the โ€œpriestโ€ in Psalm 110:4 to โ€œhigh priestโ€ (see quotations above). This something else that we must learn about the writer of Hebrews: He continuously quotes from the Old Testament, but he does so with significant freedom. He adds or changes words and phrases to fit the point that he wants to make. But that is okay. The Bible is not inspired word for word; the writers are inspired with concepts, and they themselves must find the best possible words to express those concepts.

But it remains symbolic language. The earthly tabernacle, with all its ceremonies, was only a symbol of reality (Heb 8:5; 9:8-9; 10:1). For that reason, and because his Jewish Christian readers were familiar with the earthly tabernacle, the writer uses the earthly tabernacle with its ceremonies to explain the unseen but real events in heaven, which we only dimly understand.

Christโ€™s death enabled Him to become our high priest.

Hebrews 9 describes the inauguration of Jesusโ€™s ministry in heaven.ย  The first 15 verses form a unit. ย It starts with a description of the earthly tabernacle with its daily and annual ceremonies (Heb 9:1-7). It then states that these ceremonies are symbols of what happens in heaven (Heb 9:8-9), and explains what these symbols meant:

Jesus entering the true tabernacle

โ€œWhen Christ appeared as a high priest โ€ฆ,
He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation;
and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, โ€ฆ
For โ€ฆ how much more will the blood of Christ โ€ฆ cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
โ€ (Heb 9:11-12)

In other words, Jesusโ€™s death permitted or qualified Him to commence His work as high priest; His death was a prerequisite for entering the holy place.

Tabernacle in the wilderness

The second unit in Hebrews 9 (verses 16 and following) also starts by describing an aspect of the earthly tabernacle, this time the inauguration of the first covenant.ย  This ritual was performed by Moses 1500 years before Christ when he used the blood of animals to clean the tabernacle (Heb 9:18-23).ย  Hebrews then implies that the cleansing of the tabernacle by Moses was a symbol of the cleansing of โ€œthe heavenly things themselvesโ€.ย  The earthly โ€œcopies of the things in the heavensโ€ were cleansed by the blood of animals, but the โ€œheavenly things themselvesโ€ were cleansed with โ€œbetter sacrificesโ€ (Heb 9:23), namely โ€œthe sacrifice of Himselfโ€ (Heb 9:26).

To conclude then, in both units (Heb 9:1-15 and 9:16-24) Christโ€™s offering of Himself, as symbolized by His blood, enabled Him to commence His ministry on the new covenant in heaven. This is consistent with the conclusion of the previous section above, namely that Jesus became high priest at his ascension to heaven when He sat down on His Fatherโ€™s throne.

Satan expelled from heaven

Hebrews does not explain why the โ€œthe heavenly thingsโ€ had to be cleansed.ย  As stated above, this is symbolic language, but that does not mean it is meaningless.ย  It means that it must be interpreted.ย  It is often said and thought that the blood of Christ satisfies the demands of Godโ€™s righteousness. Such thinking is not accepted here. According to Heb 2:14, He died to render the devil powerless.ย  And in Revelation 12 we see that the war in heaven against โ€œthe serpent of old who is called the devil and Satanโ€ (Rev 12:9) was brought to an end by Christโ€™s death. โ€œThe heavenly thingsโ€ were cleansed by expelling Satan from it. The See War in Heaven and Why Jesus had to die.

NEXT:ย ย Jesus is a better high priest
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2 Replies to “Jesus had to suffer and still remain without sin to become our high priest.”

  1. Andries, I do not understand how you describe GOD Eternal who is not of Biological Chemical Substance in the likeness of you and I. Lord Jesus described GOD Eternal Spirit in, John 4:24ย  GOD is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth. If God be Spirit, His Judgement would be unfair since God the Spirit never experienced hunger, rejection and mocked by a mob of mortals, that He had to send somebody else out of all other His Beloved Son. Why was He afraid to come Himself instead send the Son to suffer? Lord Jesus whom we assume has first hand description and experience who Eternal Spirit God suppose to be. I love to be frank, let GOD’s People be taught the truth on the Person of GOD, Truth about HIS Son-ship. Not Religion handed down by our forefathers who are still Blinded by Roman Catholicism, but a personal experience in GOD Eternal Son-ship. GOD was our Father Eternal in Creation, the Son (Lamb) in Recreation and the HOLY GHOST in Reconciliation. I personally believe these three are one in the Son-ship of Jesus Christ (Yeshua HaMashiach) not Tradition handed down by Religious fanatics the Constantine’s and Alexanders.

    1. Hi Eddie
      Thanks for your comment.

      I think that many of the false teachings about the nature of Christ is the result of a misappreciation of the nature of God. Some people seem to think that God exists somewhere as one of the many beings in the universe. God does not exist in the universe; the universe and we exist within Him.

      He is not one of the beings of the universe; nothing exist apart from Him. Everything and everybody that exist came from within Him. Whatever power, beauty of life we may have, it is Godโ€™s power, beauty and life.

      He is not somewhere out there; He is everywhere.

      Out of His own power He made intelligent beings with the freedom to use their power in any way they want. Although we are free agents, we remain part of His being because nothing exists outside of Him. Therefore, He experiences every thought, every cruelty and every beautiful thing. When Satan and his angels tormented Christ on the cross, Satan used Godโ€™s power, granted to Satan to use in his own free will, to torment Christ. It is hurtful to see the pride of life; people proud of their talents; not realizing that it is all borrowed from the Creator. The beauty of sex is a gift from God but we corrupt His gift and we use His name as a curse word.

Your comment is important.

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