The God-Man
We must approach God
understanding and believing that
only Jesus Christ can represent us
before the Father.
Here's Gene:
We can enter the very presence of God
because Jesus Christ is the God-man.
There is no other way that
he could become our great high priest
if he were not both God and man.
And that's what the author of Hebrews
is going to explain here to them.
You see, in the Old Testament
they had a plan. God had a plan.
And he established the tabernacle.
And he established the priests.
And he established the high priest.
And the high priest could only go into
the holy of holies once a year.
See, there was the holy place
where the priest could go and offer sacrifices.
But there was a holy of holies--
there was a curtain that separated it.
And that's where God's presence dwelt
in a very special way.
And the high priest could only go into
that holy of holies once a year
and very, very cautiously.
I'm told that sometimes literally
they would tie a rope to their feet
or their leg so if something should
happen to them, they could remove them
from the holy of holies
because no one else could
enter the presence of God.
However, there's another chapter to all of that.
This is all setting the stage for the
coming of the great high priest.
So first of all he talks about
the high priest in Israel. So we can get
an understanding of this.
In Hebrews chapter 5, verse 1:
For every high priest taken from among men
is appointed in matters pertaining to God
for the people, to offer both gifts
and sacrifices for sins.
He [that is this priest in Israel]
is able to deal gently with those
who are ignorant and are going astray,
since he is also clothed with weakness.
[And] because of this, he must [make] an offering
for his own sins as well as for the people.
No one takes this honor on himself;
instead, a person is called by God,
just as Aaron was.
You see, Aaron was the first high priest.
Aaron was the brother of Moses.
And as you go through the Old Testament,
there are lists of men who eventually
were appointed to this position of high priest.
But there were some that stood out.
And as history unfolded--for example,
one of the most well-known high priests was Eli.
And you remember, Eli had two sons
that were very, very immoral
and walking out of the will of God.
And Eli didn't deal with their sins.
And he had a tragic end.
But the interesting thing is that
as you see the unfolding of the story
of Israel and the high priest,
you see a deterioration, a degeneration,
even in the priesthood.
And what happened when Jesus Christ came?
Who was the great high priest?
Caiaphas. Caiaphas.
And what did he do?
He was involved in the plot
to crucify Jesus Christ.
So you see the degeneration
and deterioration that took place
in this priesthood that was
established by God himself.
From this description
of the Old Testament setting,
beginning with Aaron and explaining that.
The author of Hebrews transitions
to Jesus Christ as our great high priest.
Beginning in verse 5, he says this:
In the same way, Christ did not exalt himself
to become a high priest...
See, God was the author of all of this
because even in the Old Testament setting,
he appointed and ordained the priests.
When Christ came:
...[he] did not exalt himself to become
a high priest, but God who said to him,
You are my Son;
today I have become your Father,
also says in another place,
You are a priest forever according to
the order of Melchizedek. ...
Now, we're going to learn
a lot more about Melchizedek.
We're not going to understand it fully
but we're going to learn more
because it's going to be explained.
The author is going to explain.
He's sort of teasing us a little bit here
by making reference to Melchizedek.
But later he's going to explain this.
And then he continues here to explain Jesus
and why he became our great high priest:
...During his earthly life,
he offered prayers and appeals
with loud cries and tears to the one
who was able to save him from death,
and he was heard because of his reverence. ...
And I think there, probably the
author of Hebrews is referring
primarily to the time that He was beaten.
That He was scourged.
He was nailed to a cross.
He was left there to die.
He offered prayers and appeals:
...Although he was the Son,
he learned obedience from what he suffered.
And after he was perfected,
he became the source of eternal salvation
for all who obey him, and he was
declared by God a high priest
according to the order of Melchizedek.
Now let's not misunderstand.
Jesus Christ did not become perfect
in the sense that he rose above sin
that was impacting his life.
Jesus Christ was the God-man
and he was without sin.
What it means I believe to be perfected
is that he suffered and identified with all of us.
He was tempted in every way we're tempted,
so that he could become the great high priest.
So he could identify with our weaknesses.
He could identify with all of the challenges
that we face in our life.
And once he went through that process,
He was perfected in that sense,
as the great high priest to identify
with all of us in our weaknesses and our sins.
Now it's interesting as you
go back through these passages,
you will see similarities here
between the Old Testament high priest
and Jesus Christ the high priest.
There are similarities but there are
unique differences.
And here they are:
First of all, both Aaron and Jesus Christ
were appointed by God.
That's what the texts say.
Aaron was appointed by God.
Jesus was appointed by God.
Of course he was God.
And that involves a unique
mystery of the Trinity.
Secondly, Aaron was only a man--
a sinful man.
And that was true, by the way,
of all of the high priests.
And we know Aaron was a sinful man
because look what he did
at Mount Sinai when he built
the golden calf and was led astray.
And God had to discipline him,
so that he could get back on track spiritually
and really represent the people before God.
He was a sinful man.
Jesus Christ was the God-man
who was without sin.
There's a great difference.
Similarity?
Two men but Jesus was the God-man.
Aaron died and ceased to be a high priest.
And he was replaced throughout Israel's history.
But Jesus Christ rose from the grave
and became a permanent "high priest
according to the order of Melchizedek."
Now we're going to learn, as I said,
more about Melchizedek.
So what does all this mean to us?
Well here's the question for application,
for thought, for Reflection [and] Response:
Why do so many people
who profess to follow Jesus Christ
look to merely human leaders
to represent them before God,
even relying on them to absolve their sins?
Well one reason is, is just insufficient teaching.
They don't really understand the Bible.
They don't understand the redemptive message.
Or another reason--and it combines with that--
is our human tendency.
Our human tendency is to try to
atone for our own sins.
And when you put that together
with false teaching, then we can look
to other people to resolve our sins
or take away our sins, or atone for our sins,
or to forgive us our sins.
And of course at the base of all this is Satan
with deception and false teaching.
And it's really tragic how that
has spread throughout the
so-called Christian world.
What we call syncretism.
My wife and I were
in a Central American country.
And we observed something
that was just incredible.
We looked at the church building.
And inside the church building was statuary.
And guess who was offering incantations
to these statues in the church?
Witch doctors.
We saw it with our own eyes.
And the priest, who was offering mass,
was in the courtyard.
But the sad part was to watch these people
who are crawling up a long stairway
of concrete steps with their knees bleeding,
thinking that by doing that,
they would atone for their sins.
It was a sad situation.
I've told that story and there are
people of that particular faith
that just can't believe that that
would ever happen.
We saw it with our own eyes.
And that's true throughout
many countries where Christianity
is mixed with paganism.
And one of the pagan teachings
is that a human priest can atone for our sins
or forgive us of our sins.
Which is a total contradiction
to what the Bible teaches.
There is only one person
who has atoned for our sins
and who can represent us before God
once we become believers.
And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the reason that he could do that:
he was the God-man.
He is the God-man because to this very moment
he is at the right hand of the Father
representing us to the Father.
So here's the Principle:
We must approach God understanding
and believing that only Jesus Christ
can represent us before the Father.