The Priesthood Forged in Agony: Hebrews 5:5-10
Introduction: The Scandal of an Appointed Savior
We live in an age of self-appointment. Men and women today believe that identity is something you invent, that authority is something you seize, and that glory is something you manufacture for yourself. The modern spirit is one of defiant self-glorification. We are told to "be our own truth," to "speak our existence into being," and to bow to no authority higher than our own sovereign will. This is not a new rebellion, but it is a loud one, and it is the native language of the unregenerate heart. It is the original lie of the garden, "You shall be as gods," repackaged for a generation that thinks it is too sophisticated for old lies.
Into this clamor of self-promotion, the book of Hebrews speaks a jarring and scandalous word. It tells us that the Son of God, the Lord of Glory, did not glorify Himself. The highest office in the cosmos, that of our great High Priest, was not something He took, but something He received. He did not seize the honor; He was called to it. He did not invent His own credentials; they were bestowed upon Him by the Father.
This passage is a direct assault on our pride. It establishes a fundamental principle of God's kingdom: all legitimate authority flows downward from God. It is never generated from below. The Aaronic priests did not vote themselves into office. And Christ, the ultimate priest, did not put on the ephod as an act of self-actualization. He was appointed. This is crucial because a self-appointed savior is no savior at all. A self-appointed savior is just another rebel, another Adam trying to climb into heaven on a ladder of his own making. But a God-appointed Savior, one who is called, who is begotten, who is designated, is a true mediator. He is one who can actually bridge the chasm between a holy God and sinful men because He was sent by the One to the other.
But this passage does more than establish the legitimacy of Christ's priesthood. It shows us the cost. It takes us into the crucible of His suffering and shows us that His qualification was not merely a matter of divine decree, but was also forged in the furnace of human agony. He learned obedience. He was made perfect. These are staggering phrases that we must wrestle with if we are to understand the kind of Savior we have.
The Text
In this way also Christ did not glorify Himself to become a high priest, but He who said to Him, “YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU”; just as He says also in another passage, “YOU ARE A PRIEST FOREVER ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK.” He, in the days of His flesh, offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
(Hebrews 5:5-10 LSB)
The Divine Appointment (v. 5-6)
The first point is that Christ's priesthood is not a self-willed ambition but a divine calling.
"In this way also Christ did not glorify Himself to become a high priest, but He who said to Him, 'YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU'; just as He says also in another passage, 'YOU ARE A PRIEST FOREVER ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK.'" (Hebrews 5:5-6)
The author is drawing a parallel with the Aaronic priesthood mentioned just before this. No man takes that honor to himself; he must be called by God, as Aaron was. So also Christ. This is a direct refutation of any notion that Jesus was a mere man who, through moral effort, elevated Himself to a divine status. No, the initiative was entirely with the Father. The glory of the priesthood was conferred upon Him.
To establish this, the author quotes two key Old Testament texts. The first is from Psalm 2: "YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU." This is a coronation psalm. The "today" refers to the day of the king's anointing, his installation into his royal office. In the ultimate sense, this points to the resurrection and ascension of Christ, when the Father publicly vindicated and installed His Son as King over all creation. His sonship is the foundation of His priesthood. He is not a priest who happens to be a Son; He is a priest because He is the Son. His unique relationship with the Father is what qualifies Him for this unique role.
The second quote is from Psalm 110: "YOU ARE A PRIEST FOREVER ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK." This is crucial. Christ's priesthood is not of the Aaronic order. He was not from the tribe of Levi; He was from Judah. His priesthood is of a different kind, a higher order. Melchizedek was that mysterious priest-king from Genesis 14 who was greater than Abraham. His priesthood was not based on genealogy but on divine appointment. It was royal, and it was eternal. By connecting Christ to Melchizedek, the author shows that God had always planned for a priesthood superior to the Levitical one, one that would not be temporary and transitional, but permanent and ultimate.
The Agony of the Priest (v. 7)
Having established the divine authority of Christ's priesthood, the author now turns to the experiential reality of it. It was not an abstract, sterile appointment.
"He, in the days of His flesh, offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence." (Hebrews 5:7)
This is a window into Gethsemane. "The days of His flesh" refers to His earthly life, His time of humiliation and weakness. Here, the High Priest is not offering bulls and goats; He is offering up Himself, His own prayers, His own agony. The language is intense: "loud crying and tears." This is not a stoic, detached deity. This is the Son of God in the depths of human anguish, facing the horror of the cross, the full weight of the Father's wrath against our sin.
He prays to the One "able to save Him from death." Does this mean He was trying to get out of the crucifixion? No. The prayer in the garden was, "Not my will, but yours be done." He was heard not by having the cup removed, but by being given the strength to drink it. He was heard because of His "reverence," His godly fear and perfect submission to the Father's will. The Father's answer was not deliverance from the cross, but deliverance through the cross. He saved Him out of death by raising Him from the grave. This agony was part of His qualification. A priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses is no priest for us. Christ's priesthood was validated in the garden, where He faced the ultimate trial and submitted in perfect, agonizing obedience.
The Education of the Son (v. 8)
This next verse is one of the most astonishing in all of Scripture.
"Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered." (Hebrews 5:8)
How can the eternally obedient Son learn obedience? This cannot mean that He was ever disobedient and had to learn not to be. He was without sin. Rather, this is about experience. It is one thing to know the definition of obedience. It is another thing to live it out under extreme duress. Christ moved from a theoretical knowledge of obedience to an experiential knowledge of it. He had never before experienced what it was like to obey in the face of immense suffering, temptation, and the looming wrath of God.
Think of it this way. A man can read every book ever written on shipbuilding, but he does not truly know what it is to build a ship until he has sawdust in his lungs and calluses on his hands. Jesus, in His humanity, learned the cost, the feel, the weight of obedience in a fallen world. His perfect, divine obedience was worked out through the grain of His human suffering. This was not to perfect His moral character, which was already flawless, but to perfect His capacity as our High Priest. He had to walk the path of suffering so that He could lead us along the same path.
The Perfected Source of Salvation (v. 9-10)
The result of this suffering and obedience is His perfection as our Savior and Priest.
"And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek." (Hebrews 5:9-10)
Again, "made perfect" does not mean He was morally flawed and then fixed. The word means to be made complete, to be brought to the intended goal. Through His suffering and death, Christ completed the work the Father had given Him to do. He was "perfected" for the role of Savior. He had now done everything necessary to accomplish our redemption. He had offered the perfect sacrifice, and He had been raised in victory. He was now fully and officially equipped to be the source, the author, of our salvation.
And notice to whom He is the source of salvation: "to all those who obey Him." This is not teaching salvation by our works. It is defining the nature of saving faith. True faith is obedient faith. It is not merely a mental agreement with facts about Jesus. It is a heartfelt submission to His lordship. To receive the salvation He offers is to obey the command to repent and believe. The faith that saves is the faith that obeys. We are not saved by our obedience, but we are not saved without it, because true faith is never disobedient.
The passage concludes by reiterating the central point. He has been "designated by God" as our High Priest. The whole process, from the eternal decree, to the coronation psalms, to the agony in the garden, to the cross, to the resurrection, was God's plan to install His Son as our eternal High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. It is a finished work, a divine appointment, and an unshakeable reality.
Conclusion: Our Obedient Priest
What does this mean for us? It means everything. Our salvation does not rest on the shoulders of a self-proclaimed guru, but on a divinely appointed Priest. Our hope is not in a distant deity who is unfamiliar with our struggles, but in a Savior who learned the cost of obedience through loud crying and tears. He knows what it is to suffer. He knows what it is to be tempted. He knows the path of obedience because He walked it perfectly.
Because He was appointed by God, His sacrifice is valid. Because He suffered in the flesh, His sympathy is real. Because He learned obedience, His example is true. And because He was made perfect, His salvation is eternal and complete.
Therefore, we are called to obey Him. Not in the vain hope of earning what He has already purchased, but in the glad-hearted response of faith. He is the source of eternal salvation. You do not go to a source to give it water; you go to a source to receive it. We come to Him, we submit to Him, and we receive from Him the eternal life that He alone can give. He is our Priest, appointed, tested, and perfected. And to all who obey Him, He is everything.