Hebrews 5:5-6

Summary retelling of Hebrews 5:5-6

Christ did not exalt Himself.  He was appointed to the office of High Priest.  He was begotten of God, a Son of the Most High.  He is a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

Christ did not exalt Himself.  Think about it.  Do you ever remember Jesus talking about how great He was?  Do you ever remember Jesus talking about how much better He is than other people because He was God?  Yes, Jesus is confident.  He taught harsh lessons with absolute confidence.  But never did He exalt Himself.  Even when He is praised, it is the Father who gives Him praise.

Do you exalt yourself?  Why do you exalt yourself?  What does it mean to you to realize that Christ never did exalt Himself?

Second Thought:

Jesus was appointed to the position of High Priest.  As we’ve seen over the last few days, Jesus is a high priest in that he offered a sacrifice for atonement of sins.  However, Jesus was not a priest because of His lineage to Aaron or Levi.  Jesus was a high priest because He was the Son of God and it was the role for which He came.  {We’ll save the Melchizedek conversation for a few days from now.  But I’ll talk about it eventually.}

Why does it make sense that Jesus was appointed to the role of high priest?  What role do you think His lineage (or lack thereof) played in the rejection that He received from the ruling elite Jews?

Third Thought:

Jesus was begotten.  Jesus was not made.  To be made would imply that Jesus was a part of creation.  Instead, Jesus was begotten.  God came to Mary and Jesus was begotten through her.  In fact, Jesus could not be made because creation was made through Him!

What would it mean if Jesus was created instead of begotten?  What do we know about all of creation (See Romans3:23)?  Why does this stress the importance on the fact that Jesus is begotten of the Father?

Passage for Tomorrow: Hebrews 5:7