Today’s reading is Hebrews 7.
Twice already we have been told Jesus was made perfect (Hebrews 2:10; 5:9). However, now we learn Jesus, the Son, was not made perfect by the Law. The Law makes nothing perfect (Hebrews 7:19). Jesus did not become all God wanted Him to be and everything we needed Him to be through the Law. The Law made Aaron and his sons the priests. Jesus is not a son of Aaron. (In this context, “the Law” does not refer to the entire Old Testament as it does in some places, but to the Torah found in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible.)
Our author makes a powerful point for his Jewish Christian audience. Psalm 110:4 established a new order of priesthood “later than the law.” The establishment of a new order implies something lacking in the old order. If the Levitical priesthood had been complete, perfect, all that was needed, or could complete, mature, perfect or make whole anything or anyone then the Psalm would claim the Messiah was a priest after the order of Aaron. But it doesn’t. Why? Because neither the Law nor the priesthood under the Law makes anyone or anything perfect–not the priest and not us. Therefore, something new, something different was needed.
Please, grasp the line of reasoning our author presents. It is important in explaining our own relationship with the Law. Jesus is not a priest based on the Law. That is, He is not a priest because He met a legal requirement laid out by Moses. Rather, that law, that legal requirement, was set aside because of its weakness and uselessness. A priesthood not established by or ordained by the Law needed to be established. The law had to be changed to allow for a changed priesthood, a strong, perfected, useful priesthood. That is what happened in Psalm 110. Rather then finding the high priest “on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent,” God swore an oath that the true high priest would be established “by the power of an indestructible life.” This harkens back to Hebrews 2:14-18 which explained Jesus partook of death, but death did not destroy Him. Rather, He destroyed the one who had the power of death and delivered those who were subject to slavery through the fear of death. All of this happened so He would become our faithful and merciful high priest. He was made perfect through what He suffered and endured, not through the Law.
But, here is the key. He was “made perfect forever.” He was not perfected by the Law. The audience of Hebrews was not perfected by the Law. We are not perfected by the Law. We will be perfected only by the High Priest who was made perfect forever. Let us cling not to the Law, but to Jesus our merciful and faithful and perfect High Priest. Only through Him will be perfected.
Tomorrow’s reading is Hebrews 7.
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Discuss the Following Questions with Your Family
- What are your initial reactions to the chapter and the written devo above?
- What comfort do you find learning we are made perfect by Jesus and not by the Law?
- Do you think this means it doesn’t matter whether we obey God? Why or why not?
- What do you think clinging to Jesus in order to be perfected looks like?
- What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this chapter and today’s post?
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