Day 74 - Hebrews 5-9

The writer of Hebrews continues his argument for the supremacy of Jesus Christ as High Priest in chapters 5-9. He does so by pointing out that His path to the priesthood was not something He did on His own, but He was appointed High Priest by God the Father (5:5-6). Next, the supremacy of Christ is set forth above the Levitical priesthood by noting the Jesus' priesthood is after the order of Melchizedek. He uses the point that Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek while Levi was still "in the loins" of Abraham and the lesser pays tithes to the greater, therefore Jesus' priesthood is superior to Levi's. But the final evidence is that Jesus is also the High Priest of the New Covenant (8:6). This is described in glorious detail in chapter 9, the pinnacle coming in vs11, "But when Christ appeared"! So, not only is the priesthood of Jesus superior to the Levitical priesthood, it replaced it!

In the midst of this presentation of the superiority of the priesthood of Jesus Christ, there is another warning. It begins in 5:11 and continues through 6:12. The heart of the warning is in 6:4-6. These verses are some of the most difficult to interpret in the entire NT. I even have a small book in my library that focuses entirely on trying to come to terms with the correct interpretation of this passage. The main crux of the matter is whether or not a believer can ever fully and finally fall away from the faith. That question has been answered very clearly in a number of other passages in the Bible. Therefore, the interpretation of this passage to be one of these two: 1) the person being described is a true believer who will never fall away, and this warning is here to be used as a means to ensure that he never does, OR 2) the person being described is a professing believer who has immersed himself in the externals of the Christian religion, and when someone like that falls away from the externals, he will never come to true repentance. My personal view is that the correct interpretation is the first view. Either way, I have no problem using this passage with either true believer or merely a "professor" of Christianity to either keep the true believer firm or call the merely professing believer to true repentance and faith.