"THE HOLIEST OF ALL" part XL

THE HIGH PRIEST, PERFECTED THROUGH OBEDIENCE.
Hebrews 5: 8 - 9 Though He was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which He suffered;  And having been made perfect, He became to all them that obey Him, the cause of eternal salvation.

Continuing with the Fourth Section
Jesus Christ High Priest More than Aaron

BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY

Our Lord Jesus learned obedience by the things which He suffered. Through this obedience He was made perfect, and became the cause of Eternal Salvation to all that obey Him. So He entered Heaven as our High Priest, a Son, perfected forevermore.

The word "perfect" is one of the keywords of the Epistle. It occurs thirteen times. Four times in regard to the Old Testament, which could make nothing perfect. The law and the Law made nothing perfect ( 8:19). Sacrifices that cannot (Genesis 2: 16..."the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it"... or to keep eating of it....Genesis 3:5  For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.....3:7  And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons......3:8  And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God......3:22  And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil.....3:21  To Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.....God covered the sin now contained or housed in mans flesh by the blood and the skin of the animal, but man still held the consciousness of his shame and sin. The Law under the priesthood of Aaron could do nothing to remove this consciousness and its guilt.), as touching the conscience, make the worshiper perfect ( 9: 9). The law/Law can never make perfect them that draw nigh ( 10:1). That apart from us they should not be made perfect ( 11: 40). As great as is the difference between a promise and its fulfillment, or hope and the thing hoped for, between the shadow and substance, is the difference between the Old and New Testament. The Law made nothing perfect: it was only meant to point to something Better, to the perfection Jesus Christ was to bring. With the New Testament perfection would come. Three times the word is used of our Lord Jesus, who in Himself prepared and fashioned out the perfection He came to impart. It became God to make the Leader of our Salvation perfect through suffering ( 2: 11). He learned obedience, and being made perfect, became the cause (Author of Eternal Salvation) of Salvation ( 5: 9). Appointed High Priest; a Son perfected for evermore ( 7: 28). The perfection fashioned by Christ was that which was revealed in His own personal life. He came to restore to us the Life of God we had lost (Genesis 1: 26-27)--- a Life in the Will and Love of God. This alone is salvation. God perfected Him through suffering--- fashioned out in Him a perfect human character, in which the Divine Life was fully united with the human will. He learned obedience through suffering, and manifested perfectly the humility and submission and surrender to God, which is man's duty and blessedness to copy or do as well. So, when He had been perfected, He became the Author of Eternal Salvation to all who obey Him, because He now had that perfected human nature which He could communicate to them (the recipient one). And so He was appointed High Priest--- a Son, perfected forevermore. As Son of God, He was to take us up into the very Life of God; as High Priest, He is to lift us, in actual spiritual reality, into God's intimacy, fellowship, Will and presence; the Way in which He was perfected through obedience was the Living Way in which He is to lead us;--- as the Son, perfected through obedience, who had found and Opened and walked the path of obedience as the path to God, and would animate (give Life to) us with His own Spirit to do it too, He, the perfected One, can alone be our Salvation.

Then twice we have the word of what Christ has done for us. By one offering He has perfected forever them that are sanctified ( 10: 14); the Leader (Author) and Perfecter (Finisher) of our faith ( 12: 2). Christ's perfecting us forever is nothing but His redeeming us by His one sacrifice into the perfect possession of Himself, the perfected One, as our life. His death is our death to sin, His resurrection as the perfected One is our Life, His Righteousness is ours, His Life ours; we are put in possession of all the perfection which the Father fashioned out in Him through suffering and obedience. And once of the spiritual sanctuary opened by Christ: The greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands ( 9: 11). And three times it is used in regard to Christian character: Solid food is for the perfect ( 5: 14); Let us press on to perfection (6:1 ); The God of Peace perfect ( In the Greek here the word used is not the same as in the other passages.)  you in every good thing ( 13: 21). The perfect for whom the solid food is, are those who are not content with the mere beginnings of the Christian life, but have given themselves wholly to accept (to receive willingly) and follow the perfected Master. These are they who press on to perfection--- nothing else than the perfection which Christ revealed, as God's claim on men, and as what He has won and made possible for them.

He learned obedience, and being perfected, became the cause of Eternal Salvation. The perfection of God is His Will. There is no perfection for man but in union with that Will. And there is no Way for attaining and proving the union with that Will but by obedience. Obedience to the good and perfect Will of God transforms the whole nature, and makes it capable of union with Him in Glory. Obedience to God's Will on earth is the Way to the Glory of God's Will in Heaven. The everlasting perfection of Heaven is nothing but the obedience of earth transfigured and glorified. Obedience is the seed, the power, the Life of Christ's perfection and ours.

We are approaching the threshold of the Holiest of All, as this Epistle is to open it up to us as the sphere of the Heavenly Priesthood of Him who was made after the order of Melchizedek. Ere we proceed thither let us learn this lesson well: The distinguishing mark of the earthly life of our High Priest; the source of His Heavenly Glory and His Eternal Salvation; the power of His atonement (redemption from) of our disobedience; the Opening of the Living Way in which we are to follow Him our Leader; the inner disposition and spirit of the Life He bestows;--- of all this, the secret is obedience. Through obedience He was perfected, His sacrifice was perfect, He perfected us forever, He carries us on to perfection (through the working out of our salvation).

1. When the perfect Heavenly Life of the Lord Jesus Christ comes down from Heaven into our hearts, it can assume no form but that which it had in Him, obedience.
2. God must be obeyed: In that one word you have the key to the life and death of Jesus, His sitting at God's right hand, His Priesthood, His dwelling in our hearts, as well as to the whole of the Gospel message,--- God must be obeyed.
3. Christ, the obedient One, who inaugurated for us the New Way of obedience unto death as the only Way to God. Is this the Christ you love and trust? Is this your delight in Him, that He now has delivered you from your disobedience, and makes you strong to live only to obey God and Him? Is Christ precious to you because the salvation He gives is a restoration to obedience?