As the only begotten Son and the firstborn Son of God, Christ became the High Priest with the taking of an oath by God (vv. 20-21, 28). Not one of the Levitical priests was ever established by God’s oath. According to Psalm 110, God swore to make Christ a Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. In Hebrews 7 the writer quotes that oath from Psalm 110. This is very weighty, proving that Christ’s becoming the divine High Priest was consummated by God’s oath.
Hebrews 5:8-9 says of Christ, “Even though He was a Son, learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation.” God ordained that Christ should die, and Christ obeyed (Phil. 2:8). He learned this obedience through the suffering of death. Although in His divinity Christ was the Son of God, in His humanity He learned obedience through His sufferings. Having been perfected, He became to all those who obey Him the source, the Author, of eternal salvation.
The eternal salvation that we have in Christ (Heb. 5:9) is based upon the eternal redemption He accomplished for us (9:12), which is much better than the temporary atonement carried out by the priests according to the order of Aaron. That temporary atonement covered sin but never put it away, whereas Christ’s eternal redemption put away sin, solving the problem of sin forever. Furthermore, Christ’s eternal salvation is not merely an objective redemption to solve our problem of sin on the negative side but also a subjective salvation to save us into His perfection and glorification on the positive side. Such an eternal salvation is not limited by time and space but is all-embracing with the divine element and nature. The divine element and nature of Christ are the basic constituents of His eternal salvation, which not only saves us from the most negative things but also saves us into the most positive things, even into God Himself. Such a saving is all-embracing, not limited by time and space.
The person of Christ as our High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek is the source of our eternal salvation (5:6-10). As long as such a One is with us, we could never be weak. He is the source of eternal salvation, of which all the effects, benefits, and issues are of an eternal nature, transcending the conditions and limitations of time and space. Although we have Christ as the Captain of our salvation in Hebrews 2, we do not have the source of eternal salvation until we come to Christ as our High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek in Hebrews 5. Our Christ is not only today’s Joshua; He is also our eternal Melchizedek. As our Joshua, the Captain of salvation, He takes the lead, and we follow Him. As our Melchizedek, the source of eternal salvation, He ministers Himself to us as bread and wine, and we eat and drink of Him. When our Melchizedek comes to us, He does not come with demands or requirements; He comes with bread and wine. When we are tired, He is our bread. When we are thirsty, He is our wine. We need to eat Him, drink Him, and enjoy Him for our supply. Whenever we come to the Lord’s table, we declare to the whole universe that we live by eating the divine bread and by drinking the divine wine as our daily supply. This is our way of living. May we all be helped to see that the table symbolizes that our Christ today is our Melchizedek who ministers to us the bread and the wine. This is the source of our salvation.
Christ was perfected to be our High Priest through His sufferings (vv. 8-10). In His eternal salvation, we need to experience Him in His sufferings. When we experience Him in His sufferings, we will be saved into His perfection. This experience of Christ in His suffering for perfection is by our enjoying Him as our High Priest.