Hebrews 5:9-10

11 January 2026

And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,

being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 5:9-10)

Please turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews chapter 5. If you're using one of our church Bibles that can be found on page 1003. We're continuing a series going quite deep into the rich teaching that we have in this glorious book, and our focus is going to be dealing with verses 9 and 10 here this afternoon, but we'll begin reading from verse 5 of Hebrews chapter 5. This is the Word of God.

"So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, You are my son, today I have begotten you. As he says also in another place, You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek". Amen.

Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, as we come now to You in prayer, help us to understand more of the Scriptures, the Word of God which is before our eyes, which we pray would penetrate, shape and transform our hearts and lives because of the Gospel, because Christ is our Lord and Saviour. It is our prayer that He would be magnified in what is proclaimed in our hearts in the upbuilding of this church for the advance of your kingdom. Lord, we ask, do such a mighty work as only you can, for we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

So, what we're dealing with in verses 9 to 10 is very much the mini climax of a very complex argument that is being built here in chapter 5 and will continue to be being built in the chapters that follow, particularly as we get back to chapter 7, probably later in this year, next year. This is dealing with the subject of the priesthood. So, this is something that is established because yet again - as we've seen so far throughout Hebrews, there are a series of comparisons, a series of fulfilments that we see relating to Jesus Christ. The comparisons being that Jesus Christ is greater, the fulfilments being in Jesus Christ. And both with regards to the priesthood, what Christ does being better, and with regards to fulfilment, namely Christ fulfilling the office of the priest. This is very much what we see here in chapter 5.

Now in chapter 5, we're introduced to the subject of the priesthood with regards to the Old Testament. So, the language of priests and blood sacrifices before altars and atonement for sin, this is very much a prominent theme throughout the Old Testament. And that's something that we've been considering already in quite a bit of depth in the early parts of chapter 5. But it's when we get to verse 5 onwards that we then begin to see Christ also is made a priest. In fact, as we're considering, He is the High Priest, the Great High Priest. So, there's very much fulfilment language in what we see of the Lord Jesus. And the introduction in verses 5 and 6 is dealing with the fact that just like priests of the Old Testament were called by God, so was Jesus. Jesus was called by God, for He is God, and He is the Son who is begotten of the Father and comes this earth as a man in order to live and fulfil the office of the priest. And when we get to verses 7 and 8, which we've been dealing with more recently, that tells us how He did it. So, we deal with the calling of the priest and the fulfilment of the calling of Jesus as the priest, and then in verses 7 to 8, how Jesus lived, and fulfilled this office of priest. And the language of verses 7 to 8 are quite staggering because remember what we're dealing with. This is not just another priest like the priests of the Old Testament who were men, sinful men, who themselves needed atonement for their sins. We're dealing with the God-man Jesus Christ who is divine and He is perfect. He becomes a man. And what does He becoming a man look like? Well, verse 7 says that it looks like suffering. We've got the loud cries and the tears that are being given at the point when Jesus is confronting the reality of what He is about to face, namely the sins of His people bearing them on the cross where He will face the divine wrath and judgment of the Father. That's the suffering, the anguish that the Son would face.

Now just try to even picture the most gruesome of sights that your eyes cannot bear, the foulest of smells that you just cannot tolerate that would make you sick, the most appalling sounds that would make you fall in agony. Such thoughts, such sights, such hearing, such sound only begins to scratch the surface of what Christ is bearing quite literally, spiritually in doing and living this way. This is the suffering and the anguish of what it would mean for Jesus to live on this earth and to fulfil this office of priest. The anguish of His suffering, where we even saw in verse 8 that He learned obedience through what He suffered. Now this is not to diminish or to in some way irreverently challenge the divinity of Jesus. No, He is God, but this is enabling us to see that as God, this is what it would mean for Him also to live as a man. There is learning that He will go through. Not learning as though God needs to learn more things, but by the fact that He's living as a man through what He will experience.

And now as we come to verse 9, we come to the climax, namely the end result of the priesthood. What the priesthood will ultimately be fulfilled in and through Jesus Christ. Because remember, we need a priest who will represent us before God, just like the priest of the Old Testament would represent Israel. We need a priest who will represent us. That's Christ. We need a priest who will bring a sacrifice that will atone for our sin, that will satisfy God's wrath. That's Christ. And ultimately, as we come to now here in verse 9, we need a priest who will secure our eternal destiny, where we will ultimately go. Now this is where we really begin to see why the Old Testament priesthood cannot ever be sufficient. It can never do this. First and foremost, because we know the priests of the Old Testament, they themselves are sinful as we've said. But also, because what they do, they need to continue to do. Time after time after time, they need to continue to offer sacrifices for the sins of the people again and again and again. And in what they are doing, though it does bring this temporary covering and atoning of their sins, it doesn't eternally deal with their sins and it secures eternal salvation for nobody. So, note this, the Old Testament priesthood secures eternal salvation for nobody. But here in Hebrews chapter 5 verse 9, notice what it says of Jesus, the great high priest. It says, being made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation, to all who obey Him. And there are three quite crucial points from that verse alone that we need to deal with. First of all, this Jesus being made perfect point. Also then, the eternal salvation that we have. And also, this point about those who obey Him.

Now if you're thinking, what about verse 10? You said we're dealing with verse 10. We'll only briefly refer to that because this is the order of Melchizedek issue which is being brought up again. And it's in chapter 7, as we've noted, that we're really going to get our teeth into the depths of what that's all about. So, we'll just make reference to it because chapter 7 is when we'll come to it. So, there's three key areas that we need to deal with mainly from verse 9 in the time that we have here this afternoon. And the first one is the point where it says, Jesus being made perfect. Now this is another one of these very difficult phrases for us to get our heads around when it comes to Jesus, the Son of God. We've had a few of these already just in the space of these verses. Verse 7, the anguish of what Jesus faces. Verse 8, Him learning something, Him learning obedience. Now we come to verse 9 and it's saying He is being made perfect. And again, we stop to say, hang on a second, this is Jesus, He is perfect. He's God. God is perfect. We study the attributes of God. We see He is all-knowing. He's all-powerful. When we look here and we see of Jesus, it says, is being made perfect. Or another translation into the English would be, made complete. So how is Jesus made complete?

Well, it's helpful that we've already began to build this argument in verses 7 to 8, and even what we dealt with back in chapter 2, regarding understanding the distinction of Christ's humanity. It is very important, though very difficult, when dealing with the subject of Jesus Christ's humanity and his divinity, that we don't pit the two against each other as if something needs to give as though we're dealing with a hundred percent total and we need to figure out what percent is humanity, what percent is divinity. That is not how this works. Jesus is God and we have that cast iron secure in our minds with regards to the very reality of His eternal existence and who He is and His absolute authority and perfection. That is Jesus as the divine being. He is God.

But also, we understand by Him becoming a man, He learns obedience. There is something that progresses and develops with regards to His humanity. And we thought, for example, just the practicalities of Jesus being a baby, growing as a toddler, becoming a teenager, becoming a man, what it would be for him to learn through the experiences of suffering. All of these things encapsulate the language that we have in these verses with regards to what Jesus learns. But also, as we come now to the subject of Him being made perfect, Him being made complete. But there's more that needs to be drawn out and unpacked on this subject.

Just as a quick warning, but hopefully in some levels it will be an encouragement, this is a very deep teaching conclusion to a very complex argument. So, we really are getting into solid food territory here in Hebrews. And in order to help us understand yet another complex verse in Hebrews, we're going to go to a complex verse in the Gospel of Matthew. So, turn with me to Matthew chapter 3. And this is the account of the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ. And just as we're about to read this, remember that we're dealing with this phrase, Jesus being made perfect. And we're trying to get to grips with what exactly does this mean? What exactly is this referring to with regards to Christ's humanity? We know it's about Christ's humanity, but how is he being made perfect? So, let's read the account of Jesus' baptism from verse 13 of chapter 3 in Matthew. “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized by Him. John would have prevented Him saying, I need to be baptized by you and do you come to me? But Jesus answered Him, let it be so now for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness. Then He consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and coming to rest on him, and behold a voice from heaven said, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased”.

Now this is quite an interesting, a fascinating passage that we have. Not first and foremost because Jesus is being baptized and we wonder, why is He being baptized? But first and foremost, with regards to who is baptizing Him? How much time have you spent thinking and engaging in the fact that John the Baptist has such a calling and privilege to be the one who baptizes Jesus. Nothing in Scripture is an accident. This is all as the Lord has decreed it. So, who is John the Baptist? Well, John the Baptist, as you might have been studying in recent weeks during the Christmas period, we've got the account of Jesus' birth narrative in Luke 1, but before that in Luke 1, we have the account of a priest called Zechariah. He and his wife Elizabeth, they have a baby, a miraculous baby because the wife Elizabeth is past the age of child bearing and that baby that is born eventually is none other than John the Baptist. So, John the Baptist comes from a lineage of the priesthood. The line of Aaron which is the line of the priesthood. And yet, what's interesting when we note about John the Baptist is that John, as the son of Zechariah, a priest, was not called to be a priest in the temple. He was called to be a prophet in the wilderness. But the key thing about John's calling and being the last of the prophets is his special calling in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ. John the Baptist was called to be the one who would prepare the way for the coming of Christ, to prepare for Christ's ministry and all that He would do.

And another text that's quite interesting in relation to John the Baptist's calling is in John chapter 1 and verse 29. When John has his followers with him, Jesus appears and this is the beginning of Jesus' earthly ministry. And what John says when he sees Jesus is quite interesting too. John says, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. What is John calling Jesus when he sees Him at the beginning of Jesus' earthly ministry? He is calling Jesus the Lamb of God.

Now think, what did priests need in the time of the Old Covenant? They needed a lamb that was unblemished to be slain, and that blood would be used to atone for the sins of the people. That's what the priest would do in representing the people. That was the office of the priesthood in the Old Testament. Now we're coming to the New Testament and the fulfilment of the office of the priesthood when Jesus Christ Himself would become this lamb who would be slain on Calvary. And here we have John who is preparing the way for this lamb, declaring this is the Lamb of God. And so, when we come back to this account in Matthew chapter 3, we have this very interesting account of John who is preparing the way for Jesus, now baptizing Jesus. And the question automatically would surely be, well why is Jesus being baptized? Because Jesus doesn't need to be baptized in the way that we are, because when we go under the water, it is a sign of us dying to our old sinful self. We come up out of the water. It's a sign of the newness of life we have in Jesus Christ. Jesus knows no sin, so He doesn't need to be baptized for that purpose. No, instead, what does He say to John? He says to John that he is to be baptized in order to fulfil all righteousness.

Now just as priests were washed before entering the temple, here we have Jesus being washed in preparation to fulfill the ministry that He is going to fulfill, ultimately by His death. And this is what He means by fulfilling all righteousness. This is the Lord's consecration of Himself, because He is coming of His own volition to do what He has come to do, which is to die as a sacrifice for sinners. This is the Lord's consecration. This is His submission to the redemptive purpose and plan of God. Because Christ and Christ alone would fulfill all righteousness. And we end this passage with a glorious picture of the Father Himself declaring that this is His Son with whom He is well pleased, with the Holy Spirit descending upon him like a dove.

As we think of Hebrews chapter 5 verse 9, Jesus being made perfect. It's not that He is improving Himself to become more of a perfect being. He is the perfect being. It is Him being made the complete sacrifice. Him being made perfect ready, fulfilled ready to be this sacrifice. Because remember the whole argument in Hebrews 5 is with regards to Him fulfilling the office of the priesthood. And this is how He does it, by becoming this man, this priest Himself on this earth. And John here has this sacred calling of preparing the way, preparing for Jesus in what He would do.

These are crucial points, brothers and sisters. For the Lord Jesus, in order for Him to represent us, He has to become like us. So, He is born of a woman, but He has no earthly father. He is the Lamb without blemish to fulfill all righteousness. He is that very lamb that John declares in John 1:29. And he does this in being made perfect, being made complete by first of all, as we were considering this morning, living an actual, perfect, righteous life. He is righteous for He is God, but He then lives the righteous life. This is how he becomes accepted, the all-sufficient representative for his people. So, he lives a life of obedience, which is, as we've considered, his act of obedience where he is fulfilling God's law. And he is obedient to death on a cross, which is, as we considered, his passive obedience, in which he bears the sins of the people he has come to represent. The priest who has come to fulfill this office is also going to be the sacrifice himself. He is the priest who becomes the sacrificial lamb slain for sinners. And this baptism is the preparation. The life that he lives is him being made perfect, that he is ready when it comes to him dying on the cross. He is the lamb who is made perfect, now ready for his life to be laid down. And this is how, in being made perfect, Hebrews 5:9, He secures our eternal salvation.

Now this is a deep and complex and yet so profound argument where we see that all of the language and all of the pictures that we have of the priesthood in the Old Testament at every point we see in Christ's life to His death. This is what he fulfills. And he does it for our salvation. When he says in John 17:19, for their sake, that's us, I sanctify myself. This is the salvation of sinners. This is the eternal security that we have. It's because of Christ in what He does.

And so, as we move to this next point in verse 9, being made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation. This is something that we've already seen a similar language of in Hebrews chapter 2 verse 10. In Hebrews 2:10 it says, for it was fitting that he for whom and by whom all things exist in bringing many sons to glory should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. So again, we've got that perfect through suffering point and also language of the founder of their salvation. Now, both of these verses, Hebrews 2:10 and Hebrews 5:9, are both establishing an important point about what Christ secures for our salvation. But they're two slightly, and yet quite clearly, different points.

Hebrews 2:10 is focusing on Jesus as the captain of our salvation, our living head, the Lord Jesus Christ, as one who's not remaining in the clouds, telling us what to do, but actually coming to where we are, leading by example by laying down His life. So, the focus is on what He does as the one who leads us by dying for us. Therefore, He's the captain, the founder of our salvation. But here in Hebrews chapter 5:9, there's a different emphasis on the same point. Jesus is described in Hebrews 5:9 as the source of eternal salvation. And this theme is in the section on Christ's priestly office. And so, the explicit emphasis in Hebrews 5:9 is in Jesus facing the penal consequences of man's sins. So, Hebrews 5:9 is telling us He becomes the source of our eternal salvation because He's facing that penalty for you. You the Christian saved by His blood. And He faces it for you by what He suffers. And He can suffer and secure this because He is the priest who is the lamb who will be sacrificed. It's why Isaiah 53: 4 says, surely, He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

Now brothers and sisters, this is the language about and of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who is chosen by God, consecrated in order to relate and represent His people. He has made the sacrifice for sins. And Jesus has left His Father in heaven to be born of a mother on earth to do this. The eternal God of heaven becomes the infant born in a town in Bethlehem. He lays aside the majesty of sovereign rule for the mockery and scorn at the hands of earthly rule. This is the suffering and the anguish in order for Him to be the giver of life by laying down His life. He is the Son of God, Jesus Christ. And that's why, whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. The everlasting life is the salvation we have in Christ. The eternity, the eternal nature of this needs to be emphasized, brothers and sisters. It's why from that point to the point of Christ's return, that includes tonight, you have an eternal security in this eternal salvation. It is done. Christ has done it for you. That's why He brings in the order of Melchizedek again. There goes the author drawing us into this order of Melchizedek language. Because the eternality of the order of Melchizedek in fulfilling the office of priest and king is who and what Christ is. Christ is not simply a man who lives for 30 years, no, He is one who secures something for all eternity. He fulfills this office, this office of the priesthood, fulfilling all righteousness, Matthew chapter 3, being made perfect through suffering in order to secure something eternal for you. That's what He can do by His life, this perfect life being laid down.

Every day, every day that we live our lives as Christians on this earth, this is what we know, this is who we know we have a security in. Because we are looking at the one who was made perfect. He was made that perfect sacrifice. He is the unblemished lamb. And he will be laid down. His life will be laid down. That's what the cross is. This is the message of the Gospel, his perfect life being laid down because he bears the sins of his people, the sins that condemn you and sentence you to hell that is credited to Christ's account at Calvary. And by it being credited to Christ's account, He is literally paying the penalty that you deserve to face. His life being laid down is literally the defeating of sin and death. It is the means by which sin is put away forever. That's your hope, Christian. Your hope is in this blood, His blood and His righteousness. Because as our sin is credited to His account, therefore we receive His righteousness. In the Old Testament, there's no righteousness that those priests can give to the people of Israel. They're all unrighteous, fallen sinners, deserving of hell. Now we come to one who is perfect. Literally the language is saying He's made perfect everything about who He is in the fact that He is God and in the fact He's lived a sinless life. He is prepared, He is sanctified, He is ready and that life is ready and it is laid down. And that's the sacrifice for sin. That's the atoning blood, the blood which cleanses unrighteous sinners, by which we can now stand righteous before God. Why and how? Because of Christ's righteousness. Because of His life, which has been laid down as a sacrifice for sinners.

And that is the Gospel. That is the saving power of the Gospel. And anyone who enters into heaven and welcomed into this banquet feast of heaven. It is all because of Christ, His sacrifice, His life laid down, because this secures eternal salvation. We're saved eternally because Christ, who was the Lamb, slain at Calvary comes roaring forth as the Lion of Judah having conquered sin and death, risen victorious and now is ascended and seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high. This is your victory cry Christian, this is the living hope and the eternal salvation that you have. In Christ the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings.

And as we draw this to a close, just in these final minutes, we come to the final part of verse 9, where it says, became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. Well, first question to clarify. Does this mean that obedience is the reason and means by which we're saved? Well, of course not. It's not going to contradict everything that we've just read. But we are called to obey the will of Christ in Hebrews. That's something that is consistently stated. We're called to hold fast our confidence in Hebrews 3:6 and again in Hebrews 3:14. We are to guard against unbelief in Hebrews 3:12. We're called to pay much closer attention in Hebrews 2:1. We are called to consider Jesus in Hebrews 3:1. This is dealing with the human accountability, where our obedience is the response. It's the fruit, the evidence of the salvation that we have in our Lord and Savior, this great high priest, Jesus Christ. In Romans chapter 1:5, Paul says that he received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith. So, this is about God calling His people to obedience. It's not what He wants His people to do in order for them to become His people, or in order to stay as His people, or to finally merit being His people. None of that. All of our identity, our hope and security is found in Jesus Christ, absolutely and completely the completed work of Christ. And because of the completed work of Christ, we obey Christ by the faith that He has given us.

Think how you got saved, brothers and sisters, by obeying Christ by the faith He gave to you. And that faith, that obedience, is the gift given by the Lord. Romans 10:16 warns that not all have obeyed the gospel. And you hear the gospel, you commit to it. And Romans 10:17 goes on, so faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ.

So, when it comes to hearing a message like this, if you're sitting here, and you are not a believer, you're not a Christian. What is the call from the Word of God? The call from the Word of God is not, well, if you manage to prove your obedience, then you might earn your way into heaven. No, the call is to repent and believe in the One who has secured it all, the One who came to this earth. The one who laid down his life on this earth, who learned obedience through suffering and was made perfect in order to secure our eternal salvation. He did this, fulfilling all righteousness by living a life without sin and laying it down so that he could deal with eternally the sins of his people. We believe this. That's what we believe as Christians, and our call of obedience is on the basis of this salvation. Our faith is in this Saviour, because we know everything is because of Christ. And that is our gospel hope, and that is why the office of the priesthood is fulfilled in Him. He is our great high priest. He has made the way of an eternal salvation, eternally dealing with sin, eternally crushing and defeating death and giving us life. Because he himself is that sacrifice. And that life which is sacrificed is the life which now is risen victorious over sin and death. And he himself is our Lord and King, our Saviour, Lord and King. And that's why in verses 9 to 10 we have such a glorious and emphatic mini-climax to the argument of the priesthood, which is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and that fulfillment leads to our eternal salvation. Praise God for this glorious, mighty, majestic gospel. Let's pray together.

Oh Father, we pray that with the complexity and the depth of the teaching that we have in the book of Hebrews, may You work by Your Holy Spirit to feed Your people. Oh Lord, we pray that there would be a maturing of the bride of Christ, that as we proclaim as Christians, Christ died for my sins and therefore I'm saved. Oh, may we understand all the more what it means for Jesus to die as this perfect sacrifice, the one who is made perfect through a life of perfect obedience, one who is sinless, the spotless, unblemished lamb, laying his life down for us. Father, these are weighty truths which help us to understand the fulfillment of the office of the priesthood and the very salvation of our souls. And may we live lives because of this salvation saved by the blood of Christ in obedience to our Lord and King. May there be such fruit and evidence because the desire that we have now is for Christ. Oh, may you shape and fashion us that we may glorify and honour your name in the lives that we live, lives which are in Christ Jesus, lives that are secure eternally in and by and through our Lord and Saviour in whose name we pray. Amen.