Hebrews 5 speaks of the role of the high priest – “appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins”. Each of us needs to step up to that role in our life – to deal with sin and our “ignorant and wayward” ways. Pastors and preachers can help us with dealing with the reality of sin. We are all sinners. We have a sin problem that leads to spiritual separation and death. Jesus is our chief priest and has paid the price to set us free from the eternal price of sin – but we still need to confess and repent regularly. While Jesus was here He “offered up prayers and supplications” for our sin. He still does and is – we need to do the same. Have you confessed your sin lately? Have you been broken by the reality that sin is a big problem and needs to be corrected? We need to consider our life and how we live. It matters…..
We learn about God the Father in this chapter and what His intent was in sending Jesus to be a human. “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”. Jesus came and experienced life and suffering for a reason – to be perfected even though He was in human form. He learned obedience – He overcame temptation and taught us that sin can be defeated as He was perfect. He won the victory and became our salvation. Our response – OBEY HIM. Did you catch that? He did all the hard work – we just need to follow in obedience. We just need to accept the gift and make it our path through life. We need to walk with Jesus. Are you living that way?
Maybe that is a rhetorical question to which I already know the answer. I can look in the mirror and see one who fails to obey some days. The writer tells us what the problem is: “you have become dull of hearing”. When we stop living the daily spiritual disciplines – when we fail to study God’s Word each day and spend time on our knees in prayer and fail to connect with Him – we lose some of our hearing. We tend to go into the weeds and begin to think we can handle life ourselves. That is a problem. It keeps us from growing. The writer describes our situation like this: “You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil”. We need to become skilled in how we handle God’s Word. We need to study and hear and read and meditate and memorize God’s truth. It has to become our spiritual diet – what we take in daily. That is how we come to maturity. That is how we grow up. We need constant practice – to feed continually upon His Word. How much have you taken in from God’s Word this week. There are 168 hours – how many did you invest in study and learning His truth? If you are like most, it doesn’t count up to a very large number. Time to change that. Time to commit to making God’s Word a priority in your life. Are you willing?
