The author of Hebrews points us to a key difference between the priests in the Temple in Jerusalem, and Jesus who has now been established as the eternal High Priest and intercessor. The hereditary priests, descended from Aaron, offering up sacrifices for the sins of “the ignorant and wayward” (Hebrews 5:2) must also offer sacrifices for themselves, since they too are sinners (5:3).

But Jesus, the “great high priest who has passed through the heavens” (4:14), knows the struggles we face and sympathizes with us, for he “in every respect has been tested as we are” (4:15) – and has come through all that testing “without sin” (4:15). “He learned obedience through what he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (5:8-9). Our redemption could never be established based on our own human merits: but the Son has established human salvation by his obedient suffering.

Yet in the midst of this we encounter a serious warning against apostasy. “For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, since on their own they are crucifying again the Son of God and are holding him up to contempt” (6:4-6). Stark words indeed! We would not be wise to presume upon God’s patience, continuing in sin as if grace must abound because God owes it to us.

Even so: we have Jesus as high priest: “holy, blameless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens” (7:26). Where other priests come to the end of their ministry and die, Jesus “holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently he is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (7:24-25). And what of those who have fallen away, who “willfully persist in sin after having received knowledge of the truth,” for whom “there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin” (10:26)? What happens when these stark warnings collide with the astonishing promises of grace? We cannot presume that grace must win – but we also cannot presume that sin must win and grace must lose. Instead, we can only hope and trust that he who “always lives to make intercession for them” is even yet “able for all time to save those who approach God through him.”

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Help us, Lord! Though we should have advanced beyond the stage of infants drinking milk, we are still frail and confused and wayward of soul. We have willfully persisted in sin; we have tasted the heavenly gift, and have fallen away more times than we can count. We pray for your intercession: save us, and establish us anew as children of God.

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