Page 45 - Hebrews- Student Textbook

Study Section 8: Chapter 5 - The Supremacy of the Priesthood of Jesus

8.1 Connect

There are many illustrations in the Old Testament that point to the coming Christ.
Typology is the study of the persons, events, things, institutions, and ceremonies
that are a figure or representation of the coming Messiah. They are called types.
There are many of them in the Old Testament. For example, Isaac is a type of Christ
in that he was the only beloved son of Abraham, just as Jesus is the only begotten
Son of God. He was also taken to Mt Moriah to be offered up as a sacrifice to demonstrate
love. On this same hill, God offered up His Son because of His great love for us. The Old
Testament sacrificial system fore-shadowed what Jesus Christ was to do as our Great High
Priest. The Ark of Noah demonstrated that people could be saved only by going into the ark,
just as today we are saved by being IN CHRIST.

Today we are going to look at the priesthood of Jesus and how He met all the qualities of both
the High Priest, but the one sacrifice for all. Let’s get started...

8.2 Objectives

1. The student should be able to explain why the Priesthood of Jesus is superior to the Aaronic
Priesthood.

2. The student should be able to define the order of Melchizedek.

3. The student should be able to explain how Jesus fulfills the Old Testament offices of the priesthood
by being in the order of Melchizedek.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN, Read Hebrews Chapter 5 from your Bible...

8.3 Chapter 5 - The Supremacy of the Priesthood of Jesus

There are three qualities one must have to be a high priest:

1. He is appointed and called by God (5:4);
2. He is compassionate and “able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going
astray” (5:2);
3. He is one with the people, for he represents the people “in matters relating to God”
(5:1, 7). Jesus exhibited all three.

Jesus’ experience in Gethsemane is vividly depicted in Hebrews 5:7. The fact that Jesus was divine gave
Him no special treatment or magical pass from the reality of the suffering He experienced. In fact, it was
through His sufferings that “He learned obedience” (5:8). Nothing in this text claims, or even implies,
that Jesus was in any way imperfect or deficient in any area. There is another type of perfection,

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