Thursday: A Sinless Priest
Read Hebrews 7:26. What are the five characteristics of Jesus in this passage?
Jesus was “holy.” This means that Jesus was without fault in relationship to God (Hebrews 2:18; Hebrews 4:15; Hebrews 5:7-8, ). The Old Greek translation of the Old Testament used the same Greek term to designate those who maintain their covenant relationship with God and with others.
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Jesus was “undefiled.” He remained pure and untouched by evil, despite being tempted in “all points” (Hebrews 4:15, Hebrews 2:18). Jesus’ perfect sinlessness is important for His priesthood. The old covenant stipulated that sacrificial victims had to be “without blemish” to be acceptable to God (Leviticus 1:3, Leviticus 1:10, etc.). Jesus’ perfect obedience during His earthly life made it possible for Him to offer Himself as an acceptable sacrifice to God (Hebrews 9:14).
Jesus was “separated from sinners” when He ascended to heaven. The Greek verb tense suggests that this is a present state for Jesus, which began at a specific point in time. Jesus endured hostility from sinners during His earthly life, but He was victorious and was then seated at the right hand of God (Hebrews 12:2-3, ). Jesus is also “separate from sinners” in that He was perfectly sinless (Hebrews 4:15).
Jesus was “exalted … above the heavens” (ESV). It means that Jesus has been exalted above everything there is and, therefore, He is one with God. In the Psalms, God is the one who is “exalted above the heavens” (Psalm 57:5, ; Psalm 108:5).
Jesus was fully human, but He was not a sinful human being as we are (Hebrews 2:14-16, Hebrews 4:15). Jesus is perfect, not simply because He never sinned but because He was not corrupted by sin as we are.
Yet, because He was also fully human, He is also our example. He shows us how to run the race of life (Hebrews 12:1-4). He is the example that we must follow (1 Peter 2:21-23). Because He is “holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners” (Hebrews 7:26, ESV), He is our Savior, and we too can reflect His character.
| Though Jesus was a human being, like us, He never sinned. How do we wrap our minds around this amazing thought? Think about just how holy He must be! Why, then, should the promise of His holiness being credited to us by faith help assure us of salvation? |
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We often conjecture as to how Jesus survived his childhood and teenage years without sinning. That is particularly true for those of us who have had teenage children and grandchildren. I don't want to add to the speculation and turn to the only verse in the Bible that gives us any idea of what he was like:
Whatever the definition of sinless perfection is, if there was room for Jesus to be described as growing, then what does that mean for us?
Growing - seems to be a word for me implying imperfection.
When I read Luke 2:41-52, my personal interpretation is Jesus seeing the temple the scriptures comes alive in his heart and mind. He wanted to learn, observe understand the meaning of the scriptures. When He was in the temple nothing else occupied his mind except the work of God for Him. However, when He saw the anxiety of His parents, He goes home and was obedient unto them not because He was disobedient but because of His parents lack of knowledge on the work He had to complete on this earth.
What a lesson Jesus is teaching us here today, even when we disagree as long as it does not violate the mandate of God live in obedience and in peace with God and man.
Doc Ashton, I agree with you that Jesus as an early teen to be different then our teenagers is very interesting. But we need to remember that Jesus was born sinless and besides it's all mysterious like His birth from the virgin.
The holy spirit was in action throughout Jesus' teenaged years. And He never offended God's Spirit which is very different for us and overall, His obedience to his Father is a big part of it which is very different from us who are constantly disobedient to Father God's will.
Please reply.
To me, "increased" or "growing" reminds me of creation. When God "made" Adam in His image, God was "filling" Adam with His character. (See this article for a full explanation: https://www.ancient-hebrew.org/living-words/the-living-words-creation.htm) This is how I see Luke 2:52; Jesus was being filled to completion with the character of God, the Father.
I am also reminded of Matthew 5:48. "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." If we read farther back in Matthew 5, we see that Jesus is telling us what love in action looks like, and that if we live out this love in action, we are made perfect. It's a process, not a final destination. If we remain close to the Father and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us, we too can be like Jesus.
The Hebrew word 'bara' for create means fat or fattened. God filled(fattened if you prefer) the land with His creations. Understood also as, God fattened the land, not out of nothing but as a potter uses clay to make a beautiful pot or a sculpturer uses metal to make a statue of Paul Revere. So now we understand God went on to fill or fatten if you prefer Adam and Eve with the Love of God.
"The holy pair were not only children under the fatherly care of God but students receiving instruction from the all-wise Creator. They were visited by angels, and were granted communion with their Maker, with no obscuring veil between. They were full of the vigor imparted by the tree of life, and their intellectual power was but little less than that of the angels. The mysteries of the visible universe—"the wondrous works of Him which is perfect in knowledge" (Job 37:16)—afforded them an exhaustless source of instruction and delight. The laws and operations of nature, which have engaged men's study for six thousand years, were opened to their minds by the infinite Framer and Upholder of all." Patriarchs and Prophets p50.3.
So with Jesus:
"With deep earnestness the mother of Jesus watched the unfolding of His powers, and beheld the impress of perfection upon His character. With delight she sought to encourage that bright, receptive mind. Through the Holy Spirit she received wisdom to co-operate with the heavenly agencies in the development of this child, who could claim only God as His Father. Desire of Ages, p69.1.
Jesus is perfect, not simply because He never sinned but because He was not corrupted by sin as we are.
My brain interprets this sentence as Christ took on a nature that was holy. If His nature was in anyway different from my nature then He could not claim to be my example.
Therefore, I would rewrite the sentence: Jesus is perfect because He never sinned and therefore was not corrupted by sin as we are.
He had the propensity to sin and did not sin is the power Christ is willing to impart to those who believe in Him.
We have been steeped in sin for so long that we don't even recognize it half the time, but what was it like for Jesus to come and live in our sinful world as a human being? Being fully human, how difficult was it for him? Things His friends may have done may not have been an option for Him. When the 1st Adam ventured out into the world, the world was perfect and so was he. When the 2nd Adam ventured out into the world it had been contaminated with over a thousand years of sin. The whole human race was weaker, less able to resist and this is the world Jesus had to live in...our world. And He never caved. Jesus did endure but He must have felt discomfort also as we feel discomfort, but He was (is) victorious.
The lesson mentions Hebrews 4:15, and I think is important in this lesson to recognize Hebrews 4:16 as a key point for us, which states "so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." With Jesus being sinless, I am so glad of grace and help being as close as a prayer in time of need. How much did Jesus lean on the Father for help? And is verse 16 for our benefit? I believe it is, but how much do any of us cry out for help? Have we forgotten this crucial need?
Today's lesson takes us to the root of the matter in Seventh-day Adventist theology (maybe let's just call it Bible truth). Up to the 1950s, the church believed correctly and with Bible backing that Christ took our sinful nature. See, for example, Bible Readings for the Home Circle, p135. The earlier editions (pre-1950s) got it right because the church then took Hebrews 2:9,16; Hebrews 4:15 just for what they say. It is the evangelical theology that crept into SDA in the 1950s that brought the confusing and false theology that Jesus, while here, had the nature of Adam before the fall. Were that to be true, He would not be our perfect example, nor would He be a perfect High Priest, simply because he would not be touched with the feeling of our infirmities (Hebrews 4:15).
Another source of confusion on this crucial matter is the creeping in of the Roman Catohlic theology of sin (original sin) that claims we are "born sinners". If that were the case, then Christ too would not have been counted sinless and He would have had to repent of sin by birth. But we know it is our sins that were imputed on Him, so that as High Priest, He "carried our sorrows... was wounded for our transgressions" (Isaiah 53:4-5).
The lesson asks, Why was Jesus not corrupted by sin? It is because He did not partake of it by thought, word or deed. It is not because He was "born that way". May God help us to study the nature of Christ and accept the Bible truth on this matter, not any other manmade theology.
Hello Dan,
I carefully read the scriptural citations you made in their context and they do not appear to support what you are saying. Do you have better scriptural references that demonstrate that Christ was born with the same sinful nature that mankind has?
Thank you.
Richard Ferguson