Chapter Five

We are MADE to LEARN AND GROW.

“Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.”

Hebrews 5:14

• Reread Hebrews 4:14-16

• Read Hebrews 5

The Importance of a Priest

Before my husband and I started watching crime shows together, I was of the opinion that an innocent person didn’t need a lawyer. After having seen the way the justice system can fail innocent people, I now would be the first to lawyer up. Everyone needs mediation sometimes.

A mediator is someone who goes between two people to make peace. An impartial mediator can often serve to help two people resolve conflicts. A defense attorney serves as a mediator between the accused and the judge and jury.

In the Old Testament, the priests were mediators between God and the common man. Men, specifically chosen from the family of Levi, performed the sacrifices and other religious duties that the common person could not. The high priest was especially important because only he could go into the Holy of Holies, the area where the Ark of the Covenant was housed. The Ark of the Covenant was the physical dwelling place of God during Old Testament times.

Once a year, the High Priest completed specific ceremonial cleansing for himself and then entered the area to perform a sacrifice on behalf of the nation of Israel. It was a risky business, so risky in fact that a rope was tied around his ankle with a bell on it. Because he was entering the holy presence of the Lord, there was always the possibility that the priest might be found unworthy and drop dead from the overwhelming glory of God. If so, those on the outside needed a way to drag his body out.

While there were lots of other sacrifices, the importance of this yearly ritual was enormous because it was the primary way in which the people of Israel received atonement for their sins.  As a result of this annual sacrifice, their collective sins were set aside for another year. It was only through the death of Jesus that the payment for sins was made in full. Since the resurrection and coming of the Holy Spirit, all believers have direct access to God.

Priests and sacrifices are foreign to most of us, but these rituals were very familiar to the original readers of Hebrews. They grew  up in the Jewish faith, with the Jewish laws and traditions. Remember, the primary point of Hebrews is to remind readers of why Jesus (and therefore Christianity) is better than any other god or form of religion—including Judaism. The priests served as the mediators between man and God. They represented God to man and represented all of mankind to God. In similar fashion, Christ is our perfect high priest. In other words, Jesus is now our mediator.

Christ Is Our Priest

One day when we were on vacation, an older boy in our group wanted to pick a fight with my son, Brandon. I wasn’t there, but his father was close enough to see and hear the encounter. He said that Sjon-Paul, our oldest, stepped in between Brandon and the boy and asked, “Do you want to fight both of us?” Sjon-Paul and Brandon didn’t get along most of the time, but Sjon-Paul wasn’t going to let someone else bully his brother. He stood up for him. He intervened on his behalf.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not comparing God to a bully. He is not, but I do like the picture of Jesus standing between me and the Father. The Father is perfect, holy, without sin, and me? Well, I’m not. Without Jesus standing before me, I would be in more danger than the priests who wore the ankle bell. I would be flattened by the glory of our Lord.

Jesus lived and died without sin and is therefore perfect. When he goes before the Father, he doesn’t have to worry about not measuring up. Even though he was tempted, he did not sin. Even though he gave up his heavenly power and privilege to come to earth, he was obedient to God the Father while he was here. In addition, because He lived as a human, he can relate to us in a way that only another human could. As a result, we have the perfect mediator--God the Son--who intervenes on our behalf with God the Father. Think about that!

Romans 8:34 says, “Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.”

1 John 2:1 says, “My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous.”

We are guilty. There’s no doubt about it. We are all sinners, but Jesus is the one representing our case. He stands before the Father pleading our cause, praying for us, interceding on our behalf. He holds his nail-pierced arms out to the side and says to the Father, “To see them, first look at me.”

This, ladies, is an amazing truth. Don’t skim over it. Don’t take it for granted. Christ intercedes on our behalf, and because of that we have access to God’s throne. We don’t have to rely upon an earthly priest. Because of Jesus, we can approach God with boldness, assured of His mercy and grace.

Mercy and Grace

I once heard a story about a little boy who misbehaved all day long. His mother was beyond frustrated. Finally, she sent him to his room to await his father’s arrival. “You,” she said, “will answer to your Dad.”

As soon as Dad came through the door, the weary mom told him about all of the boys’ misbehaviors and mistakes, his bad breaks, and his bad attitude. The father kissed his wife and told her to take a hot bath while he took care of their son for a while. He called the boy from his room.

“Johnny,” he said. “Mom says you were very naughty today.”

Johnny shuffled his feet but didn’t say a word.

“Son, look at me,” said the father. “Is it true? Did you really draw on the walls and cut your hair and break Mom’s favorite vase and then take a swat at her?”

Johnny nodded his head and put his hands behind his back, wishing he had pulled on an extra pair of pants.

The father looked at his son for a minute and then said, “Johnny, get your shoes on. We’re going to get an ice cream cone.”

Johnny hardly believed his ears. The dad repeated himself, but Johnny still didn’t move. He wondered if this might be some horrible ploy to get rid of him. Maybe he had finally pushed his parents to the brink.

“Dad,” he asked, as he slowly tied his shoes, “Why are you taking me for ice cream?”

“Why wouldn’t I take you for ice cream, Johnny? Don’t you like ice cream?”

“Yeah, I do.”  Johnny considered whether or not to push his luck but had to ask, “But, I mean, I thought you were going to spank me.”

Johnny’s dad pulled him onto his lap and taught him a valuable lesson that day. He said, “Johnny, do you think you deserve to be punished for being so naughty, for making mom’s day so rough?”

The little boy nodded his head.

“Well, you are right. You deserve punishment, but I am not going to punish you. Not punishing you when you deserve it—that is what we call mercy. Instead, I’m going to take you out for ice cream, and that is what we call grace.”

God shows mercy by not giving us what we deserve. In case you don’t know, we deserve hell, plain and simple, eternal separation from God. Everything else—all the good things God gives us instead of punishment—that is God’s grace. Because of the intervention of Jesus on our behalf, we have been given mercy—forgiveness for our sins. We have also been given grace—a multitude of good gifts that help cultivate our faith. 

Our advocate and help

My adult son came home from work one day tired and irritated. He told me about a manager. He said she never smiled or had a kind word to say to anyone. As I started to encourage him to be kind, he said something that would bring joy to any mother’s heart. “I know, Mom,” he said. “Every time I see her, I hear your voice in my head telling me to just be nice anyway.”

Like an earthly high priest, Jesus doesn’t only represent man to God; He also represents God to man. Earthly priests led worship and taught the people how to love and serve God. In the same way, Jesus teaches us. He teaches us by example. We can examine his sinless life and follow suit. He also teaches us through his words. We can read what he says and put it into practice. But even more intimately, Jesus teaches us through the Holy Spirit.

Like the best teachers, Jesus knows His students well. He knows how forgetful we are. He knows that we need more than just an occasional lesson. So, he provides His followers with a constant source of instruction from within—the voice of the Holy Spirit.

In John 16:7 Jesus said to his disciples, “But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you.” The word translated “Advocate” here is sometimes translated “Helper.” It is the name associated with the Holy Spirit.

1 John 2:27 says, “But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true—it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ.”

This verse does not negate the importance of Christian teachers and preachers. We should pay attention to the Godly voices in our lives, but the there is even more value in listening to Jesus Himself. Like Ryan heard his mother’s voice, because of the Holy Spirit’s presence, we can hear the voice of Jesus prompting us on how to worship and live.

Spiritual Growth Deficiency

My husband watched a sporting event a few months ago. At the end, the champion lifted what appeared to be his son and carried him around in celebration. Later, my husband discovered that although he appeared to be a child, the fan on the victor’s shoulders was actually a grown man. Because he suffers from a condition known as Growth Hormone Deficiency or Pituitary Dwarfism, the young adult is only 3-foot-tall and has the voice of a 4-year-old.

The impediment of physical growth is a serious concern, but the author of Hebrews warns readers that stymied spiritual growth should be cause for greater alarm. Humans should not always remain as infants. They should not live forever on a steady diet of milk. Humans grow up and learn to eat baby food and then soft, mushy table food, and eventually hamburgers and French fries and even T-bone steaks.  Just as healthy children grow, healthy Christians do as well.

Everyone starts out as a baby. None of us jump out of the womb fully grown. In the same way, every Christian begins her spiritual life as an infant, but we have no excuse for staying that way. The spiritual life is a life of growth.

In Ephesians 14:14-15 we read, “Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.  He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”

The author of Hebrews gives several specific distinctions between baby Christians and maturing Christians. He says that baby Christians are “dull” and “don’t listen.” This doesn’t mean they are stupid. The original Greek word means sluggish or slow. Think of how much a baby sleeps.  A baby Christian is the same—lackadaisical in her walk with the Lord, allowing everyone else to do the work while she sits back and waits for dinner.  Of course, the word can also mean lazy, which provides a whole different context. Baby Christians are more concerned about what they can get instead of what they can give. Instead of teaching others, they want to constantly be taught. A baby Christian doesn’t seem to know what is right and what is wrong.

On the contrary, a mature Christian is ready and willing to digest solid food. In other words, she seeks God’s will for her life and tries to live it out. She is constantly learning (training) so that she has the appropriate knowledge to discern right and wrong, and she is willing and able to share what she knows with others.

Make no mistake. Whether you are a baby Christian or a mature Christian is not solely dependent upon when you made the commitment to follow Christ. It’s expected that someone new to the faith will be a spiritual infant. That’s not a problem. The problem is Spiritual Growth Deficiency—women who have known Jesus for years but who still act, think, and live as if they are new believers, who pretend they don’t know right from wrong, who continually rehash the basic tenants of the faith and refuse to grow deeper in God’s word. Spiritual maturity means knowing God’s word and putting it into practice. If we are healthy believers, we will be growing more like Him.

Here’s the truth, ladies. Jesus is our high priest. He has provided everything we need to move on towards spiritual maturity. We are MADE to learn and grow.