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(in the Old Testament) speaks prophetically of "striking through kings in the day of His
wrath". In the book of the Revelation we have Christ presented to us as both Priest and
King. Hebrews dwells mainly on the priestly side, Revelation unites the two offices and
shews how this royal Priesthood of Christ in the heavens and the fashioning of that royal
priesthood on earth ("kings and priests unto God", Rev. 1: 6; I Pet. 2: 5, 9) are the goal
of the "perfecting" of Hebrews and the "overcoming" of the Apocalypse.
The ministry associated with Christ as a Priest after the order of Melchisedec takes
us neither to the Tabernacle nor Temple, but to Gethsemane; the offerings here are not
sin offerings or trespass offerings, but prayer and supplications, the end "perfecting", not
forgiveness or acceptance.
"Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered;
and being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey
Him" (Heb. 5: 8, 9).
How are we to understand the awful agony of the garden of Gethsemane?
Albert Barnes voices a common interpretation of the agony of Gethsemane thus:
"The posture of the mind of the Redeemer, perhaps, was something like this. He
knew that He was about to be put to death in a most cruel manner. His tender and
sensitive nature, as a man shrank from such a death. As a man, He went under the
pressure of His great sorrows and pleaded that the cup might be removed and that man
might be redeemed by a less fearful scene of suffering. That arrangement, however,
could not be made . . . . . even though the prayer of the pious sufferer is not directly
answered, yet that prayer is acceptable to God, and the result of such a trial is worth all
that it costs."
We believe these words present very fairly what is in the mind of many who read the
story of Gethsemane. The repeated words "as a man" are put in to soften the apparent
shrinking that is implied. We cannot, however, accept this apology for the Son of God in
whatever terms of grace and love it may be presented.
First let us consider the place that this experience occupies in the epistle to the
Hebrews. Paul is approaching his great exhortation "Let us go on unto perfection" which
finds its dread alternative in "drawing back unto perdition". Now, however we
endeavour to soften the charge, the view expressed by Albert Barnes means in plain
terms that the Saviour did, if only temporarily, "draw back". Yet Gethsemane issues in
His "perfecting". If the common view of Gethsemane be the true one, should we not feel
that Paul very unwisely introduced such a subject here?
(1)
Christ your Saviour, your Captain, momentarily drew back.
(2)
You, His followers are expected not to draw back.
Something seems amiss with this argument. If Heb. 10: teaches anything, it teaches
that Christ fully knew what was involved when He accepted the office of the One
Mediator. Setting aside all the typical offerings of the law, He said "A body hast Thou
prepared Me", and that body was destined to be "offered" (Heb. 10: 5, 10). These
Hebrews were exhorted to look unto Jesus, the Author and the Perfecter of faith, "Who