The priestly ministry was woven into the fabric of Jewish culture, as it was the God-ordained means under the old covenant for obtaining forgiveness of sins through animal sacrifice. Jewish believers who stopped participating in priestly rituals naturally came under fire from practicing Jews. How could they abandon the means God had given Israel to find forgiveness?

The answer, of course, is that God had appointed a superior and perpetual high priest of the new covenant, His very own Son, of whom all the previous priests only served to prefigure. The author of Hebrews points out why Jesus is fully qualified to serve as a high priest and why Jesus is superior to any before Him.

Every previous high priest was “beset with weakness,” and each was “obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, so also for himself” (5:3). Jesus, of course, had no such need to offer any sacrifice for Himself, as He was sinless. He was not only the perfect and superior high priest, but He was also the perfect and superior sacrifice. He offered up, not an animal, but Himself for our sins.

The author makes reference to verses in Psalms 2 and 110, both universally recognized by all Jews as messianic psalms that make reference to the Lord’s future reign over the entire world. Both contain quotations of God speaking to God. In Psalm 2, the Father speaks to the Son—during the time when the Father will have installed His Son to rule the earth from Mt. Zion—saying, “Thou are My Son, today I have begotten Thee.” In Psalm 110, the Father is again speaking to the One whom He has installed on Mt. Zion to rule the world. It begins with David prophetically saying, “The Lord says to my Lord” (110:1), and goes on to quote what God says to God, part of which is, “The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek'” (110:4).

So it is indisputable that God revealed in the Old Testament that He would one day appoint the Messiah—the One who would rule over the world—to be a priest forever. Moreover, he would not be a priest after the order of Aaron, as were all previous priests, but after the order of a mysterious Old Testament man named Melchizedek, of whom we will read more about in chapter 7.

That Messiah and High Priest of whom Scripture foretold had been revealed, and so everyone in relationship with Him had obviously not lost anything relative to the benefits of a priesthood. And they would be foolish to go back to an inferior priestly system, one that was actually designed to point them to Christ.

When did Jesus offer up “both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death” (5:7)? It must have either been when He prayed in the garden or from the cross, where we know that our great High Priest and holy sacrifice cried out with a loud voice, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46). The author writes that Jesus “was heard because of His piety” (5:7). Perhaps this is a reference to Him being “saved from death” (5:7) by means of His resurrection. Our High Priest receives what He prays for, which should fill us with confidence.

If Jesus was sinless, why did the author write that Jesus “learned obedience from the things which He suffered” (5:8)? The author could not have meant that Jesus learned to become obedient by suffering the consequences of disobedience, but rather that He learned from experience the cost that is paid by those who are obedient to God. It cost Jesus His life. But His sufferings resulted in His complete perfection, not making Him morally perfect (since He already was), but making Him the perfect Savior and High Priest.

Finally, notice that Jesus “became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation” (5:9). This is just one more indication that there is a correlation between holiness and heaven because there is a correlation between belief and behavior.

Citing truth from the old covenant Scriptures, the author of Hebrews once again focuses on his greatest concern—that his readers might ultimately fall short of “entering God’s rest.” As in the previous chapter, he again references Psalm 95:7-11, where God said:

Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tried Me by testing Me, and saw My works for forty years. Therefore I was angry with this generation, and said, “They always go astray in their heart; and they did not know My ways”; as I swore in My wrath, “They shall not enter My rest” (Heb. 3:7-11).

Psalm 95 was written hundreds of years after Israel’s conquest of Canaan, and so the author argues that it speaks of a different “rest” than that which was enjoyed by the generation of Israelites who entered the Promised Land under Joshua’s leadership (4:8). He also points out that God speaks in Psalm 95 of entering His own rest, which can only be the rest that He took on the seventh day of creation, as there is mention of no other rest by God in Scripture. Thus we have in Psalm 95 a promise that remains for us to enter “God’s rest,” of which some Israelites enjoyed only as a foreshadow in Canaan. But just as in the case of their rest in Canaan, God’s rest is only enjoyed by those who “do not harden their hearts,” and who believe the good news. The Israelites in Joshua’s day who did not believe failed to enter Canaan’s land. So those who refuse to believe the gospel fail to enter God’s rest now.

The author takes his analogy one step further by mentioning that on the seventh day of creation, Scripture says that God rested from all His works. So he writes that those who enter into God’s rest have also rested from their works (4:10), an obvious reference to the attempt of so many Jews to gain righteousness and eternal life by their limited keeping of the ceremonial and ritualistic aspects of the Mosaic Law. The author could not have been endorsing the idea that those who believe have rested from making any attempt to keep the moral teachings of the Mosaic Law, as those same moral teachings are contained in the Law of Christ, and the author later wrote in this same letter, “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification [or “holiness”] without which no one will see the Lord” (12:14).

So we are admonished to “be diligent to enter that rest,” and clearly obedience is part of the package, as the author goes on to say, “…lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience” (4:11). Moreover, he continues in the very next two verses writing that God’s Word is sharper than any sword, as it pierces deep inside us and judges our thoughts and motives. We can hide nothing from the Lord.

Again we plainly see that the author was not writing to Jews who were considering becoming Christians, but to Jews who had already professed faith in Christ. If that was not the case, he would not have written, “Let us hold fast our confession” (4:14). His readers had already made their confession of faith in Christ, and now needed only to “hold fast” to it. The only reason any commentator on the book of Hebrews would maintain that the author was writing to Jews who were not yet Christians is to prevent the false doctrine of unconditional eternal security, also known as “once-saved-always-saved,” from crashing down. If saved people can’t forfeit salvation under any circumstances, that begs the question, “Why did the author of Hebrews so often warn his Christian readership of the danger of ultimately forfeiting salvation?” So they go to great lengths to prove that the intended readers were not yet believers.

Believing Jews no longer needed an earthly high priest, as they had a superior, new and heavenly high priest who is full of compassion and grace. More on that in the next chapter.

Moses was and is, of course, revered among Jews, as he is the human agent whom God used to deliver Israel from Egypt and to convey the old covenant Law. So you can imagine what non-believing Jews would say to Christian Jews who had abandoned the ritualistic and ceremonial aspects of the Mosaic Law: “We know that what we have is from God! We cannot forget all that He did to deliver to us His holy revelation!”

That argument is quite valid, of course, yet someone greater than Moses has appeared, bringing additional revelation that harmonized with and fulfilled Moses’ revelation. In fact, that Greater Person is the One who made Moses so great! So naturally, the Greater Person is worthy of more glory (3:3-4). The author compares Moses’ ministry to Christ’s with an analogy that contrasts a servant in a household to a son over that same household. Moses was a faithful servant “in” God’s “house” (3:5), but Jesus was a faithful Son, not “in” God’s house, but “over” God’s house (3:6), a big difference!

All who believe in Jesus are blessed to be in God’s house over which His Son presides, but our remaining in His house is not guaranteed. This is so clear from what we have read today that only a theologian could miss it. The author of Hebrews writes, “Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end (3:6). Notice the conditional “if.”

So we must continue in faith if we expect to remain in God’s house. And only those who are currently in a house could be in any danger of not remaining in that house. Thus, the author is not writing to “potential believers who were considering Christ,” regardless of what some theologians tell us in a desperate attempt to preserve their man-made doctrines.

So the author admonishes his Jewish Christian readership—using Old Testament scriptures—to beware of hardening their hearts as did those under Moses’ leadership, which resulted in their not entering the rest God had promised them. The lesson is obvious and it becomes even more obvious as we keep reading. Although the Israelites were chosen by God, delivered from Egyptian bondage, received special care from God, and were led to a land of promise, most failed to enter that promised land because of their unbelief (3:19). Theirs was not an example we want to follow.

The evidence is overwhelming that the author of Hebrews was writing to Christian believers. Yet, because of the many admonitions and warnings it contains against falling away and forfeiting salvation, those who promote the doctrine of unconditional security go to great lengths to persuade us that the author was writing to Jews who were only considering Christ. Yet any child can understand this:

Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin (3:12-13).

Note that the warning is addressed to “brethren.” The author was not addressing “Jewish brethren,” but “holy brethren” according to 3:1, those who were “partakers of a heavenly calling” and who considered Jesus to be their Apostle and High Priest. They are admonished to be cautious that none have an “evil, unbelieving heart” that would lead them to “fall away from the living God” (3:12). How can those who are alienated from God, as are all unbelievers, “fall away” from Him? Moreover, why would the author admonish unbelievers, who all possess unbelieving hearts, to “take care that there be not in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart”? Why would he admonish unbelievers, who are all slaves of sin, to “encourage one another” so that none will become “hardened by the deceitfulness of sin”?

So, we are indeed “partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end” (3:14). That’s what I’m planning on doing! How about you?

Today we are introduced to the author’s primary concern for his Hebrew Christian readers. He did not want them to “drift away” (2:1) from the truth they had embraced about Jesus. So he returns to his comparison of the old and new covenants, endorsing both but emphasizing the superiority of the latter, reminding his readers that the consequences were dire for those who ignored God’s old covenant revelation delivered by angels. Thus how much more true would that be for those who ignored God’s new covenant revelation delivered by His own Son, to whom, unlike angels, He has exalted to rule “the world to come” (2:5-8)? To stress its importance, God confirmed that same message through apostles anointed with signs and wonders (2:3-4). It was not meant to be ignored!

The author again appeals to old covenant scripture to make his new covenant point, citing Psalm 8, where David spoke prophetically of Christ’s incarnation, a time when He was made “a little lower than the angels” and of His subsequent exaltation and still-future reign over the world. He declares that Jesus “tasted death for everyone” (2:9). (I’m sure you noticed that he wrote, “everyone,” and not “the alleged pre-selected few,” so I won’t mention it!)

When the author writes that Jesus was perfected through sufferings, he does not mean that Jesus had any need to become morally perfect, but that He became the perfect substitute and Savior through His sufferings. It was by that act that He met the requirements of God’s justice. His sufferings and death were credited to our account, and the end result will be His “bringing many sons to glory” (2:10). Now we have become members of His family, and we share His Father! He not only provided our forgiveness, but He now works in us to sanctify us (2:11). We’re spiritual brothers of the Son of God (2:11-13)! No wonder the author refers to all of this as “so great a salvation” (2:3). It is amazingly, incredibly wonderful. To drift away from it would be criminal.

What was one of the reasons that Jesus became a man? “Since then the children [that is, we who believe] share in flesh and blood [we have physical bodies], He Himself likewise also partook of the same [a physical body], that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil” (2:14). In order to render Satan powerless by His death, Jesus had to have a physical body that could die, because God can’t die.

How has Satan been rendered powerless over us by Jesus’ death? Satan has the God-given right to rule all those who are not submitted to God. He serves as a subordinate instrument of God’s wrath upon rebels. By Jesus’ death for our sins, however, we’ve been set free from God’s wrath and thus also from Satan’s power, which the author refers to as “the power of death” (2:14). The spiritual death that resides within every unsaved person is Satan’s very nature (see Eph. 2:2). We could almost say that anyone who is not born again is mildly devil-possessed, but when he believes in Jesus he undergoes an immediate exorcism. Satan’s nature is eradicated from his inner man!

Another reason that the Son of God became a man was so He could become our high priest (2:17). The Hebrew Christians could certainly understand that analogy, because it was only through the mediation of the high priest and the blood sacrifice that their sins could be covered under the old covenant. It was through the sacrifice of Himself that Jesus made “propitiation for the sins of the people” (2:17). To propitiate means to “turn away wrath,” and that’s what Jesus did for us. He turned away God’s righteous wrath by bearing the penalty we deserved.

Jesus is a compassionate high priest, because He knows from experience what it’s like to be tempted as a human being, and “He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted” (2:18). To the persecuted Hebrew Christians who were being tempted to drift away from Christ and revert to Judaism, that would have been especially encouraging news.

As we read through the book of Hebrews, it becomes clear that it was written to fortify Jewish Christians who were under fire from Jewish non-Christians. Not only were these Jewish believers being assailed with arguments designed to persuade them to revert to Judaism, they were also being intensely persecuted at times. They needed truth that would strengthen and encourage them, and this letter provided it.

No one knows who wrote this letter, but whoever it was, he was a close acquaintance of Timothy (13:23), and he was very knowledgeable of the Old Testament. Some say the author was Paul, while others suggest Apollos, Barnabas, Luke or even Priscilla (who is mentioned three times in Acts).

No one knows when this letter was written, and suggested dates vary from AD 60 to 100. So we are making an assumption by reading it at this point in our chronological journey through the New Testament.

The general theme of Hebrews is the superiority of Christ. Keep in mind that any knowledgeable Jew could convincingly argue for the truth that is found in Judaism since Judaism is founded upon divinely-given truth. We know, of course, that Christianity is built upon Judaism’s foundation. The promised Messiah of Judaism is the Christ of Christianity. So the author begins this letter by showing the superiority of a revelation delivered by God’s own Son over one that was revealed through prophets and angels (1:1-2; Gal. 3:19; Acts 7:28, 53; Heb. 2:2). Using Old Testament scriptures, he shows that Jesus, unlike any angel, is God’s Son (1:5). Angels worship Jesus by God’s command (1:6). He is heir of all things and will rule over His kingdom forever (1:8). He created the world (1:10). He is sitting at the right hand of God the Father (1:13). He’s God (1:8)!

Angels, on the other hand, are simply “ministering spirits” who work on our behalf (1:14). Their ministry to us is invaluable, but they’re still no comparison to Jesus our Lord and Savior. He created them, and they do His bidding. Jews could argue that the truth they clung to was sent to them via anointed prophets and angels; Christians can respond that the truth they cling to was sent to them via God’s own Son!

It is interesting to take a closer look at the Old Testament scriptures which the author quotes that refer to Jesus. One is found in Psalm 2: “Thou art My Son, today I have begotten Thee” (1:5). Psalm 2 is a messianic Psalm that speaks of the time when the inhabitants of the earth will rebel near the end of Christ’s (future) 1,000-year reign. In that light, we see that Jesus truly is “heir of all things” (1:2) because Psalm 2 informs us that God has given Him the nations as His inheritance (Ps. 2:8). You might want to read all of Psalm 2 if you have the time.

The author also quotes from 2 Samuel 7:14, where God, referring to one of David’s descendants, promised, “I will be a Father to Him, and He shall be a Son to Me.” God’s promise to David was somewhat fulfilled in his son, Solomon, but ultimately it was fulfilled in Christ.

We have sure proof that Psalms 45, 102 and 110, all quoted by the author of Hebrews in 1:8-13, are at least partially messianic. It would be worth your while to read each of those psalms in their entirety as well, looking especially for the portions quoted in the first chapter of Hebrews.

Take note that Jesus is “the exact representation of [God’s] nature” (1:3), which is another way of saying that if you know Jesus, you know the Father. Jesus spoke, acted, reacted, and so on, identically to how the Father would have, had He come to earth in human form instead of Jesus. That is nice to know. Jesus perfectly revealed God to us, because He is God. Anyone’s conception of God that differs from Jesus is a wrong conception.

Peter was obviously full of regret that he had let the Lord down, having denied Him three times. Jesus did not hate him for it or end their relationship permanently, but loved him, and gently confronted him to ultimately encourage and restore him. It began with another fish miracle that was similar to the one Peter witnessed when he first repented. Could Jesus’ intention have been to reveal His love in the same fashion in order to remind Peter that His love for him had not waned? God loves sinners who sin, and so of course He still loves His children when they sin. Both need to repent.

Jesus, ever gentle, didn’t immediately raise the subject, but first served Peter, fixing him breakfast, a task not below the resurrected Son of God who loves to serve. Then, taking Peter apart from the others, Jesus asked him a probing question: “Do you love Me more than these?” (21:15). Remember that Peter had boasted that his love for Jesus was greater than the other apostles. He had said, “Even though all may fall away because of You, I will never fall away” (26:33). Shortly after his claim, he denied the Lord three times. Jesus now gave him three opportunities to reaffirm his love.

In most translations it appears that Jesus asked Peter the same question three times, but actually He didn’t. The first two times, Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him using the Greek verb agapeo, which each time is translated “love.” The final time, He used the Greek verb phileo, which is also translated “love.” Agape is a self-denying, sacrificial love, whereas phileo is a lesser love based on common interests and mutual benefits.

Interestingly, when Jesus first asked Peter if he loved Him with an agape love, Peter replied, “Yes, Lord, You know I phileo You.” It was probably said with a sigh of regret, and meant, “Yes, Lord, You are well aware from my actions that my love for You falls short of agape love.” Jesus repeated His question a second time, and Peter responded with the same answer.

The third time, however, Jesus said to him, “Peter, do you love me with phileo love?” That is why Scripture says that Peter was so grieved at the third question. I don’t think Jesus asked him this because He Himself didn’t know the answer, but because He wanted Peter to affirm it to help lift him from his despondency. Sometimes when we fail, we give up, which is a greater failure. Failures should make us more determined to do better, thankful for God’s grace. Peter replied, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I phileo You” (21:17).

Most importantly, notice that after each of Peter’s three replies, Jesus gave him a commandment: “Tend My lambs…Shepherd My sheep…Tend My sheep” (21:15-17). Surely this was intended to encourage Peter. Even though he had failed the Lord, Jesus had not given up on him, and there would be plenty of future opportunity to prove his love for Jesus. That is probably why Jesus also told Peter, “When you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go” (21:18). John knew that this was a reference to Peter’s future martyrdom, perhaps because Peter had already been crucified by the time John wrote his gospel. In any case, we might wonder why Jesus foretold Peter about his future martyrdom. I think it was meant to encourage him. Peter was so disappointed in himself. He had shown by his actions that he was not willing to die for Jesus. Jesus assured him that would change. He would glorify God in martyrdom. Tradition tells us that Peter requested to be crucified upside down, considering himself unworthy to die in the same position as Christ.

I can relate very much to this story, and I’ll bet you can, too. When we let the Lord down, He doesn’t hate us, and we make a huge mistake if we give up. He is there to encourage and restore us, just as a father with his child. Thank God for His amazing grace!

When Peter and John arrived at Jesus’ tomb, it was light enough for them to see inside, unlike Mary’s first visit. Remember that Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea had wrapped Jesus’ body in linen cloths along with myrrh and aloes weighing about 100 pounds (19:39). Jesus’ body was wrapped like a mummy. When Peter and John later peered into the tomb on that first Easter morning, all they would have seen was the collapsed shell of the linen wrappings. They had no doubt that Jesus was alive. If His body had been stolen, the wrappings would have been unwrapped or missing. So they “saw and believed” (20:8).

By His own testimony to Mary (20:17), Jesus had not yet ascended to His Father since His death and resurrection. So where was His spirit while His body was lying in the tomb? Jesus told the repentant thief on a cross beside Him, “Today you shall be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). If Jesus had not yet ascended to His Father, but went to Paradise, it seems that there must have been a place of paradise that was not heaven. We also know that Scripture states that after His death, Jesus descended “into the lower parts of the earth” (Eph. 4:9). Jesus also declared that He would spend “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt. 12:40). In the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31), Jesus spoke of a place that seems as if it might be a paradise in the heart of earth, adjacent to Hades, where the righteous lived after death. I only wish we had a few more verses of Scripture that gave us certain insight into this!

During His first appearance to His disciples on the evening of His resurrection, Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (20:22). Some say this is when the disciples were born again (even though they were already “saved” in the sense of being forgiven). Others say it was a foreshadowing of their being baptized in the Holy Spirit, the fulfillment of which was about 50 days later on the day of Pentecost.

Jesus also told them, “If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained” (20:23). It is difficult to believe that Jesus was giving them the authority to decide who would be forgiven and who would not, as it would seem as if that would be stepping into God’s sole domain. Thus I think Jesus likely meant that they were to carry the message of forgiveness to everyone. Whoever accepted it would be forgiven, and whoever didn’t would not. This interpretation certainly harmonizes with the rest of the New Testament.

Personally, I’m glad Thomas doubted, as his being persuaded that Jesus had been resurrected bolsters my own faith. To trust the report of naive people is risky, but when a skeptic does his investigation and is convinced, that gives us more reason to believe. Although most of us have not seen Jesus since He was resurrected, it is good to know that at least 500 eye-witnesses did see Him alive not long after His resurrection (1 Cor. 15:6). And, as Jesus said, blessed are we who have not seen Him, “yet believed” (20:29).

What a frustration it is to read 20:23: “Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book.” How I wish John had recorded them! John felt, however, that he had mentioned a sufficient number of Jesus’ signs in order to achieve his purpose: “But these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (20:31). Incidentally, that is one more verse that indicates God’s universal offer of salvation. John believed that any and all of his readers, current and future, could believe in Jesus and receive eternal life. (I’ll bet you were hoping we could go one day without my refuting Calvinism! So sorry! I just couldn’t resist!)

Pilate declared Jesus’ innocence three times (18:38; 19:4, 6), yet he caved under the pressure of the Jewish leaders. He hoped after seeing Jesus scourged they would be satisfied that He had suffered enough. Still they insisted on His crucifixion, and Pilate wilted under their threat of reporting him to Caesar if he released a man who claimed to be a king, which would make him appear to be an accomplice to a conspiracy (19:12). He gained some redress by having the sign placed on Jesus’ cross that read, “The King of the Jews”—a humiliation to them but ironically the absolute truth. Jesus was their King who will some day rule the world from the very city in which He was crucified.

Although it appeared, from a human standpoint, that Pilate was master over Jesus, holding His fate in his hands, the truth was that Jesus was master over Pilate and held his eternal fate in His hands. The only reason that Pilate had any temporal authority was because it had been given to him by God (19:11). This is true of anyone who has any authority over others, as all authority is ultimately granted by God (Rom. 13:1). Therefore, anyone who has authority over others will have to answer to God if they misuse it. The rule for those in authority to follow is: “Treat others just as you want to be treated.” That goes for political leaders, judges, police and all employers.

Jesus, of course, never abuses His authority, and always judges righteously. It is astounding that, under the circumstances, He told Pilate, “…he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin” (19:11). That is, Jesus knew that Pilate was in a hard place and was facing a situation that he would have preferred to avoid. That did not, however, exonerate him of responsibility to do the right thing. He still sinned, but not as grievously as Judas and the chief priests.

Apparently, at some point in Jesus’ life, his stepfather Joseph had died, which would seem to be the only logical reason why Jesus, during His final moments on earth, assigned John (whom we assume is “the disciple whom Jesus loved”) to take care of His mother, Mary (19:26-27). It was Jesus’ final act of “honoring His parents,” and it teaches us something about our responsibility to take care of our adult parents in the event that they need our help. It also once again demonstrates the incredible love of Jesus, who, in the deepest agony of the cross, was more concerned about someone other than Himself.

When Jesus cried out with His final breath, “It is finished!” He meant more than just the fact that His life on earth had ended. Unknown to anyone who watched Him die, He had accomplished the work for which He had been sent, paying the full price for the sins of humanity. The New Testament teaches us that our redemption was completed on the cross (Col. 1:22).

When the Roman soldier pierced Jesus’ side with his spear, John tells us that “there came out blood and water” (19:34). According to medical authorities, this reveals that Jesus most likely died from a ruptured heart.

Pilate was surprised to discover that Jesus was dead after being on the cross only six hours (Mark 15:44-45). Many survived for days. Jesus, however, was half dead before He arrived at Golgotha.

Not wanting anyone to be hanging on a cross during the Sabbath, which would begin at sunset, the Jews requested of Pilate that the legs of the two thieves be broken to speed their deaths by asphyxiation (19:31-33). To remain alive on the cross, a condemned person had to push himself up by the nails in his feet in order to fill his collapsing lungs with air. Broken legs made that impossible. Because Jesus was already dead, His legs were not broken, fulfilling Psalm 34:20, “He keeps all his bones, not one of them is broken,” and making Him a more perfect fulfillment of a Passover lamb, of which it was commanded of Israel, “They shall leave none of it until morning, nor break a bone of it” (Num 9:12).

Only John records the fact that Jesus’ captors fell backwards onto the ground when Jesus identified Himself by saying, “I am He” (18:6). Note that in many translations that word He is italicized, indicating it was not part of the original text. So Jesus literally said, “I am,” and then everyone fell to the ground. You may recall that “I AM” was a name by which God revealed Himself to Moses:

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you'” (Ex. 3:14).

In this same vein, John is the only Gospel-writer who recorded all of Jesus’ “I ams.” He declared: “I am the bread of life” (6:35); “I am the light of the world” (8:12); “I am the door of the sheep” (10:7); “I am the good shepherd” (10:11); “I am the Son of God” (10:36); “I am the resurrection and the life” (11:25); “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (14:6); and “I am the true vine” (15:1). When people say that they believe that Jesus was “just a good man,” or “a great moral teacher,” it shows they haven’t done their homework. Those who are only good men or great moral teachers don’t claim to be the Son of God and the way, the truth and life.

Every time I read about one of Peter’s antics, it makes me feel better about myself. He was full of zeal but empty of understanding, and for that reason, he sliced off the ear of the high priest’s slave attempting to defend Jesus. It would seem more likely that Peter was aiming for the slave’s head or neck. Incidentally, only Luke, a physician (Col. 4:14), mentions in his Gospel that Jesus immediately healed the slave’s ear (Luke 22:51). Within the space of a minute or two, all those who came to arrest Jesus witnessed two undeniable miracles: the healing just mentioned and the entire crowd falling to the ground when Jesus revealed Himself. God was still trying to reach their hardened hearts. Amazing grace!

By the time John penned his Gospel, Peter’s denial of Christ had been recorded in all three of the other Gospels. We may have thought that John would have excluded it, just out of courtesy to Peter, or to his memory, as he was likely in heaven by the time John wrote his Gospel. Yet John did include it, and I can only think the Holy Spirit inspired him to do so in order to showcase God’s amazing grace one more time—as it was extended to Peter.

I’ve met people who argue vehemently that if Peter had died after he denied Christ, he would have gone to hell, since Jesus promised that He will deny before His Father those who deny Him before men (Matt. 10:32-33). That seems to be an unnecessary debate, as Peter didn’t die until many years after he was long forgiven by Jesus and reconciled to Him. Who holds the power of life and death in His hands? Regardless of Peter’s spiritual standing after he denied Christ (and wept bitter tears I must add), God kept him alive long enough to restore him and ultimately bring him into heaven. That is the grace of God. Professing Christians who are so happy to have God immediately cut off those who fall reveal how far their hearts are from God’s heart. God is in the redemption business.

How ironic it was that the chief priests and Pharisees would not enter Pilate’s Praetorium lest they be defiled from eating the Passover (18:28), yet they were there to condemn and kill the Lamb of God, the true Passover Lamb (1 Cor. 5:7). That is a picture of religion.

Under Roman law, the Jews could punish lawbreakers, but they were forbidden to execute anyone. Had the priests and Pharisees executed Jesus themselves, they would have done it by stoning Him. So according to 18:32 (and to 12:32-33 as well), Jesus was accurate in His foretelling that He would die by hanging on a cross, the Roman method of capital punishment. Jesus is never wrong.

Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer, as it is often referred to, is Jesus’ longest recorded prayer in Scripture. All of His other prayers found in the Gospels are very short, and it is interesting to me that this longest of His prayers is also quite short, requiring no more than a couple of minutes to pray. I point this out because it seems that the devil has duped many of us into thinking that if we don’t have at least a half hour to pray, we don’t have enough time, so we should just skip it. “Praying without ceasing,” which is what Paul prescribed (1 Thes. 5:17), necessitates lots of short prayers throughout our day.

It is also interesting that Jesus apparently prayed this special prayer with His eyes open, lifted towards heaven (17:1). There is, of course, nothing wrong and everything appropriate about bowing our heads in humility and closing our eyes to distractions when we pray. Yet there is nothing wrong with lifting our eyes to heaven either.

It is most important to remember that Jesus prayed this prayer a short time before He was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, and thus the evening before His crucifixion. He begins by saying, “Father, the hour has come” (17:1). That is the eighth and final time that John recorded Jesus making reference to His “hour” (or “time”), an obvious reference to the culminating event of His life and ministry, His death on the cross (2:4; 7:8, 30; 8:20; 12:23, 27; 13:1). John has portrayed Jesus’ life and ministry as a journey to the cross. The “hour” had finally arrived.

Jesus declared that He would give eternal life to all whom the Father gives to Him (17:2). Notice that Jesus said nothing about how the Father decides whom to give to Jesus. We know from reading hundreds of other verses in Scripture that they can only be those who believe. Jesus was not, of course, contradicting what He Himself said so many other times; nor was He revealing “the real truth” about how people are actually saved in contradiction to the rest of the New Testament. He was not endorsing the Calvinistic idea of unconditional election. John 17:2 must be harmonized with the 31,217 other verses in the Bible.

It is clear from Jesus’ prayer that He was supremely interested in bringing glory to His Father, and it is also very obvious that it was important to Him that His disciples know and believe that He had come from the Father. Additionally, He wanted them to be unified, just as He and the Father are unified, and He mentioned it within four verses of His prayer (17:11, 21, 22, 23). Our unity, according to Jesus, has some bearing on the world believing that God sent Him. Jesus said so twice in this prayer (17:21, 23). Obviously, a “church” that demonstrates hypocrisy to the world is not going to influence people to believe in Jesus. It would, in fact, have the opposite effect. Disunity among believers sends a message to the watching world that we are no different than anyone else. Why should they believe in our God when we can’t get along with each other?

This truth, so clearly stated by Jesus, is one more indication of the fallacy of the idea that God has sovereignly pre-selected some to be saved and some to be damned. If the world’s coming to faith is dependent on our unity, which it is according to Jesus, then obviously God has created people as free moral agents, and He gives them the choice to believe or disbelieve. Otherwise, our actions and influence would have no effect on who believes and is saved.

So much of what Jesus prayed in this prayer is beyond my understanding. I wish I grasped it better! One part of His prayer that I think I do understand fairly well is found in 17:24: “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me.” I’m so glad Jesus wants us in heaven, where we will see Him in His glory. That’s easy-to-understand theology!