Study Desk

He reflects the brightness of God's glory and is the exact likeness of God's own being, sustaining the universe with his powerful word. After achieving forgiveness for the sins of all human beings, he sat down in heaven at the right side of God, the Supreme Power.

For God never said to any of his angels, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father." Nor did God say about any angel, "I will be his Father, and he will be my Son."

Instead, as it is said somewhere in the Scriptures: "What are human beings, O God, that you should think of them; mere human beings, that you should care for them?

You made them for a little while lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor,

But we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, so that through God's grace he should die for everyone. We see him now crowned with glory and honor because of the death he suffered.

It was only right that God, who creates and preserves all things, should make Jesus perfect through suffering, in order to bring many children to share his glory. For Jesus is the one who leads them to salvation.

For it is clear that it is not the angels that he helps. Instead, he helps the descendants of Abraham.

But Christ is faithful as the Son in charge of God's house. We are his house if we keep up our courage and our confidence in what we hope for.

There they put me to the test and tried me, says God, although they had seen what I did for forty years.

For we are all partners with Christ if we hold firmly to the end the confidence we had at the beginning.

With whom was God angry for forty years? With the people who sinned, who fell down dead in the desert.

For we have heard the Good News, just as they did. They heard the message, but it did them no good, because when they heard it, they did not accept it with faith.

For somewhere in the Scriptures this is said about the seventh day: "God rested on the seventh day from all his work."

As it is, however, there still remains for God's people a rest like God's resting on the seventh day.

For those who receive that rest which God promised will rest from their own work, just as God rested from his.

Let us, then, hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we have a great High Priest who has gone into the very presence of God—Jesus, the Son of God.

Our High Priest is not one who cannot feel sympathy for our weaknesses. On the contrary, we have a High Priest who was tempted in every way that we are, but did not sin.

Every high priest is chosen from his fellow-men and appointed to serve God on their behalf, to offer sacrifices and offerings for sins.

And because he is himself weak, he must offer sacrifices not only for the sins of the people but also for his own sins.

No one chooses for himself the honor of being a high priest. It is only by God's call that a man is made a high priest—just as Aaron was.