Hebrews 5:7, commentary and pictures

In His earthly human life as High Priest taken from among men, Jesus on the night of betrayal in Gethsemane kneeled apart from His disciples and offered agonizing petitions with loud cries and tears to the Father in heaven who was able to save Him from death. He was heard because He prayed as a Son with earnest reverent submission while learning obedience, and His dread was that He might refuse to drink the cup of imputed transgression and suffering for sin, which would have left no human being able to be saved. He was answered not by removal of the cup but by strengthening, with one angel commissioned to sustain Him while other angels watched with deepest interest, restrained from delivering Him so the plan of redemption could be fulfilled. Being made perfect through suffering He became the compassionate author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, understanding temptation and weakness yet without sin, and able to succor, pity and rescue the tempted and faint-hearted. His life of frequent solitary night prayer shows that if the sinless Son needed fresh supplies of grace to be braced for duty and trial, finite erring beings need it far more, and they must come boldly to the throne of grace with earnest heartfelt supplication and not cease because of weakness or evil thoughts.

Words and Historical Setting

In the days of his flesh means Christ's earthly human life, when the great High Priest taken from among men lived in human nature as bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh to understand human temptation. Having laid off His royal robe and kingly crown He came as a poor man's son among the poverty-stricken, and though He could have come with His angels He came without excuse for humanity, having nowhere to lay His head and night after night sleeping in the open air with the disciples while bearing all the temptations of Satan so that no poor or tempted person can say He does not know poverty or temptation.

The verse points especially to Gethsemane on the night of the betrayal, where in deep sorrow He left the disciples with the charge to watch and pray lest they enter into temptation, because He knew their faith was to be tried and their hopes disappointed. He went apart from them, kneeled down and prayed for the cup to be removed while submitting not to His own will but to the Father's will, and being in an agony He prayed more earnestly until His sweat was as great drops of blood falling to the ground. That hour was the awful moment that was to decide the destiny of the world with the fate of humanity hanging in the balance, and even then He could still wipe the bloody sweat away, leave man to perish in iniquity, and go back to the Father.

Him that was able to save Him from death is the Father in heaven, whom He trusted and to whom He sent agonizing petitions with deep reverence and intense cries and tears. He was heard in that He feared means He prayed with earnest reverent submission as a Son learning obedience by the things He suffered, and that humble reverent prayer was heard. His humble human life and suffering served humanity, and the only conditions for being saved in God's appointed way are becoming as little children in obedience and humility.

His fear was that He would refuse to drink the cup of suffering, with the fear of moral failure pressing on Him in Gethsemane as severely as the fear of death, and His temptation was real and resisted at the cost of blood. If He had refused it no human being could be saved, for only by His suffering and death could human beings be placed on vantage-ground and on saving ground, and only by drinking the bitter cup of imputed transgression could He save the race from perishing in sin. He was heard by being answered and strengthened, for on the mountain He prayed for strength to endure the test for humanity and that His disciples would see His divine glory and kingdom so they could endure His coming agony knowing His death belonged to the plan of redemption, and His prayer was answered when divine glory appeared. In Gethsemane God strengthened Him, commissioning only one angel to strengthen Him in His agony while angels hovered over the place and angels in heaven cast aside their crowns and harps and silently watched Him with deepest interest with no joy in heaven, longing to surround Him but restrained by commanding angels lest at seeing His betrayal they would deliver Him, because the plan was laid out and must be fulfilled.

Christ's Humanity and Priesthood

He did not take the priesthood upon Himself but was appointed by God a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, and that ministry is to be respected and no missionary work set above the ministry of the Word. As the only begotten Son who knew no sin yet bore the penalty of sin, He was taken from among men in bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh to understand human temptation. He laid off His royal robe and kingly crown to come as a poor man's son among the poverty-stricken with nowhere to lay His head, sleeping night after night in the open air with the disciples, so that no poor or tempted person can say He does not know poverty or temptation.

He was tempted in all points as humans are tempted yet without sin, without any taint of sin and without the passions of fallen human nature, though compassed with like infirmities and human need. In His humanity He felt need for fresh supplies of grace and strength against Satan and sought them as a kneeling suppliant and Elder Brother, while His divinity remained unstained and His voice still stilled the storm and summoned the dead. In His human nature He overcame by earnest prayer and perfected a character after the divine likeness by perfect obedience to every requirement.

Though He were a Son, He learned obedience by the things which He suffered, and being made perfect through suffering and strong supplication He became complete in obedient character. Being thus made perfect He became the author and source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, procuring redemption by His obedient life and by His offering of infinite value and sacrifice on Calvary to put away sin. The only way to be saved in God's appointed way is to become as little children in obedience and humility, learning every lesson and working the works of God, for without true obedience labors cannot be accepted and there is no salvation.

Because He endured that conflict and met the temptation to become discouraged under weakness and sin, He has compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way. He understands and pities those who are tempted, knows how to succor those beset by the powers of darkness, and knows how to rescue those tempted in the same way to become discouraged, faint-hearted and defeated. Through Him those who come to God in His name are accepted in the Beloved, so that sinful repentant beings may be received by the Father and clothed with the robe of righteousness. By that sacrifice the sanctification of grace is offered to everyone, giving power from beyond themselves by His Spirit to share the divine nature, overcome worldly corruption, escape the corruption in the world through lust, develop a perfect character, and obtain eternal life by perfect obedience to the laws of God through His grace.

What Christ Prayed For

He prayed for Himself and for His disciples for strength, grace and endurance to bear trial and temptation, to be braced against the foe and fortified to fulfill His mission of uplifting humanity, to complete the work of salvation and to embrace the world. Though sinless and possessing power to heal the sick, raise the dead, calm storms and summon the dead from graves, He shared human need, weakness, temptation and dependence, and through continual private communion, often alone through the night on the mountain, in the garden and at the Mount of Olives rather than for human praise, He was strengthened, refreshed, invigorated and made to prevail. As representative of humanity and man's substitute identifying with suffering humanity, He sought fresh supplies of strength at the Father's hand to endure temptation and to be braced for duty and prepared for trial, and through His merits God accepts humanity.

His prayers were not for forgiveness of personal sin or for relief from troubles of His own, but for a world lost in error, pleading that sinful humanity turn from guilt to salvation and not perish in sin and impenitence, even weeping for those who felt no need of prayer and no need of tears. After teaching through the day He often spent the night in prayer, sometimes sending the disciples home to rest while He continued, because He saw how weak people are against temptation and how little they recognize their need to pray. His prayers and sorrow were to save people from pride, vanity, selfishness, covetousness, love of pleasure and backsliding that crowd out love for Him, and His love for those He came to save remained deep even on the cross where He set their needs above His own suffering.

With grief and tears He prayed for His mistaken people who rejected the help sent to save them, especially the Jews, Jerusalem and those brought out of bondage, seeing their pride, self-exaltation, selfishness, covetousness, backsliding and love of pleasure. He grieved as He saw many reject mercy and bring ruin upon themselves, foreseeing their ruin and judgment as His time of personal work nearly ended and their privileges were turned away from truth, pleading for them to accept help and turn from guilt to salvation. In every trial and emergency He sought help from the Father in private prayer and received strength for His work, and He lived among them the life God requires, free from the slightest taint of impurity and without deviating from righteousness while laboring to overcome their condition.

He poured out bitter supplications with agony of soul in lonely night hours for His disciples in their necessities and dangers, because they did not understand their peril, were indifferent, yielded to temptation and were led from duty into wrongdoing. Their long-cherished hopes, based on popular delusion of worldly exaltation and His exaltation to David's throne with its worldly aggrandizement and honor, were to be disappointed in a most painful and humiliating manner by His crucifixion, which was indeed His true coronation but they did not discern it. He prayed that their faith would not fail under grievous trial and strong temptations difficult to recognize without the Holy Spirit to enlighten and enlarge comprehension, that they would see His divine glory and kingdom on the mountain and know His death belonged to redemption, that leaders' hearts would be softened to stop resisting His work, and He left them seated while He went apart to oppose the enemy. His seasons of prayer were connected to that indifference and failure to walk in the light, and after prayer He rose invigorated, refreshed, braced for duty and prepared for trial to impart assurance and hope.

In Gethsemane His human nature recoiled and trembled at the trial when He prayed for the cup to pass if possible and then surrendered if He must drink it, telling the disciples to watch and pray lest they enter temptation because their faith was to be tried and their hopes disappointed. That hour was the awful moment that decided the destiny of the world with humanity hanging in the balance, the issue being whether the innocent would suffer the curse of sin to save the guilty or wipe the bloody sweat away, leave man to perish in iniquity and return to the Father. His fear was that He would refuse to drink the cup of suffering and moral failure pressed as severely as death, and His prayer about that cup was heard; if He had refused, no human being could be saved, for only by drinking the bitter cup of imputed transgression and by His suffering and death could humanity be placed on saving ground and vantage-ground and saved from perishing in sin. Angels hovered over the place and in heaven cast aside crowns and harps to watch with deepest interest without joy, longing to surround Him but restrained lest they deliver Him, and only one was commissioned to strengthen Him in agony with sweat as great drops of blood falling to the ground, because the plan was laid out and must be fulfilled.

His agony was beyond what any human could endure and live because the sins of the world rested on Him, bearing the penalty of sin for a guilty world as transgression of the Father's law. He felt separated from the Father's love with the Father's presence withdrawn, with doubts about His oneness with the Father and with Jehovah rending His soul under sin's curse as the power of darkness pressed upon Him. That suffering was not caused by Satan or by human insults, and He willingly endured in guilty humanity's place though He knew few would accept the salvation and righteousness made possible at infinite cost.

He now continues before the throne to receive and present to the Father the petitions of those for whom He prayed on earth.

How Christ Prayed

He offered prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears, with intense earnestness and sorrow and agony of soul and loud appeals, often bowed as a man of sorrows acquainted with grief under the pressure of darkness. During His human life He prayed to God who was able to save Him from death, seeking deliverance, and He was heard because of reverent submission. Something of what He suffered is learned from Gethsemane, where He left the disciples with the charge to pray earnestly, went apart from them, kneeled down and prayed for the cup to be removed while submitting to the Father's will, and being in an agony prayed more earnestly until His sweat was as great drops of blood falling to the ground. His prayer in this stands as the example of the importance of prayer.

He prayed often, earnestly and privately in solitude rather than in the street for human praise, frequently spending whole nights on the lonely mountain, in the garden, in the desert or at the Mount of Olives while others slept. After teaching through the day He often sent the disciples home to rest while He continued in prayer, and sometimes said Tarry here while He went apart. He chose solitude so others would not bear the sorrow weighing on His divine soul, especially when Satan's temptations pressed upon Him. His petitions were powerful and mingled with strong cries and tears, offered not for Himself but for the people He came to redeem, for strength to endure temptation and to complete the work of salvation. His example shows that prayerful communion with God is necessary for a successful Christian life and brings grace and strength for duty and trial, and that through His merits God accepts humanity.

As a kneeling suppliant and mighty petitioner He sought at the Father's hand fresh supplies of grace and strength, and prayer was a necessity of His humanity and Elder Brotherhood. Though compassed with human infirmities and in all points tempted as men are, He remained without sin, with divine power whose voice was heard in the fourth watch of the night by disciples on the stormy sea and whose word could summon the dead from their graves. His petitions were often accompanied with strong crying and tears and agony of soul, poured forth in lonely night hours while angels watched, rising to all heaven in behalf of fallen humanity with whose interests He identifies Himself, especially as He saw the necessities and dangers of His disciples who did not understand their own peril and under Satan's temptations were led away from duty into wrongdoing. He came forth from prayer invigorated and refreshed to impart lessons of assurance and hope, braced for duty and prepared for trial. He prayed not for Himself but for those He came to save, even for those who felt no need of prayer, and wept for those who felt no need of tears, and as man's substitute and the Prince of Life He had power with God and prevailed for His people. He is now before the throne to receive and present to the Father the petitions of those for whom He prayed on earth, so prayer is a necessity in labor for souls because God alone gives the increase.

He gave unstinted service without measuring His work by hours, giving His time, heart, soul and strength to benefit humanity, toiling through weary days and bending in prayer through long nights for grace and endurance to do a larger work. With strong crying and tears He sent His petitions to heaven that His human nature might be strengthened, that He might be braced to meet the wily foe in all his deceptive workings, and fortified to fulfill His mission of uplifting humanity and to embrace the world, and this life is the example His workers are to follow and do as He did. His petitions were earnest and mingled with strong cries and tears, offered in private to His Father, not in the street to be heard by men, for strength to sustain Him under the temptations He would meet and to accomplish His work for the salvation of man. Though He labored in soul through the night He did not cease His labor through the day, but in the morning quietly resumed His work of mercy and disinterested benevolence.

His humanity was just as human humanity, subject to temptation, yet He never failed on a single point. He took His disciples aside away from the scenes and bustle of the world to converse with them about the power that must come to man to escape the temptations of Satan, then went aside from them to pray where they could hear His petition with loud cries and tears. Having laid off His royal robe and kingly crown to come as a poor man's son among the poverty-stricken, He bore all the temptations of Satan so no poor or tempted person can say He does not know poverty or temptation, having nowhere to lay His head and night after night sleeping in the open air with the disciples, then going apart by Himself to send prayers up to His Father who was able to save Him from death, while the disciples heard Him from a distance praying with strong crying and agonizing petitions. He spent much time in prayer to His Father as needful for His work, often separating Himself from His disciples, yet they heard His strong appeals to God. If the Son of God deemed such prayer needful, finite erring beings who feel no need of praying and are subject to influences calculated to draw the mind away from God need it far more, yet believers need not fail either if they will lay hold of His divine power, read the Word, and have great faith instead of only a sprinkling of faith, for Christ in this world met difficulties greater than believers have to meet.

Intense distress may accompany prayer, but such outward intensity is not required for God to hear, for Jesus also hears the quiet prayer of faith from one who trusts God's word and reaches out to the Saviour and receives His blessing. He met and resisted the temptation to stop praying under a sense of weakness and sin, when Satan casts a dark shadow between the soul and Jesus the atoning sacrifice and suggests prayer is useless because evil thoughts are mingled with it. Because He endured that conflict, He knows how to rescue those who are tempted in the same way to become discouraged, faint-hearted and defeated. No one must cease to pray because thoughts are evil or prayers and life are imperfect, for imperfection is upon all humanity, and if anyone could pray aright by own wisdom and strength he could also live aright and would need no atoning sacrifice, so the needy must keep telling the Lord simply what is needed and seeking forgiveness and pardon until a purer, holier atmosphere surrounds the soul.

Example and Call to Pray

His prayer stands as the example that shows the importance and necessity of prayer, for human nature requires all divine support to be braced for duty and prepared for trial. Though sinless and the Prince of life, as Son of man He sought strength from the Father with intense earnestness and tears, and though He had power to heal the sick, raise the dead and command the storm, He depended on continual communion with the Father to strengthen His human nature for service and trial. If He who had power over disease, storms and death prayed for strength and grace and came forth invigorated and refreshed to impart assurance and hope, finite erring beings need communion far more to endure life's trials and duties. He prayed for Himself and His disciples and nightly on behalf of humanity He came to save, grieving for mistaken people who rejected salvation, and through His merits God accepts humanity while He now presents to the Father the petitions of those for whom He prayed on earth, able to sympathize because He shared human temptation.

Strength and courage against temptation and the powerful temptations of the evil one are found only at the throne of grace, where wants are humbly made known and with strong cries and tears heavenly strength is pleaded for to be fortified. That strength excitement and misused music cannot impart. No one must cease to pray because thoughts are evil or prayers and life are imperfect, for imperfection rests on all humanity and if anyone could pray aright by own wisdom and strength he could also live aright and would need no atoning sacrifice. He met and resisted the temptation to stop praying under a sense of weakness and sin, when Satan casts a dark shadow between the soul and Jesus the atoning sacrifice and suggests prayer is useless because evil thoughts are mingled with it, and because He endured that conflict He knows how to rescue those tempted in the same way to become discouraged, faint-hearted and defeated. The needy must keep simply telling the Lord what is needed and seeking forgiveness and pardon until a purer and holier atmosphere surrounds the soul.

Prayer must be earnest, zealous and heartfelt, with self-denial and sacrifice, pleading with God for pardoning grace and for strength to resist the temptations of Satan. As King of glory He often went alone to the mountains and desert places to pour out His soul's request to His Father with earnest pleading, tears and strong cries, bowed as a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, calling for heartfelt dependence on God in the work entrusted. This belongs to experimental religion and not profession alone, and exposes sinful man, in whom is no strength, who thinks he can live without so much prayer while Christ Himself prayed much. Those who refuse this earnest prayer will receive the portion of the transgressor, with names registered on earth but not in the book of life.

Workers, Sabbath-school teachers, parents and all who labor for souls must plead with the same strong crying and tears for precious souls going to ruin and in danger of ruin, weeping in agony for the sheep of His pasture. He wept and agonized and prayed that lost man might be redeemed, and that same spirit that moved Him to come to earth to suffer and die is needed daily to save the souls of loved ones and children, a work of infinitely greater consequence than temporal affairs, since to gain the whole world is no compensation for the loss of a soul. Those who warn sinners cannot do the great, solemn, sacred work in their own strength or by arguments on Bible truth alone, but must secure the Lord to be with them by holy living and earnest, fervent prayer, linking souls with Christ, dying to self and dying to sin to live to God and honor Him daily, trusting the living Jesus to impart His power and work with them and to send angels to prepare the way so they can have access to hearts. Consecrated Sabbath-school teachers are to intercede for the youth committed to their charge as men and women of strong faith and warm sympathies, fervent in spirit, giving self to the work with unselfish endeavor at whatever sacrifice is required, laying self on the altar, crucifying all selfish ambition, pleading for conversion with intense tearful earnestness, in lowliness of mind esteeming others better than self, with the first ambition to educate youth to do duty in the fear of God with simplicity. There is no harvest without seed-sowing and no result without effort, but labor with the fervor His voice gives rebukes Satan.

Believers need not fail but may lay hold of His divine power, read the Word and have great faith rather than only a sprinkling of faith. His humanity was just as human humanity, subject to temptation, yet He never failed on a single point, taking His disciples aside away from the scenes and bustle of the world to converse about the power that must come to man to escape the temptations of Satan, then going aside to pray where they could hear His petition with loud cries and tears. In this world He met difficulties greater than believers have to meet and lived the life God requires free from impurity. The tried and tempted should look to Jesus, come boldly to the throne of grace for mercy and help in time of need, draw nigh to God, walk humbly and keep the tongue from uttering provoking words when feelings are stirred, for as High Priest appointed by God and not self-appointed, a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, tempted in all points like the human family yet without sin, He has compassion on the ignorant and on those out of the way, being compassed with infirmity, knows how to succor those beset by the powers of darkness, is present with His workers, and one who puts trust in Him can never be severed from Him by any man. They are to go directly to Jesus Christ who never makes a mistake instead of going to any human being for help, as part of coming out from the world and being separate and cutting loose from its entanglements, while the Word is presented in the love of Christ and in the power of the Spirit. In severe affliction strong crying and tears are to continue until God gives peace and light, renewing the resolve not to fail but to press on.