“Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession” (Hebrews 4:14).

The name “Jesus” seldom appears by itself in the New Testament epistles, nearly always being joined with “Christ” or “Lord” or both. The book of Hebrews is an exception, however, because here “Jesus” occurs alone eight times and only five times in combination. Evidently the Hebrew Christians to whom the epistle was written needed a better appreciation of just who the man Jesus really was. More than merely a great teacher, more even than their long-awaited Messiah, He was Jesus the Son of God, He was “even Jesus, made an high priest for ever” (Hebrews 6:20).

Furthermore, “we see Jesus, who was made a little lower then the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man” (Hebrews 2:9). Also “was Jesus made a surety of a better testament” (Hebrews 7:22). Therefore, we may have “boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus” (Hebrews 10:19). Thus Jesus is our sacrifice, our surety, and our way to God, as well as eternal high priest and only Son of God. We can look “unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). He is also our mediator and sanctifier of our souls. We have “come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God. . . . And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant” (Hebrews 12:22–24). Lastly, our chief incentive to a life dedicated to Christ is that “Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come” (Hebrews 13:12–14). HMM