THE SOURCE. Hebrews 5:9 Our Lord Jesus Christ was always morally perfect. “Being made perfect” does not mean He was not perfect before He suffered. Instead, it signifies that God's plans and purposes for our eternal salvation were fulfilled when Jesus experienced suffering and fully entered into our human experience, all while remaining without sin or inclination to sin.
He is able to be our Great High Priest who intercedes for us because He understands our weaknesses. He is without stain of sin or flaw of character from eternity through all eternity, even when He was “found in fashion as a man” when He was here on earth. By His complete obedience to the will of God in His life and death, His priesthood is effective because He is the Source, the author, of eternal salvation for those who believe in and obey Him.
Evidence of someone with eternal salvation is a desire to obey our Lord. Believers who obey Him gladly accept His will and lifestyle, which shows the new nature and the new creation they have become. Salvation is much more than just feeling happy that we are saved. We have been “made partakers” of Christ and share the same spirit of life and obedience He has toward our heavenly Father. We not only learn and teach but also work, obey, suffer, and endure. Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ means accepting the demands of grace and obedience just as He did.
The moral and spiritual perfection of our Lord Jesus Christ was emphasized when He said, “And the third day I am perfected.” That marked the end of His humiliation and suffering, which reached their peak when He declared, “It is finished!” He had been tested and tried by life's circumstances, tempted by the devil, denied by Peter, betrayed by Judas, and forsaken by His disciples, yet He was found faultless by those seeking to condemn Him. But He “died for our sins according to the scriptures, He was buried, and the third day rose again, according to the scriptures.” His testimony as the spotless Son of God and holy Son of Man qualifies Him in every way as the Great High Priest.
The effect of all this on us is that He is the Cause, the Source, and the Author of eternal salvation for those who believe in Him. To those who obey Him, He is Lord and Master, the Supreme Authority in our lives. He is Jesus, our personal Savior, and Christ, the One anointed by God to be Lord of all! We are made safe and secure in Him whose name is above every name. It is to Him we surrender our will, and in Him we place our faith. He has provided for us and given us all we will ever need. Now, we are called to commit ourselves to obey Him as loyal disciples who have received Him and follow Him as our Lord.
There are several (at least seven) "eternal" things in the book of Hebrews. The first of these is "eternal salvation," mentioned here in chapter five and verse nine. This salvation has removed our condemnation because of our sin. Now, there is no judgment passed on us because "there is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit." We have been adopted as children into God's family, given the assurance of being with Christ forever, provided a sure hope, and our fear of death and its "sting" has been taken away. We began a new life of following Him when we received "eternal salvation." Our rest is found in our Great High Priest for both our living and dying because He has loved us, and we are His.
The "eternal" things in Hebrews include eternal salvation [5:9], eternal judgment [6:2], eternal perfection (margin) [7:28], eternal redemption [9:12], eternal inheritance [9:15], the eternal Spirit [9:14], and an eternal covenant.