There are good reasons to conclude
[that] the averting of God’s anger is essential to the author’s use of the term
hilaskomai. As high priest, Jesus ministers to God on behalf of the
people and represents the people before God. He represents them in order to
prevent the wrath of God from calling upon them. Because he is human, Jesus can
serve as humankind’s representative and face God’s wrath, and because he is divine,
he can offer an effective restitution.
If the author of Hebrews intends to
communicate that God’s disposition towards humans has changed, it is striking that
he does not use the verb hilaskomai (“propitiate”) with God as the
object. . . . Reconciliation begins with God’s desire to be merciful and is
effected by the sending of the Son and by the Holy Spirit’s work to unite him
with humanity. It would be misleading, therefore, to present God as the object
of propitiation.
One might add, as a supplementary
point, that Christ’s sacrifice also affects the sinner, not only God. It
provides cleansing from sin and ensures that one’s conscience is free from guilt
(9:14; 10:22). Both propitiation and expiation are involved. (Sigurd Grindheim,
The Letter to the Hebrews [The Pillar New Testament Commentary; Grand
Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2023], 194, 195)
Unlike his sacrifice, Jesus’s intercession
is not described as a ministry that is completed once and for all. It occurs
continually, as it is related to his living forever. To Chrysostom, this fact
shows the humble nature of Jesus’s priesthood, as he constantly assumes the position
of a supplicant (Homilies on Hebrews 13.6) (Ibid, 369)
Homilies on Hebrews 13.6
reads thusly:
6. Hebrews 7:25 Wherefore He is able
also to save them to the uttermost, that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever
lives to make intercession for them. You see that he says this in respect of
that which is according to the flesh. For when He [appears] as Priest, then He
also intercedes. Wherefore also when Paul says, who also makes intercession for
us Romans 8:34, he hints the same thing; the High Priest makes intercession.
For He that raises the dead as He will, and quickens them, John 5:21, and that
even as the Father [does], how [is it that] when there is need to save, He
makes intercession? John 5:22 He that has all judgment, how [is it that] He
makes intercession? He that sends His angels Matthew 13:41-42, that they may
cast some into the furnace, and save others, how [is it that] He makes
intercession? Wherefore (he says) He is able also to save. For this cause then
He saves, because He dies not. Inasmuch as He ever lives, He has (he means) no
successor: And if He have no successor, He is able to aid all men. For there
[under the Law] indeed, the High Priest although he were worthy of admiration
during the time in which he was [High Priest] (as Samuel for instance, and any
other such), but, after this, no longer; for they were dead. But here it is not
so, but He saves to the uttermost.
What is to the uttermost? He hints at
some mystery. Not here only (he says) but there also He saves them that come
unto God by Him. How does He save? In that He ever lives (he says) to make
intercession for them. You see the humiliation? You see the manhood? For he
says not, that He obtained this, by making intercession once for all, but
continually, and whenever it may be needful to intercede for them.
To the uttermost. What is it? Not for
a time only, but there also in the future life. 'Does He then always need to
pray? Yet how can [this] be reasonable? Even righteous men have oftentimes
accomplished all by one entreaty, and is He always praying? Why then is He
throned with [the Father]?' You see that it is a condescension. The meaning is:
Be not afraid, nor say, Yea, He loves us indeed, and He has confidence towards
the Father, but He cannot live always. For He does live always.