NOTES for Heb 4:12-16

Returning to the image of the Messiah-High Priest, the author of the letter does not separate it from those ideas of the living Torah that were widespread at that time in both Jewish and Christian circles. For him, Jesus Himself becomes this living Torah. His high priesthood is due to the fact that He succeeded in doing what no one had ever succeeded in doing before: fulfilling the ideal that had previously remained unattainable. In order to become the living Torah, a human being had to be completely free from sin while still remaining human and not turning into some disembodied being. And Jesus proved to be the first and only one in human history to whom this was given (v. 15).

Such a Teacher cannot be deceived: the living Torah is the embodied word of God, and His action on the human person touches those depths of human being where its spiritual ("spirit") and natural ("soul") components meet (v. 12). It is as impossible to hide from Him as it is to take refuge from God or hide anything from Him (v. 13). But this Messiah-High Priest bears in Himself the whole fullness of the grace of the Kingdom that He brought into the world, giving every faithful person the opportunity to share in it (v. 16). The living Torah, the embodied word of God, the Man who bears in Himself the whole fullness of the Kingdom, and therefore the fullness of God: this is how the author of the letter sees the Messiah, whom he calls the new High Priest, the High Priest of the Kingdom.