Please explain Hebrews 5:7.
Hebrews 5:7 says of the Lord Jesus, “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared.” This is speaking of the Lord Jesus “in the days of his flesh”, or when He was on the earth. More specifically, it refers to the time when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane before going to the cross. The time of suffering in the Garden is second only to the time that the Lord was on the cross. As he contemplated the upcoming cross, as He considered the weight of the sins that He would take upon Himself, as He considered being forsaken of the Lord while on the cross, He suffered tremendously. We read His words in Matthew 26:38, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” How agonizing was this time alone in the Garden!!!
He “offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying.” What is the difference between prayer and supplication? The difference is this: PRAYER DRIVES ME TO MY KNEES before the Lord. SUPPLICATION PUTS ME ON MY FACE before Him. To one who was in the distance, they could have heard His loud sobbing as He prayed to His Father. Notice that His prayer was to the One who “was able to save him from death.” This is not the same as saving Him from dying. The Lord Jesus came into the world to offer Himself as a sacrifice and offering to God for our sins. Death was inevitable. The JND translation says that He prayed unto the One who was able to save Him ‘OUT OF DEATH’. The Lord Jesus prayed to His Father, the One who could (and did) raise Him from the dead. It was the Father’s will that His Son should die for the sins of the world and Christ was “obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” (Philippians 2:8)
We then read that Christ was “heard in that he feared.” Was the Lord Jesus afraid? No. It was not possible for Him to be afraid. We read in 1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” If He was not afraid, what does this phrase mean? The NKJV says that Christ “was heard because of His godly fear.” The NASB says that Christ “was heard because of His piety.” The Greek word used here for fear is ‘eulabeia’, which means ‘reverence or piety.’ The Lord Jesus had great, great reverence for His Father. Because of that, His prayers reflected that piety.
If you have never accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, I say that you BETTER be afraid. You BETTER fear God. The Lord tells us in Matthew 10:28, “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather FEAR HIM which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Who is the One person that can take our lives and cast us into the very pits of Hell? It is God Himself. The Greek word translated ‘fear’ in this verse is ‘phobeo’. This means to be frightened, to be afraid, to have fear of God. However, do not be afraid to come to Him for salvation. The Lord said in John 6:37, “…him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” No matter what you have done. No matter how you have lived in the past, when you come to the Lord with a repentant heart and put your faith in the Lord Jesus salvation, He WILL NOT TURN YOU AWAY.’ (230.6)