Although this Epistle contains the principle ascribed to Jesus, “charity and not sacrifice” (xiii. 9) and substitutes for beasts the “sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips harmonious with his good name” (verse 15), the letter that killeth brought forth from the same chapter the fatal doctrine that the body of Jesus was a sacrifice to be eaten. And although this emphasizes the completeness of his humanity to an extent inconsistent with his deity, it is on the letter of this Epistle that the deification of Christ is founded.
V. 7–9. “Who in the days of his flesh, having offered up entreaties with vehement crying and tears to him able to save him out of death, and although inclined to because of his piety, yet, albeit a son, learned obedience by the things he suffered; and having been made perfect, became unto all that follow him the author of eternal salvation.”[2]
He is represented as “made perfect through sufferings,” as “tempted in all points like (?others) without sin,” and as having without assistance of temple or sacrifices, “obtained eternal redemption” (ix. 12). Thus he also needed redemption.
The new covenant of which Jesus was the founder is described in the words of Jeremiah (xxxi.):
I will put my laws into their mind,
And on their heart will I write them
And I will be to them a God,
And they shall be to me a people:
And they shall not teach every man his fellow-citizen,
And every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: