⁵ So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him, “You are My Son, Today I have begotten You”; ⁶ just as He says also in another passage, “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.”

If there was one person who was could justifiably glorify himself, it was Jesus Christ. For anyone else such effort would be dismissed as self-aggrandizement, self-promotion and, not the least, self-delusional. Does that not describe Lucifer in his failed coup against the Almighty: “How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning [some render this Lucifer] son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth …But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’” (Isaiah 14:12–14). He has demonstrated for us the truth, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling” (Pr 16:18).

But Christ did not glorify Himself, but rather God. “I glorified You [my Father] on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do” (Jn 17:4). Yet Jesus was glorified—by His Father. It is certainly not a bad thing to be glorified. The question is who does the glorifying! The honor of being a priest is not something a person takes to himself of his own doing. It is not something to be achieved, as an accomplishment. Jesus’ role as high priest was something assigned to Him. It came by divine appointment.

The writer of Hebrews supports this by quoting Psalm 2:7 (previously quoted in Hebrews 1:5), referring to the public proclamation of Christ as the Messianic king. God glorified the Messiah to His place of ruling over Israel. So also it was God who glorified Christ to the high priesthood. He was appointed to a different priesthood than the Levitical one, a priesthood “according to the order of Melchizedek” (quoting Ps. 110:4). Interestingly, the name “Melchizedek” means, “King of righteousness.” Jesus was both king and priest.

The way this passage is worded is quite interesting in light of what Isaiah records for us, “I am the Lord, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images” (Is 42:8, see also 48:11). God could only glorify Jesus if in fact Jesus was God. For a human to become a Levitical priest was not a matter of glory. But for Jesus to be appointed a priest in the order of Melchizedek – that is and was the glory of God.