Hebrews 5:9

And having been made perfect, he became unto all them that obey him the author of eternal salvation.

Christ's being made perfect should not be understood in the sense that he was not previously perfect but as an emphasis upon the perfection of his qualifications of sympathy, love, mercy and understanding, which were so necessary in a high priest, and which could not be possessed fully by any person except one who had suffered. Amazingly, though most sufferers have travail because of sin, sometimes their own, and often of others, such is the terrible mystery of evil that even perfect obedience, as in that of Christ, also results in an overwhelming tide of sufferings. "There is something appropriate in the fact that the salvation which was procured by the obedience of the Redeemer should be made available to the obedience of the redeemed."[8]

Eternal salvation brings to mind other things mentioned in this epistle: "eternal redemption" (Hebrews 9:12), "eternal inheritance" (Hebrews 9:15), and "eternal covenant" (Hebrews 13:20). The word "author" is translated from the Greek word "cause," as a glance at the English Revised Version (1885) margin will show. Some think that the idea of "pioneer" is also included; but, in any case, Christ is the source, fountain head, procurer and administrator of redemption.

We cannot leave this verse without stressing the obedience which is so forcibly enjoined. That the disobedient have any prospect whatever of salvation is a delusion and a snare. If the Son and such a Son, learned obedience through suffering, how much more necessary is it that all of his followers obey him even at the cost of suffering and death. Paul thundered this anathema against the disobedient:

And to you that are afflicted, rest with us, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus; who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9).

The scriptural exhortation to obedience is not merely that it shall be until death, but unto death. "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life" (Revelation 2:10).