Perfect Priest for Weary Pilgrims: A Theology of Hebrews

Dennis E. Johnson

Reviewed by: Danny E. Olinger

Perfect Priest for Weary Pilgrims: A Theology of Hebrews, by Dennis E. Johnson. Crossway, 2024. Paperback, 216 pages, $24.99. Reviewed by New Horizons editor, Danny E. Olinger.

In Perfect Priest for Weary Pilgrims, Dennis Johnson admits that as a younger Christian, even as a student at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, he found the Epistle to the Hebrews daunting. After nearly a decade of pastoral experience at Grace OPC in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, and Beverly OPC in Los Angeles, Johnson accepted a call to teach at Westminster Seminary California. As a professor, he confesses that he fell in love with Hebrews, especially its Christ-centered, redemptive-historical understanding of the Old Testament combined with pastoral warmth through its heartfelt exhortations. It was this type of ministry, Christ-centered and humble, that he sought to pass on to his students, and that is reflected in the pages of this book. His words do not overpower the message of Hebrews, but rather seek to communicate that Jesus is the perfect priest for sinners: one who secures salvation to the uttermost for those who are pilgrims searching for rest in the wilderness that is this world.

The book divides into seven chapters: The Wilderness Pilgrimage of the People of God; The Historical Trajectory of Redemption and Revelation; The Interpretation of Ancient Scripture; The Divine-Human Mediator; Jesus’s Priestly Qualifications and Tenure; Jesus’s Once-for-All, Conscience-Perfecting Sacrifice; and Persevering Faith through Congregational Solidarity. Little gems of insight are found throughout. For example, in the opening chapter, Johnson states that the destination that Hebrews calls “rest” in chapters 3 and 4 drawing upon Psalms 95 is elsewhere in Hebrews described as “the city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb. 11:10), the heavenly city that the patriarchs greeted from afar (11:13–16), and the “lasting city” for which the believer hopes (13:14). Believers look to Christ for this comfort as they find themselves “today” in the wilderness and not yet possessing “God’s rest” in full.

Another strong chapter is the one on Jesus as the divine-human mediator. There Johnson argues that the Christological motifs found in the rest of the New Testament are present in the thirteen chapters of Hebrews. The motif of the Son’s eternal deity and his role as creator of all things are taught in Hebrews 1 as well as John 1 and Colossians 1. The motif of the Son’s true humanity, marked by his weakness and suffering, temptation and obedience, is seen in Hebrews 2, 4, and 5, in addition to the four Gospels. Hebrews 1, 2, 5, 7, 10, and 13 present the motifs of the messianic sonship of Jesus and his movement from humiliation to glory in order to save his people; these motifs are also found in Jesus’s words in Luke 24, the sermons in Acts, in Romans, and other Pauline Epistles.

Reading Perfect Priest for Weary Pilgrims will strengthen your confidence in the unity of Scripture and renew your awe in the majesty of Christ.