Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Heb 4:14-16
Holding fast our Profession
Holding fast our Profession
Now the question comes, “Can we hold fast our profession?” Yes, and our great High Priest is the reason and the power. We are not left on a lonely pilgrimage. We are not left to a single-handed conflict.
1. Since He is High Priest, He has made atonement for us.
2. Since He is High Priest, He now makes intercession for us.
3. His atonement is accepted, and His intercession is worthy, for His resurrection has set triumphant seal upon them. “He has passed into the heavens.”
4. He has Himself been tried, “tempted in all points like as we are.” So He fully understands every temptation we may have, with sympathy.
5. He knows temptation, yet He has vanquished it; He is without sin. Herein is help peculiar—the help of a victorious strength.
Christ’s Sympathy with the Infirm.—How many are burdened with a sense of deficiency, with their unlikeness to others—their inability to do what others can, or perhaps what they could once; how many see others come to the house of God, and are distressed that through weakness they cannot; how many feel themselves a burden to others, who would rather that others should burden them; how many mourn that their lives are useless and inactive! They want one who will take their part, comfort them by his tenderness, sustain them with his arm. In the text is such an one.
I. Consider the fact of the sympathy of the Lord Jesus. It is assured by--
1. His personal human experience.
2. His perfect knowledge and love.
3. His vital union with His people.
II. Consider this sympathy in its connection with His high-priestly work.
1. As High Priest He has direct intercourse with us.
2. He prays for the supply of our need.
3. He brings us to the Father.
III. Consider that this sympathy with infirmity is the pattern for His people.
1. It rebukes our hardness.
2. It shows one of the great needs of the world.
3. It suggests a recompense for suffering. He suffered that He might sympathize with sufferers; that is why we suffer.— [Charles New]
Tempted, not overcome by Temptation.—“In all points tempted” must not be taken as meaning in all points sharing our experience in dealing with the temptation. Christ did not share anybody’s experience of yielding to temptation. He was never overcome by temptation. But that was not essential to human experience. That was fallen man’s experience. And Christ was man, not fallen man. Find what is essential to man. Christ experienced that.
The Sympathy of Christ.—According to these verses the Priesthood of Jesus Christ is based upon the perfection of His humanity; and that implies that He was possessed of a human soul as well as a human body.
1. Accordingly in the life of Christ we find two distinct classes of feeling. When He hungered in the wilderness, etc., He experienced sensations which belong to the bodily department of human nature. But His grief, friendship, fear, etc., were the affections of an acutely sensitive human soul, alive to all the tenderness and hopes and anguish with which human life is filled, qualifying Him to be “tempted in all points like as we are.”
2. The Redeemer not only was but is man. It is imagined that in the history of Jesus’ existence, once, for a limited period and for definite purposes, He took part in frail humanity; but that when these purposes were accomplished the man for ever perished, and the spirit re-ascended, to unite again with pure, unmixed Deity. But our Lord’s resurrection life should be the corrective of this notion. And this suggests the truth of the human heart of God. Man resembles God. Love does not mean one thing to man and another thing to God. The present manhood of Christ conveys this deeply important truth, that the Divine heart is human in its sympathies.
3. There is a connection between what Jesus was and what Jesus is. He can be touched now because He was tempted then. His past experience has left certain effects durable in His nature as it is now. It has endued Him with certain qualifications and certain susceptibilities which He would not have had but for that experience.
The Redeemer’s preparations for His Priesthood.—The preparation consisted in being tempted. But temptation as applied to a Being perfectly free from tendencies to evil is not easy to understand. Temptation has two senses: it means test or probation; it means also trial, involving the idea of pain or danger. Trial placed before a sinless Being is intelligible enough in a sense of probation; it is a test of excellence. And Scripture plainly asserts this as the character of Christ’s temptation. Not only test, but trial. There was not merely test in the temptation, but there was also painfulness in the victory. How could this be without any tendency to evil? Analyse sin. In every act of sin there are two distinct steps: there is a rising of a desire which is natural, and, being natural, is not wrong; and there is the indulgence of that desire in forbidden circumstances, and that is sin. Sin does not consist in having strong desires or passions: in the strongest and highest natures, all, including the desires, is strong. Sin is not a real thing. It is rather the absence of something, the will to do right. Sin is not in the appetites, but in the absence of a controlling will. There were in Christ all the natural appetites of mind and body. Conceive then a case in which the gratification of any one of these inclinations was inconsistent with His Father’s will. At one moment it was unlawful to eat, though hungry: and without one tendency to disobey, did fasting cease to be severe? Christ suffered from the force of desire. Though there was no hesitation whether to obey or not, no strife in the will, in the act of mastery there was pain. There was self-denial; there was obedience at the expense of tortured feeling. Not by the reluctance of a sinful sensation, but by the quivering and the anguish of natural feeling when it is trampled upon by lofty will, Jesus suffered, being tempted. His soul was tempted.
The Redeemer’s Priesthood.—By Priesthood is meant that office by which He is the medium of union between man and God. The capacity for this has been indelibly engraven on His nature by His experience here. All this capacity is based on His sympathy. We are scarcely aware how much the sum of human happiness in the world is indebted to this one feeling—sympathy. Of this sympathy Christ, in its fulness, was susceptible. The sympathy of Christ was not merely love of men in masses; He had also discriminating, special sympathy with individuals. The priestly powers conveyed by this faculty of sympathizing are two:
1. The power of mercy.
2. The power of having grace to help.
There are two who are unfit for showing mercy: he who has never been tried; and he who, having been tempted, has fallen under temptation. The qualification in the text, “without sin,” is very remarkable; for it is the one we least should think of. Unthinkingly we should say that to have erred would make a man lenient; but it is not so. He alone is fit for showing manly mercy who has, like His Master, felt the power of temptation in its might, and come scathless through the trial. We must not make too much of sympathy as mere feeling. Feeling with Christ led to this, “He went about doing good.” Sympathy with Him was this, “Grace to help in time of need.” The sympathy of the Divine-human! He knows what strength is needed.
In conclusion, draw two inferences:
1. He who would sympathize must be content to be tried and tempted; he must be content to pay the price of the costly education. But it is being tempted in all points, yet without sin, that makes sympathy real, manly, perfect, instead of a mere sentimental tenderness.
2. It is this same human sympathy which qualifies Christ for judgment. The Father hath committed all judgment to Him, because He is the Son of man. The sympathy of Christ extends to the frailties of human nature, not to its hardened guilt; He is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities.”—
[F. W. Robertson]
1. Since He is High Priest, He has made atonement for us.
2. Since He is High Priest, He now makes intercession for us.
3. His atonement is accepted, and His intercession is worthy, for His resurrection has set triumphant seal upon them. “He has passed into the heavens.”
4. He has Himself been tried, “tempted in all points like as we are.” So He fully understands every temptation we may have, with sympathy.
5. He knows temptation, yet He has vanquished it; He is without sin. Herein is help peculiar—the help of a victorious strength.
Christ’s Sympathy with the Infirm.—How many are burdened with a sense of deficiency, with their unlikeness to others—their inability to do what others can, or perhaps what they could once; how many see others come to the house of God, and are distressed that through weakness they cannot; how many feel themselves a burden to others, who would rather that others should burden them; how many mourn that their lives are useless and inactive! They want one who will take their part, comfort them by his tenderness, sustain them with his arm. In the text is such an one.
I. Consider the fact of the sympathy of the Lord Jesus. It is assured by--
1. His personal human experience.
2. His perfect knowledge and love.
3. His vital union with His people.
II. Consider this sympathy in its connection with His high-priestly work.
1. As High Priest He has direct intercourse with us.
2. He prays for the supply of our need.
3. He brings us to the Father.
III. Consider that this sympathy with infirmity is the pattern for His people.
1. It rebukes our hardness.
2. It shows one of the great needs of the world.
3. It suggests a recompense for suffering. He suffered that He might sympathize with sufferers; that is why we suffer.— [Charles New]
Tempted, not overcome by Temptation.—“In all points tempted” must not be taken as meaning in all points sharing our experience in dealing with the temptation. Christ did not share anybody’s experience of yielding to temptation. He was never overcome by temptation. But that was not essential to human experience. That was fallen man’s experience. And Christ was man, not fallen man. Find what is essential to man. Christ experienced that.
The Sympathy of Christ.—According to these verses the Priesthood of Jesus Christ is based upon the perfection of His humanity; and that implies that He was possessed of a human soul as well as a human body.
1. Accordingly in the life of Christ we find two distinct classes of feeling. When He hungered in the wilderness, etc., He experienced sensations which belong to the bodily department of human nature. But His grief, friendship, fear, etc., were the affections of an acutely sensitive human soul, alive to all the tenderness and hopes and anguish with which human life is filled, qualifying Him to be “tempted in all points like as we are.”
2. The Redeemer not only was but is man. It is imagined that in the history of Jesus’ existence, once, for a limited period and for definite purposes, He took part in frail humanity; but that when these purposes were accomplished the man for ever perished, and the spirit re-ascended, to unite again with pure, unmixed Deity. But our Lord’s resurrection life should be the corrective of this notion. And this suggests the truth of the human heart of God. Man resembles God. Love does not mean one thing to man and another thing to God. The present manhood of Christ conveys this deeply important truth, that the Divine heart is human in its sympathies.
3. There is a connection between what Jesus was and what Jesus is. He can be touched now because He was tempted then. His past experience has left certain effects durable in His nature as it is now. It has endued Him with certain qualifications and certain susceptibilities which He would not have had but for that experience.
The Redeemer’s preparations for His Priesthood.—The preparation consisted in being tempted. But temptation as applied to a Being perfectly free from tendencies to evil is not easy to understand. Temptation has two senses: it means test or probation; it means also trial, involving the idea of pain or danger. Trial placed before a sinless Being is intelligible enough in a sense of probation; it is a test of excellence. And Scripture plainly asserts this as the character of Christ’s temptation. Not only test, but trial. There was not merely test in the temptation, but there was also painfulness in the victory. How could this be without any tendency to evil? Analyse sin. In every act of sin there are two distinct steps: there is a rising of a desire which is natural, and, being natural, is not wrong; and there is the indulgence of that desire in forbidden circumstances, and that is sin. Sin does not consist in having strong desires or passions: in the strongest and highest natures, all, including the desires, is strong. Sin is not a real thing. It is rather the absence of something, the will to do right. Sin is not in the appetites, but in the absence of a controlling will. There were in Christ all the natural appetites of mind and body. Conceive then a case in which the gratification of any one of these inclinations was inconsistent with His Father’s will. At one moment it was unlawful to eat, though hungry: and without one tendency to disobey, did fasting cease to be severe? Christ suffered from the force of desire. Though there was no hesitation whether to obey or not, no strife in the will, in the act of mastery there was pain. There was self-denial; there was obedience at the expense of tortured feeling. Not by the reluctance of a sinful sensation, but by the quivering and the anguish of natural feeling when it is trampled upon by lofty will, Jesus suffered, being tempted. His soul was tempted.
The Redeemer’s Priesthood.—By Priesthood is meant that office by which He is the medium of union between man and God. The capacity for this has been indelibly engraven on His nature by His experience here. All this capacity is based on His sympathy. We are scarcely aware how much the sum of human happiness in the world is indebted to this one feeling—sympathy. Of this sympathy Christ, in its fulness, was susceptible. The sympathy of Christ was not merely love of men in masses; He had also discriminating, special sympathy with individuals. The priestly powers conveyed by this faculty of sympathizing are two:
1. The power of mercy.
2. The power of having grace to help.
There are two who are unfit for showing mercy: he who has never been tried; and he who, having been tempted, has fallen under temptation. The qualification in the text, “without sin,” is very remarkable; for it is the one we least should think of. Unthinkingly we should say that to have erred would make a man lenient; but it is not so. He alone is fit for showing manly mercy who has, like His Master, felt the power of temptation in its might, and come scathless through the trial. We must not make too much of sympathy as mere feeling. Feeling with Christ led to this, “He went about doing good.” Sympathy with Him was this, “Grace to help in time of need.” The sympathy of the Divine-human! He knows what strength is needed.
In conclusion, draw two inferences:
1. He who would sympathize must be content to be tried and tempted; he must be content to pay the price of the costly education. But it is being tempted in all points, yet without sin, that makes sympathy real, manly, perfect, instead of a mere sentimental tenderness.
2. It is this same human sympathy which qualifies Christ for judgment. The Father hath committed all judgment to Him, because He is the Son of man. The sympathy of Christ extends to the frailties of human nature, not to its hardened guilt; He is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities.”—
[F. W. Robertson]
ENTERED BY FAITH AND PRAYER
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Heb 4:16
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Heb 4:16
We have here the idea of majesty. God is seated upon a throne. His estate is royal. To Him belongs kingly authority. He is to be approached as a monarch, with reverence and worship. The royal majesty of Jehovah rests not only on His power, but still more on His perfection, especially His moral perfection.
We have here the idea of sovereignty. The sovereign occupant of a throne acts not of constraint, nor merely as limited by law or promise, nor always as his subjects may desire or request; but in proportion as he is a sovereign he acts according to his own conclusions as to what is wise, and right, and befitting. Absolute sovereignty cannot safely be trusted to a creature. But to God absolute sovereignty belongs. In coming to God, then, we must bear in mind that we are coming to a sovereign.
We have here the idea of wealth or abundance. Plenty beseems the royal estate. Wealth properly surrounds a throne. Riches and honour are the fit appurtenance of a crown. In this respect the throne of God has its due accompaniment. To Him belongs the wealth of the universe. His kingdom rules over all. It is the privilege of the believer to remember this when he approaches God in prayer.
We have here the idea of liberality or bountifulness. Great wealth does not necessarily imply great beneficence. It is only where the possessor is of a kind and generous spirit that his wealth becomes a blessing to others. Now in this respect God commends Himself to our admiring and grateful confidence. His generosity is as boundless as His wealth. Let us cultivate just views of God as at once a King and a Father—a King almighty and glorious, and a Father full of compassion and tenderness.
[W. Lindsay Alexander, Sermons, p. 287]
Christ’s power of sympathy used as an encouragement to seek the blessings provided for us. The writer notifies:
(1) the blessings we are urged to seek—"mercy and grace in every time of need."
(2) The place whence they are dispensed—"the throne of grace."
(3) The spirit of confidence in which, in view of the assurance furnished to us of Christ’s power of sympathy, these blessings should be sought. The boldness is the confidence inspired by a living, all-absorbing conviction of the deep and yearning sympathy of Him who occupies the throne. With such an assurance, surely any shrinking hesitancy to come and seek is unreasonable and sinful. The word rendered boldly here may, with equal propriety, be rendered joyfully. So, then, we are right to seek mercy and grace with joy. The Christian man should come with joy to draw the grace which is to quench his soul-consuming thirst, and sustain the Divine life quickened by the Divine mercy in his soul.
[A. J. Parry, Phases of Christian Truth, p. 233]
We have here the idea of sovereignty. The sovereign occupant of a throne acts not of constraint, nor merely as limited by law or promise, nor always as his subjects may desire or request; but in proportion as he is a sovereign he acts according to his own conclusions as to what is wise, and right, and befitting. Absolute sovereignty cannot safely be trusted to a creature. But to God absolute sovereignty belongs. In coming to God, then, we must bear in mind that we are coming to a sovereign.
We have here the idea of wealth or abundance. Plenty beseems the royal estate. Wealth properly surrounds a throne. Riches and honour are the fit appurtenance of a crown. In this respect the throne of God has its due accompaniment. To Him belongs the wealth of the universe. His kingdom rules over all. It is the privilege of the believer to remember this when he approaches God in prayer.
We have here the idea of liberality or bountifulness. Great wealth does not necessarily imply great beneficence. It is only where the possessor is of a kind and generous spirit that his wealth becomes a blessing to others. Now in this respect God commends Himself to our admiring and grateful confidence. His generosity is as boundless as His wealth. Let us cultivate just views of God as at once a King and a Father—a King almighty and glorious, and a Father full of compassion and tenderness.
[W. Lindsay Alexander, Sermons, p. 287]
Christ’s power of sympathy used as an encouragement to seek the blessings provided for us. The writer notifies:
(1) the blessings we are urged to seek—"mercy and grace in every time of need."
(2) The place whence they are dispensed—"the throne of grace."
(3) The spirit of confidence in which, in view of the assurance furnished to us of Christ’s power of sympathy, these blessings should be sought. The boldness is the confidence inspired by a living, all-absorbing conviction of the deep and yearning sympathy of Him who occupies the throne. With such an assurance, surely any shrinking hesitancy to come and seek is unreasonable and sinful. The word rendered boldly here may, with equal propriety, be rendered joyfully. So, then, we are right to seek mercy and grace with joy. The Christian man should come with joy to draw the grace which is to quench his soul-consuming thirst, and sustain the Divine life quickened by the Divine mercy in his soul.
[A. J. Parry, Phases of Christian Truth, p. 233]
