Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hebrews 4:15

For we have not a 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.

15. For ] He gives the reason for holding fast our confession; [we may do so with confidence], for Christ can sympathise with us in our weaknesses, since He has suffered with us ( ). Rom 8:17; 1Co 12:26.

with the feeling of our infirmities ] Even the heathen could feel the force and beauty of this appeal, for they intensely admired the famous line of Terence,

“I am a man; I feel an interest in everything which is human;” at the utterance of which, when the play was first acted, it is said that the whole of the audience rose to their feet; and the exquisite words which Virgil puts into the mouth of Dido,

“ Haud ignara mali, miseris succerrere disco.”

tempted ] “Tempted” ( ) is the best-supported reading, not , “having made trial of,” “experienced in.” It refers alike to the trials of life, which are in themselves indirect temptations sometimes to sin, always to murmuring and discontent; and to the direct temptations to sin which are life’s severest trials. From both of these our Lord suffered (Joh 11:33-35; “ye are they who have continued with me in my temptations ” Luk 22:28; Luk 4:2, &c).

like as we are ] Lit. “after the likeness;” a stronger way of expressing the resemblance of Christ’s “temptations” to ours than if an adverb had been used.

yet without sin ] Lit. “apart from sin.” Philo had already spoken of the Logos as sinless ( De Profug. 20; Opp. i. 562). His words are “the High Priest is not Man but the Divine Word, free from all share, not only in willing but even in involuntary wrongdoing.” Christ’s sinlessness is one of the irrefragable proofs of His divinity. It was both asserted by Himself (Joh 14:30) and by the Apostles (2Co 5:21; 1Pe 2:22 ; 1Jn 3:5, &c). Being tempted, Christ could sympathize with us; being sinless, he could plead for us.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched – Our High Priest is not cold and unfeeling. That is, we have one who is abundantly qualified to sympathize with us in our afflictions, and to whom, therefore, we may look for aid and support in trials. Had we a high priest who was cold and heartless; who simply performed the external duties of his office without entering into the sympathies of those who came to seek for pardon; who had never experienced any trials, and who felt himself above those who sought his aid, we should necessarily feel disheartened in attempting to overcome our sins, and to live to God. His coldness would repel us; his stateliness would awe us; his distance and reserve would keep us away, and perhaps render us indifferent to all desire to be saved. But tenderness and sympathy attract those who are feeble, and kindness does more than anything else to encourage those who have to encounter difficulties and dangers; see the notes at Heb 2:16-18. Such tenderness and sympathy has our Great High Priest.

But was in all points tempted like as we are – Tried as we are; see the notes at Heb 2:18. He was subjected to all the kinds of trial to which we can be, and he is, therefore, able to sympathize with us and to aid us. He was tempted – in the literal sense; he was persecuted; he was poor; he was despised; he suffered physical pain; he endured the sorrows of a lingering and most cruel death.

Yet without sin – 1Pe 2:22. Who did no sin; Isa 53:9, He had done no violence, neither was there any deceit in his mouth; Heb 7:26, Who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. The importance of this fact – that the Great High Priest of the Christian profession was without sin, the apostle illustrates at length in Heb. 79. He here merely alludes to it, and says that one who was without sin was able to assist those who were sinners, and who put their trust in him.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Heb 4:15

Touched with the feeling of our infirmities

The sympathetic Saviour

I.

CHRISTS POWER OF SYMPATHY ASSERTED. Differences of position and circumstances among men materially affect their power to sympathise with one another. It is a difficult matter, for instance, for those born in palaces and nurtured in affluence to enter into the difficulties and understand the hardships endured by those to whom life is a perpetual struggle for the barest necessaries; or for those who are hale and strong to sympathize with those whose very existence, by reason of their bodily infirmities, is a burden to them. It was not unnatural, then, that persons who, judged by human analogies, should suppose that He who was the Son of God and had passed into the heavens would be indisposed to sympathise with wretched, sin-benighted men on earth. The text assures us of the contrary. Christ exchanged earth for heaven, the weakness and infirmities of an earthly existence for the everlasting vigour of a heavenly state, degradation for exaltation, the Cross and the thorns for a throne and a crown; but He never exchanged His power of warm, glowing sympathy for men for coldness and indifference. Sympathy was the heritage which earth gave Him to enrich His heavenly state.

II. THE CONDITIONS GUARANTEEING THIS POWER.

1. His exposure to temptation. Just as the light becomes tinged with the hues of the glass it passes through, so the unfathomable love of the Son of God becomes sympathetic towards men as it passes to them through the human heart, steeped in sorrow and agonised with suffering, of the Son of Man Egypt has its two great watercourses, its river and its sweet-water canal. The canal conveys the sweet waters of the river where the river itself cannot take them. The human heart of Jesus is the canal which conducts the sweet waters of the Divine love in streams of sympathy to the parched souls of men.

2. The other condition of His power of sympathy was His freedom from sin, notwithstanding His exposure to its temptations. Flame will not pass through wire gauze of a certain texture. This is the principle of the safety-lamp. This useful and ingenious contrivance is unaffected by any amount of explosive gases external to it. Under ordinary circumstances, the flame of the lamp would set any atmosphere, strongly charged with explosive gases, into a devouring blaze, but, protected by the wire gauze, the lamp-flame merely glows within a little more brilliantly. Such was Christ as He lived among men. The moral atmosphere in which He lived, surcharged as it was with explosive temptations and provocations to sin, did not penetrate the amiability of His sinless nature and cause it to shoot forth into consuming resentment. It merely caused it to burn with a livelier glow of holy anger against hypocrisy and false pretence. Just as the rays of the sun pass over the foulest paths and among heaps of filth untainted, so He passed along the ways and paths of human life untouched by the foulness that surrounded him on all sides. It is a belief with the people of the district that the River Doe passes through the whole length of Bala Lake without mingling with its waters. Its current, they affirm, can be clearly traced, marked off by its clearer, brighter waters. So Christs life, passing through the lake, so to speak, of earthly existence, is clearly defined. I, is one bright, holy, spotless stream from its beginning to its end–a life without sin. Now, this freedom from sin is no hindrance to His power of sympathy; in fact, it is an additional qualification to Him in this respect. Temptation yielded to makes the heart callous and cruel, and dries up the fountains of feeling. Temptation resisted and overcome mellows the feelings, and quickens their sensitiveness towards the tried and tempted.

III. CHRISTS POWER OF SYMPATHY USED AS AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO SEEK THE BLESSINGS PROVIDED FOR US.

1. The blessings we are urged to seek. Mercy represents the new life; grace, all that may be needed to sustain and nourish it until its consummation in everlasting glory. And here we may note the bearing of this promise of grace to help in time of need upon the case of a certain class of persons whom we believe to be Christians, true disciples of the Redeemer, but who stand aloof from the fellowship of His people, and shrink from a public avowal of their discipleship. Their reluctance in this direction, they tell us, arises from the sense of their infirmities, and their dread of bringing dishonour on Christs Church. But such a plea is essentially unbelief. It arises from a failure to apprehend Gods power to keep from falling those whom He has graciously converted. They forget that He promises to His children grace to help in time of need. It is as reasonable to suppose that God will preserve the new life He has quickened in the heart of His people, as that the mother will do all in her power to strengthen the infant that owes its life to her.

2. The place whence these blessings are dispensed. Christ occupies the throne–the place of power and authority. That He is a King as well as a Priest is one of the great truths of this Epistle. And His kingly office becomes the instrument of His priestly sympathies and functions.

3. The spirit of confidence in which, in view of the assurance furnished to us of Christs power of sympathy, these blessings should be sought. The word rendered boldly here may, with equal propriety, be rendered joyfully. The very fact that such blessings as mercy and grace, blessings so inexpressibly precious to sinful men awakened to a sense of their guilt, are procurable, should fill the seeker with the joy of gratitude. To seek them in this spirit is to carry out the prophetic injunction, Therefore, with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. The allusion, no doubt, is to the desert traveller, after days of wanderings in the arid waste, coming parched with thirst upon a well. We can well imagine with what grateful joy he would draw therefrom the refreshing element to quench his consuming thirst. With some such joy, yea, with much deeper and intenser joy, should the Christian man come to the throne of grace 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.)

Christ touched with the feeling of our infirmities

The compassion of the Son of God was a subject of joyful contemplation to the holy men of old, who saw His day afar off, and were glad. With delight they celebrated the comfort which He should bring to the mourners in Zion; the care which He should take of the lambs of His flock; His sympathy with the afflicted; His condescension to the weak; and the concern with which lie should bring them through their difficulties to safety and peace, and everlasting gladness. Hence it is, also, that in their sacred hymns and songs of triumph they delight to present Him under all those images which are fitted to convey ideas of the gentlest and most engaging order. The design for which the Son of God appeared on earth, and which He voluntarily undertook to accomplish, was a design of the highest compassion. And as the design on which He came was that of unutterable love, so the tenderest compassion distinguished the fulfilment of every part of His great undertaking. He went about doing good, and His Divine power was ever exercised in works of mercy. And with these manifestations of Divine power, how mild and gentle is His demeanour to the humble and the weak! How tender and condescending His addresses to the poor and the contrite! Observe also His sympathy with His disciples in the season of affliction, and the anxiety with which He seeks to give them comfort. But to seek and to save that which was lost Christ came into the world, and all His discourses are full of earnest desire for the welfare of men–of pity for sinners, and of consolation for the miserable. His compassion was manifested even to those who rejected Him. But a view of compassion yet remains to be noticed, which in vain our ideas attempt to reach, or language to describe. He pays the price of human guilt, and gives His life a ransom for many. Having thus directed our attention to the compassion of that great High Priest, who is passed into the heaven–Jesus, the Son of God, let us apply these views to our condition, and consider the encouragement which they are fitted to afford when we approach to the throne of grace. The gracious office which Christ sustains, and the compassion of His character, are fitted to give to us encouragement in all our services, and through the whole of life. But there are special seasons which the apostle describes as the time of need, in which we are particularly called, in the exercise of hope and trust, to come to the throne of grace.

I. AMONG THESE WE ARE NATURALLY DIRECTED IN THE FIRST PLACE TO THAT OF A SINNER UNDER DEEP CONVICTIONS OF GUILT. How suited is the gospel of Christ to bring back to God and give peace to the troubled soul! And how admirably does the view of such a High Priest, touched with the feeling of our infirmities, harmonise with every part of the gracious plan for our recovery and salvation! In Him we see every quality which is calculated to insure the confidence, and to dissipate the fears of the humble and the contrite, and through Him, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, they seek the offered mercy, and find the promised rest.

II. AND ARE NOT THE SAME VIEWS CALCULATED TO ENCOURAGE US TO APPROACH THE THRONE OF GRACE, UNDER A SENSE OF OUR WEAKNESS, AND OF OUR DANGERS FROM WORLD LYING IN WICKEDNESS? In a state so surrounded with dangers, and especially in those seasons when we are made to feel how weak we are, or when wearied with the struggles and difficulties which we encounter on the path of duty, we are tempted to retire from the contest, and to leave the post; assigned us, hopeless of success–how fitted to inspire us with courage and perseverance is the view of that provision which the Father of mercies hath made for our support and direction, in the mediation of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. He is the same Divine Master who has passed before us through the scene of suffering and temptation, and has shown Himself to be so unspeakably our Friend. He knows the difficulties with which we have to struggle, and by proofs the most affecting He has taught us to place confidence in His care.

III. AND AS THE COMPASSION OF OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST GIVES COURAGE AND SUPPORT AMIDST THE DANGERS AND TRIALS OF LIFE, SO IT GIVES US COMFORT AND PEACE AT THE APPROACH OF DEATH. The Son of God changes the darkness into light. The glory of that state He hath prepared for us, sheds far its light, and illumines every prospect, and the voice of the Saviour is heard conducting and welcoming us to the mansions of His Father. How suited to the fallen state of man is the dispensation of the gospel! (S. MacGill, D. D.)

The sympathy of Christ

1. In attempting to describe the human sympathy of this Divine Being, I will first refer to His wonderful keenness of feeling. Intensely sensitive to nature, and drinking in illustration of highest truth from her homeliest appearances, He felt most keenly anything that could touch the feelings of the fellow-men. Unlike many people who, because they do not feel their own trials very keenly, nor crave for much sympathy amidst them, cannot understand the sufferings and cravings of more sensitive natures, Jesus was so touched by His own troubles, and had such a longing for the Divine and human sympathy in the midst of them, that He is marvellously quick to understand, and ready to sympathise with the most insignificant sorrows of the most sensitive souls.

2. But the sympathy of Jesus is as wide as it is ready. He whose exquisitely sensitive soul was thrilled by the beauty of a lily, and moved by the fall of a wounded sparrow, is keenly touched by whatever can touch a human heart, whether high or low, good or bad, a friend or an enemy. No man can be beyond the reach of His all-comprehending sympathy, because no man can be beyond the embrace of His all-comprehending love.

3. And His sympathy is as deep and tender as it is ready and comprehensive. And the reason of this is two-fold. He has been tempted in all points like as we are; and yet He is without sin. He can sympathise with the poor because He has been poor; with the weary and heavy laden, because He has been tired and worn; with the lonely, misrepresented, and persecuted, because He has been in their position. And because He was also tried, tried in mind as well as heart, by fear, by sad surprise, by mental perplexity, with the hard conflict with evil, and great spiritual depression, He is able to feel to the uttermost for those keenest sorrows of our earthly lot. And then this tried One was without sin. That was what enabled Him to drink in sympathy, and nothing but sympathy from all His sorrows. That is why He received all the sweetness from His sorrows and none of the bitterness, so that He is able out of the pure and exhaustless treasures of His sympathy to sweeten all our bitter cups.

4. For let us also remember that His sympathy is as practical as it is ready, deep, and comprehensive. Smpathising with the fond feeling which led the mothers to bring their children to Him, He at once took the little ones up in His arms, and blessed them; feeling for the hungry multitude He delayed not to spread a table for them in the wilderness. His compassionate soul melted with tenderness when He saw the widow weeping beside the bier; but at that very moment He stopped the bier and restored her only son to his mothers arms. How deep the sympathy which caused Him to burst into tears among the weeping ones He loved, before the grave of Lazarus; but how prompt the power to help which caused the dead man to come forth. It is the knowledge that now as then He is ready and able to help us as He is to feel for us, that emboldens us to come with all assurance to the throne of grace, and confide to Him our every trouble. And if His sympathy is to be to us anything more than a beautiful dream, we must there come into personal contact with Him amidst our own sorrows, and sound the depths of His sympathy by proving the fulness of His help. (P. J. Rollo.)

Touched with the feeling of our infirmities

There is no warmer Bible phrase than this. We might have never so many mishaps, the Government at Washington would not hear of them; and there are multitudes in Britain whose troubles Victoria never knows; but there is a throne against which strike our most insignificant perplexities. What touches us touches Christ. What robs us robs Christ. He is the great nerve-centre to which thrill all sensations which touch us who are His members.

I. He is touched with our PHYSICAL infirmities.

II. He is touched with the infirmities of our PRAYERS. He will pick out the one earnest petition from the rubbish, and answer it.

III. He is touched with the infirmity of our TEMPER.

IV. He sympathises with our POOR EFFORTS AT DOING GOOD. (Christian at Work.)

The tenderness of Jesus

I. HE HAS ASSUMED A VERY TENDER OFFICE. A king may render great aid to the unhappy; but, on the other hand, he is a terror to evil-doers: a high priest is in the highest sense ordained for men, and he is the friend and succourer of the most wretched.

1. It was intended, first, that by the high priest God should commune with men. That needs a person of great tenderness. A mind that is capable of listening to God, and understanding, in a measure, what He teaches, had need be very tender, so as to interpret the lofty sense into the lowly language of humanity.

2. But a high priest took the other side also: he was to communicate with God from men. Here, also, he needed the tenderest spirit to rule his faculties and to move his affections. But if I understand the high priests office aright, he had many things to do which come under this general description, but which might not suggest themselves, if you did not have the items set before you.

3. The high priest was one who had to deal with sin and judgment for the people. We have a High Priest into whose ear we may pour all the confessions of our penitence without fear. It is a wonderful easement to the mind to tell Jesus all. No doubt the high priest was resorted to, that he might console the sorrowful. Go to Jesus, if a sharp grief is gnawing at your heart.

4. The high priest would hear, also, the desires and wish, s of the people. When men in Israel had some great longing, some overwhelming desire, they not only prayed in private, but they would make a journey up to the temple to ask the high priest to present their petitions before the Lord. You may have some very peculiar, delicate desire as to spiritual things that only God and your own soul may know; but fear not to mention it to your tender High Priest, who will know your meaning, and deal graciously with you.

5. It was the high priests business to instruct and to reprove the people. To instruct is delightful; but to reprove is difficult. Only a tender spirit can wisely utter rebuke. Our Lord Jesus Christ tells us our faults in tones of love. His rebukes never break the heart.

II. HE HAS A TENDER FEELING. It is not merely true that He is apprised of our infirmities, since the Lord has said, I know their sorows; but He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. The sense of feeling is more intense, vivid, and acute than the sense of sight. It is one thing to see pain, but another thing to be touched with the feeling of it. Treasure up this view of your Lords sympathy, for it may be a great support in the hour of agony, and a grand restorative in the day of weakness. Note again, The feeling of our infirmities. Whose infirmities? Does not our mean yours and mine? Note well that word infirmities–touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He sympathises with those of you who are no heroes, but can only plead, the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. As the mother feels with the weakness of her babe, so does Jesus feel with the poorest, saddest, and weakest of His chosen. How comes this about?

1. Let us think of it a while! Our Lord has a tender nature. His innate tenderness brought Him from the throne to the manger, from the manger to the Cross.

2. Our Lord is not only tender of nature, but quick of understanding as to the infirmities of men.

III. HE HAD A TENDER TRAINING.

1. He was tried as we are–in body, mind, spirit.

2. But the text says, tempted, and that bears a darker meaning than tried. Our Lord could never have fallen the victim of temptation, but through life He was the object of it.

IV. HE HAS A TENDER PERFECTNESS. Do not imagine that if the Lord Jesus had sinned He would have been any more tender toward you; for sin is always of a hardening nature. If the Christ of God could have sinned, He would have lost the perfection of His sympathetic nature. It needs perfectness of heart to lay self all aside, and to be touched with a feeling of the infirmities of others. Hearken again: do you not think that sympathy in sin would be a poisonous sweet? A child, for instance, has done wrong, and he has been wisely chastened by his father; I have known cases in which a foolish mother has sympathised with the child. This may seem affectionate, but it is wickedly injurious to the child. Such conduct would lead the child to love the evil which it is needful he should hate. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The sympathy of Christ

The word tempted here includes, of course, all trials of soul and body, such as sorrow, pain, anguish, as well as what we commonly call temptation; but it is to this last that we will now confine ourselves. We can readily understand how our Lords perfect humanity should sympathise with ours, because both are of one nature; but how He who is sinless should sympathise with us sinners–this is the difficulty. How, it may be asked, can He sympathise in repentance, deserved shame, and guilt of conscience? It may be said, that this difficulty carries its own answer; for His sympathy with penitents is perfect, because He is sinless; its perfection is the consequence of His perfect holiness. And for these reasons:

1. First, because we find, even among men, that sympathy is more or less perfect, as the holiness of the person is more or less so. The living compassion, with which the holiest men have ever dealt with the sinful, is a proof that in proportion as sin loses its power over them, their sympathy with those that are afflicted by its oppressive yoke becomes more perfect.

2. And from this our thoughts ascend to Him who is all-perfect; who being from everlasting very God, was for our sakes made very Man, that He might unite us wholly to Himself. Above and beyond all sympathy is that of our High Priest. None hate sin but those who are holy, and that in the measure of their holiness; and therefore in the Person of our blessed Lord there must exist the two great conditions of perfect sympathy: first, He has suffered all the sorrows which are consequent upon sin and distinct from it; next, He has, because of His perfect holiness, a perfect hatred of evil. And these properties of His human nature unite themselves to the pity, omniscience, and love, which are the perfections of His Divine. Now we may see in what it is that our Lord, by the experience of humiliation in our flesh, has learned to sympathise with us: Not in any motion of evil in the affections or thoughts of the heart; not in any inclination of the will: not, if we dare so much as utter it, in any taint or soil upon the soul. Upon all such as are destroying themselves in wilful commerce with evil, He looks down with a Divine pity; but they have withdrawn themselves from the range of His sympathy. This can only be with those who are in sorrow under sin; that is, with penitents. It is in the suffering of those that would be cleansed and made holy that He partakes.

I. WE MAY PLEAD WITH HIM ON HIS OWN EXPERIENCE OF THE WEAKNESS OF OUR HUMANITY. None knows it better than He, not only as our Maker, who knoweth our frame, and remembereth that we are but dust, but as Man, who made full trial of our nature in the days of His flesh. He knows its fearful susceptibility of temptation–how, in its most perfect state, as in His own person, it may be solicited by the allurements of the evil one. And if in Him it could be tempted to sin, how much more in us! When we confess our sins before Him, we may lay open all. Things we hardly dare to speak to any man, to any imperfect being, we do not shrink from confessing before Him–things which men would not believe, inward struggles, distinctions in intention, extenuating causes, errors of belief–all the manifold working of the inward life which goes before a fall. With all His awful holiness, there is something that draws us to Him. Though His eyes be as a flame of fire, and the act of laying ourselves open to Him is terrible, yet He is meek and lowly of heart, knowing all our case, touched with the feeling of our infirmities.

II. WE MAY APPEAL TO HIS EXPERIENCE OF THE SORROW AND SHAME WHICH COME BY SIN UPON MANKIND. He suffered both as keenly and as fully as it was possible for one that was without sin (see Psa 22:1-2; Psa 22:6-8; Psa 22:14-15; Isa 53:3-4; Psa 69:1-3; Psa 69:7; Psa 69:10-12; Psa 69:20-21; Psa 88:1-2; Psa 88:5-9; Psa 88:14-16; Lam 1:12-13). All that sin could inflict on the guiltless He endured; and to that experience of shame and sorrow we guilty may appeal. Though we suffer indeed justly, yet can He feel with us though He did nothing amiss. Though in the bitterness of soul which flows from consciousness of guilt He has no part, yet when we take revenge upon ourselves in humiliation, and offer ourselves to suffer all He wills for our abasement, He pities us while He permits the chastisement to break us down at His feet. When our heart is smitten down within us, and withered like grass, so that we forget to eat our bread, it is a thought full of consolation, that we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Therefore let us ask for consolation from no other. Let us not go, I will not say to the world, and its fair words, smooth persuasions, shallow comforts, for to these no man whose repentance has any depth or reality in it can bear to go; they are miserable, falsifying stimulants, which beat and bewilder the heart, and leave it open to terrible recoils of sorrow; but let us not go to hooks or to employment; no, nor even to the consolation and tender love of friend, brother, wife, husband, spiritual guide; no, nor to the most perfect saint and nearest to Himself; but to Him for whose sake all these must be forsaken, in whom are all the fresh springs of solace which distil in scanty drops through the tenderest and fondest hearts. Let us go at once to Him. There is nothing can separate us from His sympathy but our own wilful sins. Let us fear and hate these, as for all other reasons, so above all for this, that they cut off the streams of His pure and pitiful consolation, and leave our souls to wither up in their own drought and darkness. So long as we are fully in His sympathy, let our sorrows, shame, trials, temptations, be what they may, we are safe. He is purifying us by them; teaching us to die to the world and to ourselves, that He only may live in us, and that our life may be hid with Christ in God. And again, that we may so shelter ourselves in Him, let us make to Him a confession, detailed, particular, and unsparing, of all our sins. And lastly, let us so live as not to forfeit His sympathy. It is ours only so long as we strive and pray to be made like Him. If we turn again to evil, or to the world, we sever ourselves from Him. (Archdeacon Manning.)

The sympathy of Christ

Our subject is the priestly sympathies of Christ. But we make three preliminary observations. The perfection of Christs humanity implies that He was possessed of a human soul as well as a human body. Accordingly in the life of Christ we find two distinct classes of feeling. When He hungered in the wilderness–when He thirsted on the Cross–when He was weary by the well at Sychar–He experienced sensations which belong to the bodily department of human nature. But when out of twelve He selected one to be His bosom friend; when He looked round upon the crowd in anger; when the tears streamed down His cheeks at Bethany; and when He recoiled from the thought of approaching dissolution; these–grief, friendship, fear–were not the sensations of the body, much less were they the attributes of Godhead. They were the affections of an acutely sensitive human soul, alive to all the tenderness, and hope and anguish with which human life is filled, qualifying Him to be tempted in all points like as we are. The second thought which presents itself is that the Redeemer not only was but is Man. He was tempted in all points like us. He is a high priest which can be touched. The present manhood of Christ conveys this deeply important truth, that the Divine heart is human in its sympathies. The third observation upon these verses is, that 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. Just as the results remained upon His body, the prints of the nails in His palms, and the spear-gash in His side, so do the results remain upon His soul, enduing Him with a certain susceptibility, for He can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; with certain qualifications, for He is able to show mercy, and to impart grace to help in time of need. To turn now to the subject itself. It has two branches.

1. The Redeemers preparation for His priesthood.

2. The Redeemers priestly qualifications.

I. HIS PREPARATION. The preparation consisted in being tempted. But here a difficulty arises. Temptation, as applied to a Being perfectly free from tendencies to evil, is not easy to understand. See what the difficulty is. Temptation has two senses, it means test or probation; it means also trial, involving the idea of pain or danger. A weight hung from a bar of iron only tests its strength; the same, depending from a human arm, is a trial, involving iv may be the risk of pain or fracture. Now trial placed before a sinless being is intelligible enough in the sense of probation; it is a test of excellence; but it is not easy to see how it can be temptation in the sense of pain, if there be no inclination to do wrong. However, Scripture plainly asserts this as the character of Christs temptation. Not merely test, but trial. First you have passages declaring the immaculate nature of His mind; as here, without sin. Again, He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. But then we find another class of passages, such as this: He suffered, being tempted. 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? To answer this, let us analyse sin. In every act of sin there are two distinct steps. There is the rising of a desire which is natural, and, being natural, is not wrong–there is the indulgence of that desire in forbidden circumstances, and that is sin. Sin is not a real thing. It is rather the absence of a something, the will to do right. It is not a disease or taint, an actual substance projected into the constitution. It is the absence of the spirit which orders and harmonises the whole; so that what we mean when we say the natural man must sin inevitably, is this, that he has strong natural appetites, and that he has no bias from above to counteract those appetites; exactly as if a ship were deserted by her crew, and left on the bosom of the Atlantic with every sail set and the wind blowing. No one forces her t., destruction–yet on the rocks she will surely go, just because there is no pilot at the helm. Such is the state of ordinary men. Temptation leads to fall. The gusts of instincts, which rightly guided, would have carried safely into port, dash them on the rocks. No one forces them to sin; but the spirit-pilot has left the helm. Sin, therefore, is not in the appetites, but in the absence of a controlling will. Now contrast this state with the state of Christ. There were in Him all the natural appetites of mind and body. Relaxation and friendship were dear to Him–so were sunlight and life. Hunger, pain, death, He could feel all and shrunk from them. Conceive then a case in which the gratification of any one of these inclinations was inconsistent with His Fathers will. At one moment it was unlawful to eat, though hungry; and without one tendency to disobey, did fasting cease to he severe? It was demanded that He should endure anguish; and, willingly as He subdued Himself, did pain cease to be pain? Could the spirit of obedience reverse every feeling in human nature? It seems to have been in this way that the temptation of Christ caused suffering. He 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 torture natural feeling.

II. The second point we take is THE REDEEMERS PRIESTHOOD. Priesthood is 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–He can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Till we have reflected on it, we are scarcely aware how much the sum of human happiness in the world is indebted t,, this one feeling–sympathy. The childs smile and laugh are mighty powers in this world. When bereavement has left you desolate, what substantial benefit is there which makes condolence acceptable? It cannot replace the loved ones you have lost. It can bestow upon you nothing permanent. But a warm hand has touched yours, and its thrill told you that there was a living respouse there to your emotion. One look–one human sigh has done more for you than the costliest present could convey. And it is for want of remarking this, that the effect of public charity falls often so far short of the expectations of those who give. Love is not bought by money, but by love. There has been all the machinery of a public distribution; but there has been no exhibition of individual, personal interest. Again, when the electric touch of sympathetic feeling has gone among a mass of men, it communicates itself, and is reflected back from every individual in the crowd, with a force exactly proportioned, to their numbers. It is on record that the hard heart of an oriental conqueror was unmanned by the sight of a dense mass of living millions engaged in one enterprise. He accounted for it by saying, that it suggested to him that within a single century not one of those millions would be alive. But the hardhearted bosom of the tyrant mistook its own emotions; his tears came from no such far-fetched inference of reflection; they rose spontaneously, as they will rise in a dense crowd, you cannot tell why. It is the thrilling thought of numbers engaged in the same object. It is the idea of our own feelings reciprocated back to us, and reflected from many hearts. And again, it seems partly to avail itself of this tendency within us, that such stress is laid on the injunction of united prayer. Solitary prayer is feeble in comparison with that which rises before the throne echoed by the hearts of hundreds, and strengthened by the feeling that other aspirations are mingling with our own. And whether it be the chanted litany, or the more simple read service, or the anthem producing one emotion at the same moment in many bosoms, the value and the power of public prayer seem chiefly to depend on this mysterious affection of our nature–sympathy. And now, having endeavoured to illustrate this power of sympathy, it is for us to remember that of this in its fullness He is susceptible. Observe how He is touched by our infirmities–with a separate, special, discriminating love. There is not a single throb, in a single human bosom, that does not thrill at once with more than electric speed up to the mighty heart of God. You have not shed a tear or sighed a sigh, that did not come back to you exalted and purified by having passed through the Eternal bosom.

1. We may boldly expect mercy from Him who has learned to sympathise. He learned sympathy by being tempted; but it is by being tempted, yet without sin, that He is specially able to show mercy.

2. The other priestly power is the grace of showing help in time of need. We must not make too much of sympathy, as mere feeling. We do in things spiritual as we do with the hothouse plants. The feeble exotic, beautiful to look at, but useless, has costly sums spent on it. The hardy oak, a nations strength, is permitted to grow, scarcely observed, in the fence and copses. We prize feeling and praise its possessor. But feeling is only a sickly exotic in itself–a passive quality, having in it nothing moral, no temptation and no victory. A man is no more a good man for having feeling, than he is for having delicate ear for music, or a far-seeing optic nerve. The Son of Man had feeling–He could be touched. The tear would start from His eyes at the sight of human sorrow. But that sympathy was no exotic in His soul, beautiful to look at, too delicate for use. Feeling with Him led to this, He went about doing good. Sympathy with Him was this, Grace to help in time of need. And this is the blessing of the thought of Divine sympathy. By the sympathy of man, after all, the wound is not healed; it is only stanched for a time. It can make the tear flow less bitterly, it cannot dry it up. So far as permanent good goes, who has not felt the deep truth which Job taught his friends–Miserable comforters are ye all ? The sympathy of the Divine Human! He knows what strength is needed. He gives grace to help. From this subject I draw, in concluding, two inferences.

1. He who would sympathise must be content to be tried and tempted. There is a hard and boisterous rudeness in our hearts by nature, which requires to be softened down. Therefore, if you aspire to be a son of consolation–if you would partake of the priestly gift of sympathy–if you would pour something beyond common-place consolation into a tempted heart–if you would pass through the intercourse of daily life, with the delicate tact which never inflicts pain–if to that most a cure of human ailments, mental doubt, you are ever to give effectual succour, you must be content to pay the price of the costly education. Like Him, you must suffer–being tempted. But remember, it is being tempted in all points, yet without sin, that makes sympathy real, manly, perfect, instead of a mere sentimental tenderness. Sin will teach you to feel for trials. It will not enable you to judge them; to be merciful to them–nor to help them in time of need with any certainty.

2. It is this same human sympathy which qualifies Christ for judgment. It is written that 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. There is nothing in His bosom which can harmonise with malice–He cannot feel for envy–He has no fellow-feeling for cruelty, oppression, hypocrisy, bitter censorious judgments. Remember, He could look round about Him with anger. The sympathy of Christ is a comforting subject. It is besides a tremendous subject; for on sympathy the awards of heaven and hell are built. Except a man be born again–not he shall not, but–he cannot enter into heaven. There is nothing in him which has affinity to anything in the Judges bosom. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)

The sympathy of Christ

I. IN ITS NATURE. The words touched, &c., mean to have compassion, to condole with. It is something more than pity. Sympathy cannot properly belong to God, the perfection of His nature raises Him above it. But it is different with Christ. Being man He had all the real affection of human nature.

II. IN ITS OBJECTS. These are all His people on earth, and it is manifested more particularly in their infirmities and afflictions.

III. IN ITS REALITY. The sympathy of Christ is no ideal thing. It is no mere intellectual or ideal supposition. It is one which has been put to a most serious and solemn test. He took away with Him all the meekness, holiness, compassion, and love, which He had when on earth. It is further manifest from the relationship which exists between Him and His people. Again, it is manifest from the offices which He retains in heaven. Can an High Priest whose love was stronger than death be unmindful of those whom He has redeemed? It urges

1. Affection towards our Redeemer. Shall we sympathise with one another in the common calamities of life, and not be affected by the sufferings of Jesus for us?

2. It incites encouragement to repentance. Repentance is going to Christ. Surely His sympathetic nature and gracious disposition should be sufficient inducement to draw us to His arms.

3. It should make us willing patiently to live for God and employ ourselves in His service. If we suffer, or if we toil, He knows our condition, and is acquainted with our needs.

4. It ought to cause Christians to sympathise one with another. We need sympathy ourselves; we cannot justly withhold it from others.

5. How can any man go on day after day sinning against love and compassion so great? (The Preachers Analyst.)

Christs sympathy with the infirm

There is much to wonder at here. We wonder that He should care for us at all, but still more that that care should be for those of our experiences apparently least likely to move Him. Men are interested in our successes, in those points where we are strong and brave, for the most part they care little for our weakness. The dull child, who for all his trying makes no progress, has not a tithe of the kindly thought lavsihed on another. In society the timid and nervous are overlooked and fall into the background; the strong, the self-reliant, the well-to-do haw friends, but the weak are passed by. Now it is just these, it is just those points where we are low–our infirmities–that our Lord thinks about, and feels for, and longs to help. And in this He who is farther off than any comes closer than any. Human friends can understand sickness, and suffering, and loss, and care, but how little they understand mere infirmity! They think we could be cheerful if we would, or that infirmity at the worst is not hard to bear, and they do not attach much weight to it, and know not its sore need of thoughtfulness, or of how much it deprives us. But, says the text, Christ does. He comes nearer to us than man, He is the friend closer than a brother, He knoweth our frame. Nor does that exhaust the wonder of His sympathy, for many of our infirmities are more or less due to sin. Yet He does not scorn us, or say it serves us right; but is sorry for us, and would help us, and make us what we should have been.

I. First, then, consider THE FACT OF THIS SYMPATHY OF THE LORD JESUS.

1. It is assured by His personal human experience.

2. And this sympathy is assured by His perfect knowledge and love.

3. But is there not, I had almost said, a still stronger assurance of our Lords sympathy in His union with His people? For that union is not merely one of love, nor of similarity of taste; it is that of a common life.

II. CONSIDER THIS SYMPATHY IN ITS CONNECTION WITH HIS HIGH-PRIESTLY WORK, He is the medium by which we can approach God with our sin and need, and by which God can approach us with His blessings. Now it is easy to see how priceless is the assurance that this Mediator is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, that He feels for us and is drawn to us by most tender sympathy.

1. As High Priest He has direct intercourse with us. The glory of God places Him at an infinite distance, but He has appointed Christ as His representative to us, and ours to Him. If a king appoints one to represent him to a prisoner who is not worthy to approach him, or to a poor man who is afraid, it is part of that representatives work to come into close intercourse with them; whoever else is barred from that prisoners cell, or free to keep away from that poor mans house, that representative is not. So the Lord Jesus, in accepting His high-priesthood, undertook thus to come close to us, and He fulfils what He undertakes.

2. As High Priest He prays for the supply of our need. What they want is ever profoundly sure to His people since His prayer for them is influenced by His sympathy, and Him the father heareth always.

3. As High Priest He brings us to the Father. We read of those who come unto God by Him; He said no man cometh unto the Father but by Me. Does that only mean that His sacrifice is the ground on which God receives us and refer to those who go to Him trusting that for acceptance, and not also that His is the help by which we tread the new and living way He is I Yes, Jesus brings us to God both by the merits of His sacrifice and by the aid of His Spirit.

III. Then consider, THIS SYMPATHY WITH INFIRMITY THE PATTERN FOR HIS PEOPLE. Christ-likeness includes sympathy.

1. Thus our Lords sympathy rebukes our hardness.

2. His sympathy shows one of the great needs of the world. It is part of His saving work as His atonement is; it is to save that He sympathises. What saving power was in His kindness on earth! And that is what the world wants still for its regeneration. (C. New.)

The sympathy of Christ

It has been well said, Though the lower animals have feeling, they have no fellow-feeling, it only belongs to man to weep with them that weep, and, by sympathy, to divide anothers sorrows and double anothers joys. I have read that the wounded stag sheds tears as its life blood flows fast upon the purple heather, but never that its pangs and agonies drew tears from its fellows in the herd. That finer touch of nature belongs to man alone. Sympathy is the echo that a heart gives to anothers cry of anguish. But a few weeks since I was in the land of mountains, crags, and rocks, and there, at different well-selected spots, I heard the blast of the Swiss horn. Grand were the echoes as they rolled among the mountain gorges, giving every snowy peak a voice, and every pine-clad hill a tongue. Marvellous was it to have the sound that first came from our very feet flung back upon our ears from distant ranges, that looked the very embodiment of silence. But more musical by far, because more heavenly, is the response given by a heart touched with the feeling of anothers grief, and that grief, the grief of one who has no legal claim upon its sympathy. But be it remembered, the best of human sympathy is but human sympathy at best. To see it in all its exquisite perfections of tenderness, we have to turn from man to his Maker–from the saint to his Saviour–from earth to heaven.

I. THE SYMPATHY OF JESUS FLOWS THROUGH KNOWLEDGE. Tea thousand springs of earthly sympathy are sealed through ignorance. Child of God, the sympathy of your Saviour is never lacking through want of knowledge. There is no wall of separation, however thin, that hides from His eyes the sorrow and the misery within. Jesus knows the every care of every saint. Poor troubled one, thou mayest venture nigh. Thou canst not tell Him that He knew not long before. Are you trying to carry your cares in your own bosom? Like the Spartan youth who stole a fox and hid it in his coat; are you letting it eat its way into your very vitals rather than it should be discovered? For pitys sake forbear. Go cast yourselves upon the sympathy of Him who not only reads the sorrow of the face, but the deeper anguish of the heart.

II. THE SYMPATHY OF JESUS IS PROMPTED BY HIS NATURE. With Jesus to know is to be touched. If His knowledge cuts the channel, His nature at the same moment fills it with the stream of compassionate love. Would you know what Jesus is? Then you have but to find out what Jesus was.

III. THE SYMPATHY OF JESUS IS DEEPENED BY EXPERIENCE. This is very beautifully taught in the closing sentence of the verse, But was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. There can after all be but little true sympathy, however loving the heart, where there has been no similar experience. It is the widow who knows best how to speak words of comfort to the one from whose side an affectionate husband has been torn. It is the man who has himself passed through the agonies of a financial difficulty that knows best how to cheer the one who, after every desperate effort to retrieve his fortune, yet finds himself going to the wall step by step. It is in the school of experience that the language of sympathy is best taught. Christs knowledge of our trials is not a theoretical but an experimental one. He knows what the weight of a burden is by having carried it. (A. G. Brown.)

The sympathy of the Saviour

The doctrine of my text is, Able to save is also able to feel.

I. Take the wonderful consolation of the text. Look at the expressive word TOUCHED; but is it not a weak, poor, or cold word? No I touched! That is, His sympathy does not overwhelm His power. Too great sympathy is death to power; the Saviour knows, helps, heals. Touched! He is not possessed by our infirmities. He always possessed them. As He said, I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it again. Walk with me through an infirmary; let us step from bed to bed–we are able to see, not to save–alas, what spectacles are here! Can you walk from bed to bed? can you feel for all that and this? Then, would your hand be strong enough to minister the skill of the surgeon and the tenderness of the nurse? It is difficult to walk through this, and to be touched with tenderness, and not lose the skilfulness. Hence it is said of our Lord, He was touched; that is, He holds our infirmities; on the contrary they hold us–our infirmities do not overwhelm His power. Touched by the feeling of our infirmities, He was untouched by the power of our infirmities. It was the last lesson necessary to make Him a merciful and faithful High Priest; it only proved His human ability to feel, and gives us confidence in His infinite ability to save.

II. EXTEND THIS ILLUSTRATION INTO DOCTRINE. And now from this shall we, after thus dwelling on the sympathy of the Saviour, proceed to see how it illustrates the principle of Divine Providence. The suffering of the world is the great mystery of the world; but what is the suffering of the world, compared with the greater mystery of the suffering of Christ? Can pure being know pain? Can God condition Himself in infirmity? Can eternity be touched by time? Well, Christ says, I cannot save you from suffering, but I can suffer for you; nay, I can attest Myself to your hearts as perpetually suffering with you.

III. LET US NARROW THE TEXT TO THE APPLICATION. I repeat, the doctrine of the text is, Able to save is able to feel. We find even among men that sympathy is more or less perfect as the holiness of the person is more or less so. There is no real sympathy among men of sensual, worldly, unspiritual life, unless we are to call the mere operations of natural instinct sympathy; it is not natural pity, it is consciousness, it differs little from our fellow-perception of heat and cold. Sin kills sympathy; as a man becomes infected with the power of evil, he ceases to sympathise with others, all his feelings centre in himself. Sin is self-centring; sinners put all worst constructions on each others words and acts–they have no consideration, no forbearance. Sanctity and charity are one; gentleness, compassion, tenderness, ripens–personal holiness grows more and more mature, and sympathy becomes more perfect as repentance becomes more perfect. May I venture a word on thoughts beyond our probation? They only have true sympathy who are dead to themselves, they must most truly sympathise who are most free from the taints of evil. Now, does not this give light to the nature of His sympathy who was God of very God, was made Man that He might unite us wholly to Himself? Above and beyond all sympathy is that of our High Priest. (E. Paxton Hood.)

Christ touched with a feeling of our infirmities

For the explaining of this let me show

1. What it is to be our High Priest.

2. What those infirmities are, with the feeling of which He is touched.

3. What it is to be touched with the feeling of them.

1. For the first, His office, as High Priest, may be best known by the acts of it. The acts of His office are principally two.

(1) Sacrificing for us to make reconciliation (Heb 2:17).

(2) By interceding.

2. What those infirmities are, with the feeling of which He is touched. Infirmities here are whatever our frail condition makes us subject to suffer by.

3. What is it to be touched with the feeling of our infirmities?

(1) He knows all our infirmities. None of them escape His notice.

(2) He knows them experimentally. Has Himself been exercised with them.

(3) He is affected with our infirmities, He feels them, He is touched with the feeling of them.

He has a sense thereof which touches His soul, and makes some impression on it; as one who not only has suffered what others feel, but suffers with them in what they feel. As when one member is under some grievance, not only the other members suffer with it, but the soul is affected with grief arising out of love, attended with desire to give or get relief, and anger and indignation against that which brought the grievance, or continues it, and hinders relier. In like manner is Christ affected with the infirmities of His people.

(a) He pities, has compassion on them.

(b) And this pity and compassion is not without the motions and acts of love. Indeed, this is the rise of it. It is out of such a love as made Him willing to humble Himself so low as to take our weaknesses and infirmities upon Him.

(c) This is attended with desire, accompanied with an inclination to succour, relieve such, whose condition is to be pitied; to do that which is best for them in such a condition. That which wants this is no pity indeed. It is that which is most advantageous and desirable in this affection; it is all that we must understand by compassion, when the Scripture ascribes it to the Lord; and when we conceive it to be in Christ as God, in the Divine nature, it is not in Him a troublesome or passionate grief. That is an imperfection not to be ascribed to Him; nor would it be any advantage to us if He were liable to it. But it is a willingness in Him to help and succour those whose state calls for pity or commiseration.

(d) This is accompanied with zeal and anger, or indignation, against those who occasion the grievance, or would make it worse and heavier.

(4) He is affected with our infirmities as a man. As He has a human nature, so He has human affections.

(5) He is affected with our infirmities as one concerned in us very much and nearly. As a friend (Joh 15:14-15); as a brother (Heb 12:11-12); as a father, with the grievances of His children (Heb 2:13); as a husband, with the wants or sufferings of the wife of His own 2Co 11:2); as one united to us, as counting Himself one with us (Eph 1:22-23).

(6) He is affected with them really and to purpose. He has a more effectual sense of them than any other, men or angels, yea, or we ourselves have; for He has such a sense thereof as will assuredly bring relier, which neither we ourselves, nor men or angels for us, can do in many cases.

(7) It is all extensive sympathy, it reaches all our infirmities. He has compassion on us in all our weaknesses, all that we suffer by, in all that has anything of misery or activeness in it. This is plain by the latter end of this verse: He was in all points tempted, &c. Oh but, it may be said, this exception does exclude the greatest part of our infirmities from this sympathy, and us from the comfort and advantage of it, in those points too which stand in most need of it: for those infirmities which proceed from sin, or are mixed with it, and sin itself especially, are our greatest misery, make our present state most lamentable, and so stand in most need of pity and relief. If Christ be not touched with the feeling of these (which are worst of all), so as to have compassion on us, and be ready to succour us, we are to seek in our greatest pressures and grievances, where we have most necessity of relief and pity; as e.g.,

(a) In those infirmities which are from sin, the effects of sin, which are many and great, is He not touched with the feeling, &c.? I answer, Yes, He is touched, &c. These are not excluded by the expression. He Himself laboured under these; for such infirmities as are from sin may be sinless, though they be the effects of sin, yet they may be innocent in themselves, and without sin; and all that are without sin He Himself was exercised with. He was tempted in all points, exercised with all infirmities, even those which are the effects of sin, as we are; only they were in Him without sin, as they are not in us. For He took the nature of fallen man, as it was bruised and rendered infirm by the fall; He took our nature as weakened by sin, though not as defiled by it; there was no sin in His human nature, but there were those weaknesses and infirmities which were the sad issues of sin. These He laboured under, and so knows how to pity and sympathise effectually with those that are yet under them.

(b) But in sinful infirmities, what relief is there hereby for them? Christ was not touched with any that were sinful, and how can He be touched with the feeling of them? e.g., the people of Christ have much ignorance and darkness, and many spiritual wants; they are sinfully defective, both in knowledge and holiness; and these are in themselves, and to those that are duly sensible of them, greater miseries than poverty, or sickness, or other outward afflictions and sufferings. I answer, Christ had something of these, though nothing of the sinfulness of them; so much of these, as that He can sympathise with His people under them. He wanted much knowledge of many things; He wanted some spiritual gifts, yea, and some exercise of grace, in some parts of His life, while He was upon earth. He came not to perfection in these, but by degrees, and till then was under some defect and imperfection, though not any that was sinful. For He wanted none that He ought to have had, or that His present state was capable of; yet, wants, defects, and inward weaknesses, without sin, He was really under Luk 2:40; Luk 2:52). Hereby it seems plain, that He had not at first that measure of knowledge, and of the Holy Ghost, as afterwards. He knew not so much, nor had that exercise of grace m His infancy or childhood, as at perfect age. His faculties were not capable of full perfection herein till they came to full maturity. So that He knows by experience what it is to be under defects and wants, and so knows how to pity those who labour under them. In this the comparison holds betwixt Him and the Levitical high priest (Heb 5:2).

(c) Oh, but He was never touched with sin (Heb 1:16), and this is our greatest misery, the sting of all grievances, that which makes all other to be heavy and grievous. If He be not touched with the feeling of our sin, we are at a loss where we have most need. I answer, There are four things considerable about sin, the offence, temptation to it, guilt of it, punishment for it. Now there are none of these but Christ was touched with them, but the first only. So that He had a greater sense of sin than any of His people ever had. We may hear Him cry out under the weight of it Lam 1:12). The whole penalty and curse was upon Him, part of which made His soul heavy unto death. So that, though He was without sin, yet He was touched, or rather oppressed with such a sense of sin, as is enough abundantly to move Him to all compassionateness to any of His people under the burden. It is an extensive sympathy; such as reaches not only infirmities that have no respect to sin, but those that are from sin, as its effects, and those that are sinful formally, yea, sin itself; He is touched with the feeling of all.

(8) It is a proportionable sympathy; a compassion which is exactly answerable to the nature and quality of every infirmity; fully commensurable to it, whatever it be. As it is not more than it needs, so it is not less than it requires, how much compassion and relief so ever it calls for.

(9) A constant and perpetual sympathy. It continues without any intermission so long as He is High Priest, or so long as our infirmities continue; so long as we are under any weakness, inward or outward; so long as we are in any danger or peril; so long as we are exposed to any trouble or suffering. This is one thing wherein the faithful discharge of His priestly office consists. And He is a priest for ever (Psa 110:4), repeated often in this Epistle (Heb 5:6; Heb 7:17; Heb 7:21).

Use

I. For instruction. This truth leads the people of Christ to many duties, and strongly obliges to the performance of them.

1. To admire Christ; to employ your minds in high, adoring, admiring thoughts of Christ, in His person, natures, offices, and the execution of them; but especially, wonderful in this, that He would be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.

2. To love Christ. There is no greater attractive of love to an ingenious temper than love. Now in that Christ is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, you have a most evident demonstration that He loves you. For hereby it is very clear what His love to you is.

(1) A great love, and most extensive; that can reach all conditions and circumstances which you are or may be in, even such as the love of others will not touch, will not come near: a love that will show itself in all cases, even where it could be least expected; a love that will surmount and overflow all discouragements.

(2) A free love. This is an evidence He can love freely; He can love those who are all made up of defects and imperfections.

(3) A lasting, a constant love, such as all the waters cannot quench, nor the floods drown. It cannot be nonplussed, it abides the sorest trials.

(4) A peerless love. It cannot be matched. There is no such thing to be found in heaven or earth, but in Christ only. Now, as He is High Priest, He is both God and man; and so His love to us is both the love of God and also the love of man in one person. No instance of such a love can be given in the whole world.

(5) It is a cordial love, not in show or appearance only, not in outward acts and expressions, but such as springs from His heart and affects that. He is touched, i.e., His heart is touched with the concerns of His people.

(6) An all-sufficient love.

II.
For comfort to the people of Christ. Here is ground of great consolation in every condition; in the worst, the most grievous circumstances that you can be compassed with in this world. (D. Clarkson, B. D.)

Our sympathising and sinless High Priest

I. WE HAVE AN HIGH PRIEST. It is in no figurative sense that Christ is called a High Priest.

II. WE HAVE A SYMPATHISING HIGH PRIEST.

1. His nature secures us of His sympathy. And this sympathy is of that intimate and tender kind of which He may be supposed capable who was in all respects like His brethren–that is, in all things requisite to constitute a perfect human nature. If, indeed, we make a distinction between sinless and sinful infirmities, we must also make a distinction between the kinds of feeling with which our High Priest can be touched. He is capable of feeling for both, but not certainly in the same manner. Those infirmities which we call sinless, and which are rather the painful consequences of sin than in themselves sinful, He felt Himself, as being inseparable now from human nature; and, consequently, He feels a sympathy of love for these unmingled with any emotions of disapprobation. But those infirmities, again, which are sinful, He could not Himself be conscious of; nay, they must have been, however palliated by circumstances, the subjects of His disapprobation. And yet as an High Priest or Mediator would not be required but on account of sin; and as it is in the work of receiving the confessions, preferring the supplications, and offering the gifts of sinners, through the merits of His atoning sacrifice, that He is expressly engaged, He must also feel the sympathy of compassion for those who are erring and out of the way, however much it be mingled with displeasure and pain.

2. But, lest any distressing doubts should still remain in your minds that, although a partaker of our nature, He may yet never have had our experience, without which He might still be regarded as not capable of being touched with a feeling of our infirmities, the apostle to this negative adds a positive assertion–He was in all respects tempted as we are. His experience, as well as His constitution, fits Him for our compassionate High Priest, and assures us of His sympathy. Human life is a state of suffering, and a period of temptation. All ranks and conditions of men have their peculiar trials; but to the human family many afflictions are common; and both the peculiar and the general sorrows of our race the Saviour knew by experience. Thus, with good intentions, He was subjected to trials by

God. But He was also solicited to sin, for the worst of purposes, both by unprincipled men and malignant fiends.

III. WE HAVE A SINLESS HIGH PRIEST. It is a curious speculation in the science of mind, and it has been made a dangerous one in that of divinity, how far solicitation to sin could assail the mind of the Holy One without His becoming sinful; and how an infallible, impeccable being, could possibly be subjected to real temptations. It is perhaps safe to establish no dogmas upon such subjects, and safer altogether to avoid their agitation. It is sufficient for religious ends, at least, to know, that the angels who kept not their first estate, Adam and Eve who lost paradise, and Christ Jesus who regained it, were all tempted by the solicitations of sin while yet in innocence. It is still more delightful to know that this untainted Saviour, having come out of the fiery furnace of temptation victorious, is able, in consequence of His subjection to trials, more feelingly and effectually to succour those who are tempted. (James Jarvie.)

Priestly sympathy for fellow-sufferers

I. THE FOUNDATION OF THE SYMPATHY OF CHRIST JESUS–WHAT IS IT?

1. The similarity of His circumstances. In all points tempted like as we are. As we, Jesus Christ was tried in the body, tried by toil, exhaustion, hunger, thirst, pain, and death. As we, Jesus Christ was tried in His estate or condition, tried by poverty, persecution, contempt, misrepresentation, desertion, tried by friendlessness, and tried by solitude. As we, Jesus Christ was tried in mind, by fear, perplexity, and sorrow. And as we. Jesus Christ was tried by the presentation of seducements to evil. Now in all this we see a similarity of condition.

2. But now, mark, the dissimilarity of character. He was tried in all points as we, but without sin. He never transgressed any law. He left nothing undone that he ought to have done. No defilement of sin ever entered His spirit. We would here remark that without sin, Jesus Christ would be more sensitive towards all kinds of suffering. It is true that He never could experience remorse. But all such feelings as sadness and fear would be stronger in Him than in us, because He was without sin. Sin hardens the soul. Holiness keeps every pore of the spirit open. Without sin, Christ Jesus would, in a world of sin, suffer that which no sinner in such a world could endure. Without sin, Jesus Christ would see forms of moral temptation more quickly and completely.

II. THE SPHERE IN WHICH THE SYMPATHY OF CHRIST IS HERE SAID TO BE DISPLAYED. He appears in the presence of God for us as our great High Priest, and in the presence of God for us, appearing as our great High Priest, He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. As He represents us with all our infirmities, He is touched with the feeling of those infirmities. He offers, as our great High Priest, in the sense of application, the sacrifice for sin. So far as the provision of the atonement was concerned, that was finished when He gave up the ghost. He does not, in that sense, offer Himself often, but so far as the application of His sacrifice is concerned, this is perpetual. And thus offering, in the sense of the application, His own sacrifice for sin, as He does this, He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Then, as our Priest, He cleanses us and purifies us. This is one of the functions of the priesthood, to sprinkle clean water upon us that we may be clean; and as He purifies us, He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. It is also part of His work, in the name of Jehovah to bless us, to say to us, as the priest of old, Jehovah bless thee, and keep thee. And as He pronounces upon us this Divine benediction He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. It is also His to make intercession for us. And as He mentions our name, and records our circumstances, He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, touched with the feeling of our infirmities as we exhibit them. Some of our infirmities may be down in the dark depths of our spiritual nature, but when we present ourselves, we present even these infirmities to His eye, and as we exhibit them He is touched by them. As we become conscious of them He is touched with His fellow-feeling–hence He does not deal with them with rough, but gentle hand. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, as in various ways He recognises them; touched because of His goodness, because as God He is love, and touched because of His past experience. But what shall we do with this fact? Let us, therefore, come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Some are inclined to stay away from the throne of grace because of their sorrows. This sacred writer forbids our keeping at a distance from the throne of grace, because of these infirmities and troubles, and in the name of God he bids us come just as we are. The greater your sorrows, the greater need is there for your coming. The more fierce your temptations, the greater necessity is there for your coming. And, I may say, the more you need to have done for you, the more welcome you will be. (S. Martin, D. D.)

Christs sympathy

They tell us that, in some trackless lands, when one friend passes through the pathless forests, he breaks a twig ever and anon as he goes, that those who come after may see the traces of his having been there, and may know that they are not out of the road. Oh, when we are journeying through the murky night and the dark woods of affliction and sorrow, it is something to find here and there a spray broken or a leafy stem bent down with the tread of Christs foot and the brush of His hand as He passed, and to remember that the path He trod He has hallowed, and that there are lingering fragrances and hidden strengths in the remembrance, in all points tempted as we are, bearing grief for us, bearing grief with us, bearing grief like us. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Touched with the feeling

Dont you sometimes find it very hard to make even your doctor understand what the pain is like? Words dont seem to convey it. And after you have explained the trying and wearying sensation as best you can, you are convinced those who have not felt it do not understated it. Now, think of Jesus not merely entering into the fact, but into the feeling of what you are going through. Touched with the feeling–how deep that goes! (F R. Havergal.)

Faithfulness born of sympathy

Mr. Howells tells of a cab-driver in Florence, in whose cab at nightfall he sent home a child to the hotel from a distance. Being persistent in securing the drivers number, the cabman began to divine his reason, and so he replied to Mr. Howells, Oh! rest easy, I, too, am a father! (H. O. Mackey.)

Christs sympathy

Our gracious Queen, during her long and chequered reign, has been permitted to send many a letter of condolence to crowned heads in foreign lands, when they have been called, in the providence of God, to exchange their crowns and coronets for tokens of mourning. Amongst them all there never was one that carried with it and in it such a deep, sweet grace of tenderness as that which she wrote with her own hand some time since to the widow of the late President of the great republic of America. And why did it bring such a depth of comfort? Because its I,ages were stained with the tears of a kindred widowhood. (Bp. of Algoma.)

Sympathy with the tempted

Having been tempted–or pierced through, Luther was a piercing preacher, and met with every mans temptation; and being once demanded how he could do so? Mine own manifold temptations, said he, and experiences are the cause thereof; for from his tender years he was much beaten and exercised with spiritual conflicts. (J. Trapp.)

Christs abiding sympathy

Trajan, the Emperor, being blamed by his friends for being too gentle towards all, answered that being an Emperor he would now be such toward private men, as he once, when he was a private man wished that the Emperor should be towards him. Christ hath lost nothing of His wonted pity by His exaltation in heaven. (J. Trapp.)

Christs temptation like ours

Christ was tempted like as we are. Are we tempted through the senses? So was He. Are we tempted by opportunities of carnal honour and carnal power? So was He. Are we tempted through our human affections? So was He. Are we tempted to deflection from the path of obedience by the infirmities of the good, or the crafty questioning of the worldly wise? So was He. Every testing process to which we are subjected He went through. Satan omitted no conceivable mode, and withheld no possible intensity of trial from the holy soul of Immanuel. All the magic prospects and all the soothing illusions that externalism could give, all its joyful or mournful influences, all its power of tenderness or terror, he employed to enchant or to assail the Son of Man. So He was tempted in all points as we are, as to the instruments of temptation, though He had not all our susceptibilities to their touch. In all points in which He could innocently, He did actually resemble us. He was ever tempted as we s re; though ever victorious, as we are not. (C. Stanford,D. D.)

Christ tempted in all the faculties of humanity

A geographer may be a competent representative of the land through which he travels, without having stood on every single foot of ground which he describes. Robinson did not need to tread every square inch of the streets of Jerusalem in order to understand the topography of that city, and represent it accurately to us. It was not necessary that Christ should pass through every shade and every inflection of human experience in order to understand them. For all experience issues from certain definite foundations of faculty; and it is enough if every faculty which works in us was proved, pained, tempted, and tried in Him, and tried up to this measure, that no man should thereafter live who should have any temptation or trial that should make against any given faculty such a pressure as was made against our Saviour. Pride–is it tempted among men? All that I require is, that Christ should have felt a temptation of pride that should more than equal it; that should swell immeasurably above and overmatch any trial that befals His followers below–in other words, enough put to proof in that particular faculty of the human soul, to understand what that faculty can suffer; how it can be tempted; what course is needed to sustain one under such temptation. It is not needful, therefore, that Christ should sustain the relationship of husband, for He never was in wedlock; or of father. It only requires that He should sustain such a relation to universal human nature or life that there should be no faculty, no passion, no sentiment that is tempted in us, that should not also be tempted in Him; and that there should be no such pressure brought to bear upon us that our temptation should ever be greater than His knowledge of temptation through His own suffering. (H. W.Beecher.)

The tempted High-Priest

I. WE HAVE TO STUDY THE APOSTLES ASSERTION.

1. He was tempted. God is not tempted of evil; but the Saviour was. It is obvious that temptation can be a possibility only to a created spirit. On this account the Hebrews felt the idea of a tempted Saviour to be one most discordant to their tastes, repulsive to their pride. But Paul in this letter, which was written for the very purpose of confirming their faith, makes no attempt to soften or qualify that truth which so much tried it; he advances considerations which prove that what seemed to be the shame of the gospel was its glory, and that what seemed to be its weakness was one of the secrets of its power. He reiterates the statement that Christ was in reality tempted.

2. Yes, not only was He tempted, but the apostle adds, He was tempted in all points like as we are. He was tempted by all the powers, all the arts, all the devices, and all the instruments which are brought to bear upon us. In all points in which He could innocently, He did actually resemble us: He was ever tempted as we are, though ever victorious as we are not.

3. When the sacred writer has said of Jesus, He was in all points tempted as we are, he adds the remarkable qualification yet without sin. That is, the tempter found Him without sin, and left Him without sin. Imagine a father, in some dreary days of poverty, having the chance of taking, undetected, gold belonging to another man. He is without the sin of dishonesty, but the thought of his starving child, and the possibility by this one secret act of saving it from death will surely be a real trial; and, though he shakes off the thought like fire, does he not feel the temptation? Imagine some saint sentenced to perish at the stake for Christ. The authorities say, Recant and live, or confess and die! He is without the sin of spiritual disloyalty, but as he looks through the prison-bars on the green of the spring, and the blue glory of the sky, as in contrast to all this comes the thought, that if he should be constant to his Saviour he must shiver in the shaded cell through months of weariness and only be brought forth at last into the glare of day to die; although he may say, O Jesus, though all men should deny Thee, yet will not!!–do not all these things combine to make that offer of dear life a temptation hard to overcome? It is therefore conceivable that although Christ was without sin, He was not without the susceptibility of being tempted. He appropriated our nature with all its weakness.

II. Let us now with profound reverence endeavour to ascertain THE ENDS OF THE SAVIOURS TEMPTATIONS.

1. He was tempted that He might be perfected. The Divine nature could not be perfected; that, indeed, was perfect already, for that which is not always perfect is not always God. But human nature is born week and undeveloped; it has to grow in mind and in body; one of its essential laws is its capability of improvement. Thus it was that even Jesus had to he educated. He did not start into full stature in the flash of a moment. True, the Saviour was always perfect even as to His human nature, but perfection is a relative thing; the perfection of a child is something lower than the perfection of a man–as negative excellence differs from positive excellence, and as the perfect bud is inferior to the bright consummate flower.

2. He was tempted that He might destroy the dominion of the tempter.

3. He was tempted that His peculiar and characteristic experience of temptation might lead His followers also to expect the same.

4. He was tempted that He might teach us by His example how to meet and sustain temptation. He was led not by the action of His own choice, but by the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil; and in all subsequent instances you may trace the rule of the same principle. If you dwell in the jungle you are likely to take the jungle fever. If you daily with the crested worm, you are likely to be smitten with his deadly fang; and so, if you pitch your tent in Vanity Fair, you are likely to catch the vain spirit of the scene. To grapple with temptation is a venture; to fly from it is a victory.

5. He was tempted, to afford His tempted people the assurance of His sympathy. Even under ordinary circumstances we yearn for sympathy. Without it the heart will contract and droop, and shut like a flower in an unkindly atmosphere, but will open again amidst the sound of frankness and the scenes of love. When we are in trouble, this want is in proportion still more pressing; and for the sorrowful heart to feel alone is a grief greater than nature can sustain. A glance of sympathy seems to help it more than the gift of untold riches. Let it be remembered that it is suffering, and not necessarily similarity in other respects, that gives the power of sympathy. And did not Jesus suffer, being tempted? His infinitely holy nature, brought in contact with sin by temptation, must have passed through depths of shame and sorrow that we, the sinful, can never sound.

6. He was tempted that we might be encouraged to boldness in prayer for help. The dispensation of help is lounged in the hands of Jesus. We may infer, therefore, with what wisdom, delicacy, and promptitude it will be brought to us when we seek it. (U. Stanford, D. D.)

The temptation of our Lord

In reflecting on our Lords temptations, and on the sympathy which He now feels for those who are tempted, it is very necessary to remember the difference between temptation and sin, or the propensity to sin. Many persons cannot comprehend how any one can be tempted to sin who has no sinful propensity. It seems to these persons that an object presented to such an one with a view to temptation can, in fact, be no temptation at all; and that it can exert as little influence on his mind as it can upon a rock or a tree. Hence, as Christ was tempted in all points like as we are; as He is our example in resisting temptations; and as He sympathises with us in all our temptations, they think that He must have had a sinful tendency in His human nature. In order that we may not confound temptation with sin, or with a sinful tendency, let us consider what sin is an! what temptation is. We cannot have a better definition of sin than that which the Apostle John gives us, Sin is the transgression of the 1Jn 3:4). Man is the subject of numerous desires and affections which are essential to human nature. All mans natural desires–I mean his desires as man, not as fallen man–were intended to be gratified and were implanted for that very purpose. But they were intended to be gratified only in a certain way; only in that way which God should appoint, and which should be conducive to His glory and to the welfare and happiness of all His holy creatures. And this way He traced out in His law, and delineated upon the hearts and consciences of His creatures. Sin, then, as the apostle tells us, is the transgression of the law. It is the wish or attempt to gratify these natural desires, indifferent in themselves, in a way which God has forbidden. Next, what is temptation? Temptation is trial. Temptation is that which serves to show us what we are, and what is in us. It brings t., light the strength or weakness of our faith, our love to God, and our regard to His law. There are two ways in which a man may be tempted, or tried, or examined. First–When search is made into his heart and conduct by simple inquiry. In this way we are commanded to tempt or examine ourselves. Secondly–A man is tempted when he is exposed to the influence of some object of natural desire, or fear, or aversion, whose tendency, if it were not regulated by the fear of God, would be to draw or drive him out of the path of duty. God, we are told, did tempt Abraham thus, when He commanded him to offer up Isaac. This is the mode of trial which we usually understand by the word temptation. In this mode it is the prerogative of God alone to tempt us, or to lead us into temptation. It is of temptation in this latter sense only that [ at present speak. In order that there should be temptation it is necessary that there should be a certain natural adaptation or affinity in the mind to the object of temptation; but if higher principles so rule and govern the soul that they entirely neutralise that affinity, so that not the slightest inclination or desire for sinful gratification is excited, then there is neither sin nor propensity to sin. So far is there from being any propensity to sin, that the very temptation proves that there is the strongest propensity towards holiness. It puts to the test and proves the existence and strength of the positively holy principles which regulate all the motions of the mind and of the heart. Two substances, suppose, are chemically combined by a mutual affinity or attraction. The strength of this affinity is tested by introducing another substance which has an affinity to one and not to the other of the substances in combination. If one of these substances has a stronger affinity for the test than it has for the substance with which it is combined, it will disengage itself and unite with the test. But if its affinity for the substance with which it is combined be stronger it will remain as before. And if the most powerful tests are applied without producing any change, this proves that the affinity of the two substances in combination is too strong to be overcome by any other which is known to exist. Thus, in a perfectly holy being, the principle of love to God and His law is an affinity too powerful to be overcome by the most powerful of all desires, or the most painful of all sufferings. No temptation can excite even a single momentary inclination to disobey God and to sacrifice the principles of eternal righteousness and truth. Our Lord was perfect Man, and possessed all those affections which naturally belong to a perfect man. Had He not possessed them He could not have been the subject of temptation. But not only so, He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs. He was made subject to all the trials, sorrows, and sufferings which belong to man in his fallen state, save and except those which are inseparably connected with the ignorance, the alienation from God, and the habits of sin, which adhere to every other child of Adam. He always perfectly knew His Fathers character and will, and was always, even from the womb, perfectly inclined to obedience, and filled with a perfect abhorrence of sin. He, therefore, could have no ignorance to mislead Him; no alienation of heart from God to overcome; no force of evil habit to subdue. In Him the love of God reigned supreme, and was in constant and uninterrupted exercise. No tendency to sin ever existed in His holy mind. He experienced none of that warfare between the flesh and the spirit which exists in us, because in Him the love of God was perfect, and the Spirit dwelt in Him without measure. Yet His temptations infinitely exceeded ours, both in power, variety, and number; and therefore He is able to sympathise with us in all our temptations far more perfectly, and to enter far more fully into all the difficulties and trials of each individual among us, than it is possible for any other human being to do. He does not, indeed, sympathise with us from experience in the warfare between the flesh and the spirit, for that were to sympathise with us in our sin, in our want of love to God, and in the weakness of our faith. And God forbid that we should ever desire any one to sympathise with us in sin. Yet though He does not sympathise with us in this warfare, yet He has compassion on us, and is ever ready to look with a pitying eye on our weakness. (J. Rate, M. A.)

Christ the strength of the tempted

The first thought is suggested by the position of the words. They come just after the most solemn warnings and threatenings to be found in the Bible. If they listened only to the warnings from the disastrous history of their forefathers, who perished in the wilderness as the penalty of their backsliding from God, they would be driven to despair lest they should fall after the same example of unbelief; but he points them to the Saviour, who is stronger than all their enemies, and to the love and grace that can redeem them from all their sins. The Bible revelation of God is a combination throughout of these contrasted elements of the Divine nature. Righteousness and mercy, justice and love, are the revelations of Gods character in Christ. Our characters as Christians must lay hold of, and grow upon these foundations. Our faith in its fulness is like the tree whose roots grapple the rocks, and twine themselves around the foundations of the hills far below the surface in the hidden recesses; but the branches wave in the breezes, and clothe themselves in the beauty of foliage, and echo with the glad song of birds, and climb up ever towards the light and the sky. So our faith must have roots in the conviction of sin and the justice of God, but it most climb up to the light of Gods forgiveness and love in Christ. It must be strong and tender–a combination of awe and childlike trust. Now let us try to understand the meaning of the text itself. Jesus Christ is touched with a feeling of all our infirmities, because He was tempted as we are. He was without sin, and therefore He was not tempted by evil designs. He was not tempted by the hereditary proclivities. But temptations may come from perfectly sinless desires. The motive to violate a law may come from the noblest affections of the human soul. During the late war, thousands of men deserted from the army on both sides, from cowardice, and from ignoble treachery to the cause in which they were enlisted. There was one soldier who entered the army at twenty-three, leaving a young wife at home. His record as a soldier had no stain upon it. He had borne the colours of his regiment in a hundred battles. In the last terrible days of suffering in the winter around Petersburg, he stood to his post without flinching for a moment. A letter comes to him from his home. A poor neighbour writes to him that his wife is dying and his children are starving. He applies for a furlough, but it cannot be granted. Again a pitiful appeal comes from the same hand. He goes to his home, buries his dead wife, cares for his children, comes back to the army, and is arrested for desertion in the face of the enemy. Before the court-martial that tries him, he has nothing to say why the sentence should not be passed upon him. He knew it was death and he was ready to take it; but he asks them, as a favour to him, to read a letter, that they might know he was not a coward. The judge advocate begins to read the letter aloud, but his voice trembles and breaks. It is handed from one to the other and read in silence; and not a man in court could keep back the tears of sympathy for a brave comrade. The sentence is passed with a recommendation for pardon, and the pardon is given by the commanding general. He was tempted to violate his duty as a soldier by fidelity to his wife, and children. We can be tempted by the noblest impulses of which the human heart is capable. A good man suffers more in the presence of temptation than the bad man. The good man resists; and the resistance involves a struggle which strains every nerve, and puts every principle to the test. A distinguished writer illustrates this psychological principle. There are two men in business: one is conscientious and honourable; the other, a trickster ready for any sharp practice. Both are under the pressure of financial difficulties. An opportunity is offered to each to make a fortune by fraud. The conscientious man has seen disaster coming, His wife was reared in affluence; she has parted with her luxuries, and is doing the work of servants. He says to himself, I might take the care and the burden from her, and save the children from poverty by this single stroke. But no, so help me God, I will see them starve before I sell my honour and conscience. The trickster, on the other hand, welcomes the opportunity. He argues, Others do it, why may not I? With him there is no moral struggle. His weakened conscience offers no barrier against which the temptation frets and rages. He and the tempter are of one mind. The wicked fall into temptation, the good resist it. But the resistance involves suffering as the price of the victory. We are told that Christ suffered, being tempted. The difference between our temptation and that of the Saviour is this: the will of His flesh was pure and innocent; the will of our flesh is impure and sinful; and these render us more liable to fall, but they do not increase the pain of the conflict, but rather diminish it. Christ suffered, being tempted, and His suffering was greater in proportion to His moral antagonism to evil. This principle takes His temptation out of the region of unreality and appearance, and unites Him to us in a living bond of human brotherhood. Human sympathy is too dull to comprehend the deeper struggles of a sensitive conscience with hidden temptation. But He who was tempted in all points as we are knows it all, and can give you grace for your hour of need. You may confess all these sins to Him. He triumphed over them, and you have yielded to them. Yet He has measured the strength of each of these temptations; and that experience has qualified Him to redeem you from their power, and to save you by His grace. (Bp. A. M. Randolph.)

Yet without sin

Of Christ being without sin

Christ was pure, without sin, upon these grounds:

1. That His human nature might be fit to be united to the Divine nature.

2. That He might be a sufficient Saviour of others. For such an High Priest became us, who is holy, undefiled, separate from sinners (chap. 7:26).

3. That we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (2Co 5:21).

4. That we might be saved, and yet the law not frustrated (Rom 8:3; Rom 10:4).

5. That Satan might have nothing to object against Him.

6. That death, grave, and devil might lose their power by seizing on Him that was without sin.

(1) The aforesaid purity of Christ, to be without sin, puts a difference betwixt Christ and other priests, who offered for themselves and for the errors of the people (chap. 9:7).

(2) It hence appeareth that no other man could have been a sufficient priest; for there is none righteous; no, not one. All have sinned Rom 3:10; Rom 3:23).

(3) This affordeth much comfort to us against our manifold sins; for when we appear before God He beholds us in our Surety. Gods eye is especially cast upon Him who is without sin.

(4) This may be a good incitement unto us to cleanse ourselves from all sin as far as possibly we can, that we may be like unto Him (1Jn 3:3). (W. Gouge.)

Sin no aid to sympathy

It might be supposed that to sinful men a high priest who had known sin would be fuller of sympathy. But the apostle is not writing to men as sinners, to men who have fallen, but to men in danger of falling. And to the condition of such men Christs history appeals with power. He knew all temptation, and can sympathise with those tempted; He overcame it, and this gives Him skill and power in opening up a way of escape. And even of sin a sinner is an ill judge; he will either regard it with undue abhorrence, or with mawkish sentiment, or with a callousness that comes of thinking it a matter of course among men. A clear, uncoloured view of it, and of those liable to it, can only be found in the mind tempted but unfallen. (A. B. Davidson, LL. D.)

Come boldly unto the throne of grace

Boldness at the throne

I. HERE IS OUR GREAT RESORT DESCRIBED: The throne of grace. Indrawing near to God in prayer we come

1. To God as a King, with reverence, confidence, and submission.

2. To one who gives as a King; therefore we ask largely and expectantly.

3. To one who sits upon a throne of grace on purpose to dispense grace.

4. To one who in hearing prayer is enthroned and glorified.

5. To one who even in hearing prayer acts as a sovereign, but whose sovereignty is all of grace.

II. HERE IS A LOVING EXHORTATION: Let us come. It is the voice of one who goes with us. It is an invitation

1. From Paul, a man like ourselves, but an experienced believer who had much tried the power of prayer.

2. From the whole Church speaking in him.

3. From the Holy Spirit.

III. HERE IS A QUALIFYING ADVERB: Boldly.

1. Constantly, at all times.

2. Unreservedly, with all sorts of petitions.

3. Freely, with simple words.

4. Hopefully, with full confidence of being heard.

5. Fervently, with importunity of pleading.

IV. HERE IS A REASON GIVEN FOR BOLDNESS. Therefore.

1. That we may obtain mercy, and find grace; not that we may utter good words, but may actually obtain blessings.

(1) We may come when we need great mercy because of our sin.

(2) We may come when we have little grace.

(3) We may come when we are in need of more grace.

2. There are many other reasons for coming at once, and boldly.

(1) Our character may urge us. We are invited to come for mercy, and therefore undeserving sinners may come.

(2) The character of God encourages us to be bold.

(3) Our relation to Him as children gives us great freedom.

(4) The Holy Spirits guidance draws us near the throne.

(5) The promises invite us by their greatness, freeness, sureness, &c.

(6) Christ is already given to us, and therefore God will deny us nothing.

(7) Our former successes at the throne give us solid confidence.

3. The great reason of all for bold approach is in Jesus.

(1) He once was slain, and the mercy-seat is sprinkled with His blood.

(2) He is risen, and has justified us by His righteousness.

(3) He has ascended and taken possession of all covenant blessings on our behalf. Let us ask for that which is our own.

(4) He is sympathetic, tender, and careful for us; we must be heard.

Conclusion:

1. Let us come to the throne, when we are sinful, to find mercy.

2. Let us come to the throne, when we are weak, to find help.

3. Let us conic to the throne, when we are tempted, to find grace. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

On coming boldly to the throne of grace

I. LET US SEE WHAT IT DECLARES THE LORD TO BE IN HIMSELF. His throne of grace signifies

1. That He is a God of glory, of a glorious majesty. Here was the most glorious and majestic appearance of God amongst His people of old. Upon the mercy-seat He appeared in glory. The ark, whereof this very mercy-seat was a part, the most rich and splendid part, is called His glory Psa 78:61). Here He vouchsafed His special presence, as upon His throne.

2. That He is a God of dominion and sovereignty, that He rules and reigns and is supreme governor (Psa 99:1-2). He reigns; that appears by His throne. He sits between the cherubims. As so represented, the mercy-seat was His throne. Upon this account greatness, supremacy is ascribed to Him (verse 2), and from hence Hezekiah declares His sovereignty over all kingdoms (2Ki 19:15).

3. That He is a God of power and might, of almighty power. When He is spoken of as upon His throne, the mercy-seat, He is called the Lord of hosts, one who has all the power in the world (1Sa 4:4, 2Sa 6:2); and the ark, whereof the mercy-seat was a principal part, is called the strength of God (Psa 78:61; Psa 132:8), because, as it was a testimony of His presence, so a symbol of His strength and power, ready to be engaged for His people.

4. That He is a God of holiness (Psa 99:5). To worship at His footstool is to worship towards the mercy-seat (verse 1), between the cherubim. There He resided as a God of holiness. And upon that account every part of the temple, yea, the hill where it was seated, was counted holy (verse 9). But above all, that part where the mercy-seat was, that was the most holy place, or as it is in Hebrew, the holiness of holinesses Exo 27:23). The mercy-seat was the throne of His holiness Psa 47:8); and giving oracles from thence, it is called the oracle of holiness (Psa 28:2).

5. That He is a God of wisdom, who sees and knows all things, to whom nothing is hid, or obscure, or difficult. From the mercy-seat He gave oracles; He made discoveries to His people of such things which otherwise they could not come to the knowledge of.

6. In fine, the mention of the throne of grace minds us of the wisdom of God, that we should draw near Him as one who knows our state, yea, our hearts, and understands all the ways and means how to help us and do us good.

II. WHAT THE THRONE OF GRACE DECLARES THE LORD TO BE UNTO US.

1. A God in Christ. The throne of grace is the throne of God and of the Rev 22:3). The throne of God alone is not to be approached by us; but the throne of God and the Lamb is the seat of mercy, the throne of grace. He not only gives law to His people, but makes provision for them, that their souls may have plenty (verse 1 with Eze 47:1-23.), and he protects His subjects too. As the wings of the cherubims (parts of the mercy-seat) overshadowed and covered the holy things, so does He cover and overshadow His holy ones.

2. A God reconciled. It signifies that His justice is satisfied, His wrath appeased; not now incensed against His people, but well pleased and propitious. The name of the mercy-seat declares this. It is , a propitiatory.

3. A God of forgiveness. As graciously pardoning the sins of His people. When He is represented to us upon the mercy-seat, He is set forth as a God that has found out a way to hide our sins out of His sight.

4. A God in covenant (Num 10:33; Heb 9:4).

5. A God that will have communion with His people; one who will admit dust and ashes to have fellowship with Him. He offers there to meet them, to commune with them, to discover and communicate Himself to them. He admits His servants to communion with Him when He vouch ales to meet them. And the mercy-seat was the place of meeting which the Lord appointed for Moses (Exo 30:36). He will meet with him as we meet with a friend whom we desire and delight to converse with. He would meet His servants there to discover Himself to them. The LXX render it, I will be known to thee from thence, He did make known Himself as a man to his friend. There He did commune with them (Exo 25:22).

6. A God that bears prayer, and will answer the petitions and supplications of His people. The Lord gave answers from the mercy-seat; and this may be the reason why their posture of old in worshipping and praying was towards the mercy-seat (Psa 28:2). That was the place where the mercy-seat was. Called the oracle, because the Lord from the mercy-seat gave answers; and so it is rendered by some the answering place (so Psa 5:7).

7. A God that is present with His people. More particularly this denotes

(1) An intimate presence. He is in the midst of His people. So He was while He was on the mercy-seat, so He will be while that remains, which this did but typify; while the throne of grace, while the mediation of Christ continues, who is King and Priest for ever.

(2) A special, a gracious presence. He was not present here only as He is in the rest of the world, but in a more special way, as upon a mercy-seat, from which others were far removed, so as they could have no access to the propitiatory, no advantages by it.

(3) A glorious presence. As the mercy-seat upon which the Lord appears is a throne of grace, so is it a throne of glory (Jer 17:12; Jer 14:21).

(4) An all-sufficient presence–sufficient to secure them from all things dreadful and to supply them with all things desirable. This is the security of His people (Psa 46:5).

(5) A continuing presence. He is said to dwell on the mercy-seat. In reference thereto is His promise (1Ki 6:13). The throne of grace denotes no less (Rev 7:15). Here He is, and here He abides. We need never suffer through His absence. Have recourse to Him on the throne of grace, and we need never be at a loss.

8. A God that will show Himself merciful and gracious to His people, that will deal mercifully and graciously with them. Now, when He thus represents Himself, they may find grace and mercy. (D. Clarkson, B. D.)

The Christian at the throne of grace

I. THE CHRISTIANS WANTS.

1. Pardon.

2. Strength.

II. THE CHRISTIANS PRIVILEGE. We may obtain all we require.

1. We may approach the throne of grace.

2. Boldly, not with a feeling of terror, but as unto a loving God, a reconciled Father.

III. THE CHRISTIANS ENCOURAGEMENTS. We need an advocate. Christ is the sinners Advocate. We need an experienced advocate–Jesus was a tempted and experienced Saviour. We need a compassionate advocate–Jesus was an experienced, and therefore a compassionate Advocate. (H. M.Villiers, M. A.)

I. It will be well–nay, it is all-important–that we understand THE MEANING of the apostle when he bids us come boldly to the throne of grace. We are not, then, to approach the throne of grace doubting; we are not to draw near as if we thought that we should not be received there gladly; we are not to come as though we expected to be sent away without being heard, for then the weakness of our faith in Christ is at once made manifest. In short, to draw near with the persuasion that God will not hear our prayer is to insult rather than to respect and honour Him. We must guard likewise against a rash, presumptuous approach, because, as sinners guilty and polluted, it is impossible that we can have anything wherewith to appear before the Lord. Such boldness as this can never become those who come to obtain mercy and grace. The boldness which we are authourised to use is that which arises from a knowledge of our own vileness and the sufficiency there is in Christ to His peoples wants. Here is our confidence, here is our hope; in Christ and in Him crucified we find both power and willingness to help.

The throne of grace

II. THE REASONS why we are to come to the throne of grace are two, namely, that we may obtain mercy, and grace to help in time of need. And oh! what need have we to pray for mercy! Let us for one moment call to mind the many and grievous sins which we have committed against a pure and holy God. Let us remember also that we must very shortly give an account to God for every word we have spoken, every thought we have conceived, every deed we have done. Let us think for one moment of these things, and surely we shall not delay to cry for mercy; surely we shall earnestly and at once cry out with the publican, God be merciful to me a sinner. We are to come also for grace to help in time of need. Although salvation is not of debt but of grace, although it is the free gift of God through Christ Jesus, nevertheless we must be made meet to receive it. Holiness, be it remembered, will not entitle us to heaven; it will only make us like those who are accounted worthy of it. Every moment, therefore, of our lives must be under the guidance of Divine grace.

III. And now let me remind you of a few SEASONS WHEN WE GREATLY STAND IN NEED OF GODS ASSISTANCE.

1. The time of prosperity is a time of need. When the world smiles upon us we are in a situation of great difficulty and danger. We are then apt to put our confidence more in the creature and less in the Creator.

2. The time of adversity is a time of need. When the hand of God presses heavy upon us, how ready are we to question His loving-kindness! how disposed are we to give way to despair and to indulge in immoderate grief! to doubt those gracious words, All things shall work together for good to them that love God!

3. The time of death is a time of need. It is an awful thing to contend with the prince of this world for the last time. It is an awful thing to know that we are about to enter upon eternity and to appear in the presence of the living God. (John Wright, M. A.)

The throne of grace

We are here directed to a throne with its character: it is said to be a throne of grace. We are here led to contemplate our Redeemer in His most exalted character; we are here called to view Him as a Priest upon a throne. Priests are seldom advanced to a throne, or have the opportunity of exercising influence around them without evil to themselves and mischief to society. We have here, however, a Priest on a throne–from whom we have everything to hope and nothing to fear.

1. Some thrones, you know, are hereditary; and so is this, for He that occupieth it is the Son, the only-begotten Son of God, the Firstborn of every creature, the brightness of His Fathers glory and the express image of His person–the Heir of all things, and consequently the Heir of this throne.

2. Some thrones, you know, have been secured by conquest; and so has this. He came up from the conflict, His garments dyed in His own blood and the blood of His enemies; and through the ranks of fiends and death He pushed His triumphant course to the possession of that kingdom, and gained the glorious victory.

3. Some thrones are elective; so is this also. The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at My right hand until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool. Him hath God exalted at His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour.

But it is termed the throne of grace–not a throne of grace, as we often hear talked about, as though there were a great many of that character: no such thing; there is only one.

1. The throne of grace–to distinguish it from that throne of the Redeemer on which He sits as the Ruler of the universe, the Governor of earth and heaven and hell.

2. It is distinguished, again, from that throne of equity on which He sits as the Moral Governor of the world; in which capacity He exercises a judicial influence which extends to all minds and to all consciences.

3. Then, again, it is distinguished from the throne of judgment, on which He will sit by and by. This is the throne of grace. Here we are called to view the Redeemer as sitting on the mercy-seat, between the cherubim, as He did when He gave audience to the high priest and issued His commands. Hero He opens an audience-chamber to His people; here He receives the applications made in prayer by the needy, humble, desiring children of God.

Here He listens to their diversified cases and necessities, and imparts suitable, sustaining, and abundant assistance.

1. It is the throne of grace, because grace, unmerited love and goodness, designed and erected it. We had neither claim nor right to any such privilege. It is grace continues it; and it is very difficult to say whether grace abounds most in erecting this throne, or in continuing it to the children of men.

2. It is the throne of grace, because grace is here given. Here He gives grace to instruct the ignorant, to direct the doubting, to enliven the mild spirit, to sustain the feeble heart, to strengthen its weaknesses, to comfort its distresses, to supply its needs. Here He gives grace to save to the uttermost; for every good and perfect gift which comes from the Father of light is here dispensed.

3. Now, to this throne of grace we have all errands. In the first place, we have errands because we need mercy. We need the mercy of God to forgive our every offence and to remit the punishment to which we are exposed.

4. We not only need mercy, but we need an assurance that God has given us mercy. We know and feel that we are guilty; why may we not know and feel that we are pardoned? A consciousness of guilt brings alarm, and while this is the case there can be no comfort, no peace, till such time as the guilt is removed and taken away. And what a mercy is this! What a heaven of bliss to be pardoned and to know it! But we are unprofitable, short-coming creatures. We need mercy to bear with us like the barren fig-tree. Our precious time, for instance, has not always been profitably improved; our talents have not always been usefully employed; our duties to God, in gratitude, in faith, in affection–our duties to men, in kindness, charity, and love–have not been strictly discharged. We need Gods mercy to pardon all this; we need the mercy of God to bear with us and forgive us all our transgressions. We are necessitous pensioners on the Divine bounty, and need supplies of grace. We are every moment dependent upon God, and we can only live through that dependence; we can live only so long as His bounty is exercised. We are dependent upon Him for life, which is perpetually exposed to danger; we are dependent upon Him for help, which is only to be obtained from His hand. We are dependent upon Him for temporal supplies–day by day for our daily bread. We are dependent upon Him for delivering our souls from the power of sin, the world, the flesh, a d the devil. In short, we need the mercy of God in every period of life, in the article of death, and even at the day of judgment: we shall need to look for the mercy of God unto eternal life. We have errands at this throne that we may obtain mercy.

5. But we not only need mercy to pardon our sins, to bear with our unprofitableness, and to supply our need, but we need grace to renew us. We need renewing grace–grace to enlighten our minds, grace to renew our hearts, grace to regenerate our hearts nature, grace to conform our will to the will of God–grace that we may approve, desire, and relish spiritual enjoyment, and thus be prepared for all the service of God.

6. We need also grace to keep us in this renewed state. The life of God imparted to human nature placed in circumstances like these would be like dropping a spark of fire upon an ocean of ice. How it should be kept alive, how it should burst into a flame, how it should illuminate with its light the darkness and melt the hardness of the world, can only be by receiving grace. And though God has promised to impart this life, and is delighted to impart it, yet He will not give it without being inquired of: we must go for grace to the throne of grace.

7. But we need grace inasmuch as we have duties to perform. Our duties are numerous; they pertain to God, to man, and to ourselves. The text adverts to a special season, which the apostle calls time of need: that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Speaking generally, every time is a time of need; for when is it that no enemy, like a cunning, wily beast of prey, is not watching for a moment of unguardedness to seize and to devour? Yet there are certain ascertained seasons which may more emphatically be called a time of need. We are dying in a state of uncertainty; we know not at all what is before us. I am aware that it may be said that if we have grace to live to God now, suffering grace will be given for suffering times; and if we have grace to live to God now, when God changes the work from doing to suffering, from living to dying, He will change the grace too. Yes, He will; but only in answer to prayer: He will be inquired of.

What is the use that we may make of this subject?

1. The apostle says, Come boldly to the throne of grace–not irreverently. We should never forget the justice, holiness, dignity, and mystery of Him whom we address: we should have grace to serve Him with reverence and godly fear; for our God is a consuming fire.

2. When it is said, Come boldly unto the throne of grace, the apostle does not mean you are to come presumptuously as if you would command God.

3. When the apostle says, Come boldly to the throne of grace, we understand that we are to come readily. We are to have a knowledge of our state, to feel our wants, to entertain desires after holiness. We are not to pore over our unworthiness; we are not to parley with the enemy; we are not to wait till we are better; we are not to expect a more convenient season.

4. When it is said, Come boldly to the throne of grace, we understand that we are to come near. It is not enough to catch Gods eye at a distance, but to get His heart, and the very fulness of His heart. Come boldly to the throne of grace, and expect to find Him near to save.

5. Come boldly to the throne of grace; come cheerfully. And in order to do this we should contemplate God in all the encouraging aspects of His character. When we come to the throne we should look on Him in all the friendly, brotherly, Scriptural relations in which He has discovered Himself to us.

6. Come boldly to the throne of grace–come with liberty; not straitened in your own souls, not contracted in your desires, not limited in your aspirations.

7. Come boldly to the throne of grace–come confidently, with the confidence that you shall receive.

8. Come boldly to the throne of grace–come frequently. The path leading to this throne should be trampled, well used, such a beaten path as to be as bare as the street.

9. We should come importunately–like Jacob when he grasped the angel and said, I will not let Thee go except Thou bless me; like the Canaanitish woman when she said, Is it meet to take the childrens bread, and to cast it to the dogs? like the widow who, by her continued coming to the unjust judge, wearied him; like the person who applied to his neighbour at night for the loan of bread to entertain his friend, and would take no denial.

10. The apostle suggests encouragement. We are encouraged to come because we have a High Priest who is great in all the attributes of mercy and love, who hath finished His work to His Fathers satisfaction, and hath entered within the veil. Seeing that we have such a High Priest. When you come to the throne, He takes you by the hand, and introduces you to God; He takes your prayers, and perfumes them with the incense of His merit, and urges your feeble requests. (W. Atherton.)

Timely succour

I. THERE IS, THERE WILL BE, A SEASON, MANY A SEASON, IN THE COURSE OF OUR PROFESSION AND WALKING BEFORE GOD, WHEREIN WE DO OR SHALL STAND IN NEED OF ESPECIAL AID AND ASSISTANCE. This is included in the last words, help in time of need–help that is suitable and seasonable for and unto such a condition wherein we are found earnestly to cry out for it.

1. A time of affliction is such a season. God is an help (Psa 46:1) in all sorts of straits and afflictions.

2. A time of persecution is such a season; yea, it may be the principal season here intended (see chap. 10.). And this is the greatest trial that in general God exerciseth His Church withal. In such a season some seed quite decayeth, some stars fall from heaven, some prove fearful and unbelieving, to their eternal ruin; and few there are but that where persecution is urgent, it hath some impression upon them to their disadvantage. Carnal fears, with carnal wisdom and counsels, are apt to be at work in such a season; and all the fruit that comes from those evil roots is bitter.

3. A time of temptation is such a season. St. Paul found it so when he had the messenger of Satan sent to buffet him.

4. A time of spiritual desertion is such a season. When God in any way withdraws Himself from us, we shall stand in need of special assistance.

5. A time wherein we are called unto the performance of any great and signal duty is such a season also. So was it with Abraham when he was called first to leave his country and afterwards to sacrifice his son. Such was the call of Joshua to enter into Canaan, proposed to our example Heb 13:5), and of the apostles to preach the gospel when they were sent out as sheep among wolves.

6. Times of changes and the difficulties wherewith they are attended introduce such a season. Changes and war, saith Job, are against me Job 10:17). There is in all changes a war against us, wherein we may be foiled if we are not the more watchful and have not the better assistance.

7. The time of death is such a season. To let go all hold of present things and present hopes, to give up a departing soul, entering into the invisible world, and an unchangeable eternity therein, into the hands of a sovereign Lord, is a thing which requires a strength above our own for the right and comfortable performance of.

II. THAT THERE IS WITH GOD IN CHRIST, GOD ON HIS THRONE OF GRACE, A SPRING OF SUITABLE AND SEASONABLE HELP FOR ALL TIMES AND OCCASIONS OF DIFFICULTY. He is the God of all grace, and a fountain of living waters is with Him for the refreshment of every weary and thirsty soul.

III. ALL HELP, SUCCOUR, OR SPIRITUAL ASSISTANCE IN OUR STRAITS AND DIFFICULTIES PROCEEDS. FROM MERE MERCY AND GRACE, OR THE GOODNESS, KINDNESS, AND BENIGNITY OF GOD IN CHRIST.

IV. WHEN WE HAVE THROUGH CHRIST OBTAINED MERCY AND GRACE FOR OUR PERSONS, WE NEED NOT FEAR BUT THAT WE SHALL HAVE SUITABLE AND SEASONABLE HELP FOR OUR DUTIES. If we find mercy and obtain grace, we shall have help.

V. THE WAY TO OBTAIN HELP FROM GOD IS BY A DUE GOSPEL-APPLICATION OF OUR SOULS FOR IT TO THE THRONE OF GRACE.

VI. GREAT DISCOURAGEMENTS OFTEN INTERPOSE THEMSELVES IN OUR MINDS, AND AGAINST OUR FAITH, WHEN WE STAND IN NEED OF ESPECIAL HELP FROM GOD AND WOULD MAKE OUR APPLICATION UNTO HIM FOR RELIEF. It is included in the exhortation to come with boldness; that is, to cast off and conquer all those discouragements, and to use confidence of acceptance and liberty of speech before Him.

VII. FAITHS CONSIDERATION OF THE INTERPOSITION OF CHRIST IN OUR BEHALF, AS OUR HIGH PRIEST, IS THE ONLY WAY TO REMOVE DISCOURAGEMENTS AND TO GIVE US BOLDNESS IN OUR ACCESS TO GOD. Let us come, therefore, with boldness; that is, on the account of the care, love, and faithfulness of Christ as our High Priest, before discoursed on.

VIII. IN ALL OUR APPROACHES UNTO GOD WE ARE TO CONSIDER HIM AS ON A THRONE. Though it be a throne of grace, yet it is still a throne, the consideration whereof should influence our minds with reverence and godly fear in all things wherein we have to do with Him. (John Owen, D. D.)

The sinner at the throne of grace

I. THE THRONE OF GRACE.

1. It is set up for those who have been ruined by sin.

2. None will come to it but those who feel sin to be a burden.

3. It is also a kind of holy retirement, where the true followers of Jesus may meet their Lord.

II. WHAT GIVES THE SINNER HIS BOLDNESS WHEN HE COMES WITH HIS PETITIONS TO THIS THRONE?

1. His entire reliance on Christ.

2. His experimental knowledge of the eternal priesthood of Christ.

3. His own experience.

III. THE FITTEST SEASON FOR DRAWING NEAR TO THE THRONE OF GRACE.

1. A time of national lukewarmness is a tithe of need.

2. The time when the Lord is arming Himself with judgment is a time of need.

3. A time of prosperity is a time of need.

4. A time of spiritual warfare is a time of need. (F. G. Crossman.)

The throne of grace

I. THE SEAT OF POWER.

1. A throne–the symbol of dominion–where God manifests His Isa 6:1; Rev 19:4; Mat 6:13).

2. Power may be taken in two senses-authority and ability. Christ possesses both (Heb 8:1).

3. He has authority to pardon, to bestow the gift of sonship, to exercise supreme control (Mat 9:6; Joh 1:12; Joh 17:2).

4. The secret of our power over evil lies in our being under Christs control (Luk 7:8; Ecc 8:4).

II. THE PLACE OF WORSHIP.

1. The distinction between the Cross and the throne.

2. The place of atonement and the place of worship (Exo 25:22).

3. The provisions for worship in Christ. Access (Eph

2:18, 3:12; Heb 10:19-20). Pardon and acceptance Heb 10:23).

III. THE SOURCE OF SUPPLY.

1. TO meet our unworthiness. Mercy.

2. To meet our insufficiency. Grace. My grace–for thee 2Co 12:9).

3. A river proceeding out of the throne (Rev 22:1).

4. The exhortation: Let us come boldly. Let us draw near–with a true heart–in full assurance of faith (Heb 10:22). (E. H. Hopkins.)

Boldness at the throne of grace

I. WHAT THIS BOLDNESS IS. It is not audacity, rudeness or trifling freedom. Prayer and insolence ill accord together. This boldness arises from nothing in ourselves, but purely from the goodness of the Being we address: and it consists principally in a persuasion that we are freely authorised to come, and may confidently hope to succeed.

II. THE PURPOSES FOR WHICH WE ARE TO COME TO THE THRONE OF GRACE. To obtain mercy and to find grace. The blessings are wisely connected together by the apostle, because there are too many people who try to separate them. They would be saved from hell, but not from sin. They wished to be pardoned, but not renewed. They would have mercy, but not grace. But be not deceived. Whom God forgives He sanctifies and prepares for His service. And both these blessings are equally important and necessary to our salvation. Let us therefore pray for both.

1. Pray for mercy. And pray like those who know they greatly need it. You are very guilty.

2. Pray for grace to help in time of need. But is not every time a time of need with us? It is. And there is not a moment in our existence in which we can live as we ought, independently of Divine grace. We need this grace, to mortify our corruptions; to sanctify our affections; to resist temptations: to overcome the world. But there are some seasons in which we peculiarly require the aid of Divine grace.

Now if we are to pray that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need, does it not follow, as a fair inference, that a prayerless person is destitute both of the mercy and grace of God?

1. Have you come to this throne? You ate fond of hearing sermons–but while you so often hear from God, does God ever hear from you?

2. Do you design to come? or have you resolved to restrain prayer before Him? Do you imagine you can acquire these blessings in any other way than by prayer? Or do you imagine these blessings are not worthy of your pursuit? If you could gain a fortune by prayer–would you not pray? Or health–would you not pray? But what are these to mercy and grace? Or do you imagine they are not to be gained? There is no ground for such despair: He waiteth to be gracious; and is exalted to have mercy. (W. Jay.)

The throne of grace

I. Our text speaks of a THRONE,–The Throne of Grace. God is to be viewed in prayer as our Father; that is the aspect which is dearest to us; but still we are not to regard Him as though He were such as we are; for our Saviour has qualified the expression Our Father, with the words who art in heaven. In order to remind us that our Father is still infinitely greater than ourselves, He has bidden us say, Hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; so that our Father is still to be regarded as a King, and in prayer we come, not only to our Fathers feet, but we come also to the throne of the Great Monarch of the universe. If prayer should always be regarded by us as an entrance into the courts of the royalty of heaven; if we are to behave ourselves as courtiers should in the presence of an illustrious majesty, then we are not at a loss to know the right spirit in which to pray.

1. If in prayer we come to a throne, it is clear that our spirit should, in the first place, be one of lowly reverence. It is expected that the subject in approaching to the king should pay him homage and honour.

2. A throne, and, therefore, to be approached with devout joyfulness. If I find myself favoured by Divine grace to stand amongst those favoured ones who frequent His courts, shall I not feel glad?

3. It is a throne, and therefore, whenever it is approached, it should be with complete submission. We do not pray to God to instruct Him as to what He ought to do, neither for a moment must we presume to dictate the line of the Divine procedure.

4. If it be a throne, it ought to be approached with enlarged expectations.

5. The right spirit in which to approach the throne of grace is that of unstaggering confidence. Who shall doubt the King? Who dares impugn the Imperial word?

6. If prayer be a coming before the throne of God, it ought always to be conducted with the deepest sincerity, and in the spirit which makes everything real. If you are disloyal enough to despise the King, at least, for your own sake, do not mock Him to His face, and when He is upon His throne. If anywhere you dare repeat holy words without heart, let it not be in Jehovahs palace.

II. Lest the glow and brilliance of the word throne should be too much for mortal vision, our text now presents us with the soft, gentle radiance of that delightful word GRACE. We are called to the throne of grace, not to the throne of law. It is a throne set up on purpose for the dispensation of grace; a throne from which every utterance is an utterance of grace; the sceptre that is stretched out from it is the silver sceptre of grace: the decrees proclaimed from it are purposes of grace; the gifts that are scattered adown its golden steps are gifts of grace; and He that sits upon the throne is grace itself.

1. If in prayer I come before a throne of grace, then the faults of my prayer will be overlooked.

2. Inasmuch as it is a throne of grace, the faults of the petitioner himself shall not prevent the success of his prayer.

3. If it be a throne of grace, then the desires of the pleader will be interpreted. If I cannot find words in which to utter my desires, God in His grace will read my desires without the words.

4. If it be a throne of grace, then all the wants of those who come to it will be supplied.

5. And so all the petitioners miseries shall be compassionated.

III. But now regarding the text as a whole, it conveys to us the idea of GRACE ENTHRONED. It is a throne, and who sits on it? It is grace personified that is here installed in dignity. And, truly, to-day grace is on a throne. In the gospel of Jesus Christ grace is the most predominant attribute of God. How comes it to be so exalted?

1. We reply, well, grace has a throne by conquest.

2. Grace, moreover, sits on the throne because it has established itself there by right. There is no injustice in the grace of God.

3. Grace is enthroned because Christ has finished His work and gone into the heavens. It is enthroned in power.

IV. Lastly, our text, if rightly read, has in it SOVEREIGNTY RESPLENDENT IN GLORY–THE GLORY OF GRACE. The mercy seat is a throne; though grace is there, it is still a throne. Grace does not displace sovereignty. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The throne of grace

I. THE BLESSINGS SPOKEN OF.

1. Mercy, pardoning mercy, reconciling mercy, saving mercy. The brightest saint needs it, as well as the greatest sinner. We need it every hour of our life, and in every action of our life.

2. Grace: supporting, helping grace, grace to help in time of need. It is grace only that can subdue our corruptions, resist temptation, warm our hearts, and bring strength, comfort, and hope to our troubled souls.

II. WHERE THIS MERCY AND THIS HELPING GRACE ARE TO BE OBTAINED.

1. The apostle tells us to seek them at a throne: he sends us therefore to a God of majesty. A throne implies also that He is a God of infinite, almighty power, in the universe over which He reigns.

2. Yet it is a throne of grace. He who sits upon it has removed out of the way all impediments that He can now be gracious to a world of sinners in a way consistent with His honour, and show Himself a God of mercy without tarnishing the glory of His other perfections.

III. How ARE WE TO SEEK OF HIM MERCY AND GRACE? Let us come boldly unto the throne of grace.

1. It is plain that if God is seated on a throne as a God of majesty and power, this boldness must be altogether different from fearless presumption or irreverent freedom.

2. The boldness of which the apostle speaks is opposed to self-will, and must consequently include in it submission to the will of God.

3. This boldness is opposed to restraint in prayer, and implies an humble and holy freedom in our addresses to God. If we are habitually living in His faith and fear, we may come to His throne, not as strangers and foreigners, but as those who are of His household.

4. This boldness is opposed to distrust and unbelief, and includes a persuasion that God has grace to bestow and is willing to bestow it, and that we are authorised to ask for and expect it. It is the boldness of faith which the apostle recommends; a confidence, not in our own merits but in sovereign mercy: a faith in the Lord Jesus, and such a faith in Him as triumphs over fears and suspicions, and rises to the confidence of hope. This confidence is quite consistent with that humility which becomes us as sinners; indeed it is closely connected with it. (C. Bradley, M. A.)

The throne of grace

I. WHERE WE ARE TO COME. Unto the throne of grace. Not the throne of terror, but the throne of grace; not enshrouded in the gloomy darkness of repulsion, but radiant with the sunshine of invitation: not sending forth lightnings and thunders to alarm, bat extending the olive-branch of peace; and from that throne of grace are heard the sweet tones of mercy, beseeching sinners to be reconciled unto God. Do you ask where you are to come? We tell you that wherever is found a penitent and contrite heart, broken on account of its sins, the throne of grace is there; wherever is found a praying soul, the throne of grace is there. In your closets; when you offer your daily sacrifice of prayer and praise beneath the domestic roof at the family altar; when you come to the house of God as sincere worshippers, in the hallowed services of the Church, in the sacraments of Christs holy institution, the throne of grace is here! And to this throne of grace you are ever welcome. But observe, we must come each one for ourselves.

II. How WE ARE TO COME. Boldly. Fear not, thou trembling soul; give despondency to the winds. Is your heart sincere? Then come with confidence to the throne of grace.

III. WHY WE ARE TO COME. That we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Your only sure refuge is the throne of grace. Here you may find at all times the seasonable help you need, a balm for every wound, counsel for every difficulty, comfort for every sorrow. But the word used by the apostle has even a deeper signification than this. It means help rendered in answer to a call for assistance. If we would have Gods help, we must ask Him for it with importunate earnestness, as those who feel their destitute need. (W. J. Brock, B. A.)

The throne of grace

I. THE MAGNIFICENT OBJECT TO WHICH OUR ATTENTION IS DIRECTED.

II. THE MANNER OF APPROACH SPECIFIED.

1. With liberty of access.

2. With freedom of speech. Need not be overawed by the greatness of the Being we address. We may freely and fully state our case, and make known our need.

3. With assurance of success. Need not fear a repulse.

4. With frequency of application. Original mercy-seat could only be approached annually.

5. We must come just as we are. No ceremony is required. Now we may thus come boldly, because

(1) This is the way expressly laid down.

(2) Because all ancient saints came in this way.

(3) Gods great goodness and graciousness should induce us thus to come.

(4) The intercession of Christ for us, and the Spirit within us, should encourage us thus to draw near.

III. THE GREAT ENDS TO BE KEPT IN VIEW IN COMING TO THE THRONE OF GRACE,

1. That we may obtain mercy.

(1) Mercy to pardon our guilt.

(2) Sparing mercy.

(3) Daily mercy.

2. To find grace to help in time of need. Grace includes all the blessings of the Divine favour. All we need for body, soul, time, and eternity. Grace to help us.

(1) To pray and serve God.

(2) To labour in His cause.

(3) To suffer for His sake.

(4) And to triumph over our foes.

Application:

1. Learn to what we come in prayer.

2. How we should come.

3. What we should seek–mercy, &c. (J. Burns, D. D.)

The throne of grace (a sermon to children)

Suppose you were with me in one of the palaces at the west end of the town–St. Jamess Palace, or Buckingham Palace. We ascend in Buckingham Palace a noble staircase, as white as snow, made of white marble. Then we are admitted by servants in royal livery to a large gallery; and you say, What a beautiful place! I never saw the like of this before. Oh! what lovely pictures! Oh! what wonderful chairs and tables, sparkling with gold! Then I take you into another apartment, and I say, What is that in the upper part of this great grand room, this large gallery? Do you see it? Oh! yes, you say; that appears to me to be a seat. Yes, it is a seat; but it is a throne. That is where the Queen sits sometimes. That is Britains throne–the most wonderful throne on the face of the earth. But I have to tell you of a throne to-day, the like of which was never seen by mortal eyes. Angels never saw it. What is the name of it? The throne of grace.

I. THE THRONE.

1. What is the throne of grace? The mercy of God in Christ Jesus.

2. Why is it called the throne of grace?

(1) Grace contrived the throne (Psa 89:2).

(2) Grace shines upon the throne (Exo 34:6-7).

(3) Grace is given from the throne. Pardon. Purity. Healing.

3. The excellencies of this throne.

(1) It is a costly throne.

(2) It is a lovely throne.

(3) It is a throne of great height (Psa 103:9).

(4) It is a throne near at hand.

(5) It is a free throne.

II. THE KING WHO IS SEATED ON THIS THRONE.

1. King of grace.

2. King of kings.

3. King of glory.

III. OUR DUTY AND PRIVILEGE TO COME TO THE THRONE. (A. Fletcher, D. D.)

Come boldly to the throne of grace

Gather up what you see of tenderness and great-heartedness and generousness of men, and imagine them to be grouped into the character of a perfect being, and put it in the sphere of almightiness, and give it the sweep of eternity, and call it God, or the Son of God, as you please; and then you have a conception ,.f the Lord Jesus Christ, standing over the poor in this world, and saying to them, in a voice that never dies till the last human soul is redeemed, Come to Me, and obtain help in time of need. Well, what kind of help? No matter what kind. At what time of need? At any time of need. If it is bodily ailment, may one go to God with it? Certainly; because He supplies the wants of the body. If you have domestic trouble, or trouble in your secular affairs, or dispositional trouble in its lower forms, go to Him with it. If you may go to Him for higher things, you may for the lower. A man says, Here are thousand dollar bills; take as many as you please. But, say I, there are hundreds, and fifties, and tens, and fives, and ones; may I take them instead of the thousands? If he says I may have the thousands, he will not refuse to give me the ones. If he gives me the larger, he will not refuse to give me the smaller. Now, God has given His own Son to us; He hath given Himself to us; He has made overtures of pets, real friendship to us; He has said, I am your Father, and ye are My sons; He has granted us the blessing of direct communion with Himself; and since He has given us higher and larger things, is there anything that we need, all the way down to the very sandals with which we tread the earth, that He will not give us? In praying to God we begin by saying, Give us this day our daily bread; but, ah, there are different sorts of bread. There is one kind of bread for the body, and God will give that; but there is also another kind of bread for the mind–for taste, and benevolence, and conscience, and veneration, and love–and He will give that. God Himself is the bread of life by which the many mouths of the soul are supplied. He gives us in rich abundance all the things that we need. (H. W. Beecher.)

Boldness in prayer

A holy boldness, a chastened familiarity, is the true spirit of right prayer. It was said of Luther that, when he prayed, it was with as much reverence as if he were praying to an infinite God, and with as much familiarity as if he were speaking to his nearest friend. (G. S. Bowes.)

Unrestraint in prayer

This word boldly signifies liberty without restraint. You may be free, for you are welcome. You may use freedom of speech. The word is so used (Act 2:29; Act 4:13). You have liberty to speak your minds freely; to speak all your heart, your ails, and wants, and fears, and grievances. As others may not fetter you in speaking to God by prescribing what words you should use; so you need not restrain yourselves, but freely speak all that your condition requires. (D. Clarkson, B. D.)

Fearlessness in prayer

A petitioner once approached Augustus with so much fear and trembling that the emperor cried, What, man! do you think you are giving a sop to an elephant? He did not care to be thought a hard and cruel ruler. When men pray with a slavish bondage upon them, with cold, set phrases, and a crouching solemnity, the free Spirit of the Lord may well rebuke them. Art thou coming to a tyrant? Holy boldness, or at least a childlike hope, is most becoming in a Christian.

Access to God in prayer

The Aediles among the Romans had their doors always standing open, that all who had petitions might have free access to them. The door of heaven is always open for the prayers of Gods people. (T. Watson.)

All may come

Seeing that we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens; let us therefore come boldly to the throne. So that the us of our text is just as broad as the we in the fourteenth verse. Do we ask how broad that is? We shall soon see. The reference here evidently is to the great day of atonement, when the high priest entered into the holy place with the blood of atonement. When that great event took place, whom did the priest represent? The priests, or the elders, or the God-fearing part of the Israelites? Certainly not; but every Jew. There wasnt one of the vast multitude but could say, He is gone in as my representative, and I am accepted in him. Now the apostle says Christ is a great High Priest, of whom the other was but the type. Whom, then, did He represent? The answer of the Book is, all mankind. If you want to measure the us whom Christ represents, you can easily do it f His favourite name was not, I the Jew, but I the Son of Man. (C. Garrett.)

The infinite Friend before the throne

During the cotton famine I went to many a man in need, and said, Why dont you go to the committee and get what you require? and the reply was, I cant, I have never asked for help in my life. It has been my joy to give and not to get. If I were to try to speak for myself I should be choked; I cant do it, Ill starve first. And I have said, I dont want you to speak; I only want you to come, I will do all the talking. And at the appointed time he has come and I have said, This is the person of whom I spoke; and they at once relieved his wants, and sent him home rejoicing. And so, poor sinner, it shall be with thee. Thou art saying, I am such a guilty wretch. My sins have been so many, and so aggravated that I dare not speak to God; and I point to One who ever liveth to make intercession for thee, and who is waiting this moment to plead for thee. (C. Garrett.)

Whither invited

It is not to the throne of judgment, but the throne of grace. When the cotton famine visited Lancashire, and the generosity of the people of this land was shown as it never had been shown before, and the railways were burdened with the generous gifts of all classes, we didnt leave these treasures in the streets for any passer-by to take. Large warehouses were procured, and committees appointed to see that they were given to the proper persons. Now, suppose I had gone into the street at Preston, and met a poor operative looking thin, and poorly clad, and had asked him if he was out of work, and he had replied, Yes, sir; and have been for two years. I say, Then I suppose your resources are exhausted, and you can hardly find food for your family? He answers, No; I have neither clothes nor food for myself or them, and I dont know what to do. I say, Why dont you go to the depot and get what you want? There is abundance there. He says, Ah! but, sir, I havent a farthing left. I answer, I know it; and if you had, there are a hundred shops in Preston that would be glad to see you; but this is a place opened for those who have no money, and there is nobody in the world more welcome to the treasures there than yourself. And so with thee, poor sinner. This place is opened on purpose for thee. (C. Garrett.)

The transcendent worth of pardon

Go to-night to poor E who lies under sentence of death. Enter his cell, and tell him you have brought him good news. How eagerly he turns to you and asks, What? You reply, Baron Rothschild is dead, and has left you heir to all his vast wealth. Oh, with what disappointment he turns away! You tell him that in addition to this you are come to give him the highest of earths honours. He heeds you not. He says, What is all this to me, when I have to die on Thursday? You say, Man, do you turn away from boundless wealth, from broad acres, from glittering gems and jewels? What do you want? And with eager, bloodshot eyes, he turns to you, and hisses from his clenched teeth, Pardon! Give me that and Ill bless you: without that, all the rest is but mockery. (C. Garrett.)

Appeal for mercy

A woman arraigned before Alexander the Great, and condemned, said, I appeal from thee, O king! Alexander said, Thou art a mad woman! Dost thou not know that every appeal is from a lower judge to a higher? But who is above me? She answered, I know thee to be above thy laws, and that thou mayest give pardon; and therefore I appeal from justice to mercy, and for my faults crave pardon. So must sinners do. (Cawdray.)

Encouragement to come boldly

When our prince brought his fair bride to England, they arrived at Portsmouth too late in the evening to land. Her heart was throbbing with many bewildering emotions. What would be the reception she should have? Would her husbands people welcome a stranger? and a host of other questions. As she couldnt sleep, she went out on the deck of the vessel she was in; and turning her eyes towards the shore, saw at every masthead in letters of light, Welcome! Welcome to Alexandra! Welcome to our princess! And who can wonder that, as she looked her fears fled away, and her eyes filled with tears of joy. There was no room for a single doubt as to the character of her reception. And so with thee, poor sinner. Bowed down under a sense of thy enormous guilt, thou art afraid to lift thy eyes towards heaven, or to think of God. But I bring thee glad tidings of great joy. There is mercy for thee. God invites thee to His throne. Lilt thy eyes, and where thou didst expect to see the blackness of darkness, thou shalt see a thousand stars of promise cheering thee on. Look! There is one, Come. There is another, Whosoever. There is another, Nowise. See how they come out, like stars at eventide, brighter and yet brighter, and every one has a message of mercy for thee. (C. Garrett.)

The throne of grace

When God enacts laws, He is on a throne of legislation: when He administers these laws, He is on a throne of government: when He tries His creatures by these laws, He is on a throne of judgment: but when He receives petitions, and dispenses favours, He is on a throne of grace. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The distinction between mercy and grace

The distinction between the two words mercy and grace, in the place before us, seems to consist in this–that the former describes the emotion of kindness and compassion with which the application for assistance is met, while the latter describes the actual communications of celestial influence with which, in answer to prayer, He replenishes the soul for the time of need-a distinction with which the original terms are very consistent, and which seems farther countenanced by the different verbs with which they are conjoined in the expressions, find mercy, and obtain grace. In the hour of your necessity, therefore, you are here assured that, on making due application, you shall be received with paternal pity and regard, nor merely with compassion and regard–a compassion that may soothe but cannot help–a regard that is the source more of sentimental refreshment than ofpractical and availing strength, but also with the promptest and most benignant readiness to open to you all the treasures of His grace–to pour out upon you all the sevenfold graces of His Almighty Spirit–to lift up the hands which hang down, and to confirm the feeble knees–that as your day is, so your strength may be, and that, when called to glorify Him, and vindicate your Christian profession, whether by the resistance of temptation, or the conquest of difficulty, or the endurance of affliction, or the defeat of the last enemy, His grace may be sufficient for you, His strength may be perfected in your weakness, and over all temptations, difficulties, afflictions, deaths, ye may be made more than conquerors through Him that loved you. (J. B. Patterson, M. A.)

First mercy, then grace

Obtaining mercy comes first; then finding grace to help in time of need. You cannot reverse Gods order. You will not find grace to help in time of need till you have sought and found mercy to save. You have no right to reckon on Gods help and protection and guidance, and all the other splendid privileges which He promises to the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ, until you have this first blessing, the mercy of God in Christ Jesus; for it is in Jesus Christ that all the promises of God are Yea and Amen. (F. R. Havergal.)

Help in time of need

Help in time of need

The other day, during the fierce storm which raged on the west coast of England, I saw a schooner driven on the sands near Waterloo. In a short time, a steaming came to her assistance; but the heavily-laden ship was fast in the sand-bank, and it was found impossible to drag her into deeper water. They waited a few hours until the tide came in, and, then, when the deeper water about the schooner had lifted a portion of her hull from the bank, the steam-tug again came near, and the ship was towed into the safe water of the channel to Liverpool. Like the schooner, which had drifted on the sand-bank, many of us have drifted in the storms of life on the sands of trouble, where we have lain helpless. At such times, friends may have drawn near to try to bring us back to our old power peace and hope; but we were too firmly held by our trouble for any human being to help us. It was only when the tide of Gods love came flowing into our heart that there was any chance of cheering away our despair. Until we felt His love shed abroad in our heart, it was impossible for anybody to lift us from the miry clay of our despair. We were like the heavily-laden ship on the sand-bank; we had to wait for the flowing of Gods love; and when that came, we were lifted from the grip which held us. When, like the overflowing tide, the Lord moves in and about us, giving our heavily-laden heart the support and comfort of His love, the grasp of the hand and the cheering words of a friend are then powerful to help us. If, therefore, this be your time of need, I pray that the Holy Spirit may first fill your heart with His presence. The text clearly reveals that our God is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Like a leaf in autumn, blown hither and thither at the mercy of the wind, so there are times when a storm of sorrow separates us from the branch on which we flourish, and we become the sport of fear and unbelief. The text shows that the weary soul, which is like that helpless leaf, may find help at the throne of grace. As a shuttle-cock, in the midst of a crowd of children, is continually knocked into the air, never resting a moment except when it turns to fall, so there are many who are continually buffeted by adversity. The failure of their hope gives them a blow, sickness another, bereavement strikes hard, and the vicissitudes of an up-hill life worry them when they would rest. Is your soul one that suffers like that toy? If so, the text shows that God is touched with your griefs, and that He wishes to give you grace to help in your time of need. I happened to be walking along a country lane, near Dunham, and stopped to rest on the bank of the hedge, when a bird, with a scream of fear, flew from above my head. Feeling sure that its nest must be in the hedge behind me, I hoped the poor bird would soon return, and sat still watching for it. In a few minutes the bird flew towards a tree opposite to me, when my dog made a bound after it. I called him back, and held him securely by his neck. I suppose the bird saw that I was friendly, for in another minute it came nearer, and perched on the hedge in front of me. In a short time, it flew towards me, but at the same instant turned back to the hedge. Though it yearned to return to its little ones in the nest, yet, no doubt, its heart beat with fear; because it might not be certain that I was a friend; and then, though I held the dog, his sharp eyes kept up a keen look on that sweet bird, and it may have thought, If I go nearer, the dog may pounce on me! While I watched, I wished heartily for power to speak to the bird, to tell it that I would not allow the dog to stir an inch to injure it. The dog might look, but it should not harm. Perhaps the bird saw what I meant, for growing more bold, it flew over my head into the hedge behind me; and while I held the dog with a firmer grasp, it made the water come into my eyes, to think how our heavenly Father held trouble from hurting the souls of His people. Like the bird, we are often afraid, and with good reason too; but everything that can hurt us is held in the firm grasp of our God. I remember standing on the pier-head at Douglas, Isle of Man, when I saw an old friend of mine, who appeared very miserable. As the sun shone brightly, and there was sufficient wind to make the waves leap up and dash against the pier, sending golden spray in our faces, I thought everybody ought to be glad; and clapping my friend on the back exclaimed, What is to do? Why, you look as if you were going to drown yourself! He replied, You would not be so cheerful if you had my troubles. See; you observe that cork, there, which is being pitched about by the waves! Well, I am like that cork. To his surprise, I laughed and exclaimed, Well; I am very glad to hear that you are like that cork! He turned on me a look of reproach, as if I were mocking him. I said again, It is true; I am very glad you are like that cork! Then, with an injured air he turned, saying, Why are you glad? I replied, Just because the cork does not sink! It is true that the waves knock it about; but, see, it does not sink! Then, he grasped my hand saying, Thank God, though I am in a terrible mess, yet, like that cork, I have not been allowed to sink! Do not get down-hearted; and though the future may appear black, do not let despair enter your soul. A doctor once said to me, I am so nervous as to be much afraid when my coachman is driving me through the streets, and often shut my eyes or try to read the newspaper, to hide what is in front from my view. The doctor added, I know it is foolish; for my man is a most careful driver, and I ought to feel safe; but it is my weak nerves! Perhaps your spiritual nerves are unstrung, and you are afraid of a something happening, which will hurt you. If so, you need help from the throne of grace in this your time of need. Come boldly; for God is touched with your fear and anxiety, and He can help you. The text tells us that Christ is our High Priest. The high priest of the Jews was an official personage, who prayed for them on the annual day of atonement, and appeared on their behalf before God. He did this officially, and may not have felt extreme sorrow on account of the sins of the people, as if those sins had been his own. He did it as an official act. But when Jesus Christ, the High Priest of humanity, made atonement for our sins, He felt the sorrow of the agony of death. You may engage counsel to take up the case of a friend of yours who is to be tried for his life; and he may do it officially without throwing his heart into the case; but if the barrister look upon the prisoner and see him with a face of agony; if he notice tears of sorrow and shame trickle down his cheeks; if he see his body trembling in the agitation of terror, the advocate shall be touched with sympathy with the prisoner, and will plead as if his own life depended on his efforts. Likewise, Jesus was so touched with the feeling in Himself of the sins, sorrows, and afflictions of mankind, that when He represented them on the Cross of Calvary, His heart broke! Can you keep at a distance from such a God? The other night I sheltered from the rain for a few minutes in a doorway. A little bare-footed girl came up, and seating herself on the doorstep began to cry. I thought she had been sent there to raise my compassion, but found afterwards that this was not the case. Soon a hulking boy came up, saying, Polly, whats up? The little girl replied, I cant sell my papers–I havent sold one! The boy bent down upon her; I could barely see his face, but, from the gentleness of his words, fancied his look must have expressed much sympathy. He said–Here; give me thy papers; Ill sell era for thee! Then he drew them from the girl, and the lad went up and down offering them for sale. I suppose I could not have been there more than three or four minutes before he came running with five pence for the papers, saying, Here, one of em gave me a threepenny bit, and thou shalt have it! Poor little lass! She was faint-hearted because of the rain; and as she had not the courage to go up to people to offer them papers, she sat there with her little heart breaking, until the noble lad came forward to help her. He was touched with the feeling of her helplessness, and did what he could to cheer her. Likewise, Jesus is touched with your disappointment, and does all that He can to help you. He comes to you saying, Be of good cheer; I am with you; dont be downhearted! I will give you patience to bear it, and courage to overcome it. About six or seven years ago an Indian prince was riding in a carriage in the streets of London, when he saw a ragged Indian standing at the kerbstone with a brush in his hand: he was a crossing-sweeper. The prince immediately ordered the carriage to stop, and then beckoned to the man. Finding that he was of his own country, the prince opened the door of the carriage saying, My countryman, come up. The ragged Indian thought he must be in a dream and stood back; but the prince said, Come, come up to me, my countryman; and the poor fellow then sat beside the prince, and was taken into his service. The prince was touched when he saw his poor countryman standing in his rags, and helped him. Jesus is the Prince of troubled souls, and every man is bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. He is touched with your friendlessness and sorrow. When you were on a steamboat, and a child fell overboard, did you not wring your hands in an agony? What did you say? Why, you exclaimed, Oh, that I could swim, that I might leap in and rescue the drowning child! And when a brave sailor leaped into the sea and saved the child, did you not weep and shout for joy.? Perhaps, now, you may be drowning in the depths of sin, you may be suffering m the floods of sorrow, or may be overwhelmed by an ocean of trouble; but Jesus is touched. Like a man who cannot swim, I may feel for, though I cannot help you; but Jesus not only feels for you, but He is like the brave sailor who leaps into the depths to save you. (W. Birch.)

The reality and the symbol

I think it may be demonstrated from human experience that the human race can never ascend toward civilisation, and that it can still less ascend toward the higher ranges of civilisation, which include moral and spiritual development, without the real or fancied help of a superior intelligence in the invisible world. What we need is a priest, and a high priest, that is sensibly, intimately affected and concerned with our–what? virtues? dignities? attainments? No, with our infirmities. Our virtues, dignities, and attainments, such as they are, get along very well; but our infirmities and transgressions need succour. We need a God whose attributes and dispositions lead Him to be helpful just at the time of our need–not a God that simply acts according to His own will abstractly, as He is represented to do, thinking of things according to His pleasure as it is said in the old formulas. To be a good teacher, one must come down to the level of the scholar, and know his difficulties. He must adapt his training to the hardness of the task and the limitations of the faculties of the scholar. And what we need is the conception of a God who is personal in the same sense in which our father and our mother were personal to us–namely, in adapting themselves to our want, that by and by we might be raised up to them, conforming to the universal law of education. There are great difficulties in this conception, and there are some hindrances to it. It is intrinsically a thing of not a little perplexity for men to form a definite idea of invisible spiritual existence. We do it by transferring, through the influence of the imagination and the reason, the familiar facts of our mental experience to the Being whom we call God. There are two great difficulties in this matter. One is, that we have been trained so largely to use our senses that when we undertake to move in the hi-her realm of life we find it hard to fashion ideas that are not sensuous–that are impalpable and immeasurable. The other is, that goodness and fineness in us are so small, that magnanimity in us is so difficult to be distinguished from minanimity, that we are so little sensitive to the various excellences of moral character, that life requires knives with such a hard and cutting edge, and that our training is such that we are not apt to have the material out of which to create our God, unless we return to the mother, the father, the brother and the sister in our own households. It is mainly to expound these difficulties that I have selected this subject. I shall find it difficult to make a statement of the matter which shall not lead to misconception, but I shall not on that account any the less endeavour to state it. First, there has been an unfortunate substitute for a personal God of theologic ideas which just as effectually takes away personality from Him in the conceptions of men as pantheistic doctrines. The use of symbols has been such, they have been so unwisely or ignorantly employed, that they have led people into substantial idolatry. In books and sermons and exhortations innumerable men are urged to come to the Cross; to hold on to the Cross; to forget not the Cross, to weep at the foot of the Cross. What idolatry! Is there no Jesus Christ that is a living God? Do we now, after two thousand years, need to have Him interpreted by a symbol of two thousand years ago? Is not the thing signified a hundred times more desirable than any symbol of it? In ancient times, right under the eaves of the crucifixion, it had a function that cannot be overestimated; but it has performed that function; and by the use of the Cross men interpret to the world the thing that it was set to interpret: and I say that to attempt to represent the Lord Jesus Christ any longer by that symbol is unwise in the preacher, and bewildering and misleading to the hearer. Instead of bringing us to a personal God, a present Help in time of need, it hinders our access to I-lira, and we find ourselves wandering on Calvary when we have a living Saviour in the New Jerusalem. Another thing that hinders the access of men to a living, personal God is the presentation that is continually made of the atonement of Christ. I do not undertake to rail at the doctrine of the atonement, nor to say that it is an unnecessary doctrine; but I resist vehemently the substitution of a plan of salvation, as it is sometimes called, or the term atonement, for the phrase, the Lord Jesus Christ–for, really, in preaching, men are urged to accept Christs atonement, instead of accepting Christ. They are asked to be saved through the atonement, instead of being asked to be saved by the loving power and loving influence of Christ. What the sick man wants to know is, not bow the pill which he takes was compounded, but whether, taking it, the chills and fever will stop. If they do, he does not care what is in it; and if they do not, he rices not care what is in it. What mankind want is salvation; and it is brought to them through the presentation of Jesus Christ, who attempts to save them, not by buoying them up by a system of physical laws and mechanical observances, or by abstract conceptions of right and duty, but by bringing them on to a new ground of personal liberty. The Lord stands to you and to me as a living Saviour. He is your personal Saviour and my personal Saviour; He is your Redeemer and my Redeemer; He is your Brother and my Brother. I do not come to Him any longer through the atonement; that is His look-out. I do not come to Him by the way of the Cross; that is historys business. I come directly to Him. I come to Him because every throb of my nature tells me that I need elevation and spiritualisation, and because I have faith that these are to be found in Him. I come to Him because I am impelled to by the whole volume of my wants. I come to Him because I am drawn toward Him by all the ardour of my confidence and love. There is one more point which is even more exceptionable. I refer to the use of blood. There was a time when that symbol was needed. In the Old Testament dispensation blood was significant of moral qualities. But what possible use, in modern association, has blood? Here and there a man sheds his blood for his country, in which ease blood represents his willingness to sacrifice himself for his country. It may be necessary under certain circumstances to take blood as an emblem of self-denial, heroism and suffering as they exist in God, in order to give a conception of them to low-minded people; but when it has been employed for a certain time, and these conceptions have been involved and enfolded to a given point, they become stronger than the symbol: and the symbol, instead of benefiting them, stands in their way, and constantly tends to draw them back from the spiritual truth to the carnal representation of it. If these criticisims are valid, the question naturally comes back, How would you proceed? What would you do? In the first place, I will say that I do not believe you could collect an audience so ignorant and degraded as to be incompetent to understand the revelation of God in Christ Jesus as a personal Saviour the thing itself is simpler than any figure by which you can represent it. And the great want of the Church to-day, it seems to m-, is such a presentation of Christ to men as that every man and every woman shall feel that they have a living Friend in heaven who thinks of them, who knows them by name, and who understands their birth, their parentage, their education, their liabilities, the various influences which operate upon them, but which they are not responsible for, their culture, their surroundings, everything that belongs to them; that they have a Brother who has gone there to take all power into His hands and exercise it in their behalf. What every person needs is the sense of a living Jesus Christ, to whom in trial or in want he can turn and be conscious that He hears, and is present to help. In time of need, when your expectations are disappointed, when your plans are broken up, when your life seems a wreck, and when despair has taken possession of you, and you know not which way to turn for succour–then you need to have a faith that there is One in heaven who knows you, who loves you, and who will stand by yon, and will stand by you to the end, whatever may befall you. Such a Saviour you have in Christ Jesus; and nothing shall separate you from His love. And he who has such a Saviour as that need not ask philosophers anything. He will have written in his own soul the philosophy of his own experience; and buoyed up by the joy and gladness which are ministered to him, he will have the wherewith to draw other men upward, saying, This has Christ been to me, and this will Christ be to you if you will accept Him. I beseech of you now–and above all in times of depression and trouble–see to it that you have a hold upon the living Christ: not upon a doctrine, not upon a symbol, but upon a Person, throbbing, vital, near, and overflowing with generous love. (H. W.Beecher.)

Times of need

If God is a merciful High Priest to all, in all circumstances, and according to the law of humanity, the, He must needs have sympathy and tender regard for man, not in those sufferings alone which are brought upon them without their own fault, but in that vast flow of daily follies, and sins, and prejudices, and stumblings, and slidings, that go to make up human life. Divine sympathy for mere misfortune we have, and it is a great mercy; and if there were no other sympathy than that, it would still be a great mercy; but it would go only a little way towards alleviating human suffering. The want of the heart does not lie chiefly in the things that are brought upon us without any agency of our own. Hence, sympathy, to be efficacious, and to meet the wants of human life, must take man in his sinful nature, and in his actual experience. That which Christ came to do was to seek and to save the lost; not those simply that were lost by others fault, but those that were lost by their own fault. God in Christ is a Father with plenary paternal attributes and feelings. Consider what a parent–a being infinitely lower, less sensitive, and less capable of moral greatness–will do for a child. How much he will bear I how much he will forget I how much he will forgive! And shall God be thought to be less than a man? Shall He who is greater than man in the direction of goodness, of patience, of glorious lovingkindness, be capable of less forbearance towards His children than an earthly father manifests towards his? Gods tender thought, and His compassionate sympathy, are a refuge into which every man may run–and then most when most lie needs some refuge and some strength. Let us select a few occasions that shall bring us to God. In general, it may be said that all emergencies in which the heart can find no rest and comfort in the use of the ordinary instruments of consolation are among those occasions. There are times of great physical suffering, in which men are justified in appropriating this promise and this exhortation, and going directly for help to God. There is a cold physical philosophy, a stoical indifference, or stoical strength, upon which one may lean in suffering; but this is not to be compared with that glowing faith which one may have, that God, although for wise purposes of His own He does not remove pain, yet looks upon us, and understands our wants, feels with us and for us, and works in us submission, and patience, and fortitude. Physical suffering, long continued, ordinarily tends to degradation; but where it is accepted in the right spirit, it builds men up in qualities that are godly–and through suffering many men have become heroic. Times of great perplexity, in which there are doubts and uncertainties that prey like wolves upon the fears of men; which bring pressure, and care, and soul-suffering–these are times of need that justify you in going to God for sympathy. You have His thought and His regard; and why should you not take the comfort of it? You would carry your fears to a friends bosom; why will you not carry them to the bosom of the best of friends? Times of religious depression are peculiarly times of need, in which men are justified in going to God, where they arise from a doubt of any ones own piety, or from what is even more painful–scepticism of the whole nature and web of the truth itself, which, as it were, unsettles and sets adrift the whole religious nature. There are two kinds of sceptics. Some are sceptical from the force of malign passions, which lead them to seek to destroy, that they may have a larger license, and be wicked with impunity. Others are sceptical from the force of moral feelings. They have their thought-doubts and their heart-doubts; and it is the best part of their nature, oftentimes, that strives within them, seeking to solve many of these insoluble questions; seeking to appease many aspirations and hungers of the soul; seeking to put partial truths into their full light. Hunger and thirst they do for faith. They long for it with an unutterable longing. And where, not because they seek to, and not because they wish to, men dishonour God and separate themselves from right conduct; where they do this, notwithstanding they endeavour to conform their life to the ethical principles of the gospel, do you say that they ought to be shut up to themselves, and ought not to go to any friend for sympathy and medicament? And, above all, should they not go to God? And may they not suppose that, in such times of need as theirs, God will sympathise with them? There are times of need, too, when men are led to suffering from the development in them of philanthropic tendencies. There be many persons who look out upon human life with most melancholy feelings. The condition of society at large; the state of mankind that is everywhere apparent; the laws that are at work among men; the problems of the destiny of the race–these things, to a thoughtful and generous nature, are productive, frequently, of exceeding great pain. An indifferent, unsympathising, selfish nature will look upon them without the least trouble; but there are many who are made sad by pondering upon such insoluble mysteries. And those times of sadness that they experience are times of need in which they are justified in laying their anxieties and solicitudes at the feet of Christ, and finding rest in Him. Against all these views, the atheistic tendencies of the heart will often rise up. Men know the truth; but often in these times of exigency they have a consciousness of their own unworthiness, and they dare not leave their fate to Jehovah or to Jesus; and their remorse and sense of guilt keep them from acting. There are very many persons who will not go to God just when they need Him, but who undertake first to do a work of righteousness, and so to make a preparation. When they shall have overcome their temptation or sin, or when they shall have brought some degree of peace and complacency into their heart, then they mean to go to God for a ratification, as it were, of the work that is accomplished in them. But this is not wise. It is when most you feel the dart that Satan casts; it is when most you feel the poison that rankles in the soul; it is when most you feel the pang which the heart suffers–it is then that you most need God. Do not wait till you feel willing. Do not wait till you are conscious that all fear is gone. Take your fear, your guilt, your remorse, and go with these, because you are in need. There is no other argument like this, Lord, save, or I perish. There is another difficulty which leads men not to use these views when presented; and that is the unresponsiveness of God. Well, you have a High Priest that was tempted in all points as you are, and yet without sin. Your own Christ, who calls you to Him, suffered in just precisely the way in which you complain of suffering. And the time when you experience an inability to go to God is itself one of the times of need that should bring you to Him. You have a God that has had the same experience in His earthly and limited condition. He, too, was brought into these emergencies that try you, and He pities you, and sorrows with you, on account of them. There is no time of need in which you cannot find a preparation in the heart of Christ for you. You will ask, perhaps, How, then, under such circumstances, will God give us help in such times of need? I do not know. It is not written. But this I know: that He has the control of all natural forces, of all physical laws, of all social and moral influences. I know that He is the Governor of the universe, and that all things shall work together in due time for the good of those that love and trust Him. And because I do not know of the secrets by which He succours men, shall I, therefore, not trust in Him? (H. W.Beecher.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 15. For we have not a high priest] To the objection, “Your High Priest, if entered into the heavens, can have no participation with you, and no sympathy for you, because out of the reach of human feelings and infirmities,” he answers: . We have not a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness. Though he be the Son of God, as to his human nature, and equal in his Divine nature with God; yet, having partaken of human nature, and having submitted to all its trials and distresses, and being in all points tempted like as we are, without feeling or consenting to sin; he is able to succour them that are tempted. See Heb 2:18, and the note there.

The words ‘ might be translated, in all points according to the likeness, i.e. as far as his human nature could bear affinity to ours; for, though he had a perfect human body and human soul, yet that body was perfectly tempered; it was free from all morbid action, and consequently from all irregular movements. His mind, or human soul, being free from all sin, being every way perfect, could feel no irregular temper, nothing that was inconsistent with infinite purity. In all these respects he was different from us; and cannot, as man, sympathize with us in any feelings of this kind: but, as God, he has provided support for the body under all its trials and infirmities, and for the soul he has provided an atonement and purifying sacrifice; so that he cleanses the heart from all unrighteousness, and fills the soul with his Holy Spirit, and makes it his own temple and continual habitation. He took our flesh and blood, a human body and a human soul, and lived a human life. Here was the likeness of sinful flesh, Ro 8:5; and by thus assuming human nature, he was completely qualified to make an atonement for the sins of the world.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities: this duty of perseverance in the Christian religion, is enforced by the consideration of the sympathy of this High Priest, with the states of all who will enter into Gods rest by him. He is worthy that we should hold it fast, being without impotency. It is impossible he should be pitiless to penitent sinners, though he be glorious, there being nothing in himself, or out of himself, indisposing him to it. imports such a sympathy or fellow feeling, as makes him like affected as if he were in the same case with them. He cannot but be compassionate, since inwardly affected and moved with the sufferings of his, Act 9:5; compare Isa 58:9. As God, he is infinitely merciful; as man, inwardly feeling them, even all the miseries they were liable to, but sinful ones. He wants no bowels, but he hath, as a fellow feeling, so a fellow grieving, and fellow caring for the redress of them, even all such as are fit for his pity; and works on affections, a sense of guilt, fears, doubts, tremblings, weak-workings to God, the concomitant infirmities of sinful souls; all the weaknesses of grace in us, all troubles, distresses, anguishes in the flesh, the fruits of sin. He knows these sensibly as man, which as God singly he could not. These sinful weaknesses of soul inclining to sin, and disabling from resisting temptations, by which the subtle, powerful enemy of our soul prevaileth over us to the accumulating of sin and guilt daily and so need this sympathy of his to us-ward: see Heb 5:2; 1Co 2:3; 2Co 11:23-31; 12:5,9,10.

But was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin; but , was pierced and tried by all sorts of sufferings, being outwardly tempted by the devil to sin; inwardly he could not, being perfectly holy, Joh 14:30; but was outwardly with violence assaulted by him, Mat 4:1-11; and tried by men beyond any man, and tempted to the same sins whereby Adam fell, and others miscarry every day. He felt the curse of sin, the wrath of God, agonies in his soul, violent pains in his body, sorrows to the death from the cradle to the cross: and in every matter of grief and suffering in soul, in body, from the world, from Satan, from God, in all kinds of temptations spiritual and temporal; experiencing the evils of this life, hunger, thirst, weariness, grief, Isa 53:3-10, even such as we are liable to, all of them really and truly like ours, and more powerfully than ours; they were for similitude like, but for degree exceeding them; ours, for exquisiteness of sense, but a shadow of his. Yet under all these temptations he was sinless, as the Holy One of God; never did temptation prevail over him, he overcame all. Nothing was out of place or order by his sufferings in him: all his affections and passions under these, regular, showing his innocency under variety of sufferings, and eminency of compassions. Sin hardens bowels, but he is compassionate without any mixture with or hinderance by corruption; and his intercession is the more effectual with God for us. What Christian under his conduct would not follow his great example, so to resist and conquer by him?

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

15. Forthe motive to “holdingour profession” (Heb 4:14),namely the sympathy and help we may expect from our High Priest.Though “great” (Heb4:14), He is not above caring for us; nay, as being in all pointsone with us as to manhood, sin only excepted, He sympathizes with usin every temptation. Though exalted to the highest heavens, He haschanged His place, not His nature and office in relation to us, Hiscondition, but not His affection. Compare Mt26:38, “watch with me”: showing His desire in the daysof His flesh for the sympathy of those whom He loved: so Henow gives His suffering people His sympathy. Compare Aaron,the type, bearing the names of the twelve tribes in the breastplateof judgment on his heart, when he entered into the holy place, for amemorial before the Lord continually (Ex28:29).

cannot be touched with thefeeling ofGreek, “cannot sympathize with ourinfirmities”: our weaknesses, physical and moral (notsin, but liability to its assaults). He, though sinless, cansympathize with us sinners; His understanding more acutely perceivedthe forms of temptation than we who are weak can; His will repelledthem as instantaneously as the fire does the drop of water cast intoit. He, therefore, experimentally knew what power was needed toovercome temptations. He is capable of sympathizing, for He was atthe same time tempted without sin, and yet truly tempted [BENGEL].In Him alone we have an example suited to men of every character andunder all circumstances. In sympathy He adapts himself to each, as ifHe had not merely taken on Him man’s nature in general, but also thepeculiar nature of that single individual.

but“nay, rather,He was (one) tempted” [ALFORD].

like as we areGreek,“according to (our) similitude.”

without sinGreek,“choris,” “separate from sin” (Heb7:26). If the Greek “aneu” had been used,sin would have been regarded as the object absent from Christthe subject; but choris here implies that Christ, the subject,is regarded as separated from sin the object [TITTMANN].Thus, throughout His temptations in their origin, process, andresult, sin had nothing in Him; He was apart and separate from it[ALFORD].

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

For we have not an high priest,…. That is cruel and unmerciful; the saints have an high priest, but not such an one:

which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; such as bodily diseases and wants, persecutions from men, and the temptations of Satan; under all which Christ sympathizes with his people; and which sympathy of his arises from his knowledge and experience of these things, and the share he has had of them, and from that union there is between him and his people: and it is not a bare sympathy, but is attended with his assistance, support, and deliverance; and the consideration of it is of great comfort to the saints:

but was in all points tempted like as we are: of the temptations of Christ, and of the saints, [See comments on Heb 2:18]

yet without sin; there was no sin in his nature; though he was encompassed about with infirmities, yet not with sinful infirmities, only sinless ones; nor was there any sin in his temptations; though he was solicited to sin by Satan, yet he could find none in him to work upon; nor could he draw him into the commission of any sin.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

That cannot be touched with the feeling ( ). “Not able to sympathize with.” First aorist passive infinitive of , late compound verb from the late adjective (Ro 12:15), both from , to suffer with (1Cor 12:26; Rom 8:17), occurring in Aristotle and Plutarch, in N.T. only in Hebrews (here and 10:34).

One that hath been tempted (). Perfect passive participle of , as already shown in 2:17f.

Without sin ( ). This is the outstanding difference that must never be overlooked in considering the actual humanity of Jesus. He did not yield to sin. But more than this is true. There was no latent sin in Jesus to be stirred by temptation and no habits of sin to be overcome. But he did have “weaknesses” () common to our human nature (hunger, thirst, weariness, etc.). Satan used his strongest weapons against Jesus, did it repeatedly, and failed. Jesus remained “undefiled” () in a world of sin (Joh 8:46). This is our ground of hope, the sinlessness of Jesus and his real sympathy.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

We have not an high priest who cannot, etc.

Whatever may be thought to the contrary; whatever contrary conclusion may be drawn from the character of the Levitical priests, or from Christ’s exalted dignity and purity.

Touched with the feeling ()

Only here and Hebrews 10:34. This is more than knowledge of human infirmity. It is feeling it by reason of a common experience with () men.

Infirmities ()

Not sufferings, but weaknesses, moral and physical, which predispose to sin and facilitate it.

Like as we are ( ‘ )

Lit. according to likeness.  of us or our is to be understood, or, as some, , according to his likeness to us.

Without sin ( )

This, of course, implies that he was not led into sin by temptation, and also that no temptation aroused in him sin already present and dormant. It is not meant that temptation arising from sin external to himself was not applied to him.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “For we have not an high priest,” (ou gar echomen archierea) “For we have not (possess or hold not) an high priest,” that is of unsympathetic disposition, Heb 2:18.

2) “Which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” (me dunamenon sumpathesai tais astheneiais hemon) “Who is not able (capable) to suffer (empathize or sympathize) with our weaknesses; For he has experienced the inhumanities of man, as a man, Isa 53:3; Psa 22:6; Heb 5:2.

3) “But was in all points tempted,” (pepirasmenon de kata panta) “But one who is having been tempted (tested) in all respects,” Luk 4:2; Luk 22:28; Joh 4:6; Joh 11:33-35.

4) “Like as we are,” (kath homoioteta) “According to our likeness,” Isa 53:3-6; Luk 11:53-54.

5) “Yet without sin,” (choris hamartias) “Yet he experienced (endured it) apart from or without engaging in sin,” Heb 7:26, holy harmless, undefiled, and in a separate class from sinners, Joh 14:30; 2Co 5:21; 1Pe 2:22; 1Jn 3:5. This can not be said of other priests.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

15. For we have not, etc. There is in the name which he mentions, the Son of God, such majesty as ought to constrain us to fear and obey him. But were we to contemplate nothing but this in Christ, our consciences would not be pacified; for who of us does not dread the sight of the Son of God, especially when we consider what our condition is, and when our sins come to mind? The Jews might have had also another hindrance, for they had been accustomed to the Levitical priesthood; they saw in that one mortal man, chosen from the rest, who entered into the sanctuary, that by his prayer he might reconcile his brethren to God. It is a great thing, when the Mediator, who can pacify God towards us, is one of ourselves. By this sort of allurement the Jews might have been ensnared, so as to become ever attached to the Levitical priesthood, had not the Apostle anticipated this, and showed that the Son of God not only excelled in glory, but that he was also endued with equal kindness and compassion towards us.

It is, then, on this subject that he speaks, when he says that he was tried by our infirmities, that he might condole with us. As to the word sympathy, ( συμπαθεία,) I am not disposed to indulge in refinements; for frivolous, no less than curious, is this question, “Is Christ now subject to our sorrows?” It was not, indeed, the Apostle’s object to weary us with such subtleties and vain speculations, but only to teach us that we have not to go far to seek a Mediator, since Christ of his own accord extends his hand to us, that we have no reason to dread the majesty of Christ since he is our brother, and that there is no cause to fear, lest he, as one unacquainted with evils, should not be touched by any feelings of humanity, so as to bring us help, since he took upon him our infirmities, in order that he might be more inclined to succor us. (78)

Then the whole discourse of the Apostle refers to what is apprehended by faith, for he does not speak of what Christ is in himself, but shows what he is to us. By the likeness, he understands that of nature, by which he intimates that Christ has put on our flesh, and also its feelings or affections, so that he not only paroled himself to be real man, but had also been taught by his own experience to help the miserable; not because the Son of God had need of such a training, but because we could not otherwise comprehend the care he feels for our salvation. Whenever, then, we labor under the infirmities of our flesh, let us remember that the Son of God experienced the same, in order that he might by his power raise us up, so that we may not be overwhelmed by them.

But it may be asked, What does he mean by infirmities? The word is indeed taken in various senses. Some understand by it cold and heat; hunger and other wants of the body; and also contempt, poverty, and other things of this mind, as in many places in the writings of Paul, especially in 2Co 12:10. But their opinion is more correct who include, together with external evils, the feelings of the souls such as fear, sorrow, the dread of death, and similar things. (79)

And doubtless the restriction, without sin, would not have been added, except he had been speaking of the inward feelings, which in us are always sinful on account of the depravity of our nature; but in Christ, who possessed the highest rectitude and perfect purity, they were free from everything vicious. Poverty, indeed, and diseases, and those things which are without us, are not to be counted as sinful. Since, therefore, he speaks of infirmities akin to sin, there is no doubt but that he refers to the feelings or affections of the mind, to which our nature is liable, and that on account of its infirmity. For the condition of the angels is in this respect better than ours; for they sorrow not, nor fear, nor are they harassed by variety of cares, nor by the dread of death. These infirmities Christ of his own accord undertook, and he willingly contended with them, not only that he might attain a victory over them for us, but also that we may feel assured that he is present with us whenever we are tried by them.

Thus he not only really became a man, but he also assumed all the qualities of human nature. There is, however, a limitation added, without sin; for we must ever remember this difference between Christ’s feelings or affections and ours, that his feelings were always regulated according to the strict rule of justice, while ours flow from a turbid fountain, and always partake of the nature of their source, for they are turbulent and unbridled. (80)

(78) Calvin has followed the Vulg. In rendering this clause, “who cannot sympathize ( compati) with our infirmities.” Our version is that of Eramus and Beza. The meaning may thus be given, “Who cannot feel for us in our infirmities.” — Ed.

(79) The word “infirmities” is often used metonymically for things which we are too weak to bear, even trials and temptations. Christ, our high priest, feels for us in all those straits and difficulties, whatever they be, which meet us in our course, and make us feel and know our weaknesses. — Ed.

(80) The common idea of what is here said is, that Christ though tried and tempted, was not yet guilty of sin, or did not fall into sin. That he had no sin, that he was without sin, is what we plainly learn from 2Co 5:21; 1Jo 3:5, etc.; but is this what is taught here? The clause, I conceive, may be thus rendered, —

“

But was in all things tried in like manner except sin;”

that is, with the exception that he had no innate sin to contend with. The last words are literally, “in likeness with the exclusion of sin,” which seems to import that it was a likeness with the exclusion of sin. But if the words “except (or without) sin” do not qualify “likeness,” they must be connected with “tried” or tempted, and thus rendered, —

“

But was in like manner tried in all things without sin;”

that is, without sinning, or falling into sin. The difference is, that in the one sense Christ had no inward sin to contend with, and that in the other he withstood temptation without falling into sin. Both senses are true, and either of them will suit this passage. — Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(15) We cannot but note again how the power of the exhortation (especially to those immediately addressed) lay in the combination of the two thoughtsthe greatness and the tender compassion of the High Priest of our confession. The two are united in the words of Heb. 4:16, the throne of grace. (Comp. Heb. 8:1.) The beautiful rendering, touched with the feeling of our infirmities, is due to the Genevan Testament of 1557.

But was in all points . . .Better, but One that hath in all points been tempted in like manner, apart from sin. These words show the nature and the limits of this sympathy of Christ. He suffers with His people, not merely showing compassion to those who are suffering and tempted, but taking to Himself a joint feeling of their weaknesses. He can do this because He has passed through trial, has Himself been tempted. In speaking of weaknesses the writer uses a word applicable both to the people and to their Lord, who was crucified through weakness (2Co. 13:4). Its meaning must not be limited to the region of pain and bodily suffering: whatever belongs to the necessary limitations of that human nature which He assumed is included. As He learned His obedience from sufferings (Heb. 5:8), He gained His knowledge of the help we need in that Himself took our weaknesses (Mat. 8:17), and was Himself tempted in like manner, save that in Him sin had no place (Heb. 7:26). These last words supply the limit to the thought of weakness and temptation as applied to our High Priest. Not only was the temptation fruitless in leading to sin (this is implied here, but only as a part or a result of another truth), but in the widest sense He could say, The prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in Me (Joh. 14:30). Was tempted in all points in like manner, are words which must not be over-pressed; but the essential principles of temptation may be traced in those with which Jesus was assailed. (Comp. Joh. 21:25.)

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

15. For These next two verses extend and amplify Heb 2:17-18, intending to show that the Saviour’s humiliation, instead of being a ground of disgust, is truly most glorious and attractive, as being most tender.

In all points tempted How this could be, see our notes introductory to and on Mat 4:1.

Without sin Without a derived depravation from the fall, and so without a preferential tendency to sin; so that Satan could find “nothing in” him (Joh 14:30) as base for inducing apostasy. And yet, as human, possessing those susceptibilities which, pure and right in themselves, may, without the preventive will fixing itself firmly in obedience to the Right, be excited to sin. Hence with the full ability to sin, yet without the commission or guilt of sin. All the more glorious his merit, and all the more complete his example, because sin was possible, yet not committed.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘For we do not have a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.’

He is a heavenly High Priest and far above us, but that does not mean that He is not aware of our temptations and our needs. For this great High Priest is not one who can have no sympathy with us in our weaknesses, rather He can empathise (sympathise more deeply because He has experienced it Himself) with us because He Himself was tested and tempted in all the ways in which we are. He was made Man. He suffered testing and temptation. And yet through it all He did not sin (compare 2Co 5:21; 1Pe 3:18). Thus He bore temptation to its fullest limit, a limit that we rarely reach, for we so often give way before the temptation has attained its full power.

Thus when we come in prayer to the Father we should not only consider Christ’s glory, but also His close relationship with us. He knows and understands why we come, He is aware of what needs we will have, and He has experienced them Himself. Thus can we be sure of a sympathetic hearing. As we approach He says, ‘My brother, My sister, I know. I understand. I remember when it happened to Me as well, and I remember how hard it was. I will intercede for you’

‘Cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but One who has been in all points tempted like as we are.’ It is often asked whether Jesus could genuinely be tempted like this. Scripture is quite clear on the matter. He could and He was. The fact that we cannot understand how is really irrelevant. What we should rejoice in is that He can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Heb 4:15. Which cannot be touched with the feeling, &c. With a fellow feeling, &c. See ch. Heb 10:34. The Greek of the next clause is literally, but in all things tempted according to a likeness; that is, with us. Compare ch. Heb 2:17-18.Yet without sin;we have added the word yet in our version. He underwent all kinds of trials, sufferings, and temptations: he stood firm, and went through them all, without any falling away from the truth, or doing any thing amiss:we, therefore, through his grace, should act with the like resolution. Or rather the meaning is, (which seems more natural, and must be included according to the course of the apostle’s reasoning,) that we should hold fast our profession in every respect, because we have a High-priest who knows how to sympathize with us, and will be the more inclined to favour us, since, though he was without sin, yet he was perfected through sufferings: ch. Heb 2:10. One further design of the sacred writer, in mentioning this circumstance, might be, to shew how infinitely preferable Christ, the High priest of our profession, is to the ancient high-priests; inasmuch as they were subject themselves to sin, and therefore had occasion to offer for their own sins, as well as those of the people. See ch. Heb 5:3 Heb 7:26. 1Jn 2:1-2.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Heb 4:15 . Further justification of the demand, Heb 4:14 , of stedfast adherence to the Christian confession. [70] For the High Priest of Christians is not merely a highly exalted One (Heb 4:14 ), He is also qualified, since as Brother He stands very closely related to believers, and has been tempted as they are, to have sympathy for their weaknesses. Comp. Heb 2:17-18 . Calvin: In nomine Filii Dei, quod posuit, subest ea majestas, quae nos ad timorem et obsequium adigat. Verum si nihil in Christo aliud consideremus, nondum pacatae erunt conscientiae. Quis enim non reformidet Filii Dei conspectum, praesertim quum reputamus, qualis sit nostra conditio, nobisque in mentem veniunt peccata nostra? Deinde Judaeis aliud obstare poterat, quia Levitico sacerdotio assueverant: illic cernebant hominem mortalem unum ex aliis electum, qui sanctuarium ingrediebatur, ut sua deprecatione reconciliaret fratres suos Deo. Hoc magnum est, quum mediator, qui placare erga nos Deum potest, unus est ex nobis. Haec illecebra poterat Judaeos illaqueare, ut sacerdotio Levitico semper essent addicti, nisi occurreret apostolus, ac ostenderet Filium Dei non modo excellere gloria, sed aequa bonitate et indulgentia erga nos esse praeditum. Whereas and bring out the homogeneity of the New Testament High Priest with that of the Old Testament (comp. Heb 5:2 ), the dissimilarity at the same time existing between the two is rendered apparent by .

] to have sympathy , compassionate feeling. Comp. Heb 10:34 . Preliminary condition to bestowing succour and redemption.

] the conditions of human weakness, as well moral as physical, which have been called forth by the entrance of sin into the world.

] contains in the form of a correction of the proof of the capacity for having sympathy.

] Comp. Heb 2:17 .

] sc . (comp. Heb 7:15 : ), or (comp. Polyb. xiii. 7. 2 : , , ), or even (comp. Philo, de Profugis , p. 458 A, with Mangey, I. p. 553: ): in like (similar) manner as we .

] without sin, i.e. without sin arising out of the temptations, or more clearly: without His being led into sinning, as a result of His being tempted. Comp. Heb 7:26 ; 2Co 5:21 ; 1Jn 3:5 ; 1Pe 2:22 . When Hofmann ( Schrifthew . II. 1, 2 Aufl. p. 37) and Delitzsch will discover in these words the additional indication that in the case of Jesus temptation also found no sin present , this is indeed true as to the fact, but open to the misconception of being supposed to imply that even the possibility of sinning on the part of Jesus is denied, whereas surely this possibility in itself must be conceived of as an essential factor in the idea of being tempted; and opposed to the context, because is the continued note of modality of , and thus cannot possibly specify something that was already present, even before the came in. More in accordance with the context, therefore, does Alford express himself: “Throughout these temptations, in their origin, in their process, in their result, sin had nothing in Him: He was free and separate from it.” Wrongly Jac. Cappellus, Calmet, Semler, Storr, Ernesti, Heinrichs, Kuinoel, and others: tempted in all things, sin excepted . For in that case (with the article) would be written, and this be connected immediately with . Mistaken, however, is also the explanation of Oecumenius, Schlichting, Dindorf: without having committed sin, as a guiltless one ; an interpretation which would be admissible only if could be referred specially to the enduring of outward sufferings, which might be seen to be a consequence of sin.

Comp., for the rest, on likewise the kindred statements concerning the divine Logos in Philo, de Profugis , p. 466 B (with Mangey, I. p. 562): , , .

Ibid . p. 467 C (I. p. 563): .

[70] Incorrectly does Ebrard take ver. 15 as elucidation of .

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 2286
ENCOURAGEMENT DERIVED FROM THE CHARACTER OF CHRIST

Heb 4:15-16. 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.

NOTWITHSTANDING the excellency of the Christian religion, when compared with that of the Jews, there were not wanting many specious objections, which a Jew might bring against it, and which, on a wavering and ill-instructed mind, might operate with considerable force. A Jew might, with some appearance of truth, say, We know that our religion is from heaven: we know that the sacrifices which we offer are of divine appointment: we see the priest actually making an atonement for us: we behold the high-priest carrying the blood of the sacrifice within the vail: and we hear him pronouncing the very benediction which God put into his mouth. You Christians lose all these advantages, and rely on mere notions of your own, which have nothing visible, nothing real. But to these objections the Christian may reply, We have a better sacrifice, and a greater High-priest than you: and though we see neither the sacrifice nor the High-priest with our bodily eyes, we know he is entered into a better tabernacle, that is, into heaven itself, there to appear in the presence of God for us: and therefore do we hold fast our profession, yea, and will hold it fast, whatever menaces, or whatever allurements, be employed to turn us from it.
But if the greatness of our High-priest be sufficient to determine us, what will not the consideration of his goodness be? Let us but contemplate that, and we shall need nothing further to keep us steadfast even to the end: for we shall have a perfect assurance that we shall never want any thing that is requisite either for our spiritual or eternal welfare.
This is the idea suggested in the text; from whence we are naturally led to notice,

I.

The character of our great High-priest

Though he was the Son of God, Jehovahs Fellow, the brightness of his Fathers glory, and the express image of his person, yet He was in all points tempted like as we are.
[In bodily sufferings, he was tried with hunger and thirst, and weariness and pain; and had not even a place where to lay his head. As for persecutions from men, no human being was ever pursued with such bitter unrelenting animosity as he. No terms were too vile to be applied to him: he was called a glutton and a wine-bibber, a deceiver and blasphemer, a Samaritan and a devil: and the whole nation rose against him with that indignant cry, Crucify him, crucify him. Of his assaults from Satan, what shall we say? What words can express the conflicts he maintained with all the powers of darkness, in the wilderness, and in the garden of Gethsemane, when through the agonies of his soul his whole body was bathed in a bloody sweat? From the hidings of his Fathers face also, and from a sense of his wrath, when, as we are told, it pleased the Lord to bruise him, his sufferings infinitely surpassed all that any created imagination can conceive. When his soul was sore troubled, even unto death, he prayed indeed for the removal of the bitter cup, yet drank it, when put into his hands, without complaint: but when he was called to endure the consummation of his misery in the hidings of his Fathers face, he could not forbear pouring forth that heart-rending complaint, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Thus was he foremost in almost every trial that we can possibly be called upon to sustain; and notwithstanding in him was no sin, he was, far beyond any of the sinners of mankind, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.]
Having experienced in his own person all that we can feel, he sympathizes with us in all our trials
[The double negation in our text is very expressive; and imports much more than a simple affirmation. Our High-priest is most assuredly a tender sympathizing Friend: and one great end for which he submitted to be tempted like us, was, that he might learn to appreciate aright our sufferings, and be able to succour us in our temptations [Note: Heb 2:18.]. He now can say, more emphatically than heretofore, I know their sorrows [Note: Exo 3:7.]: and more justly may it be said of him, His soul is grieved for the misery of Israel [Note: Jdg 10:16.]. So acutely does he feel for all his members, that whoso persecuteth them, persecutes him [Note: Act 9:4.]; and whoso toucheth one of them, toucheth the apple of his eye [Note: Zec 2:8.]. What he felt when he wept at the grave of Lazarus, he still feels, as it were, when he beholds his sorrowing and afflicted people. From whatever quarter their troubles arise, from men or devils, from body or from mind, yea, or even from the hand of God himself, his compassion is the same, and his sympathy is ready to exert itself for their relief.]

Such being indisputably the character of our High-priest, let us contemplate,

II.

The encouragement to be derived from it in all our addresses at the throne of grace

The thought of having such an High-priest passed into the heavens to further our cause in the presence of his God, emboldens us to come to God himself,

1.

Without fear, as arising from a sense of our own unworthiness

[Had we not such an Advocate, it would be impossible for us to draw nigh to God with any hope of acceptance. To such unholy creatures as we, God would be nothing but a consuming fire. But, when we recollect what a sacrifice our great High-priest has offered, and that he is entered into heaven with his own blood, and that he pleads the merit of that blood in behalf of his believing people, how can we doubt of acceptance through his prevailing intercession? Be it so, our sins have been most heinous: yet are we assured, that his blood will cleanse from all sin, and that they who are washed in it, shall be as wool, and their crimson sins be white as snow. Had we the guilt of the whole world accumulated on our own souls, still need we not despair, since he who is our Advocate is also a Propitiation for us, and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world [Note: 1Jn 1:2.]. If the blood of bulls and goats prevailed for Israel to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the Eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, purge our conscience from dead works to serve the living God [Note: Heb 9:13-14.]. With such an Advocate we have nothing to fear. We are sure that him the Father heareth always: and that he is able to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them [Note: Heb 7:25.]. He has the names of all his people on his breastplate, and on his heart: and the chief of sinners may be as confident of acceptance through him, as those who have comparatively little to be forgiven [Note: 1Ti 1:15-16. .].]

2.

Without doubt, as arising from the greatness of the things we have to ask

[All that we can need is comprehended in two things, mercy and grace; the one, for the pardon of our past transgressions; the other, for the preservation of our souls from sin in future. Now these are the very things specified in our text, as to be asked by us in the name of our High-priest with boldness and confidence: and we are assured, that they shall be granted, both in the time and measure that we need them. We are not to be accounting any thing too great to ask, because there is nothing too great for him to give. We are not to be straitened in ourselves, seeing that we are not straitened in him. We may ask what we will; and it shall be done unto us [Note: Joh 14:13-14.]. However wide we open our mouth, it shall be filled [Note: Psa 81:10.]. Let our need of mercy be ever so great, we shall obtain mercy; and our need of grace ever so abundant, the supply shall be proportioned to our need. If we want grace to sustain suffering, to fulfil duty, to transform the soul into the Divine image, Ask and have, is the Divine command: and our boldness in asking cannot be too great, provided it be of a right kind: it must not be of an unhallowed and presumptuous cast; but duly tempered with penitential sorrow, and patient resignation. Then it may rise to a confident expectation, and a full assurance of faith [Note: Heb 10:19-22.].]

But whilst we are thus encouraged to draw nigh to God, let us learn,
1.

That nothing is to be obtained without prayer

[It is not the death of Christ as our sacrifice, nor the intercession of Christ as our great High-priest, that will save us, if we do not pray for ourselves. Though he is on a throne, and that throne is a throne of grace, we shall receive no benefit from his power or grace, if we do not sue for it in earnest and believing prayer. His offices are not intended to supersede our endeavours, but to encourage them, and to assure us of success in the use of the appointed means. Those are always characterized as enemies, who call not upon God: and we are warned plainly that we cannot have, if we neglect to ask [Note: Jam 4:3.]. The means must be used in order to the end; and it is only in, and by, the means, that the end can ever be attained [Note: Mat 7:7-8.]. Hear this, ye who neglect prayer, or draw nigh to God with your lips only and not with your hearts! Unless in every thing, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, you make your requests known unto God, you can never experience his blessing upon your souls, nor ever behold the face of your God in peace.]

2.

That in all your addresses to God your eyes must be directly fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ as your Mediator and Advocate

[When the high-priest was passing through the vail into the holy of holies, the eyes of all were fixed on him as their mediator; and from his intercession all their hopes were derived. And how much more should our eyes be fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ as our Advocate and Intercessor! It is in his name that we are taught to offer our supplications [Note: Joh 16:23-26.]: and it is through his intercession alone that they can come up with acceptance before God [Note: Joh 16:6.]. Seek then at all times to realize this in your minds: and beg of God to make you deeply and abidingly sensible of it: for then only do you honour the Father, when you thus honour his dear Son [Note: Joh 5:23.]; and then only will the Father be glorified in you, when he is thus honoured and glorified in the person of his Son [Note: Joh 14:12.].]

3.

That when you thus approach God in and through his Son, all doubts of acceptance must be put away

[We are not to be wavering in our minds when we draw nigh to God. To doubt either his power or his willingness to help us, is to disparage both the Father and the Son: and prayers offered with a doubtful mind will never bring with them an answer of peace [Note: Jam 1:6-7.]. It is quite a mistaken humility that leads persons to question whether such sinners as they can find mercy; or whether the grace of Christ can be sufficient for them. All such doubts betray an ignorance of Christ, and his Gospel. If he be not the Son of God, equal with the Father, then we may well doubt his ability to help: or if his sacrifice and intercession be not the appointed means of salvation for the whole world, then we may ask, Can he save such a guilty wretch as me? But if all has been ordered of the Father, and the whole work of redemption has been executed by the Son, then must we not stagger at any of the promises, but be strong in faith, giving glory to God [Note: Rom 4:20.]. And according to our faith, so shall it be done unto us.] [Note: If this be the subject of a Charity Sermon, the following may be inserted in the place of the last inference.

3.

That whilst we derive such comfort from him, we should labour to imitate his example

[He suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps. He requires us to love one another, as he has loved us; and, if need be, to lay down our lives for the brethren. And is there not a call for our sympathy at this time? (Here set forth the particular occasion and urgency of it.) Let us then shew that we possess the mind that was in Christ Jesus, and labour to the uttermost to extend to our brethren such aid as shall be suitable and sufficient for them.]].

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

15 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.

Ver. 15. Which earshot be touched ] Christ retaineth still compassion, though freed from personal passion. And though freed from feeling, hath still yet a fellow feeling, Act 9:5 ; Mat 25:35 . a Trajan the emperor being blamed by his friends for being too gentle toward all, answered that being an emperor he would now be such toward private men as he once, when he was a private man, wished that the emperor should be towards him. Christ hath lost nothing of his wonted pity by his exaltation in heaven.

Tempted ] Or, pierced through, . Luther was a piercing preacher, and met with every man’s temptations; and being once demanded how he could do so? Mine own manifold temptations (said he) and experiences are the cause thereof; for from his tender years he was much beaten and exercised with spiritual conflicts.

Yet without sin ] Tempted Christ was to sin, but not into sin.

a Manet compassin etiam cum inpassibilitate

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

15 .] For (how connected? certainly not as grounding the facts just stated; but as furnishing a motive for . The effort is not hopeless, notwithstanding the majesty of our High Priest, and the power of the Word of our God: for we are sympathized with and helped by Him. As Schlichting, “Occupat objectionem. Poterat enim aliquis dicere: quid me magnus iste Pontifex dura confessionis nostr causa patientem juvabit, qui quanto major est, quanto a nobis remotior, tanto minore fortassis nostri cura tangetur?” To suppose, as some have done, that a contrast to the Jewish high priests is intended, is to contradict directly ch. Heb 5:2 . Rather is our great High Priest in this respect expressly identified with them) we have not a high priest unable (thus better than “who is not able,” ) to sympathize with (“The verb , immediately from , as by the same analogy , , , , , , is like all these derivative forms, good Greek. Stephanus states it is to be found in Isocrates: . Philo de Septenar. 13, vol. ii. p. 290: . . . In St. Paul, we have (reff.) which our Epistle has not, but in a somewhat different meaning, that of actual community in suffering with another, whereas our word is spoken of one sympathizing , taking part in heart with the sufferings of another. Erasmus (annot.): ‘Est affici moverique sensu alieni mali.’ might indeed be used in this sense, but hardly in the other.” Bleek) our infirmities (not sufferings , as Chrys., Thdrt., al. For the idea would be here out of place, and the word cannot have this meaning. Bleek has well examined its region of significance; and shewn that it can only betoken primarily the inner and a priori weakness, be that physical , and thereby leading to exposure to suffering and disease, which itself is sometimes called by this name (see Joh 11:4 ; Luk 5:15 ; Luk 8:2 al.: ch. Heb 11:34 ), or spiritual and moral, whereby misery arises, and sin finds entrance, as in ch. Heb 5:2 ; Heb 7:8 . Both these, indeed all human infirmities, are here included. With all does the Son of God sympathize, and for the reason now to be given), nay rather (on being a stronger adversative than , see on Heb 4:13 above), ( one ) tempted (Ebrard has a good note on the subject of our Lord’s temptations) in all things (see on ch. Heb 2:17 ) according to (our) similitude ( is the natural word to supply. So in ch. Heb 7:15 , . It might be : so Aristot. de Mundo (Bl.), : Philo de Profugis, 9, vol. i. p. 553, , see ref. Gen. St. Paul uses , not : cf. Rom 1:23 ; Rom 5:14 ; Rom 6:5 ; Rom 8:3 ; Php 2:7 ) apart from sin (so that throughout these temptations, in their origin, in their process, in their result, sin had nothing in Him: He was free and separate from it. This general reference is the only one which fully gives the general predication, . And so it has been usually taken. But there are considerable divergences. c.: , , . So Thl. altern.: Schlichting, “Ut ostendat, Christum innoxium prorsus fuisse, nec ullo modo hc mala qu passus est commeritum:” al. But this would require to be confined in its meaning to such sufferings as might be inflicted on account of sin: and would altogether deprive it of the meaning ‘ tempted ,’ ‘solicited towards, but short of sin.’ Again, very many Commentators take the words to imply, that He was tempted in all other points, but not in sin: “ sin only excepted .” So Jac. Cappellus, Storr, Ernesti, Heinrichs, Kuinoel, Schleusner, Wahl, and Bretschneider, and al. But the words certainly do not lead to any such interpretation. They would rather in this case be, , or would stand before . The Commentators refer to passages of Philo in which he states the High Priesthood and the sinlessness of the in a manner very similar: e. g. De Profugis, 20, p. 562: , , ).

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Heb 4:15 . Confirmation both of the encouragement of Heb 4:14 and of the fact on which that encouragement is founded is given in the further idea: “for we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but has been tempted in all points like us, without sin”. He repels an idea which might have found entrance into their minds, that an absent, heavenly priest might not be able to sympathise. [to be distinguished from which occurs in Rom 8:17 and 1Co 12:26 , and means to suffer along with one, to suffer the same ills as another] means to feel for, or sympathise with, and occurs also in Heb 10:34 , and is peculiar in N.T. to this writer but found in Aristotle, Isocrates and Plutarch, and in the touching expression of Acts of Paul and Thekla , 17, . Jesus is able to sympathise with “our infirmities,” the weaknesses which undermine our resistance to temptation and make it difficult to hold fast our confession: moral weaknesses, therefore, though often implicated with physical weaknesses. Jesus can feel for these because , He has been tempted in all respects as we are. , classical, “in all respects,” cf. Wetstein on Act 17:22 ; and Evagrius, Heb 5:4 , of Christ incarnate, , cf. Heb 2:17 . may either mean “according to the likeness of our temptations,” or, “in accordance with His likeness to us”. The latter is preferable, being most in agreement with Heb 2:17 . So Theophylact, , , cf. Gen 1:11-12 ; and Philo, De Profug. , c. 9, . The writer wishes to preclude the common fancy that there was some peculiarity in Jesus which made His temptation wholly different from ours, that He was a mailed champion exposed to toy arrows. On the contrary, He has felt in His own consciousness the difficulty of being righteous in this world; has felt pressing upon Himself the reasons and inducements that incline men to choose sin that they may escape suffering and death; in every part of His human constitution has known the pain and conflict with which alone temptation can be overcome; has been so tempted that had He sinned, He would have had a thousandfold better excuse than ever man had. Even though His divinity may have ensured His triumph, His temptation was true and could only be overcome by means that are open to all. The one difference between our temptations and those of Jesus is that His were . Riehm thinks this expression is not exhausted by declaring the fact that in Christ’s case temptation never resulted in sin. It means, he thinks, further, and rather, that temptation never in Christ’s case sprang from any sinful desire in Himself. So also Delitzsch, Weiss, Westcott, etc. But if Theophylact is right in his indication of the motive of the writer in introducing the words, then it is Christ’s successful resistance of temptation which is in the foreground; .

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

which cannot = not (Greek. me) able to.

be touched . . . of = sympathize with. Greek. sumpatheo. Only here and Heb 10:34. Compare 1Pe 3:8.

infirmities. See Joh 11:4, same Greek. word.

in all points. According to (Greek. kata, App-104) all things.

tempted. Greek. peirazo. See Heb 2:18.

like, &c. Literally according to (Greek. kata, as above) our likeness. Greek. homoiotes. Only here and Heb 7:15.

without = apart from. Greek. choris.

sin. Greek. hamartia. App-128.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

15.] For (how connected? certainly not as grounding the facts just stated; but as furnishing a motive for . The effort is not hopeless, notwithstanding the majesty of our High Priest, and the power of the Word of our God: for we are sympathized with and helped by Him. As Schlichting, Occupat objectionem. Poterat enim aliquis dicere: quid me magnus iste Pontifex dura confessionis nostr causa patientem juvabit, qui quanto major est, quanto a nobis remotior, tanto minore fortassis nostri cura tangetur? To suppose, as some have done, that a contrast to the Jewish high priests is intended, is to contradict directly ch. Heb 5:2. Rather is our great High Priest in this respect expressly identified with them) we have not a high priest unable (thus better than who is not able, ) to sympathize with (The verb , immediately from , as by the same analogy , , , , , , is like all these derivative forms, good Greek. Stephanus states it is to be found in Isocrates: . Philo de Septenar. 13, vol. ii. p. 290: … In St. Paul, we have (reff.) which our Epistle has not, but in a somewhat different meaning, that of actual community in suffering with another, whereas our word is spoken of one sympathizing, taking part in heart with the sufferings of another. Erasmus (annot.): Est affici moverique sensu alieni mali. might indeed be used in this sense, but hardly in the other. Bleek) our infirmities (not sufferings, as Chrys., Thdrt., al. For the idea would be here out of place, and the word cannot have this meaning. Bleek has well examined its region of significance; and shewn that it can only betoken primarily the inner and a priori weakness,-be that physical, and thereby leading to exposure to suffering and disease, which itself is sometimes called by this name (see Joh 11:4; Luk 5:15; Luk 8:2 al.: ch. Heb 11:34),-or spiritual and moral,-whereby misery arises, and sin finds entrance, as in ch. Heb 5:2; Heb 7:8. Both these, indeed all human infirmities, are here included. With all does the Son of God sympathize, and for the reason now to be given), nay rather (on being a stronger adversative than , see on Heb 4:13 above), (one) tempted (Ebrard has a good note on the subject of our Lords temptations) in all things (see on ch. Heb 2:17) according to (our) similitude ( is the natural word to supply. So in ch. Heb 7:15, . It might be : so Aristot. de Mundo (Bl.), : Philo de Profugis, 9, vol. i. p. 553, , see ref. Gen. St. Paul uses , not : cf. Rom 1:23; Rom 5:14; Rom 6:5; Rom 8:3; Php 2:7) apart from sin (so that throughout these temptations, in their origin, in their process, in their result,-sin had nothing in Him: He was free and separate from it. This general reference is the only one which fully gives the general predication, . And so it has been usually taken. But there are considerable divergences. c.: , , . So Thl. altern.: Schlichting, Ut ostendat, Christum innoxium prorsus fuisse, nec ullo modo hc mala qu passus est commeritum: al. But this would require to be confined in its meaning to such sufferings as might be inflicted on account of sin: and would altogether deprive it of the meaning tempted, solicited towards, but short of sin. Again, very many Commentators take the words to imply, that He was tempted in all other points, but not in sin: sin only excepted. So Jac. Cappellus, Storr, Ernesti, Heinrichs, Kuinoel, Schleusner, Wahl, and Bretschneider, and al. But the words certainly do not lead to any such interpretation. They would rather in this case be, , or would stand before . The Commentators refer to passages of Philo in which he states the High Priesthood and the sinlessness of the in a manner very similar: e. g. De Profugis, 20, p. 562: , , ).

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Heb 4:15. , not) The apostle institutes, by Chiasmus, a comparison between the Levitical high priest and Christ, 1) So far as qualities are concerned: 2) So far as calling is concerned. In the first there are an Apodosis and a Protasis; in the second, a Protasis and an Apodosis: ch. Heb 4:15-16, Heb 5:1-2; Heb 5:4-5.-, to be touched with a fellow-feeling) He is touched with a fellow-feeling, as having suffered the same things, Isa 1:6; Isa 1:4 : mercy is a cognate noun, Heb 4:16. The reference is to ch. Heb 2:17.- , with our infirmities) A suitable expression: ch. Heb 5:2. The idea of sin, in respect of us, is included; in respect of Christ, is excluded. The words, without sin, presently after follow.- , in the likeness) Inasmuch as He was made like us; ch. Heb 2:17.- , without sin) So ch. Heb 9:28 : but how can one, tempted without sin, be capable of sympathising with those who are tempted with sin? With respect to the understanding, the mind of the Saviour much more acutely perceived the forms of temptation than we who are weak; with respect to the will, He as quickly repressed their assault as the fire represses a drop of water cast into it. He therefore experienced what power was necessary to overcome temptations. He is capable of sympathising, for He was both tempted without sin, and yet He was truly tempted.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

But this precedent description of our high priest may be thought to include a discouragement in it in reference unto us, which may take off from all the encouragements which might be apprehended to lie in his office. For if he be in himself so great and glorious, if so exalted above the heavens, how can we apprehend that he hath any concernment in us, in our weak, frail, tempted, sinning condition? and how shall we use either boldness or confidence in our approach unto him for help or assistance? If the apostle Peter, upon a discovery of his divine power in working of one miracle, thought himself altogether unmeet to be in his presence, whilst he was on the earth, in the days of his flesh, and therefore cried out unto him, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord, Luk 5:8, how much more may we be terrified by his present glory from attempting an access unto him! And how shall we conceive that, in all this glory, he will entertain compassionate thoughts concerning such poor, sinful worms as we are?

Yea,saith the apostle, we may, on the consideration of him and his office, come boldly to the throne of grace; the especial reason whereof, removing this objection, and adding a new sort of encouragement, he gives us, Heb 4:15.

Heb 4:15. , , .

. Syr., , for there is not to us; an Hebraism, we have not.

. Syr., , qui non possit compati, qui non possit, ut patiatur; who cannot suffer. Vulg. Lat., qui non possit compati; that cannot have compassion, that cannot suffer with. Beza, qui non possit affici sensu; who cannot be affected with a sense. Arab., qui non possit deflere, that cannot mourn.

. Syr., with our infirmity, in the singular number. We follow Beza, touched with the feeling of our infirmities; which well expresseth the sense of the words, as we shall see. [13] , sed tentatum. Syr., , who was tempted; one copy reads ; of which word we have spoken before.

[13] is the reading of Knapp and Tischendorf, on the authority of and most other.

. Vulg. Lat., per omnia. Rhem., in all things. So Erasm. and Beza, in omnibus, in all things. Syr., , in omni re, in every thing.

. Bez., similiter. Vulg. Lat., Erasm., pro similitudine. Rhem., by similitude. Syr., , even as we. Ours, like as we are, supplying the verb substantive; secundum similitudinem.

. Bez., absque tamen peccato;.whom we follow in the supply of tamen, yet without sin. Vulg. Lat., absque peccato, without sin. Syr., , excepto peccato, sin being excepted. Some use we shall find in these varieties.

Heb 4:15. For we have not an high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling [affected with a sense] of our infirmities; but was every way tempted in like manner [with us], without sin.

The words contain a further description of our high priest, by such a qualification as may encourage us to make use of him and improve his office unto our advantage. For whereas those things which may induce us to put our trust and confidence in any, or to expect benefit or advantage thereby, may be reduced unto two heads,

1. Greatness and power;

2. Goodness and love, he manifests both sorts of them to be eminently in our high priest.

The former he declares, Heb 4:14; for he is Jesus the Son of God, who is passed through and exalted above the heavens. The latter sort are ascribed unto him in these words.

The causal connection, , for, doth not so much regard the connection of the words, or express an inference of one thing from another, as it is introductive of a new reason, enforcing the purpose and design of the apostle in the whole. He had exhorted them to hold fast their profession upon the account of their high priest, verse 14; and directs them to make addresses unto him for grace and strength enabling them so to do, verse 16. With regard unto both these duties, to show the reasonableness of them, to give encouragement unto them, he declares the qualifications of this high priest, expressed in this verse. These things we may, these things we ought to do,

For we have not an high priest that cannot. The manner of the expression is known and usual. A double negation doth strongly and vehemently affirm. It is so with our high priest, even the contrary to what is thus denied. He is such a one as can be affected.

We have an high priest. The apostle introduceth this for another purpose. Yet withal he lets the Hebrews know that in the gospel state there is no loss of privilege in any thing as to what the church enjoyed under the law of Mosea They had then a high priest who, and his office, were the life and glory of their profession and worship. We also,saith he, have a high priest;who how much, in his person, and office, and usefulness unto the church, he excelleth the high priest under the law he hath partly showed already, and doth more fully declare in the ensuing chapters. The mention of it is introduced for another end, but this also is included in it. The people of God under the gospel are not left without a high priest; who is in like manner the life and glory of their profession, worship, and obedience. For our apostle takes a diverse course in dealing with the Gentiles and the Jews in this matter. Treating with the Gentiles, he minds them of their miserable condition before they were called to the knowledge of Christ by the gospel, as Eph 2:11-13; but treating with the Jews, he satisfies them that they lost no advantage thereby, but had all their former privileges unspeakably heightened and increased. And our relation to him and interest in him are expressed in this word , we have him; or, as the Syriac, there is to us. God hath appointed him, and given him unto us; and he is ours, as to all the ends of his office, and by us to be made use of for all spiritual advantages relating unto God. The church never lost any privilege once granted unto it, by any change or alteration that God made in his ordinances of worship, or dispensations towards it; but, still keeping what it had before, it was carried on towards that completeness and perfection which it is capable of in this world, and which it hath received by Jesus Christ. Presently upon the giving of the first promise, God instituted some kind of worship, as sacrifices, to be a means of intercourse between him and sinners, in and by the grace and truth of that promise. This was the privilege of them that did believe. After this he made sundry additional ordinances of worship, all of them instructive in the nature of that promise, and directive towards the accomplishment of it. And still there was an increase of grace and privilege in them all They were the mountains of myrrh and hills of frankincense on which the church waited until the day brake, and the shadows fled away, Son 4:6. All along the church was still a gainer. But when the time came of the actual accomplishment of the promise, then were all former privileges realized unto believers, new ones added, and nothing lost. We have lost neither sacrifice nor high priest, but have them all in a more eminent and excellent manner. And this is enough to secure the application of the initial seal of the covenant unto the infant seed of believers. For whereas it was granted to the church under the old testament as a signal favor and spiritual privilege, it is derogatory to the glory of Christ and honor of the gospel to suppose that the church is now deprived of it; for in the whole system and frame of worship God had ordained the better things for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. And he says not, There is an high priest,but, We have an high priest; because all our concernment in spiritual things depends absolutely on our personal interest in them. They may do well to consider this, who,

1. Either know not the nature of this priesthood, or do not at all endeavor to improve this office of Christ as that which they have an interest in. Some call themselves Christians, and exercise themselves in the outward worship of God, who are ready to despise, yea, and deride, all spiritual improvement and use of this great privilege, that we have a high priest, and scarce take it any more into any real consideration in the worship of God than if there were no such thing at all.

2. Those who, not contented with it, have invented and appointed unto themselves a priesthood and sacrifice, to the contempt of this of Christ. Had our apostle dealt with these Hebrews on the principles of the present church of Rome, he would have told them, You had under the law an high priest, but we have now a pope, a pontifex maximus, a great high priest; far richer, braver, and more potent, than yours was. You had many bloody sacrifices, but we have one in the host, of more use and profit than were all yours whatever.But dealing with the principles of the gospel, he declares and proposeth to them Jesus the Son of God, as our only priest, sacrifice, and altar, expressly intimating that others we have none.

That cannot be touched with a feeling, who cannot be affected with a sense, who cannot suffer with. The negative expression, , who cannot, as it includes and asserts a power and ability for the work or acts mentioned, so it doth it in opposition unto and to the exclusion of some other considerations, that infer a disability to this purpose. Now, the ability here intended is either moral only, or moral and natural also. If it be moral only, and intend a constant goodness, kindness, tenderness, and benignity, attended with care and watchfulness, unto the end proposed, it may be asserted in opposition to the high priests among the Jews. For as they were the best of them but men, and sinful men, who did ofttimes indulge to their private and carnal affections, to the disadvantage of the people of God, as did Eli, to the ruin of the churchs worship, 1Sa 2:17; 1Sa 2:22-25; 1Sa 2:28-30, etc., and were none of them able at any time to have a due comprehension of all the temptations and infirmities of the people; so many of them were evil men, proud, haughty, wrathful, and such as despised their brethren and relieved them not at all. In opposition hereunto, it is affirmed of our high priest that he is able to do quite otherwise, that is, with a moral ability of heart, will, and affections. He can and doth, always and constantly, concern himself in all the sins, sufferings, sorrows, temptations, and infirmities of his people.

Again; there may not only be a moral but also a natural ability included in the word. And in this sense there is respect had unto the human nature of Christ, and something moreover ascribed unto him [morel than could have been in him if he had been God only, which is a great encouragement unto us to make our addresses to him for help and assistance. And this seems to be designed from the following words, wherein mention is made of his being tempted like unto us. To understand this ability, we must inquire into the meaning of the next word, expressing that which it is applied unto or exercised about.

. I have showed how variously this word is translated, to suffer, to suffer with, to have compassion, to be touched with a feeling, to be affected with a sense, to condole or bewail. The word is once more used by our apostle in this epistle, and nowhere else in the New Testament, Heb 10:34, , where we render it by having compassion: Ye had compassion of me in my bonds; though I should rather say, Ye suffered with me in my bonds. 1Pe 3:8, the noun occurs, where we render it again having compassion. And, indeed, the origination of that word compassion is comprehensive of its whole sense; but its common use for pity is not. is more fully rendered in that place by Beza, mutuo molestiarum sensu affecti, affected with a mutual sense of the troubles of each other.

First, includes a concern in the troubles, or sufferings, or evils of others, upon the account of concernment in any common interest wherein persons are united, as it is in the natural body. Sometimes some part is affected with a disease, which hath seized on it. Another part of the body is affected with it, although nothing of the disease hath really seized on it. That part thereof cannot be said to be absolutely sick or ill-affected, for no part of the disease is in it; but it may be said , that is, not to be free from being affected, though not upon its own account, Galen, de Locis Affectis, lib. 1. This suffering is by the consent or harmony that is in the same nature branched into its individuals. So we have a sense of the suffering of humanity or of human nature, wherein we are interested, in other men, in any man whatever.

Secondly, It includes a propensity to relieve them in whose troubles or sufferings we are concerned, and that whether we have power to effect that relief or no. So David, in the deep sense that he had of the death of Absalom, wished that he had died for him, or relieved him from suffering by dying in his stead. And where this is not in some measure, there is no sympathy. We may not be able, in some cases where we are concerned, to relieve; it may not be lawful for us, in some cases, to give that help and succor which our compassion would incline us unto; but if there be no such inclination there is no sympathy.

Thirdly, Properly it contains in it a commotion of affections, which we express by condolentia; whence the Arabic renders the word who can mourn with us So is the Hebrew used, Psa 69:21 : ; LXX., I looked for any to be grieved with me; to be affected with sorrow on my behalf; to take pity, say we; to lament with me, by a motion or agitation of their affections, as the word signifies. And those intended are joined with , comforters. This belongs to this sympathy, to have a moving of affection in ourselves upon the sufferings of others.

And these things are here ascribed unto our high priest on the account of his union with us, both in the participation of our nature and the communication of a new nature unto us, whereby we become members of his body, one with him. He is deeply concerned in all our infirmities, sorrows, and sufferings. This is attended with an inclination and propensity to relieve us, according to the rule, measure, and tenor of the covenant; and herewithal, during the time of our trials, he hath a real motion of affections in his holy nature, which he received or took on him for that very end and purpose, Heb 2:16-18.

In this sense of the word, , to be affected with a sense, ascribes this ability in a moral and natural sense unto the Lord Christ, our high priest, as he is man, in contradistinction unto God absolutely, whose nature is incapable of the compassion intended. There are, indeed, in the Scripture assignations of such kind of affections unto God; as Isa 63:9, . For , not, the reading is , to him; and accordingly we translate it, In all their afflictions he was affected; or, there was straitening, affliction unto him, he was afflicted with their straits and afflictions But there is an anthropopathy allowed in these expressions. These things are assigned unto God after the manner of men. And the true reason of such ascriptions, is not merely to assist our weakness and help our understandings in the things themselves, but to show really what God doth and will do in the human nature which he hath assumed, and intended to do so from of old; on which purpose the superstructure of his dealing with us in the Scripture is founded and built. And thus it is said of our high priest that he is able to be affected with a sense of our infirmities, because in his human nature he is capable of such affections, and, as he is our high priest, is graciously inclined to act according to them.

, our infirmities. , imbecillitas, debilitas, infirmitas, is used, both in the Scripture and all Greek authors, for any debility, weakness, or infirmity, of body or mind. Frequently bodily diseases are expressed by it, as by the adjective , and the verb , to be sick, to be diseased, with respect unto the weakness or infirmity that is introduced thereby, Mat 10:8; Mat 25:43; Luk 4:40; Joh 5:3; Joh 5:5. And sometimes it expresseth the weakness of the mind or spirit, not able, or scarcely able, to bear the difficulties and troubles that it is pressed withal, 1Co 2:3; weakness of judgment, Rom 14:2; spiritual weakness, as to life, grace, and power, Rom 5:6; Rom 8:26. So that this word is used to express every kind of imbecility or weakness that doth or may befall our natures with respect unto any difficulties, troubles, or perplexities that we have to conflict withal. And whereas it is here mentioned generally, without a restriction to any special kind of infirmities, it may justly be extended to all weaknesses of all sorts that we are, or upon any pressures may be, sensible of; but whereas, in the following words, the reason of the ability of Christ, our high priest, to be affected with a sense of our infirmities, is placed in his being tempted, it is manifest that the weaknesses here chiefly intended are such as respect afflictions and temptations, with persecution for the gospel. Our infirmities and weaknesses under these things, to wrestle with them or remove them, and consequently our trouble, sorrow, suffering, and danger, by them and from them, our high priest is intimately affected withal. He takes himself to be concerned in our troubles, as we are members of his mystical body, one with him; he is inclined from his own heart and affections to give in unto us help and relief, as our condition doth require; and he is inwardly moved during our sufferings and trials with a sense and fellow-feeling of them.

Obs. The church of God hath a standing, perpetual advantage, in the union of our nature to the person of the Son of God, as he is our high priest.

We all acknowledge that so it is with us, upon the account of the sacrifice that he was to offer for us. He had thereby somewhat of his own to offer. Thence it was that God redeemed his church with his own blood,

Act 20:28; and that he laid down his life for us, 1Jn 3:16. But we are apt to think that this work being well over, we have now no more concernment in that nature nor advantage by it, but that what yet remains to be done for us may be as well discharged by him who is only God, and absolutely so in every respect. For since he dieth no more, what profit is there in his flesh? It is true, the flesh of Christ, carnally and sensually considered, profiteth nothing, as he told the Capernaites of old, John 6. And they will find his words true, who, in their own imagination, turn bread into his flesh every day. Yea, and our apostle tells us,

though he had known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth he knew him so no more, 2Co 5:16;

that is, though he had known Christ in the days of his flesh here in the world, whilst as a mortal man he conversed with mortal men, yet all the privilege thereof and advantage thereby, which some in those days boasted of, were past, and of use no longer; he was now to be known after another manner, and under another consideration, as exalted at the right hand of God. Yet doth not all this in the least impeach our assertion of the greatness of our concernment in the continuation of his human nature in the union of his person. If, when he had finished his sacrifice, and the atonement which he made for sin, by the offering up of himself, he had then left off his human nature, which he had for that end taken on him, notwithstanding that offering we could not have been delivered nor saved. For besides that he himself had not been sufficiently manifested to be the Son of God for us to have believed on him, seeing he was declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, Rom 1:6; so our apostle declares that without his resurrection from the dead we could neither be delivered from our sins nor have been ever raised again unto glory, 1Co 15:12-21.

It is therefore confessed that many and great are the advantages of the resurrection of the body of Christ, and therein of his human nature; for this was the way and means of his entrance into glory: He revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living, Rom 14:9. And this was the testimony that he was acquitted and discharged from the penalty of the law, and the whole debt he had undertaken to make satisfaction of unto God for sinners, Act 2:24, Rom 8:33-34; without which we could have said of him only as the disciples did when they knew not of his resurrection, We trusted that it had been he who should have redeemed Israel, Luk 24:21. And hereby had he an illustrious and uncontrollable testimony given to his being the Son of God, Rom 1:4; as also, he laid the foundation and gave an infallible pledge of the future blessed resurrection, which all that believe in him shall by him obtain. But this being also past and over, what further concernment hath the church in the continuation of the union of his natures? I might mention many, and those of the greatest importance. For there yet remained some parts of his mediatory work to be discharged, which could not be accomplished without this nature; for he had not yet appeared in the holy place with his own blood, whereby he had made atonement, that the whole sacrifice might be completed. And the exaltation of our nature in glory was needful for the supportment and consolation of the church. But I shall mention that alone which is here proposed by our apostle, namely, his ability from thence to be affected with a sense of our infirmities and sufferings. This, as I have showed, is appropriate unto him on the account of his human nature. And on this account we may consider his compassion four ways:

1. As it is an eminent virtue in human nature as absolutely innocent. So was the nature of Christ from the beginning; for therein was he holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. Now, though in that blessed estate wherein we were created there was no actual object for us to exercise compassion upon or towards, seeing every thing was at rest in its proper place and order, yet was there no virtue more inlaid in our rational constitution, as being absolutely inseparable from goodness and benignity, upon a supposition of a suitable object. Hence they are justly esteemed to be fallen into the utmost of degeneracy from our first make, frame, and state, and to be most estranged from our common original, who have cast off this virtue where it may and ought to have its actual exercise. Nor are any more severely in the Scripture reflected on than those who are unmerciful and without compassion, fierce, cruel, and implacable. No men more evidently deface the image of God than such persons. Now, our nature in Christ was and is absolutely pure and holy, free from the least influence by that depravedness which befell the whole mass in Adam. And herein are the natural virtues of goodness, benignity, mercy, and compassion, pure, perfect, and untainted. And he hath objects to exercise these virtues on which Adam could not have, and those such as are one with himself, by their participation in the same common principles of nature and grace.

2. This compassion is in him as a grace of the Spirit. For besides the spotless innocency and purity of our nature in him, there was a superaddition of all grace unto it, by virtue of its union with the person of the Son of God and the unction it had from the Spirit of God. Hence there was an all-fullness of created grace communicated unto him; for he received not the Spirit and his graces by measure, Joh 3:34. Of this fullness compassion is a part, and that no mean part neither; for of this rank and kind are all the principal fruits of the Spirit, Gal 5:22-23. And in and by these did he make a representation of Gods nature unto us, which he hath described as full of pity, compassion, and tender affections; whence he compares himself unto those creatures and in those relations which have the most intense and merciful affections, And hereby doth the compassion of Christ, our high priest in our human nature, receive an eminent exaltation.

3. He had a peculiar furnishment with graces, virtues, habits of mind, and inclinations, suited to the good and useful discharge of his office in our behalf. The Spirit of the Lord was upon him, and peculiarly anointed him to that end, Isa 11:2-4; Isa 61:1-3. Now unto the office of a high priest it is in especial required that he should be able to have compassion, Heb 5:2; the reasons whereof we shall see afterwards. He had, therefore, in his human nature, an especial provision of compassion inlaid by the Holy Ghost, by whom he was anointed, for the due discharge of this office. Thus was he every way framed in his nature unto mercy and compassion. And whereas there seems nothing now wanting but an outward object of weakness, infirmities, and temptations, to excite and occasion the exercise of this virtue and grace, that this might be the more effectual to that purpose,

4. He took an experiencs of such sufferings in himself as are the proper objects of compassion when they are in others. This the next words declare, which we shall afterwards consider.

By these means is the nature of our high priest filled with tenderness, compassion, or sympathy, the foundation of whose exercise towards us lies in the oneness of his nature and ours. And these things belonging to the pure constitution of his nature, and receiving their improvement by the unction of the Spirit, are not lessened or impaired by his present glorification; for they all belonging unto him on the account of his office, continuing still in the exercise of the same office, their continuation also is necessary. And hence it is, namely, because of our concernment therein, that he gave so many particular instances of his retaining the same human nature wherein he suffered. For he did not only

shew himself alive to his disciples after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, Act 1:3,

providing particularly that they should not think or take him now to be a mere spirit, and so to have lost his natural human constitution, saying unto them,

Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have, Luk 24:39;

but when he left the world with that body of flesh and bones, the angels witnessed that he should come again in like manner as he then went away, Act 1:11. For the heaven must in that nature receive him until the times of the restitution of all things, Act 3:21. And to confirm our faith in this matter, he appeared afterwards in the same nature to Stephen, Act 7:56; and to our apostle, telling him that he was Jesus whom he persecuted, Act 9:5. All this to assure us that he is such a high priest as is able to be affected with a sense of our infirmities. And those who by the monstrous figment of transubstantiation, and those others who feign the Lord Christ to have an ubiquitarian body, both of them by just consequence destroying the verity of his human nature, do evert what lies in them a main pillar of the churchs consolation. Much more do they do so who deny him to retain the same individual body wherein he suffered, in any sense. Herein lies a great advantage of the church, a great encouragement and supportment unto believers under their infirmities, in their trials and temptations. For,

1. It is some relief to be pitied in distress. The want hereof Job complained of, and cried out pathetically about it: Job 19:21,

Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.

It went unto his heart, to find that his friends were not affected with a sense of his sufferings; and it added exceedingly to the weight of them. And such was the complaint of David, as a type of Christ: Psa 69:20,

Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness; and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.

It is a representation of the state of our Savior when all his disciples fled and left him, and he was encompassed with fierce and reproaching enemies. This is a high aggravation of the sorrows and sufferings of any that are in distress. And there is relief in compassion. Some going to the stake have been much refreshed with a compassionate word whispered unto them.

And it cannot but be a cause of great refreshment unto believers, in all the hardships that befall them, and their weakness under them, that they have the compassion of their high priest accompanying of them. He is in himself exceedingly great and glorious, nearly allied unto us, able to relieve us, being far above all those persons and things that occasion our troubles, for they are all under his feet; all which considerations render his compassion, as before described, refreshing and relieving.

2. Herein lies a great encouragement to make our addresses unto him in all our straits and weaknesses. For if he be so concerned in us and our troubles, if he be so affected in himself with a sense of them, and have in his holy nature, and upon the account of his office, such a propensity to relieve us, which also he is so able for, as hath been declared, what should hinder us from making our addresses unto him continually for help and supplies of his assisting grace, according as our necessities do require?

But this being the peculiar use that the apostle makes of this doctrine in the next verse, it must be there considered.

3. There lies no small warning herein, how heedfully we should take care that we miscarry not, that we faint not in our trials. He looks on us with a great concernment, and his glory and honor are engaged in our acquitting of ourselves. If we have a due regard to him and his love, it will excite us unto all care and diligence in the discharge of every duty we are called unto, notwithstanding the difficulties that it may be attended withal.

In the next words an especial reason is assigned of this merciful ability of our high priest to be affected with a sense of our infirmities: But was in all things tempted as we are, yet without sin. The assertion which is the ground of the reason assigned, is that he was tempted; expressed with the extent of it; it was , in all things; and an appropriation unto our concernment, like as we are; with a limitation of the extent and appropriation, yet without sin.

The whole substance of what is here intended hath been largely treated on, Heb 2:17, whither I refer the reader, that we may not repeat the same things again. Some very few words may be added, in the explication of what is peculiar to this place.

. The particle , but, is contradictory to what was before denied: He is not such a one as cannot be affected, but one who was himself tempted.And this plainly shows that what is now introduced is the principal proof of the former assertion: It is evident that he can be affected with a sense of our infirmities, because he was tempted.

, tempted; that is, tried, exercised, for no more doth the word originally import. Whatever is the moral evil in temptation, it is from the depraved intention of the tempter, or from the weakness and sin of the tempted. In itself, and materially considered, it is but a trial, which may have a good or a bad effect. How, whereby, or wherein our high priest was thus tried and tempted, see the place before mentioned.

, every way, in all things; that is, from all means and instruments of temptation, by all ways of it, and in all things, wherein as a man, or as our high priest, he was concerned.

, secundum similitudinem, in like manner. There is a plain allusion or relation unto the temptation of others. For whatever is like, is of necessity like to somewhat else; and what is done in like manner, or according to similitude, hath something that answers unto it. Now this is the trials and temptations of them that do believe, the things that press on them by reason of their weakness. See as above.

, without sin. Sin with respect unto temptation may be considered two ways;

1. As the principle of it;

2. As its effect.

1. Sin sometimes is the principle of temptation. Men are tempted to sin by sin, to actual sin by habitual sin, to outward sin by indwelling sin, Jas 1:14-15. And this is the greatest spring and source of temptations in us who are sinners.

2. It respects temptation as the effect of it, that which it tends and leads unto, which it designs, which it bringeth forth or produceth. And it may be inquired with respect unto which of these considerations it is that the exception is here put in on the behalf of our high priest, that he was tempted without sin. If the former, then the meaning is, that he was tried and tempted by all ways and means, from all principles and causes, in like manner even as we are, excepting only that he was not tempted by sin, which had no place in him, no part, no interest, so that it had no ground to make suggestions unto him upon. And hereby the apostle preserves in us due apprehensions of the purity and holiness of Christ, that we may not imagine that he was liable unto any such temptations unto sin from within as we find ourselves liable unto, and which are never free from guilt and defilement. If the latter be intended, then all success of temptation upon our high priest is denied. We are tried and tempted by Satan, and the world, and by our own lusts. The aim of all these temptations is sin, to bring us more or less, in one degree or other, to contract the guilt of it. Of times in this condition sin actually ensues, temptation hath its effect in us and upon us; yea, when any temptation is vigorous and pressing, it is seldom but that more or less we are sinfully affected with it. It was quite otherwise with our high priest. Whatever temptation he was exposed unto or exercised withal, as he was with all of all sorts that can come from without, they had none of them in the least degree any effect in him or upon him; he was still in all things absolutely without sin. Now, the exception being absolute, I see no reason why it should not be applied unto sin with both the respects unto temptation mentioned. He neither was tempted by sin, such was the holiness of his nature; nor did his temptation produce any sin, such was the perfection of his obedience. And concerning all these things the reader may consult the place before mentioned.

Fuente: An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews

sin

Sin. (See Scofield “Rom 3:23”).

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

we have: Heb 5:2, Exo 23:9, Isa 53:4, Isa 53:5, Hos 11:8, Mat 8:16, Mat 8:17, Mat 12:20, Phi 2:7, Phi 2:8

tempted: Heb 2:17, Heb 2:18, Luk 4:2, Luk 22:28

yet: Heb 7:26, Isa 53:9, Joh 8:46, 2Co 5:21, 1Pe 2:22, 1Jo 3:5

Reciprocal: Gen 19:21 – I Gen 42:24 – wept Exo 3:7 – I have Exo 28:30 – upon his heart Num 18:1 – Thou Jdg 10:16 – his soul Est 4:5 – to know Job 31:37 – as a Psa 40:12 – innumerable Psa 107:6 – Then Isa 53:3 – a man Isa 63:9 – all their Jer 31:8 – them the Jer 45:2 – unto Mat 4:1 – to Mat 9:36 – when Mat 14:14 – and was Mat 15:32 – I have Mat 20:34 – Jesus Mat 21:18 – he hungered Mat 26:42 – the second Mar 1:13 – tempted Mar 1:41 – moved Mar 4:38 – in the Mar 6:34 – saw Mar 7:34 – he sighed Mar 8:2 – compassion Mar 10:49 – stood Luk 1:35 – that Luk 4:13 – General Luk 7:13 – he Luk 8:23 – he fell Joh 4:6 – being Joh 5:6 – and knew Joh 6:37 – I will Joh 8:29 – for Joh 11:33 – he groaned Joh 11:35 – General Joh 14:13 – in my Joh 14:30 – and Rom 6:19 – because Rom 7:21 – evil Rom 8:26 – infirmities Rom 8:34 – who also Eph 2:18 – through Heb 2:14 – he also Heb 3:1 – and Heb 9:8 – the way Heb 9:11 – an high priest Rev 1:13 – like Rev 8:3 – offer it with the prayers

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

CHRISTIANITY BETTER THAN JUDAISM

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.

Heb 4:15

From the first chapter to the last of this Epistle the author discourses on the glory of Christ. To set forth Christs glory he contrasts Him with prophetsangelsMosesAaronand shows how in all things Christ has the pre-eminence. His great point is to show how the religion of Christ is better than the Jewish religion. Christs religion has a better hope (Heb 7:19), a better covenant (Heb 8:6), better promises (Heb 8:6), a better Sacrifice (Heb 9:23). In fact the writer uses the word better no less than thirteen times. You can hardly conceive what a wrench it was for a Jew to give up the God-given, time-honoured religion of his fathers and of his childhood. That was why the author laboured chapter after chapter to prove that the Gospel of Christ is infinitely and eternally better than the Law of Moses.

I. A life of perfect sympathy.Ah! then, He is so great He cannot feel for us! Yes, ten thousand times yes. He is a High Priest Who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. His life on earth was a life of perfect sympathy. Every sermon, every miracle, every parable proclaimed it.

II. Wondrous is the power of sympathy.If you would realise its power, imagine its absence. I will buy with you, says Shylock, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following; but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you. Man needs it. Even a child quickly feels its warmth.

III. Purity and sympathy.Human sympathy is a poor picture of the Divine. But if human sympathy is so sweet, what must the Divine be? Then the question comes: How can the sinless sympathise with the sinful? When any one has fallen into sin, who are the men who most sympathise with him? Are they his old companions?those worse than himself? Not so. If he wants sympathy when he has fallen into sin, he must go to the most Christ-like. The more holy the saint, the truer his sympathy. The nearer to Christ the greater the sympathy. Perfect purity is essential to perfect sympathy. Christ was perfectly pure, so His sympathy with sinners was perfect too. Let us entreat Christ to give us in our measure this sweet gift of sympathy.

Rev. F. Harper.

Illustration

Henry Ward Beecher was one cold wintry night buying a newspaper of a ragged, shivering Irish newsboy. His very teeth were chattering, so that he could hardly call out the names of the newspapers. Beecher, for pity, bought the whole sheaf of papers under the boys arm. Poor little fellow! sighed Beecher, whilst his eye moistened, aint you very cold? And the boy said, with a gulp, I was, sir, before you passed by.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

Heb 4:15. In taking on a body with the same nature as ours, Jesus was able to have the same experiences as we. Touched with the feeling means to sympathize with our infirmities. Whatever would be a temptation to us would be likewise one to Him, and he came in contact with all kinds of temptations which are on the earth, yet never yielded once to them.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Heb 4:15. For. Whatever the difficulties of our Christian life, whatever the dangers that tempt us to turn aside, whatever the dignity of our Priest, whatever the awful power of the Word of God, we have not a High Priest unable to sympathize with us in our infirmities, but on the contrary one tempted in all things like as we are (or rather in accordance with the likeness there is between us), sin apart. The infirmities of which the writer speaks are not strictly sufferings or afflictions, but the weaknessesphysical, spiritual, moralwhereby sin is likely to find entrance, and misery is producedhunger, poverty, reproach, the dread of sufferings, the love of rest, of friends, the difficulty of living by faith, the tendency to judge things by present results, to snatch victory in the easiest way; whatever, in short, is natural to man, and yet not itself sinful. The temptations of Christ in the wilderness, which are described as representing most of the forms in which temptation assails us; all He endured when the season came in which the tempter renewed his work, and especially in the hour and power of darkness, illustrate the meaning. All He bore and all He remembers, and so in a sense bears still (note the present perfect tense), fits Him to sympathize with like weaknesses in us. In all these temptations of His there was no sin in the origin of them in the struggle, in the results; but that fact only increases His fitness for His office and our confidence. He bore all, and yet was undefiled; and so His pity, while most tender, is in no danger of becoming weakness, which would itself create distrust even if it did not end in sin. Sin apart, therefore, is added, as much in our interest as to the honour of our Lord. The perfect sympathy of a sinful man would have given very imperfect consolation.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

These words contain a farther description of Christ our great High Priest, by his merciful disposition towards his people; he is said to be touched; that is, sensibly affected with the infirmities, that is, the miseries, sufferings, and calamities, which the human nature is exercised with, and exposed to.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, now in heaven, doth exercise a tender and compassionate spirit towards his suffering children and servants here on earth: he has an experimental knowledge of what his people suffer, either from God, or from man, for God’s sake, as one that is interested in them, as one concerned for them, as one related to them, yea, as being one with them.

This sympathy of Christ with, and towards his suffering people, is a tender sympathy, an extensive sympathy, it reaches all our infirmities, a proportionable sympathy, answerable to every occasion, a perpetual sumpathy; as long as he continues High Priest, and we remain subject to infirmities, so long will he be touched with the feeling of them.

Observe farther, The assigned reason why our great High Priest is so sensibly affected with our suffering condition: namely, because he was in all points tempted like as we are, sin excepted. Christ, by assuming our nature, became humbly affectionate, and by suffering our infirmities, became experimentally compassionate.

Here note, That tempatations may be without sin; it is not our sin to be tempted, but to comply with the temptation.

2. That Christ was tempted, yea, in all points tempted like unto us: His temptations were in all points like ours; he was tempted to sin, yet without sin.

There is a two-fold temptation to sin, inward and outward;

inwardly Christ was not tempted to sin,

outwardly he was, and with greatest vehemency assaulted both by men and devils to the worst of sins that ever man was; but he always resisted, and always overcame.

Oh, what a consolation is this unto us under all our temptations, that Christ was in all things tempted like unto us, but without sin!

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Heb 4:15. For we have not a high-priest, &c. As if he had said, Though he be so great, yet he is not without concern for us in our mean and low condition. Here the apostle lets the Hebrews know that in the gospel there is no loss of privilege in any thing. Had they a high-priest who, with his office, was the life and glory of their profession and worship? We also, says he, have a High-Priest, who is, in like manner, the life and glory of our profession and service; and not one who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities Or, who cannot, , sympathize with our weaknesses, our temptations, trials, and troubles, of whatever kind they may be, ghostly or bodily. The Son of God, having been made flesh, experienced all the temptations and miseries incident to mankind, sin excepted; consequently he must always have a lively feeling of our infirmities; of our wants, weaknesses, miseries, dangers; but was in all points tempted That is, tried; like as we are , according to a similitude of our trials, or with such as belong to human nature. What is here said of the similarity of our Lords trials to ours, does not imply an exact likeness; for he was free from that corruption of nature which, as the consequence of Adams sin, has infected all mankind; which is intimated likewise in the expression, (Rom 8:3,) sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh; yet without sin For he never committed any; and is able to preserve us in all our temptations from the commission of it.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Verse 15

Tempted; tried; exposed to pain and suffering. The phrase in all points is not to be understood to mean that he suffered in every conceivable way in which any man can suffer; but only that, in a general sense, he fully participated in the trials and sufferings of humanity.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

4:15 {6} 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.

(6) Lest he appear by the great glory of our High Priest, to prevent us from going to him, he adds after, that he is nonetheless our brother indeed, (as he proved before) and that he counts all our miseries as his own, to call us boldly to him.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Jesus experienced temptation in every area of His life, as we do. Obviously He did not experience temptation to waste His time by watching too much television, for example. However, He experienced temptation to waste His time and to do or not do things contrary to God’s will. His temptations did not come from a sinful nature, as some of ours do, since He had no sinful nature, but He suffered temptation as we do because He was fully human. Since He endured every temptation successfully He experienced temptations more thoroughly than we do when we yield to them before they pass. Consequently He can sympathize (feel and suffer) with us when we experience temptation. The writer’s point was that Jesus understands us, He sympathizes with us, and He overcame temptation Himself.

As an illustration of the thoroughness of Jesus’ temptations, imagine a large bolder on the seacoast. Since it does not move, it experiences the full force of every wave that beats against it. Smaller pebbles that the waves move around do not because they yield to the force of the waves. Similarly Jesus’ temptations were greater than ours because He never yielded to them. Likewise a prizefighter (Jesus) who defeats the champion (Satan) endures more punishment than other contenders who throw in the towel or are knocked out before the end of the fight.

". . . in this epistle as high a Christology as is conceivable is combined with an emphasis on the real humanity of Jesus. Nobody insists on the limitations of Jesus’ human frame as does the writer of Hebrews." [Note: Morris, p. 17.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

D. The Compassion of the SON 4:15-5:10

Having explored the concept of Jesus as a faithful high priest (Heb 3:1 to Heb 4:14), the writer proceeded next to develop the idea that Jesus is a merciful high priest in the service of God (cf. Heb 2:17). A high priest must be faithful to God and compassionate with people. This section is entirely exposition, except for Heb 4:16, which is an exhortation to pray. Heb 4:15-16 of chapter 4 announce the perspectives that the writer developed in Heb 5:1-10.

"A    The old office of high priest (Heb 5:1)

    B    The solidarity of the high priest with the people (Heb 5:2-3)

        C    The humility of the high priest (Heb 5:4)

        C’    The humility of Christ (Heb 5:5-6)

    B’    The solidarity of Christ with the people (Heb 5:7-8)

A’    The new office of high priest (Heb 5:9-10) . . .

"As a unit Heb 4:15 to Heb 5:10 lays the foundation for the great central exposition of Jesus’ priesthood in Heb 7:1 to Heb 10:18, where the emphasis will be placed on his dissimilarity to the Levitical priesthood." [Note: Ibid., p. 111.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)