Christ's Humanity the Result of His Desire to be More than a Savior from Sin
Hebrews 2:17, 18
Why in all things it behooved him to be made like to his brothers…


The climax of the argument for the consistency of our Lord's humanity. Observe in exposition:

1. That "reconciliation for the sins of the people" is not the central idea of these verses. That has already been dealt with. Here we have a new thought - Christ's ability to succor the tempted.

2. That our Lord's humanity could not make him a merciful and faithful High Priest. He was that already, but thus he proved himself to be this.

3. That the word "tempted" here is not to be confined to the meaning of solicitation to sin.

I. CHRIST, IN THE ENDURANCE OF TRIAL, WAS MADE IN ALL THINGS LIKE UNTO HIS BRETHREN; that is, he passed through every class of human suffering.

1. There were the sufferings which came through human frailty. Christ had no sin, but he experienced those forms of suffering to which innocent human nature is exposed, such as poverty, weariness, dependence, pain, fear of death. We get through our trials more easily because we do not foresee them; but Christ foresaw his, and they were intensified as he drew nearer his end. His life was a conscious advance into deeper gloom.

2. There were the sufferings which came through his holy nature. Thirty-three years in a world of sin must have been continuous pain to the Holy One of God. Suffering in the presence of evil is in proportion to our holiness and our aversion to evil. Christ not only saw a world wandering away from God, but he knew what was in man; he not only saw the malice on men's faces and the guilt in their lives; he read the thoughts and intents of the heart. And, still worse, he felt the hot breath of the arch-tempter on his cheek, and heard the whispering of his hateful suggestions.

3. There were the sufferings which came through his love to man. The pain of sympathy. If Love has her deep joys, she has, too, her deep griefs; if she wears a crown of triumph, she wears, too, a crown of thorns. Love is afflicted in all the afflictions of her beloved. What must have been the suffering of immeasurable Love in witnessing the woes of man!

II. THIS ENDURANCE OF OUR TRIALS PROVES THAT CHRIST WILL BE MERCIFUL AND FAITHFUL IN HIS POSITION AS HIGH PRIEST.

1. Christ making propitiation holds the position of High Priest. Christ's high priesthood is only glanced at here, stated to rest something on it. As the high priest alone could offer the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement, so Christ, offering the one atoning sacrifice, showed himself to be High Priest. And the main idea in that is that the high priest was essentially the mediator between God and man. As God's representative he acted for God toward the people; as the people's representative he acted for them toward God. Christ, then, holds this position. He conveys the Father's gifts to us, and our need to the Father. It depends entirely on him whether we receive the gifts of Heaven.

2. If holding that position, he would deal with us in mercy, all we need is assured. There is nothing he cannot secure for us, if he will. The question depends on whether he has sympathetic feeling towards us in our grief. Is Christ the Mediator compassionate?

3. The great proof of his compassion is that for our succor he endured so much more than was necessary for mere propitiation. Our Lord's incarnation and death were necessary for atonement, but he endured much beside that, going down to the lowest state of innocent human experience. Much of his suffering was an extra burden voluntarily assumed with a view to man's comfort; in sorrow. He cared so much about our griefs that in order to allay them he passed through them himself. We cannot doubt his heart after that.

III. THIS PROOF OF HIS HIGH PRIESTLY COMPASSION IS ABLE TO SUCCOUR HIS PEOPLE WHEN THEY ARE TRIED.

1. It enables them to trust his sympathy, for he has experienced their pains. Christ's suffering has not made him more sympathetic. His knowledge and sympathy were perfect before; but it gives us more confidence in going to him for succor.

2. It enables them to expect aid from him, for he suffered that he might aid. Why, his poverty, bereavement, weariness, loneliness, shame, being misunderstood, but that he might succor us! Then, will he not succor us?

3. It enables them to anticipate victory through him, for he conquered in all his woe. Who can aid us in our difficulties, like him who has already trodden these difficulties underfoot? What aid can be more satisfactory than his who wears the laurels of victory over those very evils which assail us? Our foe will fly when he sees his Conqueror on our side. - C.N.



Parallel Verses
KJV: Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

WEB: Therefore he was obligated in all things to be made like his brothers, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people.




Christ S Likeness unto His Brethren
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