Hebrews 4:15 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… 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 God's 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 God's 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.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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