Tempted in All Points!

Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is cast into the heavens... Hebrews 4:14. 

This statement echos another made in an earlier chapter. Hebrews 3:1 asks us to consider the apostle and high priest of our profession. In fact Paul will again ask us this same request in chapter 7. It is obvious then that the whole force of Paul's argument in Hebrews is to this end. It is of utmost importance that we understand the nature of Christ's high priesthood. But what specifically is it about that priesthood that we must believe and know? The following verse explains.....we do not have an high priest who is untouched with the feeling or experience of our infirmities (authors paraphrase). Put more simply we have a high priest and Savior who knows what it is to inherit the weaknesses of our humanity. But if that were all Jesus knew we would be none the better. The text continues...."tempted in all point like as we are, yet without sin". This is the power of the gospel. Christ alone has slain our Goliath. This is the old man, the old husband that Christ has crucified with Himself. None of us had succeeded in this conflict on our own resources. We were as the woman of Romans 7...bound unto death to the husband called the power of sin which was stronger than us. All of this failure was concluded in Adam when he sold out his inheritance of the Spirit of God. Satan's spirit of sin became the new husband. But the Son pledged to contend with that power in our behalf.

We see here the great paradox. Christ took our identical fallen humanity and yet accomplished that which was impossible to our fallen humanity without His intervention. How so? The answer is in that He took our humanity upon Himself! The Word did not merely cease and become flesh....the Word who was God, took on flesh. We have here the union of two things. In the incarnation weak humanity was leagued with that divine Spirit in Christ that Adam had lost. Christ took on our weakness but linked it with His own store of heavens power. This was His own inheritance which our weak humanity could access by faith. Thus by His own legal right He accessed the divine power of the Godhead by faith. This is how Christ remained free of sin, by enlisting the power of God to empower the weakened humanity which He embraced for our redemption. Thus He may be our sinless redeemer who purchased our souls. He is the One who knows our infirmities and knows how to help us out of temptation. Consider this great news about our high priest and how it lays human glory in the dust and exalts the Lamb of God!