Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Hebrews 1 | Date: December 23, 2007 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Thank you. It is a pleasure to be with you. I was here with you a few weeks ago. I came and sat in on Sunday morning service, enjoyed it much. I’ve only recently become acquainted with your pastor and with the church. The brief time I have had talking with your pastor and listening to him preach, I have come to think very highly of him. And I know you’re very thankful to have a man who cares for you and who cares enough to expound the word and to study hard and to do that for you and to feed you.

I wouldn’t ordinarily spend time talking about our own circumstances, but I do appreciate your heart to pray for us and for my daughter. Her name is Gina, G-I-N-A, Gina Zaspel. She had Lyme disease for probably 10 or 12 years, the best we can count, before it was ever diagnosed. By the time it was diagnosed, things were just way out of control. The short story is she suffers and she suffers intensely every moment of every day. She has severe, crippling headache pain that sometimes causes disorientation. The infection has gone to her whole central nervous system, so there’ll be troubles with passing out, as well as disorientation, sometimes paralysis. This past week now, there’s been another something else coming along. We’ve had trouble with it before, but not this severely. She’s struggling for each breath that she takes. It’s like the worst emphysema patient you’ve ever seen. We have her on oxygen, doing what we can, but she struggles terribly. And your prayers for her are deeply appreciated. Thank you for it.

I’ll ask if you will take your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2. This may not jump to mind first as the passage dealing with a Christmas theme. But I’m sure after you think through it just a moment, you’ll see where we’re going with it. Tell you what, I’m going to take the time to read through chapters one and two, and we’re going to take a broad overview of these passages together. The title of the message today is I’m going to use the Latin words that I’ll explain in a little bit, Cur Deus Homo. Cur Deus Homo, and I’ll explain that in just a minute.

Hebrews chapter one: “In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed heir of all things and through whom he made the universe. The son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs. For to which of the angels did God ever say, ‘You are my son. Today I have become your father’? Or again, ‘I will be his father and he will be my son.’ And again, when God brings His firstborn into the world, He says, ‘Let all God’s angels worship Him.’ In speaking of the angels, He says, ‘He makes His angels winds, His servants flames of fire.’ But about His Son, He says, ‘Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, Your God has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.’ He also says, ‘In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain. They will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a garment. They will be changed, but you remain the same, and your years will never end.’ To which of the angels did God ever say, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet’? Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?”

“We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard so that we do not drift away. For if the message spoken by angels was binding and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come about which we are speaking, but there is a place where someone has testified: ‘What is man that you are mindful of him? The Son of Man that you care for Him. You made Him a little lower than the angels. You crowned Him with glory and honor and put everything under His feet.’ In putting everything under Him, God left nothing that is not subject to Him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to Him, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. Both the One who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. He says, ‘I will declare Your name to my brothers. In the presence of the congregation, I will sing Your praises.’ And again, ‘I will put my trust in Him.’ And again, He says, ‘Here am I in the children God has given me.’ Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity, so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people, because he himself suffered when he was tempted. He is able to help those who are being tempted.”

As I mentioned, the title I’ve taken for this is Cur Deus Homo. It’s taken from the title of a book written by a man named Anselm of Canterbury, an 11th-century theologian and archbishop who wrote now a classic book that is long remembered and very influential, Cur Deus Homo. Of course, he wrote it in Latin. All the scholarly work back then was done in Latin. But for normal people like us, it means “Why God-Man,” or stretch it out a little: “Why did God become man?”

And of course, he’s referring to this biblical teaching of the person of Christ, that He is God become man. We have that theme reiterated many times throughout the Scriptures, in many of the Christmas prophecies, where a child is born, a son is given, and yet His name is the Everlasting Father, the Mighty God. He’s a child who is born, and yet He’s one whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. He’s both God and man. The words of John, chapter one: this one who was the word eternally with God and who was eternally God himself yet became flesh and dwelt among us. One of my favorite expressions of it is found in Second Corinthians, chapter eight, where the Apostle Paul says he who was rich yet for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich. Elsewhere, he speaks in terms of Christ in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form. And on and on, these statements go throughout the scriptures, testifying to the two natures of our Lord Jesus. He is both God and man.

And throughout the history of the church, we’ve had various kinds of heresies crop up on either side of that, some denying that he is God, some denying that he is man, some saying that he’s man, a little more than man, but not quite God. And on it goes. The Scriptures affirm very emphatically that whatever it is to be a man, the Lord Jesus is that. And whatever it is to be God, He is that. And so the Bible tells us very plainly that the life of the Lord Jesus Christ did not begin at the manger. And the earthly life of our Lord Jesus was not the whole of His existence, just the human phase of His eternal existence. And the word that we have come up with to describe that is that word “incarnation,” the enfleshment of the second person of the triune Godhead.

Why Did God Become Man?

Well, Anselm’s question was simply, why? Why did God become man? This event that we celebrate at Christmas when the God, the second person, became one of us. Why did he do it? And I suppose the book of Hebrews, more than any other book in the scriptures, is given to answer that question.

And the reason I wanted to take the time to read through chapter one, even though that won’t be the focus of our attention this morning, is that here in chapter one, the writer surveys for us the glories of the full deity of Jesus Christ. Here, the particular theme is his superiority to the angels in verses one through three. He describes of chapter one; he describes Christ as God’s very self-expression. And so it’s not surprising in verse 4 that He tells us He’s superior to the angels. Glorious as angels are, this one is well beyond them. In verses 5 and 6, He says He’s given a better name, a higher name than the angels. He is God’s Son. In contrast to all of created beings, even glorious beings, He is greater. In verse 6, we find in chapter 1 that the angels, and so we also, are commanded to worship Him. So here’s one who is so glorious that even angels must bow down before Him and show Him worship.

In verses 7 and 8, He tells us that the angels are created beings, created to be God’s servants. As glorious as they are, they are created. But Christ, by contrast, possesses the throne of God from eternity. In verse 10, He Himself is the Creator. Verses 8 and 9, again in verse 11 and 12, we’re told that the Son, Christ, possesses all of God’s attributes: the attributes of righteousness and eternality and immutability. He doesn’t change. And then again in verses 8 and 10, God Himself addresses Christ as God and as Lord. We can’t miss the point reading through chapter one that this one that we’re talking about is one who is himself God, and he is throughout chapter one celebrating his perfect deity. And all of this constitutes a call to worship the Lord Jesus Christ in all of his glory as the supreme, all-glorious God.

But all of that is what makes the theme of chapter two all the more striking. When we get to chapter 2, now He takes up this theme of the incarnation. And notice the terms of condescension that He emphasizes in chapter 2. Just noting them quickly: Verse 9, we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels. Made a little lower. This One who is better than angels, this One whom angels worship, has been made a little lower than the angels. Verse 11: “Both the one who makes men holy, that is Christ, and those who are made holy are of the same family, so Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.” He comes to our level and calls Himself one of us. And amazingly, amazingly, He’s not ashamed. That is, He’s proud. He’s happy, glad to call us brothers. Amazing thing.

Verse 14: “Since the children, that is us, have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity.” Note the translation; my version has “he too himself likewise took part of the same” as the old King James, which is really a bit closer to the original there. He’s emphasizing that we have flesh and blood, this stuff that holds us together. He Himself took the very same stuff of humanity, and He points to our weakest features, just our flesh and blood, and says that our Lord, glorious as He is from all eternity, came and took part of the same stuff as us. And then verse 17: “He had to be made like His brothers in every way.” That is to say, it was a real incarnation. He became what we are. Whatever it is to be human, He stresses here over and over again, our Lord became exactly that in His incarnation.

Our Great Archegos

In our context here in verses 5 and following, they speak of the dignity of humanity. We are, if we can say it this way, the king of creation. The crown of God’s creative work is humanity itself. And so He tells us in verses 7 and 8, “You made Him, that is man, humanity, a little lower than the angels. You crowned Him with glory and honor and put everything under His feet.” That is, we have been created in God’s image. And this is our glory, that in God’s image, we’re just a little lower than the angels. These glorious creatures who inhabit heaven—we’re just a little lower. This is, if we can say it, well, He says it here. This is the glory of being human.

But even so, He tells us it’s a failed glory. A failed humanity and a glory that has never reached its potential. Well, verse 8: “…and put everything under his feet, and in putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. But at present, we do not see everything subject to him.” That is, we were created in God’s image. We were to image God to the world. We were to serve as His vice-regents over the created order. But of course, he’s referring here to Genesis 3. When we stepped into sin, we use this word I think very well: “fell.” We fell from this potential of glory that was given us as God’s vice-regents over all of creation. And we fell from that glory that was designed for us. And this whole created order is to be subjected to us. And as much as we have tried to do that, and as much as we have succeeded in doing it, still, he says, we have not yet achieved the fullness of it. We’ve fallen.

The Apostle Paul speaks of this in some graphic detail in Romans 8. He speaks of the whole creation groaning in travail. And he speaks of us as part of this creation groaning, waiting for a better day. We’ve been subjected to futility because of sin. And it’s in this context—humanity created for this glory, humanity falling and not achieving that glory—it is in that context that our Lord Jesus is introduced to us here in verse nine. And notice the contrast. He’s created us, crowned us with glory. We’ve not achieved it. We’ve fallen. But we see Jesus.

And there’s very much a champion theme here, that of God to the rescue. We’ve been created for this glory, we’ve been created to mirror, to image God to this world, to be his vice regents over creation. We’ve fallen into sin and we failed miserably. And so man’s created purpose has not been fulfilled, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor—very much a God-to-the-rescue kind of theme. He’s introduced to us here as one who has come as our champion. Humanity has hopelessly failed to realize its created dignity. But Christ comes as our champion. And what we were unable to achieve ourselves, He comes to achieve for us and as one of us.

Now, this champion theme is an old one. I’m sure you’re aware the first promise of our Lord is in Genesis 3, verse 15, where God pronounces a curse on the serpent who has brought all of this sin into humanity. But that promise of Christ in Genesis 3:15, more than a promise of a Savior, is a promise of a champion who will be a Savior. “I’ll put enmity between you and the woman, between you the devil and the woman, between your seed and her seed, and he, that is this one of the woman’s seed, will crush your head and you will bruise his heel.” That is at some cost to him. Still, he will triumph over the devil and crush him. This one who has brought humanity into ruin, this one who has introduced sin and thereby kept us from fulfilling our potential as God’s created vice regents over creations, this one who has wreaked havoc in humanity will be destroyed. And this champion will come and make him eat dirt and crawl on his belly.

And he’s not a champion merely then. He’s a champion over Satan. The destroyer of Satan. He’ll crush Satan’s head. And then all through the Old Testament we have this anticipation of this great champion to come. And all the champions of the Old Testament, they’re just one anticipation after another of this great champion to come: Gideon, Samson, all the kings, David—anticipations of this greater judge, this greater king who will come and be our champion. And this theme then is picked up in the New Testament many times over. I wish we had time to explore it at length. This could easily take several hours. It would be fun to explore this out.

But think through briefly this theme as you see it in the New Testament. In the Gospels, it’s picked up as Christ coming and binding the strong man. Christ coming and by his work, the prince of this world is cast out. The Apostle Paul speaks of it in terms like he has disarmed principalities and powers and made public display of them, triumphing over them in his cross. And finally, this theme is resumed again in the book of Revelation, where we find Christ coming, this Lamb King coming and triumphing over the serpent and securing the blessing for God’s people. He is our champion who is to come.

Well, now that theme is here not only in Verse 9, in the way that Jesus is introduced, but in verse 10 as well, there’s a hint of it. And I want you to see this and we’ll see how this flavors so much of the passage. “In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.” My translation here renders it “the author of their salvation.” You might have something like “the captain of their salvation.” The word is difficult to translate. We don’t have one quite exactly to fit. The word is Archegos, and it has the idea of—this is where “captain” works very well—a military hero, a champion in that sense is the idea. The Archegos is one, a leader. And even it’s used in military context, a leader who goes ahead as one of a group to prepare the way.

An illustration might be: You can picture a military officer, say a captain, who has gone out with a unit in the thick of the battle. And it’s a critical moment in the battle when a stronghold has to be secured here across the ravine, or let’s say a cable has to be brought across to start a bridge or something like that. And it’s desperately dangerous and it’s not likely that anyone can make it. And rather than sending a private across, this captain himself goes across and he forges the way, he secures the stronghold, the others follow behind. He’s the archegos. He’s the champion who has not only masterminded, but he himself has led the way and opened the way himself for others to follow. He’s the head, the leader, the champion in that sense in which he has won the day, not by sending or not even by enabling us, but by himself going ahead and doing the work himself.

And so he’s saying here that Christ is the archegos of our salvation. He has gone ahead of us. He’s blazed the trail. He’s done the work. He’s destroyed the opposition and he’s opened the way for us so that now we have access to God’s presence and will realize that potential for which we were created. And so, in verses nine and following, as our great archegos, the Lord Jesus became one of us. He was made a little lower than the angels. Fascinating. That which is our highest dignity, just a little lower than the angels, that which is our highest dignity, is that to which our Lord stooped in infinite humiliation. He was made a little lower than the angels. In verse 11, He’s our brother. In verse 14, He shares in our same blood and flesh. In verse 17, He’s made like us in every way. Our great Archegos has gone ahead of us, has blazed the trail for us from womb to tomb, from the cradle to the grave. He came as one of us to do for us and as one of us what we could not do ourselves. He became all that we are so that He could become our champion and win back all that we had lost.

Destroy Him Who Holds the Power of Death

Although very appropriately in verses 14 and 15, he reminds us that humanity is held captive to Satan. He’s the great tempter. He is the one who has brought us into this sin and ruin. And by sin, he has brought us to death, the consequence and the punishment of sin. And so he tells us that Satan holds us captive in the fear of death. We naturally fear death. We instinctively recognize that there’s something beyond. We instinctively recognize our guilt. We instinctively recognize a judgment to come. And we instinctively are scared of death. And he says that Jesus has come and His purpose in coming was to defeat the devil who holds us in captivity and slavery to death.

Now, this is an uncommon theme in theology books, but it’s a rather common theme in the New Testament that the Lord Jesus came to defeat the devil. In the early centuries, there were some theologians, the early centuries of the church, theologians who abused this idea of Christ triumphing over the devil, and they took it way too far in some ways that are clearly wrong and even heretical. And so this whole “Christ triumphing over Satan” theme kind of got buried, especially by the time of Anselm when he wrote this book, Cur Deus Homo. By then, this theme is buried and gone, and we hear very little of it today. But in the New Testament, there is something of this theme that’s made a lot of: that Christ came to defeat the devil.

For example, when Christ comes, when he first enters his ministry after his baptism, the first thing he does is he goes to the Mount of Temptation. And we should go away from there thinking not only did Jesus resist and not only was he one who was successful under the temptation from the devil, but we should go away from there saying, “He came to defeat the devil. And here in round one, it goes to Jesus.” Jesus Himself tells us that by His work, His death, Satan, the prince of this world, is cast out. Colossians chapter 2 again, which I mentioned earlier, the Apostle Paul says that Christ disarmed principalities and powers and made an open display of them and triumphed over them in His cross. In 1 John 3 and verse 8, this is stated as the precise purpose of Jesus’ coming: He came to destroy the works of the devil. And here we have the same. In verses 14 and 15 of chapter 2, it’s spoken of as the reason and the purpose, the goal of His incarnation is to destroy the devil and free those who are His captives. As the woman’s seed, He now enters our weak and fallen state in order to do battle with the tempter.

But as the Genesis prophecy said, although He would triumph over the serpent, He would only do it at a cost to Himself. In Genesis, it says it will bruise His heel. Here, He tells us specifically what that bruised heel signified. It was His death. Verse 14: “…since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” This is the nature of His struggle. And this is what it costs Him to bring freedom to humanity. Satan held us in fear of death. And by his death now, the Lord Jesus defeated Satan and set us free.

Now, we’ve got to stop there for a second and explain exactly what that link is. Just how does the death of the Lord Jesus Christ destroy Satan? Or to use more of the language here, just how does the death of Christ free us who were held in captive by the fear of death? How does it do that? Well, the answer, of course, is stated for us concisely in verse 17: “For this reason, he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God and that He might make atonement for the sins of his people.”

Now, my version here translates it “to make atonement.” Your version may render it “to make propitiation for the sins of his people.” The people who translated the version that I’m using, the New International Version, were convinced that people would never understand the word propitiation. And so they translated it, “make atonement.” What they didn’t consider, I don’t think, was that people don’t know what “make atonement” means either. You still have to stop and explain that. Propitiation is a word that’s very important in the New Testament, although it’s only used a handful of times, but it’s used to describe the heart of the meaning of Jesus’ death. Propitiation speaks of appeasement, satisfaction. It pictures God as wrathful against humanity because of our sins. Christ came and stood between us and the wrath of God. And God’s wrath against us is averted. It’s turned away. It is satisfied because it fell on a substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. All of our sins placed on Him. And so that God is satisfied with us because one day He laid all of His wrath against sin on our substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. It speaks of satisfaction, appeasement.

In other words, salvation required that in order for Christ to deal successfully with Satan, in order for him to defeat Satan, he must defeat a greater enemy. He must defeat that other enemy first, and that is the enemy of God’s wrath. We were under condemnation justly because of our sin. This book of Hebrews emphasizes that at several points. Our God is a consuming fire. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. God is wrathful against us because of our sin. And because of our sin, we must be damned. But of course, this is why and this is how Satan holds us into captivity. He holds us in the fear of death because He knows we must be damned. And He knows that we know that.

And it’s this that takes us to the heart of the meaning of Christ’s death: that He came as our substitute, bearing the curse and bearing the wrath of God against our sin and satisfying God in reference to us. Our sin debt paid in full. We love to speak of Christ’s death as effecting our forgiveness, the removal of sin. And it did that. But it removes our sin and gives us forgiveness only because first it satisfied God and satisfied his just wrath against us. Put it another way: his death has first a reference to God. Not to Satan. Not to us. It first has reference to God. It satisfied His just wrath against us. But, because it satisfied His wrath against us, it removes our sin. And because it removes our sin, it breaks Satan’s grip over us. And we are no longer held in the fear of death.

This letter to the Hebrews, as I’m sure you know, emphasizes this whole truth graphically with its references to the Old Testament sacrificial system. The animal is brought and the one who is offering the animal confesses his sins over the animal, and those sins are symbolically transferred to the animal. The animal goes to be offered and his throat is cut and atonement is made. Satisfaction is made. It also teaches that in all of that graphic illustrating and all of those symbolic lessons for us, it teaches us the possibility of substitution. The confessor gives his sin, as it were, passes it on to the animal being offered. And the animal in place of the offerer is slain. But of course, and Hebrews mentions this, no animal is worthy to take the place of a human being.

All of this was anticipatory. All of this pointed forward to a great sacrifice that would be offered. In fact, in chapter 9, Jesus is spoken of as the mercy seat. When the high priest would enter in and sprinkle blood on the mercy seat, atonement was made for the people of Israel. And all of that, he says, is symbolic, pointing forward to the great sacrifice which Christ offered in His death. There is the mercy seat where appeasement before God was made. And so again, by the Lord Jesus in His death, sin is removed, yes. But it is removed because by His death, God is satisfied. And because of all of that, then, Satan no longer holds us in the fear of death. And his rule over us is destroyed. And we are no longer held in his grip. Knowing that God is satisfied, knowing that my sins are forgiven, how can I be afraid of death? And this, the writer tells us, is why God became man. He came as our Champion to defeat our adversary by offering Himself in propitiation to God for our sins.

And this is the amazing message of the Incarnation. This is the amazing message of Christmas. God became man in order to bear his own wrath against man who had sinned against him. This was his goal. This was the moment for which he came. It’s a marvelous irony here, isn’t it? In chapter two, by death, the Lord Jesus destroys him who has the power of death. Amazing. Satan furiously manipulates the events to bring about the cross and thereby is destroyed. The one who wields death is destroyed by the death of our champion. And not only is it a marvelous irony, it’s a marvelous flow of argument here in chapters one and two. In chapter 1, he begins by saying, “This Jesus is superior to the angels. He’s worshipped by angels.” And you can just hear some sharp objector coming along and say, “Wait a minute! He was lower than the angels!” And the writer says, “Yeah, there’s gospel in those woods too. He became lower than the angels so that as one of us he could offer satisfaction to God on our behalf.”

A Merciful and Faithful High Priest

Now finally, and very quickly, notice how he expands on this matter of Christ’s priestly intersection and what it meant for Christ to suffer as a human being. Verse 10: it says that our Archegos, the author of our salvation, was made perfect through suffering. A fascinating statement, isn’t it? Christ was made perfect through suffering. Certainly does not mean that Jesus lacks some moral perfection that still had to be worked out. Doesn’t mean that. But I think what he’s getting at here very obviously is that through his suffering as a man, He became one with us perfectly in our humanity, and he was not one with us in our humanity just generally, but he was made one like us also even in our suffering.

That this One who is superior to the angels, this One who is God Himself, became man. And not just in some general sense. He became exactly what we are. And sharing in our very humanity, he took part of our weaknesses and Himself suffered as a man. We sing that at Christmas: “The King of Kings lay thus in lowly manger and all our sorrows born to be our friend. He knows our need. To our weakness, He is no stranger.” He came and He joined us in our suffering and as our fellow sufferer, He led the way out. And so in verse 18, He says, “Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.” He’s drawing here an observation that here our Lord came, condescended to become one of us, shared with our humanity, and suffered as one of us in the weakness of the lowly nature of humanity. And He simply draws a conclusion from that. Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He then is able to help those who are being tempted.

That is, having paved the way as one of us, even in temptation and struggles, He’s able to help us. We have on the throne of heaven, He is saying, not only a high priest. We have a very experienced high priest. We have a high priest who’s been right where you are. And because he’s been right where you are, He knows exactly the need that you have and what is needed to help at exactly the point where you are, because He’s been there. He picks this up again in chapter 4. If you’d like to turn the page, chapter 4, verse 15. He says, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet without sin.”

That is, we have on the throne of heaven one who can feel, sympathize, one who can feel and understand our weaknesses, not because he studied it in a book, but because he himself has been there. And having been there, right where you are, he says, having suffered, he’s able to sympathize with you in your suffering, knowing exactly the point at which you suffer and what needs you have at that point. He understands our life because he himself has lived it. He’s our archegos. He’s gone that way before. And what he says then is that you will never find yourself in a situation that is unique to you. But the Lord Jesus himself has been there. Well, the particular item may be different, but the circumstances, the setting is not new. He was in all points tempted as we are.

Think on that. The Lord of Glory in all points tempted like as we are. Struggling. The Lord of Glory struggling with loneliness. Struggling with rejection. Struggling. People misunderstanding, slandering, abusing. Struggling with pain, opposition. Wherever you find yourself, He says, the Lord Jesus has been there and not only has he been there, He’s been there successfully. And this is the point he wants to emphasize: because he has been there himself and because he’s been there successfully, he’s able not only to sympathize, but he’s able to help.

This is very important to recognizing the point that he’s making here. Some people have asked and wondered whether, well, if Jesus could not and did not sin, was his temptation real? And I think asking the question even forces us to miss the point that he’s making here. The point is that his sinless success over temptation only makes the temptation that he endured, we can say it this way, all the more real, all the more intense. What he’s stressing is that because he could not and did not sin, He’s able to sympathize with us at whatever point in the struggle we find ourselves. If I can put it this way, if you don’t mind my saying it, you have never felt the full force of the tempter’s power. The reason we have not felt the full force of the tempter’s power is because at some point along the way we give in. The tempter wins. Temptation ends. But our Lord Jesus, because He never gave in but continually endured and endured and endured, He endured temptation to its fullest. And we have to think that the temptation never quit until the tempter himself wore out. We cannot sympathize with His struggles, but He can sympathize with ours. Wherever we are in this process of things, he has been there. Can he understand? Can he sympathize? Yes, he’s been there and further along.

I talked to some people in the church one time that were considering a pastoral candidate, and actually there were two candidates they were considering at the time. And it came down to this that they were debating about between these two men. The one had—they both had children—but the one, his children were pretty unruly. And they’d had trouble with them. The other had a model family. And some people in the congregation were saying, “Well, this pastor who’s had trouble with his children and unruly kids, he can probably understand the rest of us better.” I heard that. Well, the first thing I thought, of course, was, you know, why didn’t Paul write that in as a qualification? He must have. The second thing I thought: what kind of muddleheaded thinking is that? You want help from this guy. Wouldn’t you want someone who’s been there successfully?

This is what we want and this is what we need in a high priest. When I face the strains and the struggles of life in a cursed and a fallen world, I don’t want a high priest who is more or less like me that has fallen here and there and can’t make it. I want one who has faced the very same struggles and yet has emerged victoriously over them. A man here, he says, like that is what our Lord Jesus is. This priest knows exactly the grace that I need at every point and so he says, in Hebrews 4:16, “Let us therefore approach Him with boldness and go to the throne of grace that we may obtain help in time of need.” In all the experiences of life, with all of its strains and pressures and hurts, we can go to this throne of heaven and find there a man. Isn’t that amazing? Go to the throne of heaven and find there a man. The God-man, yes, but a man. A man who has been right where we are and a man who therefore knows exactly our need and the particular grace that is needed to fit that need at that point.

And so the author says, go to Him. Go to Him with boldness. He’s been there. And this is offered to us here in the book of Hebrews in terms of explanation as to why we persevere. We have a faithful High Priest who truly sympathizes with our weaknesses. And because He has been there successfully, He’s able to provide help for us at every point. This is why God became man. He became man in order to save us and to keep us saved. Charles Wesley wrote it well: “So are we now where Christ has led. Hallelujah. Following our exalted head. Hallelujah.” He came to lead us as our champion all the way to glory. He came from heaven to a mother’s womb, to a manger, to a cross, and back to glory so that He could lead us successfully from our sin and from our death to life and glory with Him. Amen.