(14) Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. (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. (16) Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
I include these verses within one reading, because they are so interwoven, that it were a pity to consider them distinctly, for they form one beautiful whole. And yet, they open to so many volumes of subject, that a whole life of grace can never go over the several parts of them, so as to say, there is no more to he said upon them. In a Poor Man's Commentary I must study shortness, and therefore can only glance at the outlines.
And, first. We are called upon to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth; and here we are said to behold, with full confidence, our great High Priest, as passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. I admire the manner in which this blessed truth is spoken. Seeing then, saith the Apostle; as if (and which is in reality the case), all dispute about it was done away. There is a special emphasis on the words, seeing then. He is gone into heaven, (saith Peter). There Christ our forerunner is entered. And is on the right hand of God angels, and authorities, and powers, being made subject unto him, 1 Peter 3:22. And I admire the Apostle's joining to this account of Christ's return to heaven both the office of Christ, and the name of Christ. He had before, in the second Chapter (Hebrews 2:1), spoken somewhat largely of Christ, as a Priest, and an High Priest; and here he calls him a great High Priest. And, as the Apostle delighted upon all occasions, to introduce the name of his Lord, whenever an opportunity offered, he adds to the account of our great High Priest having passed into the heavens; his name, Jesus the Son of God! Reader! note this down first, in your looking to Him, who is thus passed into the heavens. It is Jesus, God's dear Son, and your dear High Priest; yea, your great High Priest!
Secondly, Paul here from draws the strongest of all arguments, that we should hold fast our profession. Not as if this depended upon any strength in ourselves to hold it but, that in Christ's strength we should grasp it, and carry it about with us as the credentials of our faith, rather parting with life than with a belief in Christ, Isaiah 27:5. And this holding fast, implies making use of Christ upon all occasions; continually acting faith upon him; depending in him; and in spite of all temptations, resolutely holding on, and holding out, as those, who in a consciousness that He who is our great High Priest is passed into the heavens, hath obtained eternal redemption for us, by his blood and righteousness, and is now returned to heaven, to see the merit of it recompensed in some measure and degree, (though fully it never can be through all eternity), to all his people. This is our profession. And the consciousness of Christ being passed into the heavens is enough in itself to make all his people, in spite of hell and sin, to hold it fast.
Thirdly. people, the next persuasion from these precious words, riseth still higher. 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. Of all the consolations and encouragements under the trials of the faithful, these views of Jesus, are certainly the greatest, and the best. First, as they relate to Christ's Person. And, Secondly, as they relate to his High Priestly Office
Reader! what a thought is it, to lead the child of God to the mercy-seat of God in Christ, with every comfortable assurance of success; when we consider who it is we go to, what a knowledge he hath of our persons, wants, circumstances, trials, and difficulties; what a personal experience he himself hath had of the same things, being when upon earth in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. In all things else the same.
It is possible I may be singular. But, if I am, I can truly say I find the blessedness of it; and would not think otherwise than I do, on those sweet points, for a thousand worlds. I frequently say to myself, when my necessities compel me to go to the throne, (and, Reader, I fear, notwithstanding the frank and tender reception I always meet with there, when I go to my God and Savior, I should seldom go there, did not my wants make me;) but I frequently say, was not Jesus made an High Priest purposely that He might be merciful? Was it not his deep love, and his deep affection to sinners, which made Him, of all others, the most fitted to be our High Priest? And will he not exercise it towards me? Doth not the very nature of an High Priest call for mercy? Would the office itself be needed, if there were not poor sinners to receive from it? It is most true, and it is most blessed in the truth, that Jesus is a great High Priest, and is passed into the heavens, in proof of his Almighty greatness, and his Almighty power; but what endears Jesus to my heart still more, is that he is a merciful and faithful High Priest, in things pertaining to God; and can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; in that, he himself was once encompassed with our infirmity, and was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Reader! is it not this which gives a lift to poor, tried, buffeted, tempted souls, and enables them to come boldly to the throne of grace, to obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need?
One word more. It is an additional argument, and the Apostle most blessedly blends it with the former; that not only Christ's greatness, and Christ's fellow-feeling and compassion, make him a suited High Priest for his people, and such as none other, but God and Man in one Person can be; but also, that the exercises he himself hath gone through, and the sorrows in those exercises he hath borne, give him such a personal knowledge of all, the cases and circumstances of his people, as nothing but the having trod the path himself could have brought him acquainted with. And, although it is most true, that as God he could have no additional knowledge, neither be more merciful, in taking upon him our nature, yet, had Jesus the Son of God not been man, as well as God, he could not have had human affections, and human feelings, in a personal experience of what human sorrows are. So that it doth tend to give yet further encouragement to go to Jesus, when we keep in remembrance, that he not only knows as God, but that he feels as man. And in his own breast, we have this sweet and affectionate advocate, in that he knoweth our frame by his own, and how to administer the suited relief.
Precious Lord Jesus! do thou, by the sweet influences of thy blessed Spirit, keep those views everlastingly alive in my heart; that my soul may have the most lively actings of faith, upon thy Person, as God-Man, and thy knowledge, as having gone before in the tabulated path in my nature; so that I may not only come, but come boldly to thy mercy-seat, and always obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need!