Our Sympathising and Sinless High Priest
James Jarvie. 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… I. WE HAVE AN HIGH PRIEST. It is in no figurative sense that Christ is called a High Priest. II. WE HAVE A SYMPATHISING HIGH PRIEST. 1. His nature secures us of His sympathy. And this sympathy is of that intimate and tender kind of which He may be supposed capable who was in all respects like His brethren — that is, in all things requisite to constitute a perfect human nature. If, indeed, we make a distinction between sinless and sinful infirmities, we must also make a distinction between the kinds of feeling with which our High Priest can be touched. He is capable of feeling for both, but not certainly in the same manner. Those infirmities which we call sinless, and which are rather the painful consequences of sin than in themselves sinful, He felt Himself, as being inseparable now from human nature; and, consequently, He feels a sympathy of love for these unmingled with any emotions of disapprobation. But those infirmities, again, which are sinful, He could not Himself be conscious of; nay, they must have been, however palliated by circumstances, the subjects of His disapprobation. And yet as an High Priest or Mediator would not be required but on account of sin; and as it is in the work of receiving the confessions, preferring the supplications, and offering the gifts of sinners, through the merits of His atoning sacrifice, that He is expressly engaged, He must also feel the sympathy of compassion for those who are erring and out of the way, however much it be mingled with displeasure and pain. 2. But, lest any distressing doubts should still remain in your minds that, although a partaker of our nature, He may yet never have had our experience, without which He might still be regarded as not capable of being touched with a feeling of our infirmities, the apostle to this negative adds a positive assertion — He "was in all respects tempted as we are." His experience, as well as His constitution, fits Him for our compassionate High Priest, and assures us of His sympathy. Human life is a state of suffering, and a period of temptation. All ranks and conditions of men have their peculiar trials; but to the human family many afflictions are common; and both the peculiar and the general sorrows of our race the Saviour knew by experience. Thus, with good intentions, He was subjected to trials by God. But He was also solicited to sin, for the worst of purposes, both by unprincipled men and malignant fiends. III. WE HAVE A SINLESS HIGH PRIEST. It is a curious speculation in the science of mind, and it has been made a dangerous one in that of divinity, how far solicitation to sin could assail the mind of the Holy One without His becoming sinful; and how an infallible, impeccable being, could possibly be subjected to real temptations. It is perhaps safe to establish no dogmas upon such subjects, and safer altogether to avoid their agitation. It is sufficient for religious ends, at least, to know, that the angels who kept not their first estate, Adam and Eve who lost paradise, and Christ Jesus who regained it, were all tempted by the solicitations of sin while yet in innocence. It is still more delightful to know that this untainted Saviour, having come out of the fiery furnace of temptation victorious, is able, in consequence of His subjection to trials, more feelingly and effectually to succour those who are tempted. (James Jarvie.) 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. WEB: For we don't have a high priest who can't be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin.