THINGS OF GOD. Hebrews 2:17 Because the Lord Jesus Christ “took on the seed of Abraham,” He was here on earth as a perfect Man, and living among sinful humanity, He is able to be our Mediator, our High Priest. We needed the atonement He alone could make. He couldn’t lower God’s standards, but He could be merciful to us. In His body, He had to learn to be hungry and thirsty, tired, and to sleep. In His mind, He learned how to develop as a human, be taught human wisdom regarding things around Him, and learned how humans increase in size and mental and moral strength as He lived with failing people. His divine nature is love, so He had to learn how to love as a human in His affections. He had to learn how to be sad and glad, to be angry and indignant when He saw hypocrisy and deceit. He had to learn how to grieve as a man of sorrow and find joy in simple things.
He exercised faith, read the scriptures, prayed, sighed, cried, and knew physical and emotional anguish. He suffered temptation; He sweated in His pain; He endured humiliation and rejection. He did not merely die for our sins, but He “tasted death” by using the keys of life and death that are His alone. When He came to earth, He deliberately took upon Himself human characteristics.
Therefore, He knows our problems and weaknesses and is merciful to us. Once and for all, He paid the penalty for our sins by His atoning, sacrificial, and substitutionary death on the cross. As a result of the legal satisfaction God has in what our Lord Jesus did on our behalf, a relationship with God can be established when we put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Sin no longer has dominion over us because we have trusted in Our Lord Jesus Christ without reservation, and rely on what He has done for us as the reason God can justly accept us into His family by “the spirit of adoption.” Now, we can say to the Holy God, “Abba Father,” and know that we are truly accepted in His beloved Son. Our “merciful and faithful High Priest” has turned aside the righteous wrath of God against guilty sinners who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
By the sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, God has declared that righteous justice has been carried out. Jesus has ascended to heaven and presents us to the Father as those who are holy and unblameable before Him. God now blesses us with the fullness of His grace, gives us the needed strength to live holy and just lives, and our merciful High Priest represents us. He knows what it is like to be a person living on the earth among sinful people. He has experienced sorrow and temptation, rejection and persecution. Everything we will go through in life, He experienced in a perfect, sinless way.
He is faithful in bringing us “every good and perfect gift from above.” “He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” In this verse, High Priest” is first used of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is one of the main, if not the central theme of the book of Hebrews. His humanity was essential to Him being the great High Priest connecting His person and work of reconciliation, or propitiation, for the sins of the people. Because of Him, God is completely satisfied.
It “behooved Him in all things” means that He was obligated to be made “like unto His brethren” to deal with “things pertaining to God.” Those “things,” only He could do were first, to die for us who were sinners. He also had to present Himself to God for us, so we have the privilege of coming to the throne of grace to “obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Because of His acceptance, we can be true worshippers in spirit and in truth.
Because of His merciful and faithful priestly work that is limitless, in His limitless intelligence and sympathy, He deals with our needs, temptations, failures, and trials continuously. The Lord Jesus Christ leads His people in the “great congregation” when we sing our praises to God, worship Him, and give Him glory. Things pertaining to God are our occupation and motivation because of the propitiation of our Lord Jesus Christ as our Great High Priest.
A Sovereign High Priest chooses the seed of Abraham, like His brethren. A Suffering High Priest endures suffering as a man, even death, for His brethren. A Son-High Priest makes us sons, members of God’s family—His brethren. A Superior High Priest represents a holy nation, a peculiar people, and separates His brethren. As our High Priest, He made atonement, making His people acceptable. Continually on our behalf, He intercedes—making our prayers acceptable. He hears our hymns and songs, as High Priest, making our praises acceptable. Our service is recognized by our High Priest, making our practices acceptable.