December 1931
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
545
aged to hold fast our confession continually. This exhorta tion was pertinent to the people who were addressed in this episfile. They were sorely tried (cf. 10:32-39). They were 1 tempted to surrender their confession and to return to Moses and Aaron, the apostle and high priest of the old covenant. Or they might yield to false teachers who de sired to blend into one system of faith both the old and the new covenants. But new wine cannot be put into old wine skins. Hence, the pointedness of the appeal to hold fast is apparent. Judaism and Christianity will not mix. Jews and Chris tians may fraternize in friendly relationships, but Judaism is obsolete as a religious system. It has no saving power. Like an old shoe, having fulfilled its purpose, it is cast aside. The appeal to “hold fast” is just as pertinent now as it was then. We hear a good deal about getting the best out of all religions and about weaving the strands of truth into one system. An organized movement known as the Fellow ship of Faiths proposes to do this. Plans are now being made for a mass meeting of the local branches of this or ganization to be held in Chicago in 1933. Preparatory meetings are to be held in other large cities. The time for such a movement is considered to be ripe. The absence of the distinctive Christian message, which characterizes the present time, will prepare many to receive a strong delu sion, since they have not received the love of the truth that they might be saved. It is a time to hold fast our confession without wavering. The words of 1 John 5 :12 must never be forgotten: “He that hath the Son hath the life”—the life of God in the soul. “He that hath not the Son of God hath not the life.” He may have what is called a religious philosophy, but without the Son, received as a personal Saviour, he can never be a partaker of the divine nature. Our great High Priest is strong for every situation. Let us not fail to con fess Him and to trust Him. O ur H igh P riest is S ympathetic We need His sympathy even as we need His strength. It is good to know that He is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” These seven words reveal the fact of His sympathy. Do not try to explain these words; they are too simple for that. They mean exactly what they convey to the mind at the first reading. Take them at their face value. Many years of experience may be necessary for the illumi nation and application of this great statement. The de gree of faith will determine the measure of its power in our lives. At present, we are not thinking of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Head of the body, in whom we stand com plete ; nor as the Advocate for our sins, whose work avails for our forgiveness and cleansing when we fall; but we are thinking of Him as the sympathetic High Priest concerned with our infirmities, our ignorance, and our general help lessness as spiritual pilgrims on the heavenly way. Our best friends are often bored by the recital of our weak nesses and limitations. They have their own burdens to carry. It is unwise to pour out our complaints even to our closest human friends. There is One, however, who walks with us, as sympathetic as He is strong. He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. He is acquainted with our fail ures and our frailties. He knows all about our weakness, our waywardness, and our ways. For the office of a sym pathetic High Priest, He was made perfect through suf ferings. Though He was a Son, and though called of God to the office He now occupies, yet He learned obedience and
the cost of it by the things which He suffered. In the days of His flesh, He offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and He was heard in that He feared. He was not saved from the experience of death, but He was saved out of death into resurrection life. And all this He passed through as a man—the perfect Man, Jesus of Naza reth. But in addition to that, He is the Son of God, He is God the Son, and as such He makes sure our ultimate victory.
The waves run fast and high, And the stars go out of the. sky, And the storm beats loud and high; But I know that we two shall win in the end, Jesus and I.
Coward and wayward and weak, I change with the changing sky, Today so eager and bright, Tomorrow too weak to try;
But He never gives in, So we two shall win, Jesus and I.
This is blessedly true because He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities and is able to save to the utter most. . O ur H igh P riest is S inless He was in all points tempted (tested) like as we are, yet without sin,” or “sin apart.” This is the universal tes timony of Scripture. He did no sin (1 Pet. 2:22). In Him is no sin (1 John 3:5). He was holy and harmless, sep arate from sinners (Heb. 7 :26). He knew the full force of temptation, but never yielded to it. “The prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me.” This was His testimony. More than that, He knows the enemy’s power to the utmost and has overcome it. His sinlessness sep arates Him from us as sinners and puts Him in a class by Himself. At the same time, it qualifies Him to become our substitute Saviour, the Captain of our salvation, and the perfect Representative of His people. The triumph of His strength and the tenderness of His sympathy are made effective by His sinlessness. Some one has beautifully said, “It is the love which suffers and not the weakness which fails that is able to help us.” O ur H igh P riest is S u ffic ien t This follows naturally and logically from the truths already considered. To be sufficient as the High Priest of His people, Jesus Christ must be strong, sympathetic, and sinless. No one else has ever combined these three quali ties in his own person. We have known men who were strong and men who were sympathetic, but we have never known one who was sinless. Sooner or later, all our idols are broken, and we learn that man, at his best, is insufficient The first ten verses of chapter 5 confirm the truth of our High Priest’s sufficiency. “He was taken from among men.” This necessitated the incarnation. The eternal “Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1 :14). Being taken from among men, He was appointed for men in things pertaining to God. Blessed truth—the perfect Man was appointed for imperfect men in matters relating to God! God must have perfection, and He finds it in man’s perfect representative, our great High Priest. The appointment to this office was not of men, nor was it a self-appointment, for “no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.” The call of Aaron is clearly stated in Exodus 28, with which [Continued on page 552]
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