11 - Hebrews 5:1-10

CHAPTER X I CHRIST, AS SON OF MAN, CALLED AND PERFECTED TO BE OUR HIGH PRIEST.

Hebrews 5:1-10.

WE enter now on the third section of our epistle, which extends from chapter 5 to chapter 10:39, and which sets before us the Lord Jesus Christ, the High Priest of the everlasting covenant, greater than the Aaronic priesthood. Twice already the apostle has referred to Christ as our High Priest, and he now enters on the development of the central theme of his epistle, Christ a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. But in order to explain the priesthood on which Christ entered after His death and resurrection, and of which not Aaron but Melchizedek was the type, it is necessary for him to show how the Lord Jesus fulfilled all that was typified of Him in the Levitical dispensation, and possessed in perfection all the requirements which, according to divine appointment, were needed in the high priest, and which could not be possessed in perfection by sinful men like the Aaronic priests. The High Priest in Israel possessed these two qualifications: First, He was one of the people, taken from among men for men. Secondly, He was appointed expressly by God Himself. The Lord Jesus was accordingly man, and appointed by the Father to be High Priest. But in His case a third element is added. As our Lord is not only the High Priest, but the sacrifice, on the foundation of which He exercises in heaven the functions of the High Priest, it was necessary for Him to suffer and to enter into the lowest depth of agony and death. And after having in perfect obedience and faith endured all, He entered into heaven, to be the High Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.

Before Israel was redeemed out of Egypt, sacrifices and offerings were brought unto God by the fathers of families, and the paschal lamb was offered in every household. The whole nation, redeemed by the blood of the lamb, was called to be a nation of priests; that is, they were separated unto God, and called to worship Him, and to offer unto Him sacrifice. It was only when the people became deeply conscious of their sins, guilt, and pollution, when the law revealed to them more fully the awful majesty and holiness of God, that the priesthood was appointed, typical of the true mediation between God and man. The priests were appointed by God, separated unto Him, or holy, to bring the people’s sacrifices and offerings before God; they were permitted to draw near to God, and this as representatives and mediators. Arid they brought to the people God’s gifts, viz., reconciliation and blessing.

Now it is evident that the priesthood suffered from two essential defects, and that it was only a shadow and type of our Lord. In the first place, the priests were as sinful as the people whom they represented. It was on account of sin that Israel felt the need of a mediator. But Aaron and the priests were only officially holy, they were not in reality spotless and pure. Hence they had to offer sacrifices for their own sins and infirmities, as well as for those of the people.

Secondly, the mediator ought not merely to be perfect and sinless man; he ought also to be divine, in perfect and full communion with God, so that he can impart divine forgiveness and blessing. Only in the Lord Jesus therefore is the true mediation. And now that He has come and entered into the heavenly sanctuary as our High Priest, the word priest in the sense of sacerdotal mediator dare never be used any more. Through Jesus the whole congregations of believers have boldness to enter into the holy of holies. He who loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, hath made us kings and priests unto God. The two qualifications of the Aaronic high priest, that he was from among men and that he was appointed by God, were fulfilled in a perfect manner in the Lord Jesus. But in considering these two points, we are struck not merely by the resemblance between the type and the fulfillment, but also by the contrast.

First, Aaron was chosen from among men to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. Jesus was true man, born of a woman and made under the law; "He became in all things like unto His brethren. But whereas the Jewish high priest had to offer for himself, as he was a sinner, the Lord was harmless and undefiled, pure and spotless. His mediation was therefore perfect. - The Aaronic high priest was able to have compassion on the ignorant and on them that were out of the way. The expression ignorance refers here to the great distinction which was made in Israel between sins for which there were sacrifices, and the sin of determined and presumptuous defiance of God’s authority for which there was no sacrifice but judgment: "That soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him." (Numbers 15:22-31.) The Aaronic high priest could have compassion^* on fellow-sinners, knowing and feeling his own infirmities and transgressions, and knowing also the love of God, who desireth not the death of the sinner, but that he should turn and live. (^*The expressionμϵτριοπαθϵῖν(translated in the margin can bear with) seems to have originated in Greek literature as the contrast to the apathy of the stoic, and apparently means that feeling of kindness and tenderness towards the sufferer, in which due regard to justice and rectitude is not forgotten.) But this compassionate, loving, gentle, all-considerate, and tender regard for the sinner can exist in perfection only in a sinless one. This appears at first sight paradoxical; for we expect the perfect man to be the severest judge. And with regard to sin, this is doubtless true. God chargeth even His angels with folly. He beholds sin where we do not discover it. He setteth our secret sins in the light of His countenance. And Jesus, the Holy One of Israel, like the Father, has eyes like a flame of fire, and discerns everything that is contrary to God’s mind and will. But with regard to the sinner, Jesus, by virtue of His perfect holiness, is the most merciful, compassionate, and considerate Judge. For we, not taking a deep and keen view of sin, that central essential evil which exists in all men, and manifests itself in various ways and degrees, are not able to form a just estimate of men’s comparative guilt and blameworthiness. Nay, our very sins make us more impatient and severe with regard to the sins of others. Our vanity finds the vanity of others intolerable; our pride finds the pride of others excessive.^* And again, blind to the guilt of our own peculiar sins, we are shocked with another’s sin, different indeed from ours, but not less offensive to God, or pernicious in its tendencies. Again, the purer and higher the character, the quicker its penetration and the livelier its sympathy, discovering and loving any element and tendency heavenward and godward. Again, the greater the knowledge of divine love and pardon, the stronger faith in the divine mercy and renewing grace, the more hopeful and the more lenient will be our view of sinners. And finally, the more we possess of the spirit and heart of the Shepherd, the Physician, the Father, the Brother, the deeper will be our compassion on the ignorant and wayward. (^*Fenelon.) The Lord Jesus was therefore most compassion ate, considerate, lenient, hopeful in His feelings toward sinners and in His dealings with them. He was infinitely holy and perfectly clear in His hatred and judgment of sin; but He was tender and gracious to the sinner. Beholding the sinful heart in all, estimating sin according to the divine standard, according to its real inward character, and not the human, conventional, and outward measure, Jesus, infinitely holy and sensitive as He was, saw often less to shock and pain Him in the drunkard and profligate than in the respectable, selfish, and ungodly religionists. Again, He had come to heal the sick, to restore the erring, to bring the sinner to repentance. He looked upon sin as the greatest and most fearful evil, but on the sinner as poor, suffering, lost, and helpless. He felt as the Shepherd towards the ignorant and erring, the wayward and foolish, the helpless and perishing; He felt as the Physician towards the guilty and sin-stricken; He felt the yearning of parental love and pity toward the children of Jerusalem; and even on the cross, when their sin appeared in its most fearful intensity, the Lord prayed - "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do!" Again, He fastened in a moment on any indications of the Father’s drawing the heart, of the Spirit’s work. He loved the rich young man; for, though his words sounded most self-righteous, Jesus beheld Him, and saw he was not peaceful and calm in his soul. He knew how to stir up the hidden remnant, however small it was, of religious know ledge in the woman of Samaria, so that she asked Him about worship, and said, "I know that Messiah cometh!" He rebuked Peter as Satan, and yet He knew and loved him as a true and sincere disciple. And thus, while Jesus, in His perfect holiness, judges most truly, lovingly, and tenderly of us, He knows by experience the weakness of the flesh, and the difficulty and soreness of the struggle. What a marvellous fulfillment of the Priest’s requisite, that he should be taken from men! one to whom we can look with full and calm trust, our Representative, the man Christ Jesus, possessed of perfect, divine love and compassion.

Secondly, the High Priest is appointed by God. No man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. The High Priesthood of Christ is identified here with His glory. Christ glorified not Himself to be made a High Priest. Blessed truth, that the glory of Christ and our salvation are so intimately connected, that Christ regards it as His glory to be our Mediator and Intercessor! This is Christ’s glory, even as it is the reward of His suffering, that in Him we draw near to the Father, and that from Him we receive the blessings of the everlasting covenant. He rejoices to be our High Priest.

God called Him to the Priesthood. In Psalm 110 it is written: "Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." When Jesus entered into the Holy of Holies, when He sat down at the right hand of God, then He actually entered on the exercise of His priesthood. But the calling of Jesus to the High Priestly dignity is based on His Sonship. For, as we have already seen, the true Priest or Mediator must be divine as well as human. Because Jesus is Son, He is the Prophet, perfectly revealing God; because He is Son, He is the true Sacrifice and Priest; for only the blood of the Son of God can cleanse from all sin, and bring us nigh unto God; and only through Christ crucified and exalted can the Fathers love and the Spirit’s power descend into our hearts.

Here the comparison and contrast between the Lord and Aaron ends. The apostle now enters on that which is peculiar to our Saviour Jesus. The types and figures of the old covenant could not be perfect and adequate; for that which is united in Christ had necessarily to be severed and set forth by a variety of figures. The priests offered not themselves, but animals. Now the obedience, the conflict, the faith, the offering of the will in the true, real, and effective Sacrifice could not possibly be symbolized. Nor could any single symbol represent how Jesus, by being first the Sacrifice, became thereby the perfect, compassionate, and merciful High Priest. Christ was the victim on the cross. His whole previous life of obedience was the necessary preparation for His ultimate obedience unto death. And because He was the true sacrifice, and had learned obedience, He became the compassionate and faithful High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary. Hence we must combine the Levitical types (regarding sacrifice, and the entrance of Aaron into the holy of holies) and the Melchizedek type (regarding priesthood), in order to obtain a true view of the work and person of our Lord. We must read Leviticus in the light of the gospels and epistles, rather than explain the fulfillment by the necessarily imperfect and fragmentary types; and in doing so we shall see as much contrast between the type and the reality as resemblance between the shadow and the substance.

Called of God to be a High Priest forever, the Lord Jesus, though He was the eternal Son of the Father, and though He was returning to glory, even to the right hand of the Majesty on high, learned obedience by the things which He suffered. He knows the path of temptation, sorrow, and conflict. The following verses unfold to us that the Lord descended into the lowest depth of human weakness, anguish, and death, and that only through this dark path He entered into His heavenly priesthood. It is in like manner that in the epistle to the Philippians the mind which was in Christ Jesus is described. He who was in the form of God emptied Himself, and was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; and it is for this reason that the Father hath highly exalted Him. In one passage the emphasis is laid on His priesthood, in the other on His royal supremacy. In both the voluntary and perfect obedience of Jesus as the eternal Son of God is presented to us. The Son of God, according to the eternal counsel, came into the world to be obedient even unto death. "Lo, I come to do Thy will." His obedience was characterized throughout by such continuity, liberty, and inward delight, that we are apt to forget that aspect of His life on which the apostle dwells when he says, that though Christ was a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered. The Lord Jesus was always doing the things which pleased the Father. There was no break or hesitation, no pause or retrogression in His path: it was the path of the just man, which is as the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day. And as it was continuous, so it seemed without an effort, flowing forth abundantly and spontaneously out of the full well-spring of His heart. He seems refreshed and not exhausted by doing the will of the Father that sent Him. And yet Jesus learned obedience, as He Himself said, He came not to do His own will. He who is Lord, eternal, infinite in power and glory, was made flesh, and with a human will, amid the toil and temptation incident to humanity, He continually submitted Himself to God His Father. Real and great were His difficulties, temptations, and sorrows; and from the prayers and complaints ascribed to Messiah in the psalms and prophets, we can understand somewhat of the burden which weighed on His loving and sensitive heart, and the constant dependence with which He leaned on the Father, and obtained from Him light and strength. Jesus believed; He lived not merely before, but by the Father.

Thus is Jesus the author and finisher of faith. He went before the sheep He is the forerunner. He has experienced every difficulty, and tasted every sorrow. He knows the path in all its narrowness. Was Abraham a sojourner in the land of promise as in a strange land? Jesus, who was appointed heir of all things, had not where to lay His head. Did Moses refuse the treasures in Egypt? Jesus was offered the whole world, with all its kingdoms and glory. Did David, anointed by the Lord, experience what it is to be rejected, hated, and persecuted by the proud and ungodly? What enmity, contradiction, ingratitude had our Lord to bear! Did Jeremiah weep tears of bitter sorrow on account of Jerusalem’s impenitence and the false security of Judah, misguided by false prophets? Jesus, foreseeing still greater judgment on Israel’s apostasy, wept over the city, and loved the nation with a sorrowing and faithful heart. Jesus felt all our infirmities and sorrows, He bore our sicknesses, He sighed over the misery that is in the world through sin culminating in death, the great and last enemy; and while acknowledging divine justice His compassionate love rested on the sufferer. Jesus was all the days of His flesh^* a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; but in the garden of Gethsemane He entered into an experience different from His previous suffering and conflict. He saw the cross from the beginning; He had set His face stedfastly towards Jerusalem, to go up and suffer there, and the anticipation of that awful cup sometimes filled His soul with fear; His soul was straitened until His baptism was fulfilled. (Luke 12:50.) When the Greeks came to the feast His soul was troubled; the earnest of the harvest, represented by the inquiring Gentiles, reminded Him that the corn of wheat must die first, and He cried to the Father, " Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour." (^*The days of His flesh are in contrast to the state of exaltation after He was perfected. The apostle Peter also uses the expression Christ "suffered in the flesh" (1 Peter 4:2); and the apostle Paul speaks of our present earthly existence as life in the flesh. (Php 1:22;Galatians 2:20.) The reference is to the life of Christ before His resurrection, where He, God’s "own Son," was "in the likeness of sinful flesh" (Romans 8:3) a partaker of flesh and blood, that He might suffer death. (Hebrews 2:14.) Of the risen Saviour we read that He had flesh and bones (Luke 24:39, notice, not flesh and blood); that He possesses nowσῶμα δόξης- a body of glory.) The apostles had seen Jesus weep over Jerusalem; they had seen His tears and heard His groans at the grave of Lazarus. But there was something so overwhelming in the agony of Gethsemane, that the evangelists evidently struggle with the inadequacy of language to describe the impression left on the minds of the apostles who were witnesses of that awful hour. So heavy was this weight on His soul, that in most touching words He seeks the sympathy of His disciples presence. "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me." He knelt down; He fell on His face; so great was His conflict that, as Luke the beloved physician notices, His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground.

What a contrast to the calm strength and peaceful joy with which immediately before He had comforted His sorrowing disciples, whose hearts were troubled and full of fear and sadness! (John 14 - 17.) He had spoken to them of His glory, of His going to the Father and sending to them the Spirit, of His joy being perfected in them, and of their abiding with Him for ever more. He had sung a hymn of praise with them. In the prayer which He had offered before them unto the Father there was no tone of sadness, there was nothing but peace and the calm assurance of victory. But now, though never swerving from implicit submission to His Father, He is well-nigh overwhelmed by the prospect of death before Him. We know the reason. It was not the prospect of physical pain, excruciating as it was, and sensitive as was His pure and sinless body. It was not the anticipation of the external manifestations of Israel’s ingratitude and hatred, deep as was His love to Jerusalem. It was not the shadow of the valley of death; for David and many saints are able to say, "Then I will fear no evil." No: Jesus, who is the adoration and strength of rejoicing martyrs, died not the martyr’s death, He died the just for the unjust. That which men ordinarily mean when they speak of death had no terror for the Lord Jesus. "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth," He said to His disciples, and, comforting them on that last evening, He spoke of His death as simply going to the Father, and exhorted them to rejoice because He went to His Father’s house and throne. And with perfect calmness He finally committed His Spirit into the Father’s hand. The enmity and opposition, the malice and con tempt of His nation with their rulers, keenly as His loving heartfelt it, had been known by Him for years, and He had borne it patiently and calmly, and with undisturbed hope and courage, knowing that by meekness He would conquer, and that the Father would cause His work to prosper. Fearlessness, such as must accompany perfect faith in God, had always characterized Him. He never feared man. As He exhorted His disciples not to fear them that can only kill the body, so He Himself met all danger and opposition with the most peaceful calmness and collectedness of implicit and uninterrupted faith in God. Whence the sorrow, the anguish, the over whelming agony in the garden of Gethsemane?

He knew that on the cross, as our substitute, He would be left to suffer in connection with the judgment of sin; that His soul would be left without the light of the Father’s countenance; and that which was His sole joy and strength, the very life of His life, would be taken from Him.

He tasted that death of which sin is the sting and the law the strength. When He saw what was before Him - death in its organic connection with divine wrath - He trembled, and was in agony.

Here we see, as nowhere else, how abhorrent He was of the iniquity which was about to be laid on Him, and how wonderful was His love to God and to us. The Lord Jesus, because He v as the Son of God, and perfect, holy man, could not but shrink from that cup, the Father hiding His face from Him. He prayed with strong crying and tears. We behold Him as the Son of man. He felt that this was the hour and power of darkness. Satan doubtless used the fear of death, and presented it to the Lord’s mind to throw anguish into His heart. The anticipation of His agony on the cross overwhelms Him. Yet He remains faithful. He cries unto God. His tears betoken the earnestness of His prayer; His prayer reveals the holy, submissive character of His tears. Who can fathom the depth of Christ’s prayer, or understand the full import of His tears and cries? Even in our infirmities the Spirit helpeth us, making intercession for us with groans which cannot be uttered. What must have been the petitions and the cries of the Lord Jesus when He offered Himself unto the Father! He sanctified the Lord His God in His heart, He hallowed His name, He magnified His holy justice, while He beheld His infinite love! He submitted Himself to His counsel, He surrendered Himself to suffer the most agonizing pain, and yet He trusted in His almighty and faithful deliverance! Here was the most wonderful combination in the human soul and spirit of Christ, that He most fully acknowledged and adored the holiness and the justice of God, while with perfect love He continued to identify Himself with guilty and lost sinners, and with unshaken confidence He trusted in the faithfulness of God, who would crown Him with glory, and give Him an innumerable multitude for His reward. And in this agony He learned to know fully what is the weakness of the flesh, and what is the real difficulty and painfulness of the struggle, even to surrender our own will, and to say, "Thy will be done." Thus He entered into our lowest depth, and for this reason is He able now to have perfect sympathy with us.

He cried unto God, and because of his filial devotedness, which made the Father’s will His own, He was heard.^* The Father sent an angel to strengthen Him. The anguish that well-nigh overcame Him was conquered. He rose, and set His face stedfastly to the work before Him. With meekness He bore the kiss of Judas; He went forth with calm majesty to meet the soldiers who were sent to take Him captive; He restrained the false zeal of Peter, as afterwards He remembered him, and looked upon him with forgiving and tender love; He witnessed a good confession before Pilate and the high priest; He called Jerusalem’s daughters to repentance; He prayed for Israel’s forgiveness; He heard the petition of the dying thief, commended Mary His mother to the care of the beloved disciple, and then entered into the mysterious darkness of His expiatory suffering. (^*Some expositors explain, "He was delivered from the fear of death." This is indeed true; but it seems more in accordance with the meaning of the wordϵὐλάβϵιαto translate it "on account of His fear" of God. And, as Delitzsch says, no more suitable expression could be found to denote the Saviour’s attitude of filial, reverential submission to God’s will.) With strong crying and tears¹ the Son of God offered up prayers and supplications unto Him that was able to save Him from death. In the depth of His weakness and anguish He looked unto the Father’s power. He poured out all His heart before Him. He prayed not to be spared the suffering of death; He asked not for twelve legions of angels to deliver Him. He had made the will of God His own, and because of this perfect surrender of Himself to that death, which appeared to Him so awful, He was heard. The answer to Christ’s prayer was fully given when God brought again from His grave that great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant. "Thou hast heard me" is in the twenty-second Psalm, the connecting link between the Beloved One forsaken and the Beloved One exalted, declaring the name of God to His brethren. Thus He learned the obedience through the things which He suffered.² The mind which was in Christ from the beginning was the mind of perfect filial submission and obedience. He brought this mind with Him into the world, into His prophetic ministry, into the garden of Gethsemane, and to the cross of Golgotha. But in His sufferings this mind was tested, manifested, perfected. And now that He has offered the obedience, by which many are made righteous, and the Father, in answer to His prayer, has raised and exalted Him, He is fully fitted for and consecrated unto His High Priestly life.³ The Father now addresses Him as High Priest after the order of Melchizedek.⁴ (Hebrews 5:10.) (¹The expressions of this verse recall the remarkable passage in the prophet Hosea respecting the patriarch Jacob: "He had power with God (or was a prince): yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him." Israel was an image of the Lord. Moses relates the words of earnest supplication, but does not mention Jacob’s weeping. But the earnest and intense petition naturally issues in tears. ("Implorare est fletu rogare." Compare the Frenchimplorerand our word cry.

--PUSEY,on Minor Proph. 76.)

Bengel says, in reference to this passage, "Awful cup! Reasonable fear! Unviolated obedience! Mighty prayer! Speedy answer!" The expressions in our passage evidently harmonize especially with the account of the evangelist Luke. (Luke 22:39-46.)

²Notice the force and beauty of the original,ἔμαθϵνἀφ᾽ὦνἔπαθϵν;

³ Hebrews 2:10: God made Him perfect through sufferings with reference to His future compassion and sympathy, through His exaltation with reference to His power and position as High Priest.

⁴The termπϱοςαγορϵυθϵὶς, which occurs only in this place, meansaddressed.) The man Christ Jesus enthroned in heaven is now our perfect High Priest. He who endured all temptations, who glorified God in the midst of sin and suffering, who became acquainted with all sorrow and grief, who tasted the bitterness of death, who offered Himself by the most perfect surrender of His own will to the Father as our substitute, He by His obedience unto death has become the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey Him;^* and unto all whom He has saved by His blood He is the Priest after the order of Melchizedek. (^*Kurtz points out that the reason why believers are here described as those who obey Him is because, as Christ was perfected through His obedience to the Father, so we can only be perfected by our obedience to Christ.)

What marvellous insight does Jesus possess into all that is human! What tender sympathy is His, and how high and perfect is His aim, that God’s will should be done by us, even while we are in the body and in a world of sin and trial! With what power do the words come from His lips, "Only believe! Follow me!

Thus the glory of His exaltation is full of consolation and peace for us. Because He was faithful, because He was obedient unto the death, because His love conquered every enemy and overcame every darkness, He is enthroned by the Father as the Lamb, He is solemnly addressed by Him as the High Priest, who is the perfect and eternal Mediator, by whom everlasting salvation is given to all who obey Him. The glory of Christ is the result of His obedience, and the fruit of the experience of earth, through which He went, is His perfect sympathy with us, and His all-sufficient grace, which is able to uphold us in every trial, and to carry us safely through all our conflicts, and present us unblameable in body, soul, and spirit before the Father. And herein we adore the love of God, who gave up His Son, who sent Him, who spared Him not, in order that He might become a perfect High Priest, merciful and compassionate. Herein is the marvellous love of the Father, that He gave His own Son to be not merely the Saviour, but the Brother, the Head, the source of strength, light, and consolation to those who believe in His name.

Let us therefore dwell on the perfection of our great High Priest; for, as throughout Scripture, so here, the glory of Christ is unfolded in order that we may have perfect peace, and that we may take out of His fullness, and grace upon grace. Our sorrows and our temptations, our weakness and our danger, are fully known and constantly remembered by Jesus, who most tenderly sympathizes with us. Our sins have not merely been pardoned, but our daily trespasses and infirmities, our constant sinfulness, the sins which we commit without being conscious of them, need not keep us at a distance from God, or take from us our confidence and peace. Let us confess our sins, let us in humility acknowledge the sinfulness within us, and the defilement which clings to all our actions, even our holy things, and Jesus will be to us a merciful, considerate High Priest, by whom we are not only forgiven, but healed, corrected, and chastened; so that while we are judged in the flesh, we are quickened in the Spirit. We are before the Father in Christ the High Priest. While our prayers and thoughts, the words of our mouth, and the meditation of our heart, and the work of our hands, are acceptable, because the Lord Jesus presents them to the Father; all blessings of the covenant, all needful light and strength, grace and consolation, are bestowed on us by our omnipotent Melchizedek from the heavenly Jerusalem.

Remember who He is - the High Priest, the God-man - what He suffered, how in our nature He ascended, and then give thanks, and be of good cheer, and whatever clouds and difficulties may arise, however painful and heavy the burden of sin, of weakness, of work, never for a moment forget that nothing shall be able to separate you from the love of the Father, which is in Christ Jesus the Son of God, the Brother and High Priest of all who put their trust in Him.

We never know the strength and the love of Jesus until we lean on Him with the heavy burden of our sins, temptations, doubts, and sorrows; until in confiding trust and humble candour we speak to Him of all that oppresses and perplexes us. Then we experience that Jesus is the Man, who is God’s equal, the Man of God’s right hand, whom He hath made strong, mighty to save; that He is the Messenger of the covenant, the true Presence and Light, who guides us through the wilderness, while he sends down all blessings from the heavenly sanctuary. And then we experience the wonderful tenderness, the compassionate love, the perfect sympathy of Him who is not ashamed to call us brethren, who is afflicted in all our afflictions, who is constantly interceding for us in heaven, while He is constantly sustaining our inner life by His Spirit.

"The love of Jesus, what it is None but His loved ones know"

He alone knows what is in man; the sorrow which lies too deep for human ministry He is able to understand and heal. When there is such a High Priest in heaven, when such a Man is seated at the right hand of God - almighty, omniscient, all-loving; glorious in His holiness, power, and truth; unspeakably merciful, compassionate, brotherly; Son of God, and Son of Man; bringing the ocean of divine love through the channel of human brotherhood and sympathy, and the fullness of life and glory through the agony and the death He suffered on the cross; when such a Saviour of sinners, Friend and Guide, nay, Lover and Bridegroom of the soul, is revealed unto us, will any one of us continue to go through life alone, alone with sin and guilt, with the accusations of the past, the burden of the present, and the awful gloom of the future; alone with the thirst of the soul, and the sorrow of the heart, and the afflictions, trials, and dangers of our path; alone with the guilt and power of sin, and the darkness of the grave and eternity? Oh for one simple look to Jesus, and He is yours, with His plentiful redemption, His peace, His life, His love! And you who believe in Him, and are in manifold afflictions and trials, lean on His grace and rest in His love.

"Thy risen life but fits Thee more For kindly ministry;

Thy love unhindered rests upon Each bruised branch in Thee."