Hebrews 4:15 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Hebrews 4:15

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Christ looks upon us and he feels our pain. Sometimes we too sympathise in a very strong way as though the same thing has happened to us, but not too often. That, however, is the real meaning of sympathy in the Greek. So Christ, our high priest is not one who is unable to jointly feel our pain, our grief, our need. Now the evidence for Christ's capacity to feel in this way is that he has entered into human flesh. He was in all points tempted like as we are – all trials, all difficulties. He knew bodily weakness and sickness and in all probability he knew exhaustion, tiredness, pain, slander, and loss. And then of course he knew Calvary and the scourging even before that.But what we must not say is this: ‘Christ only knows what we go through and how we feel because he went through it.’ That is not right. Even if Christ had never come to earth, – which of course he had to do to suffer and die for us – even if he had never entered into a human body – which he had to do to really be our representative and our sin bearer, and to feel the punishment of sin as we ought to have felt it – he would still have a perfect understanding of our woes. He did not need to adopt a body in order to know what that sensation was. He knew already simply by virtue of being divine. He knows what mortals feel and suffer, because he has infinite knowledge. What it is telling us is that he took a human body and suffered our infirmities [weaknesses, inadequacies] so that we could be assured that he knows what we experience. He knows without ever having come in a body, but because he came in the body and suffered all human trials, we find it easier to be sure that he understands our experience.

Application

What a difference that makes to you in your prayers. You are going to a high priest, to a Saviour, to a Lord, who is so sympathetic to his people that while he was on earth, he came not only to Calvary, but to expose himself to all the sufferings that we endure and all the things that happen to us. Are you being ill-treated for the sake of Christ? Are you being disadvantaged in the workplace, because you are a Christian, you have a testimony? Are you being insulted or hurt in some way by relations? Because you are a Christian they are against you for it and they are spiteful and you are slandered. Well, Christ willingly put himself through all those experiences so that you could know he was a sympathetic and faithful high priest, and so that you can come to him in prayer and seek his help and his strength.

Questions

Some may worry about the phrase ‘tempted in all points’. Does that mean that every single human temptation was at some point experienced by Christ? Not necessarily; in all points could equally well refer to every kind of temptation, every major field of temptation. He has dealt with slander, violence, betrayal, confronted by all the ugliness of a fallen world and human behaviour: unbelief, ingratitude, poverty, bodily weakness, affliction and exhaustion. He has known the temptations by Satan; he has tasted every field of temptation and every trial and every hardship and pain.

Why does the KJV translation say, ‘cannot be touched’. Actually, those words at first sight do not closely resemble what is in the Greek. They seem to be a paraphrase. What is the matter with the word ‘sympathise’? That was originally a Greek word, not an English word, though it has now come into English. But that's exactly what is in the Greek New Testament, ‘we have not an high priest’ who is unsympathetic with our infirmities, and some modern versions use that word. But our King James Version chooses to translate in an entirely different way, and it is absolutely right to do so, because to say, ‘we do not have a high priest in Christ, who is unsympathetic’ is actually inadequate. The problem is that the English use of the word sympathy is different from the Greek use of the word sympathy. When we sympathise, we may only feel sorry for someone. We hear of somebody who has suffered a serious loss due to some grievous problem, and we feel sorry for them. But as the Greeks used it, it meant to feel pain jointly together with. That is much stronger than our use of the word sympathy, even though it is right from the Greek. So to do justice to it, the King James translators have paraphrased it a little: ‘For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.’ That is absolutely what the Greek language means.

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Introduction

Hebrews 4:15 Commentary and Bible Study