"MADE LIKE TO HIS BRETHREN"

“MADE LIKE TO HIS BRETHREN”

Hebrews 2:16-18; Hebrews 4:14-16

Our hearts have often been comforted and elevated by the thought that we are going to be like the Son of God in His glorified condition, but it is necessary also that we should consider that in becoming Man in the circumstances in which we are “it behoved him in all things to be made like to his brethren”.

We are told that “he takes hold of the seed of Abraham”. In becoming Man He took up a special relation with the faith family, with what God owned as having a link with Himself. There was that about that family which was of God, though every member of it had been by nature a child of wrath even as the rest. But faith having come in there was that in them which was not of the fallen man, but which had its origin in God. Christ could take hold of that, for it was suitable to Him; we might say that it was kindred with Him. It is as having this characteristic of faith that men are regarded as Christ’s brethren, and it behoved Him in all things to be made like to them. This underlies the teaching of Hebrews; we hardly get the indwelling Spirit in this epistle, but all through prominence is given to faith. Christ’s brethren are in view, and “the people” are the elect nation, those who have faith. They, and they only, get the good of the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. Those from among the Jews who received Christ were the true “seed of Abraham”, and they became Christ’s companions and His brethren. They were the seed of whom Christ took hold; He attached Himself to them and was made like to them. Not that He could have them apart from His death, and His soul being made an offering for sin, for they all had sins for which propitiation was needed if they were to be with God in a righteous and holy way. The seed could not be sanctified — they could not be “all of one” with the Sanctifier — if He had not made propitiation for their sins. So we find later in the epistle that by God’s will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. We also read that by one offering He has perfected in perpetuity the sanctified. As purged worshippers they have no longer any conscience of sins. Their sins are gone in a most holy way, for Christ has borne the judgment due to them. And ^[p. 222] now they are of the faith family; they are not characterised under the eye of God or of Christ by the presence of sinful flesh, but by the presence of faith. It is evident that if we were viewed as marked by sinful flesh we could not be regarded as brethren of Christ, but if we are viewed as having faith — a principle which links us with God — we can. We need to shut out the flesh more completely from our thoughts of the holy brethren. They are to be regarded as this epistle regards them. There are more than twenty designations of the called saints in this epistle, but they all suggest suitability to God and to Christ, and not the contrary. It is as viewing the brethren thus that it behoved Christ to be made like to them.

It is as having the exercises and trials and sorrows of faith that saints are Christ’s brethren, and it is as having part in the testings and sorrows of faith that it has behoved Christ to be made in all things like to His brethren. Christ’s brethren are viewed here as in a position and condition in which they are sure to be tempted or tried, and they are also marked by infirmities. Faith is there as a ruling principle, but it is surrounded by almost universal unbelief, and is therefore continually exposed to temptation in the sense of trial. It has always been so wherever there was faith. And along with faith there is always, in our present condition, the consciousness of infirmity. These things mark Christ’s brethren here. The temptations or trials here referred to do not arise from the activity of the flesh; they are the result of faith coming into conflict with the influences that operate in the present evil age. If faith and a good conscience are maintained there is bound to be suffering, and I believe that when we have part, however small, in the sufferings of faith there is always the consciousness of infirmity. Infirmity does not mean that we give way before the power of evil, but it means that we are conscious that if we did not get divine support we should give way.

Now it is this experience which prepares us to appreciate how near Christ has come to us in becoming Man. He entered into, and took His part in, all that suffering which had been the portion of faith in all ages. He was tempted, or tried, by every form of trial which has ever come upon faith. And having passed through this experience He is qualified to be “a merciful and faithful high priest in things relating to God”. It is in things relating to God that we need a merciful ^[p. 223] and faithful high priest. Faith governs all matters relating to God, and when faith brings us into trial here we need One who is able to help us as having suffered and been tried in exactly the same way Himself. When we prove that He does help us it Him a very blessed reality to us. But He helps us in the trials which come upon faith, not those which follow upon the working of flesh. In the path and exercises of faith He helps us with tender but mighty ability in every trial that comes upon us. He will be with us as He was with the three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace. He has been tempted, or tried, in all things in like manner; He has felt the full weight of every trial that can come upon faith. The seed of Abraham, Christ’s brethren, viewed as such, are on the line of faith, not of flesh, and as pursuing that line, helped by the merciful and faithful High Priest, they do not yield through infirmity, though conscious that it is there.

We do not think of Jesus the Son of God as having infirmities, but He had the true feelings of a man in presence of trials and sufferings. He was “tempted in all things in like manner”. Therefore He is able to sympathise with our infirmities. He knows perfectly how trial and suffering affect man, how they ought to affect man. In His case the sensibilities and the sufferings were perfect, and were all infinitely acceptable to God. They were wholly apart from sin. But if He was “tempted in all things in like manner” with His brethren it shows that the temptations referred to are not those of sin, but those which come upon faith. They are real trials which cause suffering, but they are not the result of evil doing, but of faith. Now the Lord, in the state of a blessed perfect Man, has been subjected to every such trial that He might be able to sympathise with His brethren who suffer the same trials, but who are also conscious of infirmities. He never had infirmities, and He certainly has none as the great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, but His experience of trial and suffering here has qualified Him to sympathise with our infirmities. If I feel that I am so weak that I cannot possibly hold fast the confession unless I get His support He is exceedingly sympathetic with that feeling. It is the very reason — or, at any rate, one reason — why we have Him as our High Priest.

The faithful Christian has not only the trials of faith, but he often has to take part in the trials which are common to ^[p. 224] men; he may have poor health, adverse circumstances, or bereavement. These are the things referred to in Romans 8:34-39 as trials which may come upon faith, though they do not in every case come about as the result of faith. In some cases no doubt they do, as when it is said, “For thy sake we are put to death all the day long”. Christ intercedes for us in all these things, and they do not separate us from His love, so that we can more than conquer through Him that has loved us. But they are not exactly “things relating to God”, save as they may be part of His chastening ways with us.