"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin." - Hebrews 4:15
Do you ever wrestle with how Jesus can be God and man at the same time? I do too. This is another verse that demonstrates this amazing union. Jesus was tempted like us, and yet never sinned.
One thing that I have been thinking through lately is how Jesus is our bridge to the divine. He is fully human and yet fully divine and in so being he bridges us to eternal life. He is us, and yet not. He is both. He is the source of our eternal life and also the object of our eternal life.
What I mean by this is that Jesus, our source, gives us life because he is our sinless Savior- tempted and yet without sin. And yet he is also the object of our life. That is, the point of eternal life (which we already have) is to know and become like him- tempted and yet without sin.
As the High Priest, he represents us in these ways. He stands in for us as our Savior, and He models for us what a dedicated life looks like. The fact that he sympathizes with our weakness, means that we can rest in our weakness, because Jesus is my Savior, but we can also glory in our weakness, because Jesus proves to us that living from weakness is actually living from strength.
And oh what freedom this brings! I am freed by his saving life, lived in my place. And I am free to live a life of weakness and dependency because that is actually the point of the life that Jesus gives to us- submissive sacrifice. So now I don’t have to have my life all figured out. His life is figured out and that is the life that I have received. And it is mine forever.
