The Epistles to the Hebrews

Sess ion 6: Chr i st ’s Perfect ly Sympathet ic High Pr iesthood  55

3. Christ’s personal testing as experienced in death

4. Christ’s ability to secure those going through ordeals because of his empathy with them

5. Lane’s understanding of Hebrews 4.15-16 is to “announce the perspectives developed in 5.1-10 (p. 75).

C. Christ as the perfect identifier with and helper of the helpless

1. Christ’s ability to feel, to sympathize, to suffer along with our weaknesses (i.e. compassion)

2. Christ’s compassion is connected to Christ’s full humanity .

a. He was fully human , “tempted in all things as we are,” John 1.14-18.

(1) Were Jesus’ temptations like ours?

(2) Could Jesus have given in to temptation – could Jesus have sinned if he had chosen to do so?

b. He was exposed to “ the full range of human testing ,” Lev. 24 (p. 76, Hebrews: A Call to Commitment ).

c. Christ resonates with our weakness since his suffering was in concert with and very much like our own.

D. The prayer of boldness that accompanies the realization of Christ’s perfect identification.

1. The characteristic of one who understands Christ’s identification: draw near to the throne of grace with boldness !