Hebrews 4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are… The distinction between the two words "mercy" and "grace," in the place before us, seems to consist in this — that the former describes the emotion of kindness and compassion with which the application for assistance is met, while the latter describes the actual communications of celestial influence with which, in answer to prayer, He replenishes the soul for the time of need-a distinction with which the original terms are very consistent, and which seems farther countenanced by the different verbs with which they are conjoined in the expressions, "find mercy," and " obtain grace." In the hour of your necessity, therefore, you are here assured that, on making due application, you shall be received with paternal pity and regard, nor merely with compassion and regard — a compassion that may soothe but cannot help — a regard that is the source more of sentimental refreshment than of practical and availing strength, but also with the promptest and most benignant readiness to open to you all the treasures of His grace — to pour out upon you all the sevenfold graces of His Almighty Spirit' — to "lift up the hands which hang down, and to confirm the feeble knees" — that "as your day is, so your strength" may be, and that, when called to glorify Him, and vindicate your Christian profession, whether by the resistance of temptation, or the conquest of difficulty, or the endurance of affliction, or the defeat of "the last enemy," His grace may be sufficient for you, His strength may be perfected in your weakness, and over all temptations, difficulties, afflictions, deaths, ye may be made "more than conquerors through Him that loved" you. (J. B. Patterson, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. |
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