Hebrews 2:18 For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted. We could not have a more unmistakable declaration than that respecting the reality of our Lord's temptations on earth. His conflict in the wilderness, and His agony in the garden, were not dramas acted on the stage of life by one who assumed our role, but facts in the real experience of One who was true to the core. His life was our life in its surroundings and in its conflicts, and therefore, when He ascended to heaven victorious over death, He appeared there for us as our representative, as a Man in whom, once and for ever, God's ideal of human nature was absolutely realised and fulfilled. Hence, in this passage, He is spoken of as our High Priest, who was taken from among the people; although being without sin, He was able to stand on their behalf as the holiest of all, nearer to God than they. From the wilderness to the Cross — nay, from the cradle to the Cross — Jesus suffered, being tempted. I. Now the use we may make of that FOR OUR ENCOURAGEMENT appears in many forms. 1. For example, a tempted yet triumphant leader implies future victory for those who follow Him. It is not always easy to believe in the coming triumph of good over evil. There is a sort of backwater of temptation which some of us have experienced, which is more dangerous than the direct current of evil which we breasted so bravely at first. We seem to get the better of some sin; but then, when the strain of vigilance relaxes, a stream of evil tendency comes from another direction and takes us unawares. Thus some of our best moments have appeared afterwards to be the precursors of our worst; and it is at such a time that we lose heart and think of giving up the struggle, till we learn to look beyond ourselves to Him, who Himself suffered being tempted — who was content to fight with our weapons, and with them won the victory. Then the hope is aroused that even yet we shall come off more than conquerors, through Him that loved us. 2. Besides this, another difficulty of ours is swept away by the inflowing of our thought about this temptable yet victorious Saviour — namely, the difficulty that arises from the notion that the higher the life the freer it must be from assault. If that were true, Christ Jesus would never have been tempted at all. The wind blows strongest on the hill-tops. Our Lord was on loftier heights than we ever reach, yet from the beginning to the end of His career on earth " He Himself suffered, being tempted." 3. There is yet another message of comfort from this verse to tempted Christians — namely, that they may be quite sure of their Lord's sympathy. It is this which is specially insisted upon in the passage before us, and it was partly with a view to make Divine sympathy manifest and appreciable to us that "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." I remember reading somewhere of a little child whose dead body was washed up on the shore during a gale. It was taken by loving, reverent hands, and buried amid the tears of strangers in the village churchyard. There was no clue to the birth, or to the name, or to the parentage of that little waif — it was just "somebody's darling," that was all; and when they put up a tombstone, they did not know what inscription to choose, till at last they thought of two words, which were carved on the marble slab — "God knows." Aye, and there is no wreck of your hopes, no struggle amid the blasts of temptation, about which you may not say to yourself "God knows," and the assurance of His sympathy will be to you as life from the dead. II. Turning now from the encouragements which we may hope to gain from the truth here enunciated, let us try to look more closely into THE NATURE OF THESE TEMPTATIONS. About many of them we probably know nothing. They are out of our range, as in some respect Jesus Himself was. A sensualist cannot understand the more subtle suggestions of the Evil One, and ordinary Christians have no conception of Paul's consciousness of sin when he cried, "Of sinners I am the chief." Still more unsearchable are certain temptations which came to the Saviour of sinners — for they were too keen and subtle for us — just as there are sounds in the world which our gross hearing cannot catch, and sights our dull eyes cannot see. But though temptations are the more subtle in proportion to the holiness of the one who is tempted, and vary in form according to his circumstances and conditions, it may be taken as approximately true that the three avenues by which evil approaches human nature are summed up in these words: "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." This summary, indeed, is the revelation of the Holy Spirit, who leads us into all truth; and it is complete in itself. 1. Take an example or two of His own inward struggles to illustrate the first of these. No doubt Jesus was free from some of the baser and more animal suggestions of the adversary, but His physical frame laid Him open to others. (1) We read that after He had fasted forty days, He was hungry; and at once a temptation to supply His wants addressed itself to His weakness. Who of us would have hesitated to do what was thus suggested? Jesus did hesitate and decisively refused, because it would be using for self power which He had come on earth to use for others. But cannot our Lord understand, from that experience of His, those numberless temptations which address themselves now to such a sense of want in us? The miserable little starveling who lives like an Ishmael amid our boasted civilisation, seeing and smelling abundance of good things in shops, with only a pane of glass between his hunger and its satisfaction; the unfortunate man who is out of work because trade is bad or has changed its locality, and who comes home after a weary, useless, all-day tramp, to see a starving wife and pale, pinched children, till he curses the injustice which he cannot despise or defy; and the still more wretched woman left with children dependent on her, who even when in work cannot get them bread, and is tempted to do anything for food. These, whom we forget, Jesus remembers, while we, who never had a day without food in all our lives, cannot understand that conflict. He does understand the desperate temptation, and the glorious triumph over it. (2) But there are other temptations which assail us through the physical life. We read that Jesus was weary with His journey; that He slept heavily from sheer fatigue directly the boat set sail; and we find in the Gospels other indications that He shared our experiences of tiredness and weakness. Some of you are often oppressed by a sense of this. It not infrequently brings about spiritual depression, which you seem powerless to shake off. Tired ones, look up to your Lord! He knows all about this, and stands beside you in it; and it may be that in answer to your prayer He will give you such a sense of His presence that you will be able to say with Paul, "When I am weak, then am I strong. I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me." 2. There is a second set of temptations which our Lord well understands — I allude to those which come through the distastefulness of our surroundings. The patience of our Lord appears the more marvellous when we think of the absolute repulsiveness to His holy nature of much that He was in contact with every day. 3. Now, we are taught by our Lord's example that it is not always God's will that we should seek to escape uncongenial surroundings. Jesus could have done so at any moment; but although He sighed deeply in spirit and said, "O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you, how long shall I suffer you," yet He did not leave the world, and would not leave it till His mission was fulfilled. It may be that you have to bear witness for Christ just where you are; that if you retreat from your post, no voice will there be uplifted for Him, and no life will silently check the growth and spread of evil. 4. We have not time now to speak at any length of other temptations which came to our Lord through His energies and capacities. Whenever you forego the opportunity you have to take a thing wrongly when it is easy to take it, you are in fellowship with Christ, who resisted that temptation victoriously over and over ,gain. (A. Rowland, LL. B.) Parallel Verses KJV: For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.WEB: For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted. |
    |