A sufficient High Priest to help us in weakness.

Tempted Yet Triumphant: Our High Priest's Example

Bible Passage: Hebrews 4:14-16

Hebrews 4:14-16 emphasizes the understanding and sympathy of Jesus as our High Priest. He faced the same temptations we do, yet He remained sinless, illustrating the path to victory over sin and the power of grace that is available to us in our time of need.

These verses can help us to recognize that Jesus not only understands our weaknesses but also empowers us to overcome our temptations. By looking to Him as the example, we can learn to rely on His strength in our struggles, leading to a life of greater holiness and dependence on God.

These verses remind us that Jesus' experience with temptation equips Him to aid us in our trials. This shared experience encourages us to pursue righteousness, knowing we have an advocate who has triumphed over sin, and we too can find victory through Him.

Hebrews 4:14 ESV

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

We can hold fast not because of our strength but because of his strength. we hold fast because we have a great High Priest

In Jesus, we see the perfect model for confronting temptation and sin, reminding us that through Him, we can find strength to overcome and live in the fullness of God's grace.

Recommended Study: As you prepare your sermon in Logos, consider exploring how the context of Hebrews connects Jesus’ priesthood with His humanity. Investigate how His sinlessness in the face of temptation positions Him uniquely as both our advocate and example. Delve into the historical understanding of sin and righteousness in biblical literature to enrich your application of Christ's triumph over sin.

Note the profound empathy Jesus has as our High Priest. He is not distant but intimately aware of our struggles. This understanding gives us confidence to trust Him. Connection with Jesus is pivotal; He is the link between our human frailty and divine strength.

2. Perfected Through Temptation

Hebrews 4:15 ESV

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.

My listener, this is the kind of high priest of sympathy we have. Whoever you are and however you are suffering, he can put himself completely in your place … Whoever you are, O sinner, as we all are, he puts himself completely in your place. Now you go to the Communion table; the bread is handed to you and then the wine, his holy body an blood, once again as an eternal pledge that by his suffering and death he did put himself also in you places, so that you, behind him saved, the judgment past, may enter into life, where once again he has prepare a place for you.15 115 15 WA, pp. 123–4 / SKS 11, pp. 258–9.

1 Torrance, A. B. (2016). The Freedom to Become a Christian: A Kierkegaardian Account of Human Transformation in Relationship with God (p. 60). Bloomsbury T&T Clark.

Reflecting on this passage, Kierkegaard asks what it means for God to put himself completely in the place of the sufferer (Lidende) by becoming human in Jesus Christ. He asserts that it is by entering into the fullness of our situation that God can have true sympathy (Medlidenhed) with us in the trials of our human experience. But not only that: when God ‘became a human being, he became the human being who of all, unconditionally all, has suffered the most’.11 By so doing, God ‘opens his arms to all sufferers’ with an empathy that enables God ‘to be able really to comfort’.12 111 11 WA, p. 117 / SKS 11, p. 253.

12 12 WA, pp. 117, 116 / SKS 11, p. 253.

1 Torrance, A. B. (2016). The Freedom to Become a Christian: A Kierkegaardian Account of Human Transformation in Relationship with God (p. 59). Bloomsbury T&T Clark.

Hebrews 4:16 ESV

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.