July 2, 2025 - Hebrews 4:15 - "Christ our High Priest"

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, yet without sin."

This glorious verse stands as a comfort to weary sinners and a testimony to the finished work of our great High Priest, the LORD Jesus Christ. It declares the perfection and sufficiency of Christ in His once-for-all priestly work. The Scriptures affirm that this High Priest has already fulfilled all that was required to reconcile His elect to God. The shadows are past. The reality is Christ (Colossians 2:17).

The context of the epistle to the Hebrews is rich with contrast between the fading Mosaic Old Testament Covenant and the accomplished and consummated New Covenant in Christ. The old priesthood, with its continual sacrifices and human mediators, was weak through the flesh (Hebrews 7:23-8:7). The Levitical priests could not fully sympathize with the people because they, too, were sinners, needing sacrifices for themselves (Hebrews 7:27). But now, we are told “we have”—present tense, continuing reality—a High Priest unlike any other. Christ, our High Priest, is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” He did not remain aloof from our frailty but took on flesh and walked among us (John 1:14). He did not pretend to suffer—He truly did. He experienced hunger, thirst, sorrow, rejection, pain, and even the weight of divine wrath, though without sin. This means He knows. He understands. He is not merely aware of our infirmities intellectually—He feels them. Yet, unlike us, He remained perfectly holy in all.

His temptations were real. In the wilderness (Matthew 4:1–11), He faced the cunning of the devil who sought to offer shortcuts to glory apart from the cross. In Gethsemane, His soul was “exceeding sorrowful, even unto death” (Matthew 26:38). On the cross, He bore abandonment and wrath in our stead, crying, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). Yet in all this, He did not sin. He obeyed perfectly where Adam failed, where Israel fell, where we daily falter. He fulfilled all righteousness as the spotless Lamb of God. This means our salvation is not contingent on our efforts, feelings, or responses—it is founded in the finished obedience of Christ, Who was “made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law” (Galatians 4:4–5). The High Priest did not merely sympathize; He satisfied divine justice on behalf of His elect people. He is both merciful and faithful—merciful in that He knows our frailty, and faithful in that He did not fail in His mission.

The old system—temple, priests, sacrifices—was already fading and would shortly vanish (Hebrews 8:13). When Hebrews was written, the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 loomed near, bringing a visible end to the old covenant. But Christ had already entered not into the earthly tabernacle, but “into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Hebrews 9:24). His priesthood is eternal, and His once-offered Sacrifice has forever perfected them that are sanctified (Hebrews 10:14).

Therefore, we do not look for another mediator, nor do we wait for another redemptive event. Christ has already come, already conquered sin, already entered the heavenly holy place, and already sat down in triumph. The veil is torn. The law is fulfilled. The shadows have fled before the rising Sun of righteousness (Malachi 4:2).

What comfort this gives to the believer in Christ! In all our weakness, sin, and struggle, we are not left to ourselves. We have a sympathetic High Priest Who has stood in our place, and ever lives to intercede on our behalf (Hebrews 7:25). He is not remote but present. Not awaiting future fulfillment, but reigning now in glory, interceding for us according to the will of God (Romans 8:34).

Let us, then, hold fast our profession, not in our strength, but in His (Hebrews 10:23). Let us come boldly to the throne of grace, not because of our worthiness, but because of His sufficiency. For this High Priest has passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, and He has obtained for us eternal redemption.

“He hath done all things well.” — Mark 7:37

“Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.” — Romans 8:33