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Words in Season.
#11. Every high priest is taken
from man . . . . . for man. . . . . to God (Heb. 5: 1, 2).
pp. 79, 80
The following statement was once made in a letter to the Editor:--
"When I speak of the desire for a Person, I do not mean the actual presence in bodily
form."
This is perfectly right as II Cor. 5: 16 will confirm, yet at this point there is a
possibility of missing one of the greatest blessings of our faith. Those who know of our
teaching by hearsay, with its strong emphasis upon "all spiritual blessings", "the
super-heavenlies", the leaving behind dispensationally of the "Gospels", and the fact
that we do not use the name "Jesus", may conclude that we do leave out the
"humanity side of things", but this would be untrue, for we seek to keep together what
God has joined.
Paul puts together the words:--
"Unholy and without natural affection" (II Tim. 3: 2, 3).
God would have holiness and natural affection united. He enjoins husbands to love
their wives as Christ loved the church. All this but leads to the point, that while avoiding
the error of a "presence in bodily form", we should avoid missing the true humanity of
the Son of God.
John 1: 14 declares that "the Word was made flesh", and Luke 1: 27-35 tells how in
truthful simplicity. The only begotten Son of God was a man, a weary man sometimes,
a man of sorrows. A man who could grace with his presence both weddings and funerals
(John 2: and 11:), and manifest His glory thereat (John 2: 11 and 11: 4). So far was He
removed from that travesty of spirituality which "neglects the body", that His true human
sympathy was misinterpreted by His enemies, who called Him "a gluttonous man and a
wine bibber".
Look at Heb. 4: 15. What does "priest-hood" conjure up in your mind? Robes,
vestments, incense, ritual, ceremonial? These are certainly elaborated in Scripture. The
first note struck in Hebrews, however, is not ceremony but sympathy:--
"For we have not such a High Priest unable to SYMPATHIZE with our weakness,
but in all points was tempted like as we are, sin excepted" (Heb. 4: 15).
Preceding this is a passage that strikes a note of terror (4: 12, 13) which only shows
how futile is the attempt to dissemble in that presence. He knows, not only because of
His deity, but because of His humanity. He has walked this wilderness Himself. We go