What Does It Mean to Care?

MEMORY VERSE: “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.” —Hebrews 4:15

HEBREWS 2:10 – 5:14

THERE is great comfort for those who, in this present age of sacrifice as potential members of the antitypical priestly class, come to realize that the great antitypical High Priest, Jesus, our Lord and Redeemer, was also tested in every way to prove his faithfulness to God, And, as a perfect man, he kept his Father’s law perfectly without violation.

But it is not enough that we cone to this realization and rejoice in the marvelous hope of our high calling; we must also be conformed to the Word of God regarding the truth and our consecrated lives, and seek to the best of our ability to follow the example of our High Priest that we may therefore be fitted by his overruling providences to have a share in the future honors and glories of that thousand-year millennial kingdom, to which the Heavenly Father has called us.

We should also not forget, even as the title of this lesson, “What Does It Mean to Care?” suggests, the poor groaning creation, who continue to wait, although in most cases unknowingly, for the blessings of that glorious millennial day. It is necessary that we learn to sympathize with our less fortunate neighbors and their sorrows and woes, and to realize their degradation, misery, and human frailties that have cone about as a result of hereditary weaknesses. Indeed, simply because we have been greatly blessed with a knowledge of the truth and have been invited to have a share in the spiritual blessings of that future kingdom, we must not overlook the sobering fact that we too are still in the flesh as sinful and dying human creatures, and that we would have no standing before our Heavenly Father except as his love has provided the robe of righteousness which we wear. We wear that robe because our antitypical High Priest was faithful, and not because of any merit of our own.

When writing the words of our memory text the Apostle Paul evidently had in mind the argument of many of the Jews who found it difficult to understand how Jesus could in any sense of the word be associated with the priesthood. After all, they must have reasoned, God had indeed confirmed the priestly office to the family of Aaron, of the tribe of Levi.

The apostle also points out that Jesus’ sufferings occurred not because he was a sinner—as are the members of his body, the under priests—but because he was the Son of God whose loyalty had to be tested and proven. It was only by the testing of that loyalty to the Heavenly Father’s will, indeed even to suffering the ignominious death on the cross, that he could be considered worthy of the high exaltation that God promised him—glory, honor, and immortality. His suffering of death not only constituted the sacrifice for the sins of the world and granted the human race restitution in due time, but the trials and experiences which he endured were necessary for the development of his own character; for, even as the apostle explains (5:8), “Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.”

There is tremendous meaning in those words: our Lord Jesus was never imperfect at any time in the sense of being sinful. He was, on the other hand, perfect as a spiritual being before he was made flesh and became a man; and the Scriptures declare that as a man he was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. His sufferings therefore did not make him perfect in the sense of making him sinless. A more reasonable explanation indicates that Jesus entered into covenant relationship (that is, a covenant of sacrifice) with his Heavenly Father, and that it was the Father’s will that he prove himself faithful unto death so that he would be granted the promise of the divine nature as a reward. His trials were blessings in disguise as a necessary means toward that promise. If we, as footstep followers of our Lord, also accept the trials of life as God’s arrangement to fit and prepare and prove us, then we too will have a share in the kingdom.

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