In this message we shall consider further Christ’s divine attributes and human virtues.
Hebrews 2:17 says, “He ought to be made like His brothers in all things, that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God.” Christ became a man and lived on earth as a man, passing through all the human sufferings. As a result, He is fully qualified to be merciful to us. He knows how to be merciful to man, for He is a man with the experience of human life, the experience of human suffering.
In order to be qualified to be the High Priest, Christ was incarnated to be like us. We may even say that He is more than like us because He suffered in His human life certain things that we have not suffered. He became like us, sympathizing with all our weaknesses. Therefore, as the High Priest He is merciful to us.
Christ’s mercy is far-reaching. His mercy goes farther than His grace. Christ’s love does not reach as far as His grace, and His grace does not reach as far as His mercy. Grace extends only to a situation that corresponds to it. But mercy goes much farther, reaching into a situation that is poor and unworthy of grace. According to our natural condition, we are eligible only to receive the Lord’s mercy, a mercy that reaches down to our pitiful condition.
Even now, although we are saved, we are still, in some ways, in a condition that needs the Lord’s mercy to reach us. This is the reason Hebrews 4:16 says that first we need to obtain mercy, and then we can find grace for timely help. Christ’s mercy is always available to us. However, we need to receive it by exercising our spirit to contact our High Priest who sympathizes with us in all our weaknesses.
The Gospel of Matthew portrays Christ’s compassion. Matthew 9:36 says, “Seeing the crowds, He was moved with compassion concerning them, because they were harrassed and cast away as sheep not having a shepherd.” This verse indicates that Christ regarded the people as sheep and Himself as the Shepherd. When He came to the people, they were like lepers, paralytics, demon-possessed, and all manner of pitiful persons, because they had no shepherd to care for them. He was moved with compassion, therefore, when He saw the people in their desperate situation. On another occasion, “He saw a great crowd, and He had compassion on them and healed their sick” (Matt. 14:14).
Christ’s compassion is also displayed in the miracle of the feeding of the four thousand (Matt. 15:32-39). Verse 32 says, “Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, I have compassion on the crowd, because they have remained with Me now three days and do not have anything they can eat; and I am not willing to send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way.” Because the Lord Jesus had compassion on the multitude in the wilderness, He would not send them away fasting. Christ will not allow His followers to hunger and faint in the way while following Him.
Compassion is somewhat different from mercy. Although compassion is close to mercy, compassion is deeper, finer, and richer than mercy. Mercy is somewhat outward, but compassion is inward. Compassion involves a deeply affectionate feeling. Compassion, therefore, refers to the inward feeling that resides in the one who looks upon wretchedness. It is the deepest of words showing Christ’s inward affection for man in his pitiful condition. This affection originates in Christ’s loving essence. Furthermore, compassion is longer lasting than mercy. Hence, compassion is both deeper and longer lasting than mercy.
Home | First | Prev | Next