Hebrews 7:26 says that “such a High Priest was also fitting to us, holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners.” Christ is holy, guileless, undefiled, and separated from sinners. As such a perfect One, He surely is fitting to us. Having a fallen and corrupted nature, we need such a High Priest to save us all the time.
Verse 26 also says that He has “become higher than the heavens.” In His ascension, Christ “has passed through the heavens” (4:14). Now He is not only in heaven (9:24) but also “higher than the heavens,” “far above all the heavens” (Eph. 4:10). None of our troubles is higher than the heavens. Because our High Priest is higher than the heavens, He is able to rescue us and save us to the uttermost (Heb. 7:25).
Verse 28 says that the Son of God has been perfected forever. This verse proves that the Son of God must not be simply the only begotten Son but also the firstborn Son. The only begotten Son of God needed no perfection, because He was eternally perfect. But in order for Christ to be the firstborn Son of God, He needed a great deal of perfection. He had to put on humanity in His incarnation and live on earth for thirty-three and a half years, passing through all the experiences of human living. Then He needed to pass through death, tasting, overcoming, subduing, and swallowing up death. After that, He had to come out of death in resurrection. After His resurrection, He, as the firstborn Son of God with humanity, was fully perfected. Now He is not just the eternal only begotten Son of God but also the perfected firstborn Son of God. Therefore, now He is completely perfected, equipped, and qualified to be our divine High Priest. We may trust in Him with our full confidence because He has been so perfected.
Verse 15 of chapter 4 says, “We do not have a High Priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all respects like us, yet without sin.” Verses 17 and 18 of chapter 2 say, “Hence He should have been made like His brothers in all things that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in the things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For being tempted in that which He Himself has suffered, He is able to help those who are being tempted.” These verses indicate that Christ has been made like us in all things, able to sympathize with our weaknesses, having been tried in all respects like us, yet without sin. Although Christ is so high and capable, He is able to sympathize with our weaknesses. In a very real sense, He is the same as we are in all respects, except that He is without sin.
As our High Priest, Christ has been tried in all respects like us, but without sin (4:15). Since He has been tried, He is qualified and able to help us who are being tried (2:18). In all His trials, He was never stained with sin. He suffered the trials without being touched by sin. He is truly equipped to help us to pass through trials and to keep us from any entanglement of sin.
As the One who has been tried in all respects like us, our High Priest, Christ, is able to sympathize with our weaknesses (4:15). He is easily touched with the feeling of our weaknesses and quickly enters into a fellow-suffering with us in our weaknesses. Whatever happens to us and whatever suffering we may have, He feels it with us and sympathizes with us.
In 5:2 we are told that a high priest was “able to exercise compassion toward the ignorant and erring since he also is encompassed with weakness.” The Greek in this verse implies a feeling toward the ignorant and erring that is neither too severe nor too tolerant. To exercise compassion is to be moderate or tender in judging their situation. The thought in this verse is a continuation of the thought in 4:15. Though not encompassed with weakness like the high priest taken from among men, Christ as our High Priest was tempted in all respects like us. Hence, being touched with the feeling of our weaknesses, He is able to exercise compassion toward us, the ignorant and erring ones.
Christ can be touched with the feeling of our weaknesses because the ascended, heavenly Christ is still with us and is therefore able to be touched with our feeling. Day by day we have the feeling of weaknesses, of infirmities, of being weak and inadequate. But there is a High Priest who is able to be touched with our feeling. Therefore, He must be One who is not only in the heavens but also with us in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). This is possible because today Christ is not only the ascended Christ in the heavens but also the Spirit in our spirit. Hence, today He is with us.
Christ is a great High Priest who can always be touched with our feeling. Whatever we feel, He feels. He is being touched continually with our feeling, because He is in our spirit. He sympathizes with everything that we feel, because He is one with us. Today we need to appropriate Christ experientially by realizing that the heavenly Christ as the living Spirit dwells in our spirit for us to touch. We must learn how to discern our spirit from the other parts of our being. Then we will meet Christ in our spirit, be in His presence, and experience Him as the High Priest who sympathizes with our feeling all the time.