Commentaries:
Barclay comments: "He came as a man; he came seeing things with men's eyes, feeling things with men's feelings, thinking things with men's minds. God knows what life is like, because God came right inside life" (p. 104). Jesus Christ is not remote, detached, and disinterested, nor insulated and isolated from our lives. He knows our frame; He knows that we are but dust. He can see in us a reflection of what He experienced as a man. He can thus extend mercy to us, completely understanding what we are going through.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Beatitudes, Part 5: Blessed Are the Merciful
Related Topics:
Our High Priest, Jesus Christ, was trained—perfected, as it were—for the position He now holds. The Bible says that we will be priests and kings under Him (Revelation 5:10). God had never experienced life as a human being until He became flesh, when He was encompassed with the same kind of frame we are. He then also had a mind that was subject to Satan the Devil, if He would allow it.
He suffered many things: He went through difficulties and angers. He felt and endured pain as we do. He took care of a mother. He worked with a father. He had younger brothers and sisters. When his father died, it appears that He became responsible for the family and running the family business. He ran a business as a stone maker, a construction worker, and He did it, undoubtedly, very well.
He learned to work with His hands. He became hungry. He fasted and prayed. He experienced hated. He learned to trust God and walked with Him, hand in hand, through His own periods in the valley of the shadow of deep gloom. He experienced, in principle, everything in life.
We have to remember that we are being trained to work under Him. Some of the fruit that is produced as a result of our going through these valleys will be helpful to others, even here and now. However, it will be extremely helpful when we are in the Kingdom of God. We need to understand, however, that always, no matter how dark, shadowy, or painful our experiences, we have the very best management that any spiritual sheep could ever possibly have.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Psalm 23 (Part 3)
Christ's physical life was not spared the calamities we commonly face so that He would be prepared for His responsibilities within God's purpose. He was made to share our experiences to perfect, complete, or mature Him. In other words, if we might have to flee for our lives, then God was not going to excuse Jesus from that kind of a trial. He allowed Jesus to get into situations where indeed He might have to flee for His life. Did Jesus just presume that God would rescue Him because of who He was? No. In writing this, the apostle Paul wants us to understand that Jesus sinlessness was the result of conscious decision and intense struggle, not merely the consequence of His divine nature or the Father's protection or intervention.
John W. Ritenbaugh
A Place of Safety? (Part 2)
It is faith that clears the way to the mercy seat. Faith, first of all, gives the assurance that there even is a mercy seat and a High Priest that waits to hear our petitions and our confession and those of our brothers and sisters. The Revised Standard Version translates verse 16, "Let us then with confidence draw near." It is an interesting approach. "Confidence" has the overtone of speaking freely. What are we doing in prayer? We are fellowshipping with God. We are in His company communicating with Him, and faith is plowing the way before us—because prayer grows out of faith! We would not even be praying if we did not have faith.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Prayer and Fervency
If justification saved us, why would there be any need to hold fast? to come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy after that? Justification does not mean salvation. It is, indeed, a step in that direction, but it is not a property of justification to bestow salvation.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Covenants, Grace and Law (Part 4)
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
Matthew 13:44
Romans 5:10
Hebrews 7:25
Hebrews 8:1
Hebrews 10:4
Library resources that contain this verse:
E-mail this page
