IT is so amazing that Christ came to help us who have sinned and rebelled against God. The angels have always been obedient and totally in submission to God, yet Christ did not come to help angels, and did not set out to help angels. It is perhaps true that angels do not and did not need help for they never sinned, but if any deserved the blessing of Christ it would be angels, yet it is we who have sinned that Christ came to help. It is the greatness of Christ, that although angels are sent to help us, they are unable to save us. Instead Jesus came to help us and his help extended to saving us from utter loss.

But who are the ones Jesus came to help. Not angels as we have seen, but human beings. However we are never told in the Bible that Jesus helps every human being in this way, so we are told here that he saves only Abraham’s descendants. What does this mean? It seems to mean at first sight that Jesus only came to help Jews, because the Jews are Abraham’s descendant from a human point of view. This is not the case, however, for Abraham’s descendants are described in another way in the Bible. Romans chapter 4 tells us that Abraham was the father to more than Jews. He also is the father of many nations (Romans 4:18). From this we can determine, what is implicit in the teaching of Paul in Romans 4, that Abraham’s descendants in the sense meant in Hebrews 2:16 are those who have the same faith as Abraham (Romans 4:13), and this constitutes no one national entity, but the many called by God out of every nation on earth. It is these ones who believe, like Abraham believed, who are children of Abraham, and to whom the world to come is subjected.

It was because Jesus came to help us and save us that he was made like us, that is became truly human. He became like us in every way, that is he took on our human nature, with all the limitations of human nature, and all the misery and problems and pains which sin has brought on human life. Jesus did not sin, but he took upon himself the responsibility for our human sin, and was made like us in this terrible way that he accepted all the evil consequences of our sin and suffered and died for us. Jesus was made like us to the fullest extent, yet never sinning.

Here we come to an essential aspect of the ministry of Jesus and the help he came to give us in order to save us. We need a priest to act for us. We need a priest in the strictest sense of the word - that is we need someone to mediate between us and God, and achieve our acceptance by God, and to achieve for us God’s pronouncement that we are just in his sight. No earthly priest can do this, and this is why the Old Testament priesthood was such a failure, as we shall see as we read on in the letter to the Hebrews. Jesus, however, is a perfect and all-sufficient priest. By his being made like us in every way, even to dying the just punishment for our sins, he has become a merciful and faithful high priest for us.

Jesus is a merciful and faithful high priest. He is a faithful one because he achieved by his death and passion the full forgiveness for our sins. He is a faithful priest because he does bring us to God, and secure our complete reconciliation with God. Jesus does successfully mediate for sinners, so that all who believe on him are justified of all things which separate us from God, from his love and from his blessing.

Jesus is a merciful high priest because this successful work is done and its blessing bestowed upon us without any condition. Our sins deserve eternal damnation. This damnation Jesus took in our place, and does not demand any action on our part in payment for this blessing, instead he is wholly merciful, washing away our sin at no charge to us.

The wonder of this high priestly work is that Jesus is still faithfully carrying on with this great work. He has no more need to offer another sacrifice for sin, because the offering of himself once for all atoned for sin completely, but he does act in a priestly way by ever living to intercede before God for us, to claim from the Father for us all the blessings of salvation he purchased for us here on earth. No earthly priest is needed, and no earthly priest can take on this work. Jesus alone mediates for us, and presents his finished work before God by his very presence on the throne at God’s right hand.

The result of this priestly work is that he makes atonement for our sin. This idea of atonement encompasses not just the giving his life as a sacrifice for our sin on the cross, but this heavenly priestly work whereby he gaining atonement for us by claiming our forgiveness on the grounds that he made atonement for us on the cross.

What a glorious and wonderful Saviour we have! How can we not love him, trust him with all things, life and living, and live to please him in every way unto perfect holiness.