Wherefore it behoved him in all things to be made like to [his] brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things relating to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
for, in that himself has suffered, being tempted, he is able to help those that are being tempted.
Hebrews 2 ends by explaining why the Son had to become a real man. Only someone who has been through the trial can steady another person going through it. Two questions follow: what kind of temptation did He face, and what help does He give now?
The verse ties His help to His suffering.
He suffered — never yielded. We do not suffer when we yield to temptation; the flesh takes pleasure in the things by which it is tempted. Jesus suffered being tempted, and He is able to help those who are tempted. … But when, in the light of the Holy Spirit and in faithful obedience, the Spirit resists the attacks of the enemy, whether subtle or persecuting, then one suffers. This is what the Lord did, and this is what we have to do.
The order of the words matters. Where the ESV reads "suffered when tempted," older translations read "suffered being tempted" — the wording this writer follows.
Notice too, in Hebrews 2:18, "in that He Himself has suffered being tempted" — there never was anything else. It is not that He suffered after being tempted, which a man may do who yields and then repents. There could not be distress of conscience in the Lord Jesus, any more than the workings of unbelief that we may feel. He suffered in His entire moral being the sufferings of holiness and grace. He loathed and rejected everything the enemy set before His holy nature… There was no sin in Adam and Eve when they were tempted, so fallen humanity is not necessary to temptation. And when our first parents were tempted, there was no suffering: they yielded. Christ, the last Adam, is the contrast. He was tempted far more, and yielded in nothing. He met every assault with the word of God, instead of letting it slip and breaking it as they did.
The same word covers very different things, so one writer defines it with care.
Temptation means trial. In Christ's case it never means what is in fallen man — the inward pull toward evil. This is what the Holy Spirit expressly denies of Him. … We are too familiar with the human and selfish argument that He could not sympathise with us properly if He was free from those inward, evil workings. … But suppose we needed the Lord to face the same inward struggle to feel fully with us. On that ground we would want Him to have yielded, as we so often have, so He could sympathise with our failures. No — that ground is completely opposed to Christ. What the word reveals as the remedy for evil within and without, in every form and degree, is not Christ's sympathy but His propitiatory suffering for us. He sympathises with us in our holy temptations, not in our unholy ones.
"Able" here is not a claim about raw power.
"Able to help," as in Hebrews 2:18, does not refer to strength, though of course strength must be there. It means knowledge He gained by experience — of the opposition, the difficulties and the trials on the road. So He could understand them and be touched by them. He gets for us all the grace and help we need for the way down here.
One writer notes who this help is for.
…verse 18 plainly mentions this second service, His help for His people… The tempted. Then there is One on high who is specially interested in them and ready to help all such. No one can say, "No one cares for me." Someone may cry with the psalmist, "No refuge remains to me; no one cares for my soul." Then, thinking of the Lord, they must say with him, "You are my refuge" (Psalm 142:4-5).
The letter builds this help into a sequence, and the later chapters fill it out.
These early chapters of this great Epistle attribute three things to the "Great High Priest." In Hebrews 2:18 "He is able to help." In the section we are considering He is "able to sympathise." Then "He is able also to save," Hebrews 7:25.
One writer draws out the practical result.
He proved Himself in lowly experience — He suffered rather than yielding to temptation. So He is Himself a strength to His suffering people. He can give grace so that they bear temptation rather than give way to it. Having such a High Priest, what a shame that we should ever give way when tempted.
- Suffered. He never yielded, so temptation was pure pain to Him. The one who gives in stops suffering and starts enjoying.
- Sinless. His trials came from outside, never from inward desire. His propitiatory suffering — not His sympathy — deals with the evil inside us.
- Qualified. "Able" describes knowledge He gained on the road, not just power held in reserve.
- Active. He is using that ability right now for one group — the tempted — so no one can say nobody cares.
- Enough. He gives grace to bear rather than fall, and the same "able" runs on: able to help, able to sympathise, able to save.