Hebrews 4:15

For to the Son of God alone was it reserved to persevere to the last without sin. But what if a bishop, if a deacon, if a widow, if a virgin, if a doctor, if even a martyr, have fallen from the rule (of faith), will heresies on that account appear to possess the truth? Do we prove the faith by the persons, or the persons by the faith? No one is wise, no one is faithful, no one excels in dignity, but the Christian; and no one is a Christian but he who perseveres even to the end.

So let us in the future believe, blessed brethren, in accordance with the tradition of the apostles, that God the Word came down from the heaven into the holy virgin Mary.… Once he had taken flesh out of her and taken a soul of the human kind—a rational one, I mean—and had become everything that a human is, sin excepted, he might save fallen Adam and procure incorruption for such as believe in his name.

"For we have not an High Priest, who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities." He is not (he means) ignorant of what concerns us, as many of the High Priests, who know not those in tribulations, nor that there is tribulation at any time. For in the case of men it is impossible that one should know the affliction of the afflicted who has not had experience, and gone through the actual sensations. Our High Priest endured all things. Therefore He endured first and then ascended, that He might be able to sympathize with us.

But was "in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." Observe how both above he has used the word "in like manner," and here "after the likeness." (c. ii. 14.) That is, He was persecuted, was spit upon, was accused, was mocked at, was falsely informed against, was driven out, at last was crucified.

"After our likeness, without sin." In these words another thing also is suggested, that it is possible even for one in afflictions to go through them without sin. So that when he says also "in the likeness of flesh" (Rom. viii. 3), he means not that He took on Him merely "the likeness of flesh," but "flesh." Why then did he say "in the likeness"? Because he was speaking about "sinful flesh": for it was "like" our flesh, since in nature it was the same with us, but in sin no longer the same.

It was the nature assumed from us for our sake that experienced our passions without sinning, not the one who took our nature for our salvation. And in the beginning of this section Paul teaches us by saying, "Consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, faithful to him who made him." … No one of orthodox conviction would call a creature the uncreated and unmade, God the Word, coeternal with the Father. Rather the one from the seed of David, who existed free from all sin, became our high priest and sacrifice by offering himself to God for us, having the Word … united to himself and joined inseparably.

The believers at that time were subjected to constant billowing by trials; so he consoles them by bringing out that our high priest not only knows as God the weakness of our nature but also as man had experience of our sufferings, remaining unfamiliar with sin alone. Understanding this weakness of ours, he is saying, he both extends us appropriate help and when judging us he will take our weakness into account in delivering sentence.

By the saving cooperation of the indivisible divinity, whatever the Father, whatever the Son, whatever the Holy Spirit accomplishes in a particular way is the plan of our redemption. It is the order of our salvation. For if human beings, made in the image and likeness of God, had remained in the honor of their own nature and, undeceived by the devil's lies, had not deviated from the law placed over them for their lusts, the Creator of the world would not have become a creature. The eternal would not have undergone temporality, and God the Son, equal to God the Father, would not have assumed the "form of a servant" and the "likeness of sinful flesh."19Since, however, "through the devil's envy death entered the world" and because captive humanity could only be freed in one way, namely, if that one would undertake our cause who, without the loss of his majesty, would become true man, and who alone had no contagion of sin, the mercy of the Trinity divided for itself the work of our restoration so that the Father was appeased, the Son was the appeaser, and the Holy Spirit enkindled the process. It was right that those to be saved should do something for themselves, and, when their hearts were turned to the Redeemer, that they should cut themselves off from the domination of the enemy. In regard to this, the apostle says, "God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying, 'Abba! Father!' " "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." "No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit."

What has been instilled in our hearts, if not that we should be "renewed" through them all "after the image" of that one who, remaining "in the form of God," condescended to become "the form of sinful flesh"? He assumed all those weaknesses of ours that come as a result of sin, though "without" any part in "sin." Consequently, he lacked none of the afflictions due to hunger and thirst, sleep and weariness, sadness and tears. He endured grievous sorrows even to the point of death. No one could be released from the fetters of mortality unless he, in whom alone the nature of all people was innocent, should allow himself to be killed by the hands of wicked persons.Our Savior, the Son of God, gave both a mystery and an example to all who believe in him, so that they might attain to the one by being reborn and arrive at the other by imitation. Blessed Peter the apostle teaches this, saying, "Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. He committed no sin; no guile was found on his lips. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he trusted to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness."

"For we do not have a high priest." Let us therefore hold fast our profession and faith in Him: For we do not have a high priest who cannot have compassion with the feeling of our infirmities. He knows, he says, that because of many afflictions you are weak and feeble: therefore He can sympathize with us.
For He was tempted and afflicted in all things just as we are. He suffered persecution and was mocked and spat upon, and finally was even crucified. Yet He, having suffered these things, did not sin. By saying this, He signifies that they have fallen into sin because of afflictions, in that they have been overly weakened and frail.

He proves in two ways that He has compassion with the feeling of our infirmities. In one way, because he is great and powerful, as the Son of God and God; in another way, because he himself, as a man, suffered and has experience of afflictions, and of the weakness that follows the flesh. And because of both of these, he will certainly be sympathetic to our weaknesses.

"yet without sin." Because he did not sin, he suffered, saying that he was enduring this punishment.

From both ways he establishes that "he will sympathize with our weaknesses": first, because he is great and mighty, being the Son of God and very God himself, and, second, because he also as very man suffered and endured the testing of afflictions and the weakness of the flesh. For both these reasons he is in every respect made a partaker of our weaknesses.

Almost everyone views those who are weak and poor as disgusting. An earthly king does not put up with seeing them, rulers turn away, wealthy people disregard them as not worthy of their notice, and when they encounter them they pass by them as if they did not exist. No one thinks it is a blessing to live among them. But God, who is served by innumerable millions of powers, who "upholds the universe by his word of power," whose magnificence no one is able to endure, this God did not shun becoming father and friend and brother of these outcasts. Rather, in fact, he wanted to become incarnate, so that he might be identified as like us in every way, apart from sin, and might make us sharers in his glory and kingdom. O the depths of the wealth of his great goodness! O the depths of the unspeakable lowering of himself by our Master and God!

Exhorting them with all persuasiveness, he says in confirmation of his speech that this High Priest knows our condition, not like the majority of high priests, who do not even know what suffering is; which is why they are also unable to help those who suffer. On the contrary, our High Priest experienced everything, and after having experienced it, ascended so as to be able to "sympathize."

That is, He was subjected to persecution, spitting, slander, exile, and finally crucifixion. All this He endured in our likeness, that is, like us, yet without sin. For He committed no sin at all, and when He endured these things, He neither said nor did anything sinful. Therefore you too, while in afflictions, can keep yourselves from sin. So then, why are you set free and delivered? Some understood the expression "without sin" in the sense that He endured this not as punishment for sins.

But who will deliver us from these plagues? Certainly there is one alone who came to deliver us, namely Christ, who made ten condescensions against the ten plagues. The first was down to our flesh. The second was down to our mortality. The third, to our neediness, for he suffered hunger, thirst, and cold. The fourth was to our poverty, for "he was made destitute," having no place to which he might turn. The fifth, to our temptation, when he permitted himself to be tempted; and in this he bore our weakness. The Apostle: "We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one tempted in all things." The sixth, to the weariness of body and our toil. The seventh, to our anxiety; whence: "Jesus began to be fearful and distressed and said: My soul is sorrowful even unto death." The eighth was to the cross, and this was wondrous. The ninth was to death. The tenth was to the prison of hell.

These are the ten condescensions by which God condescended to man. But why did he descend to the prison of hell? Certainly, so that in the blood of the covenant he might lead the captives out of prison, those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death. Christ, through the blood of the new covenant, freed us and led us from death to life, and from darkness to light.

But if you ask, "What need was there for Him to have wisdom besides the divine?" I will answer: in order that He might have experience. As it is written in the Epistle to the Hebrews, "we have not a High Priest that cannot have compassion on our infirmities, but one tried as we are in all things except sin." For He stands both as our Advocate and our Judge; and He it is who was the best Counselor and the most wise: hence all other sages were nothing but figures and imitations of this Wise One. From Him come forth documents of the greatest certainty and celebrity by which we need to be taught; and that is why He is called Counselor.

Then when he says, For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our infirmities, he shows that there is mercy and compassion in Him, lest perhaps anyone suppose that He cannot do anything but what His justice requires. Here it should be noted that Christ does not merely have the power, but is most ready to have compassion on our infirmities, because He has experienced our wretchedness, which, as God, He knew from all eternity by simple knowledge: 'The Lord has compassion on them that fear him: for he knows our frame' (Ps. 102:13).

Hence, he adds, but as we are, tempted. But there are three kinds of temptation: one is from the flesh, namely, when the flesh lusts against the spirit, as it says in Gal (5:17) and this always involves sin, because, as Augustine says, there is one sin in which the flesh lusts against the spirit. But this was not in Christ; hence, he says, without sin, i.e., without the slightest movement of sin: 'Who did not sin, neither was guile found in His mouth' (1 Pt. 2:22). Therefore, He is called the Lamb of God. Another is temptation either by enticing us with prosperity or by terrifying us with adversity. Now Christ was tempted in those ways: for He was enticed by prosperity. For whatever pertains to prosperity in this life, pertains either to the concupiscence of the flesh, to the concupiscence of the eyes, or to the pride of life (1 Jn. 2:16). The devil tempted Him with the first, when he tempted Him to gluttony, which is the mother of lust: 'If you be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread' (Mt. 4:3); also to vainglory when he said: 'All these things will I give you, if falling down you will adore me' (Mt. 4:9). 'When all the temptations were over, the devil left him for a time' (Lk. 4:13). Furthermore, He was tempted by adversity and by the snares laid by the Pharisees, because they wished to ensnare Him in his speech. And by insults: 'You that destroy the temple of God in three days rebuild it, save your own self' (Mt. 27:40); and by scourges and torments. Therefore, outside of being tempted without sin, he has been tempted as we are.

He says, as we are, which can be explained in two ways: in one way, so that a final cause is designated. As if to say: He was tempted in order to give us an example how to handle temptation: 'Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow his steps' (1 Pt. 2:21). Or so that the consequent is denoted: as if to say: He was tempted in order that He might be like as we are in all things, except sin. For if he had existed without temptations, He would not have experienced them, and then He could not have compassion. But if He had sinned, He would not have been able to help us, but would need help.

Doubtless there is an older and better hero-worship than this. But the old hero was a being who, like Achilles, was more human than humanity itself. Nietzsche's Superman is cold and friendless. Achilles is so foolishly fond of his friend that he slaughters armies in the agony of his bereavement. Mr. Shaw's sad Caesar says in his desolate pride, "He who has never hoped can never despair." The Man-God of old answers from his awful hill, "Was ever sorrow like unto my sorrow?" A great man is not a man so strong that he feels less than other men; he is a man so strong that he feels more. And when Nietszche says, "A new commandment I give to you, 'be hard,'" he is really saying, "A new commandment I give to you, 'be dead.'" Sensibility is the definition of life.

No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means—the only complete realist.

The result of this was that you now had one man who really was what all men were intended to be: one man in whom the created life, derived from His Mother, allowed itself to be completely and perfectly turned into the begotten life... And because the whole difficulty for us is that the natural life has to be, in a sense, 'killed', He chose an earthly career which involved the killing of His human desires at every turn—poverty, misunderstanding from His own family, betrayal by one of His intimate friends, being jeered at and manhandled by the Police, and execution by torture.