Holier-Than-Thou Wholly-For-You

The central affirmation of the Christian faith is that God has entered into our fallen world – in-the-flesh – in the person of Christ Jesus. Through the incarnation, God fully identifies with our fallen human situation – our human limitations, human weaknesses, human temptations, human emotions, and human suffering.

In Christ, the union between God and humanity is complete, irreversible, and transformative. This union does not destroy or abolish our humanity, but rather, heals, redeems, and transforms it. Salvation, therefore, is not an escape from our bodies or the material world; it is a full embrace of our humanity and its environment. In the words of Irenaeus, “the glory of God is humanity fully alive.”

To be human is a glorious thing. From the beginning of sacred scripture this fact is clear. God creates a good world, of which we are God’s crowning achievement. Humanity is made in God’s image and blessed by God. Humanity’s fall into sin neither obliterates God’s image nor removes God’s blessing. In spite of our sinful predicament, the psalmist celebrates humanity’s glory in Psalm 8. In his words, humanity has been “made a little lower than God” and is “crowned with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:5).

God’s full and unmistakable affirmation of humanity is revealed in the incarnation. God forever unites Godself with humanity in the person of Christ. God did not become human simply in order to die, but more importantly, to lift humanity into the very life of God. The redemption and transformation of humanity, purged of sin and purified in holiness, is accomplished through the human Christ Jesus.

But the significance of Jesus’ humanity extends beyond his earthly ministry. Remember: God’s union with humanity in Jesus is permanent. The resurrected and ascended Jesus remains fully human, albeit a glorified human. What, then, is the current ministry of the glorified man, Christ Jesus? The biblical authors refer to Jesus’ present ministry as “intercession” or “mediation” on our behalf (see Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25).

Christ Our High Priest

An intercessor or mediator stands in the gap between two parties. In order to do this well, the mediator must fairly represent both parties. In other words, the mediator must bear a likeness to and an interest in that which he or she represents. In a religious setting, a high priest played this role.

In ancient Hebrew rituals, the high priest was the bridge between God and humanity. The priest represented God to the people and the people to God. The strength of the ancient priesthood is that the priests could sympathize with the humans they represented. The weakness: the priests could sympathize just a little too much. Being weighed down by their own sins, they had to first make atonement for themselves before they could do the same for the people they represented.

Jesus is “the perfect high priest” because he possesses all the strengths of human priests – being fully human – and none of their weaknesses, since he was sinless (see Hebrews 2:14 and 7:26-28). Contrary to our modern assumptions, it is precisely because of the sinlessness of Jesus that he is able to experience and express such extraordinary sympathy: “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).[1]

Without Sin

For some people, it is Jesus’ sinlessness that poses problems for their identification with him. If Jesus were truly sinless, how can we relate to him? Doesn’t his sinlessness undermine his full humanity? Isn’t it true that “to err is human”? How then can we relate to Jesus? How can we view him as a model to follow?

This problem arises from a misunderstanding the nature of sin and the nature of humanity. First, in regard to sin: We often assume some actions qualify as sin which, upon further reflection, are not truly sinful actions. For example, mistakes, human limitations and human ignorance do not qualify as sin. There is nothing sinful about making a mistake. Calculating that 2 + 2 = 5 is not a sin, but a human error, a mistake, a miscalculation. One can make this error without turning away from God or rebelling against God’s will. The same applies to our inherent human limitations and ignorance. Jesus experienced all of these things. The scriptures are clear: He learned and grew in knowledge and wisdom (see Luke 2:40, 52) – all aspects of authentic human development.

So, let’s be clear on this point: mistakes, ignorance, and limitations are not sinful, but essential aspects of authentic human experience.

However, sin is not an essential aspect of human experience. On the contrary, sin is a stain on humanity. It is a defect, a parasite. Sin, at its core, is dehumanizing and debilitating. It detracts from our full potential. It undermines full human experience. It splinters, fragments, and devastates our lives.

Jesus’ sinlessness points to the absence of sin in his life. It describes a lack of something, namely, sin. The positive side of this is that Jesus was full of integrity. He was not splintered, fragmented, or divided in his humanity. He was full and complete in God. This did not exempt him from great trials, suffering, and difficulties, but it did guarantee that his way of encountering such things evidenced conformity to God’s will.

What makes Jesus sinless is that he never willfully rebelled against God. His life was constantly turned toward God. He experienced a deep and unique relationship with God that shaped his entire life. (One of the reasons his experience of God’s abandonment on the cross – “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” – was so devastating to him was that it was his first experience of separation from God.)

Far from being a detriment to full human experience, Jesus’ sinlessness evidenced his uniqueness among humankind.

In all other human beings there is a chasm, a fault, a final incoherence between who they are, what they say, and what they do. They make but do not keep their promises. They “break their word.” They promise faithfulness to God and to their neighbors, but not a single one avoids idolatry or keeps faith with his or her neighbor. Everyone succumbs in some fashion to hatred, theft, lies, and envy. There is in every human life this incoherence, this chaos, the Bible names as sin – this loss of life before God and neighbor.[2]

In other words, contrary to even the best among us, everything Jesus said was true, evidence of his absolute union with God. Likewise, everything Jesus did was true to his word. He was never guilty of hypocrisy or deception. Amazingly, everything he taught, he lived. Because of this, he stands as a perfect model of human union with God. He represents what it means to be fully human, alive to God. Stroup continues, “Jesus is so fully turned toward God and neighbor that there are no shadows in his life, no contradictions between what he says and does, and in this sense, unlike Adam, he lives wholly in the light and not in the shadows and is himself ‘the light of the world.’”[3]

Jesus’ sinlessness “does not detract from his true humanity. It is, on the contrary, what makes him the true human being, for sin is not part of human nature but a violation of human nature.”[4]

Without Sin, But Not Without Temptation

Jesus was unique in his sinlessness. But to be sinless is not to live apart from temptation or the suffering that accompanies it. Jesus was without sin, but not without temptation. Indeed, it is precisely because Jesus was sinless that he experienced the full weight of temptation. He knew the burden of moral pressures to which human life is subject: “He was tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). His temptation was so severe that in Gethsemane his resistance caused him to sweat blood (Luke 22:44).

In his inimitable style, C. S. Lewis comments on the depths of Jesus’ temptations:

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 win by trying to talk 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.[5]

It was Jesus’ sensitivity to human sin that increased his burden beyond anything we can imagine:

Both because Jesus had taken on our fallen condition and thus was vulnerable to the attacks of Satan and because he was filled with the Spirit and thus had clarity and holiness far exceeding our own, temptation confronted him with a sharpness and force we do not experience. Our minds and hearts are anesthetized and dulled by our concupiscence and personal sin. Moreover, because we almost inevitably conspire with the temptation to some degree, teasing it on, we never feel its full impact. Jesus, however, with complete clarity and perception, experienced both the entire allurement of temptation and, because he never conspired with it, endured the undivided assault of Satan’s attack.[6]

Jesus’ experience is replicated in the testimony of great saints throughout history. A simple perusal of their lives evidences that the holier one becomes, the more intense one’s experiences of temptation.

Jesus fully accepted the burden of human sinfulness.[7] He was subject to the pressures and temptations that lead to sin in the rest of us fallen creatures. He was not a stranger to personal struggles and universal human needs. He was truly tempted, suffering alienation and hardship, persecution and injustice. The full weight of human sin bore down upon him from every angle. And yet, he never gave in. He fought sin until the end – even to the point of death on a cross (Philippians 2:8).

This is the truth that Paul attempts to communicate by describing Jesus as bearing “the likeness of sinful flesh” (Romans 8:3). As the church fathers taught, “What is not assumed cannot be saved.” Jesus did not assume generic humanity – humanity before the Fall, humanity free from sin. Jesus assumed our fallen humanity. “Though he never sinned personally… he experienced, of necessity, many of the effects of sin which permeate the world and plague human beings—hunger and thirst, sickness and sorrow, temptation and harassment by Satan, being hated and despised, fear and loneliness, even death and separation from God. The eternal Son of God functioned from within the confines of a humanity altered by sin and the Fall.”[8] He completely identified with our fallen humanity, and through his life, death, and resurrection, lifted humanity into the very life and love of God.

For this reason, the author of Hebrews proclaims that Jesus is our perfect high priest. Because of his complete identification with humanity, he is “a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. For since he himself was tempted in that which he has suffered, he is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted” (Hebrews 2:17-18). Therefore, the author of Hebrews admonishes us,

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:14-16)

It is vital that we recognize and embrace our sympathetic high priest. It is in this way that the glorified Christ ministers to us in the present age. And we need him more than we can possibly recognize, for we face many “dangers, toils, and snares” in this life.

Jesus’ own life proves that our own attempts at obedience do not guarantee that we will be exempt from suffering. The more holy we desire to become, the greater temptations we will likely face, and thus, the more we are likely to suffer. Fighting sin in our own lives and systemic sin in society comes at a price. Interestingly, temptations are considered suffering in and of themselves by the author of Hebrews (“he suffered, being tempted” 2:18). In the words of the nineteenth century Baptist preacher, C. H. Spurgeon, “God had one Son without sin, but God never had a son without sorrow or suffering.”

In light of the difficulties, dangers, and struggles that pervade our lives due to human sin – our own and society’s – we stand in desperate need of one who understands us and identifies with us, one who will sympathize with our weaknesses, one whose response to us is one of unyielding grace. Because our feeble attempts at righteousness will far short as much as they will succeed, we need a merciful, faithful, compassionate high priest whose stance toward us will not change, whose commitment to us is the same yesterday, today, and forever (see Hebrews 13:8).

When we recognize that we possess such a one in Christ Jesus, we have great boldness and confidence to draw near to God through him, for “he is able to save forever those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).

Holier-Than-Thou Wholly-For-You

What do you think of when you hear of a “perfect person”? What do you think of when you think of “sinlessness”? We usually think of someone who is “holier-than-thou” and snobbish. Or we think of someone who is detached, withdrawn, robotic, stoic and unemotional. Either way, we rarely think of a perfect person as possessing perfect sympathy and compassion.[9]

But in Jesus we discover that the only one who is truly “holier-than-thou” is wholly for us. His holiness is that of otherly love – love of another kind! His perfection does not make him less-than-human, but rather, truly human. How wonderful it is that this One – the sinless, suffering, sympathetic One – is our mediator in the heavens!

© Richard J. Vincent, 2008