Hebrews 2:17 Why in all things it behooved him to be made like to his brothers… This high feast of the nativity of our blessed Saviour is called by St. "the great metropolitan feast." For, as to the chief city the whole country resorts (Psalm 122:4); so all the feast-days of the whole year meet and are concentred in the joy of this feast. If we will draw them into a perfect circle, we must set the foot of the compass upon this, "God was made like unto man." My text is laid down unto us in the form of a model proposition; which consists of two parts, the dictum and the modus. Here is, first, the proposition, "Christ is made like us." Secondly, the modification or qualification of it, "It behoved Him so to be." First, in the proposition, our meditations are directed to Christ and to His brethren. And we consider "what Christ is, and what we were." God He was from all eternity, but in the fulness of time "made like unto as." But we were miserable sinners, enemies to God. But now, by Christ's assimilation to us, we are made like unto God. Secondly, the modification carries out thoughts to those two common heads — the convenience, and the necessity of it. Now this again looks, equally on both — on Christ, and on His brethren. If " in all things it behoved Christ to be like unto His brethren," which is the benefit, heaven and earth will conclude, men and angels will infer, that it behoveth us to be made like unto Christ, which is the duty. My text, ye see, is divided equally between these two terms, "Christ," and "His brethren." That which our devotion must contemplate in Christ is, first, His divine; secondly, His human, nature; thirdly, the union of them both. First, His divine nature; for we cannot but make a stand, and inquire who He was who ought to do this. Secondly, His human nature; for we find Him here "flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bones," made like unto us in our flesh, in our souls. "What can we say more?" Our apostle tells us, "in all things." And then, thirdly, will follow the union, expressed in the passive " to be made." in His assimilation, and the assumption of our nature. All these fill us with admiration; but the last raiseth it yet higher. Fourthly, the end of all is the end of all — our salvation; the end of our creation, of our redemption, of this assimilation; and the last end of all, the glory of God. Then "His brethren " and He will " dwell together in unity." I. In the first place, in an holy ecstasy we cry out with the prophet," Who is He that cometh?" (Isaiah 63:1). "Who is He that must be made like unto us?" What is done? and, Who did it? " are of so near relation that we can hardly abstract one from the other. We, who are children of time, have need of a captain who must be born in time. We were sick of a bold and foolish ambition to be gods. And this disease became epidemical: we all would be independent, our own lawgivers, our own God. Pride threw us down; and nothing but humility, the exinanition of the Son of God, could raise us. II. Therefore, in the next place, as Christ is "God of His Father," so He is "man of His mother"; the Son of God, and the Son of Mary. That He appeareth in the likeness of our flesh, that He appeareth and speaketh and suffereth in our flesh, is the high prerogative of the gospel. And here He publisheth Himself in every way of representation. 1. "In our image or likeness," — "In the form" of a servant, our very picture, a living picture, such a picture as one man is of another. 2. "By way of comparison." For how hath He dilated Himself by a world of comparisons! He is a "Shepherd," to guide and feed us; a "Captain," to lead us; a "Prophet," to teach us. He is a "Priest," and He is "the Sacrifice" for us. He is "Bread," to strengthen us; a "Vine," to refresh us; a "Lamb," that we may be meek; a "Lion," that we may be valiant; a "Door," to let us in; and "the Way," through which we pass into life. He is anything that will make us like Him. Sin and error and the devil have not appeared in more shapes to deceive and destroy us than Christ hath to save us. 3. By His " exemplary" virtues; and those raised to such a high pitch of perfection, that neither the heretic, nor the Turk, nor the devil himself could leach and blemish it. III. We must now, with a reverent and fearful hand, but touch at the passive "to be made," which pointeth out the union of both the natures in one person. The apostle telleth us that "it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren." And "to the apprehension of this union" (as to the knowledge of God), as saith, "we arc led by weak and faint representations drawn from sensible things," and by negations. "Not after this manner." He was made like unto us, it is true: but not so as flesh and blood may imagine, or a wanton and busy wit conceive. His glory did not take from Him the form of a servant, nor did this assimilation lessen or alter Him in that by which He was equal to His Father. This is "a great mystery" (1 Timothy 3:16); and mysteries cannot be searched nor sounded to the depth. It fareth with us in the pursuit of profound mysteries as with those who labour in rich mines. When we dig too deep, we meet with poisonous fogs and damps instead of treasure; when we labour above, we find less metal, but more safety. Humility and purity of soul are the best convoys in the ways of knowledge. Be not then too inquisitive to find out the manner of this union. That Christ "was made like unto us," is the joy of this feast; but that He ought to be so, is the wonder and ecstasy of our joy. That He would descend, is mercy; but that He must descend, is our astonishment. Had the apostle said, "It behoved us that He should be made like unto us" it had found an easy belief; the "it behoved" had been placed "in its proper place" on the face of a captive. All will say, "It behoved us much." But to put a aebet upon the Son of God, and make it a beseemming thing for Him to become flesh, "to be made like unto us," is as if one should set a ruby in clay, a diamond in brass, a chrysolite in baser metal, and say they are placed well there. To give a gift, and call it a debt, is not our usual language. On earth it is not; but in heaven it is the proper dialect, fixed in capital letters on the mercy-seat. It is the joy of this feast, the angels' anthem, "A Saviour is born! " And if He will be a Saviour, an Undertaker, a Surety, such is the nature of fidejussion and suretyship, debet, "He must," "it behoveth Him"; He is as deeply engaged as the party whoso Surety He is. 1. Let us look on the aptness of the means, and we shall soon find that this "foolishness of God" (1 Corinthians 1:25), as the apostle calls it, "is wiser than man, and this weakness of God is stronger than men"; and that the debt, it is right set. For "if you will have extremes meet, you must have a middle line to draw them together": and, behold, here they meet, and are made one! The properties of either nature being entire, yet meet and concentre as it were in one person. Majesty putteth on humility; Power, infirmity; Eternity, mortality. By the one our Saviour dieth for us, by the other He riseth again; by the one He suffereth as man, by the other He conquereth as God; by both He perfecteth and consummateth the great work of our redemption. 2. So then here is an aptness and conveniency: but the words, "It behoved Him," imply also a kind of necessity. That God could be made like mortal man, is a strange contemplation; that He would, is a rise and exaltation of that; that He ought, super-exalteth, and sets it at a higher pitch; but that He must be so, that necessity in a manner should bring Him down, were not His love infinite as well as His power, would stagger and amaze the strongest faith. It is true, this condescension of His, this assimilation, was free and voluntary, with more cheerfulness and earnestness undertaken by Him titan received now by us. But if we look back upon the precontract which passed between His Father and Him, we shall then see a debuit, "a kind of necessity," laid upon Him. Our Saviour Himself speaketh it to His blessed mother, "I must go about My Father's business" (Luke 2:49). We may measure His love by the decree; that is, we cannot measure it: for the decree is eternal.Application: — 1. If Christ be like unto us, then we also ought to be like unto Him, and to have our assimilation, our nativity, by analogy and rules of proportion answerable unto His. To be like unto Him! Why, who would not be like unto Him? "Like Him" we all would be in His glory. But to be like Him in the wilderness, like Him in His daily converse with men, like Him in the high-priest's hall, like Him in the garden, like Him on the Cross: this we like not; hero we start back, and are afraid of His countenance. But if we will be His brethren, this is the copy we must take out, these be our postures, these our colours: bathed in His blood, it is true; but, withal, bathed in the waters of affliction, bathed in our tears, bathed in our own blood. 2. As He was made like unto us, so are we made like unto Him. We are not born so, nor so by chance. This resemblance is not drawn out with a thought or a word. How many be there who bear Christ's name, yet are not like unto Him, because they will not be made so! 3. As there was a debuit upon Christ, so there is upon us. As "it behoved Him" to be made like unto us, so it behoveth us to be made like unto Him. A humble Christ, and a proud Christian; a meek Christ, and a bloody Christian; an obedient Christ, and a traitorous Christian; Christ in an agony, and a Christian in pleasure; Christ fasting, and a Christian rioting; Christ on the Cross, and a Christian in a Mahometical Paradise, there is no decorum in it, nothing but solecism and absurdity. 4. This duty is not only becoming, but necessary. For if a kind of necessity lay upon Christ, by His contract with His Father, "to be made like unto us"; a great necessity will lie upon us, by our covenant with Him, to be like unto Him; and woe unto us, if we be not! It is "that one thing necessary": there is nothing necessary for us but it. (R. Farindon, J. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. |
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