Hebrews 2:17-18 – Jesus our merciful and faithful High Priest

He became human for a specific purpose. Christ had to become human in order to fulfill His mission. The writer only went on to delineate the purpose in the later part of this verse. His emphasis was that Christ was obligated to become a man in order to fulfill that purpose. And He became like a man in all things. In other words, Christ had bodily needs, emotion and limitation like ours, minus the sin nature.

He became our merciful and faithful High Priest in the things pertaining to God. We need to know where the writer to the Hebrews was coming from. He was stressing the necessity of a high priest. Just as in the Old Testament where a high priest was needed once a year to offer the sacrifice on the people’s behalf, Christ became our High Priest as required by God. He did not just offer a sacrifice, He actually offered Himself as the sacrifice. However, unlike the Old Testament’s high priest, Christ is a merciful and faithful High Priest. The adjective “merciful” tells us His motive for going to the Cross. Because of His compassion for lost sinners, Christ is merciful. Not only is He merciful, but that He is also faithful. Christ’s faithfulness was seen in every area. That faithfulness culminates in his perfect obedience in going to the Cross.    

He offered Himself on the Cross for man to appease God’s wrath. The word “propitiation” used in this verse is translated differently in other versions. In some version the word is translated “atonement” and in others, “expiation”. While these other words refer to the cancellation of sin, “propitiation” means to turn away the wrath of God so that He would be appeased. We need to know that God’s wrath should not be seen as a sudden outburst of anger. God’s wrath must be understood in the like of His holy nature. This holy nature made Him detest and oppose everything that is evil. “Propitiation” is a better word also because it better represents what Christ came to do. There are four elements to the word “propitiation” that must be understood: firstly, there is an offence that needs to be removed; secondly, there is God Who is offended and He needs to be appeased; thirdly, there is the offender, the sinner that needs to be pardoned; and finally, there is the sacrifice that is needed to effect the transaction.

In verse 18, Christ the merciful and faithful High Priest had given Himself not only as man’s propitiation, but will also come to the believer’s assistance in time of temptation. He is able to do it effectively because He shared man’s nature. Here, the author also gave the reason why Christ is able to provide aids to man in time of temptation. He Himself went through temptation in His earthly life. He had felt the harsh reality of temptation, yet He suffered and endured it. Hence, He is able to comprehend with compassion someone anyone who is facing a temptation. That’s why He is able to help a person through it.

We have tremendous privilege with Jesus as our High Priest! There is not a thing we face today or any day that Christ cannot comprehend or sympathize. He has everything within Him to help and rescue us. In Him our way into God’s new world is sure!