Without sin

(Hebrews 4:15)  “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

With the sun still nestled below the horizon and with the darkness of night concealing the shapes that are easily seen in the sunlight as I peer through my large glass sliding door my thoughts are taken to the consideration of the Lord Jesus Christ putting on his own mind. We (Christians) have been called to put on the mind of Christ but He was and is Christ. It was his mind and his dedication to it that now allows us to follow in His footsteps. What was that like I wonder? He understood the call that God His Father had placed upon his life like no other and yet he was clothed in a human body, which needed food and clothing for its sustenance. There were times in his life that he drew aside and fasted before confronting the enemy; denying the flesh its demands, hunger cravings and the like to strengthen the Spirit within, a valuable observation for our consideration.   

He was driven by faith, but a faith that could see clearly, understanding His dependency as a man upon His Fathers provision. His vision was not marred as ours at times are. He was consistent with a face of flint set on the will of His Father. He allowed no distraction to thwart his quest, praise God!  

He grew in the same fashion as all the other boys around him, pimples and the like must have been part of his experience. And yet as he grew whilst the pressures of life began to press in on him, he never committed a sin. Fascinating is all I am left to conclude and I know this to be true for the scripture thus teaches us this certainty; “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” – This indicates that he didn’t have any super powers per say, he bled like everyone else, with Satan and all his demonic soldiers from the spiritual world that is as real as the keyboard I now punch away at, which eludes the concepts of mankind’s carnal sight. Nevertheless these forces pressed in upon the Lord Jesus with such force and with a single intention to get him to sin, they failed! The man they could not get to breech one of God’s laws; a man who always walk in the Spirit regardless of the fleshes demands whilst nullifying the power of God's law over him. When a man learns to walk in the Spirit there is nothing that will catch him off guard. Once this truth is clearly understood I trust we will hold sin and the power it once held over us in a new light.

Even now as Christians we fight a raging battle against the lying tongue of sins entrapment. The promises of empty lusts only ever temporally satisfy, it will never be enough, sin cannot gratify. Ask a wealthy man what drives him, and you will soon find out the answer to that underlying truth, “MORE”!  The Spirit on the other hand promises truth and a lasting satisfaction which is encapsulated within the fruits of the Spirit, which are; “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” – The Lord Jesus obviously lived under the rule of the Spirit leaving the power of the law useless against his flesh. A phenomenal consideration if we only begin to get a glimpse of what that actually entailed.

Through the throes of life his journey was like every other; birth, suckling, teething, subject to his parent’s authority, God in the flesh allowing his creation to instruct him under the law of “children honour and obey your parents”; puberty, adulthood and manhood. He never breached a commandment of God, and under no circumstances ever told a “white lie” or having a misplaced thought that lead to intent. This is miraculous in itself and the point we must not miss it that because of it all Jesus Christ our risen Saviour has earned the stripes to wear the t-shirt of understanding the struggles of our human weaknesses and this is why these words have been penned to help us realise that He really understands the human body and its frailty; “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses.” God became a man for this very reason, to right what Satan had wrong, praise God for His victory as a man; “Jesus in my place”, a song that I love to sing from the very core of my gut.

When we face our temptations throughout the day all we need do is to cry out to Jesus for he is capable of sympathising with our struggles. Grace is needed to overcome the trial, when we succumb to the temptation of sin, in that very moment we prove that we do not hold Christ’s sacrifice in high regard and we value the sin more that we value His sacrifice; it’s as simple as that. We have all erred in this area of our lives, but we must resolve to put on the mind of Christ seeking out His grace in time of need, and always ask the Holy Spirit to remind our minds what it cost the Lord Jesus Christ to buy us our freedom, a cruel Roman cross and all that went with that; God the Father rejecting His only begotten Son as He paid the price for our sins, a time of complete despair for our great redeemer. Just imagine what he must of felt at this exactly moment; “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"” (Matthew 27:46) – An event in Jesus’ life that actually happened. And he did it for you and me, for all those who now confess Him as Lord; He has bought us our freedom.

It is now up to us to mortify the deeds of our flesh, to take revenge on that which once had us enslaved to sin and the power it once wielded over our engagements. Christians now have the mind of Christ, when we say “I cannot”, we only prove that we still live under an element of unbelief and we lack faith in the finished work of the cross. The “giants” in our lives are greater that the promises of God, which is a lie! Do you remember the account of Joshua and Caleb and the other ten spies? The typology of that account has much to teach us concerning our mind-sets on this topic.

Jesus understands our human frailty, he lived in a human body, but he also understands and has proved the workings of the Spirits power over the weakness of our physical appetites. Just as he learnt to live under the Spirit influence over his regular human thirsts, we too must follow suite if and when we want to please our heavenly Father. Grace is needed to overcome and it is available to all those who confess Jesus as their Lord. Do not let the deceitfulness of sin beguile us into believing that we cannot overcome, it is simply a lie that has robbed me of far too much.

Signing off

Tyrone