Had Christ any infirmities when, here? This question was asked me sometime ago, and I hardly knew what to say. I was afraid to say much: it was raised in a reading I was at recently. I am quite aware it is a very delicate question, and it needs one to be very careful as to the Person of Christ. —Gateshead.
THE question raised is indeed, as you say, a very delicate one. In attempting to answer, our safeguard will be the careful observance of what Scripture does and does not say, and a refusal to go beyond its utterances.
We presume that the question arises out of the closing verses of Hebrews 4, where we read that our Lord can be “touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” inasmuch as He has been in all points tempted as we are tempted, sin apart. From this the inference might easily be drawn that He must have had infirmities: else how could He be touched with the feeling of ours?
But on carefully examining Scripture we discover that it never states that He had any infirmity. And not only this, it places Him in full contrast with the priests of Aaron’s race as to this very thing. These were “compassed with infirmity” (Heb. 5:33And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins. (Hebrews 5:3)), and out of this sprang their ability to have compassion. But we must not jump to the conclusion that therefore it must be just so with Christ. The very opposite, for presently we read, “The law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated forevermore” (Heb. 7:2828For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore. (Hebrews 7:28)).
The Son then most evidently has no infirmity. It may however be remarked that this verse refers to Him, in His risen place, and so it does. It is in His risen place that He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. How then did He know infirmity? By having them of His own? No, but by bearing ours, as it says in Matthew 8:17,17That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses. (Matthew 8:17) “Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.” Read verse 16 as well, and you will see how He fulfilled that quotation. It was in the way in which He accomplished His works of power.
He not only relieved folk by His miracles, but He took up and bore in His own spirit the sorrows that He removed by His power.
It is quite true of course, and much to be remembered, that our blessed Lord knew what it was to be tempted of Satan. He knew what sorrow and loneliness and hunger and thirst and weariness were, but these, we judge, are not exactly what Scripture calls infirmities.
WE understand it in the sense of, “ye are cleansed from your former character and mode of life.” The two preceding verses give us a dreadful picture of the sinful filth into which mankind has sunk. Then the Apostle adds, “And such were some of you: but ye are washed.” Three things are mentioned in this verse, purification, sanctification, justification. All three are brought about in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God, but the order in which they stand is to be noted. In view of the filth in which we were, washing naturally stands first. Then as washed we are set apart for God, and justified from all our offenses.
There is a rather similar passage in the epistle to Titus. The Cretians were “alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.” Hence in chapter 3, Paul writes of their salvation being accomplished “by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost” (verse 5). Two verses later he speaks of their being justified. So here again washing precedes justifying, because it is the moral filth of our unconverted condition which is before the mind of the Spirit.
In both these passages the reference is, we believe, to that mighty inward renovation which is brought about in the name of the Lord Jesus by the Spirit through the Gospel. It is very much akin to, or at least connected with, the new birth, which is spoken of in other Scriptures, as for instance, 1 Peter 1:22-2522Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: 23Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. 24For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: 25But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. (1 Peter 1:22‑25). “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit... being born again...”
The sow that is washed externally will for a certainty return to its wallowing in the mire. But if we could give it a washing which consisted in the communication to it of a sheep’s nature we should have cleansed it in an effectual and lasting way. It is in this effectual way that the washing has reached us.
“Ye!” What had they to do with the great decision? They were the accusers, Pilate was the judge. Why leave it to them to settle the matter? Why? especially when he knew both their evil motives and the prisoner’s innocence?
Bondage is the only answer. There are many Pilates today who leave the decision to be made by their circumstances or habits, or by their companions, whom they know are no friends of Christ.