. Bruce,[35] "Christ's whole state of exinanition was not
only worthy to be rewarded by a subsequent state of exaltation, but was
in itself invested with moral sublimity and dignity." The idea has
considerable fascination. We cannot set it aside by saying that it is
modern, seeing that the Apostle himself speaks of the office of
high-priest as an honour and a glory.[36] Yet we are compelled to reject
it as an explanation of the passage. The Apostle is showing that the
Psalmist's statement respecting man is realised only in the Man Christ
Jesus. The difficulty was to connect man's low estate and man's glory
and dominion. But if the Apostle means that voluntary humiliation for
the sake of others is the glory, some men besides Jesus Christ might
have been mentioned in whom the words of the Psalm find their
accomplishment. The difference between Jesus and other good men would
only be a difference of degree. Such a conclusion would very seriously
weaken the force of the Apostle's reasoning.

In bringing his most skilful and original argument to a close, the
Apostle recapitulates. He has said that the world to come,--the world of
conscience and of spirit,--has been put in subjection to man, not to
angels, and that this implies the incarnation of the Son of God. This
thought the Apostle repeats in another, but very striking, form: "For
verily He taketh not hold of angels, but He taketh hold of the seed of
Abraham." Though the old versions were incorrect in so rendering the
words as to make them express the fact of the Incarnation, the verse is
a reference to the Incarnation, described, however, as Christ's strong
grasp[37] of man. By becoming man He takes hold of humanity, as with a
mighty hand, and that part by which He grasps humanity is the seed of
Abraham, to whom the promise was made.

Four points of connection between the glory of Christ and His
humiliation have been mentioned. In his recapitulation, the Apostle sums
all up in two. The one is that Christ is Priest; the other is that He
succours them that are tempted. His propitiatory death and His bringing
to nought the power of Satan are included in the notion of priesthood.
The moral discipline that made Him our Leader and the sense of
brotherhood that made Him Sanctifier render Him able to succour the
tempted. Even this also, as will be fully shown by the Apostle in a
subsequent chapter, is contained in His priesthood. For He only can make
propitiation, Whose heart i