He is close at hand

There is a little word in the New Testament that occurs only once, that has built-in a great Good News idea about Jesus. It's the word SUCCOUR in Hebrews 2:18. You don't care about the Greek but I'll have to give it - BOETHEO, from two words put together: BOAO, a primitive root that expresses the most down to earth idea possible - screaming and yelling, HELP! HELP! And then the second word joined to that, THEO, to make one word which means: "RUN TO HELP." You are at the beach; a rip tide sweeps you off your feet and sucks you under, dragging you out to sea. You scream at the top of your lungs, HELP! HELP! The Lifeguard dashes in to rescue you. That's the word for SUCCOUR. "In all things it behoved [Christ] to be made LIKE unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest, . . . to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He hath suffered being tempted, He is able to SUCCOUR them that are tempted." A Lifeguard at the beach who has known the terror of almost drowning will jump in stat.

The context in Hebrews is clear: the chapter emphasizes how Christ was tempted LIKE as we are, and that ONLY "wherein He has suffered being tempted He is able to succour them that are tempted." Find any temptation that Christ has not "suffered being tempted," and you have no savior from that sin. He can only pardon but not forgive, leaving you to sin and confess ad infinitum, until Purgatory. It doesn't take a genius to see that here is where Satan zeroes in and removes the heavenly Lifeguard far away where He can't understand when the rip tide of sexual lust sweeps you off your feet. Or so it will seem to you if some Protestant version of the Immaculate Conception dogma has left you bereft of the pure gospel. In many beautiful homes with well manicured lawns the light is on deep into the night: people locked in to pornography, being swept off their feet by a temptation undertow. And the kids are into it, too. God needs somewhere some church to proclaim a Saviour "nigh at hand and not afar off."

Untold millions who have been victims of sexual lust, including AIDS victims in Africa, have never known how "near" the Savior is. That "other angel" of Revelation 18:1-4 will tell them. Let's tell them now!

Have you been blessed/challenged?