Hebrews Series: Jesus Is One of Us
Rev.
A. Selvaggio
Hebrews
2:5-18
“What if God
was one of us?” (from song by Joan Osborne) - a slob, a passenger
on a bus – a somewhat irreverent idea. But it also contains a
profound kernel of truth and that may even need a certain level of
irreverence to get at – that Jesus, the second person of the
Trinity did in fact become one of us. He didn't just resemble us or
appear to be like us, rather he joined to his divine nature a real
and true human nature – in every way he became like us yet was
without sin.
This reveals
Jesus' glory and provides us with comfort – 3 points:
- Jesus shares our humanityPoint of previous week – Jesus is superior to the angels. Angels were seen as those who conveyed the law to OT Israel. Writer is saying someone greater has come – a greater communicator, a greater message, a greater messenger, greater and superior to the angels. He anticipates the questions of the audience – how can Jesus be superior to the angels if he is human? The writer uses the fact that he is human to prove that he is superior to the angels. He uses Psalm 8 – a psalm about humanity. He explains it first in the way that the hearers would expect, but then says that it is about Jesus - “made for a little while lower than the angels.” He characterizes it as a Messianic psalm, and that Jesus so identifies with humanity that what is true of us is true of Jesus – that he shares our humanity. Jesus is humanity par excellence - he is the new Adam.
- Jesus makes us familyThe preacher uses 3 familial terms – a) we share the same father; b) we are Jesus' siblings (Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters); c) we are his children (as intimate as a parent and a child) – we are family.
- Jesus delivers/saves/helps his familyTwo benefits – a) Jesus delivers his family from death and the fear of death. Our fear of death enslaves us and makes us do dumb things with our lives. b) Jesus delivers his family from sin (from ourselves). Jesus became one of us to save us from our sins – in one divine/human person you have both priest and sacrifice. He gives himself to deliver us from sin. “You do for family” - Jesus loves us so much he lowered himself for a time to become like us in order to deliver us. In the movie, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Arnie's and Gilbert's mother risks embarrassment to demand that the police release her son. Jesus did the same for us – he came for us, he despised the shame – and demanded the release of his children. “Give me my children!” That is our hope and our joy – Jesus is one of us.
Thoughts on
Devotions – LD24
Q. 62 Why can't
the good we do make us right with God, or at least help make us right
with Him? Q. 63 How can you
say that the good we do doesn't earn anything when God promises to
reward it in this life and the next? Q. 64 But doesn't this teaching
make people indifferent and wicked?
Kevin DeYoung,
in The Good News We
Almost Forgot, titles
this chapter “Achieving Low Self-Esteem” and tells a story about
a young man attending one of his first AA meetings and talking about
the things that others did to cause his situation and how he will now
turn his life around. A more seasoned member says, “ I used to feel
that way too until I achieved 'low self-esteem.'” DeYoung's point
is that it is part of sinful human nature to think that we can do
something to gain points with God towards our salvation. The Gospel
is such wonderful news because we have zero chance of achieving God's
favor through our efforts. The only thing we have that we contribute
towards our salvation is sin. This is a totally depressing thought
unless we grasp God's promise that he has given us complete redemption
through what Christ has done – what he has accomplished once and
for all. He points to works (as does James) as a confirmation of our
faith and the Spirit's work in our lives when we are “in Christ”
– faith, fruit and gratitude. First, true faith works - “saving
faith is not mere intellectual assent but a firm trust, played out in
real life” - we start to “step out in faith” if we believe.
Second, a good tree bears good fruit – our lives begin to change
and begin to be transformed because of God's Spirit is alive in us.
Finally, grace leads to gratitude. Our thankfulness and gratefulness
for God's great gift must show itself in how we live and act towards
others. Nourishing ourselves on God's Word (and other materials that
reshape our thought life), spending time in prayer and fellowship
with other Christians are vital if we expect to grow in these ways.
If we show little interest in the things of God we will not grow and,
ultimately, we must ask ourselves whether we belong to Christ.
Monday:
Failure is the result if we attempt to meet God's standard of
righteousness and add to our salvation.
Leviticus
19:1-2 The Lord spoke to
Moses: “Speak to the whole congregation of the Israelites and
tell them, ʻYou must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.
I
Peter 1:14-16 Like
obedient children, do not comply with the evil urges you used to
follow in your ignorance, but, like the Holy One who called you,
become holy yourselves in all of your conduct, for it is written,
“You shall be holy, because I am holy.”
Tuesday:
Jesus
challenged a rich young ruler to be a “good Samaritan” to
everyone in need, all the time. This, like the law, is meant to show
our inability to meet God's standard – we must cast ourselves on
the mercy of God – on the gracious gift and his solid promise of
redemption through Christ's work.
1
John 3:16
We have come to know love by this: that Jesus laid down his life for
us; thus we ought to lay down our lives for our fellow Christians.
Matthew
5:48
So then, be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Wednesday:
Deuteronomy
28:47 states that God's curse is on those who do not serve him with
joyfulness and gladness of heart - “Because you have
not served the Lord your God joyfully and wholeheartedly with the
abundance of everything you have, instead in hunger, thirst,
nakedness, and poverty you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will
send against you. They will place an iron yoke on your neck until
they have destroyed you.
Isaiah 64:6 We are all like one
who is unclean, all our so-called righteous acts are like a
menstrual rag in your sight. We all wither like a leaf; our sins
carry us away like the wind. No one invokes your name, or makes
an effort to take hold of you. For you have rejected us and handed
us over to our own sins.
Isaiah 53:6a All of us had
wandered off like sheep; each of us had strayed off on his own path,
Thursday:
There are promises of reward in the Bible for those who live for God
and please him. Our ability to live for God is only due to his Spirit
within us, and the good works that we do are gifts of his grace. That
is why in Revelation John sees the crowns given as rewards are placed
before the throne of the lamb.
Hebrews
11:6
Now without faith it is impossible to please him, for the one who
approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those
who seek him.
Matthew
6:1-4
“Be careful not to display your righteousness merely to be seen by
people. Otherwise you have no reward with your Father in heaven.
Thus whenever you do charitable giving, do not blow a trumpet before
you, as the hypocrites do in synagogues and on streets so that people
will praise them. I tell you the truth, they have their reward. But
when you do your giving, do not let your left hand know what your
right hand is doing, so that your gift may be in secret. And your
Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.
Ephesians
2:8-10
For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from
yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that
no one can boast. For we are his workmanship, having been created
in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may
do them.
Revelation
4:10-11
the twenty-four elders throw themselves to the ground before the one
who sits on the throne and worship the one who lives forever and
ever, and they offer their crowns before his throne, saying: “You
are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power,
since you created all things, and because of your will they existed
and were created!”
Friday:
As
long as the Gospel has been proclaimed people have twisted it –
either not trusting that it is a gift freely given, or going in the
opposite direction thinking that if Christ has done it all and we
cannot add anything, then we can live any way we like. And some fear
that if we do not have to work to maintain our salvation, we will not
even try to be good. People asked the apostle Paul the same question.
His answer was that we are slaves to what we obey – if we willingly continue sinning, it shows that Christ is not our master. The
catechism answers the it is impossible for someone who is in Christ
to be indifferent to good works.
Jude
1:4
For certain men have secretly slipped in among you - men who long ago
were marked out for the condemnation I am about to describe - ungodly
men who have turned the grace of our God into a license for evil and
who deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Romans
6:15-18
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?
Absolutely not! Do you not know that if you present yourselves as
obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin
resulting in death, or obedience resulting in righteousness? But
thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin, you obeyed from
the heart that pattern of teaching you were entrusted to, and
having been freed from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.
Saturday:
Jesus
described our connection to him like a vine and branches. If we are
truly connected to him in faith, we will produce fruit of good deeds
as a result. The catechism says that it is impossible
for those grafted into Christ not
to produce fruits of gratitude. The fruits do not earn God's
blessings, instead they are an expression of gratitude for God's
gifts to us.
John
15:4-5
Remain in me, and I will remain in you. Just as the branch cannot
bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can
you unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches.
The one who remains in me - and I in him - bears much fruit, because
apart from me you can accomplish nothing.
Reading
between the lines...
Concluding
the Sermon on the Mount (SotM), Jesus describes 2 ways with various
illustrations – 2 trees, 2 paths, 2 houses. In each one is the path
to life and the other the path to destruction. It is easy to conclude
that the right way is the way of doing good and the wrong way of
doing bad. But in context of the sermon it isn't that simple. The
rejected way throughout the SotM has been less about unrighteousness
and more about self-righteousness. Jesus calls us to a new path –
not unrighteousness and not self-righteousness, but
Christ-righteousness. It is the path that Jesus himself trod – only
Jesus can ultimately walk this road. If you try to follow the narrow
path to heaven on your own you are as likely to succeed as a camel
going through the eye of a needle. The narrow path is very narrow –
the disciples ask who then can do it? Jesus replies that for men it
is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Jesus is the
only one who can, and successfully does, walk the path from earth to
heaven – once he walks the path he becomes the path, the door, the
way. The straight and narrow is not about moving from unrighteousness
to righteousness, but about moving from self-sufficiency to
dependence, from sinking sand to rock, from self to Christ. Jesus
doesn't just point the way or inspire us – he is the way and he
carries us home.
Matthew
7:13-14
“Enter through the narrow gate, because the gate is wide and the
way is spacious that leads to destruction, and there are many who
enter through it. But the gate is narrow and the way is difficult
that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Matthew
19:24-26
Again I say, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle than for a rich person to enter into the kingdom of God.”
The disciples were greatly astonished when they heard this and said,
“Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and replied,
“This is impossible for mere humans, but for God all things are
possible.”
In
the Lord's prayer Jesus teaches us that we have a Father in heaven
and an enemy on earth. When evil shows up “in the flesh” it does
not look evil, it looks good. The greatest servants of Satan look
like servants of God – they are wolves in sheep's clothing. Who are
the wolves ready to devour the flock? They are religious leaders and
teachers. In Jesus' day they were the scribes and Pharisees. They
specialized in outward righteousness. Jesus says that to enter the
Kingdom of Heaven one must have righteousness that exceeds that of
the Pharisees. They are not in the Kingdom, but they set the bar
high. They have a form of godliness, they we see more and more in the
SotM how false that form of godliness is – they are unclean. The
problem is what they are inwardly – they are wolves. A prophet is
meant to feed the sheep with the Word of God; a false prophet feeds
on the sheep while masquerading as good. All it takes to tear a flock
apart is for a false Christian to preach a false Christianity. Do we
take false teaching seriously enough? It is life and death – for
the Word of Christ is the difference between life and death.
Recognize that the danger is not “out there”, it may be very
close to us.
Matthew
5:20
For I tell you, unless your righteousness goes beyond that of the
experts in the law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the
kingdom of heaven.
Matthew
7:6
Do not give what is holy to dogs or throw your pearls before pigs;
otherwise they will trample them under their feet and turn around and
tear you to pieces.
Matthew
7:15
“Watch out for false prophets, who come to you in sheepʼs clothing
but inwardly are voracious wolves.
2
Timothy 4:3-4
For there will be a time when people will not tolerate sound
teaching. Instead, following their own desires, they will accumulate
teachers for themselves, because they have an insatiable curiosity to
hear new things. And they will turn away from hearing the truth, but
on the other hand they will turn aside to myths.
2
Timothy 3:14-15
You, however, must continue in the things you have learned and are
confident about. You know who taught you and how from infancy you
have known the holy writings, which are able to give you wisdom for
salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
How
can we defend ourselves from wolves in sheep's clothing? Jesus says
to look closer – he tells us to examine the fruit. It is detected
in the living – corrupted creeds are the issue, but they show
themselves in corrupted deeds. We can't fix our being through our behavior – a bad tree will produce bad fruit. New works are not the
answer; only a new birth will do. The fruit will reveal the tree; a
life over time will reveal one's nature. If a “life of Christ” is
not coming out of a teacher, alarm bells should start ringing. A
teacher's authority comes from their life; their life should be open to
examination. It is false teaching which destroys people; it is sound
teaching which brings life. Yet while we are in this world our flesh
will continue to sin, even though by the Spirit we are in Christ. We
must do what the false teachers do not do, returning again and again
to our true life source - Jesus - confessing our sins and receiving his life
and fruitfulness.
Matthew
7:16-20
You will recognize them by their fruit. Grapes are not gathered from
thorns or figs from thistles, are they? In the same way, every good
tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree
is not able to bear bad fruit, nor a bad tree to bear good fruit.
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into
the fire. So then, you will recognize them by their fruit.
John
15:5
“I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me -
and I in him - bears much fruit...”
Jesus
is the fulcrum on which all things turn – ones' fate will be
determined according to our connection to him. He is the Lord, the
Judge, the centerpiece of all creation. Everything revolves around
him. He is the rock that survives the storm – everything else is
sinking sand. Everyone, wise or foolish, experiences the storms of
life, but Jesus is the rock we can rely on. What does the sinking
sand represent – the context of the verse points to false
foundation. Building on sand is like trusting false religious
confidence if we don't actually know Jesus. Matthew 8 gives a clue –
the leper approached Jesus, “Lord, if you are willing you can make
me clean.” He flees to Jesus and Jesus embraces the unclean
penitent. By nature we are unclean – we build on sand. We too can
come to Jesus and say “if you are willing you can make me clean”
and Jesus is willing to embrace us as well.
Matthew
7:21-23
“Not everyone who says to me, ʻLord, Lord,ʼ will enter into the
kingdom of heaven - only the one who does the will of my Father in
heaven. On that day, many will say to me, ʻLord, Lord, didnʼt we
prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons and do many
powerful deeds?ʼ Then I will declare to them, ʻI never knew you.
Go away from me, you lawbreakers!ʼ
Matthew
8:1-2
After he came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him.
And a leper approached, and bowed low before him, saying, “Lord, if
you are willing, you can make me clean.”
Jesus' teaching
involves dramatic reversals – those on the outside are brought in,
those on the inside are cast out – into outer darkness – an image of hell. The insiders considered that they would have heaven as
their inheritance, but through faith the furthest from the
kingdom are brought in. If you don't want Jesus, you don't the light
of the world. To reject Jesus is to prefer darkness. Those who seek
will find; to those who knock it will be opened.
Matthew
8:11-12
I tell you, many will come from the east and west to share the
banquet with Abraham, Isaac, andJacob in the kingdom of heaven,
but the sons of the kingdom will be thrown out into the outer
darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Weeping
and wailing and gnashing of teeth – refers to bitter lamentation
and anger (gnashing of teeth). Outer darkness is a place of violent
fury. When we see melancholy and murder in our own hearts we see
hell. Cain, Saul and Jonah show the self-pity and self-righteousness
associated with this state. If we have not laid our sins on Jesus we
bear the burden on ourselves and it is too much to bear leading to
violence and fury – but that is just in this life. At the final
judgment the result is immensely worse. Hell is a continuation of the
slavery of this life, We cannot bear our own sins, we cannot atone
for our own guilt – one thing we can do is free ourselves by
laying it on Jesus.
How
can anyone suggest that a person needs to be born again? It might be
rude to say this to a new born, but it seems impossible to say it to
an adult. “Born again” is misunderstood in several ways –
Nicodemus misunderstood it as a physical rebirth; some Christians see
it as a brand of Christianity. Jesus, however, is talking about a new
birth. Flesh gives birth to flesh – we cannot heal or fix our
problem; we must be born again – or born from above – a spirit
life. The flesh is always trying to raise itself up through morality
and good works, but we cannot “climb the ladder to God,” but
Christ comes down. He follows the way of the Spirit. The way of the
Spirit is to come down, the gift of God – ultimately to take on our
flesh, to become one of us. He wraps up all flesh-life in himself and
puts it to death – he was put to death in the flesh, but raised to
life in the Spirit. On Easter morning Jesus pioneered the new birth
and becomes the source of new birth for all of us – he says I've
taken your flesh, let me give you my Spirit. We must look away from
our away from our flesh. Don't look at your badness; don't look at
your goodness – look to Jesus and he will give you his Spirit and
you will share in his new birth. You must be born again, you can be
born again – trust in Jesus and you are born again.
John
3:3, 7
Jesus replied, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is
born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Do not be
amazed that I said to you, ʻYou must all be born from above.ʼ
John
3:5-8
Jesus answered, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is
born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. What is
born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Do not be amazed that I said to you, ʻYou must all be born from
above.ʼ The wind blows wherever it will, and you hear the sound it
makes, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So
it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
John
1:14
Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his
glory - the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who
came from the Father.
1
Peter 3:18
Because Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust,
to bring you to God, by being put to death in the flesh but by being
made alive in the spirit.
