Holding Fast

And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. (Hebrews 03:05-06, NKJV).

We have seen that the writer of Hebrews does not in any way discount Moses' part in redemptive history, but he emphasizes repeatedly that Christ is greater in every way. In fact, there is no real comparison.

Moses is servant in the household of God (the community of believers from Adam onward, but especially in reference to Israel). Christ is Son over His own house (all believers, including the church), and is the builder of that house, the rightful King of Israel and of the whole world.

The purpose of Moses' ministry was as a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, essentially the fact of our helpless and hopeless condition under the curse of the Law without Christ, revealed throughout the New Testament.

Christ came to make us part of His house through adoption as Sons, making us everlasting heirs of righteousness by faith. This is in vivid contrast to being doomed to death under the Law.

The Law can never save. It can only condemn. Moses was the vehicle through whom God gave the Law. Christ is the sole means of escape from that condemnation under the Law by His own perfect compliance with it, and His voluntary sacrifice of Himself for us; an immeasurably greater service. In reality, it is the difference between eternal death and eternal life.

For the recipients of this ancient letter (and for all who have been privileged to receive it through the centuries since first being written), to chose other than Christ is the same as choosing death. It does not matter what motivates that choice, be it pride, or tradition, or cultural bias, or love of sin and darkness. What matters ultimately is the result - eternal damnation.

Each unsaved human being lives life on the very brink of Hell from the age of accountability until physical death impels them over the threshold into agonizing torment forever. This is an increasingly unpopular doctrine, but popularity has nothing to do with anything once you have breathed your last in unbelief. Whether you like it or not, Hell is the destiny of all who have chosen to reject the free gift of salvation.

No amount of self-propelled goodness will help. No amount of sincerity will mitigate the tragic and unending punishment.

The pardon from this unthinkable outcome is clearly available and freely given without strings attached if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.

This means never letting go of Christ and the hope He gave His divine life to provide. This means never slipping back into the old ways and old beliefs, whatever they may be. This means that we abide as branches in the vine, which is Christ, knowing full well that there will be militant temptation to let go. This means understanding what the end will be, life everlasting.

Our faith is guaranteed to be tested. Life on earth does that routinely, sometimes severely, but we must purpose ahead of time to remember that our confidence is not based on our ability, but on His ability to keep us. 

He promises to do that very thing; to complete that good work He has begun in us; to deliver us blameless before the Father on that Day of Judgment; to wash us clean of all unrighteousness so that we can stand before our Holy Creator without spot or blemish.

What does it matter if you gain the world before the end of your life, but lose your soul?

What does it matter how well-liked you may be, or how successful, or how friendly you are with the world, if by refusing the truth, it all vanishes at death and is replaced by unimaginable despair?

To chose to follow other than Christ, perhaps your self, or some philosophy, or some institutionalized religious tradition, is to chose your own horrible fate.

Following Christ and holding onto Him is the only sane and rational course of action.

Anything else - ANYTHING else - is to sign your own death warrant with no hope of reprieve or clemency.

Christ is God

For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God. (Hebrews 03:03-04, NKJV).

Biblical Christianity insists that Christ is God; more precisely that Christ is the Son of God, the Second Person of the Triune Godhead. This is a great mystery, and it took some time to formulate after the church was born on that momentous Feast of Pentecost, but it was and is the clear teaching of Scripture, with the verses in view here being one of the many instances.

The formulation took awhile, not because it wasn't obvious, but because it was. The apostles were more concerned with living out their faith than with constructing the formal systematic theology contained in some of our venerable Creeds today, but the foundation of those Creeds are within the infallible words of the Biblical text itself. And always has been.

Paul, Peter, John, James, and the other pillars of the early church were planted firmly on the Foundation, which is Christ, and they taught and wrote incontrovertibly that Christ is God, but it was conveyed as naturally as breathing, and nothing like a seminary class with syllabus and official lectures.

That only became necessary in the church after that first generation passed away, and the message of the pure and simple gospel became infiltrated with later thinking. Anticipated heresies arose, faded, and arose again, and these required formal refutation. The cyclic attacks of the enemy on the Person of Christ is the fundamental strategy for undermining the Christian faith, and will have its most nefarious and tragic results in these Last Days, culminating in the ascension of one who will be hailed as Christ, but will in fact be what the Bible calls, The Antichrist.

None of this surprises a believer who has as the foundation of his faith the Word of God rather than the mere words of mortal men, or philosophical systems, or institutions of science, or even diluted faith-statements of some churches. Make no mistake, the whole planet will be deceived by the coming of this ultimate heretic, and he will be empowered to present himself in an irresistible fashion to those who have not received the love of the truth.

Ironically, it may be the largest and most influential churches in today's world that will lead the way to having this Antichrist heralded as the globe's savior, for many modern denominations promulgate a foggy vision of Christ, obscuring His divine origins and nature, and substituting the true gospel for a socio-ecological one; where no one is or can be saved, and works of conscience and informed civility are the basis for assuaging the undeniable, unacknowledged, and therefore unrequited inherent guilt of the Fall.

As bleak as this prospect is, it is only fitting because it is human pride that always and only causes rejection of the Gospel of Christ. When God is removed from the throne of an individual's life, any fool or demon can take His rightful place, and all Hell inevitable enters in.

The earliest Christians suffered under this temptation as well, but more organically, and with more immediacy. The writer of Hebrews included the passages above to remind his audience gently, graciously, of Christ's superiority over Moses with this subtle, yet profound statement of Christ's deity with the phrases, He who built the house and He who built all things is God.

Moses you see, was counted worthy of glory as a member of the house of God. As such, the Law-giver wielded historic influence over the Children of Israel, leading them through the Wilderness and delivering to them the Law of God, through which they fulfilled the Father's plan to be His witnesses to the world.

His veneration by the Jews ever since was a result of his tremendous impact. But in comparison to Christ, Moses was a mere household slave. “And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. (John 8:35, NKJV). Thus Christ, as Son, was in a much higher position.

But the writer does not stop there, He identifies Christ as not just the Son of the House but its builder, as well.  Further, he equates the "house of God" to all of existence itself (all things), and reveals that the builder of all things is God.

To hold Moses, a man, in more reverence than Christ, the Son of God, is to worship the creature rather than the Creator.

Judaism has been fulfilled in Christ. Everything about its ancient rituals, ceremonies, and practices pointed to, and were completed in Christ. The Law represented His righteousness. The Tabernacle and Temple, His embodiment as a Man. The sacrifices were symbolic foreshadowings of the shedding of His blood to not merely cover, but take away the sin of the world. And through that propitiation, providing those who believe eternal life.

To hold to Moses and reject Christ is the equivalent of mistaking a photograph for the reality it pictures.

For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:17, NKJV).

Christ: Apostle and High Priest

Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house. (Hebrews 03:01-02, NKJV).

Chapter 3 in Hebrews begins by addressing believers, holy brethren. In this exquisite epistle it is important to keep the specific audiences in view in order to enable proper interpretation with some ostensibly troubling passages, that is, troubling from the sense of instilling fear in us. But we are not there yet.

These verses call to mind not fear, but continued contemplation of the excellence of the Lord Christ. Because He has become one of us, to suffer for us, and transform our unworthiness into his impeccable worth, we are to therefore consider Him in such a way as to contemplate His faithful and obedient character. 

This exhortation is addressed to those who are partakers of the heavenly calling. The same word translated partakers is used later in Hebrews in the context of sample or taste. But here, in conjunction with holy brethren, it is best to view it as a reference to those who are become wholly committed to that specific heavenly calling, the gospel message.

In that regard, Christ Jesus is the Apostle of that calling, the One sent out from heaven itself with the invitation to believe and be saved from sin. He is also the High Priest, the intermediary between fallen mankind and a Holy God for those who are of the confession of truth within the whole counsel of God. And not for those only, but High Priest for the whole world, for as Old Testament priests rendered judgment for disobedience, so too one day will the Son.

The first two chapters of this marvelous book was spent examining Christ's superiority to the angels, and now we begin looking at Him in comparison to Moses. Mosaic reverence by the Jews bordered on worship. Recall from the gospel accounts how the Pharisees claimed allegiance to Moses while accusing Christ-followers of blasphemous treachery in venerating Jesus over the Law-giver. Falling back into the old ways was a great temptation for Jewish members of the early church, and the writer of Hebrews wanted them (and us) to know how much greater Jesus is in every way.

How gracious is it of God to take such care in revealing the truth to combat those areas wherein we are the weakest. Where we have the most doubts, He provides the greatest assurance. Where we are are the most likely to stumble, He provides the greatest exhortations to be steadfast.

Yet, we are to believe nothing without examining the evidence, and reasoning from the Scriptures is as natural as breathing. In presenting Moses to the world 1400 years before the Incarnation, God showed us a foreshadowing of the ultimate Deliverer, His Son, but the danger is the tendency to discard the new in favor of the old and safe. For Jews, leaving the comfortable and familiar system of Judaism for Christianity is fraught with peril on many levels, but only by according Christ His rightful place is the Law really fulfilled.

Note how gently the argument begins, attributing the same kind of faithful obedience to Christ as to Moses, yet the writer cannot stop there. He must go on in his exposition of the superiority of Christ, and he will do so masterfully in the following verses. For now, though, we are concerned with looking a bit more deeply at three additional points in this passage.

The first is again the phrase, our confession, which is homologia (hom-ol-og-ee'-ah) in Greek. It literally means to say the same thing. In this context it means to say the same things about God and man and salvation that is conveyed  by the Holy Spirit-inspired Biblical authors. God is holy. Men are fallen. Salvation is through faith alone in Christ alone. The works of the Law do not save, they condemn, for the requirement is perfect obedience, and failing at any one point is failing all.

This is why Jesus' statement in His Sermon on the Mount was so very radical. “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5:48, NKJV). All of Jewish culture and history, its very existence as a nation, was founded on obedience to the Law, which was given to both confirm God's perfect holiness, and man's utter inability to satisfy  that holiness. The Law was a tutor to bring its pupils to Christ. The apparently radical graduation from that venerable centuries-old classroom into the solemn world of complete dependence on Christ's finished work is a deeply significant challenge to all mankind, but especially to those who have a long history of trusting in their own works.

Part of this confession then is a precedent-shattering admission of helpless and hopeless guilt. Without it, there is no true faith in the Savior because total reliance on Him is obstructed by stubborn self-reliance; an eternally fatal mistake, yet a remarkably strong temptation nonetheless.

The second follow-up point is this: Christ was appointed Savior. He was the only One worthy and capable of fulfilling that role, but He did not take it upon Himself for it was the Father who gave Him the command, and in profound filial obedience and love, He carried out the directive flawlessly and at immeasurable personal expense.

And the final point is embodied in this phrase, in all His house. Moses, we will discover, was a servant in the household of God. Christ is the Son and heir, a far more significant position.

In fact, a position so much more significant that once accepted, it would be logically impossible to account them equal ever again.

The Temptation and Suffering of Christ

For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham. Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted. (Hebrews 02:16-18, NKJV).

A few years back, there was a horrible, dull, and blasphemous motion picture entitled, The Last Temptation of Christ. It is not worth writing about other than to say emphatically this has nothing to do with that movie.

It is instead about the fact of Christ having to suffer in order to give us aid.

That word, aid, is interesting. One of its roots means, to rescue from peril. Keep that in mind as we unveil yet even more of Hebrew's glorious portrait of our Savior's surpassing excellence. 

The first point to consider is that angels are given no chance for redemption. We know from Scripture that one-third of the angelic hosts allied themselves with Lucifer when He rebelled against God sometime prior to the creation of mankind. These beings, since called unholy angels, or demons, have been confirmed in their rebellious choice forever. 

Like their master, Satan, these are destined inevitably for eternal residence in the Lake of Fire in Outer Darkness. Wherever and whatever that destination is literally, we know from the texts that it is a place of eternal, excruciating, and conscious torment.

Jesus did not sacrifice Himself for them. Nor did He become one of them in order to fully communicate God's holiness and love in terms that they could not fail to understand. It makes a terrible kind of sense, really. The angels who attempted to become like the Most High, essentially desiring to usurp His divine sovereignty, dwelt with God face to face, seeing Him fully with perfect understanding before they declared war against Him.

Not only did they sin willfully with full knowledge of what they were doing, but their sin of pride far exceeded that of Adam's. Our First Forebear was guilty not of trying to overthrow God from the Throne of the Universe, but of attempting to set himself up as ruler over his own human life. Thus, a crime vastly different in terms of knowledge, scope, and intent.

Do not think that I am listing the reasons why redemption was for one versus the other. I am only speculating based on what Scripture reveals, which is this: fallen angels are doomed beyond hope; fallen man is not because Christ came to to rescue us from peril.

Now because Hebrews is most likely addressed to Jewish Christians dispersed after the fledgling church suffered its initial persecution and dispersal, the writer refers to mankind as the seed of Abraham. This of course does not only mean genetic descendants of Abraham, but those also who are children of Abraham by faith. That includes us Gentile believers. Nor, I think, does this limit the rescue chronologically only to those who came after him, but is applied to all those who died in faith from the Garden onward.

Now God ordained that because Adam sinned, mankind was cursed. Only through payment of that sin by the death of a sinless One, could that curse be lifted. Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren.

Note that - in all things. Christ is fully human, somehow miraculously taking into Deity, humanity. Jesus demonstrated His complete identification with, and understanding of, mankind by becoming our merciful and faithful High Priest, a role established nearly 15 centuries before to foreshadow the aid that He would so graciously provide. The High Priest of Ancient Israel was the final mediator between man and God. 

His sacred function was to faithfully represent God to mankind, and mankind before God. He was to be holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners. Christ met these qualifications flawlessly. Beyond that, as fully human, He also suffered temptation. 

Of precisely what kind we know only a few details, and specifically only about those used by Satan to entice Him from fulfilling His redemptive mission as a Man - being wholly dependent and submissive to the Father.

Of the rest of His trials we can only speculate, but we have no reason to believe that they were any less intense than those suffered by His human brethren. In fact, there is good reason to believe that they were worse. Imagine the anguish and pain that temptation to sin visits upon a perfectly righteous Man. What we routinely succumb to with little struggle or hesitation, He resisted fully, completely, and continually. That is why later in Hebrews we read this:

For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. (Hebrews 12:3, 4, NKJV).

But He did.

I firmly believe His suffering on our behalf is beyond what we can truly comprehend on all levels of our existence, but while the Bible mentions these aspects of the miraculous deliverance He rendered, it does not dwell on them. The descriptions we are privy to are brutal, yet concise; matter-of-fact, yet deeply moving.

The two most profound things we can know with regard to Christ's temptation and suffering was that He voluntary submitted to these out of obedience to the Father and love for for us.

Remember that the next time you have cause to cry out to God that the circumstances of your life are beyond what you can bear. 

He knows what it feels like. He has been there.

Remember that the next time you are unfairly accused or reviled. 

That too, He knows from experience.

However much we may hold angels in awe, they did not receive this kind of love and sacrifice from God.

However highly He regards them, it could be argued that He hold us in even more regard. Perhaps that is why our salvation is something that even the angels desire to look into and understand.

And above all remember one more thing with wordless awe and gratitude, less we think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think.

[That] God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8, NKJV).

Pride is what felled Satan. It is the ancestor of all other sin.

We must resist it with all we have in us, perhaps even unto bloodshed, either physically or emotionally, knowing that whatever trials we undergo, we have a High Priest who suffered as we are, yet without sin.

Fear of Death

Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Hebrews 02:14-15, NKJV).

Through death Christ destroyed him who had the power of death and released those who through fear of death were subject to bondage; bondage to sin, bondage to death, and bondage to fear.

This is a powerful statement revealing what is perhaps the most unexpected insight into the surprising realm of Christian paradox. First we must look closely at the introductory declaration here - that because the children (us) were flesh and blood, He (the Savior) became likewise.

There was no other way for God to save. It was known from before the foundation of the world that the Lamb of God would be slain as a sacrifice to redeem His ultimate creature, us. To be subject to the penalty for our sin He had to become like us, flesh and blood… and mortal. For mortal means exactly that, subject to death.

And that Incarnation and sacrifice was the driving force behind all God's interaction with mankind from Creation forward. The curse of sin, the expulsion from the Garden, the pains of child birth, the necessity of work to sustain life rather than receive freely the supply of life from the Father, the institution of sacrifices, the Law, all of Jewish and Gentile history - everything - pointed to that preordained moment when death, by death, would die.

To understand the meaning of death, we need to view it for what it is - the last enemy. Please, enough with this foolishness about death being a natural part of the Cosmic Circle of Life. 

It is, and always has been, an offense; the ultimate offense. Prior to the entrance of sin into the world, no creature with nephesh  (or soul) died (Genesis 1:30). Every child knows this intuitively from the moment he can think his own thoughts until he is brainwashed to think otherwise by the elders and the world around him.

The propaganda is never completely integrated, though. There is a part of every human soul that screams in rage and fear at the thought of death, and until Christ came and defeated it by dying, we were held captive by that fear, as a species and as individuals.

It is no small thing that one of the earliest extra-Biblical descriptions of the infant church was that its members no longer feared death. While they did not seek it, when faced with it, they demonstrated a peace that passed human understanding. Throughout the last 2000 years, Christian martyrs drenched in the marvelous grace of God confronted imminent demise with something very closely resembling joy. Some even sang hymns of praise to their God for deeming them worthy to suffer for His sake.

Of course, modern thought would render this reaction dysfunctional or delusional, but modern thought is far from infallible.

It could be argued, of course, that not just Christians have conquered their fear of death. Warriors and heroes throughout time have been heralded for valiantly going forward into certain death for honor, or a noble cause, or in defense of those weaker than themselves. But that's the point. These were warriors conditioned by training and tendency to enter into such realms. The rest of us with less martial bents, are left trembling in the corner desperately seeking escape.

And for us the conquest of death was not ours but Christ's victory on our behalf. And that too, is the point.

You see, the unbelieving but courageous warrior must steel himself to face this final enemy, and his fiercest purpose is to defeat it yet one more time, and if he fails he is defeated. Death has dominion over him.

Not so with us. Death for us has no dominion because it was defeated by the Lord on the Cross. Our soul may be separated for a time from our physical body in death, but our soul in Christ is forever united with Life Itself, thus the penalty of sin, eternal separation from God, is no longer in force.

And in being freed from the curse of death by the forgiveness of our sins through Christ's loving sacrifice we are truly free. 

Free because we know this world is not our home, but simply a place of sojourn until we reach the place of our true citizenship. 

Free because all this world can do is kill our bodies. It has no power over the life within. 

Free because the enticements of this life are nothing in comparison with the rewards of the next. 

Free because whatever may befall us here is temporary, eventually to be supplanted but something infinitely better and eternal.

But our freedom was not free. It came at an inconceivable cost paid by our Lord and King. We were held ransom by him who had the power of death, that is the devil. Yet our Master paid that ransom without hesitation, and by so doing He set us free, forever defeating the enemy of our souls.

It is worthwhile at this juncture to list some of the eternally powerful paradoxes of the Christian faith. All of these are because of Christ, and while at first blush they appear counterintuitive, the brilliant logic of them can be seen in the light of the current fallen and degrading world system.

The only way to gain your life is to lose it, since he who loves his life in this world cannot retain it in the next; only he who hates this current life has the proper perspective and priority.

• "He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. (John 12:25, NKJV). 
• “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. (Matthew 16:25, NKJV).

He who is greatest among you is servant of all.

• And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.” (Mark 9:35, NKJV).

Only the humble will be exalted.

• Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. (James 4:10, NKJV).

The most profound profit to be had in the Christian life is from loss. Only Christians truly profit from trials because it teaches us that the temporal is worthless in the light of eternity.

• My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. (James 1:2-4, NKJV).

The best life is that lived by faith, not by sight.

• while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18, NKJV).

In view of the love that Christ desires to evoke within us, everything else is hate in comparison.

• “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. (Luke 14:26, NKJV).

So this conquering of death through death should not surprise us too much. It aligns with much of the rest of Christian truth, and I think it enables us to look a little more deeply into the mind of our God, who seems to delight in ensuring that we can never put him into a conceptual box of our own design. He is only and always utterly unique, and not tame at all.

But He is good, and His love for us, and His majestic care for us, is revealed yet again in this glorious epistle.

Oneness

For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying: “I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You.” And again: “I will put My trust in Him.” And again: “Here am I and the children whom God has given Me.” (Hebrews 02:11-13, NKJV).

Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Some days I can understand that better than others. I can only imagine what it meant for the all-powerful Son of God to live life as a dependent Man and look upon the poignant mixture of beauty and horrible evil in this world. A bright, sunny, cloudless day filled with death and loss. The impossibly discordant juxtaposition between what could be versus what is, all viewed through the eyes of omniscience.

C.S. Lewis has rightly written that mortal life is mostly discomfort interspersed with moments of ecstatic joy and depthless sorrow. Of all men alive on the world, Jesus must have known that more completely than any other. To have come from Heaven to earth as a Man must have been the longest, most inconceivable journey undertaken by Deity in history. And as a Man He suffered more than any other precisely because He had intimate knowledge of the shocking contrast between the fallen world and the majesty of Heaven.

The writer of Hebrews informs us that both the sanctifier (Christ) and the sanctified (pitiable us) are all of one; brethren. It is an astounding claim, supported by the prophecies cited from Psalm 22 and Isaiah 8 that immediately follow that incredible statement. Furthermore, while it is barely understandable that He became one of us, it is completely incomprehensible that He was unashamed to do so. Look at the world for just a moment through the eyes of a sinless and perfect conscience - nothing pure or untainted; everything defiled and unclean. Even at our human best, our righteousness is as filthy rags.

Self-justifying evil, vile blasphemy against the God of Heaven, deeds and thoughts that surprises even the Devil himself - and that's just among believers. And yet, and yet, He became one with us, entered into the sewer of our existence without hesitation or apology all to save us from our sins.

There is a real danger of something being repeated so often that it becomes trite and meaningless. That is why it is sometimes the job of a writer or teacher to use unaccustomed words to convey an old truth. God became a Man is an old truth that easily falls into that category simply because it has been said more or less in the same way for 2000 years. It is a hallmark of our depravity that we can lose sight of what that really means.

Look at it this way - how would you like to be sentenced to living in close proximity to a homeless drunk eating and sleeping in his own filth? Or confined to the court of an amoral and ruthless tyrant who routinely persecutes and kills his hapless subjects? Or as an unwilling witness to inhuman debauchery? Or as an innocent inmate of Death Row? 

These are lame and inadequate pictures of what it meant for Christ to self-identify with man and live among us as one of us. Nevertheless, to those torturous images you must add the power to exact perfect retribution for all those evils with a mere thought of divine power deliberately un-exercised. And to that, add to it your own inevitable death sentence at the hands of these vile creatures by the most excruciating and humiliating means available.

And even at this point we are not nearly done, because the impetus for all this voluntary degradation is the purest and most noble imaginable and yet will be disregarded or purposely defamed by the vast majority of those for whom it was intended to benefit.

And the capstone is this - by becoming one of these creatures you have no chance of escape. You will be one of these men forever.

God becoming one with man was at a cost I doubt we will ever fathom and for a motive we can only describe but can never fully comprehend. His divine love.

To say that Christ loved us so much that He is willing to do anything for us is the understatement of eternity. We have no clue about that kind of love from our own personal experience in what we blithely call love. Even the purest human love is a cesspool in comparison.

I think sometimes our view of the Savior is rife with romantic blather brought about by our stubborn need to think that we are somehow worth all that expense. In truth, our intrinsic worth is utterly imaginary.

What value we have comes to us only through His imputation. We have value because He insists we do. Our price is set, fittingly so, by the One who made us. That He considers us worth dying for is the mystery of the ages, but that is the price tag He has affixed to us.

However inexplicable, His oneness with us means more than all the Universe itself, or all the lofty thoughts or deeds that humankind could ever think or achieve.

In that regard, His oneness with us is perhaps His greatest and most surprising gift.

Author of Salvation

For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. (Hebrews 02:10, NKJV).

There are multiple points about this verse that strike me.

Note the phrase, For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory. This is, of course, a reference to the Father's Plan of Redemption, and within it are contained the following truths: 

First, that it was fitting, or natural, or expected, or utterly sensible, for the Father to make Jesus the propitiation of His own justice for the sins of the world. This is an astounding statement about God's indescribable character. The writer of Hebrews is saying, in effect, that because our God is the epitome of goodness and love and grace and mercy, then it follows that He would inevitably provide His beloved Son to do what we could not do to bring us to glory. 

That is His desire, to be with us in glory, and He gave His Son to the Cross to make that possible. He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how could He not also freely give us all things? That is how the Apostle Paul described the very same idea.

Secondly, this gracious Father is the very same Person for whom and by whom are all things. It is not some angel or other heavenly subordinate that came up with this unfathomable plan and carried it out, but the Omnipotent Creator Himself. This should shock you. Our redemption was of such primary importance to God, that He took care of it personally. He declared Himself responsible and accountable for it. It was at His instigation that the Son was given and crucified.

Thirdly, that His goal was to purchase us out of the slavery of sin and death and bring us to glory. Rebellious mankind, steeped in disgrace and enmity against God, was, and is, a remarkable focus of His love. He wants us with Him, and will spare no expense, not even His Son, to make that possible.

Note also this jewel, the captain of their salvation. As the first is a reference to the Father, this is a reference to Christ. The word translated captain can also mean leader and author. Taking all three connotations together we get this equally remarkable insight into the inestimable character of the Son. He is the One who set His face like flint  to go to the Cross and complete the work the Father had given Him to do. As such, He lead the way, and commanded the means of our redemption - faith in His voluntary sacrifice on our behalf. 

More than that, Christ is the one who wrote large in history the very concept of divine sacrifice, something we could not have devised in a million, billion years - God Himself dying to make eternal life available to his self-worshiping creatures. This was an act so unexpectedly heroic, noble and gracious that tears of amazement and gratitude should well up within us for the rest of eternity.

In light of this, I believe the question in regard to God's justice is not, as is often asked, How can He condemn unrepentant sinners to an eternity of torment? But is instead, How could He lay down His own glorious and sinless life for such as us? We do nothing to earn everlasting life. He does it all. Christ is both the author and finisher of our faith.

And finally this - how does the unblemished, unstained, and divine Son of God lack any perfection so that the Father had to perfect Him through suffering? In what was He lacking, and for what purpose did He require perfecting?

The answer to these questions illuminates even more of the glory and superiority of Christ, which is the overriding theme of Hebrews, and it is this: to be the payment for our sin, to become the perfect sacrifice, He had to suffer. This is the same as an innocent animal's blood being shed as a temporary covering for sin, but on an infinite larger scale. For Christ to be the means of our redemption, He had to suffer and die.

As God, He could do neither.

Only as the Son of Man on the Cross could He complete the work, and be made our perfect and effective once-for-all sacrifice.

Think for a moment about what this says of the beauty of our Savior… and the indelible ugliness of our sin.

Then let your heart sing with joy inexpressible that we were considered worthy of such extravagant love and grace, and bow down and worship in gratitude and awe the great God of our Salvation.

Gracious Death

For He has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels. But one testified in a certain place, saying: “What is man that You are mindful of him, Or the son of man that You take care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, And set him over the works of Your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet.” For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. (Hebrews 02:05-09, NKJV).

Death is the last enemy. It is the inevitable result of sin's curse. All other evils in the world are trumped by this one thing, and all sin leads irrevocably to it. Most of the frenetic, irrational scrambling into sinful behavior is a direct result of either running from or denying death. 

Fear of death is inescapable bondage. It is a burden that plagues all men for all their life until, in helpless and hopeless defeat, the implacable enemy triumphs and death wins out.

Some hope with all their rebellious hearts that this death is the mere blinking out of consciousness, the door of sensation and thought slamming shut forever, whereby the end of earthly life is annihilation.

It is not. 

Vaporous temporal life on this planet is simply the precursor to another kind of consciousness. Rather than an ending, it is just the beginning. And the real curse of death is not the physical cessation of life, but the eternal separation of consciousness from God. Thought, feeling and existence do not end at death's threshold, but the opportunity for salvation does. 

Once we die in trespasses and sins, we are transported to a place as far removed from an omnipresent God as it is possible to go. Its is no accident that this place is described from ancient times as outer darkness, as a lake of fire, as where the worm never dies, as where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth… forever.

The real curse of death is not annihilation, but eternal torment.

Yet, it is so like our God to use the very means of implementing the curse to negate it.

If you know anything at all about the crucifixion of Christ you know that its purpose was to make propitiation for the sin of the world. By His sinless death, the debt of sin, payable only by a soul dying, was satisfied once and for all, for all who believe. By the Father forsaking the Son in His death on the Cross, Jesus suffered for us that eternal separation from the very Source of Life that is our due.

That is why the Bible tells us that He who knew no sin became sin for us, so that we could become His righteousness in Him.

Christ's sojourn into death conquered death. It was the ultimate act of grace.

By His death we died to sin. By His resurrection, we live.

"Because I live, you will live also," He told His disciples.

His Incarnation as a Man a little lower than the angels was for the suffering of death, so that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.

No other Man could have died on behalf of another's sin, for every other man deserves death for his own sin. It was only by the Sinless One's sacrifice that sin, and the curse of sin, could be eliminated from Existence.

This is an equation that only God could devise.

It is an act that only His obedient Son could have carried out.

By dying in our place, He killed death, conquering it completely for those who accept His death on their behalf.

So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:54-57, NKJV).

This one death, immeasurably profound and gracious, freed the Universe from Death itself.

Therefore, to die physically in unbelief is a tragedy beyond comprehension, made infinitely more so by its utter senselessness.

Christ commuted our sentence of death by suffering it for us. He who declared the penalty for our sin, also paid it. 

All He requires of us is faith.

But We See Jesus

For He has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels. But one testified in a certain place, saying: “What is man that You are mindful of him, Or the son of man that You take care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, And set him over the works of Your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet.” For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. (Hebrews 02:05-09, NKJV).

We do not yet see the world to come or the crown of glory and honor which is our destiny, but we see Jesus.

In John 6, those who heard of the miraculous feeding of the multitudes literally ran the circumference of the Sea of Galilee to seek the One promised from the beginning.

In John 12, the Hellenistic Jews who had come to the Passover Feast implored Andrew and Phillip, "Sirs, we wish to see Jesus!"

So many from the crowds in Jerusalem thronged the streets in order to see the Son of David, the Messiah, as He rode triumphantly into the City. Shortly thereafter, many from the mob did indeed see Him as He hung from the Cross in payment for their sins.

Seeing Jesus is the crucial starting point of our transformation from children of darkness to children of Light. Seeing Jesus is the linchpin to understanding God's boundless love and mercy toward His rebellious creation. It connects the entire Plan of Redemption from the Fall in Eden to the Restoration of All Things.

Jesus Christ is the central figure of human history. He is our model, our forerunner, the anchor of our souls. He is the veil torn in two opening the way into the Presence of God. He is all these things precisely because He was first made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death.

He became a partaker of flesh and blood so that we could identify with Him, and He could die. He, who was the Executor of Creation, the very Word of God, who created the angels, took upon Himself a physical nature lower than the angels so that He could be murdered… and we could live.

This is loving, purposeful and obedient humiliation beyond our comprehension. It is the fulfillment of His role as the Good Shepherd who calls our name and goes before us. All that we were required to do and could not, He voluntarily did in our place.

We are to follow in His footsteps, dying to self and to our sinful nature, being crucified with Him, to be raised in glory and honor. To believe otherwise is to misunderstand the plan of God from before the foundations of the earth.

How does eternal God die? He dies by love.

How does the Sovereign God learn obedience? By the things which He suffered.

I don't think we can begin to comprehend who we are in Christ until we really see Jesus.

All that we can get during the present age is the merest glimpse, but that is sufficient to make us new, to create in us a new heart, to make us into a different and infinitely better creature.

For that to happen, He had to become one of us, in every respect except for sin.

In Him, we are more than we know because He is more than we can possibly understand.

Being human is no small thing. It is no accident. Our human lives were purchased by the most costly thing imaginable - the death of God on the Cross.

In order to see ourselves the way the Father sees us, and then to live our lives accordingly, we must first see Jesus.

Any by His becoming flesh and living among us, He made what was otherwise unthinkable - knowing God - supremely possible.

And by His suffering of death, He made what was utterly impossible - our redemption - a free gift.

And all of this, for all eternity, is just the beginning of seeing Him in all His glory.

Crowned with Glory and Honor

For He has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels. But one testified in a certain place, saying: “What is man that You are mindful of him, Or the son of man that You take care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, And set him over the works of Your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet.” For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. (Hebrews 02:05-09, NKJV).

While at the present time, angels may be considered superior to humans (but inferior to Christ), ultimately it is not angels who will rule with Christ, but humans.

Whether we like it or not, we are the pinnacle of God's Creation. We are made in His image, His Son became one of us, and our intended destiny is to be crowned with glory and honor and given dominion.

If you are mystified by this grandeur of purpose you are not alone. King David marveled at it as well. If it does not at least give you some pause, you are just not paying attention.

Look around at the pitiful state of humanity today - bickering, bloody, greedy, selfish, self-aggrandizing, arrogant, rebellious, blasphemous, and idiotic in the extreme. That's us. That's who we are.

Yet we are guaranteed not to remain this way because Christ became a Man to redeem those who believe in Him. While we have not yet received the full inheritance of His sinless righteousness and glory, we have the down payment of the Holy Spirit within us. One day we will be worthy of the destiny God has prepared for us from the beginning. We will finally fulfill the job our forefather Adam was given and forfeited - dominion over the created realm.

I know there are some who might read this who are scandalized. What hubris! What species-centricity!

I get that. I do. 

We are living in an age where there is serious debate about pet discrimination and granting rights to inanimate objects. We find ourselves being relegated to existential equality with all life and every form of life. The argument, in the end, boils down to a deep-seated hatred of the human species. In short, the world would be just swell without us big brained apes. Or at least, without most of us big-brained apes.

But that is not how God, our omnipotent Creator, views us. We are, instead, His masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works which He prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. That we are of infinite value and worth to Him is proven by the debt He sent His beloved Son to pay on our behalf. Christ died in our place so that we could fill our divine purpose in Creation.

You may not like that, but it's the truth, and there will be a day in the future when it will become undeniable, even to the most rabid animal rights advocate or earth-worshipper. In the darkness in which our race now abides it may make sense to worship the creature rather than the Creator, but the DayStar is rising, and His light will reveal that for the utter foolishness it is.

This means something now, though, too.

C.S. Lewis, that unique Christian Apologist of the last century, made this statement:

"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare."

How then are we to live and behave toward one another, given our intended elevation on the one hand, or unthinkable degradation on the other?

We are NOT mere animals. We are immortals in the making, not yet fully cooked, but certainly containing all the necessary ingredients to be the most sublime or profane beings imaginable.

For those of us who have already sworn allegiance to the Coming King, our primary role is that of an Ambassador, graciously representing the interests, authority and majesty of our beloved Sovereign so that those who have yet to choose sides may be persuaded to align themselves with Him.

For those who are our implacable enemies, beware. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God, for our God is a Consuming Fire.

If you think in yourself that you are worth something, you are sadly mistaken. If you think you are a mere accidental resident of time and space, your mistake is that much greater.

Your are an Image Bearer, made for an inconceivably glorious purpose by an unimaginably glorious God.

Fulfill your destiny by faith, or receive your sentence of damnation.

The choice is yours. There is no middle ground.

The World to Come

For He has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels. But one testified in a certain place, saying: “What is man that You are mindful of him, Or the son of man that You take care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, And set him over the works of Your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet.” For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. (Hebrews 02:05-09, NKJV).

This world is ending. Everybody senses it. Some respond through denial, others through a renewed effort to save and remake the world system in their own image via legislation, or climate management, or imposition of this or that social, political or cultural paradigm. Still others imagine they have determined the very day and hour and have reacted by casting that date in concrete and imploring others to behave accordingly as imminent and impending destruction is at hand.

For centuries, faithful Bible expositors have studied and taught from the prophecies of the Old and New Testaments, declaring without equivocation that when the last days are upon us Israel will be in the land once more, Jerusalem will become a cup of trembling to the whole world, nations will war against nations, perilous times will come spiritually, natural and supernatural disasters will abound, men will be lovers of themselves rather than lovers of God, and a great apostasy will occur.

All these things are uniquely in place today, and have been since that fateful establishment of the modern Jewish nation on May 14,1948. In this era, as in no other before it, mankind is capable of destroying the planet, and to broadcast that destruction live throughout the globe, in precise fulfillment of ancient Biblical prophecies. It is a sobering time to be alive.

Here in Hebrews, however, little emphasis is given to the actual events involved in the end of this world, but to the inauguration of the next. In this continuation of the writer's polemic on the superiority of Christ to angels, he launches into a discussion of the future era of earth and heavenly history which will be subject, not to angels, but to glorified humanity. But do not pass over too quickly the inevitability of the world to come.

Are you holding tightly onto the things of this present age? Your career? Your family? Your nation? Your politics? Your things? Your retirement? Your future? If so, beware, these, like your mortal earthly life, are coming to an end. And sooner rather than later.

This future era will be radically different from all prior human experience, but to bring it forth, the old world system must first go down in flames.

The chronology is straightforward. The church will be taken up, and the remainder of unbelieving humanity will attempt, and fail, to cope with calamitous global events. Wars, famine, plagues, financial implosion, signs in the heavens and seas; catastrophe after catastrophe will explode across the planet. A leader will arise who will deceive the world into following him like a god, a false savior. For a short time, he will seem to succeed, cementing his rule, and causing him to succumb to the diabolical impulse to establish himself as god, requiring mandatory worship and adoration, like an ancient pagan emperor of old.

In the end, after even more severe death and destruction, this false christ will also fail, and be defeated by the avenging forces of heaven, and the true Christ will return triumphantly to rule and reign for a thousand years from the throne of His father David in Jerusalem. And the glorified saints, those taken up as the church of God, the Bride of Christ, will rule and reign with Him for a 1000 years. Rather than co-regents, angels will be ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation.

And after the thousand years are finished there will be another final rebellion against God and His people, and this too shall inevitably fail, and [then] comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. (1 Corinthians 15:24, NKJV). 

So it is the world to come which will be everlasting and will not fade away. It is the world to come that should be the eagerly awaited focus of all believers today, not at the expense of this present world, but to set the current era in its proper perspective.

Whatever you have of material value will burn.

Whatever temporal priority you expend your energy upon is futile. 

If you are not laying up for yourselves treasures in heaven, then your time and efforts are futile and wasted.

What does this mean in a practical everyday sense?

It means people and relationships, which have the potential for being eternal, are of far more importance than anything else.

It means that what you do in the service of the Everlasting King is infinitely more significant than what you do for yourself.

It means that you are to set your minds on things above where your eternal citizenship lies, and not on the ephemeral things of this world which are passing away.

Examine your goals, your priorities, your desires, your focus, and cast aside those things which will not bear fruit in the world to come.

Live your life so that on that Day He will say to you with joy unspeakable, "Well done good and faithful servant. Enter into the Kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the world!"

Everything else - everything else - is rubbish.

Signs and Wonders

Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will? (Hebrews 02:01-04, NKJV).

According to Scripture, the purposes of divine supernatural events - those things we call signs, wonders and miracles - is to confirm the the truth of God's word. Every single such event recounted in the Bible is for that purpose, and while we would like them to occur more often, usually for our own benefit, existence would be utterly chaotic if that were the case.

Think about it. If God contravened His natural physical laws as the norm, rather than the exception, nothing in everyday life could be relied upon. Gravity, chemical reactions, the behavior of subatomic particles, the laws of cosmology and physics would all be up for grabs. It would be a nightmare of epic proportions. You could not protect yourself or your loved ones from the ensuing calamities. Nothing would be certain, not the solidity of the ground under your feet, the applicability of air to life, nor the behavior of any aspect of the natural world.

Furthermore, signs and wonders do not bring people to faith. This is shown throughout Scripture, but especially in the New Testament, where we are told repeatedly that miracles followed the preaching and teaching of the apostles. Faith came first and then supernatural confirmation as a gracious gift. Why does this not happen today? I believe it does, especially in those areas of the world where the Bible is not readily available.

In the last days, however, there will come an increase in supernatural activity. Unexplained phenomena will abound, but we are warned that these are lying signs and wonders to deceive; to distract people from the simple truth of the gospel.

I will not be surprised, if the Lord tarries, for undeniable reports of this type to become routine. In this age of instant digital dissemination, where even in the midst of tsunamis and murderous mayhem, videos can be uploaded instantly to the internet documenting inexplicable events for all to see, the world will become saturated and inoculated to the supernatural. So much so that those who do not love the truth will be given over to the lie.

Beware those who claim to exercise these gifts on demand, for gifts are what they are, distributed by the Holy Spirit according to His own will, not ours. Anyone who claims to be able to control such things, in and of themselves, are liars, or worse. Do not be deceived is the loving cry of the Bible, especially as the end approaches.

Know that as the Children of Israel wandered in the wilderness they were given benchmarks with which to measure any utterance of prophecy, or any sign or wonder. The test was not only that the foretelling must come to pass exactly, but that it must also not draw anyone away from God. He warned that He would allow His people to be exposed to such things as tests of their fealty to the true and living God.

This will be the case today, as well. Again, do not be deceived. Listen to these explicit warnings:

“For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. (Matthew 24:5, NKJV).

“Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. (Matthew 24:11, NKJV).

“For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. (Matthew 24:24, NKJV).

The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. (2 Thessalonians 2:9, 10, NKJV).

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: (2 Timothy 3:1, NKJV).

He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. (Revelation 13:13, 14, NKJV).

For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. (Revelation 16:14, NKJV).

The only certain remedy for deceit is immersion in the truth of God.