The Rope Around the High Priest’s Ankle

07 Saturday Mar 2015

Posted by memoirandremains in Leviticus, OT Background

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High Priest, Old Testament Background, Rope Around the Ankle, temple, William Varner

Have you ever heard it taught that when the Jewish High Priest entered the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur that he had a rope tied to his leg so that, if he died, he could be dragged out – since no one else could enter! I confess that I said it myself on a few occasions many years ago! But I always wondered if it was really true and, if it was a tradition, where it was first written down. For example, there was also a tradition that the scapegoat was named Azazel and that a red cord tied around the goat’s horn turned white if God had accepted his sacrifice for the people. I found those written traditions in Jewish Second Temple literature dating back at least to the first century AD.

And the answer is: http://drvarner.co/that-rope-around-the-high-priests-ankle-2/

Edward Taylor, Raptures of Glory.7

30 Friday May 2014

Posted by memoirandremains in Edward Taylor, Glory, Literature, Praise

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Crowns, Edward Taylor, Ephod, Eschatology, Exodus, glory, High Priest, Hope, poem, Poetry, Praise, Puritan Poetry

The previous post in this series may be found here:

Having seen the beauty of Christ and the coldness of his heart, Taylor prays that God would stir-up his heart. In this eighth stanza, Taylor uses an image which has no particular place in the Bible, but which would make sense of Taylor’s circumstances. His notebooks date the poem November 1685, in the midst of the Little Ice Age. You can almost feel the frozen poet trying to warm his body as he looks out on the winter snow and ice.

The stanza asks God to row golden oars to warm his heart. He seeks a flame which will melt the frozen lake [of his affections]. He calls God’s love the sun — which Taylor saw all too little in cold November.

Lord may thy priestly golden oars but make
A rowing in my lumpish heart, thou’lt see
My chilly numbed affections charm, and break
Out in rapid flame of love to thee.
Yea, they unto thyself will fly in flocks
When thy warm sun my frozen lake unlocks.

The next stanza requires some knowledge of the High Priest’s clothing. In Exodus 28, God sets out garments for the High Priest. He was required to wear a vestment decorated with precious stones. The names of the tribes of Israel were written on the stones, so that when Aaron (the first High Priest) came before The Lord, he would “bear their names before the Lord”:

9 You shall take two onyx stones, and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel,
10 six of their names on the one stone, and the names of the remaining six on the other stone, in the order of their birth.
11 As a jeweler engraves signets, so shall you engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel. You shall enclose them in settings of gold filigree.
12 And you shall set the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod, as stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel. And Aaron shall bear their names before the LORD on his two shoulders for remembrance.

Jesus, under the New Covenant, is final High Priest:

1 Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,
2 a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. Hebrews 8:1-2

His name is to be buried in the “pearly rocks” — the jewels upon the ephod. This is a reference to the doctrine that one who comes to true saving faith is counted by God as crucified with Christ (buried) and now alive with Christ:

3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Romans 6:3-4

Be thou my High Priest, Lord; and let my name
Lie in some grave dug in these pearly rocks
Upon thy ephod’s shoulders piece, like flame
Or graved in thy breat plate-gem: brave knops.
Thou’lt then me bear before thy Father’s throne
Rolled up in folds of glory of thine own.

The last stanza picks up another image of the eschatological hope of the Christian. First, he uses the image of a crown, which is a picture of the rewards to be received by those find in Christ (see, e.g., 1 Peter 5:4). He then addresses the glorious praise of those who see Christ in the end:

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, Hebrews 12:22

And:

6 And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
7 And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne.
8 And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
9 And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation,
10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”
11 Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands,
12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”
13 And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”
14 And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped. Revelation 5:6-14

One of these gems, I beg, Lord, that so well
Begrace thy breast plat, and thy ephod clever
To stud my crown therewith: or let me dwell
Among the their sparkling, glancing shades forever.
I’st then be decked in glory bright to sing
With angels Hallelujah to my King.

Edward Taylor: Raptures of Love.1

29 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in 2 Corinthians, Ascension, Christology, Edward Taylor, Jonathan Edwards, Joy, Literature, Love, Meditation

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2 Corinthians 5:14–15, ascension, Christ as High Priest, Edward Taylor, High Priest, Holy Spirit, Jonathan Edwards, joy, Literature, Meditation, poem, Poetry, Puritan Poetry, Raptures of Love, Union with Christ

Raptures of love, surprising loveliness,
That burst through heavens all, in rapid flashes,
Glances guilt o’re with smiling comeliness!
Wonders do palefac’d stand smit by such dashes.
Glory itself heartsick of love doth lie
Bleeding out love o’re loveless me and die.

Line 1:
Rather than begin with the expected iamb, the poem begins with an accented syllable: Raptures. (One might have expected something like “Now raptures”.) Taylor intends to convey the sensation of being startled.

Rapture is an interesting word because it means to grab something and transport it elsewhere. The love which Taylor sees does not merely stand before him like picture: it grabs hold of him. He does not merely see the “flashes” (line 2), he is being transported.

The Scripture makes plain that God’s love does stand idly outside of the human being, but rather the love of God in Jesus Christ must transform us:

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. 2 Corinthians 5:17.

Taylor puns on the word “love” by using it as a noun and as an adjective. The effect is to make “loveliness” mean more than mere delight — it is something which is attractive because it contains and conveys love.

Line 2:
“Heavens all”: Since the word “heaven” refers to the atmosphere, “outer space” and the place of God beyond the physical creation [heaven is not simply “far away”], the biblical writers will use the word “heavens” to refer to all three.

Jesus Christ at this time sits at the right hand of majesty on high (Hebrews 1:3). He is communicated to us by operation of the Holy Spirit.

Line 3
“Guilt o’re” covered in gold. The accented first syllable forces the movement forward in rapid fashion, thus the structure mirrors the content.

Line 4:
“Wonders” are looking on at the beauty of Christ the High Priest and feel shame and wonder.

Line 5:
Glory personified looks at the glory of Christ and falls lovesick. The image seems to be suggested by Canticles 5:8, “I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love.”

Line 6:
Taylor expresses the conflict of the saint who knows more than he feels. He knows that he should be as enraptured with the beauty of Christ as Wonder and Glory, but also sees that his affections are cold–thus, he is “loveless”.

It is strange and unfair that Puritans are thought to be dour, passionless people. While they openly condemned sin it was because sin is the cheat of joy and passion. Taylor, in full accord with Puritan teaching, hopes for greater passion and more love. The desire for passion and joy lay at the heart of Puritan teaching. Go to edwards.yale.edu and search for the words “beauty” (2480 entries) “joy” (3379).

Taylor will look upon his loveless in the 7th stanza (What strange congealed heart have I).

The last verb “die” is a bit ambiguous because the form is first person singular (die) not third person (dies). However, it seems best to understand Glory which is bleeding with love to be the subject who dies. The “wrong” form was dictated by the rhyme.

Jesus is Seated at the Right Hand of the Majesty

20 Wednesday Mar 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in affliction, Ascension, Christology, Fasting, Hebrews, Lord's Supper, Meditation, Preaching, Repentance

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1 John 3:4, 1 John 4:7–11, 1 Peter 1:13, 2 Corinthians 1:8–9, 2 Corinthians 5:15, Acts 1:4–11, ascension, christology, Colossians 3:1, Colossians 3:23–24, Colossians 3:2–3, Hebrews, Hebrews 1:1-4, Hebrews 1:3, Hebrews 3:1, Hebrews 9:24, High Priest, Isaiah 53:3, throne of grace

(notes on a sermon for March 24, 2013):

The Church of Jesus Christ begins with Jesus leaving. After the resurrection, Jesus lives with and teaches his disciples over the course of 40 days:

4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” Acts 1:4–11 (ESV)

Think of how crushed the disciples must have been. The Lord, the one who loved them and gave himself for them, was gone. They had depended upon him for years. They had lived with himm for years. When John was an old man, he wrote to a church about Jesus. John still remembered that he looked upon Jesus with his eyes, and had touched Jesus with his hands, and his ears had heard the very words of the Lord. Peter remembered that he had seen Jesus and had been with Jesus.

I too have had many friends leave. I know that I will not likely not see or hear or touch them again. It hurts to see a friend leave. Death has stolen people from me. There is too much loss in this world.

But to lose the Lord, to lose one’s dearest friend – that must have been an overwhelming grief. They had lost the Lord to death – but he returned in resurrection. Now, they had seemingly lost the Lord again. He would no longer be with them.

I can imagine standing there, looking into the sky, having no words to express my fear and sorrow and wonder. Even the promise of the angels may have seemed too little. Yes, he will return – but when? How long will I have to wait until I hear his voice again?

There is the birth place of the church – waiting for the Lord. We are like the wife in the Song of Solomon asking,

Have you seen him whom my soul loves?

Or, at least we should be.

But let us consider this truthfully. Too many Christians live as if Jesus is nice and all and heaven sounds good, but Jesus is gone. For many Christians, Jesus is an idea – not a man – certainly not “him whom my soul loves.”

In 2 Corinthians 5:15, Paul describes a Christian like this:

and he – that is Jesus — died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

Now you say, that describes you. Really?. Where he is just now? What he is doing? Do you want to know?

Jonathan Edward wrote a sermon called, “The Kind of Preaching People Want.” People want to know how to make their lives better. When someone comes into to see me for counseling about their marriage, they want to know how to make their life more pleasant – and I do feel sympathy for them. Their marriage has often made their life a matter of grief – sometimes even a matter of fear. Those are real problems.

But when I tell people that their real problem is a matter of living no longer for themselves but for Jesus, they often seem perplexed.

Consider the church at Philippi: A dispute had broken out between two women which threatened to destroy the church. How should Paul respond? He taught them about Jesus.

What did Peter do when Christians were collapsing under the weight persecution? He told them about Jesus – he also told the Christians that it is more important that they know and love Jesus than it is to avoid suffering. He told wives in bad marriages, that Jesus was more important than escaping their sorrow. He told servants that Jesus was more important than being physically mistreated. He told everyone that Jesus was so important that they were to respect the government, so that Jesus would receive glory when he returned. He told Christians that they must respond with faith toward God and love toward their enemies – because Jesus was that important.

When John wrote to churches suffering persecution, he explained that Jesus was more important than even being killed.

I could go through every letter and every command in the New Testament and prove the point.

Let me take just one simple example: Paul wrote to Colossae about how a servant should work. A servant must understand that when he is busy digging a hole that he must live for Jesus and act for Jesus – in fact, Jesus is involved in digging the hole:

23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. Colossians 3:23–24 (ESV)

Consider that command – in the midst of giving instructions to a servant, Paul mentions the Lord three times. He also brings up the return of Christ and the eternal state. He also draws the servant’s immediate work into direct relationship to Jesus, to show the servant that digging a hole or carrying water is a distinct act of worship to God.

Go back and read through anything in the NT: even the most “practical” passages, commands about family life or work are stuffed with references to Jesus and worship.

Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church

Your real problem is not your “practical” problem. Your real problem is that you don’t know Jesus well enough, that you don’t love Jesus deeply enough.

Let me prove the point: How much can you tell me about your children, your husband, your wife, your parents, your employer, your work?

How much can you tell me about what Jesus is doing right now?

Peter’s first command in his letter is to “set your hope fully upon the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13). Which is your greater hope? That your children will obey or that Jesus will return – not what it is supposed to be, but what you really want?

Before Paul begins to give his practical instructions, Paul spends pages exalting Jesus, describing Jesus, praising Jesus. Listen to his command:

2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:2–3 (ESV)

So, do you set your minds this world – and I am talking about your home, your marriage, your children, your work, your car, your rent, politics, sports, movies, music – or upon the things above. What are the “things above”:

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Colossians 3:1 (ESV)

Quick, which movie won the academy award this year? Which team has moved ahead in the basketball playoffs? What is Jesus doing right now at the right hand of the Father?

Your god is whatever is your greatest hope, your greatest joy, your greatest love. If you know your children better than you know Jesus, then you should ask yourself some painful questions about idolatry.

Take a different direction: How much of your life is really different from a well behaved Mormon? Mormons love their families. Mormons train their children to be respectful, obey their parents, say prayers, clean their rooms. Mormons go to classes to learn how to be better parents. Mormons go to marriage seminars. There are atheists who have lovely families, well trained children, happy homes. The things we generally expect in one’s home and work is what most people would have generally affirmed in the culture 50 years ago. There was a time when every politician would at least give lip service to Christian morals.

Let me ask you this question: Jesus has ascended – do you miss him like the first disciples missed him? Do you stare and wonder, When will he return?

Let’s make this question more painful and more real: Do you have real communion with the Lord, today? Is Jesus an idea, or is Jesus your dearest friend? Could you pick Jesus out of a crowd? When the Lord returns, will you see your dearest friend face to face or will you be meeting a second cousin once removed?

Hebrews 3:1 commands:

Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession,

Do you consider Jesus? Do you know what it means that he is your high priest?

What did Jesus do when he ascended? What is he doing now? Would you rather know about what Jesus is doing right now, or would you like to have advice on how to get along better at work? Are you more interested in the work of Jesus or in how to best save for retirement? If you could have a perfect marriage, obedient children, a clean house and a safe retirement – or communion with the Lord, which would you pick? Which have you spent more time trying to get?

It is no secret what Jesus is doing. The New Testament is filled with this information. Jesus has ascended and today he is sitting at the right hand of Majesty on high. I’ll show you. Turn to Hebrews 1 and I’ll read verses 1-4:

1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. Hebrews 1:1–4 (ESV)

We are going to consider only the clause at the end of verse 3, “He sat down at the right hand of Majesty on high”.

The language means that Jesus is both King and Priest. As King, Jesus rules the universe. Jesus gives gifts as conquering king. Jesus will return to vindicate his people and to judge his enemies. But we cannot speak of that this morning. There are many things about these words which we simply cannot discuss. Perhaps later we’ll look at Jesus again. For this morning, we will do one thing:

I am going to show a glimpse of what it means that Jesus is our priest. First, we need a priest because our relationship with God has been destroyed through sin.

Christians – especially good and careful Christians – know about sin. Sin describes a creature breaking God’s law. “Sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4). But there is another aspect of sin – sin is alienation from, rebellion against God.

Sometimes we think that our trouble is merely a matter of keeping the law. We – human beings — have this bizarre idea that somehow we can simply do the stuff God “wants” and everything will be okay. We treat God like an idea – we treat the law like it was gravity or some-thing which just needs to be dealt with properly.

Human beings were built to live with God. Life and love come from God alone. Without God we will die. Sin is worse than merely breaking a law – sin is losing God.

Cutting a rubber tube is no big deal, unless you are diving and you need the tube to get air.

Sin is like cutting the tube. You break the relationship to God and you will die.

The one requirement of God is that we love him and that we love our neighbor. Yet, true love can only begin in God. Therefore, we cannot love him unless he first loves us:

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 1 John 4:7–11 (ESV)

That is the joy in the Gospel: God loves the world. God sent his Son into the world to carry the curse of sin and to fulfill the law. The Son out of love fulfilled the will of his Father. Jesus lived a perfect live. He died on the cross and carried all the curse of sin and death. Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus ascended into the heaven and sits at the right hand of Majesty on high. There on his throne of grace Jesus makes reconciliation between human beings and God.

The Spirit of God comes into the life of a human being. The human being sees his rebellion against God. He sees his sin as hateful. He sees Christ as beautiful. He then repents – that means he turns from his sin and rebellion and turns to God in Jesus Christ and seeks reconciliation with God.

God credits our sin to the death of Jesus, and credits the life and righteousness of Jesus to us. The love of God comes into our life and we love God and we love our neighbors. It is not perfect at first, but it grows slowly and our lives become transformed into the image of Jesus. We are brought into union with Christ.

Our union with Christ transforms our lives. Gradually, we learn to love God more fully, to receive the love of God and to express the love of God to human beings – we do this in our marriage, with our children and parents, at our place of work. The love and desire for God grows in strength causes us to overcome the world.

That is Gospel change.

Today, Jesus will be reconciled to any man, woman, child who comes to him in repentance and faith. But the day is coming when Jesus will no longer be reconciled. When he returns, or when you die, the time of reconciliation will end. Some day you will stand before him. On that day, Jesus will either be your Savior or your judge.

Now you believers: God has called you to a life of love. That is your command.

But such love is impossible without Jesus. Augustine once noted that the grace of God flows through the wounds of Jesus. Love begins in the Father, it flows through the Son and it is poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

You can only have that love if you are in union with Christ. You can only drink in that love if you are in communion with Christ.

Even Christians forget this. Even Christians act like unbelievers. We know we are supposed to obey – and we make valiant efforts to obey the law. We struggle with sin and shame and falter and fall because we think our trouble is with doing and keeping. We pride ourselves that we are not like the world.

What could be more sad than to see someone possessing an unending treasure – and yet live like a beggar; to lie down beside a stream flooding with pure, sweet water and yet die of thirst; to possess the never ending grace purchased by the blood of Christ and yet struggle with sin and the world and death and the flesh alone.

Nothing makes me as sad and as angry as to see you, my brothers and sisters struggle under the weight of the law when Christ has freed you for grace and life.

Do you want to know why you struggle so with sin? Do you want to know why you grow angry with your children? Do you want to know why you are so burdened with depression? Do you want to know why the world is so weary? Do you want to know you grow so discouraged in your life as a Christian?

It is because you are trying to be a Christian without Christ.

You do not need my experience or my opinion. I’m certainly not important. You don’t need what I think is a good idea. You need Jesus. When I teach you the Bible, I have only one responsibility: Take you to Jesus, show you Jesus. If I leave and you know Jesus better and you love Jesus more, then I have succeeded. If I teach you something and it’s not in the Bible, chuck it. I don’t want you to follow me – I you want to follow Jesus.

But Christians are like anyone else. We look on life and think, I would sure like for it to better, what do I do? We make the mistake of thinking Jesus is too far away.

Why do you think Christians chase after every marriage and parenting fad? Because we don’t think the Holy Spirit is able to change our hearts – because we don’t think Jesus will really do anything about our situation – so we have to go it alone.

Christians are too often like a disciple who saw Jesus ascend into heaven and then thinks, Well Jesus is gone. Yes he will come back some day. And yes he will save me – so I won’t go to Hell. But until he returns, I’m pretty much on my own.

You do this, because you do not understand something – you do this because you do not rightly consider Jesus. You see, Jesus – Our Lord – has sat down at the right hand of Majesty on high. Hebrews 1:3

Did you ever think that the reason your life is so painful lies with you? Did you ever think that maybe the reason you feel overwhelmed lies with the fact that you are shouldering a burden which God never intended for you to bear?

In 2 Corinthians Paul explained the reason why God may give us an overwhelming burden – a burden too great to bear:

8 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. 2 Corinthians 1:8–9 (ESV)

Consider Jesus.

He has sat down at the right hand of Majesty on high.

This means that Jesus has bodily entered into heaven – Go to Hebrews 9:24. We’ll read it twice – and I want you to engrave these words on your heart:

For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Hebrews 9:24 (ESV)

Did you hear that? When we say that Christ has sat down at the right hand of Majesty on high it means that Jesus – the man Jesus, God incarnate, Jesus is in the very presence of God. Do you know what that means?

There is a human being – God incarnate, Jesus Christ – who is at this very second in the presence of God!

And why is he there? Listen again:

For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Hebrews 9:24 (ESV)

Right now – as I am speaking to you – Jesus is appearing in the presence of God on your behalf!

Since that is true – why do you look to men to give you help? Why do you not look to Jesus first? Because you don’t know him well enough.

Go back to chapter 2, look down at verse 16:

For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Hebrews 2:16 (ESV)

Jesus loves you. He helps you. But keep going – look at 17:

Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. Hebrews 2:17 (ESV)

Three things: First, again make certain you understand this point: Jesus is like you in every respect. He does not have our sin. But he is every bit as much human as you and I.

Second, he did this – God did this – so that we could have a high priest. A priest is someone who stands before God on our behalf. We have such a high priest: Jesus. He is not only a high priest – but he is a merciful and faithful high priest. He is merciful toward us. He knows our weakness. And he is faithful, he never fails in his work.

Third, he has made propitiation for our sins. That means that the sacrifice of Jesus clears away all our sin.

Next verse:

For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Hebrews 2:18 (ESV)

You who think, my temptation is too great, my trial is too deep: Hear me. It is. You cannot carry such a weight alone. God never intended that for his children. Your marriage is too hard. I believe you. It is! But God never intended for you be married without him. My children – my work – my parents – my finances – the government – the world! You have a high priest who in mercy and love stands ready with unending supplies of grace to pour into your broken heart.

You are bearing pain you were never called to bear.

Look to the next verse:

Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, Hebrews 3:1 (ESV)

Now that we have come back to those words, do they not sound sweeter? Consider Jesus. Let us consider him more.

Go now to chapter 4, and look at verse 14:

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. Hebrews 4:14 (ESV)

Here again, we see that Jesus is our high priest – the one who has passed through the heavens and is now sitting at the right hand of Majesty on high. What then do we do? Hold fast our confession.

Now holding fast to your confession will be a burden to you if you think of this as just one more task. But what if you see the beauty of your Savior? Open the eyes of faith, they will rest upon your high priest – he is more beautiful, more glorious than anything in heaven or earth. In him shines the glory of God, the glory of redemption.

No one has to tell the bride to-be to hold fast to her engagement ring. She can think of little else. The child on his birthday, when he receives a favorite toy does not to be told to hold fast.

If you find that you have trouble holding fast, the trouble lies with your desires. You will more happily and easily hold fast if you find Christ beautiful. If your hold on your confession is weak, perhaps the trouble lies with a heart that is more concerned with this world than with your Savior.

Let me stir you up to love and good deeds. Let me show you here in the sacred text some further beauty of Christ. Look to the next verse:

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15 (ESV)

The Father – your Father in heaven – wants you to come to his Son. Therefore, the Father sent the Son into the world as a man so that Jesus could sympathize with your weakness. Christians sometimes hesitate before they go to Jesus. They think I am a sinful man. Well yes, you are sinful. So what?

Jesus sympathizes with your weakness. Do you see that when stay away from him, you are saying that Jesus does not sympathize with your weakness. When you hide from him because you have sinned, you are saying that he is not loving, not kind, not merciful – not full of grace.

Do you know shame? Jesus was born a bastard. He was crucified naked and mocked as he died. He would have known mocking and jeers from the time he first knew the meaning of words. The other children would have mocked the fact that he was not Joseph’s son. He experienced poverty, hunger, thirst. He knew death and sorrow and loss. He knew betrayal. He knew pain:

He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Isaiah 53:3 (ESV)

And more than this, Jesus also bore in his body on the cross, the shame and sin of the world.

Do not think that he will not sympathize with you. You do him wrong, you don’t understand him if you think your sin too great, your shame too deep.

He is all of mercy and gentleness. He did not have to become a man to rescue you. The Father did not have to send his Son. The Spirit did not need to come bring you to Christ. God willingly poured out rivers of love and mercy and grace. Do not let stubbornness and pride hold you back.

Consider Christ further:

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16 (ESV)

I told you earlier that Jesus is at this moment in the presence of God. He sits on a throne – a throne of grace.

Think of what that means: His throne is made up of grace, it was built by grace. It was the grace of God which put him upon that throne.

Grace means a gift – something perfect, something prized, something you need and desire – but it is also free. It can be had by any for the asking, but it cannot be purchased with all the gold in the universe.

One more beauty of this priest, turn to Hebrews 7:23:

23 The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, 24 but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. 25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:23–25 (ESV)

This high priest cannot die – he has the power of an indestructible life. His priesthood will continue forever. What does this mean for you?

He is able to save to the uttermost.

He cannot merely save you from hell – although he does that – he will save you even now. He saves to the uttermost. He makes intercession for you, always.

Now I have to answer an objection: You have heard these words and you think to yourself: This all sounds like so much poetry – pretty, but not very realistic. My life really is painful. I really cannot pay my rent today. Today, I don’t know where my son is. Last night, my daughter ran away. My wife didn’t come home last night and I don’t know where she went. My husband hates me. My work is a misery which I don’t think I can bear. My wife is dying from cancer. My father beats me.

I could continue. I know that all of these things are true. I have heard all of these things – and more. I know worse than these things are true.

Let me tell you something else. Not one thing I have said means that you will not have trials. Not one thing I have said means that God will take your trials away.

You may be a perfect wife, and your husband may never love you. You may be a perfect husband, and your wife may never be gracious. You may be a perfect parent, and your child may end up in jail. You may be a perfect employee, and you may end up bankrupt.

It is even worse than that:

Let us assume that you are a perfect human being from the moment of conception. Let us assume that you never for a moment do wrong. You do not even sin in your heart; your intentions never drop below perfect love toward God and man. You may be perfect. That happened once in this world – so we murdered him.

Your savior has already gone down that road:

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 1 Peter 2:21 (ESV)

He does not promise you that you will never suffer. Suffering and trial are guarantees. I’m not going to deceive you.

God will almost certainly try you on the point you are most tender. He will permit you to be tried on the exact place that you cannot bear. He will do this to tear up your sins and expose your idols –but that is for another time.

Listen again to Peter’s words, “For to this you have been called”. Those words should bring you to a sure sobriety. Suffering is certain.

Now, my friend with the objection will return and say, That is exactly my point. If suffering is certain, then how can I possibly believe that Jesus has sympathy for me? What kind of a priest shows sympathy by permitting me to suffer?

One that loves you.

If the goal of God were to make our lives pleasant here and now, he has done a poor job. But if God’s goal is greater, then perhaps God is wiser. Perhaps the goal of God is not our immediate ease. Perhaps the goal of God is his glory and our joy.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism famously begins:

Q. What is the chief end of man? — What is our purpose in life?

A. To glorify God and to enjoy him forever.

Teach that to your children.

Peter writes,

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:3–7 (ESV)

That’s why God can be good and still let you suffer difficulty in this world.

Our hope is not that we will not suffer in this world. Our hope is that we will live with Christ in glory.

Our hope is not that we will not suffer in this world. Our hope is that God will conform us to the image of Christ.

In Colossians 3:10, Paul writes that we are being conformed to the image of the one who created us. In Romans 8:29, Paul writes that we are being conformed to the image of Jesus.

God has brought you to a trial so that you can know and love him better. God has given you difficult children, a hard job, a painful marriage, financial troubles so that you can go to Christ for help and strength. – There is another element of responding to trials. The body of Christ must exercise real tangible love to those in trial. However, I have no space to teach you about that today.

How to respond to a trial:

You must exercise faith. When you come to Jesus in faith, the Holy Spirit brings the grace of Christ into your life.

Here is how you exercise faith.

The first part of faith consists of knowledge. You cannot exercise faith unless you know. That is the point of a sermon: You come here so that you may learn about Jesus. The knowledge from the sermon becomes material which faith uses. That is why a sermon must be based in Scripture. That is why a sermon must display Christ. A sermon without Jesus is a lecture.

Here is what you must know: Christ is a merciful and faithful high priest who can and will save to the uttermost.

However, you must do more than merely listen to a sermon. You must study, memorize, meditate. You must fill your mind with Scripture. The Holy Spirit uses the Scripture in your heart to develop your faith. Without Bible, you cannot begin. There is nothing more dangerous than a man in a pulpit who either does not open or does not rightly use Scripture.

Your primary job as parents is to … worship Christ in your home. Demonstrate the love and joy and mercy of Christ daily before your children. Tell your children the wondrous love of Jesus. You cannot save them, but you can evangelize them. Tell them the good news morning and evening. Ever lay the mercy of God before them. As Paul writes in Romans 2:4, “God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.” You show and teach your children of the Lord by loving the Lord before them. When they see your desire to know the Lord, you are teaching them that the Lord is worth knowing.

The second part of faith consists of seeking: You must not merely know about Christ, you must come to Christ. The primary element of seeking Christ is by prayer. God lays trials and temptations before us so that we will come to him for help.

Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually! 1 Chronicles 16:11 (ESV)

When the armies of Moab and Ammon threated Judah, King Jehosophat sought the Lord:

3 Then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. 4 And Judah assembled to seek help from the LORD; from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the LORD. 2 Chronicles 20:3–4 (ESV)

When David was tried he called to God for help:

3 But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. 4 I cried aloud to the LORD, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah 5 I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me. 6 I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. 7 Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked. Psalm 3:3–7 (ESV)

Our Lord sought help.

35 And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. 36 And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” Mark 14:35–36 (ESV)

Faith must move in prayer. Faith without prayer is a ticket without an airplane. The ticket can stand at the terminal and look out the window, but the ticket can never leave the airport until it boards a plane. Faith without prayer stands still and dies.

The third part of faith is obedience: You hold the ticket, the airplane has come, but until you board you will not leave.

Faith gains strength from obedience. God does not give grace until it will be used. Consider Christian martyrs. Do you think they are more brave than you? Not without Christ. Yet, as they followed Christ in obedience, Christ gave them grace for obedience to death.

Christ has grace that can sustain your faith and uphold you in any trial. You may lack faith because you have yet to move, to act.

But none of this will be true of you, if you do not know and love Jesus. Even if you have sworn allegiance to Jesus in baptism, you will not know him well until you know him often. He is a man with whom you can cultivate the most dear and deep friendship. Like all friendships, it takes time to meet this man, to know this man, to hear from this man. And oh when you know God in human flesh, when you see the love of the Father displayed in the wounds of Christ, when the Holy Spirit shows to you his surpassing beauty – then you will know and love him dearly.

Come, consider Jesus – seated at the right hand of Majesty on high.

Oh Lord, as wait expectantly for you, we pray, Come quickly Lord Jesus!

Hebrews 13: Brotherly Love and Acceptable Worship (Men’s Breakfast CBC December 8, 2012)

08 Saturday Dec 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in Francis Schaeffer, Hebrews, Obedience, Preaching

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1 Corinthians 8:1, 1 John 3;124-15, 1 Peter 1:21-22, 2 Peter 1:7, brotherly love, Colossians 3:12-14, Faith, faith, Francis Schaeffer, Galatians 6:10, Hebrews, Hebrews 10:19-22, Hebrews 11:6, Hebrews 12:14-17, Hebrews 12:28, Hebrews 13:6, Hebrews 1:3, Hebrews 2:17-18, Hebrews 3:12-16, hEBREWS 3:18-19, Hebrews 5:11-12, Hebrews 5:14, Hebrews 8:1-2, Hebrews 8:10-11, Hebrews13:20-21, High Priest, Love, Mark of a Christian, Matthew 25:40, Matthew 7:21-23, New Covenant, Obedience, Old Covenant, Praise, Preaching, Romans 12:17

(Following are the notes for the monthly men’s breakfast lesson at Calvary Bible Church. As with other lessons, the oral presentation contains essentially the same doctrine, albeit with substantially different presentation. This year’s lessons have been on the book of Hebrews. They can be found here:

http://www.calvarybiblechurch.org/site/cpage.asp?sec_id=180007708&cpage_id=180032323)

Chapter 13 seems like an appendix to the rest of Hebrews. Some commentators have argued that it is not really part of the letter and was some one page letter glued onto the back of a beautiful sermon. It certainly begins strange. After the mountain tops of rhetoric; after theology which ascends into heaven itself and uncovers the mystery of the cross, we find some brief seemingly simple commands. It seems too plain to even rightly be part of such a letter. Be kind, be generous, be faithful to your marriage, be respectful of your church leaders, pray for us.

I must confess that as I began to study for this lesson, I had trouble seeing the way in which these commands attached to the rest of the letter. And yet, as I studied and meditated and prayed the connection between the parts became clear.

I learned that rather than being an appendage to the whole, this final chapter in a manner is the point of the book. The book exists to teach us doctrine so that it can teach us how to worship. The book teaches about Jesus, so that we can glory God and enjoy him forever.

Let me show you. First, I want you to see the overall doctrinal purpose of the letter – and then how that doctrine ties into the practice. In the second part of this exhortation, I will speak with you briefly about the content and manner of our worship.

First: A Call to Worship

At the end of the fifth chapter of Hebrews, comes a section which almost seems a joke. The writer explains that he cannot go further in setting forth doctrine because those who received the letter “had become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God” (Hebrews 5:11-12). Can this be serious?

Hebrews contains perhaps the most difficult doctrine in the entire Bible. Here we read of the divinity and humanity of Jesus, his work as the true high priest, the relationship between the old and new covenants, the true purpose of the Temple, the mystery of Melchizedek, the mystery of the cross, the nature of the church, the necessity of faith, the kingdom to come. The short sermon — for it is indeed a sermon — acts like a commentary on the entire rest of the Bible. To read the book of Hebrews one must drink in the entire Scripture at a gulp. There is nothing elementary about it.

Seeing that the book contains such difficulty, many Christians will prefer to leave it alone. After all, “knowledge puffs up” (1 Corinthians 8:1). And, we will not be saved by a final theology exam given at the gates of heaven. If I know the contents of a gospel tract, then I know enough to be saved.

But look back again at chapter 5. The reason why those who received the letter could not take more “solid food” is because they had not lived as God required, “But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:14).

There is a motion of the Christian life: First, we learn. What we learn affects our desires. What we desire affects our conduct. Our conduct itself changes our heart and thus gives us more capacity to learn – and so the process continues like a system of gears, each which pushes on the other.

But that still leaves one with the excuse that I don’t need to learn more to be saved, and I don’t need to behave to be saved, so why bother anyway? I may not be perfect, but I am better than most people. I may not know everything about Jesus, but I know Jesus loves me. Why struggle so hard with this book?

Turn to chapter 8: verse one identifies for us the purpose of the book of Hebrews: “Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, and the true tent that the Lord set up, not man” (Hebrews 8:1-2). There you will find the central doctrine of the book of Hebrews: Jesus is the true high priest.

As we read through chapter 8, we learn the effect of this change of high priest: It came about as part of the institution of the New Covenant. Throughout Hebrews, we learn that the Old Covenant – that is, the Old Testament – was temporary: it operated with temporary high priests, who worked in a man-made temple, and offered sacrifices repeatedly – and yet these sacrifices never saved anyone of sin, “But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:3-4).

But in Jesus, the weakness of the Old Covenant passes – for Jesus is in every way superior to the Old Covenant. That old covenant was merely a picture of the true covenant to come: As Paul writes in Galatians 3:24, the old covenant – which Paul references as “the law” “was our guardian – or school master – until Christ came”. That Old Covenant could not remedy sin, but it did instruct until the true High Priest came into the world to offer the sacrifice which could redeem and reconcile us to God.

This does not mean that the law of God has vanished. In the New Covenant, the law is no longer written on tablets of stone. In the New Covenant instituted by Jesus, the law is written in us:

Hebrews 8:10–11 (ESV)

¹⁰ For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ¹¹ And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.

Hebrews 2 explains that the promise and command of the Dominion over the creation given to Adam is now fulfilled in Jesus, the one whom even angels worship. This same Jesus is also our brother and our high priest:

Hebrews 2:17–18 (ESV)

¹⁷ Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. ¹⁸ For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

You see, all the various strands, promises, problems, of the Bible finally come together in Jesus: Jesus undoes the damage of the First Adam. Jesus takes up the story of Israel and the Old Covenant and brings into the world the New Covenant which brings the law of God into the hearts and minds of those redeemed.

Since these things are true, we are called to live in a new and different way. The doctrine of the book of Hebrews is not a matter of intellectual or academic interest. It is a matter of the gravest importance:

Hebrews 10:19–22 (ESV)

¹⁹ Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰ by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, ²¹ and since we have a great priest over the house of God, ²² let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Here is a command: We are commanded to draw near to Jesus by faith. Now we can certainly not draw hear to a God whom we do not know: And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Hebrews 11:6.

And, we cannot draw near to God of surpassing holiness without seeking to come as he commands:

Hebrews 12:14–17 (ESV)

¹⁴ Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. ¹⁵ See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; ¹⁶ that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. ¹⁷ For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

This should cause the shutter and the bleeding heart. It is not to say that we are saved by works, but that there is no true saving faith unless there is obedience:

Hebrews 3:18–19 (ESV)

¹⁸ And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? ¹⁹ So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

A belief which entails no obedience is no true belief. A belief which does not draw nearer to God is not a belief which will end in salvation. We cannot live as if we were bound for hell and expect that we will end up in heaven. We cannot expect that we will be the dearest of friends with the devil upon her and the dearest of friends with the Lord in the new earth.

This letter of Hebrews was not given so that we could gain a trunk of theology to drag to heaven. This letter was given to make us fit to see the Lord. We cannot willfully ignore our God and think that he will remembers us:

Matthew 7:21–23 (ESV)

²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ ²³ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

The book of Hebrews is filled with such warnings. Now many think that such warnings are given to the unbelievers in the midst of the congregation: unbelievers certainly should take such warnings to heart. A faith which exists in one’s mouth but not in one’s hands is not a true faith.

Yet, it is only the true believer who can hear and respond to such warnings. If it takes faith to draw near to God, and if faith is a matter of head, heart and hands, then only a believer can hear the call to live as one drawing near to God and follow up that command. If a man were to come in this room and shout a command in Spanish, only those who speak Spanish could obey. If God gives a command of obedience, only those who have an obedient faith will obey.

This beautiful sermon we have as the book of Hebrews was given as a guide to bring us safely through this world to our Lord. Our Lord knows our weakness and frailty, he knows the surpassing darkness of this world and so he gave a radiant guide to show a path through that darkness. We will pass through the valley of the shadow of death – but we will pass through with Jesus.

The radiant display of the glory of Jesus, our great High Priest, must stir in us a desire and thankfulness and love to draw near to him. If we do not see Jesus as a beautiful Savior, the supreme object of our desire, worthy of all the glory and praise, then we will not have the strength to persevere until the end. As our Lord says in another place: “And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Mark 13:13).

We see all these strands of thought brought together in the final chapter of Hebrews. Beginning in verse 12 of the 13th chapter we read:

Hebrews 13:12–16 (ESV)

¹² So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. ¹³ Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. ¹⁴ For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. ¹⁵ Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. ¹⁶ Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

When we read the command that we are to go to Jesus outside the camp, we may not understand what that means. It sounds very far away and foreign. Perhaps it means to be a missionary, or perhaps it means to go out of the world altogether and be with the Lord death. When we read that we are to acknowledge his name, we may think that we have done our duty when we sing the song or say a prayer and then are done.

Now certainly we are to sing and pray. It may be fitting for one to be a missionary. But we will certainly all out some day go out of this world. But in the context, the Lord calls upon us to do something much more physical and practical.

Look at the end of chapter 12, “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and doesn’t let us offer to God acceptable to worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:28-29). Here is a command frightful warning. We must offer acceptable worship, worship with reverence and awe. Such worship must be given because “our God is a consuming fire.”

Chapter 13 ends with a prayer in verses 20-21:

Hebrews 13:20–21 (ESV)

²⁰ Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, ²¹ equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

This prayer tells us what the book is intended to do us and in us. The letter tells us at profound length of our Lord Jesus not so that we know about Jesus, but rather that we would know Jesus. The letter was given to “equip up with every good thing. The words “that which is pleasing in his sight” match the earlier command of 12:28 that we must offer “acceptable worship” (NASB “acceptable service”).

The purpose of all this doctrine in the book of Hebrews is that we know of Jesus so that we can offer acceptable worship to God in Jesus Christ. Earlier we spoke of the Christians who pass off the study of the Scripture and obedience by claiming that they know to be saved and so they are through with their duty. But here at the end of Hebrews we learn the answer to such people:

You must learn and obey so that you can offer acceptable worship to God in Jesus Christ. The first 12 chapters of Hebrews are a call to worship. The letter ends with a prayer that you may know God so that you may worship God.

Point Two: Love God and Man

What then is the acceptable worship? The temple no longer stands; bloody sacrifices are no longer needed. What then is our worship? How do we go to Jesus outside the camp?

That is the point of chapter 13 – in fact, in a manner, the rest of Hebrews exists so that we can receive this brief instruction.

First command: Let brotherly love continue, remain. Believers are commanded to love all persons – even our enemies. But to our brothers, we are called to special service. “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10).

This is no ordinary command. It occurs over and again throughout Scripture. As Francis Schaeffer put it, brotherly love is the true “mark of a Christian”. In John 13:35, Jesus said that love for the brother demonstrates true faith, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Paul repeatedly commands brotherly love:

Romans 12:17 (ESV)

¹⁷ Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

Colossians 3:12–14 (ESV)

¹² Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, ¹³ bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. ¹⁴ And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

1 Peter 1:21–22 (ESV)

²¹ who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. ²² Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,

Peter also commands brotherly love in 2 Peter 1:7. Jesus, Paul, Peter, John all command brotherly love – it also commanded here in Hebrews 13:1. In fact, it stands at the head of commands in this chapter.

One way to understand the flow of the commands in the next few verses is that such commands help to flesh out the command of brotherly love: Show hospitality. Care tangibly for the persecuted brother. Flee sexual immorality – and honour your marriage. Do not be greedy; rather be content with what God provides. Be respectful of your leaders, those who teach you the Scriptures – because it is by the Scriptures that you will come to develop brotherly love.

Before I give some practical advice on how one develops brotherly love, I want you again to see the connection between the call to worship and brotherly love. True brotherly love is true worship. A sacrifice of thanksgiving is giving praise to God, but it is also showing hospitality to a stranger.

Jesus, in Matthew 25, explains that at the judgment we will be commended for showing true, tangible love to other human beings because such service to our brother is service to Christ himself:

And the King will answer them, Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. Matthew 25:40.

The call to brotherly love is not some throw away, not some addition to the Christian life. Brotherly love is the Christian life – you cannot be a Christian and not love your brother:

We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

(1 John 3:14-15 ESV)

Remember all the discussion of faith and obedience and salvation? Here is where that comes together. Without love there is no true faith and no true obedience. True faith necessarily produces brotherly love – and this brings us back to an earlier point: Obedience makes it possible for us to better understand the Scripture.

In the very act of loving of our brother, sacrificially, we come to know God in Jesus Christ. When I was a boy growing up in Burbank, I often wondered what I could see from the top of the mountains which mark on edge of the city. Only when I climbed up those mountains did I get the sight from those mountains. I could see things from the mountain top which I could not see elsewhere.

The same is true of obedience. Only when we love of our brother can we gain the sight of Christ which comes from that perspective.

How then does it one increase in brother love? Here are some practical steps adapted from William Gouge: Read the Scripture, a lot. Know the Scripture thoroughly. Attend to the teaching and preaching of the Scripture. Speak about the Bible, frequently. You need the Scripture read and exposited as dearly as a newborn baby needs milk.

Such knowledge of the Scripture will enflame your heart with love toward God – for it will teach you and convey to you God’s love for us. The more that we are certain of God’s love toward us, the more we will love others. Therefore, increasing our knowledge of God’s love toward us will generate our love toward brothers.

Prefer others before yourself. Always assume the best; don’t be suspicious about one-another. Such suspicion and rivalry will poison love and provoke the wrath of God.

Communion, friendship, familiarity: You cannot know brotherly love with those whom you do not know. If you are not in friendly relations with other believers, then you cannot say that you love them. When you keep separate from one-another, you bottle up the gifts of the Spirit. How can one show love or liberality or help or instruction or exhortation alone. The gifts are given to be spent for the glory of God. The servant who kept his master’s money hidden in the ground brought on his master’s anger and punishment. If we hide away our gifts and do not give our brother the space to show his gifts, then we steal from the Lord and harm those we are called to love.

Do good and receive good. Doing good shows love. Receiving good encourages love. There are some who take and never give – such persons provoke wrath and do not rightly understand love. There are others who do good to others and refuse good in return. Such persons are as proud as the first sort. No one of us is beyond the need of others. Be fervent in doing good and humble and thankful in receiving good.

Do this work and be courageous. Do not fear that you will fail. We cannot fail if God is with us. Even if we lose everything we own, if we have the Lord we are wealthy beyond believe.

Do you see how such work is counter to the world. The world says that we must protect ourselves that we must provide for ourselves. The Lord says that we must spend not merely our money but our very lives for Jesus. Brotherly love is madness – except that the world has been turned upside down because Jesus has conquered death. Go to him, outside the camp. Lay aside the wisdom of this world. Offer to the Lord acceptable worship.

We can confidently say

The Lord is my helper

I will not fear

What can man do to me?

Hebrews 13:6

A Whitewashed Wall

17 Thursday May 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in Acts

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1 Thessalonians, Acts, Acts 23, Ezekiel, Ezekiel 13, High Priest, insults, Paul, whitewashed wall

In Acts 23 Paul insults the high priest and threatens him with judgment from God:

1 And looking intently at the council, Paul said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.”
2 And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth.
3 Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Are you sitting to judge me according to the law, and yet contrary to the law you order me to be struck?”
4 Those who stood by said, “Would you revile God’s high priest?”
5 And Paul said, “I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest, for it is written, ‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.'”

Here is an OT which have stood behind the insult:

8 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Because you have uttered falsehood and seen lying visions, therefore behold, I am against you, declares the Lord GOD.
9 My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and who give lying divinations. They shall not be in the council of my people, nor be enrolled in the register of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord GOD.
10 Precisely because they have misled my people, saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace, and because, when the people build a wall, these prophets smear it with whitewash,
11 say to those who smear it with whitewash that it shall fall! There will be a deluge of rain, and you, O great hailstones, will fall, and a stormy wind break out.
12 And when the wall falls, will it not be said to you, ‘Where is the coating with which you smeared it?’

Ezekiel 13:8-12. This passage is also echoed in 1 Thessalonians 5:3. The passage in Ezekiel goes on to predict the judgment against the whitewashed wall, which further matches Paul’s comments:

13 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: I will make a stormy wind break out in my wrath, and there shall be a deluge of rain in my anger, and great hailstones in wrath to make a full end.
14 And I will break down the wall that you have smeared with whitewash, and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation will be laid bare. When it falls, you shall perish in the midst of it, and you shall know that I am the LORD.
15 Thus will I spend my wrath upon the wall and upon those who have smeared it with whitewash, and I will say to you, The wall is no more, nor those who smeared it,
16 the prophets of Israel who prophesied concerning Jerusalem and saw visions of peace for her, when there was no peace, declares the Lord GOD.

Jesus is the Character of God. Hebrews 1:3

08 Thursday Dec 2011

Posted by memoirandremains in Preaching

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Adoptionism, Chalcedon, Col. 1:15-20, Docetism, Eliphaz the Temanite, Godbekli Tepe, Hebrews, Hebrews 1:1-4, High Priest, Jesus, Job, Job 4:12-31, Mediatrix, Preaching

The Exact Imprint of His Nature

Hebrews 1:3b

The oldest know human structure of any size is a temple. This is how National Geographic describes the site:

Known as Göbekli Tepe (pronounced Guh-behk-LEE TEH-peh), the site is vaguely reminiscent of Stonehenge, except that Göbekli Tepe was built much earlier and is made not from roughly hewn blocks but from cleanly carved limestone pillars splashed with bas-reliefs of animals—a cavalcade of gazelles, snakes, foxes, scorpions, and ferocious wild boars. The assemblage was built some 11,600 years ago, seven millennia before the Great Pyramid of Giza. It contains the oldest known temple. Indeed, Göbekli Tepe is the oldest known example of monumental architecture—the first structure human beings put together that was bigger and more complicated than a hut. When these pillars were erected, so far as we know, nothing of comparable scale existed in the world.[1]

No one knows who built it or why; no one knows what they believed or whom they worshipped. We only know that the first bit of substantial building we have is someone trying to answer the God problem. It’s been that way ever since. It’s all over history and art and literature and philosophy; it runs through villages and cities. It’s in the crowd at a baseball game or the audience for a concert. It’s in fashion and advertising; it’s in marriage and immorality. It’s why we like the Internet and why we like the wilderness. It’s politics.

It is a God-haunted world. There is a someone there, and we know it. It is uncanny, like a ghost in the room. Just like Eliphaz the Temanite said in Job 4:12–21 (ESV)

“Now a word was brought to me stealthily; my ear received the whisper of it. Amid thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, dread came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake. A spirit glided past my face; the hair of my flesh stood up. It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence, then I heard a voice: ‘Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker? Even in his servants he puts no trust, and his angels he charges with error; how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like the moth. Between morning and evening they are beaten to pieces; they perish forever without anyone regarding it. Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them, do they not die, and that without wisdom?’

You know that feeling you have at times when it seems that the world is somehow out of focus; things to do not seem quite right – as if everything were put like the façades for the pretend city in a movie. Everyone seems merely players and actors and nothing is real. There is a certain tension in the shoulders, a taste in your mouth; your stomach churns for no reason; your fingers twitch anxiously even though no one is around.

You need to know something: You are not right. The world is not right. There is a crime, and you are guilty. If you run to the furthest edge of the universe, the question will haunt you. You cannot drink it into oblivion, for when you become sober, the question will return and then will shrink you in shame. You cannot sin it into submission, because even your charred conscience will belittle you. You cannot become shameful enough to drown your shame; you cannot become good enough to ease your sleep:

Can mortal man be in the right before God?

Can a man be pure before his Maker?

God must speak – he must speak or we are undone. We must know – you must know what he knows. But you cannot drag God down. Reach up and pull – you have no force. And what if he were to come down, tearing open the sky and bursting forth in radiant glory? You would die from awe and fear. Yet someone must speak to God, someone must offer a defense. Someone must plead your case, or you are undone. But who will go – can go — to God, who can stand before him and plead your cause? We are like Job who wails,

For he – that is God – is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him

That we should come to trial together.

There is no arbiter between us

Who might put his hand on us both.

Job 9:32-33. Do you see the problem? Sin has entered the world – thus, God and man separated. You cannot reach up to God, so God must come down to you. And yet, if God were to come, what would you do? You are too frail to stand before God. Isaiah who merely sees a vision of God cries, I am undone! Peter, when he begins to realize who Jesus is, cries, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. (Lk. 5:9).

The Psalmist prays in Psalm 130:3

If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities

O LORD, who could stand?

Is that not a fearful thing, to think of Judgment? We hope that God will grade on a curve, and fear that he will not. The religions of the world have concocted schemes and plans for setting out a standard which we can meet. Do this, say that, go here – do not go there. Starve yourself; live in a cave – live among men. Be rich – do not be rich. Demand that no one – no one remind you of judgment day. Defame God and claim that he has no right to judge, because he has permitted evil in this world. And then stomp about because he has also forbidden evil.

We can’t know what God wants. We build temples; we delude ourselves. But try as we might, we cannot know what God will have from us, if he does not tell us plainly. God must speak, or we will not know what to do. But we need more than just God speaking to us, we must have someone who can speak for us. We need someone who can approach our heavenly Father on our behalf. We need someone who can plead our case, who can sympathize with our weakness, who knows our frailty, who understands the weight of sin and pain of temptation and pain of this life. We need a man like us to plead our cause.

We need an arbiter, a mediator between God and man who can touch both God and man who can speak for both God and man. Ah, Job, that arbiter, that mediator has come:

For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and man

The man Christ Jesus.

1 Tim. 2:5.

It is about that mediator, that answer to our God problem that we will turn.

Hebrews 1:1–4 (ESV)

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

We will focus on the second clause in verse 3: the exact imprint of his nature. And here is our point: The mediator has come and he is the exact imprint of the nature of God.

To understand what this means, we will ask two questions: (1) What does it mean that Jesus is the “exact imprint” of the nature of God? (2) What does it mean for us, for you and me, that Jesus is the “exact imprint” of the nature of God?

Our first question: What does it mean that Jesus is the “exact imprint” of the nature of God?

Let’s put this question is some context. This is the beginning of the letter called “Hebrews”. Except for the final remarks, the letter actually reads more like a sermon than a letter. There is no introduction, not even a “hello”. We don’t know who wrote this, except that he seems to be in Paul’s circle of ministry.

It begins like a gunshot: it begins with God and goes from there. It does not for second try to prove a thing about God existence. It starts with God’s existence and goes to God’s action. It is an interesting thing: We have two books of the Bible that give us God’s first actions, first interaction with the Creation. The very first thing we learn about God is that he speaks. In fact, the most ancient fact which God has revealed to us is found in the first verse of John’s Gospel. There we read,

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

The most ancient fact, the revelation of God which reaches back to before the Creation is the speaking God. That is precisely where Hebrews begins: God speaks. What is remarkably curious about Hebrews is that God speaks – not just by some words taken down by prophets. No, God’s final speech is God: God speaks in or by means of his Son.

The book then proceeds to take the first two chapters to tell us who this Son is. In the first chapter, we learn that this Son is God. In the second chapter we learn that this Son is man. The book then builds its case until we get to the main point in Hebrews 8:

Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, Hebrews 8:1 (ESV)

And what is a High Priest? He is one who brings my case to God. Here in Hebrews 1, we learn that this man who brings my case to God is God.

Now, let us consider the words of our text.

The text itself is, on one level, rather simple: God has spoken by to us by his Son who is the exact imprint of his nature. That is, the Son is the exact imprint of God’s nature.

A quick note on two words and translation: Your Bible may have the words, “exact representation of his being” or “express image of his person”, or “representation of his essence” or “exact representation of his nature” or something quite similar.

Let’s take the first word image or imprint or representation. Have you ever watched a movie where the king pours some liquid wax onto the back of an envelope and makes a little circle? He then takes his ring and presses the flat part of the ring into the wax. When he lifts the ring, the same image appears on the ring and on the wax. The Greek word for that stamp and the image made by the stamp is “character”. Because this idea of an image, the word also means the typical features of a man, what makes one distinctive – what a man is like: his character.

The second word “nature” or “essence” means the substantial nature, the essence, the actual being, the reality of someone or something.

When put the two ideas together we get this big idea: When you look at the Son, you see God. The essential nature of God, the reality of what God is the same as the essential reality of the Son. This is one of ideas which seem simple at first, but become very difficult as soon as you start to put your thoughts upon it.

Consider this scene recorded in John 14:8-11. It is the last night of Jesus before the crucifixion. One of the disciples, Philip asks a rather straight ahead question and then receives a very strange answer:

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me ….”

What a strange answer: Let’s say we speak this afternoon and you mention your father is in town. I say great, I’d like to meet him. You answer, why? If you’ve seen me, you have already seen my father. That would be nonsense. You may be like your father, you might be a chip off the ol’ block. But, it would be ridiculous to say that seeing you is really seeing your father. My children and I have many things in common, but if you want to know my children, you’ll have to meet them. If you want to know me, you’ll have to meet me.

But Jesus says something strange and wonderful: If I want to know God, I must know Jesus. The theologian T.F. Torrance said, “There is no God behind the back of Jesus.” If you want to know God, then you must know Jesus. Jesus is what God has to say:

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:6–7

No man could ever say that of himself and his own father. There are people whom I know, that my sons do not know. There are people my sons know that I do not know. To know my sons may tell you something about me, but it would not communicate me.

Jesus says something different than any man could say: If you know Jesus, then you know the Father.

In Colossae, the church fell into a serious error. Apparently the people thought that Jesus was good and all, but there was something more to be had, there was some way around Jesus to some serious divine knowledge. Paul wrote a letter to explain to them plainly: Jesus is all there is to know about God, there is no God behind Jesus’ back. In Colossians 1:15-20 we read of Jesus as follows:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Jesus is the image of God. If you want to see God, then look to Jesus. Jesus is the Creator and sustainer of all. He has made peace through the Cross, thus reconciling God and man.

This idea that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, that to see Jesus is to see the Father, that the Son is the exact imprint of the very nature of God is painful to our pride. It is too wonderful to comprehend. The world is full of things which do not understand. I just read a book by a geneticist who thinks that the complication of our genetic information may be too complex for us to ever fully understand.

This problem of Jesus and God does fully reduce to any mere human words. It is like beauty. You can use words to list the colors and forms of a sunset over the ocean, but you cannot reproduce the beauty there. There are times when all you can do is look in wonder and joy.

We humans however want a god we can keep our pockets; one small enough to fully comprehend; one small enough to pacify and manipulate. First, we want to get rid of the Trinity: we want either one God who sometimes acts like three different persons; or, we want three gods. Or we want one God who has made some special powerful helpers who take over icky tasks of actually making the physical world.

We’ve discussed the Trinity before, so we’ll move to the particular problem for this morning: How can God become man? Answer, I don’t know. There are things which we can say about. There are some hints as to what is going on. But, in the end, the Incarnation is a miracle which cannot be solved. It is just there, like the ocean in a storm: It is wonderful, fearsome, beautiful; it could wreck me, but I cannot turn away.

We have the incarnation: God became man, without ceasing to be God and while being fully man. This problem was so knotty that the Christian church did not even settle on what could said about the Incarnation until 451, and even then it settled on a definition of what we mean by the idea of incarnation.

Here is the definition in brief:

Jesus was truly God. He was and is of the same substance as the Father.

Jesus was truly man. He had a soul and body exactly like us.

The two natures, God and man, were both present in the one person Jesus Christ.

The two natures did not mix nor were they confused together.

The definition is far more precise than my quick sketch, and so I commend it to you.

Now, this business of being God and man and one person is too much for many people. Some try to solve the problem by ditching the humanity of Jesus. These people admit that Jesus is God but they leave him as something far less than a real man. This is the earliest known Christian heresy. First John is already dealing with this problem.

These people were willing to admit that Jesus was God – he had done wonderful things, he spoke like no man ever spoke. He was altogether better than any mere man. It was easy to admit that he was God. But, to think of him as a regular man who ate and slept and got tired and hungry seems wrong. And so these people said that Jesus only seemed to be a man: He looked like a man, but he was not really a man. The humanity of Jesus was a strange show – not his real nature. These people are called docetists.

When you read through John’s Gospel and especially through John’s first epistle, you see over and again an emphasis on the real physical humanity of Jesus. It is in John’s Gospel that Jesus invites Thomas to touch him after the resurrection. It is in 1 John 1:1 that John writes that he saw Jesus with his own eyes and touched Jesus with his own hands.

Notice that John is writing to people who are already Christians or at least willing to entertain the Christian claims. John is writing to convince these people that Jesus is really a man – as well as God.

Many Christians who try to earnestly be true to the Scripture wander off into Docetism. They want so badly to be careful of Jesus being God, that Jesus’ humanity evaporates. This is probably the most common sort of error what are called conservative Christians.

Now there is a matching error in the other direction: these people admit that Jesus was a man, but they deny that Jesus was God. These people are typically called Adoptionists. They believe that Jesus was a remarkable and very special man: that Jesus was peculiarly transparent to God and understood God better than any man ever. They will often say that at his baptism, God revealed himself to Jesus in a very unique way. Jesus in turn revealed to us what he had learned about God.

This error is very common with the so-called Liberal Christians.

Both of these errors are errors, both are serious mistakes when it comes to Jesus.

Let’s consider the problems of each view.

First, we’ll take Docetism: Jesus only seemed to be a man.

This view takes the various statements in the New Testament concerning the divinity of Jesus seriously. However, they consider the true humanity of Jesus to be somehow beneath God, and thus read these passages as metaphor or somehow not completely reliable. The Bible plainly says that Jesus was born, that walked, that ate and drank, that he grew thirsty and hungry and tired. In 1 John 1:1, John says that he saw the man with his eyes and that he even touched Jesus with hands. The real, substantial body of Jesus, his true humanity is affirmed everywhere throughout the New Testament. Lest you think this a minor point, consider the words of the Apostle John in 1 John 4:2-3:

By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

Docetism is a deadly heresy. If Jesus was not really man, he was deceptive. He went to great pains to show himself to be a man. All the people around him prior to the crucifixion understood him to be a man. In fact, they would not have arrested him if they did not believe he was a man.

If Jesus is not a man, then Jesus never really suffered like you or me. Imagine two people who each travel to a part of the world engulfed in tragedy and famine. One man lives with the people, suffers along side them, hungers with them, feels pain with them, hopes with them. Another man, makes a tour of their pain but spends every night in a luxury hotel. He is like a journalist eating a sandwich and taking pictures of children starving to death.

Jesus was not really crucified.

Jesus did not really raise from the dead, because he never died.

And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 1 Cor. 15:14.

No crucifixion, no resurrection, no hope, no salvation, no reconciliation. Jesus is a cruel joke.

If Jesus is not a man, then he has not come to rescue me. He cannot be a merciful and faithful High Priest. He can’t be anything for me. He can’t be a mediator. Hebrews 2:17 says that Jesus is a merciful and faithful high priest. Hebrews 5:1 says that a high priest is “chosen from among men [and] is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.” Now, if Jesus is not a man, then he cannot be a high priest who offers sacrifices to God for sin. If he is not a man, then we cannot be saved.

In short, if Jesus is not a man, then Jesus is not a Savior.

Docetism also creates all sorts of problems when it comes to how one leads their life. The physical world is bad and the problems of this life are not important. God is going to destroy the world – not redeem it. When I see the pain of another human being, I may tell them about a distant God who can bring them to the new world – but I will not bear their burdens and feel their sorrow. This world is going to burn, so who cares. Sin becomes an abstraction: I’m saved so who cares really what my body does.

Again, a Jesus who is no man cannot be a picture of true faith. Hebrews 2:17 says that he was tempted like us. Hebrews 4:15 says that he is a high priest who is able to sympathize with our weakness. But, if he no man then has never been tempted and he cannot sympathize with our weakness. Jesus was simply a play-actor who fooled us all. But he never had to exercise faith as a man – indeed, he only gave lip service to faith but never did a true act as a man.

A man who lives like this, cannot be saved. James, the brother of the Lord commends such “faith” as no real, saving faith:

James 2:14–17 (ESV)

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

When Jesus ceases to be a real man, real faith disappears.

This creates another problem: If Jesus is not a man, than God is too far away. I cannot reach up to God, so I must find another mediator to reach for me. We see this problem in the history of Christianity. Over the course of time, Jesus became less and less a true man. The physical world is seen as inherently evil and less than the spiritual world. Men retreat from the physical world, because only far away from the physical world can there be any salvation.

Jesus goes further and further away, and so men compensated by creating what were in effect lesser gods who could go from me to Jesus. One reason for the whole realm of saints and the worship of Mary was to solve the problem of distant Jesus. Consider this quotation from a Mary worship website:

We have often been told that it is not easy to go to heaven. And indeed it is not easy, for how can it be easy given our fallen human nature, and given the sheer power of the enemy who constantly attacks our intellects, hardens our hearts, and breaks down our wills? But despite our fallen nature, despite the power of the enemy, there is a shortcut. There is a faster route, a faster way: Our Lady, the Mediatrix.[2]

God is too far away; heaven is too distant. Why, because God never actually reached down to earth and became like me. I am too wicked to reach up to God. So, I must have someone who has actually been a human being to reach up.

What is interesting is that such people typically will say that they believe that Jesus did become a man. But as soon as they say the words, they deny the meaning. That is what makes this error so poisonous: it wraps itself in piety and claims to be exalting God most highly. But in doing that, it denies God’s work most profoundly.

The alternative of Adoptionism fares no better.

This, too, has its roots in the earliest days of Christianity. In fact, it was among the earliest charges hurled against Jesus:

The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” John 10:31–33

This passage underscores one of the grave problems of Adoptionism. If Jesus was not a God, then he was seriously disturbed or even truly evil. Jesus repeatedly makes claims for himself as the equal of God. This is important: God has no equals. For instance in Isaiah, God says:

I am God and there is no other

I am God and there is none like me.

Is. 46:9. God does not share his glory: “My glory I will not give to another” (Is. 48:11). However, Jesus repeatedly makes claims to be God, share God’s glory, to have power which belongs alone to God. In Mark 2:5, Jesus forgives sins. Those in attendance knew what this meant: Jesus was claiming to have the powers and privileges of God (Mark 2:7).

If Jesus is not God, then he is at least insane if not deliberately evil. Yet, the whole point of adoptionism is that Jesus is the best of man – a man so wonderful that he was transparent to the only true God. This makes for an awkward problem: This best of man is either evil or stupid or wicked.

Indeed, the ultimate reason Jesus was delivered over by the leaders was their belief that Jesus was a mere man who thought himself to be God.

Another problem with Adoptionism is that Jesus cannot be my advocate – he cannot rightly intercede for me. Indeed, that is one of the great points of the entire book of Hebrews:

Before Jesus came into the world, God had appointed a first covenant which created mediation between God and man. God appointed a temple, sacrifices, priests and a high priest who would go from man to God. God gave Moses a prophet who was speak for God to men. The book of Hebrews goes through each of the elements of the old covenant: prophet, temple, sacrifice, alter, priest and shows how Jesus – being God incarnate – was better than the old covenant.

In fact, the old covenant practices and elements were shadows, symbols of what God was actually doing. They were temporary forms which were filled when Jesus came.

Recently there was a lot of talk about the Navy Seals ending the career of Osama Bin Ladin. The stories told of how the Seals practiced for months on a mock-up compound and practiced different problems arising and what they would do. Only after the practice, they approach the real thing.

The old covenant was similar: It taught us about God and man, about sin and sacrifice – so that when the real priest, the real sacrifice came we could understand what it meant.

But if Jesus is not God, then Jesus cannot reach up to God on my behalf. The crucifixion is merely an example of selfless denial, not an atoning sacrifice.

If Jesus is not God, then I cannot be saved.

I remember a story some years ago, when a group of people wanted access to the President of the United States to plead some case to them. They had a problem that they thought the President could fix. And so an in-between fellow offered them access to the President, but at a very steep price. These people saved up their money (a tremendous sum for them, because they were very poor) and gave it over. The other man took their money and they got a table at a lunch attended by the President. But the lunch was large and President did not know why they were there. No one pled their case and they were left behind with their problem. Their mediator lied.

If Jesus is not God incarnate, if he is merely a man who cannot plead my case. If Jesus is not God, then he is a liar.

Again, no mediator; no salvation.

Adoptionism, too, creates problems of the practical life. By denying that God has reached down to man, the adoptionist must create a moral world in which my conduct becomes good enough to save. Adoptionist can be wonderful on helping the poor. These people frequently point to Jesus helping the poor. They must work, because they need to work to be saved. They need to do something to save themselves, because God has not come down to save them.

But they adoptionist forgets the importance Jesus placed upon help for bodily needs. What these people really needed was not more food – what they needed was the real bread from Heaven: God incarnate, Jesus Christ:

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” John 6:26–29

They are like children who receive a present. They receive the box with its paper and ribbon. They tear of the wrapping and then play with the wrapping, ignoring the present for which the wrapping was only a pleasant side light. To look only the humanity of Jesus and ignore the divinity, is to take up the part and leave best: The best being that Jesus was God incarnate, the Word become Flesh, God and man in one person.

There is one final alternative, which I will mention briefly: Arianism. It takes its name from Arius, a church leader in the early 4^th Century. Arius taught that the Son was not God, but rather a little god – the most powerful created thing, but not God him. He got this idea from Neoplatonism: which held to a transcendent God who would never touch the physical creation, and the Logos (the Greek word which Word or reason) who was a creator mediator between God and the physical world. The Jehovah’s Witnesses are the most prominent current follower of Arius. They hold that Jesus was a created being, an angel, who dressed up like a man. After the crucifixion, he put away the clothing of flesh and went back to being a spirit being.

This view takes the worst of both the Docetist and the Adoptionist: I am left with a mediator who is neither God nor man.

(2) What does it mean for us, for you and me, that Jesus is the “exact imprint” of the nature of God?

Think of a wife who receives a letter from her husband who has been away in Afghanistan. She will treasure that letter greatly, because it comes from one whom she loves, one who affects her greatly, one who has information of the greatest importance. If we were treasure the words which come from one we dearly love, how much greater then should we treasure the words from the one created us, who knows us, who sustains us?

We have read that God not has merely spoken by prophets and that there were recorded. We read that God has spoken in his Son. We hear that this Son is himself God: that the Son is the heir of all creation, that the Creator and sustainer of all things, the radiance of God, the exact imprint of God’s nature: not merely that he is a copy of God, but that he is the true exhibition of God.

God has spoken in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God himself and yet he is a man. This is something far more profound than mere words. The wife who receives the letter from her husband gone away to war will treasure the words of the letter, because she treasures the one who sent the letter. But she far more desires to have her husband in the flesh.

We have the words of God, which an inestimable treasure. But we have something even greater than the words, we have the Word of God, we have God himself.

Stop and truly consider what is here claimed. That God, God who comes before all time and space, who upholds all creation, and for whom creation is as dust; the God who calls out all the stars by name; the God is and was and ever more will be; that such a God who dwells in unapproachable light, the God who says

I am God, and there is no other

I am no God, and there is none like me

Declaring the end from the beginning

And from ancient times things not yet done.

Is. 46:9-10; that the God whose word is deed, who speaks and stars fill the expanse; that such a God has spoken in Jesus Christ.

God has come into the world. Sin had separated heaven and earth; sin had thrown man far from God, so far that man could only see the impressions in the creation, monuments which said that God has been here. Men are like children playing in the ruins of a great civilization and thinking, Giants lived here before; no gods. When men look out into the creation, they can see God has been here.

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. Romans 1:19–20

But some more has happened. The distant God, the transcendent God, has done more than leave monuments to work in Creation. He has done more than send word through prophets that he still knows that we are here. No, God has done more.

God himself has come into the world. God has become a man – like you and me. God has come down and has come into the world. God has come to claim his own. Jesus is what God has to say.

And what does Jesus say; what does he do? First, proclaims and reveals God to us. Our eyes are weak and are minds are frail; our hearts fails and our courage sinks. We cannot see God. We are too weak. We fear the one who can take the life of our body. But here is one who can not only take our life but can cast us into hell. The one who has the power of life and death, the one who upholds my very existence has come into the world.

I could not find out God, so God found out me. You cannot reach up to God, and so God has reached down to you. A child who falls and is trapped cannot save herself, and so she calls for her father. Her father reaches down into the ditch and pulls up his daughter. She could not go up, so her father came down.

But there is more. Jesus came not merely to proclaim words, but to proclaim salvation. The God who was God has now come to man. Men rebelled, and yet God came to save. Before the Fall of Adam it reads that God went with Adam in the Garden. And, in Jesus Christ, God again walked among men. Only this time, God came as a savior.

Jesus saved by bearing the burden of sin. The Father heaped the curse of sin, the weight of sin onto his Son. Jesus was born to bear the curse and shame of sin—a curse and shame and sin which I cannot bear, which you cannot bear. Do see the love the Father has for you, that he cursed his own Son so that he could save your soul? You could not save yourself, and so God the Father sent his Son to be a ransom for your sin, to be a propitiation for wrath meant for you, deserved by you.

To say that God has spoken in his Son, means that God has proclaimed pardon, an amnesty to all who will be found in Jesus Christ. I could not bear the wrath of God and so God sent his Son as hiding place in which men and women can flee to find safety for their souls.

And God has done more. He has granted me an advocate, a high priest who can sympathize with my weakness. I can go to him with my pain and sorrow and shame and sin and he will show me mercy.

Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Hebrews 2:17–18

There is more, he bids you come to him for help and rest and hope:

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:14–16

Come to this priest, this advocate with God. Come to him. Have you sinned? Well then, he sits upon a throne of grace only to receive sinners. But my shame and my sin – how many times I have sinned. So, his grace is greater than all your sin. He is God, he has paid for your sin, he welcomes you should you but come.

Do you see that there is only one sin which will damn your soul to Hell? Your angry or lies or immorality or covetousness or foolishness or murder will not damn you. These sins are far too small to throw you beyond the reach of God’s grace. All these will be forgiven and more. God has spoken in his Son and declares forgiveness to all who will come to Jesus Christ.

No, there is only sin is grave enough to put you beyond the bounds of this grace. You know John 3:16, but it is the next two verses which I want you to consider:

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. John 3:17–18

There is the sole damning sin: That you will not receive the grace of God. God has come, but you will not believe. For that there is no grace.

The Father has given his Son, his unique and only Son to spare you. If you despise this gift, what hope is there for you? Judgment Day will not seek whether you were good enough or did you say enough prayers or did you make some trip or give some sum of money. Judgment Day asks one question, Did you receive the free gift of salvation granted in Jesus Christ? Did you believe? If you have not believed, then you will be judged for sins in full.

But if you have come to God in Jesus Christ, if you have received the free gift of the grace of God, if you have come to the throne of grace and plead forgive my sin for it is great (Ps. 25:11), you will be received. No power of Hell, no scheme of men can keep you from peace with God should you throw yourself wholly upon the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. If you say to God, this sin is mine, this rebellion is mine, this shame is mine – I can bear it no longer, take it, lay it to the account your soul – I believe he is the savior of mankind. That prayer will take, that request will be granted.

And if you have come before, do not think that your sin today this morning, last night will cast you out. God has come and he will lose none that are his. Do not shrink back in shame, come to Christ that he may heal your wound. Show him your sin, confess it fully and you will receive grace freely.

But I have sinned one too many times, I have pled forgiveness, but I have not changed. God has come in the flesh. God has spoken in Jesus Christ. Redemption is here. His mercy knows no bounds for those who humbly seek him. Seek him and you will find him.

In Jesus Christ God has reached down and man is reconciled with God. There is a mediator between man and God. Without Jesus there is no hope. Come to him and be healed, come to him and be saved.

[1] http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/06/gobekli-tepe/mann-text, accessed June 8, 2011.

[2] http://www.all-about-the-virgin-mary.com/mediatrix.html accessed June 11, 2011.