10/03/2019
When we look at the life of Jesus do we see Him as being able to resist sin because of His godliness? Do we think that if we too had been made fully God, and fully man, that we could resist sin as He did? In our eyes was he unlike us? Do we discount the fact that His temptation was every bit as enticing to Him as ours is to us, and that His humanity made Him just as vulnerable to it as we are?
“For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 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 2:16-17 ESV
It is hard for us to understand how Jesus could be both God, and man, at the same instant. It is hard to comprehend how He could be tempted as we are when He embodied God Himself... yet we read that He was tempted. It is easy for us to excuse our own shortcomings by seeing ourselves as being tempted by sin more than Jesus because He was the Son of God, but scripture tells us that isn’t true...
“For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”
Hebrews 2:18 ESV
If you ever doubt His humanity then think about the difficulty that His disciples had in recognizing who He was. He would ask them who they thought He was. Judas thought He was a man, and it took Peter a while to see it. Others, like Pilot, saw Him as a man. Caiaphas thought of Him as a man... indeed, most everyone who came in contact with Him thought of Him as a man. After He was crucified some of the disciples walked away... do we think they would have walked away from God... no, they walked away thinking that He had been a man all along. They called Him such things as “Jesus of Nazareth” and “Jesus Son of Joseph”. Do you see the difficulty? Do you understand that He embodied every characteristic of man, and yet was fully God? Charles Spurgeon warned of this complexity when he wrote these words...
“Do not try to separate Jesus from common humanity. You may be going through a dark place, but Jesus went through it before. It is a sharp fight you are waging, but Jesus has stood toe to toe with the same enemy.” - Charles Spurgeon
So, in being a man as we are men He gives us hope, and becomes the perfect priest, and sacrifice for us. We can be His heir, and joint heir, and He can call us His mother, and His brothers.
“But he replied to the man who told him, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers!”
Matthew 12:48-49 ESV
Jesus identified with us, and yet he was God as well.
“For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."”
Matthew 12:50 ESV
We are tempted as Jesus was tempted, and Jesus was tempted as we are tempted. In this way He understands our vulnerability to sin and temptation. In this way we can aspire to perfection, and to resisting sin, as He did.
“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
Jesus makes it possible for us to be made as He is... He is the firstborn, and bridges the gap, giving us hope, and strengthens faith, that we can not only be forgiven, but through His blood be perfected... made eternal in God’s kingdom.
“Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.”
John 14:19-20 ESV
Jesus is human in every respect, feeling as we do, and being tempted as we are. This is is of great hope to us. This makes it possible for us to not only watch Him, the Son of God, interact with His Father, but to join Him. This allows us to call God Father... just as Jesus does, and dine as family at God’s table. Are we ready to call Jesus the Child of God, and be transformed through Him into His brother and sister... equally into a child of God?
“From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
2 Corinthians 5:16-17 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your Son Jesus Christ who became man to make it possible for my sins to be forgiven, and to lead me faithfully through the temptation of Satan and the world by His example. Thank you for the hope that I find in knowing that Jesus hurt as I hurt, ate as I eat, felt happiness and joy as I do, prayed, and taught me to pray as He does, and was tempted in every way as I am. Thank you for this your Son who was in every way man as I am, and into whose divine image I am being transformed. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who stooped down to show me the life of His Son Jesus, and bends low to breath His Holy Spirit onto me. Great are you in mercy, goodness, and love. I praise you Holy Father, and lovingly call you ABBA as Jesus does. Your glory knows no end, and indeed all glory is yours through the grace you have extended through Jesus the Christ. I am reborn in Jesus; see in my eyes the love of a son, and hear in my voice the worship of your child.
“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
John 1:12-13 ESV
Rich Forbes