FIRST QUARTER 2022
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #4
JANUARY 22, 2022
“JESUS, OUR FAITHFUL BROTHER”

 

 

“Jesus, Our Faithful Brother” – Our title is an allusion to Hebrews 2:11, 12, 17, where three times Christ identifies us as “brethren”. Why?

 

While it’s comforting and encouraging to be identified by Christ as His brothers and sisters, that isn’t the reason that Paul gives for Christ calling us His “brethren”.

 

In Hebrews 2:11, it says that Christ is not “ashamed” to call us brethren (and sisters) because we are ALL OF ONE. We might well ask, “One what?” And the answer to “one what” comes in v. 14, our memory verse for this week, “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same”. So, the answer to “one what” is, one “flesh and blood”, or one humanity, one nature, one species, one race. Jesus is of the same humanity, nature, race, or species, as we are!

 

And notice how Paul goes to extreme lengths to emphasize the likeness of Christ’s “flesh and blood” to ours. 1.) He Himself – 2.) Likewise – 3.) Shared – 4.) The Same – 5.) Also (KJV).  Paul’s concern is that we have no doubts about the similarity or likeness or parallel between Christ’s “flesh and blood” – Christ’s humanity or nature – and our “flesh and blood”.

 

This concern of Paul’s is continued in v. 17 of Hebrews 2 – “in all things it behooved (Christ) to be made like unto His brethren”. Christ was MADE in ALL THINGS like His brethren – US! Not some things, or most things, or many things, or a few things – ALL THINGS!

 

Notice carefully however, Paul is talking about what Jesus was MADE at the incarnation, not what He did with what He was made. Because Christ did something very very different with what He was made from what we have done with what we are made! Hebrews 4:15 tells us that though He was tempted in ALL POINTS like as we are – because He was made in ALL THINGS like we are made – yet He was WITHOUT SIN!

 

Said another way – Jesus was made with the same equipment that we are made with, but He used that equipment to be “without sin” despite being tempted from without and within as we are.

 

Our lesson this week doesn’t discuss the “all things” or the “He Himself also likewise shared in the same” aspects of Christ being our Brother. The lesson quotes Hebrews 7:26 in discussing the human nature of Christ, “Jesus had a human nature that was ‘holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners’ (Hebrews 7:26, ESV).”

 

Here they unfortunately make a common mistake – they take a verse out of context – and apply it to a different context. Let’s read Hebrews 7:26 IN CONTEXT, and we will see that it is discussing Christ’s nature and character as our high priest as He CURRENTLY is up in heaven. The passage has nothing to do with the humanity or nature that Christ took (“was made”) at the incarnation but is referring to His character and nature up in heaven today since His ascension. Notice the context for Hebrews 7:24-26:

 

“²⁴ But He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. ²⁵ Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. ²⁶ For such a High Priest was fitting for us, Who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens;”

 

Notice, this is repeatedly referencing His priestly ministry up in heaven that He began after His resurrection when He took on a glorified humanity. This verse is clearly not talking about the humanity or nature He “took” or “was made” at the incarnation.

 

But note further, all these adjectives that are used in Hebrews 7:26 are also used of the potential that you and I have in our fallen humanity to become!

 

We can be HOLY in our fallen natures by the grace of Christ. 1 Peter1:15-16, Romans 12:1, etc.

 

We can be HARMLESS in our fallen natures by the grace of Christ. Matthew 10:16, Philippians 2:15

 

We can be UNDEFILED in our fallen natures by the grace of Christ. Psalms 119:1, James 1:27

 

We can be SEPARATE FROM SINNERS in our fallen natures by the grace of Christ. Exodus 33:16, 2 Corinthians 6:17

 

So, these adjectives that are applied to Christ, are adjectives that describe what we can be also – even in our fallen humanity. So even if the context of Hebrews 7:26 wasn’t the glorified humanity of Christ in His heavenly high priestly role – which it is – this still wouldn’t demonstrate that Christ’s humanity or nature was different than ours, since all these adjectives can be applied to us in our fallen natures.

 

We have only looked at the tip of the iceberg regarding the humanity of Christ, but the Bible writers repeated concern and emphasis is the nearness of Jesus to us in the nature He took. Always remember that He was without sin in that fallen human nature that He took. He never consented or affirmed sin by even a thought. His mind was never corrupted by giving in to the external temptations of the world around Him, or the internal temptations that came from the fallen human nature that He took.

 

Thus, He said in Gethsemane, “Not MY WILL, but Thy will be done” (Luke 22:42). Why did He say that? Because He had a personal will, an individual will, that was acted upon by the fallen human nature that He had taken, that was tempted to self-preservation over self-sacrifice. That is the fundamental “all points” temptation at the root of all the temptations that arise from without or from within – to choose to preserve self at the expense of others, versus, the sacrifice of self for the blessing of others. And that desire to preserve self, to preserve “My Will” over God’s will, is the root manifestation of the fallen sinful nature.

 

The lesson asks a critical question at the bottom of Tuesday’s lesson: “Since we have the promise of victory through Jesus, why do so many of us still struggle with sin? What are we doing wrong, and more importantly, how can we start living up to the high calling we have in Christ?”

 

Could the answer to their question have something to do with their view that Jesus does not actually understand by experience what it means to be tempted as we are? Could it be that in their understanding of the nature of Christ, they have pushed Jesus so far away from us, that it has become nearly impossible – consciously or subconsciously – to believe that Jesus knows the strength of our temptations by personal experience. And, thus, our faith and belief that He can deliver us has also been compromised?

 

Notice how Paul links our understanding of the nature of Christ and our ability to have victory over temptation and sin – which is the essence of the quarterly’s question above:

 

“For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.” (Hebrews 2:18)

 

Notice – PLEASE NOTICE – Paul is outlining a cause-effect relationship between our perception and understanding of how Christ was tempted and His ability to aid those of us who are tempted! Not because Christ learns something by being tempted that the Godhead didn’t previously know, but because we don’t believe and perceive His ability to deliver us when we don’t see Him being tempted as we are tempted!

 

Again, there is a cause-effect relationship between our understanding of the nature of Christ, and His temptations, and our discernment of His ability to deliver us from temptation and sin. The further we move the nature of Christ from us, the more failure we will experience individually and corporately in our victory over the sin which so easily besets us.

 

“Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus”. (Hebrews 12:1-2). Believe it! It is possible to LAY ASIDE EVERY WEIGHT AND EVERY SIN WHICH SO EASILY BESETS US! How??? By looking to Jesus. By seeing in Jesus, a Savior nigh at hand, Who took our fallen sinful nature that He might deliver us from bondage to that nature.

 

Jesus condemned sin in OUR FLESH! The flesh that we all possess is the flesh He took, and the flesh in which He condemned sin - our sin.

 

I want to encourage you. This is the 1888 message! This is the “Minneapolis message”. If you haven’t read, “The Consecrated Way” by A.T. Jones – PLEASE READ IT. If you have read it in the past – read it again! One quote to whet your appetite:

 

“God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, Christ taking our nature as our nature is in its sinfulness and degeneracy, and God dwelling constantly with Him and in Him in that nature – in this God has demonstrated to all people forever, that there is no soul in this world so laden with sins or so lost that God will not gladly dwell with him and in him to save him from it all, and to lead him in the way of the righteousness of God.”  Consecrated Way, p. 51.4

 

“The humanity of the Son of God is everything to us. It is the golden chain that binds our souls to Christ, and through Christ to God. This is to be our study. . .  And the study of the incarnation of Christ is a fruitful field, which will repay the searcher who digs deep for hidden truth. 1SM 244.1

 

~Bob Hunsaker