FIRST QUARTER 2022
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #2
JANUARY 8, 2022
“THE MESSAGE OF HEBREWS”

 

 

Our lesson this week gives us broad latitude as it is entitled “The Message of Hebrews”. And, rightly, this lesson focuses on Jesus in His multitudinous salvation roles as the essence of “The Message of Hebrews”. Truly, Paul in Hebrews is repeatedly directing our attention to Jesus in every facet of revealing His Father (Hebrews1:1-4), accomplishing our salvation (Hebrews 2:14-18), and moving us to “lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily besets us” (Hebrews 12:1-2).

 

The first role of Jesus in Hebrews is as fully God as is the Father. Jesus is differentiated from and revealed as above and superior to the angelic beings. Jesus was “so much better than the angels” (1:4), and “unto which of the angels said He at any time, Thou art My Son” (1:5). In a time when there is a growing misunderstanding of the full divinity of Jesus, this is a critical point. If Jesus is not fully God in the same sense that “the Father” is God, then the life of Christ does not reveal God to us, but His life someone else, someone less.

 

If part of the purpose of the incarnation was to reveal God to men, and someone who was less than fully God in nature and character came, then we have not seen God revealed. God claims that He loves us, and the life of Jesus was to reveal that love, as well as His death on the cross fully manifesting that God loves His creatures more than Himself, but “God” didn’t come, rather a lesser being, then we don’t truly know how “God” would choose if His self was put at ultimate risk.

 

Only if Jesus is fully divine can we know who God is and what He is like. A. T. Jones quotes Hebrews 1:3 and then makes this comment:

 

“This tells us that, in heaven, the nature of Christ was the nature of God; that He, in His person, in His substance, is the very impress, the very character, of the substance of God. That is to say that, in heaven, as He was before He came to the world, the nature of Christ was in very substance the nature of God.” (The Consecrated Way to Christian Perfection (CWCP). P.20).

 

        How does God feel towards you – look at Jesus.

        How does God relate to you when you sin – look to Jesus.

        Is God merciful and forgiving – look to Jesus.

        Is God humble and safe – look to Jesus.

        If you are God’s enemy, how does He look at you – look to Jesus.

        What would God do in any situation – look to Jesus.

 

“Had God the Father come to our world and dwelt among us, veiling His glory and humbling Himself, that humanity might look upon Him, the history that we have of the life of Christ would not have been changed in unfolding its record of His own condescending grace. In every act of Jesus, in every lesson of His instruction, we are to see and hear and recognize God. In sight, in hearing, in effect, it is the voice and movements of the Father. But language seems to be so feeble! I refrain, and with John exclaim, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not" [1 John 3:1]. --Letter 83, 1895.

 

Our lesson next moves to Jesus as our “Mediator” and “High Priest”. Why would we need a mediator? The common explanation is that two parties (God and us), are at odds with each other, and therefore a third party (Jesus) steps in between the two parties to bring about reconciliation. But – it should be immediately obvious to us that this separates Jesus from “God”. In this commonly explained scenario, God has aught with us because of our sin, but, thankfully, Jesus understands our fallen condition by virtue of His incarnation, and thus can “mediate” between the offended holy Father and us, the offenders.

 

This is a pagan concept – not a Christian concept!

 

As we have demonstrated above, if Jesus is truly and fully God, and if God the Father had come to earth, the life of Jesus would have been no different, then Jesus is not mediating by changing God’s stance towards us – because Jesus’ stance towards us is God’s stance towards us! Jesus’ love and forgiveness towards us, is God’s love and forgiveness towards us!

 

The purpose of “mediation” and the function of Christ as “High Priest” is not to change God’s attitude or stance toward us, but TO CHANGE OUR ATTITUDE AND STANCE TOWARDS GOD! We are the ones with the carnal minds who have enmity towards God and His law (Romans 8:7). We are by nature children of wrath – i.e. we have wrath towards God! The mediatorial, High Priestly role of Jesus is not to get God the Father on our side – the Father is already on our side (Romans 8:31-32, John 16:27) – but Jesus’ mediatorial Hight Priestly work is to GET US ON GOD’S SIDE!

 

“. . . in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.” (Hebrews 2:18). Jesus does not understand our temptations more than the Father does – the Father is omniscient – but because Jesus became fully human and took our fallen human nature, we now can see clearly in Jesus, that God does understand our fallen struggles. In the incarnation, God did not “learn” anything, but in the incarnation, we learn something, and now believe because the evidence is clear in the life of Christ, that “God” does understand the sins that so easily beset us.

 

AT Jones again:

“As in His human nature He is one of us, and as "Himself took our infirmities" (Matthew 8:17), He could be "touched with the feeling of our infirmities." Being in all things made like us, He, when tempted, felt just as we feel when we are tempted, and knows all about it: and so can help and save to the uttermost all who will receive Him. As in His flesh, and [as] Himself in the flesh, He was as weak as we are, and of Himself could "do nothing" (John 5:30); so when He bore "our griefs, and carried our sorrows" (Isaiah 53:4), and was tempted as we are, feeling as we feel, by His divine faith He conquered all by the power of God which that faith brought Him, and which in our flesh He has brought to us.

 

Therefore, His name is called Immanuel, which is "God with us." Not God with Him only, but God with us. God was with Him in eternity and could have been with Him even though He had not given Himself for us. But man through sin became without God, and God wanted to be again with us. Therefore, Jesus became "us," that God with Him might be "God with us." And that is His name, because that is what He is. Blessed be His name.

 

And this is "the faith of Jesus" and the power of it. This is our Saviour: one of God, and one of man; and therefore, able to save to the uttermost every soul who will come to God by Him.” (CWCP 31-32)

 

May an appreciation of the divinity, humanity, and faith of Jesus, move us to proclaim the faith of Jesus and keep His commandments, and thus, proclaim the four angel’s messages, and bring “an end to sin”.

 

~Bob Hunsaker