Hebrews assures us that the Lord Jesus is not ashamed to call us His brethren!
It was written to Jewish believers who were being pressured to go back to their Judaism and abandon the Savior. He was mocked as the Messiah because He had been crucified.
So Hebrews takes care to exalt the Lord Jesus, pointing out His deity, His honor, that He created all things, inherits all things, is higher than angels, and rules all things.
How then, could Jesus die as a man? Wouldn't that be impossible, and degrading, to so exalted a person as God Himself?
Though it seems beneath the Son to unite His deity with lowly humanity, it had been promised of old: God would be given to us as a son and a child, and He would reign forever!
Christ Himself pointed this out to the Jewish rulers: that David worshipped his own Son, Messiah, as Lord.
But does Jesus' death disprove His deity, and wouldn't He be ashamed to be called man?
Hebrews' writer answers very bluntly: Jesus became man for the express purpose of suffering death to save His people. The whole purpose was so that He might have a body to be slain in, to offer up as a sacrifice, thereby to destroy the power of death for His people.
Death is the greatest shame of humanity. Therefore it is amazing that Christ became a man, not to display the noblest qualities of humanity - genius, skill, physical prowess - but to suffer the indignity of humanity - death itself.
Far from being ashamed of His death, Christ's death is His great glory and honor! He takes on the greatest shame of men, and makes it His greatest glorious triumph!
No wonder the Lord Jesus is not ashamed to call the people He died to save His brethren! |
#19 - Top Played Sermon (48-Hours) on 10/18/2015
