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How good are you at taking warnings, or at spotting them? I guess the most common warnings are road signs. It’s a while since most of us sat our tests so here’s a little refresher:
What is the point of those signs? They give advanced warning of a potential threat to our safety.
Hebrews is a book of warnings(1) "We must pay more careful attention, therefore to what we have heard so that we do not drift away", or (3)"how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?" The warning is don’t abandon the gospel, don’t turn back, don’t give up. Do you notice what the danger is? "drift" It isn’t outright refusal to follow God, but a gradual drifting. It is not saying no I don’t believe anymore it’s gradually becoming less and less bothered, the gradual creep of apathy, the drip, drip, drip of uncertainty, the slow erosion of faith in Christ alone.
Hebrews is also a book of encouragement to persevere. The warnings are given with promises of help and the prospect of overcoming; constantly drawing the beleaguered believers back to what they possess in Christ and the future that belongs to those who persevere.
1. Jesus is what we fail to be
He deals with the danger of drift by reminding believers of the supremacy of Christ. Those he
writes to are Jewish Christians in danger of drifting back to Judaism, so he shows that Christ
is superior to Judaism. He began in ch1 by showing that Jesus is far superior to angels
because he is God’s reigning and ruling Son and through him God reveals himself. In (2:1-4)he
says the revelation of God by the Son is superior to that of the angels at Sinai. Here(5) that
Jesus is superior to angels because he rules not just the world now but will rule the world to
come.
The author goes back to Psalm 8 to make his point. The Psalm begins by reminding us of the glory and majesty of God, before staggeringly recounting God’s concern for and the position he gave to humanity. (6-8)God is mindful of man, he makes them and gives them status and authority to rule creation as his regents. We reflect God’s image and mediate his rule.
But you don’t have to look very far to see that that isn’t the case any more. We fail to live up to this description of mankind. This week has seen the Copenhagen climate change summit, why did it meet? Because we have failed to wisely care for the world we are given to rule. You only have to look at the headlines to see our failure, or read the latest Ofsted guidelines that prohibit parents from taking photo’s or videoing nativity plays because of safeguarding. Man is not what God intended him to be because of sin.
But God has an answer to the problem(9) "But we see Jesus..." shows us that Jesus is everything God intended for us to be. The writer to the Hebrews contends that Jesus is what God intended us to be. Jesus fulfils each of these things, he is made a little lower than the angels, in humility he is made human (17)just like us - yet he is unlike us because he fulfils Psalm 8, he is the perfect version of humanity, he is without sin. He reflects the glory and honour of God in his obedience to the Father.
And (9)now he is "crowned with honour and glory", why? "because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone." Jesus is glorified and worthy of glory from eternity, he always was and always will be worthy of glory and worship because of his character. But how much greater his praise and glory now because he laid all that aside and gave himself for us.
Jesus reigns and rules, he is what we fail to be, God’s perfect obedient son and one day everything will acknowledge that.
What is Christmas all about? We need to get beyond the cute nativity, the benign Christmas card images and see it is about our failure and the danger that failure leaves us facing. We are not by nature what God intended us to be and God cannot stand sin, therefore we cannot know God. How do we make that right?
2. Jesus is what we fail to be for us
The big question is how can we be brought back into relationship with God? (10-11)Jesus comes
to make us holy, but he doesn’t do it by giving us a set of rules to keep, he does it for us.
The image used is that of a divine hero or a representative champion, one who pioneers or trail
blazes a way to God for us.
I guess we know the story of David and Goliath, but often we miss the point of it. It’s not there to teach us to be brave, it’s not just a reminder that little guys can do big things with God’s help. It’s about God rescuing his people through a representative who obeys his word. Goliath represents the Philistines and David the people of God, if Goliath wins the Philistines win, if David wins Israel win, they are representative champions. Each fights on behalf of their people. David contends for the people of God in their place and secures the victory for them.
That is the image used here _ Jesus is his people’s divine champion. He becomes like them in every way, so that he can secure our salvation. (10)is not saying Jesus was not perfect before, neither is it saying that he reaches a new level of perfection, but that his becoming human; his incarnation, life, suffering and death make him perfectly suited, they equip him exactly to be our representative champion, our saviour. As such his perfect life, his being what could not be and then dying(17) in our place as a sacrifice for our sins secures our salvation. It frees us from spiritual death as a punishment for sin because he pays the price and it frees us from the fear of physical death as the end before judgement.
Jesus is our divine hero, he lives as God the Son in flesh delighting God the Father, obeying him in everything as he fully experiences humanity and dies the perfect pioneer of salvation so we can be credited with his perfect humanity. So that we are made holy, can know God and be adopted as his children.
Why would you drift away from that? Don’t drift from the only means of salvation, but be amazed again.
At the end of time, billions of people were scattered on a great plain before Gods throne. Most shrank back from the brilliant light before them. But some groups near the front talked heatedly - not with cringing shame but with belligerence. "Can God judge us?"
"How can he know about suffering?" snapped a young brunette. She ripped open a sleeve to reveal a tattooed number from a Nazi concentration camp. "We endured terror... beating.. torture... death!"
In another group a black man lowered his collar. "What about this?" he demanded, showing an ugly rope burn. "Lynched for no crime but being black!"
In another crowd, a pregnant schoolgirl with sullen eyes. "Why should I suffer?" She murmured. "It wasn’t my fault."
Far out across the plain were hundreds of such groups. Each had a complaint against God for the evil and suffering he had permitted in his world. How lucky God was to live in heaven where all was sweetness and light, where there was no weeping or fear, no hunger or hatred! What did God know of all that men had been forced to endure in the world? For God leads a pretty sheltered life, they said.
So each of the groups sent forth their leader, chosen because they had suffered the most. A Jew, a person from Hiroshima, a horribly disabled arthritic, a thalidomide child. In the centre of the plain they consulted with each other.
At last they were ready to present their case. It was rather clever. Before God could be qualified to be their judge, he must endure what they had endured. Their verdict was that God should be sentenced to live on earth - as a man! Let him be born a Jew. Let the legitimacy of his birth be doubted. Give him a work so difficult that even his family will think him out of his mind when he tries to do it. Let him be betrayed by his closest friends. Let him face false charges, be tried by a prejudiced jury and convicted by a cowardly judge. Let him be tortured. And last, let him see what it means to be terribly alone. Then let him die in agony. Let him die so that there can be no doubt that he died. Let there be a whole host of witnesses to verify it.
As each leader announced the portion of his sentence, loud murmurs of approval went up from the throng of people assembled. When the last finished pronouncing sentence there was a long silence. No one uttered another word. No one moved. For suddenly all knew that God had already served his sentence.
Drifting is our danger, apathy is spiritual heart disease. Hebrews reminds us we have a champion who is for us what we fail to be and who enables us to come before and into relationship with the Holy God with the status of sinless sons, who knows what it is like to suffer, to feel tempted but to persevere.
Christmas is amazing, it is great news Jesus comes to be what we are not for us!