Skip to main content

Only One Real Answer


          It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking.  But there is a place where someone has testified:
“What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him?
You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor
 and put everything under their feet.” 
                In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them.  Yet at present, we do not see everything subject to them.  But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. (Hebrews 2:5-9)
                One of the teachings that I discussed with the women who stopped by last week was Jesus’s nature. They believe that Jesus was just a man. God has rewarded him greatly, but he was just a man. They aren’t alone in this thinking, but it doesn’t agree with what we’ve seen so far in Hebrews. Today’s passage would be one they like. Man is a little lower than angels, and Jesus was made a little lower than angels. See? Jesus was just a man. 
               But that doesn’t work. If someone who was just a man could live a perfect life, could achieve salvation by his own efforts, then God didn’t need to send His Son to die. If a man can pay the price for sin on his own, then Jesus’ death and resurrection were superfluous – even a sham. We can return to religion as usual for the rest of the world. Salvation is by works. It is something we can earn. If Jesus was just a man, then Christianity and all its derivatives are jokes. 
                It does not help to say that after Jesus lived a perfect life (though he was just a man) and died unjustly as a sacrifice, he became God’s Son. For one thing, He was proclaimed God’s Son back at the beginning of His ministry. John proclaimed Him (admittedly after the fact) to be the very Word of God. Jesus claimed that He and the Father are one. If He had only meant that they were in accord, the Jews wouldn’t have wanted to stone Him. They understood that He meant more than that. He told them that “before Abraham was, I am.” Such claims are blasphemy, sin, unless they are true. So unless they are true, Jesus saying them would disqualify Him from having lived a sinless life and therefore earning the right to become the Son of God. 
                The only way for God to fulfill His promise to provide a savior, the only way that Jesus could say, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) is if He was and is God.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more