Today I have Good News to share with you! Our God is one who can relate to us in an understanding and life-changing way! This is possible because of what we celebrate at Christmas. Because God came to this earth in the person of Jesus Christ, it is possible for Him to relate to each us personally, understandingly, and intimately.
Notice how the writer of Hebrews tells us about what God accomplished for us through the person of Jesus Christ and His coming to earth.
1. His identification with us - v. 15
Part of why God can relate to us is that, through Christ, He has "walked where we walk." He battled temptation just like we do. Only He succeeded. He was hungry, He was thirsty, He was tired, He was injured. He knows what it is like to lose a loved one, He knows what it is like to be betrayed by those you trust, He knows what it is like to have people spread rumors about you, He knows what it is like to be unpopular. He knows what it is like to have everyone brand you a "success" and what it is like to have everyone brand you a "failure." His identification with us was part of what Christmas is all about.
"All this took place that it might be fulfilled which the Lord had spoken through the prophet, ‘Behold, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel’--
which, when translated, means, ‘God with us.’"
- Matthew 1:22-23 (Amplified)
"To get ready for Christmas, God undressed. God stripped off his finery and appeared - how embarrassing - naked on the day he was born . . . God could not be "God-with-us" if He wasn’t flesh.
As evangelicals we have focused on the saving death of Christ
but thrown out the Incarnation in our Christmas wrappings.
As we cover God with Christmas, we hide what is most
distinctive about Christianity. And this is the tragedy:
What many don’t know about Christianity is that God has
chosen to identify with their pain, their humanness, their flesh."
- Mary Ellen Ashcroft, "Gift Wrapping God"
He knows what life on this earth is like, because He has walked where we walk, yet He did so victoriously! A victory He won for us!
2. His victory for us - v. 14 - "who has gone through the heavens"
Peter described the nature of the victorious life of Jesus this way in Acts 2:22-24; 32-33.
"Now, listen to what I have to say about Jesus from Nazareth.
God proved that he sent Jesus to you by having him work miracles, wonders, and signs. All of you know this. God had already planned and decided that Jesus would be handed over to you. So you took him and had evil men put him to death on a cross. But God set him free from death and raised him to life. Death could not hold him in its power. All of us can tell you that God has raised Jesus to life! Jesus was taken up to sit at the right side of God, and he was given the Holy Spirit, just as the Father had promised. Jesus is also the one who has given the Spirit to us."
- Acts 2:22-24; 32-33 (CEV)
The victory Jesus won for us is that He lived a perfect, sinless life, ending it by dying on the cross, where He suffered the penalty for the sins of the entire world. As evidence of the fact that sin has been fully paid for, He was raised from the dead and has ascended to heaven. Jesus Christ, in His humanity is now seated , as some translations put it, "on the right hand of God." What does this expression mean?
The story is told of a little girl and her mom discussing the morning Sunday school class. The child told her mom that they talked about Jesus going up to heaven and that He is now sitting beside God.
As they continued to look at the Sunday School paper, the mother noticed a picture of a rainbow. She said, "Look at that beautiful rainbow that God painted for us!"
The little girl replied, "And just think, Mommy, God did it all with His left hand." The mother replied, "What do you mean? Can’t God use both His hands?"
The girl stated, "Of course not, Mom, my Sunday School Teacher said that Jesus is sitting on His right hand."
Just what is meant when we are told the Jesus Christ is at the "right hand of God?" It means that Jesus, in His humanity, has been exalted to a position of honor and power. It refers to what Paul tells us in Philippians 2:6-11.
"He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death--and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion. Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth--even those long ago dead and buried--will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father."
- Philippians 2:6-11 (The Message)
Because of His identification with us and the victory He won for us, Jesus is uniquely qualified to minister to us.
3. His ministry to us - v. 14 - "high priest"
The writer of Hebrews refers to Jesus as our "great high priest," which refers to two things Jesus has did and is doing. You see the priest of old had two primary functions:
A. He represented God before men. This is what Jesus did. When He walked upon this earth, He made God known to us. He represented God before men. In Christ, we learn what God is like and we learn what God’s desires for us are.
"We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created." - Colossians 1:15 (The Message)
B. He represented men before God. This is what Jesus is doing. This is why He is at "the right hand of God." He occupies this special place of honor and power, so that He might represent us before God.
"It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us." - Romans 8:34 (NKJV)
"Therefore He is able also to save to the uttermost (completely, perfectly, finally, and for all time and eternity) those who come to God through Him, since He is always living to make petition to God and intercede with Him and intervene for them." - Hebrews 7:25 (Amplified)
Jesus is our defense attorney in the court of heaven!
"MY LITTLE children, I write you these things so that you may not violate God’s law and sin. But if anyone should sin, we have an Advocate (One Who will intercede for us) with the Father--[it is] Jesus Christ [the all] righteous [upright, just, Who conforms to the Father’s will in every purpose, thought, and action]. And He [that same Jesus Himself] is the propitiation (the atoning sacrifice) for our sins, and not for ours alone but also for [the sins of] the whole world." - 1 John 2:1-2 (Amplified)
In the courtroom of heaven, God the Father is the judge of all mankind. Satan is the prosecuting attorney, "who keeps bringing before our God charges against them day and night" (Revelation 12:10 - Amplified). Jesus, however, is our defense attorney.
Christ’s strategy, however, is not to plead our innocence. He has entered a plea of "guilty." However, His argument is that the punishment required by God’s law has already been carried out. It was carried out by Jesus, Himself! This is something He has done, "for the whole world" (1 John 2:2). However, not everyone has accepted Jesus’ offer to represent them as their heavenly attorney. How does one enlist Jesus as their heavenly defense attorney? The same you enlist an earthly attorney - you call Him!
"Say the welcoming word to God--"Jesus is my Master"--embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not "doing" anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation. "Everyone who calls, ‘Help, God!’ gets help." - Romans 10:9; 13 (The Message)
"Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven."
- Matthew 10:32 (NIV)
"I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels." - Revelation 3:5 (NIV)
Have you enlisted Jesus Christ as your heavenly representative? If not, then you are in danger of having your name "blotted out of the book of life" and having Satan succeed in his prosecution of you, which will only leave the judge of all mankind with no other choice than to carry out the sentence of eternal death. It has been said that "the man who represents himself in court has a fool for a client." Do foolishly try to make things right with God on your own. Instead, take Jesus up on His offer.
4. His invitation to us - v. 16
Jesus is qualified by virtue of His experience (walking where we walk), His accomplishment (His victory of sin and death), and His position (at the right hand of the Father) to help us with anything we need! This is what it means to "approach the throne of grace with confidence (boldly)." We need not be shy about talking to Jesus about anything!
Do you need to be saved from hell and enter into a right relationship with God? Turn to Jesus.
Do you require wisdom to know how to live the new life you have received through faith in Christ? Turn to Jesus.
We cannot be made right with God on our own, and we cannot live right for God on our won. We need to look to Jesus!
He is our "Wonderful Counselor." He knows understands where we are and what we’re going through. He can guide us in living life as God designed it to be lived - the way that He lived.
Through Him, we need not be overwhelmed by problems, but we can overcome our problems. Through Him we can find grace and mercy to help in time of need, whatever the need!
Take Him up on His invitation! Our God can relate to us! This is the meaning of Christmas!
