Monday
Monday
Jesus the Human Being
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity.
Hebrews 2:14
Unique as Jesus Christ is in his divine glory, which we considered yesterday, this is only half the story. If we were to stop there, we would be guilty of serious heresy, affirming his deity but denying or neglecting his humanity. Hebrews 1 emphasizes that Jesus Christ is one with the Father (sharing his being); Hebrews 2 emphasizes that Jesus Christ became one with us (sharing our being). He who is in every way superior to the angels became for a while inferior to them. Indeed, there is a fundamental appropriateness in the Son of God becoming human: “In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God … should make the author [pioneer] of their salvation perfect” (v. 10). Four main truths are spelled out.
Firstly, he entered into our humanity. He took our “flesh and blood” to himself (v. 14). He experienced the frailty and vulnerability of a human being. For he had a real human body (eating, drinking, and getting tired) and real human emotions (joy and sorrow, compassion and anger).
Secondly, he entered into our temptations. “He himself suffered when he was tempted” (v. 18). Indeed, he was “tempted in every way, just as we are” (4:15). By his incarnation he laid aside his immunity to temptation and exposed himself to it. And his temptations were real, like ours, except that he never succumbed to them and so never sinned.
Thirdly, he entered into our sufferings. God made the pioneer of our salvation “perfect through suffering” (2:10). Not that he was ever imperfect in the sense of being sinful, but that his identification with us in our humanity would have been incomplete if he had not suffered as we suffer.
Fourthly, he even entered into our death. “We see Jesus … now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone” (v. 9). It is not that he needed to die, for he had no sin of his own. But he bore our sins, and it was for our sins that he died. As a result of the incarnation, Jesus Christ can represent us to the Father and can sympathize with our weaknesses.
For further reading: Hebrews 2:9–18