Thursday 4th
Hebrews 2:10-18
NIV (vv17-18) – ‘For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.’
ESV (vv17-18) – ‘Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.’
We have returned to chapter 2 and the final verses in that chapter in which we have an extremely important doctrinal statement. ‘For this reason he (that is Jesus) had to be made like them fully human in every way, . . .’
The writer then continues to say why Jesus had to be made like us, fully human ‘so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest . . .’
I will split these verses up into three devotions, looking today at the first statement, ‘For this reason he (that is Jesus) had to be made like them fully human in every way, . . .’ then at the reminder of verse 17, ‘so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people’, then at verse 18, ‘For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.’
‘For this reason he (that is Jesus) had to be made like them fully human in every way, . . .’
This opens to us the subject of the humbling of the Lord Jesus who in being fully God was willing to become a man. The deity of the Lord Jesus Christ is important, we need to have a confident belief that he was at the same time, fully God and fully man. And in our verse for today the writer is expounding why Jesus had to be made like them, fully human. It may seem that I am repeating what I have already mentioned in earlier devotions and in what I have shared while preaching, but I want to honour what we find as we go through this epistle.
I recall a book that I read by Martyn Lloyd Jones in which he quoted something that the Puritans used to say when they were going over a subject or Scripture yet again, ‘They felt that there were further gleanings that they could obtain from a particular crop’. It reminds us that we can never exhaust a particular Scripture or subject and in particular we can never exhaust all that can be gleaned about the Lord Jesus Christ, I always feel when I have approached the subject of Jesus I can never give him the full justice he deserves. My understanding is so limited and therefore I can keep returning to glean a better or richer understanding and hopefully share it with you.
The first most obvious port of call on this subject is Philippians 2:5-8, ‘Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.’ Paul reminds us that Jesus emptied himself, took the form of a servant, was born in the likeness of men, humbled himself and became obedient. This is the incarnation, Jesus had to become flesh and blood, he could never act as the representative for man without becoming flesh and blood and John in our second port of call reminds us that he who was with God as God (John 1:1) became flesh and dwelt among us. ‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.’ (John 1:14) Jesus needed to become flesh and blood so that he could face death for mankind and to destroy the power of the devil.
He who was God in eternity past, was still fully God when he became fully man in his incarnation. What does it mean when it says in Philippians 2 that Jesus emptied himself, firstly it does not mean that he ceased to be God, he was still God while a man here on the earth, I will quote here from the ESV Expository Commentary,* “‘Emptied’ means ‘divestiture of position or prestige.’ How did the Son of God divest himself of position and prestige? Through the incarnation. Paul uses two clauses to explain more precisely the emptying. He ‘emptied himself’: (1) by taking the form (morphé) of a servant and (2) by being in the likeness of men. These two phrases are mutually interpreting. The only way for the Son of God to take on the form of a slave was to enter this world as a man. Therefore, the preincarnate Son of God divested himself of position and prestige not by subtracting deity but by adding humanity and becoming the God-man, both fully God and fully man.’ (end of quote) To end this devotion we must remind ourselves that in becoming flesh, it happened through the means of the Virgin birth so that he would be without sin. I covered this Friday 26th It is a subject we will need to glean from another time, we will continue point two tomorrow.
* ESV Expository Commentary Ephesians – Philemon. Pages 152-153 Crossway.