My family
and I once attended a Barnes and Noble to look for some books for the children.
My eyes glanced up to a display of books that are part of a “Who Was…” series
(“Who Is…“when it is written about someone who is still living). Some of the
people that these book focus on are Albert Einstein, George Washington,
Muhammed Ali, etc. I was surprised to find that they had one titled “Who Was
Jesus” (there we go with that “was” thing that I had mentioned in Part 1). My
curiosity got the best of me and I skimmed a few pages. I wasn’t surprised to
find that this Jesus wasn’t born of the Virgin Mary, nor was He God incarnate
(or the “Son of God”), but that He was a “good moral teacher”. The title “Son
of Man” would be a more fitting description for those who do not know who Jesus
truly is or deny His deity. It is better described as His humility, or Him in
the human flesh form. This is when Jesus hungered (Matthew 4:2), thirst (John
19:28), cried (John 11:35), and bled (John 19:34). It can also be viewed as a
descriptive form of his humility in that he was born of a woman (“man” as a
collective representation of “mankind”) and that He was raised by a man in His
earthly father Joseph. Jesus also refers to Himself as the Son of Man in that
He was claiming to fulfill prophecy as the Messiah. In Daniel 7:13-14 it says “I was watching in the night visions, and
behold, one like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to
the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was
given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and
languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which
shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed.”
Jesus was essentially saying that He was the one who Daniel prophesied about
when He claimed the title the “Son of Man”.
In Part 1 I
had briefly touched on the divinity of Jesus with His title “The Son of God”. I
had just briefly touched on what it meant when He had called himself the “Son
of Man”. However, to grasp these two titles we need to ask the important
question: If Jesus is God then why did He come to earth as man? There was once
a hit secular song by an artist by the name of Joan Osborne called “One of us”.
In the chorus she sings “What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us.
Just a stranger on the bus. Tryin' to make his way home.” (Some of you are all
like “Oh yeah! I remember that song.”) In reality God did endure being a slob
like one of us. He could have chosen to remain in Heaven and enjoy all of His
glory and praise. But no. He chose to come here as one of us and endure the
same hardships that you and I face. He traded His crown for thorns. His royal
robe became a robe of blood. Can you imagine the creator of Heaven and Earth
hanging on a cross as folks mocked him? Can you imagine trading praises from
the heavenly host for jeers and scorn? Why would anyone do that? Why would any
God so chose to be humbled in that way?
Philippians
2:5-7 states “Have this attitude in
yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form
of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied
Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of
men.” (NASB). Jesus chose to set aside His place in Heaven and instead come
as a humble man. In doing so He did three things: He showed us who God is,
became a High Priest, and became the Lamb who was slain. These three things are
very important and they deserve a deeper look.
The
Mirror of God
Jesus said
in John 14:7 “If you had known Me, you
would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen
Him.” Jesus revealed to us who God is. Studying the life of Jesus we see
love, compassion, and mercy as He dealt with the sick and the poor, both
physically and spiritually. He didn’t limit himself to just Jews, but even
Gentiles (Mark 7:24-30). He said in Mark 2:17 “I did not come to call the
righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” He also showed us righteous anger
and judgment as He flipped over tables and chased the money changers out of the
temple. We can learn that God too is merciful and desires repentance (2 Peter
3:9), but at the same time will judge those who are living outside of His will,
whether saint (Hebrews 12:7-11), or sinner (Matthew 13:41-42).
The High
Priest
Hebrews 2:17
states “Therefore, in all things He had
to be made like His brethren,
that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in
things pertaining to God, to
make propitiation for the sins of the people.” What exactly does this mean?
In the Old Covenant the High Priest entered into the Holiest Place in the
temple to offer sacrifices for himself, as well as the people of Israel. The
most remarkable thing about Jesus is that He was without sin, whereas the High
Priest still had to atone for his. “Seeing
then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus
the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot
sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we
are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:14-15). Jesus, in His flesh, felt
everything that we do. He walked with nowhere to lay his head. He knew thirst
and hunger. He knew ridicule and mockery. He felt pain. He cried. He bled. He
died. You get the point. Therefore, as or High Priest, He can have sympathy for
what we endure because He endured them too during His pilgrimage here on earth.
This He understands as He is our mediator in Heaven before God, as the High
Priest was the mediator between God and the people. “And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” (1 John 2:1).
The Lamb
Who Was Slain
In 1 Peter 1
it states, “knowing that you were not
redeemed with corruptible things, like
silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious
blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” (vv.
18-19). This statement harkens back to the sacrificial lamb that was used by
the High Priest during the Day of Atonement. This lamb was to be free of any
defects and any spots. In other words, pure and one could say “perfect” for the
sacrifice. As I had mentioned earlier from Hebrews 4 that Jesus was without
sin. Therefore, He was the perfect sacrifice. Further in Hebrews the author
states “Therefore He is also able to save
to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to
make intercession for them. For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is
holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than
the heavens; who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up
sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did
once for all when He offered up Himself. For the law appoints as high priests
men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law,
appoints the Son who has been perfected forever.” (Hebrews 7:25-28).
The verse
from Hebrews 7 is a great summary for the point that I am trying to make. Jesus
offered up himself as the perfect and final sacrifice. Only the High Priest
could do such a thing to intercede for the sins of the people. Jesus acted as
the High Priest by offering himself as the final sacrifice to atone for our
sins. He continues to act as intercessor through His blood for those who
believe on Him. So we see evidence from this verse alone that Jesus was the
slain Lamb, as well as the High Priest. But what set him apart from all the
other High Priests that His sacrifice was the final one and that God would
accept it as that? “And according to the
law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood
there is no remission [of sins]. Therefore it was necessary that the copies of
the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly
things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has not entered
the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven
itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer
Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with
blood of another— He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation
of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away
sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed for men to die once,
but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of
many.” (Hebrews 9:22-28).
As High
Priest He offered a final sacrifice. But it is a sacrifice whose atonement
isn’t for once at a set point per year, but is ongoing for everyone who
believes and confesses their sins (Romans 10:9), always interceding on our
behalf. This He did as the perfect Lamb because He chose to be the sacrifice in
our place because we deserve to die instead for our transgressions. But He, as
God the Son, chose to die so that we may live.
I may have
briefly touched on Jesus’ divinity in Part 1 and the reasons for His becoming
the “Son of Man” this time, but honestly I can’t do such a great truth the
justice that it deserves while being brief. Next time I will finish this series
by exploring the “Name above all Names”.
No comments:
Post a Comment