I advise you to open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter two. It is fitting that I should pause for a few minutes before endeavoring to preach from this passage to express my appreciation and Carol's appreciation for the hospitality that we have felt and for the reception that you have given to us. It is a pleasure and a delight to preach to such an attentive congregation.
So I'm grateful that you are such a congregation and that I have the privilege of visiting with you. It would also be fitting for me to remind you of where we have been so far in considering the person and work of Jesus Christ. We started off on Sunday morning considering that Jesus is God. So we started off with Jesus the divine son and then we spent Sunday evening looking at the rest of chapter one where we saw that Jesus is the exalted son. At the beginning of chapter two we saw that Jesus is the messenger from the father. Last night we saw that Jesus is the new man.
God deals with the human race through representative heads. Adam was the first man, the old man. Jesus is the new man. And now tonight we'll finish up chapter two with seeing that Jesus is the true man. And I'm using the word true not in the sense of truthful but as a synonym for real.
He was a real man. Now in my opening comments thus far I have twice used the phrase it is fitting. I said it is fitting that I should express my appreciation and then I said it is fitting that I should review for you what we have been over so far. The way that we use that phrase it means it would be a good idea but it's not necessarily obligatory that you should do so. So I might have started this sermon without either one of those things, without expressing my appreciation or without reviewing where we've been so far.
That's the way we use it in English but the way that it appears in the opening words of our text it doesn't have that kind of latitude. It's the idea of this is the only way that it could have been done. So it says it was fitting for him and the him here is God the father. It was fitting for him by whom are all things and for whom are all things and by whom are all things and then the sentence continues but I'll just tell you that we're going to be examining tonight why it was fitting for God to do things the way that has been set forth already in the book of Hebrews. So last night I explained to you that the Hebrew people had the misunderstanding that the Messiah would live forever. We saw that expressed in John chapter 12 and verse 34. We have heard from the law that the Christ will live forever. How can you say that the Son of Man will be lifted up? And so they expected that the Messiah would be someone who lives forever. After the service last night Randy came up to me and said that he had recently listened to a documentary that was a discussion between Jewish men and that one of them said well the Messiah has not come and the other one said well obviously because if he had come he would still be here and so I was not aware that that idea was still a component of Judaism but it was in the time that the book of Hebrews was written and apparently it still is now that the Messiah will be a person who cannot die. Therefore he cannot be a human because humans die and so he must be some kind of a supernatural being, one of those categories of beings that we just generally lump under the name of angels but as I said last night there are various various orders and categories of these spiritual beings who are not humans and they are not the most high God and so the Jews thought he's going to be a deathless person and so when Jesus came and he suffered and he died then in the minds of the Jewish people he was automatically disqualified because the Messiah would not be able to die and especially not such a shameful ignominious death as the death on the cross and that is why the New Testament says that the preaching of the cross is to the Jews a stumbling block. They just cannot see, they cannot make it coincident with their ideas of a deathless Messiah that Jesus died a very shameful death on the cross and so here the Holy Spirit is teaching us that Jesus had to die for one reason because it was the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy that the Messiah would be made for a little while lower than the angels and that little while and that position of being lower than the angels was that he would be mortal.
He would become capable of death and it is a fundamental truth of Christianity that Jesus was a real man, that Jesus was the true man. If you don't believe that Jesus was a true real man then you cannot be a Christian. It's in the same category as believing the resurrection. If you don't believe in the resurrection, you cannot be a Christian. In 1 John chapter 4, the Holy Spirit tells us this is the way that you can tell whether or not a spirit is from God or if it's from the evil one.
Every spirit that confesses that Jesus has come in the flesh is of God and every spirit that denies that Jesus has come in the flesh is not of God. This is a fundamental criterion for the proper observance of the Lord's Supper. When we take the Lord's Supper, we are discerning the body of the Lord. That means that we are recognizing he really had a body. Now it may puzzle you why this is such a big deal and why because for most of us who have grown up hearing Christian teaching, we've never doubted that Jesus was a real man.
We may have confused notions about whether or not he's a real man right now. Several years ago I was in my 20s and I was reading a book by Richard Baxter called The Reformed Pastor and he was talking about the importance of catechesis, asking people questions, especially young people asking them questions about the faith. And he said because there are some people who sit under good solid preaching for years and years and they're ignorant of the most fundamental elements of the faith. Some of them don't even know that Jesus Christ remains fully human at the right hand of God the Father.
And I thought, I didn't know that, but that is true. There is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. So there is at the right hand of God the Father, a human being. He is fully God.
He's the second person to the Trinity, but he is a real true man. And so most of us have believed that and take that for granted. But there has been throughout the history of the world a very influential philosophy that says anything physical is inescapably evil. And therefore Jesus could not have had a real true human body because that would have meant that he was inevitably evil. So in that perspective on things, that dualism, it is only spirit that can be pure and everything that is physical is some declination from good. Not all things are equally evil, but every physical thing is inescapably evil.
And so that has been a very influential philosophy throughout history. There are theories about the person of Christ that will say he only appeared to be a human but that he wasn't really a human or that in some way he was less than a human, that he never had a true human soul. He had a human body, but it was the Spirit of God which functioned as his soul.
But the catechism tells us Christ the Son of God became man by taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul being conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary and born of her yet without sin. And it was fitting that God should do this, not that God is choosing the best of several options the way that I did when I introduced this sermon. Now this is fitting the way that a coarsely threaded nut will only fit on a coarsely threaded bolt.
A fine-threaded nut will only fit on a fine-threaded bolt. They're not interchangeable. And so God does not, since God knows all things, he doesn't figure out things the way that we do. He doesn't think the same way that we do.
We learn things and oh, I was wrong about that and oh, here's a better idea. God never has that thought process because he knows all things perfectly well. So when God chose to accomplish the elevation of human beings through the suffering and death of Christ, it was fitting that he do it this way and it's the only way that it could have been done. Now notice the way that our salvation is described here. It says it was fitting but for him and he is designated here as the one for whom are all things and by whom are all things. Yes, we know that that is true of him but why does the Holy Spirit see fit to designate the Father in this way in this passage and I think the answer is this.
If there had been another way, he was at no lack of resources to have discovered it or to have created it. He is the one who is all things are for him, all things are by him and so it's fitting for this one who has unlimited capacity to do whatever he wants to do any way that he wants to do it in consistency with his nature. It was fitting that he do it this way and what he's doing in this way is bringing many sons to glory. All right, if you don't keep in mind what I went over last night, you might just think that this is we're going to get to go to heaven and this is a very splendid explanation of what he's doing to us. He's not merely saving us from sin. He is not merely saving us from hell.
He's bringing us to glory but keep in mind what we went over last night. That ancient prophecy that though man is for a little while lower than the angels, yet the prophecy says you have crowned him with glory and honor. You've put all things under his feet. That's going to happen to the followers of Jesus Christ. That is the condition of glory that is being talked about here and in bringing the fulfillment of this ancient prophecy about, it was fitting that God accomplish it this way through a true man who was capable of suffering and dying. Now we're getting ready to get into three big main reasons in this text as to why it was fitting for God to do it this way. And the first reason is because Jesus came to be the head of a suffering family and so it was necessary that he be capable of suffering. He came to be the head of a suffering family. And then the second big reason that we're going to see here is that he came to be the savior of dying humans. Therefore it was necessary that he be a human who was capable of dying. He came to be the savior of dying humans. And then the third reason that is given in this text is that Jesus came to be the high priest of sinful humans. He came to be the high priest of sinful humans. And so it was fitting for God to do things this way.
He had no shortage of resources at his disposal. He is the one for whom are all things, by whom are all things. And in fulfilling this ancient prophecy of bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that he should make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. Now we encountered something about this on Sunday morning that Jesus has become. He has received a name that is superior.
Let me see what it says there. It says that he has by inheritance obtained, having become so much better. This is verse 4.1.4, having become so much better than the angels. Remember I said then, how could Jesus become better than the angels? Wasn't he always better than the angels? And now we've learned that for a little while he was made lower than the angels.
But now he has become better than the angels and he has received a name. And I said, so Lord willing on Wednesday night we'll come back to this when we encounter this phrase, the one that we're looking at right now. It says that he would make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering.
Now before I get to the explanation of that phrase perfect through suffering, note this again. Jesus is called the captain of our salvation. Other translations would have a word like author. And there's yet another word that translations use. But what all these translations have in common is this is a word that means this is a person who stands in the stead of and makes decisions for those who are under him.
So a captain stands in the stead of and makes decisions for those who are under him. And author is the one who begins the work. And so Jesus is here described as the author or the captain of our salvation. And this re-emphasizes something that was introduced last night that God sees fit to deal with the human race through representative heads. And we saw last night I quoted a portion of Romans chapter five that therefore as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin. And so the first representative man Adam was presented with a test and he failed the test and as a result of his failure then the entire race was plunged into sin.
And we people who live in America and who think of ourselves as being part of a democracy and being Democrats with a small d that we think hey I'm not sure that I really like that idea that somebody does something bad and I suffer the consequences of the bad thing that he did. Well we've got to be careful not to complain too loudly about that because as we'll see tonight salvation is offered to us on the exact same principle namely that we get credited with good things because of the good things that someone else has done. So whether we like it or not this is the way that God has devised it that he is going to save us on the basis of what Jesus has done. If we are saved we are going to be saved on the basis of what Jesus has done and not on the basis of what we ourselves are capable of doing. And when the Holy Spirit gives you enough wisdom you'll just be so happy about that.
It seems a little insulting until the Holy Spirit teaches us otherwise but once the Holy Spirit teaches you the truth about that then you would have it no other way. And so he is the captain of our salvation. Now what does it mean that he was made perfect? How could Jesus be made perfect? Let me just point out to you that this is not the only place in the book of Hebrews where this kind of language is used.
We already saw it in one four. Turn the page over, at least in my Bible I must, to chapter five and here's what we read starting about verse seven. Who in the days of his flesh when he had offered up prayers and supplications with vehement cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death and was heard because of his godly fear.
That's a significant observation. Jesus didn't get all the privileges that he achieved just because he was the boss's son. He was heard because of his godly fear though he was a son yet he learned obedience.
Really? He learned obedience by the things which he suffered and then here it is and having been perfected he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him. You've got something similar to that at the end of chapter seven. So chapter seven verse 28 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. So how was it that Jesus was made perfect? Well not that he made progress from a sinful condition to a sinless condition.
So that's not it. He never had sin but there was a time in his life when he was not yet fully qualified to do the task for which he had been sent. Now when Jesus was in the womb he was a sinless little baby boy and there was never such a well-behaved obedient little two-year-old boy as Jesus was and when he was 12 years old what what a fine young man. No sin.
Obedient loving God. The world never saw such a boy and so on through his life and so about the time he's age 30 he is led by the spirit out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Now why did that need to happen? Well it had to happen to the first man too. It had to happen to the first man. Apparently there is something about human nature that will not be confirmed in a state of righteousness until it has been tested and so the first man was tested and he failed the test and now the second man, the new man, has to be tested and so all Matthew, Mark and Luke all record how that he was led out into the wilderness and record how that he successfully rebuffed the temptations of the devil and he came out in the power of the spirit. He had to be tested.
Now that wasn't the end of his testing but let me just say something about that. Years ago I read Paradise Lost, John Milton's book length poem just for the fun of it and so then I learned that there's a sequel called Paradise Regained. Now Paradise Lost is about how sin entered the world. It is a lengthy poetical description of the first three chapters of Genesis.
It's magnificent. It's brilliant and I loved it and so I decided I'll read Paradise Regained and often when I read classic literature I don't read the prefatory material, the critical material because it's a spoiler. They give away this is what happens in chapter four and here's why it's significant and I want to be surprised with it and so that's the way I plunged into Paradise Regained and I assumed that Paradise Regained would be about the work of Christ on the cross and his resurrection but pretty early in the book John Milton describes how that Jesus was led out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil and then for the rest of the book it's just an exploration of the temptation and Jesus successfully rebuffing the temptations of the devil. I kept expecting Milton to get to the cross but it ends with his coming out of the wilderness and so I ponder it for a few seconds and I think aha, this is brilliant. The first human lost paradise through succumbing to temptation. The second man, the new man, regains paradise through successfully resisting temptation and thereby proving himself to be the spotless Son of God who so far so good qualified to do the work for which God had sent him into the world and then as the days and weeks of his life went by he was continually bombarded by temptations and we don't have careful descriptions of all of them but they were there. He was a sinless man living in a sinful world and surrounded by frail sinful people who loved him and frail sinful people who hated him and there were all of these temptations and then finally in the Garden of Gethsemane he says, Father, if possible let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless not my will but yours be done. Another temptation passed and then those awful and agonizing hours that were ahead of him when he was so disrespectfully treated and then so brutally treated and then all of the unseen spiritual things that were going on as he went to war against spiritual forces and as he drank the awful cup of God's wrath and he did it all and when it was completely done he announced it.
It is finished. Father into thy hands I commit my spirit. He had passed.
He had finished. He had passed all the tests that were put upon him and God said that's just exactly what I had in mind. So on the third day he raises him from the dead and he's declared to be the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead and that's when God the Father says to him, you're my son. Today I have begotten you.
Ask of me and I will give you the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession and that's what's been going on ever since. Jesus was made perfect by suffering and it was right that God should do it this way. Now God, Jesus was the, Jesus had two natures.
Sometimes in a sloppy way we'll talk about ourselves having two natures but that's really not true. We only have one nature that has sinful tendencies and that same nature if you've been born again is progressing in sanctification and sanctification has the upper hand but we only have a human nature. Jesus however really literally had two natures. He was the divine Son of God and the divine Son of God is incapable of any change.
God is immutable. That means he cannot change but Jesus, he could learn and he did learn. The Bible says that he learned obedience through what he suffered. Not that he had ever been disobedient but that his obedience became more satisfying to the Father as he progressed. The Bible says that after Jesus was 12 years old and the incident at the temple he went back to Nazareth and he was subject to them and he grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and men. So Jesus as a man did become fully qualified to do the work of exalting, bringing many sons to glory.
He came to be the head of a suffering family. Verse 11 says for both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one. That's literally what the Greek says, all of one but we have to ask all of one what. Well the point being made here is that Jesus had to become completely human and so when he's going to sanctify humans then he becomes a human and so we could say something like this would be appropriate. For both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one humanity or as one translation supplies the word family which I think is a very good thing to supply there because in the following verses he calls us brothers and also children and so I think that family is a good name there but remember the point here is he became one of us. He came to be the head of a suffering family and so he became one of us and there are three Old Testament scriptures that are marshaled and put into the mouth of Jesus as demonstrating this truth that he became one of us. It says at the end of verse 11 for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren.
So because he was fully human then he doesn't consider it an act of condescension to call us his brothers. I grew up in southeastern Ohio reading the books of a Kentucky author named Jesse Stewart. So Jesse Stewart at that time was the most famous author in Kentucky and he was still alive.
Just as an interesting aside when I was probably 18 or 19 years old my dad asked me to make a visit with him one time and we went into a nursing home room there was an elegant looking lady who was reading the mail to a man who obviously was in a coma. He had a nice quilt up over him and I noticed that the quilt had an unusually fine verse to appear on a quilt. Quilts are not famous for having great verse on them and so I read this verse but as we left my dad said do you know who that was?
I said no. So that's Jesse Stewart. So he died in a nursing home in Ironton, Ohio and not long after that he did die but I grew up reading his books and admiring him. My dad preached all over that part of Ohio and Kentucky and he told me that one time Jesse Stewart came to hear him preach. He surmised, my dad surmised that the caretaker of Jesse Stewart's farm was a member of that church and had invited Jesse Stewart. My dad told me later that after the service Jesse Stewart this world famous multi-millionaire author was standing at the back of the church just swapping stories and slapping his knee and laughing with those old Baptist farmers just like he was one of them.
Now that's the kind of story that makes you like Jesse Stewart. Some of you are going to go find a book and read it by Jesse Stewart and that makes you like a person who he's important, he's wealthy, he's well known but he's not too big for his britches and Jesus is that kind of a person. He is not ashamed to call us brothers and then here are these three statements from the Old Testament. He says, I will declare your name to my brethren in the midst of the assembly.
I will sing praise to you. Now if you have a reference Bible then you can follow and see where that verse is taken from and you'll see that it's taken from Psalm 22. And if you know your Bible very well then you'll know that Psalm 22 is probably the most vivid description of the sufferings of Christ on the cross that we have in the Bible. It is the Psalm that begins my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
And then under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit the poet just seems to be digging as deep as he can to find metaphors that express agony and suffering. And then about halfway through the Psalm you find this. I will declare your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation.
I will sing your praises. Out of all of this agony, out of all of this suffering there is good for the brothers. I am declaring who God is through this suffering. I'm declaring the righteousness of God as we sang a little earlier that God is showing that he cannot just pretend like sin has not happened. Sin must be punished. And so Jesus steps in. Jesus endures the wrath of God. Jesus says on the cross my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I am fulfilling this Psalm.
And then there follows this. The character of God, the justice of God, the love of God, the grace of God is proclaimed out of this context of agony, out of this crucifixion. Jesus declares his name to the brothers.
There are several things that I really like about this quotation. One is, I see here that Jesus thought that it was an important thing to be a vital part of a congregation. And then also I like it that Jesus sings. Singing is an act of camaraderie. Singing is that part of the service where we are all thinking and saying the same thing together. And we should all be thinking the same thing when someone is leading in prayer but when we're singing it's not just thinking the same thing, we're also saying the same thing at the same time. And we're teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. And as the pastor mentioned for several years I was part of a highly respected academic community and I've been part of other religious institutions as well, most of which have chapel. And I kind of have a tendency through the years to look at the speakers to see if they're singing during the singing part of the service. And I'm sad to tell you that many times they are not. And as the years went by I'm also sad to tell you that it would not at all be surprising for them to be playing on their cell phones while the singing was going on. It really fogged up my glasses to see that.
Because I, and then also I, well okay I won't go any further there. I'm happy that Jesus is a singer and encourage you to take advantage of all the benefits that come from congregational singing. And in the midst of the congregation the Lord Jesus says I will sing your praises. You know we don't read much about those 40 days after Jesus was resurrected.
He was on earth for about 40 days. I wonder if they had some worship services together. It'd be nice to hear about that. That's the first thing that Jesus said. The real point here is you're my brothers. And again he says I will put my trust in him.
Let's go on to the next one then I'll come back to that. And again here am I and the children whom God has given me. So Jesus calls us brothers. He calls us children.
How does this middle one fit? I will put my trust in him. Because there he doesn't call us children or brothers and the point is he's one of us. The point being made here is that when Jesus was on earth he was on the same footing with God as we are. Namely we're related to God by faith, by trusting in him. And that was the way it was with Jesus as well.
Yes he was God's son in whom God was well pleased but Jesus still had to walk by faith like we do. I think that's how this shows his solidarity with us. We're his brothers. We're his children. We're also his fellow believers. So the first reason that is given here, the big reason is that Jesus came to be the head of a suffering family. The second reason begins in verse 14. Jesus came to be the savior of dying humans. Not angels.
Humans. In as much then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood he himself likewise shared in the same. So that's just, that is a way of saying he was really a human. He really had flesh and blood. He was not a phantom.
This wasn't a delusion. Children have flesh and blood. You and I have flesh and blood. Jesus was the true man. He had flesh and blood. Since that's the case he likewise shared in the same.
Here's why. That through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. He had to become fully human so that he might die. The Bible teaches that the wages of sin is death. God is just. He is not going to forgive sinners unless the wages for their sin is paid and so when Jesus steps into history as our substitute he must be someone who is capable of suffering the penalty that God has assigned to sin. So he shared in flesh and blood so that through death, and there are two things that he accomplishes through death, so that through death he might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is the devil.
Let's think about that. This does not mean that the devil is in charge of your death but this does mean that the devil is the one who is responsible for making departure from this world such a dreadful thing. I think that if Adam and Eve had obeyed God that eventually there would have been some kind of graduation ceremony where they would have been given spiritual bodies that were suitable for living in heaven forever because the Bible says that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven. Adam and Eve had flesh and blood and so I gather that there would have been some kind of transformation that would have taken but that's all speculation. But as a result of sin death became something that is dreadful apart from the work of Jesus Christ.
At least it ought to be. He came to destroy him who holds the power of death, that is the devil, and free those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. Earlier this year I preached the funeral of a woman and my text was here and the title of the sermon was The Blessing of Being Afraid to Die. Several of you have told me that you listen to the sermons at Bullet Lick and so I preached that at Bullet Lick I think back in February, The Blessing of Being Afraid to Die because if you're not afraid to die then you're probably not going to make preparation for death. If you're not ready to go to heaven you ought to be afraid to die. And there are some people who treat death like an ostrich was purported to teach, to evade danger.
Just stick your head in the sand, just pretend like it's not going to happen. There are other people who think about death as just being like a flash bang grenade. Boom, it's over, nothing after that. And then there are other people who think that death is kind of like a trophy ceremony at a little league banquet. Everybody gets a trophy, everybody goes to heaven.
It's just amazing. You know someone can be the leader of a drug dealing mob who is being executed for murder and people will say well at least he's in a better place now. No, no that's not what happens. There is a blessedness to being afraid to die and the route that most of us take when we start being afraid to die is that we think I am going to keep the law.
I'm going to do better. I'm going to through good work satisfy God. But that is a path that leads you into lifelong slavery. Jesus became flesh and blood so that through death he might destroy those, he might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is the devil, reverse the effects that Satan effected on God's elect so that death is no longer the dreadful thing that it otherwise would have been and was to us and deliver those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. I suspect that the lifelong slavery here is the slavery that comes when someone thinks I'm going to obey God and I'm going to satisfy him through my good works and when someone takes that really seriously he's in for a miserable life.
It is a lifetime of lifelong slavery. I think of Martin Luther when he was a monk. He almost got hit by a lightning bolt one day and he said if you deliver me I'll become, he cried out to one of the saints, if you deliver me I'll become a monk and so he kept his word, he became a monk but he was unconverted. But he took confession seriously and he would confess for hours and one of his wise spiritual advisors said, brother Martin, all that God really wants from you is that you should love him.
And Luther said, love him? I hate him. He's made my life miserable. I never know when I've pleased him.
I'm always displeasing him. As a result of the work of Jesus Christ you can be set free from that bondage and know that God is no longer unhappy with you. God is no longer looking at you as some kind of a worm. You have been made a son or a daughter of God and he loves you and there's not one drop of wrath left in that cup because Jesus drained it all.
He tastes the death for every one of us. So it was necessary that he become really human because he had to be able to die. He came to be the savior of dying humans.
Notice the next phrase which specifies that it's not angels. Verse 16 says, for indeed he does not give aid to angels but he does give aid to the seed of Abraham. Many of us in this room have come to understand that when Jesus died on the cross he never died to make the salvation of all persons possible. He died to make the salvation of his elect certain. And we call that particular redemption or limited atonement. But even people who believe in a general atonement or a universal redemption still if they believe this verse of scripture must have some view of limited atonement because it's limited to humans. And here are all these who knows how many millions maybe billions of angels that rebelled against God and no provision for their salvation has been made as far as we know because the sacrifice of Jesus was made for humans and not made for angels. Here's a little diagnostic question that will kind of help you to understand the significance of this. Let's suppose, now don't answer this question out loud.
This is a rhetorical question. So let's suppose that the devil were really sorry for all the rotten things that he's done and he comes to God and he says, I've really messed up. I see it now. I shouldn't have rebelled against you. I'm so sorry. And he's sincere. Will you please forgive me?
No tricks. Will you please forgive me? Based on what we read in the Bible, would God forgive the devil? And the answer is no.
Why? Because there has been no atonement made to pay for the devil's sins. God does not forgive you because he sees how sincere you are. He does not forgive you because of the depth of your repentance and the profundity of your faith. He forgives you because there has been a sacrifice that satisfies divine justice and is sufficient to reconcile us to God and we are united to Christ by faith. So you must believe or he that believeth not will be condemned, Jesus says. So you must believe, but it ultimately is not the size of your faith that saves you. It is the righteousness of Jesus Christ that saves you and that will set you free from your bondage to the fear of death. That subject subjects you to lifelong slavery. I cannot save myself.
I've tried in vain a thousand ways. My fears to quell my hopes to raise and all I need the Bible says is Jesus and there's great peace in that. Jesus came to be the savior of suffering, dying humans and so he had to be a true man. The final reason we will just mention and not spend any time explaining it because here's what it says and the third reason remember was that he came to be the high priest of sinful humans.
Here's what it says in verse 17. Therefore in all things he had to be made like his brethren. He had to be a true man that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people for in that he himself has suffered, has suffered being tempted. He is able to aid those who are tempted. Jesus was never an arrogant hard-hearted insensitive person but as a result of the suffering that he went through he became more merciful than a sinless man would normally be. He became better qualified to have a tender heart towards you and towards me in our sinfulness. He never had any sin of his own but he knows what it is like to live in a sin cursed world and he is our great high priest and we have occasion to come to him on a daily basis seeking mercy and because he has become a merciful and faithful high priest then let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. He was a real man. He came to be the head of a suffering family. He came to be the savior of dying humans and he came to be the high priest for sinful humans like you and me. Amen.
