Hebrews 2:15-18
Turn again to Hebrews chapter two. In our last study we looked at two important truths that are revealed in this passage. We studied one of them, how through Jesus Christ, mankind has been exalted above the angels. Today we will see the other part of the truth which is what it cost God to exalt man.
To begin, I would like to say a little about the disciples of Christ as our introduction. The disciples were with Jesus off and on for about three years. They heard Him preach. They were taught personally by Him. They witnessed His miracles. And yet at the end of those three years at the last supper they were still a bunch of greedy, self-centred, self-seeking men. But less than two months later they were turning the world upside-down with their preaching and their witnessing and their miracles. The question is, "what happened to the disciples?"
They were filled with the Holy Spirit. But there was something else that took place before Pentecost that was crucial, and I want to bring this to your attention. In the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ something happened. Actually, two things happened:
1. Their ego-centric dreams were shattered. They never expected the Messiah to die.
2. They beheld on the cross the true glory of our Lord Jesus Christ and His self-emptying love full of grace and truth.
This transformed their hearts so that they were full with deep heart-felt appreciation for their Lord so that they determined that from now on they would hold the attitude, "for me to live is Christ." They were willing to live and die for Him. Emptied of self, the Holy Spirit could fill them and use them mightily. The same thing must happen to us if we are going to turn this world upside-down.
This work cannot be done with budgets. Nor can we do it with promotional programs. Our hearts, too, must be filled with appreciation for our unspeakable gift, Jesus Christ. It is thus that we will also be emptied of self so that we can be filled during the Latter Rain of the Holy Spirit. Then the work will be finished. It is not time. It is not budget. It is not numbers. It is God's work and He will finish it. He wants empty hearts. Our hearts cannot be emptied unless we are filled with deep heart appreciation. Faith really is a heart appreciation of Jesus Christ.
There are two facts that must be realized in order to produce appreciation:
1. Our appreciation for a gift (because Christ is God's supreme gift to man) is based on how valuable the gift is to us.
If I gave you a fountain pen for your birthday you would say "Thank you," but in your heart you would say "Well, I can get one of these anyway." But if I came to you and took out all the money I had in the bank and bought you a brand new car and said, "This is my gift to you," your appreciation would be much deeper, because the gift is much more valuable to you.
So number one, our appreciation of Jesus Christ is based on how valuable He is to us. That is why in our last study we discovered how valuable He is to us. We discovered that in Christ we have been exalted above the angels. In Christ, we have been made sons and daughters of God. In Christ, we have become joint-heirs with Him. In Christ, we will reign with Him. It is not only simply life that He gave us. Paul says in Rom. 5:17 that in Christ we don't only receive eternal life but we will reign in that life. I'll tell you when you realize how valuable that gift is your heart will be filled with appreciation.
2. This is what we're going to cover today. How much did it cost the giver?
For example, if Rockefeller would give you one hundred dollars or even a thousand dollars you would say "thank you," but in your heart you will ponder, "What is a thousand dollars to Rockefeller? It is nothing." In our service in Africa we learned this. In 1967, we had a drought there in Kenya. The third world depends on the rains for survival. If the rains fail, they have no irrigation there. If the rains fail, there is no food.
In 1967, the rains failed in Kenya. Good old America came to our aid. I was teaching in a boarding college. We had corn and oil and wheat that was sent from the United States so that our kids could survive. Now, unfortunately, the corn that America grows is yellow and Africans don't like yellow corn. They like the white corn. One day in the cafeteria they took the food which had been made into a bread and were throwing it around. They were wasting the food. The people were starving. One of our missionaries from Modesto, California, got mad and he stood up before the student body in the cafeteria and he said, "Don't you appreciate what my country is doing for you?"
One young student said, "No." And I'll tell you the reason He gave. He said, "No American ever sacrificed to send us this food. You sent it to us from your surplus which you yourselves could not consume."
In their thinking there was no sacrifice. This is one of the problems that you'll face in the mission field. The word "poverty" is a relative term. A lot of missionaries would say, "We have sacrificed to come to Africa."
They say, "No, you come with a car, with all the blessings of life. Where is the sacrifice?"
They are judging, of course, by their standards, not by the standards in America. To have a car in Africa means that you're a big shot and a big shot doesn't sacrifice. They saw no sacrificial participation.
In Ethiopia, when the country went Marxist, some of our young people fell for Marxism. There was a young man in my class who fell for it. What bothered me was the fact that he was an orphan. One of our Norwegian nurses took him under her wing. She paid his elementary school fees and paid his academy fees, fed him, and was putting him through college, and now this man turned to Marxism.
"Don't you have any appreciation for what this dear sister did for you," I asked, "that you should turn your back to God and hurt this dear sister?"
He said "Hurt her? Sacrifice? It cost her nothing. You missionaries are rich."
The question is, "How much did it cost God to save us?" Supposing God would give you today a million dollars. Would it cost God anything to do that? No. He can turn stones into gold. All the silver and gold belongs to Him. But when He gave us His only begotten Son, He gave us something that He could not replace. Do you know that?
How much did it cost God to save us? That is the question that we must look at as we look because when we realize how valuable Christ is to us and we see what it cost Christ to save us, we can never treat Jesus Christ lightly. Our heart will be filled with appreciation and God can use us mightily.
Please turn to Heb. 2:7 and let me remind you what is said about us. We were created a little lower than the angels. Remember it was Christ, Who is God, He's the Word of God, who created us. Now look at verse nine:
But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels.
Here is the Son of God who created the universe. All things were created by Him. Now He's willing to be captured in His own creation. He is willing to become one with us. How much oneness was there? Look at verse fourteen:
Forasmuch, then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise [notice the emphasis there] took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
He was made a little lower than angels. Look at the word "made."
What does it mean? It means that He was made something He was not. He was God but He was made like us. He was made one with us. This is the "in Christ motif" that we have introduced before. Why was He made like us? "For the suffering of death." Crowned with glory and honour that by the grace of God He should taste death, not only for every man, which your English Bible says, but for everything.
Here is another parallel passage which goes a little deeper into this whole issue. Go to Philippians, chapter two. We call this passage the "kenosis doctrine." The word "kenosis" is the Greek word which means "self-emptying."
How much did Christ empty Himself to exalt us? Paul gives us seven steps in this chapter. Beginning in verse six:
Who, being in the form of God...
The word "form" is "morpheae," which is the very substance, the very reality of God. This is a very good text for Jehovah Witnesses. They don't believe that Christ was divine but here is a very clear statement. "Who, being in the form of God." So Christ by nature, by native right was God. He was equal with the Father. Here then is the first step:
Christ thought it not robbery to be equal with God. He did not cling to equality with God.
You know when we human beings reach a high position we like to cling to that position. We do not like to step down. We have this problem, not only in the world but even in the church. I have yet to see a young pastor who has a big church who wants to go down to a small church. That's a demotion! We are always trying to climb up and up, even in the work of God, unfortunately. But Christ did not hold unto His equality.
This is the problem we have in Africa. When a man becomes the president of a country, he wants to remain president forever. That's why we have to have laws in this country of democracy that you can't reign for more than two terms. That's our human problem. But Christ did not hold on to His equality. He made Himself of no reputation, which simply means He emptied Himself. How much did He empty Himself? The next step in verse seven tells us:
But made himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant,
Now are angels servants? Yes. Angels are ministering servants. So if He became an angel would He be stepping down? Yes. But He did not become an angel. He was made in the likeness of man who are lower than angels. Let's go to the next statement in verse eight:
And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself.
Even as a man He humbled Himself. Can I ask how many of you were born in a stable? Even in Africa, the Third World, it is a rare thing. I know of only one African who was born in a stable. It's a disgrace to be born in a stable. And here is the Son of God, Who was equal with God, born in a stable. So, even as a man, He humbled himself. Supposing He was born in Herod's palace. Would that have been humiliating for Christ? Yes. But He was not born in Herod's palace. He was born in a stable. Now, please, He was not born in an American stable which is nice and clean and smells good. Have you ever been in a Middle East stable? It stinks. It's full of flies and fleas. That's where He was born. The Son of God! Why? For whom? For us! He became poor that we may become rich. Now to the next step:
Having humbled Himself as a man He became obedient unto death.
Death is the wages of sin. How many sins has Christ committed? Even as a man He didn't deserve to die, for He was obedient. Three times He prayed to His Father, "Father if possible remove this cup from me." The Father said, "No." Why? Didn't He love His Son? Why did He say, "No"? It was because He loved us! If He had said "Okay, Son, I will liberate you from this death," we would never have escaped the wages of sin. But He died that we may be delivered not only from death but, as Heb. 2:15 says, from the fear of death to which we are in bondage. He died that we might be liberated from the fear of death.
A maternity nurse was telling me that every baby in this world is born with a fear of being dropped. That's why when you hold a baby upside down it cries, because it's afraid of falling. I told her, "No, the baby's not afraid of falling, the baby's afraid of death." We are born slaves to the fear of death. And what happens is that when the baby grows up he discovers that there are more ways of dying than falling so the fear increases and we become victims to fear. Jesus Christ delivered us from that fear. Paul says in Phil.1:21:
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Is Paul crazy? "To die is profit," he says. Why? Because for Paul, death no longer is death, it is sleep. And when you're a hard worker for Christ, sleeping is wonderful. A Christian never dies. He only goes to sleep. He is waiting for the resurrection. Now the last part of Philippians two. He did not only become obedient unto death, but Paul adds:
Even the death of the cross.
What did Paul mean by that? I will answer that question later. Going back to Hebrews, we will touch one aspect of what Paul meant when He said, "even the death of the cross." In Heb. 2:9, we are told in the last part of the verse nine the reason that He became lower than the angels when He became man was for the suffering of death that "by the grace of God He should taste death for every man."
What does it mean that "He tasted death for every man?" Did He taste death for Peter? Yes. And for Paul? If you say "yes," then why have they died? He did not taste the first death for everything, but He tasted the second death. Remember what God said to Adam when he sinned. There in Gen. 3:17-19, He said not only are you going to suffer and your children but also cursed is the ground. You see, Adam did not only bring the curse to mankind but also to the ground.
What did they put on the head of Christ at the cross? A crown of thorns. Do you know what that signified? Of course, the Romans did it out of mockery. But God takes the foolish things of this world and He gives us wisdom. He was bearing the curse on His head. He was tasting the death that we deserve at the end of the millennium. He was tasting the second death. He was willing to say on the cross, "goodbye to life forever." You see, when Christ hung on the cross He could not see through the portals of the tomb. Read Desire of Ages, page 753:
"He could not see through the portals of the tomb. Hope did not present to Him a resurrection. He felt that sin was so offensive to the Father that the separation was to be forever."
Was Christ willing to say "goodbye" to life forever, that we may live in His place? Yes. That's how far He went down. He was willing to say "goodbye" to heaven forever! That is mind boggling! But that's a fact. He was willing to say "goodbye" and that's what He meant in Gethsemane when He cried to His Father three times, "If possible remove the cup." It was not the first death that He was crying for deliverance from, but the agony of the second death-the death of God abandonment. What did the Father do on the cross to Him? What did Christ cry, "Father, Father, why hast Thou forsaken me?" Why did He cry that? It was because when He became a man He became totally dependent upon the Father. The Father was the source of everything to Him. "I can do nothing of myself," He said. He was depending on the Father for the resurrection. When the Father forsook Him, what happened to the hope of the resurrection? It went.
The devil came three times: once through the soldiers, once through the leaders of the church, and once through the thief on the left-hand side. Three times: "Come down from the cross and save yourself. Don't be a fool, save yourself!"
Could Christ do that? Yes. The devil never tempts you to do anything you can't do. He has never tempted me to turn stones into doughnuts. He knows I can't do it. He has tempted me not to pay tithe. Yes, that I can do but he has never tempted me to do miracles. Why? Because the devil is not dumb. He may have long ears and horns but he is not dumb. He will never tempt you to do something that you cannot do. He knew that Christ could come down and save Himself. Why did Christ not come down? It was because He loved us more than Himself. This is why He tasted death for every man. Let's go back to Heb. 2:10:
For it became Him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons into glory to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through suffering.
In order that we might be exalted somebody had to suffer. Who? Christ. The word "suffering" in Hebrews, the second chapter, appears twice. You see, Christ had to be made perfect in order for us to be made perfect because He came as our substitute. If He was not made perfect, you would not be made perfect. Did you know that? How much did He suffer and where did He suffer, in order to be made perfect?
1. Well, if you look at the Bible, He suffered in the flesh in order to make us positively perfect.
2. He suffered on the cross, which is the second death, in order to make us legally perfect.
The word "justification" is a legal term. Without death, by the way, there is no justification. Rom.6:7:
He that is dead is freed [Greek word is "justified"] from sin.
In Christ we have been freed from that curse and the condemnation of sin because He suffered the death that we deserve.
Let me give you a few more texts regarding Christ's suffering in the flesh to make us positively righteous. When did the suffering of Christ begin? When did Christ begin to suffer for us? From His incarnation or from Gethsemane onward?
I am not talking of the mental suffering. I'm talking of the flesh. He had no flesh before creation. You're right, God always suffers because of sin. God is love. Whom does He love? He loves us. Do you love your children? I hope so! When your children suffer, do you suffer? So God loves us and when we suffer, He suffers. God hates sin because of what sin does, not to Him but to us. He hates it because it brings suffering, sickness, death to us. And He loves us; so please make a distinction between sin and sinners. God doesn't love sin. He hates sin but He loves the sinner. And we must keep this in mind. We human beings sometimes don't make that distinction. We look at somebody who has done something wrong and we hate them for what they did. No, please. We must hate the sin but never the sinner.
Look at Heb. 2:18. The suffering in verse eighteen is different from the suffering in verse nine of Hebrews two. In verse nine, the suffering is linked with His death. In verse eighteen, His suffering is linked with temptation. How often was Christ tempted? All of His life. Heb. 4:15 says:
He was tempted in all points like as we are.
Paul says here that when He was tempted, He suffered. Where did He suffer and why? Heb.5:8,9:
Though He were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which He suffered; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him.
In other words, He suffered in order to save us. He was made perfect through suffering. He suffered in the flesh every time He was tempted. But why did He suffer? 1 Peter 4:1:
Forasmuch, then, as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh [in His human nature], arm yourselves likewise with the same mind.
What kind of mind did Christ have? By the way, the passage that we just studied in Philippians two is in the context of the same issue. In Phil. 2:5 it says:
Let this mind be in you which was in Christ.
What kind of mind did Christ have? He had a mind that was totally emptied of self. Now let's read all of 1 Peter 4:1:
Forasmuch, then, as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: For He that suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin....
Do you know what this text is telling me? What kind of flesh did Christ have? I know that this is a big controversy. The humanity of Christ is a big issue not only in our church but in the Christian church. I will not get into a fight over this. I'll tell you why and that is that we as a church take both the positions. You won't be disfellowshipped if you take one.
Some take the position that the flesh of Christ was like Adam before the fall. Others take the position that the flesh of Christ was like us after the fall. I can go right from the top to the bottom in our denomination and I can find groups in both camps. If I go to Andrews University, to Dr. Mervyn Maxwell, he takes the postlapse (after the fall) position and I go to Dr. Rouel Dederen and he takes the prelapse (before the fall) position. I go to the North American Division and Bradford takes the postlapse position. I go to William Johnson, Editor of the Review and Herald, he takes the prelapse position. So right from the top to the bottom the division is there. And in this church if I called for a stand I'm sure we would divide ourselves.
I'm not going to fight over that but I will tell you one thing. The only way you can suffer in the flesh is when you have a flesh that loves to sin. You see, Jesus never yielded to His flesh. Every time His flesh drew Him to self, the mind said, "No," and who suffered? The flesh suffered. The flesh was deprived of its desire.
Give me just one text where Christ is ever compared in terms of nature to Adam. I'll give you many texts where He is compared with us, with Abraham, with David. I believe, folks, that He took the postlapse, but if you want to take the other position I will not condemn you. Just be honest with the Word of God. I have, in fact, written a book on it and will make it available if you want it. To me, Jesus did not come half way. In fact, when we come to Hebrews chapter five, we will discover that one of the qualifications to be a priest is that He must be chosen from among men.
By the way, what is a priest? How does a priest differ from a prophet? Can you give me the difference between a priest and a prophet? What is the function of a prophet? A prophet is a human being who represents God before the people. A priest is the opposite. He is a human being who represents the people before God. And in order for him to represent the people he has to be taken from among the people. Can you imagine a Russian representing America? Will you agree to that? No way. He has to be an American. Christ came to be the priest not of unfallen man but of fallen man. He came to represent me. Therefore, He can sympathize with me. I know that this is a big issue and if you want to talk privately as Christians and friends, I will not fight you.
When I first came to the Nampa Church my head elder was Dr. Holt and he was in the other camp. He was my head elder. I said, "Russ, let's sit down and hash this out as Christians."
He was the editor of Signs Magazine. Well, he read my book and we discussed it a little bit. It was about three years ago. He came to me and said "Jack, I have changed my position." But please study for yourself and don't condemn each other. We won't solve any problems that way.
But I'll tell you, folks, I know that Jesus Christ can sympathize with me. He understands my struggle and my battles because He went through it Himself. I see in Heb. 2, which is a key Christological passage, that He was made in all points like us. Verse 17:
Therefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God.
This is what the passage is saying, Christ became one with us but He never yielded to temptation. He overcame temptation and, therefore, His character was perfect, so I may stand perfect in Him. But His perfect obedience could not justify me because the wages of sin is death. He took this humanity to the cross and submitted to the wages of sin and there He suffered the wages of sin and, by His perfect life and by His perfect death, He set you and me free. It cost Him everything. It is a gift to me but I cannot take that gift lightly. I cannot say it cost Christ nothing to justify me. It cost Him everything. When I know how much He has exalted me and how much it cost Him to exalt me I can never be the same again. My heart is filled with appreciation and I will say with Paul, "For me to live is Christ."
Do you know the best way I enjoy my vacation is to hold seminars on Christ Our Righteousness. That's my vacation. Most of my vacations the last five years have been holding seminars all over the country. There is a policy that I can't take more than two or three appointments outside of the conference or the church. They'll shoot me but I can do it during my vacation. I have a legal right to take four weeks. One time I was holding seminars in Africa and we were working. I was preaching from eight in the morning until five in the evening. One of the pastors said to me, "I think I know why you work overtime."
I said, "You do? Why?"
He said, "Because you are being paid extra."
I said, "Brother, you are dead right."
He should have known better. He knew our policy. Some of you have worked for the church. Since when has the church given you overtime? But folks, the love of Christ must constrain us. And the love of Christ will constrain us because we know how much He suffered for us. He who was God was willing not only to become one with me, but was willing to take all that I deserve in terms of sin and punishment. He was willing to suffer in the flesh for thirty-three years. He said "No" to temptation. Not even by a thought did He consent to sin. We should never drag His mind into sin. His mind never consented even by a thought to sin. Why? That I may stand righteous in God's eyes in Him. He went to the cross and tasted death for us all that we may never die. Do you know that? There is no need for a single human being to ever experience the second death because Jesus bore that death on the cross for us and set us free.
So this is what Hebrews two is all about. We have a high priest, a merciful and faithful priest. Verse seventeen:
Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren...
To be honest with the context, the word "brethren" here means His fellow Jews. But you and I are made of the same material as the Jews.
...that He might be a merciful and faithful [legally faithful-just] high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
That is the kind of Saviour we have!