Monday, September 9, 2019
669 - (Not) One of the Guys
Spirituality Column #669
September 10, 2019
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
(Not) One of the Guys
By Bob Walters
“For such a high
priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and
made higher than the heavens.” – Hebrews 7:26 (KJV)
The writer
of the New Testament book of Hebrews presents, to my mind, the great and
essential overview of what it is exactly that Jesus came to do. Paul has doctrines, James has advice, Peter
has a to-do list, and John has prophecy. Truth shouts from every corner and verse of
the Bible. But start-to-finish, Hebrews puts
the entirety of the Bible in perspective.
Why?
Hebrews – which Bible historians have concluded follows the book of Romans in
terms of when it was written – is thought to be Christianity’s first major
attempt to explain itself to Israel.
That explains all the Old Testament references throughout the book,
especially detailed in chapter 11 with a hit parade and catalog of Old
Testament characters and events.
But where
God sent the Law specifically to the Jews, He sent his son Jesus into the world
for all. Does that mean God’s initial
Creation, truth, faith, and love were only for the Jews? Certainly not! God – and the author of all Creation Christ –
presented to the Jews and the world a whole new ballgame in the person of
Jesus. God didn’t change, but now
humanity could and would live changed eternally in the New Covenant.
Old
Covenant sacrifices were very weak compared with the astounding and life-changing
sacrifice of Jesus. An Old Covenant
blood sacrifice did not forgive sin and was accomplished with death, producing
an animal corpse and delivering short-lived piety. How different, then, when the blood sacrifice
of Death in the Law became the transformational blood sacrifice of Life in
Jesus Christ, providing humanity not only with forgiveness of its sins, but
divine membership in the eternal community of heaven.
Often a
discussion of Hebrews’ theological meaning descends into an off-point debate on
who actually authored the book. It used
to be called “Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews,” but cues in the Greek indicate it
is a linguistic work unlike Paul’s or anything else in the New Testament. Not to mention, Paul was “the Apostle to the
Gentiles” so logically it was someone else’s job to address the Jews. Paul’s letter to the Galatians nonetheless is
Paul’s opus on how the Jews should react to the resurrected Christ.
The reason
I bring all this up is that Jesus, His resurrection, and the New Covenant in
Christ brought something entirely new into the world; something entirely
unknown in all ages since Adam: forgiveness of humanity’s sins, eternal life in
the company of heaven, and fellowship within the love of God. Were those possibilities there all the
time? Yes, I suppose so, owing to the
fact that God loves and grows but somehow He and His Creation do not
change. In Christ, humanity could join
the glory.
We know it,
of course, as the Godly gift of Salvation that we have to accept on His terms,
not define on our terms. Jesus was the
almighty righteous God on a mission to bring humanity back to God. Hence we must never think of Jesus as “just
one of the guys,” an understanding buddy.
He forgave our sins, but he didn’t participate in them; He wasn’t here
to become like us; He was here to show us how to become like Him.
Yes, Jesus
mingled with sinners but He never descended to their/our level. The world hated it. Don’t acquiesce to evil and error; be like
Jesus and hold firm in the truth of God’s love and righteousness. If the world hates you, you’re doing your
job.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is a sinner the world doesn’t hate quite enough.
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