A House of Clay

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For those of you who are visiting with us, let me just say that you catch us taking a break from what we have been studying together over the last several months, and that is James' Epistle. We'll return there, actually, now we won't return there till February. In addition to taking a little break these couple of weeks to look at Christ and why He came. In January we're going to take Sunday mornings and look together at the Lord's Prayer; sort of establishing a pattern for our own lives, as well as for the church; sort of a New Year's resolution, corporate one. We want to establish and deepen our patterns of prayer, and so we're going to be looking at that together.

In the New Year we'll return to James' letter, Lord willing, in early February. But this morning I want us to go back to the theme that we started to look at last week, and that is the issue of Christ's coming.

For those of you who are older than fifty, or if you're younger, and you've ever seen any of the old television sitcoms, you have witnessed the proverbial group of distraught fathers sitting in a hospital waiting room or perhaps pacing back and forth, anxiously waiting for news of the birth of their child.

That's simply the way it used to be done. My father had ten children, which I'm the youngest, and he never witnessed the birth of a single one of his children. Instead, he spent the time with a bunch of other fathers, pacing. But it's been my joy as it has been for many of you to be present at the birth of all my children.

It's really been one of God's special gifts to me. Nowhere in the physical world have I ever seen anything more like a miracle, a true miracle than that, that pink little body squirming and twisting in the doctor's hands; its entire body wrinkled into one great cry from the shock of having been pulled from the warmth and dark surroundings in its mother's womb into the bright and noisy and cold environment of a hospital delivery room.

If you've had this experience, you know exactly what I mean. Try for a moment to pull that memory back, perhaps for some of you from the distant past; for others of you, it's a much more recent memory. Try for a moment to pull that memory up, or if you've not yet had that joy, think of some family or friends with whom you've experienced this process together the process of the birth of a little one. At the actual moment of birth, every nerve of both mother and father is on edge.

There is a keen sense of concern, obviously, for the safety both of the mother as well as the child; We'll read about this and that. What could go wrong and could affect either of their lives and futures. And for both parents, at that moment, there is also an indescribable joy. The joy in the mother; the process, the worst of the process has come to an end, and for both of them an indescribable joy in the fact that that little one whom they've so long awaited is finally there, finally has arrived; But at the same time that joy is mixed with a sort of heavy weight, a sense of responsibility for another life.

Now, try to imagine as you think about the birth of your own child or the birth of a family member or friend. Try to imagine that nine months before an angel had appeared to you and to your spouse and told you that the child you were about to have was none other than the Son of God; that the second member of the Trinity was to become man, and He was going to be born into your family, and that you would have both the joy and the huge responsibility of raising the Son of God.

You know, if you try to contemplate that for just a moment, it's truly impossible to get your arms around the incredible combination of both joy and responsibility that that announcement would bring. And yet that's exactly what happened. Jesus was no ghost. He wasn't a figment of first century hallucination. He became a man. As you know, His conception was unique in the history of the world.

It's described for us in Luke 1:35, where the angel describes the process and says that the Holy Spirit would overshadow Mary, and that miraculously He would prepare a complete human nature for the Son of God, body and soul. Truly miraculous, a miraculous conception. And yet from the moment after Jesus' conception and through the rest of His human life, everything happened in the usual way. His humanity began as a tiny small-celled embryo in His mother's womb. For nine long months He developed inside of Mary.

And then, as is often the case with births, at the most inopportune time at least from the human vantage point, while Mary and Joseph were a long way away from home for a government ordered census, Mary's body began to go into labor, and hours later Jesus was born. He was born the same way you were born, and if you have children, He was born the same way your children were born. The Bible constantly refers to the reality that Jesus' humanity was a genuine humanity.

He was genuinely human, but the question is why? Last week we saw why Jesus had to come to earth. We examined His mission, but this week I want us to look at the next question, and that is, why did He have to become Man in order to accomplish that mission? Why did He have to become one of us to become everything that you and I are except for sin? That's the question I want us to answer together this morning.

Over the last couple of weeks, it's been my joy to go through the entire New Testament and looking at all of those passages that deal with the humanity of Jesus. As I've surveyed those passages, all of those that comment on His humanity, I've been looking for reasons. What does the Bible say about why He had to become a man?

As I made my list, I eventually ended up on a single sheet of paper, with a list of about fifteen different reasons that are stated in different places throughout the New Testament. And then as I examined those fifteen or so reasons, it became obvious that they were actually easily grouped in four categories.

And then, even more amazingly, as I looked at those four categories that I had discovered there is one New Testament book in which all four of those categories of reasons Jesus came, one book in which all four are contained. And it's really a surprise, or it was to me. It's the book of Hebrews. This morning I want us to work our way through the book of Hebrews, and I want us to discover why Jesus had to become fully man.

The writer of Hebrews, and of course we don't know for sure who that was, but a lot of ink spilled on that subject. I personally believe, and it's just a guess, is that it was Apollos. But whoever the writer of Hebrews was; He identifies four reasons why Jesus had to become one of us. If you can remember four words, you will have a complete understanding of why Jesus became man.

The first word that encapsulates that, that summarizes one of the reasons Jesus became man, is the word "revelation," revelation. Jesus came to make a revelation, to reveal something to us. You don't have to go very far to discover this part of the purpose for His coming. Turn to Hebrews 1:1, "God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways…."

As Francis Schaeffer wrote, "This first verse drives home the reality that God is there, and He is not silent."

God has continually spoken to man. He spoke eloquently through the creation of the cosmos, as Psalm 19 reminds us. Just lift up your eyes, and look at heaven. Look around you at the creation, and you see God revealed. But He also spoke eloquently through all the prophets. Verse 1 tells us in all the prophets, literally, in many parts and many ways. Many parts, probably refers to all the different books. We have our Old Testaments divided into thirty-nine books. The Hebrew Old Testament was divided a bit differently.

And He spoke in different ways, that is in different forms. If you trace the history of the revelation of God, you will see God speaking through visions; and through prose; and through poetry; and through parables; and through proverbs. God speaks a variety of different ways through the prophets.

But God's most eloquent expression of Himself has come to us not through the prophets, but through His Son. Look at verse 1 again. God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son. God has revealed Himself through His Son. Jesus became man in order to manifest the nature and character of God.

If you will, to flesh out our understanding of who God is. The apostle John makes this same point at the beginning of his gospel, John 1, of course, you remember those classic words: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Immediately, we see that part of the purpose of the second member of the Trinity is to be an expression of communication. He's called the divine "logos", the Word, God speaking through Him.

Verse 14 of John 1 tells us that this Word, this divine "logos", this message from God became flesh. Here He is becoming one of us. And He "dwelt among us [He tabernacled. He set up His tent among us], and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth."

So, what was it that He was revealing verse 18? "No one has seen God at any time…." God is a Spirit, we're told. God the Father is a Spirit being Who cannot be seen. No one's ever seen the Father in the sense that we use that expression.

That "… the only begotten God who was in the bosom of the Father," [obviously a reference to Jesus Christ, the second member of the Trinity here called God, who is in the bosom of the Father, that is who shares the closest degree of intimacy with Him.] "He has explained.…"

The unseen God, the Word explained, is an interesting Greek word it could be translated "exegeted." He exegeted God. This same Greek word is used several times in the New Testament to describe the relating of a story, the telling of a story. Jesus told us the story about God. He told us all there is to know about God that we need to know. He revealed God. He explained Him.

Now turn back to Hebrews 1. You get a little more insight into this revelation of God in verse 3 of chapter 1. … "He is the radiance of God's glory." It's an interesting expression. At some point, Lord willing, we'll study the book of Hebrews together, and there's a lot that can be said about this phrase. But what I want you to notice this morning is that Jesus is not a reflection of the glory of God. You and I are reflections of God's glory, just as the moon reflects the glory of the Sun. We don't have light inherent in ourselves. We merely reflect it. Jesus here is called the radiance of His glory. He doesn't reflect God's glory; He radiates it. In other words, He is part of that glory Himself.

God, in the Person of Jesus Christ, opens up our view of the glory, the weight, the Majesty, the character of God. Verse 3 goes on to say, "And He is … the exact representation of His nature. The Greek word translated "exact representation" was used in secular Greek to describe the image stamped on a coin which perfectly corresponds to the dye that was used to stamp it. It's a great illustration because the dye and the image on the coin both exist distinctly, but they perfectly correspond. In the same way, Jesus and the Father are distinct, but they perfectly correspond.

You see Jesus came as the perfect and final revelation of the nature of God. He's God in the flesh. He fleshes out our understanding of what God is like. This is part of why He came. And what happens? What's the result of God speaking through His Son, We learn back in 1:2 that He speaks through His Son. How do we benefit from that? What do we see? We see God the Father. This is the point that Jesus made to the apostle Thomas. Turn back to John 14.

You remember on the night of the crucifixion, (or the night before the crucifixion rather, the night of the arrest and the garden of Gethsemane,) John 14. They're in the upper room, and Jesus is comforting the disciples. He's reminding them that He's going to go away. But if He goes away, He's going to prepare a place for them and verse 4, He says, "And you know the way where I am going." Thomas (I'm probably properly named), always a little bit skeptical,

Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?" [We don't know where You're going, so how do we know how to get there? Jesus answers him profoundly, He says,] … "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, but through Me."

He says, "… where I'm going is to the Father, and I'm the way you get there. I'm the only way. You can get there through Me, verse 7,

"If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also, from now on you know Him, and have seen Him." [Philip picks up on that and says,] "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." [He says to see the Father. That's what we all want. Show us the Father.] Jesus said to Him, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father…." [Jesus came to reveal God to us.]

But Jesus not only came to perfectly reveal God. He also came to have another revelation, and that is to reveal God's truth in the Gospel to us. Turn back to Hebrews, and you see this laid out at the beginning of chapter 2. Not only to reveal God, but to reveal the good news, the gospel, Hebrews 2. In verses 1 - 4, the writer lays out an argument from the lesser to the greater. Verse 1, "For this reason, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable,"

Now stop there for a moment. What's going on here? What's He referring to? Well, angels were mediators of the Old Covenant. They were involved in giving the law of Moses to the people, in fact, Stephen, in his first or his last, I should say, and greatest sermon there in Acts 7. In Acts 7:53, he refers to the reality that angels were involved in bringing the law to the people of God at Mount Sinai. That's what he's talking about here, and he's arguing that even though God spoke through created beings, through angels, notice the end of verse 2, "… every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty."

He says, listen God spoke the law through angels, and yet, even though He spoke only through angels, those who disobeyed it were severely punished. That's the lesser. Now the greater comes in verse 3.

"… how … [shall] we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" After it was at first spoken through the Lord, [in His earthly life], it was confirmed to us by those who heard [that is, the disciples] God, also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.

Jesus came in the flesh in order to be God's supreme messenger of the Gospel. You remember back in 2:2.

In these last days, God sent His Son as one of us; to speak to us; to give us the last word. Well, this is what He said, verse 3. This salvation or this message of salvation was at the first spoken through the Lord.

Jesus came to declare the truth of the gospel. He came as one of us so that we would hear; so that we would receive; so that we would listen, and that gospel was then, verse 3 says, … confirmed by the apostles and God Himself witnessed by allowing Jesus and His apostles to do miracles as sort of the divine stamp of approval on the message that they presented. God sent His Son to become man so that He could give us God's final word on salvation.

He came to reveal God to us. If you want to see God, look at Jesus Christ on the pages of Scripture, That's where you see God. And if you want to have the last word on salvation, then look at what Jesus and His apostles said. He came for revelation. Why did Jesus have to become man? The first reason can be summarized by the word "revelation".

The second word is "salvation". He became man to accomplish our salvation. That is, our deliverance, our rescue. Those of you who've grown up in the church, as I did, you've heard that word your whole life; salvation, to be saved, but the question is from what? Well, the writer of Hebrews, answers that question for us. He answers it in two ways.

First of all, he says, we have been rescued from the fear of death and from death itself. Turn to Hebrews 2:14. He's going to describe in these two verses the reality that death is to each of us. You see death is our great enemy. There is no greater enemy on earth than death. Even the apostle Paul calls it that and says it'll be the last enemy to be destroyed.

And because it's such a great enemy, people, human beings, live their entire lives enslaved to the fear of death. People don't like to talk about it. They don't like to think about that reality. They want to assume that it's still years in the future, and I don't have to deal with it now, and yet we still live under its shadow. You can try to ignore it all you want, but the dark place when you're alone with yourself, there is a fear of death.

One of the greatest descriptions of man's fear of death comes from the pen of Samuel Coleridge in The Ancient Mariner. Listen to what he writes.

Like one that on a lonesome road, doth walk in fear and dread and, having once turned round, walks on and turns no more his head because he knows a frightful fiend doth close behind him tread. That's the way death is for us.

We glance back, but we don't look at it again. We don't think about it anymore. We try to ignore it, but we know all the time that it's close there behind and could overtake us at any moment.

Or as Mike Mason put it, our lives are like the unfolding of a murder mystery in which we ourselves turn out to be the victim. The writer of Hebrews says that man finds himself enslaved by the fear of death. Look at verse 14.

Therefore, since the children [that's us] share in flesh and blood, [that flesh and blood is a description of full and complete humanity, we have in common a full and complete humanity] He Himself, that is, Jesus Christ, likewise, also partook of the same, [By the way, the word "partake" here is an interesting Greek word. It has the idea of participating in something that is not yours inherently or naturally. We are by nature, flesh and blood. We are by nature, completely human. Jesus takes humanity as something that is not inherently His.] He Himself likewise also partook of the same. [Why, in order that, here's the reason], that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

Now think about this for a moment, Jesus had to become like us. He had to share in our flesh and blood, so that He could die, so that He could defeat death. Because, of course, Jesus' divine nature could never die. By definition, to be God is to be eternal and so to die, and to conquer death, Jesus had to partake of flesh and blood; He had to partake of humanity so, He could die, and by becoming one of us, and by dying, Jesus defeated death. He rendered Satan powerless, and He set us free from our slavery to fearing death.

Turn to Revelation 1. You remember John finds himself there on that tiny little island called Patmos, banished there because of his faith in Jesus Christ. And in Revelation 1, he has this amazing vision of the risen Lord. One of the most profound passages of Scripture, and after this, Revelation, notice verse 17 of chapter 1.

When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, "Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, [now watch this,] and I have the keys of death and of Hades.

Death refers to the condition, and Hades refers to the place, the grave. Jesus says, I have the keys of the condition of death and of the grave itself. What does He mean by "I have the keys"? He means, "I have complete control." If you've got the keys, you've got the control. Nobody has access except as you choose. Jesus says, "I have complete control of death and the grave."

Jesus determines all the realities concerning death. He has conquered death. He became man in order that He might defeat death itself and Satan, who held the power of death so that He might set us free from our slavery to death. You no longer have to fear dying because your Lord has conquered it. He has the keys.

Saved from what? Well, the writer of Hebrews says saved from the fear of death, but not only saved or rescued from the fear of death, but also saved from the wrath of God. Look at chapter 2 back in Hebrews 2:17 down just a few verses from where we were before. "Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things…."

"Made like His brethren", That's us, by the way, that's explained back up in verse 14, which we already examined. He was made flesh and blood. That is, He was fully human. He was made like us, and He became fully human.

You remember last year around this time, we looked together at Christ and His role in the Old Testament; and His interaction with mankind before the incarnation; before Bethlehem. It's important that you remember that Christ's birth was not the first time He had been in the world. In fact, He appeared throughout Old Testament history. He is forever the mediator between God and man, every interaction with man, every visible appearance in the Old Testament was the second member of the Trinity, Jesus Christ Himself.

What was new at Bethlehem was that this was the first time He became one of us. He was made like His brethren. Notice, He goes on to say, "in all things". Another way to translate that would be "in every respect". Christ, listen to this, this is shocking, Christ became everything you are except for sin. Made like us in every respect.

But notice the beginning of verse 17, He had to be, or it was necessary for Him. Literally, He was obligated to be like His brethren. This word was used originally to refer to financial debts. It grew to include the idea of a moral obligation as well. Jesus was morally obligated to be made like us. Why? What were the reasons He had to be made like us. Notice verse 17. "… to make propitiation for the sins of the people." The word "propitiation" literally means satisfaction. It refers to the satisfaction of God's wrath.

Now it's interesting to consider something. Jesus was made like us in order to satisfy the wrath of God. We often think of Him just satisfying the Father's wrath as if the Father is against us, and Jesus is for us, and so Jesus is trying to win the Father over. But who is it that is pictured in that great book of Revelation as the one dealing out wrath on His enemies? It's not just God the Father, it's God the Son.

You remember there comes a time even in the book of Revelation, when the people of earth start calling on the rocks and the mountains to fall and cover them, they say, "Fall on us and shield us from what the wrath of the Lamb." It's a very powerful image, the wrath of God's little pet lamb; of course, a reference to Jesus Christ. Who is it to whom God has granted all judgment? Who is it that will sit on that great white throne of judgment, dealing out His wrath on all of those who have refused His grace? It will be none other than Jesus Christ Himself, so Jesus Christ became one of us in order to satisfy His Own coming wrath against us. It means that He came as a man to die as our substitute. If Christ had not become like us, He could not have redeemed us, Galatians 4:4.

He was born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those … [that are] under the law.

In other words, if He hadn't been born as a man, born of a woman, He would not have been able to redeem us. If Jesus had not been man, He could not have died as man's substitute.

First John 4:10, "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be [the satisfaction] the propitiation for our sins."

As you celebrate Christmas this year, think about why He came as that little baby; why it is that He had to be born as a human being. Why did Jesus become man?

Number one revelation; number two salvation, to save us from His own wrath.

And thirdly, illustration; illustration.

Jesus became man to illustrate for us what a godly life looks like; to show us what it looks like to live a life of faith. Turn to Hebrews 12, Hebrews 12. Now, you remember, of course, that chapter 11 is that wonderful record, trekking through the Old Testament of all of those giants of faith, the great giants of faith who walked before the Lord, believing Him and having confidence in His word. And then you come to 12:1. "Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us…."

Now perhaps, in your mind, you have a picture here of a great athletic venue like Dallas Stadium, and everyone's sitting around. All of these are sitting around like Abraham and Moses, and they're watching you run. That's not the picture that the writer of Hebrews is drawing for us here. Instead, what he means is this. All of those who have gone before us; their life of faith has testified that it's worth living such a life. They bear witness to the fact that you too will find blessing if you pursue a life of faith in God.

Ask Abraham; ask Moses; ask Rahab if it's worth it. All of those who have gone before us give their testimony that the life of faith, however difficult, it's worth it. It's worth it in the end, and so therefore he says, since we have these witnessing to us that it's worth it, "… let us also, verse 1, lay aside every encumbrance…." This is a reference not to those things that are sinful, but to those things that would cause us to stumble; those things that would weigh us down.

Here the Christian life is pictured as a race, and he says, lay aside anything that's going to slow you down; that's going to impact your performance. "… and the sin …" Now, there's been a lot written about what the sin here is. Some would say it's unbelief. Others would say, No, it's your own besetting sin whatever that happens to be.

Probably, it's best simply to see it as a reference to sin in general, all sin. Every sin is going to entangle you and easily entangle you, so he's saying, lay aside the incumbrances, the weights, the things that are not necessarily evil in and of themselves that distract you from the race and from running as well, lay aside the sin that easily entangles you.

We are to run the Christian life as we would a race, the end of verse 1. "… let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." Verse 2, we're to run our race with our eyes fixed on Jesus, "… fixing our eyes on Jesus…." It's interesting here, the writer purposely chooses to use the human name of Christ Jesus. And he does this because it's Jesus' humanness that serves as the example for us to follow.

Jonathan Edwards, the great American theologian, wrote about this passage that we should take notice of Christ's excellence. That's what he's saying. As you run the race, keep looking at Christ as your example of excellence in the race as your example, as your pattern.

Notice, He's described here as a man, Jesus is, verse 2 as "the author of faith…." The word "author" literally means "pioneer trailblazer." Christ is the pioneer of faith. He's the trailblazer, and He is the perfector; He's the finisher; He's the closer; He's "the perfector of faith…." In other words, Jesus became a man to blaze the trail of faith for all of us to follow.

Kent Hughes, in his excellent commentary on Hebrews, writes this,

Jesus' entire earthly life was the very embodiment of trust in God. He perfected living by faith. He lived in total dependence upon the Father. It was His absolute faith in God that enabled Him to go through the mocking; the crucifixion; the rejection; the desertion and left Him perfect in faith. Jesus came as a man so He could be the trailblazer, the closer of a life of faith. And we're to run with our eyes fixed on Him.

I have no interest in being a marathon runner, but those who run in such things, those who are strong of body and weak of mind, tell me that what you're responsible to do. What helps in such an event is not to be in the lead all of the time, but rather to find your position maybe in second or third or fourth place through a large portion of the race to allow others to sort of blaze the trail ahead of you. Not only do they encounter any obstacles first, but they also helped divide the wind and reduce the pull on your own body as you're running, That's what we're to do with Christ. We're to fall in behind Christ.

We're to run the race with our eyes fixed on Him, following in His footsteps; following His pattern; following His example. Run the Christian life with your eyes fixed on Him; imitate Christ throughout the New Testament. We're told to follow Christ to imitate Him.

The reasons God the Son became man, are revelation, salvation, illustration, and the final reason is association.

He came to associate with us in this life. You see by taking on our humanity, He associates with us. He actually, as the Hebrews says, becomes our high priest before God. Turn to Hebrews 2. Hebrews 2, again verse 17, We looked at this earlier, and I purposefully skipped over a phrase. I want us to come back and look at it now. Hebrews 2:17.

"Therefore, He had to be made [He was morally obligated to be made] like His brethren…." [to be made like us in every respect. Why?] "n order] … that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God…." [It's hard for us to get our arms around this concept of a high priest.]

Those who read this epistle originally, primarily a Jewish audience, would have understood; would have comprehended what this is all about; the reason He had to be made like us is summarized: in that He might become for us a merciful and faithful high priest. A high priest was the one who represented the people before God. Here Jesus is said to be a merciful high priest (that is compassionate toward men) and a faithful high priest (that is trustworthy in fulfilling His duty to God). So, He's compassionate toward men. He's faithful in keeping His duty toward God. He is our representative.

Now why is this important? Turn over to Hebrews 5, Hebrews 5:1. We're told a little bit about the high priest. "For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men and things pertaining to God in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins…."

A high priest: His first and foremost qualification was that He had to be one of us. He had to be a man. Verse 2, … that enables Him to "deal gently with the ignorant and the misguided, since He Himself also is beset with weakness…." Verse 3 tells us how Jesus' high priesthood differs from others.

Because of this, other high priests were obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, not only for the sins of the people, but also for their own sins. Here's where Jesus parted ways with the typical high priests because all of His sacrifice was for our sins, He had none of His own. But He was to represent us before God, and to represent us before God required that He be one of us. Hebrews 4, Hebrews 4:14,

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. [Verse 15,] For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses….

The word sympathize literally means to feel with. We don't have a high priest who can't feel with our weaknesses. By the way, the word weaknesses here isn't limited to temptation or even suffering. It refers to all of the frailties of being human. Here we get into divine mystery. Scripture says that Christ learned to fully understand us by becoming one of us. Now don't misunderstand, Jesus didn't acquire any more information or knowledge as the omniscient God. He knew every fact there is to know about human suffering and trouble, but Hebrews 4 makes it clear that there is a relationship between Jesus becoming like us and His ability to sympathize with us and to help us in temptation.

If Christ had never become a man, He would not have been able to know by experience what we go through and our temptations and troubles in this life. I've used the illustration before, perhaps you've heard me, of a woman who writes the book, The Textbook on Obstetrics.

Imagine if there was such a woman who had written the book but had not yet had a baby. Certainly, she understands childbirth, and obviously she has more information about childbirth than any of her patients will ever have, but because she's never had a baby, she hasn't shared in that experience. On the other hand, if she eventually does have a child herself, she is in a new position, not only to understand the information, but to fully sympathize with her patients.

Because Christ has lived as a man, He can more fully sympathize with our experiences as man. Listen to the great Puritan commentator, Matthew Henry.

He knows how to deal with tempted sorrowful souls because He has been Himself sick of the same disease, not of sin, but of temptation and trouble of soul. The remembrance of His own sorrows and temptations makes Him mindful of the trials of His people and ready to help them.

Listen to me. There is nothing that you will ever experience in this life that Christ can't feel with you or sympathize with you. You might be tempted to say, but does He really understand. I mean after all one of the greatest struggles I have is with my own sin. Can He understand temptation and what I'm bearing? Listen to the commentator, Westcott, I love what he says.

He says, sympathy with the sinner and His trial does not depend on the experience of sin, but on the experience of the strength of the temptation to sin, which only the sinless can know in its full intensity. He who falls yields before the last strain. You and I understand temptation, but there comes a point in all of our lives when we give in. Jesus never gave in, so He understands the strength of temptation in a way that you and I will never understand it.

He became man in order to be able to understand us to sympathize with us, but He's able to do more than understand us, back to 2:18. For since He Himself was tempted and that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted. Jesus doesn't just sympathize. He can genuinely help us. He comes to our aid. Exactly how does He come to our aid?

Well, turn back to Hebrews 4:15. It reminds us of our high priest. He's been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin. "Therefore", verse 16, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, [What are we going to get from Christ?] "so that we may receive [first of all] mercy…." Here's how He gives us aid. He gives us mercy.

This word means compassion for those who are weak and miserable was often used of parents towards small children. It's that, it's that feeling you have when you get up in the middle of the night, and you see your small child. Their body racked with pain having been overcome with the stomach flu, and your heart is moved with compassion on their misery with absolute compulsion to do something to help. That's how Christ responds to us, we get His mercy.

He also gives us "grace" verse 16 says. He gives us just the right grace to fit any need of the moment. So, Christ became man so that He could associate with us in the weaknesses and frailties of this life. But it doesn't end there.

He also did it so that He could associate with us as brothers forever, Hebrews 2:10.

For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. [It was fitting for God to perfect Jesus through His sufferings.] For both He who sanctifies [that's Jesus,] and those who are sanctified [that's us] are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them … [brothers].

Now you'll notice back in verse 9, the writer reminded us of Jesus' incarnation of His becoming one of us, and then He remarks right on the heels of that that it was fitting or in keeping with God's own character to perfect Jesus through suffering. Now, of course, Jesus' divine nature was already perfect, but His human nature learned obedience or was perfected, He was, of course forever without sin, but His human nature was perfected by all that He suffered.

Now, why is that important? Well, He tells us here, so that you and I could be perfected and brought to glory, and so that Christ could call us His brothers and His sisters.

As MacArthur writes in his commentary, the use of the term "brethren" demonstrates His full identification with mankind by becoming human, Jesus became literally our brother forever.

Remember, Jesus still retains His complete humanity. He is a human today in every sense that you are a human. He has a human soul. He has a body just like the glorified body that you and I will one day receive. In eternity the only difference between Jesus' humanity and ours will be that we will forever and always be only sinless, glorified human beings.

He, on the other hand, will always continue to have a perfect human nature, inseparably united to His divine nature, but He'll always be truly human; always Immanuel, God with us. Listen. this is the part of the incarnation that amazes me most. I could understand Jesus coming down for thirty-three years. I mean there's a sense in which you could say, you know, what's thirty-three years in the light of eternity?. He can give up thirty-three years for us. But Jesus didn't come for thirty-three years and then return to heaven everything exactly the way it was before. Today, He is every bit as much of a human being as you are, and He will be forever. Why? Because He wanted to become one of us, so He could forever be truly in every sense our brother.

The miracle of Christmas is, the Almighty God willingly took the weaknesses of the human condition. The God, who could not be contained by space, was contained in a human body. The voice that spoke galaxies into being, cried and cooed in His mother's arms. The only eternally self-existent, utterly independent One chose to put Himself in a place of utter dependence on a human father and mother. He went from the throne of God to a hay filled manger. The eternal God entered time; the omnipresent God entered space; the omnipotent God embraced weakness and frailty; the unique Son of God became the Son of Man.

Why?

For revelation, to reveal God to us; to reveal the truth of the gospel to us.

For salvation, to save us from the fear of death; to save us from His own impending wrath.

Illustration, to give us an example to follow; to blaze the trail of faith and say follow Me.

And association, to understand us in time and to be one of us forever.

That's what we celebrate at Christmas time. Let's pray together.

Father, how can we ever begin to comprehend the magnitude of the condescension of our Lord? Lord, that He would become one of us, and not just for those thirty-three years, but forever, absolutely astounds us.

Father, don't let us become accustomed to these things. Don't let them be blas. Lord, don't let us live this week in the celebration of the birth of our Lord and be the most excited about some gift we get, some temporal thing that will be destroyed in a very short time. Don't let us be most excited about some food we eat.

Father, help us to be absolutely overwhelmed with the reality of why our Lord came, and that He became one of us and that He continues to this day to be one of us. And He will always be everything we are except without sin. Father, don't let us miss the true message of Christmas. That You became one of us.

Lord, I pray for the person here today who has never come to enjoy the benefits of Christ's coming. Perhaps they're a part of this church. Perhaps they've grown up in the church. Maybe they're visiting, Lord.

Whatever may be the circumstances, if there's someone here today who does not truly know Your Son, may today be the day, Father, when they repent of their sins; when they turn from all the things that they know to be a violation of Your Word and Your will that they clung to and enjoyed and found their satisfaction in. Lord, may today be the day they turn from those things and embrace Your Son as Lord and Savior.

To His great glory, we pray. Amen.