It will take more than a blog post to begin to describe the person of Jesus Christ and what he did. The perfect sacrifice of Christ on the cross is not something we should get tired of. Reading the book of Hebrews this week reminded me of the power that is in the act of obedience Jesus did on the cross when he died on our behalf. Christ, which means the sent one, the anointed one did what many of us could not do and would not do and he did it willingly. There are absolutely no words that befit him, and none that can fully describe what he did. Nonetheless, I will attempt to explain just how marvelously set apart Christ is based on the book of Hebrews.
The author of the book of Hebrews is not known. The book is written in such a way that the author purposely wanted to be removed and have Christ magnified instead. The author was more concerned about the message he was conveying than who conveyed the message. The book starts with a claim that God, who spoke in the past through prophets has now spoken in the last days through His Son Jesus Christ. This is telling for the readers because it means Christ should be listened to, and what he says or has said must be carefully followed. From the get-go, it is clear the writer of Hebrews wants to make sure the believers he is writing to regard Christ highly as opposed to some Jewish lunatic who decided to die on the cross for no reasons. The author wants to ensure his audience is captivated from the first sentence by the person of Jesus Christ. To highlight his “sent” status, or “set apart” status, the book of Hebrews compares Christ with two main beings: angels, and man including high priests.
The first beings with whom Christ is compared are angels. Angels are God’s servants and agents who live in heaven. They are sent by God to accomplish what God has commanded. Sometimes, they act as messengers, other times they act as warriors in a battle and still other times, they act as protectors. On many occasions, whenever men encountered angels they were often filled with dread and were ready to bow down to them. However, as powerful as angels may be, the book of Hebrews makes it clear that Jesus Christ is above angels. It says that Jesus Christ is 1) the firstborn and heir of all things, 2) the only one to whom God has declared he is His Son and 3) the only one that angels worship (Hebrews 1:6). As verse 4 of Hebrews 1 says, “he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs” (Hebrews 1:4). Indeed, before angels were, Jesus was. The Son does not have the same place as a servant and that is what angels are.
The second being Christ is compared to is man. In comparing Jesus to man, the book of Hebrews uses two main characters: Moses and the high priest. Both Moses and the high priest had influence and were highly regarded in the Jewish community. First, Moses was the one through whom Israel got saved from the Egyptians. God used Moses powerfully to bring about the freedom of Israel. Not only that, Moses was the leader of the community and the only one who had the privilege to talk to God as one talk to a friend (Exodus 33:11). Moses was the one through whom the commandments came, the law and the rules for the freed Israelites. He was a respected leader and one that inspired many to live in a manner worthy of the Lord of their salvation. However, Hebrews tells us that Jesus is better than Moses because Jesus, being faithful had been found worthy of greater honour than Moses. Indeed, Moses was faithful as a servant in God’s house, but Jesus is faithful as a Son over God’s house (Hebrews 3:5-6). As clearly established, the son is always above the servant. Second, the high priest in the Jewish community was the only man allowed to minister to the Lord in his house, particularly the Holy of Holies which was the most holy part of the sanctuary in the temple of God. Moreover, the high priest could only be from the lineage of Aaron and he acted as a mediator between God and men. The high priest was the one conducting sacrifices on behalf of the people for their sins including his own sins. In fact, he had to be careful not to forget the sacrifice to atone for his own sins or else he too would be liable before God and would most certainly face death by entering the Holy of Holies in an unworthy manner. But unlike a high priest who had sins himself, Christ had none. He did not have to perform multiple sacrifices including one for himself, no, his one sacrifice of himself was enough forever! The shedding of his blood atoned for our sins once and for all. His blood is exceedingly better than the blood of animals which could not atone for sins. Indeed, the blood of Jesus sanctifies not just from the outside but also from the inside (Hebrews 9:14). It regenerates and makes the sinner clean before a Holy God which the blood of animals was incapable of doing.
With that mind, Jesus is the one on whom our eyes should be fixed. We owe our very lives to him; he deserves our worship and full attention. Unfortunately, it is very easy in our mundane lives to be focused on our circumstances, and our difficulties to the point of forgetting the author and perfecter of our faith. However, the wise Christian ought to focus on Christ, on what pleases God. This is so that we would not be ones that have a disdain for the things of God to the point of selling our birthright simply for a bowl of stew like Esau did. That disdain for the things of God does not come suddenly, it comes subtly because it has had time to sit and grow in your heart. It usually is a build up of many little mishaps. A little lie here, a little ingratitude there, a little anger here, a little laziness there, a little pampering injustice here, a little bitterness there, etc. and by the time you realize what is happening it is too late. I don’t know what your “bowl of stew” is but be careful to place that “bowl of stew” above Christ because it will only lead to your downfall. Just like the beginning of Hebrews calls us to listen to Jesus because God has spoken to us through him in these days, I entreat you, listen to him, pay attention to his words and act on his words. You can never go wrong with doing that and the journey on this earth will be much more rewarding.
A Word Aptly Spoken 