Burning Ones

Posts tagged with ‘jesus christ’

• Reflection on Hebrews 4:11-5:2

  From January 29, 2009 @ 10:00 pm

  I’ve been trying to memorize a section of Scripture a week recently and I’m currently moving through Hebrews. I’ve worked on Hebrews 4:11-5:2 for the past 2 weeks or so and I transitioned to Hebrews 6:17-20 this past Sunday. What I want to start doing is putting a reflection on whatever Scripture I memorized up here just so that I document whatever thoughts I had on it while I was memorizing. I don’t want to memorize for the sake of memorization. Anyway, we’ll see how I do, eh? ;)

  So, Hebrews 4:11-5:2…

  My Version

  Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

  Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses but one who in every respect was tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, to receive mercy and to find grace to help in time of need.

  For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on their behalf in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. And he is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward because he himself is beset with weakness.

  Real Version

  Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to they eyes of him to whom we must give account.

  Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

  For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness.

  Just for total fun, I thought I’d include a unified diff of the two versions for your viewing pleasure… ;)

  1c1
  < Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by
  ---
  > Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by
  6,7c6,7
  < his sight, but all are naked and exposed to they eyes of him to whom
  < we must give account.  Since then we have a great high priest who has
  ---
  > his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we
  > must give account.  Since then we have a great high priest who has
  10c10
  < sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been
  ---
  > sympathize with our weaknesses but one who in every respect was
  12,16c12,16
  < near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace
  < to help in time of need.  For every high priest chosen from among men
  < is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer
  < gifts and sacrifices for sins.  He can deal gently with the ignorant
  < and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness.
   No newline at end of file
  ---
  > near to the throne of grace, to receive mercy and to find grace to
  > help in time of need.  For every high priest chosen from among men is
  > appointed to act on their behalf in relation to God, to offer gifts
  > and sacrifices for sins.  And he is able to deal gently with the
  > ignorant and wayward because he himself is beset with weakness.
  

  1. Context: Hebrews is at the core an exaltation of Jesus as the high priest of the new covenant, an example to which we can look for encouragement and help. It opens with a discussion of the greatness of Jesus, who is greater than the angels and greater than Moses and is therefore able to offer a true and final rest for those who cling to him for refuge. He became like us so that in every way he could sympathize with our weakness and mercifully execute leadership under the new covenant that he himself inaugurates. However, the author wants to remind us that just hearing the promise is not enough, but one should react to the offer with an effort to be found faithful by joining the message with faith in honor of the work that he did at the first. Our section of scripture wraps that discussion up.

  2. I love the juxtaposition in this passage. It starts out with an incredibly horrifying thought: This perfect God knows us and every creature perfectly. It almost seems mocking that he would say that we should strive to not fall by the same sort of disobedience, which is unbelief and testing of God. I certainly do not believe everything that God claims is true of himself. I want to, but I wouldn’t be foolish enough to state that I do. My life simply doesn’t reflect it.

     And the author goes further. The word of God (here referring to Jesus) is living and active. He is not disinterested or bored or unaware. He is actively searching and looking at us. Every thought and intention of our hearts is exposed to his eyes. And even more fearfully, his eyes, which know everything, are the ones to whom we will give an account for our lives!

     But, This one that knows everything to whom we must give our account, also has another quality. He is sympathetic! We see why he became like us in 2:17-18. What is so amazing about this is that though he was without sin, the fact that he was tempted, that experience, allows him to look at us with mercy fully knowing what we are feeling; the frailty of our flesh, the ineffectually of our efforts, the loving what we hate and hating what we love, all of it! This blows me away, mainly because I primarily sympathize with others weakness based not on my temptation but on my sin. I can forgive someone pretty easily for lust because I’ve struggled so deep and long with it as a Christian. I know how it feels to be addicted to something. But someone who beats their wife or gossips or murders, those people I can’t figure out how to forgive quite as easily, because those aren’t sins that I personally struggle with on a regular basis. Jesus never once sinned! And yet for all of us he can be sympathetic in his priesthood and leadership over us.

  3. Mike Bickle once said that it’s important to remember that while God does in fact see every sin and ill intention in our hearts, there is a glorious reality that is equally true and for the same reason that he also sees every good intention and movement of our hearts. The fact is that if you are born again you have a nature inside of you that longs for God. You truly do desire to walk worthy of the calling with which he called us. And just as we imperfectly know our weakness and frailty, we also imperfectly know our longing to be holy and faithful to him. God, though, lacks no knowledge of our hearts. He pierces to the division of soul and of spirit and discerns our thoughts and intentions. That means the bad and the good!

  4. Ultimately, Jesus deals gently with us. No matter how fallen we remain, our efforts to run after him are met with joy and our faults and failures, while being corrected, are still dealt with in the gentlest possible way. He does not sigh and lament every time we fail but instead, like a loving father, picks us up, perhaps disciplines us, and then shows us the way to walk again. His experience as a man gives him a source to draw from, and it gives a confidence to go to him time and again.

  5. The last thing I want to write down is that all of this should be a source of confidence for us! I have a term I like to use to describe God’s model of leadership: Grace-full failure. The magnificence of our God is that no matter how many times we fail and fall due to our frailty, he is there with love in his heart for us and mercy in his behavior towards us and grace in his helping us. There is no point after which the game is up for us! This is massive! It’s not the case with our relationships with others. If I screw you over enough times you will eventually cut off your relationship from me and just be done with it. It’s natural. Not so with God. His mercy is everlasting; It’s new every morning! And beyond that, we cannot empower ourselves to obey! But God has grace to give, and he gives it freely from his thrown of grace, knowing how it feels to want to do what you don’t ever do. This single reason is why I can so confidently draw near to him every time. Because I know that he deals gently with me and gives me grace to help in time of need.

• The Terrible Love of God

  From January 29, 2009 @ 7:55 am

  Oh, that we might worship the terrible wonder of the love of God! It is not sentimental. It is not simple. For our sake God did the impossible: He poured out his wrath on his own son—the one whose submission made him infinitely unworthy to receive it. Yet the Son’s very willingness to receive it was precious in God’s sight. The wrath-bearer was infinitely loved.

  - John Piper – The Passion of Jesus Christ

• Oh how precious, the Death of Christ!

  From January 06, 2009 @ 6:00 am

  Forgiveness costs us nothing. All our costly obedience is the fruit, not the root, of being forgiven. That’s why we call it grace. But it cost Jesus his life. That is why we call it just. Oh, how precious is the news that God does not hold our sins against us! And how beautiful is Christ, whose blood made it right for God to do this.

  - John Piper, The Passion of Jesus Christ