Full Transcript:
Turn this morning to Hebrews 2:5-10. We will be looking at the emphasis He starts in chapter 2 and continues on through different sections of Hebrews straight to the end, which is the suffering of the incarnate Son. And that was really important for our eternal salvation; we cannot bypass that, put that down, or lighten that truth. You have to exalt it to where it should be because it is so vital and important to so great a salvation that I have been talking about.
For example, Hebrews 2:3 says:
How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?
So far Scripture has spoken of the excelling greatness of God’s Son, that Christ inherited a more excellent name than the angels. Remember, there has been a contrast between the angels and Christ, so that Jesus Christ receives their worship, He uses them as messengers and servants. Jesus is anointed above all others in Scripture. He is God the Creator, He is God the eternal, He is God the unchangeable, and He has the highest place in His universe in which He created.
And that was all given to inform the readers of Hebrews, these Jewish believers, that Christ, the object of God’s final revelation to humanity, is vastly superior than all spiritual angelic beings as well as all others.
Last time, the author of Hebrews interjects a very very strong warning. He understood that his readers were troubled by possible ostracism and suffering, and even loss of their own lives. He sensed that his readers were discouraged and were being tempted to pull back from their commitment to Christ. He wanted to give them an exhortation, a spiritual kick in the pants, to warn them about something to reclaim their attention.
He says this to them, “If you neglect so great a salvation, that God has given in His Son how then will you escape God’s wrath?” The only answer to that question, there is no escape!
If you neglect the Son, God’s highest revelation to us, then there is no escape. You will stand alone and face the justice of God. That is a horrible and frightening thought. That should send fear into our bones and cause us to tremble.
That is why it is the terror of the Lord that we want to understand and persuade man to come and see. The love of Christ constrains us to tell man why they need to be rescued from the wrath of God if they do not believe in Jesus Christ.
This morning, we move into a new section that will be followed by its own warning and exhortation. A section that will stress the incarnate Son’s suffering, that is Christ’s suffering which becomes a key factor concerning God’s plan about how sinners are rescued from God’s own justice.
He begins to lay it out in Hebrews 2:5-10. I want you to see what is going on here, and the first thing he brings out is the very uniqueness and humility of redeemed human beings. Look what it says in verse 5:
For He did not subject to angels the world to come, concerning which we are speaking.
Now in this passage of Scripture when he talks about “the world to come,” he could also mean the future inhabited earth. That is actually the literal rendering.
Just like Hebrews 6:5 says:
[Those that] have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come.
He is talking that He did not subject to angels the world to come. Another way to refer to this, as a Jewish way of saying things, is that this points to the state of things under the Messiah. It is the new order of things that is coming. He is saying here that redeemed human beings are to inherit the world to come and its full salvation. It is like he is referring back possibly to the new heaven and new earth. It says in Revelation 21:1:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.
There will be an amazing transition that will take place. The Lord will get rid of the old and replace it with the new. The old heavens and earth will be completely destroyed and in their place, God will make a new heaven and a new earth.
Remember, this is not a new promise but a very old promise from the Old Testament. The apostle Peter brings it up, when he says this in 2 Peter 3:13:
But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
That is an old promise from the Old Testament where he is actually bringing that up from a period of God’s program in Isaiah 65:17, where he tells the people:
For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things will not be remembered or come to mind.
In that state that is coming, in that new world to come as it says right here in Hebrews 2:5, we are not going to remember what was in the past. It is not going to even come to our minds. Once this happens, everything in the past will be gone and history will be completed.
It looks like here that it will be done even in our memory. We are not going to be mulling over it in our minds the things that have gone by. We are going to have a whole brand new set of thoughts. And probably being in the presence of God, our minds are going to be so occupied with who He is, what He has done, and the glory of God, which we will bask in for eternity, that we will not think of the past.
He says here that there is a uniqueness about human beings, especially redeemed human beings, that the angels do not have. Angels do not hold first place in the world to come.
God has determined man to have first place in the order of things to come. That is an amazing thought, he wants to bring that before us, he wants us to think about that.
A second thing he tells us from Hebrews 1:2, is that redeemed human beings are joint heirs together with the supreme heir Jesus Christ, where it says in verse 2:
In these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.
Because the Son is the inheritor of all things, and because we are in Christ for those who are redeemed, then we become joint heirs with Christ. The way Christ the Son came to His inheritance is because the Father placed Him there. The very word “heir” could mean a few different things. An heir is lord of all he inherits. He also takes full possession of what he inherits.
The reminder to us who are true children of God are fellow heirs with Christ, like Romans 8:16-17 tells us.
The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.
Last time I read that, I did not stress the last part of the passage. It does say there that indeed we suffer with Him. Suffering becomes, on this side of eternity and in this heaven and earth, part of it because sin came in and the curse came in and to some extent, we all endure some kind of affliction, some kind of suffering while we are on this side.
If Christ, our Master, suffered, who are we to somehow bypass suffering? Suffering teaches us about our weakness, about how vulnerable we are, how the curse of sin has wrecked everything in our lives and brings things to other destruction. Suffering is definitely going to be part of this time in which we live on this earth, and we cannot get away from it.
Even those who are in Christ, redeemed, and know the Lord cannot get away from suffering. We are going to suffer for the Lord when we become believers. It also says that we suffer so that we may be glorified with Him. So we enter into the sufferings of Jesus Christ as believers.
There are two important observations that come out of Hebrews 2:5. The first one is this, angels are not joint heirs with the supreme heir Jesus Christ. The second one is that angels will not sit on the throne with Jesus and reign with Him.
I like that passage of Scripture in 2 Timothy 2:12, which says:
If we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us.
Someday, in this new world order that God is going to make where there will be no curse, sin, or any of the things in which we endure here as far as suffering. We will reign with Christ in that time.
The question that comes up in this passage of Scripture is this, if we think about angels, they are a very high-created order of beings. As a matter of fact, there is no one higher than angels besides God. Why if Jesus was going to be associated with these preachers, would it not be logical that He should associate with the most magnificent, superior beings like angels?
Angels are endowed with higher intelligence, they are endowed with power, and according to Scripture with beauty. They are less limited than we are; angels have the ability to put on and put off material matter. Angels transport themselves wherever and whenever they please, angels are not bound by decaying bodies like we are; they do not die. Also, they are without sexual designation. There are a fixed number of beings, they are magnificent creatures of God!
If you look in Scripture, you will say wow. Many times men came into the presence of angels and bowed down because of the awesome presence. Many times, demons were transformed right before people when angels showed up.
On the other hand, human beings are poor, weak, prone to wander, themed in by time and space, we have an animal like sexuality, we have in the sense gross bodies. What I mean by that, is all kinds of fumes come out of these bodies, all kinds of odors, and issues connected with our bodies.
We get old and we die. You would think that if there is a God that is supremely exalted as the Scriptures have been describing, that He could not possibly be bothered by such little creatures as us.
Yet, and this is the great truth, the point being made in our text this morning is that the Son did not associate Himself with angels. He associated Himself with the seed of Abraham by taking on Himself, not an angelic nature, but a human nature like Abraham’s seed.
Look at Hebrew 2:16 which says:
For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham.
To me, that is a thrilling thought that God could have chosen angels, but in the scheme of things He chose humanity, He chose man. That means that a third thing would be that redeemed human beings have a special rank in God’s order. And He says that in Hebrews 2:6-7, where he quotes Psalm 8, in the Septuagint:
But one has testified somewhere, saying, “What is man, that you remember him? Or the son of man, that you are concerned about him 7 “You have made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, and have appointed him over the works of your hands.
Now this is what he begins to say here in Scripture, he is saying here that according to this passage, God is very interested in mankind. God remembers mankind and looks in upon him to supply all his needs, does not he do that? Does it not tell us in the Word of God, like in Acts 14:17 where it says:
And yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.
God really reaches out and takes care of, remembers, and looks in on His creation of humanity. That is what He does, that is who He is. Compared to angels, mankind is only a little lower in degrees. Just for a little while, we are lower than the angels while we are on this earth. We are lower because of who we are, and because of the limitations that we have, our weaknesses and sin.
This says something that I think is very important for our day, especially for people who have reduced mankind to just a brute creature like the lower creation of animals, as some people say that when man dies, he dies like the animals. The creature called man belongs to the same class as angels.
Both have an immortal spirit, we have a spirit that because it was created in the image of God, does not die. They also have that, but the only problem is that they were not created in the image of God whereas we were. God is in a sense, redeeming His own fallen image that sin came in and shattered. He is rescuing that for His own good and glory.
Also, both of us have personality, both of us have ability to reason and have will that has been given by God, which makes us different from every other creature. Let us face it, if you are going to put man in a category, it has to be in the category of angels.
Angels do not hold first place in the world to come. Remember the great difference, that man, and not angels, has been created in the “imago dei,” the image of God. Angels are not heirs of salvation, human beings hold first place in Christ’s future order of things.
Take your Bibles for a moment and turn to Psalm 8, keeping your hand right there in Hebrews. This is what he is actually quoting from. I want to read it from the Hebrew Bible. Look at Psalm 8:5, where it says:
Yet You have made him a little lower than God.
That is not a good translation. In the Septuagint, it does not say “God.” It says, “angels.”
If you read the context, it will say in Psalm 8:5-9:
You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty! 6 You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes through the paths of the seas. 9 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!
See, angels would fit perfectly there because he is talking about created things. The Septuagint reads this way:
Thou have made him a little less than angels, Thou hast crowned him with glory and honor! 6 Thou hast set him over the works of the hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, yea the cattle of the field, 8 the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea, the creatures passing through the paths of the seas.
In other words, God has given authority to humanity over created things, has He not? Does it not say that back in Genesis, that is what God did. He gave man authority over created things on this earth, that is what He gave man authority to do.
And as our passage says in Hebrews 2:7-8, where he tells us this:
You have made him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, that God ranks mankind above the angels and crowns them with glory and honor, and gives them a high place over his creation. 8 God did subject all things beneath the feet of man.
He says it very emphatically, that He has put all things in subjection under His feet. Now let us think about this for a minute. Has God indeed put all things under man’s authority, under their feet where they have authority over all things?
I think we would have a hard time really saying that, indeed He does give us authority over some things, but it does not seem that we have authority over everything. There seems to be a little bit of a problem there. Well look what the text says, what we do not see is this in the second part of verse 8, as it says:
For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him.
He is even interjecting the problem that we have, because we do not see man being in subjection to everything, and we do not see the earth subject to man in every area. We do not see, as of yet, the future earth subject to man.
The reason why we do not see everything subject to Christ and to mankind is because in our present sinful state, this subjection of all things has not been realized yet. In its totality, it cannot. Even though God has given it over to us there has been a problem, sin has come into the world. It has twisted everything and has confused everything.
It has put some things on hold, therefore it is this problem of sin that has to be dealt with, so man as originally created by God can be in subjection to all things, can be the inheritor and heir with Christ in all things. We do not have that right now, though.
We have it by faith and that is why when we proceed into Hebrews, we are going to see this vast section on faith in chapter 11. Why? Because we see it and hold on to it by faith, but we do not see it with our eyes or actually happening yet. The reason why is because sin has come into the world, so this subjection of all things to man is not yet realized.
That is what the author of Hebrews wants us to see, and then he makes the shift saying, “this is what you do not see, but this is what you do see.”
Look at what he says in Hebrews 2:9:
But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.
This is what he wants us to see, that the reason why things are not in subjection, and the reason why we do not see our complete inheritance yet, the reason why we do not see man in this kind of authority in Christ and the authority of being crowned and having glory and honor, is because something has to happen. Christ has to come into the world and He has to suffer because suffering unto death becomes the key. It becomes the key which brings us to the reason why God had to become a man.
Jesus had to be made even a little lower than the angels in this sense, that He suffered a particular kind of suffering. Angels do not have to do that. He died a particular kind of death; angels could have never done that. He could never have picked anyone else, Jesus then becomes our High Priest. He is someone who is the mediator between man and God, someone who goes into the presence of God with an offering.
All who believe in Him can be forgiven and saved and have their sins for atoned for. That is what he is getting at here, Jesus as a High Priest fully participates in humanity and Jesus enters into the realm of humanity from the cradle to the grave. He experiences everything we do as humans.
In fact, we are going to get into a large section about being tempted. Jesus was tempted in all points as we are. And believe me, are we tempted? Do we experience that as human beings, yes we do experience the force of temptation. That temptation sometimes pulls us into very gross and deep sin.
But this is what Jesus had to do, He had to enter into humanity and die so all these things that we have been talking about can be true and come to fruition, so we can experience and enter into them.
This brings us to Hebrews 2:9, the uniqueness, humility and necessity of Christ’s death. Jesus’ death had a particular purpose to it, for instance if you look at verse 9, look at the last part. Here it states the purpose, “So that by the grace of God, He might taste death for everyone.”
Now, this passage is not saying that Jesus died for everyone. The word “taste” indicates Jesus experienced death. Furthermore, He experienced death in its undiluted bitterness. He encountered everything we would have experienced had we paid our own penalty, including His agonizing separation from the Father on the cross.
Remember in the garden of Gethsemane when Jesus pleaded with the Father to rescue Him from death? What was that? That was a temptation for Christ to want to bypass the cross, that is why He cries out to the Father and this is what He says in Matthew 26:38-39:
Then He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.” 39 And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me.”
Then He said this; He went from a passive obedience to an active obedience in the last part of verse 39:
“Yet not as I will, but as You will.”
We see the struggle in Christ’s humanity to want to avoid suffering because He knew the weight of what was going to happen on the cross. When the Bible says that Jesus tasted death for everyone, Jesus is saying that He did not merely sip the cup of death, but He fully drained the cup of death.
He fully underwent all the bitter dregs of death on the cross that we could ever imagine, and we cannot really imagine that. What Christ suffered there on the cross for humanity, no one else has suffered to that point.
What does Jesus do? He accomplishes everything needed to complete and finish salvation. Now, Jesus was crowned with glory and honor because His suffering and death had a particular character to it, like none other. It had a design to it, and had a purpose to it. It was all ordered by God, there was no mistake in Jesus dying or Jesus becoming a man.
The first thing we see is that by this design, Jesus’ death was sacrificial. In the exercise of His office, the High Priest in the Old Testament, His function was to offer sacrifices. But Jesus Himself is the sacrifice. He is at the same time the sacrificer and the sacrificed. That makes Him completely different than the Old Testament High Priest.
In fact, in Hebrews Jesus is called the great High Priest. He brings Jesus to the superlative degree of what a priest does, in interceding and being the mediator between man and God. What Jesus does is offer up Himself, and this act alone distinguishes Jesus from all other high priests. Jesus becomes the self-sacrificed.
It is the idea that the very self-sacrifice of Christ manifested His high priestly majesty. If you look right there in Hebrews 7:27, which says:
Who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people.
Jesus did not have to offer a sacrifice for His own sin, why? Because He was sinless. But the high priest had to offer a sacrifice for his own sin first. Then, notice what it says in the last part of the verse:
Because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.
Jesus becomes the sacrificial lamb on behalf of sinful humanity. A second thing that made His death unique, is that it was propitiatory.
If you look in Hebrews 2:17, it says:
Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
I think we ought to know the definition of that word. It is in Scripture and it becomes a very important word because it describes to us the suffering in death of Jesus Christ.
To be a propitiatory sacrifice, to be a propitiation, is to be done in view to God. An offering is made to God that satisfies God’s demands. It satisfies God’s law, it satisfies God’s justice. When Christ gives Himself as a propitiatory sacrifice, He satisfies what God requires. Because God requires the death penalty for sin. His justice demands that life be poured out. That is what it demands.
When we go back to Isaiah 53, that great passage of Scripture about the death of Christ, there is one verse that talks about the satisfaction that the offering was before God. It says in Isaiah 53:11:
As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, my Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities.
That means God’s wrath and justice toward me are satisfied for all those who put their faith in Christ, that Jesus the great High Priest did not satisfy the demands of God for Himself, but actually for you and me. He took upon Himself my sin, my guilt. That is really what the gospel is all about.
When we think about propitiation, we are thinking about something that is done in view of God. This is what Christ does, He satisfies the full penalty of the law for me before the Father. It is done, it is finished, right?
In the court of law, it is done. That person is not guilty anymore, why? Because the person Jesus Christ took his guilt. He satisfied and paid the justice that was due this righteous and just God.
Jesus’ sacrifice in tasting death was also expiatory. Expiation is something that is done in view to me. It is done in view to you. It is done in view to the believer, the expiation of my sin.
In other words, my sin is removed from me. The “ex” means to exit, my sin exits me. Where does it go? My sin exits me and goes to the cross.
The righteousness of Christ is applied to my account, and God puts my righteousness on my account and all my sin and all its guilt and everything I have ever done, in thought, word, or deed is transferred to the cross. It exits me.
In other words, my sin sin removed from me, your sin is removed from you, it exits you, and you cannot insert your name there if you want to. I want to. My sin is placed upon Jesus, that is expiation. It is done in view to me. My sin is removed from me and the punishment is removed from, and it is given to Jesus.
What Jesus offers to God, what Jesus offers to God He does for us. He does not do it for Himself, He did not have to do it for Himself. But unless this is done for you, you cannot be saved. No one could be saved. No high priest is able to accomplish this. Do you know expiation has been taught a long time ago in the Old Testament.
I want you to take your Bibles really quickly and turn to Leviticus 16, because I want you to see something. God wanted His own people Israel to get this in their minds, that even though the High Priest could only offer a sacrifice every year, Jesus only had to do it once.
It is the Old Testament picture of the scapegoat, which is part of the sin offering on the Day of Atonement. If you look at Leviticus 16:5-10, follow with me and see what it says there:
He shall take from the congregation of the sons of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. 6 Then Aaron shall offer the bull for the sin offering which is for himself, that he may make atonement for himself and for his household. 7 He shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the doorway of the tent of meeting. 8 Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat. 9 Then Aaron shall offer the goat on which the lot for the Lord fell, and make it a sin offering. 10 But the goat on which the lot for the scapegoat fell shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make atonement upon it, to send it into the wilderness as the scapegoat.
Here it is expiation, to send away, to exit, to drive it far away. Then look at Leviticus 16:21:
Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins; and he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who stands in readiness. 22 The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.
There is the picture of the sins being transferred to the animal, and one animal being sacrificed to God as an atonement, a covering, for sin. The sin and the guilt was sent away into the other animal, meaning God, in His act of atonement, sends sin away. It exits the person, and you are forgiven. You are made right with God!
Jesus did it only once. He completed it, and His sacrifice was substitutionary, which means that His atonement for sin was for the sin of His people, as it says in Hebrews 9:28:
So Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.
All of that describes what it would have meant for Christ to taste death. And I am only touching the hem of the garment here, when it comes to explaining the depth of the suffering that He went through in accomplishing God’s design for His death.
Anybody who comes to Christ in faith can genuinely and forever be saved. My salvation in Christ in not in question, or everything He did had to be undone and that is just not going to happen.
In landing this, this morning, the Son has a solidarity with humanity that is absent from His relationship with any other creature. Now, let us go back to Hebrews 2, and as I close I want you to see this because it is really important.
There is a particular accomplishment that Jesus secures by becoming a man and submitting to suffering and death. What is it? Look at 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.
The Son, Jesus Christ, had to go through an infinite humility to be in a position to meet the need of undeserving sinners. But why was it fitting in verse 10? It was fitting because the grace that saves hell-deserving sinners does not come without a price. The justice must be served to a holy God; payment cannot simply be overlooked.
By God’s grace, it was necessary that Jesus fully tasted death for us. Why? Well look back at Hebrews 2:10 for the answer.
If you look over at Hebrews 5:9 for a moment, he says it in a different way:
And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation.
So it is God who brings us to a complete and a total salvation by virtue of Jesus’ suffering and death, He can achieve the crowning glory for Himself and the crowning glory for us. You and I can go to glory by God’s grace.
That is God’s blessing in Christ when I talk about God’s grace. God’s blessing in Christ towards helpless sinners who only deserve His curse. This is the only reason Jesus tastes death for us. Nothing we could do could have caused or compelled God to love us enough to send His Son to die for us. There is nothing we could have done. The only thing we bring to the equation is our own sin.
He does this, and His design is to bring many sons to glory. That is the destination, that is where this is heading. Believe me, this just the introduction that will further unfold and be unpacked throughout the rest of the book. We are just skimming the surface now.
This message, that all we can do when we are confronted with these truths, is to fall on our faces and realize that we are bankrupt before Him. All we have to do is just receive His grace from His loving hands while at the same time acknowledging that this would not be happening were it not for the fact that Jesus tasted the full bitterness of death that we deserved.
What does all this mean? Well the full and final glory which is intended for humanity by God is available and made secure to those only through the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. There is no other way to be saved.
This is how we are rescued, this is how we answer the question of “how then shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” We escape by going to Christ and receiving His sacrifice on our behalf, and believing it by faith and not by sight. He in turn, gives us what He accomplished freely by His grace. Grace means it is free! There is no work or anything involved that you have to do, except to believe it.
Of course, when you genuinely believe and come to Christ on those grounds, bringing to Him all your sin which He died for and which He paid the just price before the Father, then Jesus invites you to enter glory through His suffering and death. That is the promise we have, that is the encouragement that He is giving the hearers in this book, that we also need today.
This is what we need! We need to know this and be convinced of it in our hearts and minds that this is what God has done! No one could undo it, and what great extent God went to save us. Realize that He did not save angels, He did not save any other part of creation. He saved only sinful, ungodly humanity. That is who He saves.
You know what? I qualify for that, and I thank the Lord for it. Amen? I qualify. That is who I am, so we come humbly to Christ and say, “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner and save me.” And you know what He does? He saves you! Because that is exactly what He came to do.
We also need to grow in these truths, and not be wavering or doubting them. You want to move away from wavering and doubting, and only be assured of them. Because you have a boldness in your faith that is given to you by God when you are assured of your salvation. Even in the face of death, you can say death, “Your cold clutches cannot hold me because they could not hold my Savior Jesus Christ. He broke the power of death, and therefore I inherit eternal life because of Him. So move aside, I am going to glory!” That is how we ought to think. Let us pray.
Lord, thank You for the awesomeness of Scripture. Lord, we would never have thought of this. We would never have even considered this. Your Word brings it to our minds and hearts. For me, Lord, and I also pray for those listening, it absolutely thrills me to know that You are God that cannot lie. Thank You, Lord, for shooting from the hip and not beating around the bush but telling it to us straight like an arrow in our hearts.
I pray, Lord, that Your Word would definitely pierce us so that we would stay and remain faithful to You. Lord, help us to be thinking about these truths on a daily basis knowing, Lord, that no one can rob us of the salvation that You give us. No one can take it away from us, no one can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. No one could do that, and if God is for me, no one could be against me. Thank You, Lord, for these truths. Let us mull over them this week in our minds. And let us no only be convinced ourselves, but Lord, I pray the terror and love of the Lord would move us and compel us to witness to those who do not know this truth. We think about some kind of religious system or some kind of human philosophy or just the ignorance that people have about what happens after death. Remove that, Lord, from them as we bring the gospel of Light to them, that they too would know that the only way anyone could get saved at any point in human history is through Christ the Son and His death and resurrection.
We thank You, Lord, for being our great High Priest, for going before the Father and for offering Yourself as the offering once and forever. We praise You and give You worship. Now send us our way, Lord, make us ready servants for You in the time we have left on this side of eternity. Help us to be faithful. In Christ I pray, Amen.