September 14, 2020
FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
CHRIST’S HUMAN NATURE
Please find time to prayerfully and unhurriedly read verses 1-18 of Hebrews chapter 2. Here are the first 4 verses(emphasis mine):
“Therefore we must give the MOST EARNEST HEED, to the things we have heard, LEST WE DRIFT AWAY. For if the word spoken through angels, proved steadfast, and every TRANSGRESSION AND DISOBEDIENCE received a just reward, HOW SHALL WE ESCAPE IF WE NEGLECT so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God AlSO bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will?”
Heb. 2:1-4, NKJV.
SYNOPSIS OF CHAPTER: “This chapter opens with a warning against INDIFFERENCE. It is the first of many admonition scattered throughout the book, which evince the author’s [apostle Paul] anxiety for the SPIRITUAL WELFARE of his readers. From the nature of the exhortations we learn that, unlike the Corinthians, the DANGERS threatening them were NOT MORAL DELINQUENCY but a GRADUAL DRIFTING AWAY from the things they had heard, COUPLED WITH a lack of desire to apply themselves to a SERIOUS study of the Word.
“The larger part of the chapter is devoted to a discussion of the HUMANITY of Christ. In the first chapter the author brought indisputable proof of the DEITY of Christ. In the second chapter he shows that it is NEEDFUL for Christ to BECOME A MAN IF He is to be a merciful and faithful High Priest.
“How else could He deal gently with the weak and erring? He MUST be TEMPTED IN ALL POINTS LIKE AS WE ARE for it is only by passing through the EXPERIENCE to which [all] men are subject that He can succor [save, deliver, empower] those who are weak!
“This section contains a warning against the SUBTLE SINS of apathy and carelessness. Paul was greatly concerned about the SPIRITUAL condition of the people. There were TROUBLOUS TIMES AHEAD for the church. Persecution would soon break out anew; in a very few years the Roman armies would take the city, the Temple would be destroyed, and the Christians would be compelled to flee for their lives.
“Despite this, THE CHURCH WAS NOT FULLY AWAKE. They were ADRIFT with no anchor. Their condition was critical, and MOST SERIOUS OF ALL, they did not sense their danger!” (Andreasen, The Book of Hebrews, 79, 80).
This is same condition we are facing today! The very signs taking place right now in America and the world are already announcing, in trumpet tones, that we entering the prophesied early time of trouble! Are we adrift or are our hearts and minds firmly anchored in the Rock, Christ Jesus and His Word—“It is Written,” “unto the law and the prophets,” “to the law and the testimony.” Bless all, NMF