September 27, 2020
FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
THE HUMANITY OF JESUS
Whenever mortal sinners like you and me approach the subject of the Incarnation of Christ, we are warned to “take off your shoes from your feet for the ground in which you are standing is holy ground.” We would do well to take heed! Let all remember that “spiritual things can only be discerned spiritually.” The carnal mind disqualifies itself “for it is at enmity against God’s law.”
Now, please read Hebrews 2: 5-8 first. Then consider these:
“Christ is presented here as being ‘lower than the angels,’ though ‘crowned with glory and honor.’ He is shown to be VERY MAN, as truly as in the first chapter He is shown to be VERY GOD. His humanity enables Him to be the kind of High Priest [merciful and all-powerful Intercessor, Mediator, Advocate] men need.
“It is an ever-present source of comfort to the Christian to know that Christ UNDERSTANDS our sorrows and perplexities and sympathizes with us. If Christ had not become man, the question might have easily arisen, HOW can we know that God loves and cares for us when He never EXPERIENCED the trials we encounter, has never been poor and forsaken, and has never known what it is to be alone and face an unknown future [such as mankind is facing right now].
“He asks us to be faithful in death, but He has never faced the issues we face. IF He were one OF us and one WITH us, He would know HOW HARD it is to meet certain trials. But if He has never been man, does He really know ALL our sorrows, and can sympathize [and empathize] with us when we [go] ASTRAY?” (M.L. Andreasen, The Book of Hebrews, p. 89.
What should be the answer of the Bible-reading Christian? Meet you tomorrow again God bless all, NMF