"Fix your thoughts on Jesus" Part 1

Hebrews 3:1 says, “Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest.”

The author of Hebrews uses the picture of entering “the rest”, as compared to the Israelites entering the promise land. In 3:16-19 we read, “Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed ? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.” God brought his people out of slavery in Egypt, so he may bring them in the promised land – the rest he promised them. What is the rest that remains for the people of God to enter in? Jesus became the source of eternal salvation to all those that obey him/put their trust in him, and God has made Jesus to be the high priest in the order of Melchizedek, the order that is higher than the Levite, because Melchizedek is “the King of righteousness”, and “the King of Salem (peace)” – “Without father, without mother, without genealogy, he has neither beginning of days nor end of life but is like the son of God, and he remains a priest for all time.” (Hebrews 7:3). To say what the apostle has said about Melchizedek, can be said only of “the son of God”, Jesus Christ. Jesus was revealed as Melchizedek in the Old Testament, as we hear Jesus saying to the Jews “before Abraham was, I AM!” All the Levite priests kept dying and needed to be replaced by new generation of priests, but Melchizedek, Jesus Christ, lives on forever. The Levites needed to offer sacrifice every year for the covering of the sin of the people, but Jesus offered “himself” once for all and has taken away our sins forever. Praise the Lord – even, “My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought! My sin, not in part but the whole, Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!” (by Horatio Spafford – It is well with my soul). Hebrews 5:13 says, “Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness (the message of righteousness),” which the apostle has been trying to explain to the Hebrew believers, but they were dull and slow of hearing. In Romans 10:3 we read, “For ignoring the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking instead to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to God's righteousness.” Jesus is our salvation that is not based on what we do to save ourselves, but on what Jesus has done for us in his life and death and resurrection. He is the sacrifice who offered himself up, and was accepted by God on our behalf. As he said to John the Baptist when he was being baptized, “let us fulfill all righteousness”, not for himself, but for us, as our representative. As in Adam we became sinners, so in Christ as “the new creation” we are counted/it's credited to us that we are righteous. Therefore let us “Fix our thoughts on Jesus”, who is better than everyone and everything, in every way.