Vaclav's blog

Hebrews 3:12-14
“See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.”

NT Reading: Hebrews 3:1-6; OT Reading: Isa.40:21-31

v.1
-Therefore, - in light of what the apostle just taught us about Jesus in chapter 2. recap:
-since Jesus was made lower than the angels for a little while
-he tasted death for everyone of the many sons and daughters of God
-whom he is also bringing to glory - the glorious state of perfect holiness
-was perfected through the experience of suffering in our place
-he’s making us holy
-he’s not ashamed to call us his brothers and sisters

As mankind, we were made in the image of God. We were made for relationship with God. We were made to resemble the holy, righteous and good character of God. And as such, God originally gave us dominion over “the works of his hands”, putting everything under our feet.

So what happened to God’s image in us, our relationship with him, and the dominion he gave us?

"The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven." (Hebrews 1:3)

Jesus Christ the God-Man is "sustaining all things by his powerful word" - all creation and all creatures and the whole universe. But he needs no one to sustain him. He is self-sufficient. He is God almighty. What should to be our response? It is to worship a transcendent God who is also very close.

“in these last days he [God] has spoken to us by [or through] his Son”. (Hebrews 1:2a)

The letter to Hebrews, Hebrew Christians was written around A.D. 65. Those times were called “the last days” as we know it before Jesus comes back again.

Without the birth of Jesus, there would not be any salvation for anyone of us.

Jesus the Son of God became a man.

He called himself "the Son of Man", the Messiah, the anointed one to do what God the Father sent him to do.

As a man, Jesus' perfect obedience from the cradle to the cross is what we all need, but what every one of us by nature lacks.

All we have is sin.

All Jesus has is perfect obedience or righteousness.

All we deserve is death, and death is just what Jesus endured for us, though he didn't deserve it.

"Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." (Matthew 25:34)

The entrance into the kingdom of God has been prepared since before God laid the foundation of the world, for those who have been blessed by the King Jesus' Father freely as a gift of his mercy.

In Romans 9:23,24 they are called "objects of mercy that he [God] prepared beforehand for glory...not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles".

Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep."
"My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:14-15; 27-30)

Matthew 19:16-26
“Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
“Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”
“Which ones?” he inquired.
Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”

"Sometimes we try to silence the conscience by compensating for our sins with good deeds." Erwin W. Lutzer

Our way: we try to be good or better, we try to give to others more, we try to look more spiritual, we try to pray more, we try to go to church more, we try to deny ourselves things or people in our lives, we try so hard to do all these things with not much of a heart in it. Usually, when we are like this we expect more recognition from others rather than from God.