The Suffering Son - [Hebrews 2:10ff]

The human body is a wonderful thing, yet it has its limitations.

The fastest someone can run is 100 meters in 9 .58 seconds.

There are limits.

There are limits to humans that live in a vacuum.

In 1966, a NASA technician was testing a spacesuit in a vacuum chamber.

When the pressure dropped, something similar to being at 36

,000 meters above the earth, and this person passed out in 12 seconds.

Interesting, the last thing he remembered was the saliva boiling off his tongue.

How much can you remember?

Well, we can remember a lot.

Chao Lu has recited the digits of Pi from memory.

67 ,890 digits.

There's a limit to how long you can live.

There's a limit to how cold you can get.

Death usually follows at 75 degrees Fahrenheit.

Hypothermia sets in.

How long can you survive without food or water?

Well, the longest recorded starvation is by an Irish hunger striker.

In 1981, died after fasting for 73 days, but they did have vitamins and

water.

Even sleep, how long can you go without sleep?

You keep a rat awake for two weeks and they die.

How about humans?

Well, of course, it was a teenager, Randy Gardner, 1963,

17 -year -old.

San Diego man, got up at 6 a .m. and did not sleep for 11

days.

Sleep researcher, I think it should be called like a wake researcher or something like that.

How long can you experience big G -forces?

I don't know if you know this or not, but when they make roller coasters now, they have to design them so you

have fewer G -forces or else you would pass out when all the blood went to your

legs.

How high can you go?

If you're dropped on the top of Everest without acclimatizing, you die within two minutes.

There are limits.

There are limits to how much a human can lift.

The record is by Andy Bolton, deadlift 1 ,007 pounds, that is from floor to thigh.

And there's a limit on how much radiation you can withstand.

In 1987, September, two men entered an abandoned medical clinic in Brazil and dismantled what they thought was

something very valuable.

Within a day, though, they were vomiting.

They were intrigued by the blue orb and they kept it in a mug -sized canister in

their dining room and invited friends and family over to take a look at it and marvel and throw up.

How long can you hold your breath?

11 minutes and 35 seconds.

There are limits to humanity.

And to think that the Son of God, the eternal Son of God, the

infinite Son of God, 2 ,000 years ago, added frail,

weak humanity.

That's what we're going to look at today.

Take your Bibles, please, in light of the election last week and turn to Hebrews 2.

Very simple.

Just the next verse, Hebrews 2, the incarnation of Jesus.

We often think of the incarnation during election times.

No, often during Christmas time.

But here, the writer of Hebrews wants to make sure we all know that although Jesus adds flesh,

He is still great.

You may think to yourself, humans are so frail, so limited, that it might be a

hindrance to Jesus' life and His work and His person.

But it's not a hindrance at all.

He lays aside the prerogatives of deity.

He adds human flesh, weak flesh.

Is it not true that Psalm 49 says, He is like the beasts that perish, speaking of

humans?

Is it not true in Psalm 103, He Himself knows our frame.

He is mindful that we are but dust.

We are frail.

We are creatures.

And yet the eternal God adds humanity and lives among us.

2 ,000 years ago, Galatians 4 says,.

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman,

born under law, to redeem those who were under law.

So we're going to focus in chapter 2 today on the incarnation of Jesus Christ.

Even the word incarnation, it's fascinating.

It's from Latin.

In means in.

That's a simple one.

And then carne is flesh.

In flesh.

I'm sorry.

I think of the words like carnage or carne asada.

Both would be nice.

You know, it's meaty.

And here, God adds humanity.

He adds flesh, the second person of the Trinity.

Unblemished deity, true humanity.

And God becomes a man.

This is such an important doctrine that if you don't understand this, you can't understand Christianity.

You can't be a Christian unless you think, you know what?

Jesus, the eternal God, the Son of God, adds humanity.

It is said with 1 John chapter 4's words, By this you know the Spirit of

God.

Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh

is from God.

And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.

And this is the spirit of the Antichrist.

How can God add humanity that's weak and not sinful for Jesus, but

certainly frail?

This is vital for Christianity.

And everywhere you go when it comes to the incarnation, there are false teachers.

The Ibionites said Jesus couldn't really be divine.

If you're having a body, you can't be divine.

The Gnostics would say, if you're God, you can't have a body.

The Arians would say, well, Jesus might have existed beforehand, but He's not God.

The Nestorians would say there's actually two persons indwelling the body of Christ.

A human person and a divine person.

That too is heresy.

But there is a view that is hard for people, especially for the listeners to this book, the book of

Hebrews.

How can Jesus, the God -man, be great if He's a man?

How can Jesus be so great if He is a man?

How can the Son, who's co -equal with the Father, who has the nature of the Father, be

great if He is a frail human?

That's what we're going to look at today.

Hebrews chapter 2, verse 10, and following the incarnation of Jesus.

By the way, I think next month when I have a Sunday night service, we'll deal a little bit more on the extent of the atonement and its intent.

But now we're looking at the incarnation.

Let me read verses 10 through 18, since this is our section that we'll look at in the next couple of

weeks about the incarnation.

Jesus, since He is a man, He can become and is the merciful, faithful High

Priest.

And He's better than angels.

Hebrews 2 .10.

That is why He is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, I will tell of Your name to my brothers.

In the midst of the congregation I will sing Your praise.

And again, I will put my trust in Him.

And again, behold, I and the children God has given Me.

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same things,

that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,

and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

For surely it is not angels that He helps, but He helps the offspring of Abraham.

Therefore, He had to be made like His brothers in every respect,

so that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the

people.

For because He Himself has suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who

are being tempted.

Jesus is fully God, and as we know, fully man.

It's not an objection, Jesus is now human.

It's actually a benefit that He can live in our place, die for us, and conquer Satan.

So this morning for our outline, let me give you certainties, several certainties

about the Incarnation.

Truths, verities about the Incarnation that should actually give you assurance of your salvation.

So you say, what can the Incarnation do to help me with assurance?

I thought at first blush it might decrease assurance.

After all, Jesus suffers, Jesus dies.

Instead of helping me be bolstered in my faith, isn't it a hindrance?

And that's exactly what the readers of the book of Hebrews were going through.

Why should I worship a Jesus who's frail, and who's weak, and who's a human?

So let me give you some certainties about the Incarnation of Jesus driving you to

assurance.

As you know, since I'm your pastor for 20 years, you know I have a number of these.

But I can't tell you the number.

Because if I told you the number, you'd be more concerned about, am I achieving my number or not?

So I'm just going to say several, okay?

Several certainties.

And we'll look at those this week and next week.

We'll look at several today and several next week.

Truths that should bolster your assurance about the Incarnation.

Even though counterintuitively, how can a suffering Savior help me?

How can a Savior that dies help me?

How can a human help me?

Certainty number one about the Incarnation of Jesus, it was planned.

The Incarnation and death of Jesus was planned.

It was not by chance.

It was not by random flukes.

It was planned.

And the key word here to this very passage, so much so in the Greek, it's the first word in the sentence of

Hebrews 2 .10, fitting.

Do you see that?

Verse 10 of Hebrews 2, for it was fitting that He, and it goes on to say,

suffer at the end of verse 10.

This is not unfitting, it is befitting.

This is the plan of salvation.

This speaks to God's purpose.

It was fitting.

Did you know the Holman Christian Standard Bible translates the word fitting this way?

It was entirely appropriate.

Doesn't this sound just like God?

Isn't this fitting His nature, that He's by nature a Savior and He plans out salvation?

How can God, the eternal Spirit, save mankind?

Well, this is all part of the plan.

It's fitting.

It's purposeful.

It's not a fluke.

It's not lucky.

It's not unforeseen.

It's not unplanned.

It's not haphazardly put together.

It was fitting.

Verse 10, it was fitting.

God had the power and wisdom to execute such a plan.

It was only right.

You could translate it that way.

It was proper.

That's a good way to translate fitting.

It was becoming.

It fills the promises of God.

Fitting means that the way to save sinners was true to God's nature, true to God's purpose.

Christ's perfect obedience and death on the cross.

It was no accident.

In the eternal counsels of God, it was right and fitting of God and befitting of His nature.

Proper, appropriate, suitable for God to say, let's rescue sinners.

Let's have a counsel between us in our purpose and in our plan.

The sufferings of Jesus, the incarnation of Jesus, did not take place by

chance.

Now, keep your finger in Hebrews and just flip over to Titus 1 for a moment.

You might ask the question, if it was suitable, if it was fitting, if it flows from divine nature, when was

this all planned out?

If it was planned, when was it planned?

When Jesus showed up on earth, when Jesus was baptized, when Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration,

when was this plan of salvation concocted, to use a different word?

And you might guess, because I know you've been taught this, it's an eternity past.

Can you imagine an inter -Trinitarian covenant, an agreement, before

Genesis 1 -1 to go rescue sinners?

It was fitting to do that.

It was appropriate to do that.

It was suitable to do that very thing.

Befits the character of God.

Look at what Paul says in Titus 1 -1.

Paul, a servant of God and an apostle for Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of

God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, in hope of

eternal life.

In other words, I'm an apostle for the faith of God's elect, so that they might be justified.

I'm in this for the ministry of the knowledge of truth, which accords to godliness, sanctification, and ultimately

glorification, in the hope of eternal life.

Justification, sanctification, glorification, which God, the unlying God, the God who never lies,

promised before the ages began.

Isn't that awesome?

When did God make the promise?

Before the ages began.

Who was there?

To whom did God make the promise to go rescue sinners by having Jesus add humanity to

Himself?

And the answer is, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

They were the only ones there.

Typically, in the Bible, you'll see a covenant between God and man.

Here, the covenant is between God Himself, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, to

go rescue sinners, a pre -temporal covenant.

Here's a definition of this covenant, according to one writer.

A covenant established in eternity between the Father, who gives the Son to be the

Redeemer of the elect, and requires of Him the conditions of their redemption, and the Son,

who voluntarily agrees to fulfill these conditions, and the Spirit, who

voluntarily applies the work of the Son to the elect.

It pleased God, in other words, before Genesis 1, before the angels were made, before anything was

made, to have a plan of redemption, to have a covenant between one another, members of the Trinity,

to have Jesus add human nature to go rescue the bride.

And the Son voluntarily accepted.

It was planned.

It was fitting to remember that wonderful

quote that Spurgeon gives, where he's talking like, this is what

Jesus would say, accepting the covenant that the Father had given Him.

My Father, on my part, I covenant that in the fullness of time I will become man.

I will take upon myself the form and nature of the fallen race.

I will live in their wretched world, and for my people I will keep the law perfectly.

I will work out a spotless righteousness, which shall be acceptable to the demands of Thy just and holy

law.

In due time I, the Son, will bear the sins of all my people.

Thou shalt exact their debts on me.

The chastisement of their peace I will endure, and by my stripes they shall be healed.

My Father, I covenant and promise that I will be obedient unto death, even death of the cross.

I will magnify Thy law and make it honorable.

I will suffer all they ought to have suffered.

I will endure the curse of Thy law, and all the vials of Thy wrath shall be emptied and spit

upon my head.

I will then rise again.

I will ascend into heaven.

I will intercede for them at Thy right hand, and I will make myself responsible for every one of them.

I will bring everyone safe to Thee at last.

Now, I don't know if he actually said those words.

I don't think he did, but that's the idea of the Son responding to the Father.

Now, think about it.

Why does this give assurance that it's all planned out?

How do I have better assurance knowing the Incarnation is not Plan B?

Can you imagine in eternity past, the Father and the Son and the Spirit covenanted to save

you?

Of course, to save me as well.

That should give comfort, unspeakable comfort.

Why am I a Christian?

How am I a Christian?

It's all the work of God.

Why am I a Christian?

Because God is gracious and God decided to save.

It's not because I'm better.

It's not because I'm worse.

Friends, when it comes to your salvation, and you think to yourself, the Incarnation leads to the cross, and when

Jesus says, it's finished, that should give you assurance.

When you doubt your salvation, when you're wondering, how could this all be?

You think of the cross, and you think when Jesus said, it is finished, the Father is satisfied.

It's fitting.

Let's go back to Hebrews 2, please.

This is planned out, not by chance, not by blind fate.

In eternity past, God planned it out.

The idea with the word in Hebrews 2 .10, fitting is sovereign.

It is sovereignly fitting that God should do this.

Number two, second certainty about the Incarnation of Jesus.

Not only was it planned, but the Incarnation, certainty number two, proved that man could not save

himself, or proved that woman could not save herself.

You can't save yourself.

The assurance comes with knowing who we really are.

Can you imagine if you had to try to get to heaven by perfect obedience to the law?

Galatians says, for all those who rely on the works of the law are under a curse.

I mean, think about it.

If there was any other way to get to heaven, besides the Incarnation, where we could save

ourselves, then God wouldn't have sent the Son to have Him add human nature.

But God is willing to stoop by identifying with man.

That is evidence of our fallenness.

If the cure required self -betterment, then why send Jesus?

The problem of man's sin was fatal, and God had to send His Son.

This is a good implication of this very issue.

Why did Jesus have to come?

Answer?

Because we could not save ourselves.

Left to ourselves, we couldn't save ourselves.

Which makes me think, turn back to Titus.

I don't know why I had you go back to Hebrews.

Last Sunday, I was in California preaching, and we had three services.

And here's the way I think of services.

First service is a little more passionate, but not quite as polished.

Second service seems a little more polished, but not quite as passionate.

Then I thought, third service is either going to be really polished and really passionate, or really unpolished and really unpassionate.

I didn't really know.

But if I preach this sermon again, I won't have you leave Titus.

I'll have you stay there.

Titus 3.

Thank you for Pastor Steve preaching last week.

I don't think I have any more travel on my schedule until Shepherds Conference.

Titus 3.

Why are we looking at this passage in Titus 3 .3?

Well, we're going to need the Incarnation because we can't save ourselves.

This is who we are.

Sad but true.

Titus 3 .3 I think is a good way to just describe who we were like before we were saved.

For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to

various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating

one another.

Can you imagine?

This is why God had to send His Son and live this perfect life.

Jesus is exactly opposite of this, but we are foolish.

Notice that word.

We had zero IQ spiritually.

We were darkened.

We were disobedient.

We were deceived.

We thought we were free, but we were slaves to sin.

Our whole lives spent on envy and malice and

everything else.

We need a Savior.

By nature sinful, spiritually blind, deaf, hardened, unable.

Jesus has to come and rescue us as a man because we as men and women can't

save ourselves.

Certainty number three.

This might be the most wonderful.

The incarnation of Christ, number one, was planned.

Number two, showed we couldn't save ourselves.

And number three, clearly demonstrates the incarnation that God loves sinners.

Clearly demonstrates that God loves sinners.

Now lots of times we think God loves you this much.

We see those t -shirts.

I call them Christian t -shirts.

Usually have bad theology on them.

And it shows Jesus on the cross and it says God loves you what?

This much.

Does the cross show the love of God?

I think the answer has to be yes, of course.

But does the incarnation, just stop for a minute and say, does the incarnation show the love of God?

And the answer is yes.

And the cradle and the cross are connected.

They both show the love of God.

Because it's a plan.

The motivation for the plan is love.

The condescension of love.

And if you go back to Hebrews 2, it's important to know that this is the God who creates.

He's the Creator who loves.

We don't worship some god of Allah or something like that who's just fatalistic.

This is a personal God.

You ever want to know if God personally loves you?

You think of the incarnation.

And do you notice, speaking of the Father in Hebrews 2 .10, for whom and by whom all

things exist.

He is the one who loves.

He's the one in condescending love.

Sends the Son.

And the Son in love dies.

Sometimes when I think of love, I think about God's love for me.

And it's important to do that.

But what this doctrine teaches, the doctrine of the incarnation, is that God loves

Himself.

It almost sounds weird to think about, but God's triune.

The Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Spirit, and the Spirit loves the Father.

This great incarnation should tell you about the love of the Father.

The Father loving the Son.

If you go rescue these sinners, I'll give you a great reward.

The reward of a people that look just like you.

The Son's love.

I will submit to the pilots of the world, to the herets of the world.

I will be crucified at personal cost, at high cost, because you've sent me to do it.

I love you that much.

And the Spirit shows His love to the Father and the Son by working all these things out to make it completely happen.

And see, since God is love, we get that when we're little.

God is love.

And God loves the Father, the Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Spirit, the Spirit loves the Father.

And He has so much love, He wants to show that love, to communicate that love to others, and that's why

He sends the Son to go rescue the elect and share His love with them.

John Owen said, We are never nearer Christ than we find ourselves lost in holy amazement

at His unspeakable love.

That God would love sinners.

Just got back from L .A., as you know, and I was flying into L .A., and I thought,

hearkened back to years ago, and I flew into L .A., I probably was in, you know, I was 23 or something like that,

coming home from Christmas, and my mom said, Who is going to pick you up from the airport?

I said, no one.

I'm just going to have to take one of those flyway van things.

And she looked at me like, You don't know one person out of 10 million people in L .A.

that's willing to come pick you up at the airport?

Now here's what she could have said.

I think her eyes said it.

Not one person in 10 million love you.

Nobody loves you, Mike.

Now it's been said that if

everybody respects you but your wife doesn't, it's a hard way to live.

But if your wife respects you and nobody else does, you can make it, right?

Now think about that same principle here with the love of God.

Does God love me?

If everybody in the world loved you, but God didn't,

but if nobody in the world loved you, but you know the eternal God loved you

and He showed it not only at the cross, not only when He saved you, but He showed it by sending

Jesus to be born and He's in that little tiny manger, in that little cradle, dependent

on humanity to even nurture Him.

Do you think if one person, no, make that three persons in all the world would love me,

I could live.

And friend, if you're a fellow believer, if you're a Christian, if you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnation

should say to you, God loves you.

To be loved by God, that's an amazing thing.

So when I think about things like when God so loved the world, God so loved the world.

God loved the world in this way.

John 3 .16, the most important verse maybe in the Bible for some, for God so loved the world that what?

He gave His only begotten Son, not just at Calvary, but He gave to humanity, including the incarnation.

See, what was happening with the readers here in the book of Hebrews, hey, we're Jewish, and God's

invisible, and God's a spirit, and God's great, and God's powerful, and God's almighty, He's omnipresent, He's omnipotent,

He's just, He's righteous, yes, He's gracious, and He's patient.

We understand that from the Psalms, but He's a God who is transcendent, and He is other.

So how could God be so close?

I mean this close, like you could shake His hand close, that you could

take a vial of nard and break it, and rub it on His feet close, and on His hair close.

How close do you want to get?

For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son.

That's the love of God, the purpose in God's sending, the motivation in God's sending, because He loves

Christians.

He's a God of eternal love, and He has so much love you could say, He wants to show that love to

others.

It's the kind of love that you see when Jesus gives the parable.

And He arose and came to His Father, but while He was still a long way off, His Father saw Him, felt

compassion, and ran, and embraced Him, and kissed Him.

Father, I've sinned against Heaven, and before You, I'm no longer worthy to be called Your Son.

But the Father said to His servants, Quickly, bring the best robe.

I love you.

Put it on Him.

I love you.

Put a ring on His hand.

I love you.

And shoes on His feet.

I love you.

Bring the fatted calf.

I love you.

Kill it.

Eat it.

Celebrate.

I love you.

For My Son was dead, and is alive again.

He was lost and is found.

They began to celebrate.

1 John 4, In this, the love of God was made manifest among us,

that God sent His only Son into the world.

That's the incarnation.

We're talking incarnation.

We default to the cross as a pinnacle of God's love.

That's true, but as Scripture would see it, it's just all together, from cradle to the cross, and beyond,

all the love of God.

This is love, 1 John.

Not that we have loved God, but that what?

He loved us, and incarnation language, sent His Son to be the

propitiation for our sins.

And remember, this was an eternity past.

That's why Christian, of course we don't want to sin.

Of course we don't want to fall into sin.

Of course we don't want to transgress or anything like that.

But when we do, the love of God for you is not contingent.

Well, He did this.

I love Him less.

She did that.

I love her less.

Because it's an eternal love.

It's a love that comes from the Father loving the Son, and you compound that with, now Jesus, the incarnation,

adds human flesh, and He perfectly obeys the law.

And so now God loves Jesus as much as He loves me.

Yes, He loves me as much as He loves Jesus.

My favorite Old Testament verse on the love of God is Hosea 14.

I will love them freely.

I will love them freely.

I've demonstrated my love.

Certainty number four.

Certainty number four about the incarnation of Jesus.

Number one, it's designed.

Number two, it proves a fact.

We can't save ourselves.

Three, it demonstrates God's love for sinners.

And four now, it highlights the only way of salvation.

It highlights the only way of salvation.

When it comes to the incarnation, God adding flesh, it should show to you and

should tell you in our day and age of all kinds of isms that this is the only way of salvation.

Now let me quickly remind you of four isms that you know about, but let's just make them

explicit.

Plural ism.

Alternate religions.

A bunch of religions.

They have different perspectives on God, but none of them are true.

One's not superior to another.

That's pluralism.

Inclusive ism means that God saves people on the merits of Jesus.

They just don't consciously know it.

They've never heard the Gospel.

Universal ism means no one's lost.

Everyone gets saved.

But what we teach and what the incarnation demands is exclusivism.

Did not Jesus say, I am the way, the truth, and the life?

Only those who express their faith in Christ Jesus and His work are saved.

So what happens when you look at the incarnation?

You should be warned.

If I reject Christ's work, how can I be right with God?

Every one of us is going to die one day and stand before God.

How can I be right in God's eyes?

If I abandon Jesus' perfect life, if I abandon His death for my sins, then I stand before God

what?

Who do I have as an advocate?

Who do I have as a mediator, as one who's going to stand for me?

It's foolishness to reject God in any way, but especially when you reject God, the

incarnate Son.

God, by nature, is a Savior, and He's the only Savior.

Certainty number five, the incarnation must have been a shock

to the Hebrew system.

It must have been a shock to the system.

Now, if you go back to chapter 2, verse 9, you see kind of the tie -in with verses 9 and 10,

because as you know, Hebrews 2 .10 has the word for, so it's connected to this last

section, verses 5 through 9.

Let me read Hebrews 2 .9, and then let's talk about the death of

Christ as something that's shocking.

How could suffering servant save anybody?

He couldn't even save himself, after all.

Hebrews 2 .9.

But we see Him, remember, with the eyes of faith, who for a little while,

incarnation, was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, His personal name, showing His

humanity, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, this

exaltation, this great coronation that God has given Him, Psalm 110 -like language, so that by

the grace of God He might taste death, experience death to the full for literally all.

For all.

Not just Jews, but Gentiles as well.

Notice what's happening.

The mention of Jesus' death makes you slide in to the announcement of chapter

2, verse 10 about the pioneer, about the author.

ESV says, the founder of their salvation is made perfect through suffering.

The incarnation is a prerequisite for Jesus suffering for us instead of

us.

Now, this is kind of fascinating.

If you had to summarize chapter 1 with a word, how would you summarize chapter 1 of

Hebrews?

Maybe the deity of Christ might be good.

Deity.

But I think you should probably say something like exaltation.

Since Jesus is God, He's exalted.

It's royal language.

It's exalting language.

We have an exalted God in chapter 1 and now He suffers.

Now He dies.

How does that work?

But He had to, to complete His identification with us.

And that had to be a shock to the system.

It must have seemed abrupt.

Here's this great God, great King, great exalted, coronated King, and now He suffers.

I mean, we know it.

We live close to this truth.

But for these readers, it must have been a shock.

And even more of a shock because back in those days, crucifixion

wasn't talked about.

You'd turn your head if you saw somebody crucified.

You'd say to your children, you know what?

Don't look over there, son.

It's embarrassing.

It's reprehensible.

It's shameful.

Some naked guy up there crucified.

That's for hardened criminals.

That's for a slave or some rebel against the state.

It's so crude you don't even talk about it.

The stigma of crucifixion was so awful.

So the suffering to the point of even death, the Jews thinking to themselves, this is amazing because it's a

crucifixion.

Death by suffocation?

Shameful.

No wonder you can see graffiti in Rome where it shows a worshiper bowing before a crucified

figure except that figure is not a man.

It's a man from the head down and from the head up it's a donkey worshiping his donkey god.

Titus Vespasian crucified so many Jews in AD 70.

You've got to take them off the cross to put other ones back up there.

It was wicked.

It was awful.

It was demeaning.

It was low.

Looking at the cross, looking at Jesus on the cross from a human perspective, this is a

disaster.

This is defeat.

Turn to 1 Corinthians 1 and I think you'll see Paul echo the same thing.

1 Corinthians 1.

We're talking about the incarnation today because the writer of Hebrews is making sure that the people get it that

to ID with humanity, you've got to be a man.

To die the death for sin, you have to be a man.

And it's not a negative, it's a positive.

It's planned out by God.

It shows His love for us.

But also, if you're not careful, if you're not thinking about Bible and you're just thinking about your own emotions,

you might not think about it properly.

1 Corinthians 1 .18.

For the word of the cross, that's shorthand, the doctrine of the cross, the atonement of

Jesus on Calvary is folly to those who are perishing.

And you know, the writer of Hebrews is trying to get those people to realize this isn't folly, this is wisdom.

But to us who are being saved, Paul says the same thing.

It's the power of God.

I mean, if Jesus would have just died on the cross as a martyr, we might have all clapped.

But it wasn't just dying as a martyr, He's dying as a sin bearer.

And now notice in verse 27 of 1 Corinthians 1.

The language of Hebrews is fitting, appropriate, proper, suitable.

This incarnation was all planned out by God.

Paul says the same thing.

Verse 27.

Count how many times it says God has chosen.

In verses 27 and 28.

God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.

God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong.

God chose what is low.

Look at the emphasis.

He chose, He chose, He chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to

bring to nothing things that are.

All underlying the purpose of God, the plan of God.

We can't save ourselves, we need a Savior and God's going to destroy foolish wisdom.

For what reason?

Why does He have to destroy all this foolish wisdom?

Well, in 1 Corinthians we get a taste.

Verse 30.

But by His doing.

See, it all has to be God.

It has to be His work.

We contribute nothing.

You are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God.

That is righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

It's all because of Him.

And if everything is because of Him, then nothing is from us except our

response so that no human being may boast in the

presence of God.

And then it says in verse 31, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.

Praising God for what He has done.

If a God does that, if He rescues me like that, if He so planned this plan of salvation

where only He would get the glory, I want to give Him the glory for that very thing.

It's planned out by God so that He might receive the glory.

Now, during Christmas time, everybody is going to be thinking about the incarnation.

But the incarnational truth isn't just reserved for Christmas.

The eternal God adds humanity that's weak and in the likeness of

sinful flesh, Jesus didn't sin, but in the likeness of sinful flesh, the Scripture says, He's so weak

because He has to identify with us as representative and He has to die for us on the cross.

He has to be raised for us.

I don't just want the incarnation for Christmas alone.

It is out of the eternal love of God so much so that Spurgeon would write, when I thought God was hard,

I found it easy to sin.

But when I found God so kind, so good, so overflowing with compassion,

I smote upon my breast to think that I could have ever rebelled against one who loved me so and

sought my good.

Christian, when you struggle this week with sin, instead of thinking of God as the difficult

taskmaster, why don't you just think about Him who's planned to show you His love in

eternity past, not just with the cross, but the incarnation.

That will help you.

That will help you.

So overflowing with compassion, I smote upon my breast to think that I could have ever rebelled against one

who loved me so and sought my good.

Has anybody ever loved you that much?

Has anybody ever sought your good so much?

Has anybody stooped so low to add on human flesh and all the limitations so much?

And when you begin to think like that, then you think, well, what should my response be?

Jay Packer said, God became man.

The divine Son became a Jew.

The Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, unable to do more than lie and stare and wriggle and

make noises, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child.

There was no illusion or deception in this.

The babyhood of the Son of God was a reality.

The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets.

Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as this truth of the

incarnation.

God adds human flesh.

Let's pray.

I thank you, Father, for today, where we can just dive into the book of Hebrews

again to show us you're a great high priest.

To represent us, you'd have to be human, and we're thankful for that.

What an act of love.

I think of that little slogan I learned a long time ago.

If ever you loved us, you'd love us forever.

So, Father, help that truth to bore down deep in our hearts so that we

don't become licentious and say we'd like to sin so that grace of God might abound, your love might be taken advantage of.

But since you do love us, we want to respond rightly.

What son or daughter who would have a mom and dad love them would want to take advantage of that?

We don't want to do that.

Thank you for your eternal love.

Thank you for that little baby in the manger that Jesus would set aside the prerogative for

those attributes of deity for us.

He did it because he loved you in the Spirit, but he also loved us.

This is the love of God.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.