Thursday: The Brother as a Model
Another reason why Jesus adopted our human nature and lived among us was so that He could be our example, the only one who could model for us what is the right way to live before God.
Read Hebrews 12:1-4. According to the apostle, how should we run the race of the Christian life?
Image © Standard Publishing from GoodSalt.com
In this passage Jesus is the culmination of a long list of characters whom the apostle provides as exemplars of faith. This passage calls Jesus “the founder and perfecter of our faith” (ESV). The Greek word archegos (“founder”) can also be translated “pioneer.” Jesus is the pioneer of the race in the sense that He runs ahead of the believers. In fact, Hebrews 6:20 calls Jesus our “forerunner.” The word “perfecter” gives the idea that Jesus had displayed faith in God in the purest form possible. This passage teaches both that Jesus is the first one to have run our race with success and that He is the one who perfected the art of what living by faith is all about.
Hebrews 2:13 reads: “And again: ‘I will put My trust in Him.’ And again: ‘Here am I and the children whom God has given Me’ ” (NKJV). What is happening here is that Jesus said that He would put His trust in God. This reference is an allusion to Isaiah 8:17-18,.
Isaiah spoke these words in the face of a terrible threat of invasion from Northern Israel and Syria (Isaiah 7:1-2). His faith contrasted the lack of faith of Ahaz, the king (2 Kings 16:5-18). God had exhorted Ahaz to trust in Him and to ask a sign that He would deliver him (Isaiah 7:1-11). God had already promised him, as a son of David, that He would protect Ahaz as His own son. Now, God graciously offered Ahaz to confirm that promise with a sign. Ahaz, however, refused to ask for a sign and, instead, sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son” (2 Kings 16:7, NKJV). How sad! Ahaz preferred being “son” of Tiglath-pileser than the son of God.
Jesus, however, put His trust in God and in His promise that He will put His enemies under His feet (Hebrews 1:13; Hebrews 10:12-13). God has made the same promise to us, and we need to believe Him, just as Jesus did (Romans 16:20).
| How can we learn to put our trust in God but by daily making choices that reflect this trust? What’s the next important choice you need to make, and how can you make sure it does reveal trust in God? |
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One of the most difficult forms of witnessing may be the attempt to share your faith with persons in your own household. Somehow with those we know and love the best, a certain awkwardness interposes itself in the process, making sharing in a natural, unselfconscious way a difficult task. Part of the problem may be that our families know us so well, and they may be quick to use any shortcomings in our own lives as justification for their lack of commitment or their spiritual indifference.” Certainly, it is a difficult thing to share your faith with your family, but Andrew saw it as something that was non-negotiable....He brought Simon to Jesus!
Jesus Christ as our model!
Growing up my Mother instilled in us that love was the reason ' why' she laid down the rules in our home. I know as a parent and a grandparent it is easier and quicker to answer a child's question 'why' by saying ' because I said so'. Is it always wrong to give that answer? No, I don't believe it is always wrong. When is it right?
In times of danger an immediate reaction by the child could be required to save its life. However this only works when a child has learned to trust the parent's word.
Secondly when a child is very young and unable to understand the principles and reasons for the rules of the home they need to trust the love of the parent for them and obey.
Growing up my Mother was my example of a person I wanted to become. In our family we often used code words to remind each other of a principle - like if we forgot to say please or thank you, all my mother had to say was "WORDS" and we understood.
Right from the beginning when the LORD gave His family rules through Moses He explained it was because He loved them and He wanted them to live by His Principles of Life because they are based on His character and He wanted them to be in harmony with Him. His code word was "OBEY" which reminded them "I want you to be like Me"
Deu 10:12-13 ISV "Now Israel, what does the LORD your God desire from you? Only this: fear (trust, worship) Him , walk in all His ways, love Him, serve Him with all your heart and in all your life, and observe His commands and statutes for your own good.
However Israel forgot the Love inherent in the code word "Obey".
When Jesus our Model came to remind them and show them what it really meant, He said: "If you Love Me, Obey My commandments".
Now that I am an adult my goal in life is for my character to be in harmony with Jesus Christ's character, so my character needs to be transformed to be like Him, His Principles of Life need to be the principles by which I live, and He gives me the power to do it.
Rom 12:2; Heb 5:11-14, 6:1-3; 2Peter 1:1-11
These quotes from EG White explain better then I can what I have found in the Word of the LORD.
Shirley - again, thank you for providing us with insights Ellen White received from the Holy Spirit! You are gracious to let her speak the words which express spiritual Truth in her unique, precise language.
I would like to expand further the point today's lesson is making in the first sentence - because it is a very significant point. From the very outset of Hebrews, Paul makes the point that God has been working across history to reveal things to us as humans - things that unless they were revealed would remain obscure to us. All indication is that commencing at Genesis 3 and onwards, humanity unfortunately became inherently 'short-sighted' and therefore prone to misperceiving the revelations of God. So, in the fullness of time, Jesus (the Word/logos as the 'vehicle' of revelation: John 1:1) came as the fullest and 100% accurate revelation of God and His Ways. Thus, as the lesson presents, a vitally important facet of Jesus overall reasons and need to authentically be incarnated into humanity and live as an authentic human was to exemplify "the right way to live before God".
However, in order to not misunderstand this concept because it would be so easy to do, two things need to be kept in mind.
1) Examples are used for the purpose of helping us understand something we don't yet fully understand. Thus, Jesus 'example/s' were not so much given so we could merely 'copy' them - but rather so that we could learn to see the underpinning principles played out in those examples (ie, exemplifications). Those who are parents may recognise that raising children is about helping them learn, across time, the underpinning principles reflected in various example situations.
2) What does "the 'right way' to live before God actually mean"? How you understand this phrase is likely influenced by your prior life experience/s. If you grew up under or around authority figures who told you to do things "because they said so", you are more at risk of understanding this phrase as doing things God's way merely "because He said so"*. But consider John 14:6 carefully for a moment. Way, Truth and Life each have the word "the" (definitive article) apparently deliberately placed before each word - 3 times**. The use of 'the' as a definitive article means that there is only one - as opposed to 'a' which means one of many. Thus, Jesus statement is a strong assertion that there is only one Way, one Truth, one Life. If this is so (which I fully believe to be the case), God's Way is not merely "because He said so", but rather because it is the only way.
Consequently, one of the key facets of why Jesus was authentically incarnated into humanity as a fellow human was to exemplify (reveal) the truth that there is only one way that life can, does and will work - that way being termed 'God's way'. This is best achieved by someone we can relate to (a fellow human who has struggled with what we struggle with: Hebrews 4:15; 5:8-9; 8:1) exemplifying how to respond to those struggles (and temptations) in the only way that leads to life rather than the many alternative 'default human-tendency' ways that all inherently result in death (Proverbs 14:12).
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*Some may see passages such as Romans 9:14-21 as seeming to support this view. I would propose that there is an alternative explanation that instead supports what I have outlined briefly in point (2) above.
** Repetition x 3 is an acknowledged literary 'device' used by Bible writers/speakers to especially hilight/emphasise the point being made.
Another reason why Jesus adopted our human nature and lived among us was so that He could be our example, the only one who could model for us what is the right way to live before God.
Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!
In this all-out match against sin, others have suffered far worse than you, to say nothing of what Jesus went through—all that bloodshed!
Let this sink in