Perhaps you have heard this story. An atheist did not believe in Christ because he thought the idea that God would become a man was too absurd to think it true. As his wife went off to church one cold Christmas eve he sat home and watched TV. The station he watched issued a blizzard and cold weather advisory. Later, as the wind picked up and the storm intensified, he heard several loud thuds against the side of the house. He looked out the kitchen window to see what had happened and noticed several small birds, blinded by the storm and now dazed by hitting the house, on the ground behind his house. He thought, “I’ve got to shoo the birds into the barn or else they’ll freeze to death.” He put on his coat and boots and shuffled outside in the storm. He opened the barn door and turned on the lights in the barn. He then tried to shoo the birds toward the barn. But the frightened birds only fluttered in different directions. The man was frustrated, thinking, “If only I could communicate with them and tell them I’m only trying to help them, then they would understand. But for that, I’d have to become a bird.” At that moment the church bells rang signaling the end of the Christmas service. The man’s mind was instantly illuminated by the truth. Just then he understood why God became a man.
Now the incarnation of Jesus is a little more complex than that but from the story we get a glimpse of its importance. The key idea from this passage is the incarnation of Jesus was an indispensable act of God by which He spanned the impassable gulf between the eternal God and mortal man.
Since we are going to be describing the incarnation in depth we ought first to define what we mean by the term. The word “incarnation” literally means the taking on of flesh. When we use the word “incarnation” as Christians we mean that act by which God took upon Himself a human nature. What the Scripture teaches is Jesus became completely human. And yet in His humanity He never renounced or lost His deity. He was completely God and completely man. We see the Scripture describes this clearly though to our minds it is a paradox. How could Jesus be entirely human and entirely divine? It is as inexplicable as the paradox of God’s intentional election and human responsibility. Yet the Scripture teaches us of His humanity and deity. We will speak more of this later but I wanted you to understand first what was meant by the term incarnation.
Previously the author of Hebrews had described Jesus’ deity. In chapter 1 we saw the incomparable Christ who is “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature and upholds all things by the word of His power.” We saw later in that chapter He is called God, He is spoken of as being responsible for creation and He is shown to be God by His eternality. NOW the author focuses on Jesus’ humanity in its full light and its meaning for the believer. He discusses three facets of Christ’s humanity in this passage.
I. The Necessity of Christ’s Humanity
The first facet of Christ’s humanity the author describes for us is its necessity. In verse 10 we see the reason why Christ needed to become human. There we read, “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through suffering.” The author of Hebrews says that Jesus needed to become human because Jesus needed to suffer and die. It was proper, that is, it was consistent with God’s character to send His Son in the likeness of human flesh. Why? The reason it was consistent with God’s character is it met the demands of both His love and His holiness. God’s holiness demands death as the penalty for sin. Separation from God in torment is that penalty of death. Death never means cessation or inability in the Scripture it means separation. And God’s holiness demands it for everyone because everyone has sinned. But Jesus becoming human is consistent with the character of God’s love for He took the penalty upon Himself. Both His holiness and love for the world was demonstrated in the fact that Jesus died on the cross. He showed us His holiness in the awful death of Christ and His suffering and He showed us His love in that His death was for us.
The verse says, “It was fitting for Him, FOR WHOM ARE ALL THINGS, AND THROUGH WHOM ARE ALL THINGS.” The author wants us to know God was not obligated to come to earth and save us. All things are for Him and all things are by Him. He didn’t have to do this. We lose something of the greatness of our Creator when we question what He does or why He is doing it. We become like the mocker who impugns God’s character in the folly of His own mind. We lower God down to the place of the fallible football coach whose plays we critique after the game. Why did you allow this to happen? Why did you do this to me God? Are you going to allow God to be God? God has chosen how He will save people. The Scripture says it was fitting for Him, for Whom are all things, and through Whom are all things. God has given us the way of salvation He created. We cannot add to it or challenge it or say it is unfair. For He is the One for Whom are all things and through Whom are all things. Revelation 4:11 says, “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created. God has absolute right over us as sovereign because it is He who created us and not we ourselves. He is the One to Whom are all things and through Whom are all things. He sent His Son to die for us because it was fitting for Him. It was proper, it was right according to the attributes of His character.
Job understood the necessity for the incarnation when he said in Job 9:32-33, “For He is not a man as I am that I may answer Him, that we may go to court together. There is no umpire between us, who may lay his hand upon us both.” Job realized there was no “umpire,” go between or mediator who could intercede on his behalf to God. He knew if He would have an audience with God He would need an advocate. He needed someone who had been admitted to the law courts of heaven and was licensed to practice advocacy before God Almighty. This is what Paul described in 2 Corinthians 5 when he said, “Now all these things are from God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ.” It was necessary for God to take humanity upon Himself so He could bring man back to Himself through a third party who had a nature that was both human and divine.
II. The Truth of Christ’s Humanity
The second facet of Christ’s humanity the author describes for us is its truth. Verses 11-13 describe the reality of Christ’s humanity. It says, “For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, ‘I will proclaim Your name to My brethren, 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 whom God has given Me.” Perhaps it is not as hard to believe that Jesus is fully God as it is to believe He is also fully man. But as the author describes for us it is evidently clear Jesus is fully human because He had to have been made like His spiritual family in every way, yet without sin.
We see this first in verse 11. For both He who sanctifies (that is Jesus) and those who are sanctified (that is believers in Jesus) are all from one Father.” Now the word Father is not in the original. It simply reads they are all from one. It may mean they are all from one flesh, one family, or as the ESV has it, “one origin.” However it is translated it has the idea that that Jesus shares this common nature with those for whom He died.
Look at verse 14. “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same.” This means Jesus was as much human as you and I are. It can be difficult to think this way but He had to have become human for our sake. But God lowered Himself to become one of us.
What does this say to us? If God humbled Himself for us what should our attitude be before God? If God humbled Himself for us what should our attitude be before others? If we can get a glimpse of the humility of Christ in becoming human I think we will act in a way more consist with true Christianity. Isn’t this what Paul said in Philippians 2:5? “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and was made in the likeness of men.”
As believers we are to have the mind of Christ. We are to humble ourselves before God. This is not the way of the world. They are continually exalting themselves. We see it in sports, we see it in the business world, we see it in politics and unfortunately we see it in the church. These things ought not to be so among Christians. Pride and boasting have no place in the Christian life except in that he who boasts let Him boast in the Lord.
III. The Triumph of Christ’s Humanity
In the third facet of Jesus’ humanity we see its triumph. In verses 14-18, the aspect of His death looms large in the picture. As a matter of fact, the triumph of Jesus’ humanity was His death. Because He was one of us He was able to die. And His death as a human being enacted for us four remarkable benefits.
A. It defeated the devil’s power
The first benefit of Jesus’ triumph through His death is that He defeated the devil’s power. In verse 14, the author says, “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.” Jesus, through His death as a human being, abolished the power of death the devil had wielded. Here the author says, “render (ed) powerless him who had the power of death.” Some translations read that He “destroyed him who had the power of death.” Make or render powerless is a much better understanding of this verse than destroy because the devil wasn’t destroyed. He didn’t cease to exist. His power was nullified. Satan gained that power, or authority, when he lured Adam and Eve to rebel against their Creator. He was the one who has led humanity into death. And in this way he has had that power. But Jesus, by dying, as a human defeated his power. He was able to defeat it because He died not due to any transgression of His own but because He followed the will of God. And in fulfilling God’s will by dying He defeated the devil’s power as a total and complete tyrant in the realm of death. You could say that Jesus slipped into the realm of death as a totally unexpected visitor and because He had no sin of His own death had no power over Him and He became victor over death.
Now please understand, Satan in no way has any kind of authority of rule in hell. He will be in torment too. He simply has this titular role of having the power of death. His scheming hatred for mankind caused them to fall into death. In a sense, mankind, by virtue of the fall has made (by default) the devil its head. And with that goes the power of death. He does not have the authority to kill or make alive. But his role in seducing the human race to rebel gave him, in that limited sense, the power over death. This aspect of Jesus’ triumph and the next go hand-in-hand.
B. It delivered the frightened captives
The second benefit of Jesus’ triumph through His death is that He delivered the frightened captives. Let’s look at both vv. 14 & 15. “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.” After my conversion this became one of my favorite verses. You see I was one of those frightened captives Jesus freed. As the words of that verse sunk into my heart it bubbled over into my freedom. I was subject to slavery through the fear of death. Even as a teenager it plagued me to wonder if I would be admitted to heaven or sent to hell. It was because I wasn’t sure what God exactly required so that I might go to heaven and the reasoning that continued to go through my head was, “How much do I have to do to be assured of heaven?”
And the religious system of my upbringing didn’t help me but only added to my slavery. There was always another prayer to say, always-another candle to light and always-another sin to confess. But even then there was no assurance I had done enough to gain an entrance into heaven. The thought of dying scared me because hell was forever and I didn’t know if I could escape it. O how I was in slavery because of a fear of death. Even if I was very good I could not be assured of heaven and the continual barrage of my conscience against my mind assured me I was not even good.
But then came freedom. As the apostle Paul, wrestling with the same conflict with conscience, cried out, “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” And I was free. My heart sang with the freedom that Jesus through His death provided for me. No longer was I a cowering rebel fearing for my eternal destiny. But as the book of Proverbs declares, “The righteous are as bold as a lion” so I was fearless to tell others God had freed me. I no longer needed to fear my eternal destination because Jesus had died I did not need to be separated from God because of my sin.
And so during this time another similar verse became a beautiful favorite as it brought light to my mind and joy to my heart. Those verses were Luke 1:74-75. Here Zacharias proclaims the blessings to be bestowed by the Messiah. And he says, “To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear; in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.” I was rescued from the hand of my enemy, the devil. It didn’t matter what happened to me now. It didn’t matter if I died because I knew I would spend eternity with my Savior. And now I can truly serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness all my days. This is the truth. God doesn’t want us to serve Him in fear. He doesn’t want us doubting or wondering if we will make it to heaven and serve Him selfishly so we can get out of hell. He wants us to serve Him out of love and because of what He has done for us in freeing us from the power of death. He wants us to serve Him out of love not fear. The only ones who should fear are those who have not yet found the power of death nullified in their lives. If you do not know if you have eternal life you should fear because if death takes you now you will spend eternity in torment without Him.
Has God freed you from the fear of death? Do you understand the death of Christ was a complete work accomplished once for all? This is what we see next.
C. It defused the Father’s wrath
The third benefit of Jesus’ triumph through His death was He defused the Father’s wrath. In verse 17 he says, “Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” Jesus’ accomplishment upon the cross was to remove or turn away the wrath of God unto Himself. This is what propitiation means. He turned away God’s wrath unto Himself for the sake of those for whom He died. The penalty we deserved because of our sin was the eternal wrath of God. You and I deserved to be cast into hell forever as a just penalty for our sin. And yet Jesus took this upon Himself at the cross.
Unless He had died and suffered the wrath of God in our place we would have no recourse before Him. Our estate would be one of utterly hopeless existence. There would be no remedy for our sin, no deliverance from the devil and no freedom from the fear of death. But Jesus took this wrath upon Himself.
When the space shuttle reenters the atmosphere its bottom becomes heated to extreme temperatures because of the friction the craft experiences in entering the atmosphere. And yet the crew is not harmed because the heat shield tiles absorb and redirect the heat from the interior compartment. Without it the entire ship would be burned up due to the scorching heat. Jesus became the heat shield, if you will, that turned the wrath of God from us to Himself. He bore God’s wrath in His body on the cross. He defused the Father’s wrath.
Unfortunately, many in modern society do not fear the wrath of God. They do not understand its awful and eternal implications. Nor do they fear it. The reason many do not fear the wrath of God is they have been raised in a generation that no longer has absolutes and has relegated God to an inferior position. Instead of being the Creator God “for whom are all things and through whom are all things,” He is a minor deity that wants you to be all that you can be. He is the God who has a wonderful plan for your life. In fact this little god centers His life around you instead of calling you to center your life on Him.
But the beauty of this is when God begins to awaken a person to His true standard of righteousness and the person begins to see the consequences of sin, not merely on a horizontal level, against other people, but as an offense against a holy God they begin to tremble at the law they spurned. And when someone comes to this place, they actively seek to find relief from such a horrible state. And when they hear that Jesus has borne this wrath for them they are ready to receive Christ’s gift of salvation and be born into the family of God.
D. It disrupted temptation’s problem
The final benefit of Jesus’ triumph through His death was He disrupted temptation’s problem. In verse 18, the author says, “For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.”
The wonderful truth of this benefit is as Jesus endured temptation successfully until His death He has conferred to all who are related to Him through faith the ability to endure temptation also. This means though we fall prey to temptation and sin we do not need to. We can endure the trials and difficulties we face and bring honor to God because we have one who has passed through not just the difficulties of life but also the extreme horrors of both life and death and He has come out victorious. And He has the marks to prove it.
Now you have one who can come to your aid in the midst of the deepest and blackest trial. You do, that is, if you have been born again into the family of God. You see Christ became related to humanity through the incarnation. But you must be related to God through the new birth. If you have never received Christ as your Savior then none of these benefits of Christ’s triumph through His death are available to you. You are still under the devil’s power. You are still in slavery to the fear of death and the punishment of hell. The Father’s wrath still rests upon you and you cannot overcome temptation and sin. But come to the Savior and He will give you life. Stop trusting in yourself and trust in His death on your behalf to turn away the Father’s wrath and He will give you life and freedom from the fear of death.
And you, who have been saved by the death of God’s Son Jesus Christ, the God-man, revel in the benefits that you have in Him. It is for you the power of the devil has been broken. It is for you the fear of death has been removed. It is for you the Father’s wrath has been appeased. It is for you temptation’s problem has been disrupted. So rejoice in the great salvation He has given us.