"Took upon him the seed of Abraham."

"Took upon him the seed of Abraham." Divinity took humanity upon itself in Christ. These are the most amazing words ever written.

The words of Christ that state.."God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son" now take on their full meaning. Many read John 3 :16 in merely a pardon focused sense. They know that God gave His Son's payment for sin to man, and this is as far as they wish to understand it. But in Hebrews we get the fuller intent. God gave His Son's Nature to the aid of humanity because He gave His Son to humanity. Divinity embraced the disinherited race and an inheritance was reestablished by great sacrifice. We are not made divine but we a brought within reach of its saving embrace. This is why the angels sang for joy! The means for a way would now be made for man to receive pardon and restoration to the image of God.
Notice the words... "he took on him..." (Heb 2:16)  "For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham." We have here the yoking of His sinless living nature with our weakened and dying nature. The last text follows the statement that makes its intent clear (Heb 2:9)  But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
Again in Philippians 2 we read this same deliberate construction...(Php 2:6)  Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: (Php 2:7)  But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
Divinity took humanity upon itself in Christ. Do not miss the love in these words! Divinity yoked itself, in a life line, to the dying race. It is of utmost importance that we read every part of the statement here. It does not say that Jesus took on Him the nature of man in its unfallen state before it had been desperately weakened. It does not say he left off one nature and took another either. Both errors fail to read the living oracle in all its sense. It emphatically and irrevocably states that Jesus took the seed of Abraham on Himself. Romans 1:3 and 4 mentions that Jesus took the seed of David but was proven yet to be the Son of God by the resurrection. Philippians says He took the likeness of men upon Himself for the purpose of dying its death, and Romans 8:3 states further that the Son was sent in likeness of sinful flesh. All of these texts leave not a single allowance for any concept that Jesus took a special humanity. He took our flesh and so He took our weakness and became subject to our inheritance of a disadvantaged nature. The purpose is clear..it was necessary fin order to effect a legal redemption to rescue man from where he was and not from where he had been before his entrance into the dilemma of a condemned broken humanity.
All of this however would avail nothing if that weak humanity is all He became, and this is just where many destroy the beauty of the gospel and exalt the creature over the creator. If Jesus had only become altogether human we could have no hope. He did not come to prove that man could effect his own redemption in the slightest sense. To do so would be to join forces with the central theme of paganism. apostasy and satanic revolt.
Christ laid aside His royal privileges to become a servant and in that sense laid aside divinity. But let us not think that for an instant that He laid aside His divine nature itself. The Word was made flesh so we have the Word in flesh. In His nature is the fountain of righteousness. Had He not yoked that life giving water with the needy flesh we would have nothing in Him to cling to for life. We are not to teach a religion of human potential but of divine redemption. That well of  divine Life continually held the power of sin from possessing His pure mind. His quickened humanity chose moment by moment to deny the desires of the flesh when such would have led Him against the ways of God. As long as His weak humanity laid hold on that strength then the current of His own divinity flowed through to mankind like a mighty cascade of waters. Thus He could say even before His crucifixion. (John 11:25)  ... "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live". Human mortality could not keep this life down. The power of resurrection lived in Christ every day and every moment because He took the dead flesh upon the Life of His own nature. This is a mystery to grand for the human intellect to fully fathom, but not to fully embrace. One writer, a prophet of God in our latter times, writes of this un-hailed truth.... "By His obedience to all the commandments of God, Christ wrought out a redemption for men. This was not done by going out of Himself to another, but by taking humanity into Himself. Thus Christ gave to humanity an existence out of Himself. To bring humanity into Christ, to bring the fallen race into oneness with divinity, is the work of redemption. Christ took human nature that men might be one with Him as He is one with the Father, that God may love man as He loves His only-begotten Son, that men may be partakers of the divine nature, and be complete in Him.  {1SM 250.3}  
     The Holy Spirit, which proceeds from the only-begotten Son of God, binds the human agent, body, soul, and spirit, to the perfect, divine-human nature of Christ. This union is represented by the union of the vine and the branches. Finite man is united to the manhood of Christ. Through faith human nature is assimilated with Christ's nature. We are made one with God in Christ."  {1SM 251.1}

(Heb 2:17) Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren.

In yesterday's blog we looked at the translation of Psalm 8 in Hebrews 2. We asked the question as to why it is important that Christ was made lower than the angels when He took humanity. That we will discuss after this short recap.

Some render the text "lower than God." But we need only look at Hebrews 2 to see the Old Testament text quoted by the inspired writer as "lower than the angels". We also see that the writer refers the point to Jesus who took a made or created nature that was lower than the angels, and yet will be set above all principalities and powers. In other words Psalm 8 was looking forward to the unfolding of the mystery of the gospel in Christ. What is man? What was God's intent in making him? The old testament writer sees a glimpse. He made us lower than the angels but in the end we are exalted and seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus who attains a name for mankind, in Himself, above every name. We are called by His name, counted as His line, included in His royalty. This is the great love of God. The first shall be last and the last first... forever establishing that it is God who works the majesty and not the creature. If the highest creature attained that glory then we might praise his creature attributes. But when God accomplishes it in the lowly earthen vessel of Adam our illusions can be forever banished...."for it is God that worketh in you to will and to do His good pleasure."..."not of works that man should boast"....and God rested from all His works because He saw that they were perfect. The Sabbath has encapsulated this truth for millennia. God rested...Jesus bids us to enter this rest. It cannot be added to by the creature because it has perfection in it working out perfection in us.

This answers the former question and all its derivatives...Why translate the text.."lower than the angels?" But it opens up an even greater revelation of the gospel of God. God had in the beginning made man to be perfected in the image of God. He was made to be a sanctuary for the glory of God. His beginning was to be lower..Adam...of the clay and his ending Higher....celestial glory in Christ....one with Christ.
But this means the unfolding of a great mystery. How would God effect this? The fall did not defeat the plan of God, it simply showed that God would not be defeated in His perfection of love. But how?. Ah!..here the story grabs our hearts. God, was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. Hebrews states (Heb 2:17)  "Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren..."
"Jesus did not make believe take humanity. He really did "unite the offending nature of man with his own sinless nature, because by this act of condescension he would be enabled to pour out his blessings in behalf of the fallen race. Thus he has made it possible for us to partake of his nature. By making himself an offering for sin, he opened a way whereby human beings might be made one with him. He placed himself in man's position, becoming capable of suffering. The whole of his earthly life was a preparation for the altar.  {RH, July 17, 1900 par. 8}  More on this taking of our nature next time for the truth stands amid two great errors which we must overcome.

Thou madest him a little lower than the angels...Hebrews 2:7

Many today think this should be translated....you made him a little lower than God. This would be a fitting translation for spiritualists...but not for Christians. We shall see why. The word translated angels in the old King James version can be translated as God rather than angles and more often is. It can also mean magistrate or Lord. It is dependence on human scholarship however that renders the newer version to say "lower than God." It is dependence on divine inspiration to render it lower than the angles. The epistle to the Hebrews renders it in the same way that the Septuagint (ancient Greek translation by Hebrew scribes) renders it. That is "lower than the angels". More over it is used in Hebrews 2 in a way that could only make sense as "lower than the angels." The writer of Hebrews, likely Paul, refers the statement to the incarnate Christ.... "Thou ( the Father) madest him (The Son) a little lower than the angels." Psalm 8, from which Paul quotes the text, is in His explanation, a Messianic prophecy. Whom shall we believe..the scholastic linguist of the inspired writer? 

Paul states that it is Christ, as man, who will finally have all things put under His feet in Hebrews Chapter 2. Now we know that the divine Son was not made at all in His original nature. He just was.  Neither was He, in His pre-incarnate form, a little lower than God. Chapter 1 has forever ended that possibility. But for the obstinate we can also refer to Philipians 2 where Paul mentions that Jesus did not seek to retain His equality with God the Father, but chose to lower Himself to man's lower estate for our sake. That also establishes the fact that Jesus laid aside, not inferiority, but an equality with God which He had possessed. 

But how does that infer that when He took humanity He took a nature lower than the angels? How does it say that mankind was made lower than the angels?...and how does it fit into the essential definition of what type of  high priest we need in Christ? 

That we will continue in the next blog. Let us however consider our High Priest who, for our sakes, suffered the attacks of Satan in a nature lower than Satan's and yet overcame. Would it not be important to us to know such an High Priest for evidently that would mean hope for us who are now, after the fall, even weaker than the fallen angels by nature, according to Ephesians 2. We shall continue this next time. Blessing of God to you dear reader and to our Great High Priest and our Father.

But to which of the angels.....?

But to which of the angels said he (The Father) at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? Hebrews 1:13

The writer of Hebrews, likely Paul the Hebrew of Hebrews, uses the Old Testament to reveal the mystery of who Jesus was before His incarnation. He shows plainly the the Hebrews had not fully understood the Testament in all its aspects. There is a vital reason why Paul must now reveal this to them, for to remain in ignorance now is no longer without guilt. Jesus is not from the line of creatures. He is of the Divine family and is addressed by His Father as Elohim (Ps 45:6). In Greek it is translated O theos....God. God is One and Christ is of that Oneness. This is the foundation stone of the revelation of the love of the Father for us in the gospel, for He sent His very best to rescue us. Redemption was undertaken by the Divine Family itself. Thus a value has been placed upon you and I that is higher than any other. God so loved..that is God has loved the rebellious race so much...as to undertake the redemption Himself, at great cost to Himself. But here we now come to the great transition. By the wise laws of God He could not save us unless He was somehow able to fix our dilemma and satisfy the just law against sin..."the soul that sinneth it shall die." It is in light of this truth, that God must reverse the work of Adam in humanity that the explanation continues. Chapter two will then begin to explain how this has been accomplished. There are two great errors of the apostasy of truth. One majors on how Christ was not like us in His humanity, the other on how He was just like us in every way. Both fail to define the balance that Christ was just like us after the flesh, but entirely unlike us according to the Spirit. Christ was of two natures. Paul has set the stage to counteract both errors in the union of Chapter one and two. We will begin to unfold this in the next blog.

Who is Jesus?

"And again, when He bringeth in the first begotten into the world, He saith, and let all the angels of God worship Him." 

Perhaps one of the most explicit identifications of our Savior in scripture, besides His assertion that He is the Messiah, is found in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Here in its first chapter Jesus is set forth as the ultimate messenger of God the Father. In the Old Testament prophets delivered the messages of God to men. But the time came when the Father came to us in the person of His Son. The distinction is made forcefully clear in the verses that follow. The Father addresses His Son with His own name, He identifies His Son as co-creator and speaks of His eternal authority to rule. Hebrews 1:1-14. By the time of Christ the Jews had fallen into the pagan practice of angel worship, a practice strictly forbidden by God. But in Hebrews Jesus is set forth as One worshiped by the angels. The Hebrews had been taught by God to be mono-theists. Thus angel worship or any form of creature worship was apostasy from that true worship. Paganism was often characterized not only by immortality among the worshipers but by immorality among their gods. It was the plan of Satan to thus confuse men with the idea that there were no lasting absolutes in the moral realm by the device of polytheism. Monotheism, if it presented the true God of love and justice, was a stabilizing influence upon men. But now the Hebrews are being called to expand their understanding of the One God to include not another god, but a divine mystery of a God who is a Union of One. The human mind struggles to comprehend this for we tend to limit God to our own sphere as singular beings. God is One and is a divine family so intimate and a part of one another that Jesus would simply state. "I and the Father are One." "If you have seen Me you have seen the Father." The Spirit of God also appears to a part of both the Father and the Son in the same intimacy... being of them both equally. In the Godhead we see this incredible love and mutual support for one another that is the hope of mankind, for such a God knows love as a part of His makeup and He is therefore love itself. The time had come for the Hebrews, in order to understand the fuller revelation of the Gospel, to realize the fullness of the Godhead so that they could model that love for one another. Christ had become the means of that expression to us because God sought to become One with the lost race in His Son. It is not essential that our finite minds be able to fathom the parameters of God's nature. We cannot. But we can understand and appreciate what the Father has been pleased to reveal to us. God is One God but this One is one love that binds the Godhead in perfect union. The human family was to reflect this and can in Christ. "Let us make man in our image and after our likeness"....said God. In this the word "One" takes on a new meaning. Hear of Israel..the Lord is One.

Yet Learned He Obedience!

Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;  And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; Hebrews 5:7-9

The word of God reveals the heart wrenching truth that God was willing, in Christ, to suffer the trials of life as a persecuted and mistreated human in order to perfect a way of salvation for mankind. Christ's human life was made particularly difficult since He was exposed to the specially focused attack of Satan through many people and avenues. No person need say..."God does not understand my trials". The index of suffering that Christ knew, as one of us, was far in excess of any before or after him. The supernatural trials alone were beyond what we can imagine. The achiever knew he must use every means to prevent Jesus from perfecting a way for us. Unlike you and I there was no pardon for Jesus if He failed even once. Yet He was willing to endure all this for you and I. Let this truth be your comfort and motivation to honor Him each day.

I that speak unto thee am he. John 4:25,26.

  The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. John 4:25,26.

Jesus had to veil His words in parables and symbols when speaking to His own people. Their passions were easily aroused against a Messiah who did not come to satisfy their lust for power. Many would be enraged as they saw that the God of Abraham had a tender compassion for all of mankind. The Jews worshiped Jehovah in name but the majority served the spirit of Satan in reality through their national lust for self exaltation.
But when Jesus spoke to the outcast Samaritan woman He spoke in clear terms. "I that speak unto thee am he (The Christ)." To all who seek a Savior from sin Jesus will speak with such clarity. He said... the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. John 4:23. Will you respond to God's tender call today, acknowledging the man of Galilee "I that speak unto thee am he (Jesus the Christ)."

Alike but never equal!

“To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne.”

 Jesus words are often quoted in such a way and with such an understanding that would facilitate any pagan religion’s ideals. We must be warned against disconnecting this statement from the context of the gospel truth...”by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified”.  No natural man can meet the laws demands which require complete sinlessness for the duration of the lifetime. We are not only to overcome as Jesus did...but by the power that is His and not our own. This point is vital. We overcome as Jesus did, but through Jesus’ provision of pardon and indwelling. We cannot create the holy life He made by our effort, but we can accept it and live it. Let this distinction ever lead us to humility, recognizing how we may emulate, yet never equal, the Son of God.

Declared to be the Son of God by the ressurection!

(Rom 1:4)  And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: 

It was not that the resurrection of Jesus conferred power on His name, but rather the resurrection testified that it had been the divine Son of the Most High God that had taken flesh, suffered death for us and triumphed over evil. As long as the humanity of Christ held to the Holiness of God then death could not keep the body of Christ in the grave. In the Divine nature of Christ is the same fountain of Life that is in the Father. Thus though His human nature was brought to enter death in order to exhaust the penalty, yet the Divinity of the Son awaited the authority of the Father to authorize the taking up of His human existence once more. The hope of mankind rests in this fact.
(John 10:17)  Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. (John 10:18)  No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

Jesus...a very close brother to us! Hope!

The Seed of David. -The Gospel of God is "concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh." Rom. 1:3.

Read the history of David, and of the kings who descended from him, and who became the ancestors of Jesus, and you will see that on the human side the Lord was handicapped by his ancestry as badly as anybody can ever be. Many of them were licentious and cruel idolaters. Although Jesus was thus compassed with infirmity, he "did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth." 1 Pet. 2:22. This is to give courage to men in the lowest condition of life. It is to show that the power of the Gospel of the grace of God can triumph over heredity. {October 17, 1895 EJW, SITI 643.41}

"I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not."

(John 5:43)  I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. (John 5:44)  How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?

Creature worship is here identified by Jesus. He was speaking to the zealous religious leaders of Judaism, but the words extend to us all. How could men who claimed to uphold the word of God be identified by Jesus as creature worshipers? Because all who worship men cannot worship the true God. All who pray to saints, or departed souls, or ancestors; all who hear the word of men and do not test it by God's word, cannot believe in the true Christ. Even those who claim to be Christians, if they follow church tradition in preference to the command of God, are truly creature worshipers in disguise. It is the spirit of Satan that leads men to look to any creature to hold the position of God. But it is the Spirit of God that sent His Son to take the nature of fallen man, the creature, and to redeem it. This is why Jesus alone can receive our worship, because He came from the Father. All who hear the Spirit will know this. All who deny the Spirit of God in Christ can only believe in the spirit that is in themselves. They may dress it in church robes but it will never be Christ. Let us believe in Jesus and seek the honor that Jesus alone had in a world of destitute beings. He is our only hope. Christ alone is our hope of glory!

Then were all dead??? What does it mean?

2Co_5:14  For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:

,

"Then were all dead". What Christ has done for the human race is something than can constrain our hearts through love. That is the only way to be saved. The constraints of His love alone can save us. Notice the tense used by Paul..."Then WERE or Are  all dead.". In either form it is a finished act. Christ's past death for us makes it so that all men are now free to choose life. Must they have good works first? NO. That would deny what we have just read. The provision is for the sinner to accept their own death to the power of sin in Christ alone and to come to God with nothing but the acceptance of His great love for them. A realization of that love can fill them with repentance. Something definite has past that God has accepted as complete. Another expression of scripture explains...1John 2:2  "And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." Notice again the tense "He IS the propitiation, (payment or sacrifice) for our sins". During this probationary time, while Christ ministers as our high priest, all humanity has a right to come before the throne of God and claim by faith the inheritance of Christ in God. All can claim to have satisfied the just requirement of the law upon our sin by faith in Christ. This is not to say that all men are justified by faith now....for where there is no willing faith in this act there is only condemnation. John 3:19. This is condemnation, that light is come into the world and that men loved darkness rather than light. But Christ has crushed the power of death over us by giving us a way to choose His life and accept His victory over the flesh. The just law of God is satisfied with Christ's way and when the sinner accepts Christ's crucifixion of the power of sin, he acknowledges that he too can be freed by that death of Christ from the power of sin in his own life. He serves in the newness of the Spirit. Millions professing Christ are following Him  in just the wrong manner that pagans follow their false works. Many Christians think that they must destroy the power of sin, as He did, by their own works of denial or sacrifice. But the true believer in scripture recognizes the futility in thinking that we can earn our own way. It must be in accepting what only Christ has accomplished for fallen man that we enter into living His life and denying the life of sin. Anything else is Babylonian confusion which we are adjured to abandon by the constraints of His love. Dear reader, lay down your own yoke and take the yoke with Christ, who alone is able and willing to bear the weight with you, that you cannot in your own strength endure.

Jesus "To him give all the prophets witness" Acts 10:43

Jesus, revealed in the Old Testament.
We read that God "preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed." Gal. 3:8. The Gospel preached to the people when Paul lived was the same Gospel that was preached unto the ancient Israelites. See Hebrews 4:2. Moses wrote of Christ, and so much of the Gospel is to be found in his writings that a man who does not believe what Moses wrote, can not believe in Christ. John 5:46, 47. "To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins." Acts 10:43. {October 17, 1895 EJW, SITI 643.39}
Paul had only the Old Testament when he went to Thessalonica, "and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead." Acts 17:2, 3. Timothy had nothing in his childhood and youth but the Old Testament writings, and the apostle wrote to him: "Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." 2 Tim. 3:14, 15. Then go to the Old Testament with the expectation of finding Christ and his righteousness there, and you will be made wiser unto salvation. Do not discriminate between Moses and Paul, between David and Peter, between Jeremiah and James, between Isaiah and John. {October 17, 1895 EJW, SITI 643.40}

(John 8:23)  And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. (John 8:58)  Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

Are these words made up by the gospel writers as some have claimed? If not Jesus is either deluded or divine! What does the evidence of the prophecies prove? They confirm that we have been visited by the Son of God and that the will of God for mankind has been revealed. Millions have been spent by rationalist scientists and political powers in an attempt contact other intelligences in space,... money that could have helped feed starving peoples. But we have been contacted by those from other worlds for millennia. Dark super intelligences have led men into rebellion against a good God. Good angles and the Son of God Himself have come to show us the truth of our purpose and the solution to our dilemma in a immoral failing world. Many have rejected religion because men so often corrupt it or invent it for the purpose of control. But the religion of God is distinct. Apostate Christianity has led millions to turn away in disgust. But there are those who follow the little known truth. The light shone in the darkness but the darkness could not comprehend it. The earth is on the verge of a stupendous crisis. Evil angles will manifest every fable but the truth. They will pose as angels of light, visitors from the dead, and extra terrestrial beings with a message of supposed hope. In every manifestation some way of causing doubt in the scriptures is embedded. The very coming of Jesus will be counterfeited. For this reason the word of God has been preserved so that the myriad of deceptions will have a exposure. Jesus has personally guided man to record His word to us in the Holy Scriptures. They carry their own supernatural stamp of proof and even identify the coming deceptions. No other voice can compete with such a revelation. Christ shall return soon and call His children home. His word is a lamp unto our feet in this dark age. It is the evidence of God's love for us.Trust the Jesus of scripture. "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." John 1:4.