But We See Jesus

The title for this post comes from verse 9 of Hebrews 2:9-18, in which the writer proclaims, But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.  This passage speaks to what is referred to as Jesus’ humiliation, wherein He came into this world as one of His creatures, taking upon Himself a human nature so that as a man He could accomplish, at great cost to Himself, all that  was necessary to rescue sinful men and women from the Hell we deserve, and qualify us for Heaven which we in ourselves never could deserve.

Hebrews 1:2-13 speaks of His exaltation wherein after accomplishing this, He was enthroned at God’s right hand, whereas He now exists as both eternal God and glorified man, ruling over and upholding all creation as the King of Glory, the redeemer of fallen mankind and restorer of God’s good creation (Psalm 24:7-10).

The book of Hebrews was initially written to a church congregation, mostly comprised of converted Jews. It was written at a time where they were under great persecution by both their fellow Jews and the governing authorities for their faith in the person and work of Jesus.  And because of the great hardships this presented, many were at risk to fall away, of recanting their profession of faith in Jesus and even returning to Judaism (Hebrews 3:12-15).

Hebrews thus was written to help them see that to do so left them without hope and without God, as God was no longer relating to them under the Old Covenant based on the law revealed by Moses, but through a New Covenant (Hebrews 8:6-13), a relational agreement of redeeming grace; grace received through faith in the Son of God, who loved them, giving His life for them (and us) on Calvary (Galatians 2:20), so that all who truly believed Him to be the Christ, the Son of the Living God, would not perish under God’s judgment in Hell, but be resurrected unto eternal life (John 3:16) (Matthew 16:16-17).

Thus, the book of Hebrews is written as an exhortation and encouragement to them (and to us) to hold fast to their faith in the person and work of Jesus, in the midst of whatever they may be called to endure while in this world.  Hebrews 11:6 makes clear that without such faith “it is impossible to please God”, which is the ultimate purpose for which we were created, the sole reason for which we exist (Colossians 1:16 (2 Corinthians 5:7-10) (I John 3:22) (Hebrews 10:36-39).

And then the verse tells us what faith that pleases God consists of, namely believing that He is (some translations have that he exists), and that He is a rewarder of those who (diligently) seek Him.

Now if we understand this passage to mean that we just have to believe in the existence of God to please Him and be accepted into Heaven, we remain in great peril. Multitudes throughout human history have confessed to believing in God and/or believing in Jesus, yet lived as if He was irrelevant, inconsequential to their daily lives or eternal destiny.  Undoubtedly, the devil and His demons believe that God exists, and know that Jesus is God who came into this world as a man.  In fact demons were the first to identify Jesus as the “Holy One of God”, yet they will all be condemned forever to the Lake of Fire (Mark 1:23-24) (Matthew 8:28-29) (Revelation 20:10).

Thus, the faith that pleases God is much more than our acknowledgement of His existence. It is a faith that recognizes, acknowledges and responds to Him in reverential fear (awe and wonder), love and adoration for who He is, for who He has revealed Himself to be in the glory of His creation, in the words of the Old and New Testaments, and in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

By these means, God reveals that He is the most glorious, most desirable, most excellent being in all of the universe; the self-existent, self-sufficient, infinitely good, infinitely wise, infinitely powerful creator and sovereign ruler of the universe, as well as the redeemer of fallen mankind; the one who holds each breath we take in His hand, who owns, orders and numbers our days in this world, the one to whom we must give an account for how we have lived those days in relationship to God and our fellow man.

We are told in Hebrews 1:3 that Jesus, God the Son, is the revelation of the brightness of God’s glory and the express image of His person.  In the person and work of Jesus Christ, we see by faith the beauty of God’s holiness, the excellency of His infinite wisdom, the awesomeness of His majestic power, the greatness of His faithfulness, the loveliness of His humility, the wonder of His incredible patience, the magnificence of His creation, the splendor of His abundant goodness and amazing Grace, the sweetness of His loving kindness and tender mercies, the blessedness of His sovereign authority and the perfections of His unfailing, redeeming love which He demonstrated and defined at Calvary. There Jesus bore the certainty of God’s justice and the righteousness of God’s judgement for sin upon Himself on behalf of all who put their faith in Him as our only hope of glory, our only hope of eternal life, the glorious life with God for which man was created which God, who cannot lie, promised to all who love Him in Christ, with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. (Titus 1:2) (Luke 10:25-28) (Colossians 1:27-28).

The Bible is clear that we do not possess, nor can we summon up the faith that pleases God, the faith that results in our being graciously saved from His just judgement, and in our seeing Jesus, to where we love Him supremely.  It must come as a gift of God (Ephesians 2:8), which we will look at in my next post.

Grace and Peace ×