But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the Angels in order that He would suffer death, then be crowned with glory and honor, so that He might taste death for every one.
Jesus is our example, our model. He was made like us, a little lower than the Angels for a little while, so that He could suffer our death for us to Redeem us. Then He was crowned with glory and honor.
This is the order that must be followed. Suffering first, then exaltation.
For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the Author of their Salvation perfect through sufferings.
Jesus is the Creator, who made us for Himself, and through Him God has revealed what He is like. He had to become like us, so that He would be able to suffer and die, in order to be made perfect; so that He could regenerate many people to be His brothers and sisters.
For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father, for which He is not ashamed to call them His brothers,
God the Father is the Father of our Lord Jesus, and when we are born into His family He also becomes our Father. So Jesus is not ashamed to call us His brothers and sisters.
saying,
I will proclaim Your Name to my brothers, in the midst of the congregation I will sing Your praise (Psalm 22:22).Jesus will proclaim the Name of God to us, His brothers and sisters, and in the congregation of saints and Angels He will sing the Father's praise.
And again,
I will put my trust in Him (Psalm 18:2; Isaiah 12:2).Jesus knows He can trust the Father implicitly, and we can trust Jesus implicitly, with no reservation or hesitation.
And again,
Behold, I and the children whom God has given to me (Isaiah 8:18).The Lord God told Isaiah that we would be His children, His family members.
Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same,
Since we human beings, who are born into God's family as His children, are flesh and subject to death, so when the Son came to be our Savior, He also took upon Himself the same flesh and blood life that we have, being born of a human woman, Mary. So He would also be able to die.
that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
Jesus went through death in order to conquer death, and win the victory over the devil, who has the authority, the power, over death. So death has been conquered, but it has not yet been destroyed. It will be the last enemy to be destroyed (I Corinthians 15:26).
And might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.
The fear of death is a primal fear that spurs us on to try to avoid it or deny it or ignore it. But as long as we're afraid to die, we are in the bondage of slavery to that fear. Jesus has conquered the god of death, the devil, and broken that stranglehold of fear that was on all of us. When we know that He took our death for us on the Cross, then we don't have to be afraid to die any more. Then we know that we are God's family, and He will take us into a Paradise or Heaven when this mortal life is finished. Nothing to fear there. His perfect Love dispels all the fear that used to scare us (I John 4:18).
For assuredly He did not take take upon Himself the nature of Angels, but He took on Himself the seed of Abraham.
When Jesus was born as Mary's Son, He had made sure that the bloodline was true. We have Mary's ancestral line all the way back to King David through his son Nathan, Solomon's brother. And David was twelve generations from Abraham.
And Mary's husband Joseph traced his line back to David, also, through Solomon and all the other kings of Judah, through the royal line.
But the last king of Judah, Jehoiakim, was so evil that God had Jeremiah pronounce that he would never have any blood descendants to sit on the throne of David (Jeremiah 36:30), so Joseph could not have been king.
However, Joseph was the legal father of Jesus, so Jesus had the blood-line through His mother, from whom He received the human nature, and was the legal Son of Joseph, of the royal line of kings of Judah.
Therefore, He had to be made like His brothers in every way, 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.
So Jesus had to have a genuine human nature, to be able to die the human death that we all deserve, in order to be the Sacrifice to take away our sins as the Lamb of God (the Personal Sacrifice, Leviticus 1:1-13). Propitiation means the complete satisfaction, He paid the full price of the debt we owe for sin.
The High Priest brought the blood of the sacrifice into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled it on the Ark of the Covenant on the Day of Atonement, the most solemn of the six Feasts the Israelites were to celebrate each year (Leviticus 16:2-34).
So Jesus, as our High Priest, took His own precious Blood into the Heavenly Temple and sprinkled it on the Holiest of Holies itself.
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.
Jesus faced tremendous temptations. In His flesh, He was just as vulnerable to temptation as all the rest of us are. The difference is, He never sinned. I have found several places in the Gospels where Jesus was tempted so strongly that He responded passionately in response, in forcibly rejecting the temptation.
So He knows how hard it is for us, too, and He is fully able to help us through even the strongest temptations we also face.
O my Father, thank You so much for sending Your own Son to us. Thank You that He lived His life here as our example, to model our lives after. We all don't live the itinerant preacher life-style, but He did show us what our attitudes need to be toward whatever circumstance we face.
We can learn from Him how our thinking processes need to flow around every situation that comes up. Then our attitudes will align with His, and what we say and do will proceed from those right thinking and attitudes. And we will promote Your righteousness and Your Kingdom here in this World right now against the evil our enemy is surrounding us with.
O Father, You are so good to us. To every one of us, showering Your blessings upon each one of us every day. Father, remind Your children that You are Loving us every day. Open our eyes to see and recognize Your blessings each day, to praise Your graciousness and goodness and compassion that You lavish on us every day.
And Your Name will be praised, and Your character will be admired, and Your Person will be worshiped and adored.
And every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Christ and Messiah, the Lord God Almighty, our Sovereign King; to the glory of God the Father.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
