The Purpose of the Incarnation

Transcript

GRM 1173
12/25/2016
The Purpose of the Incarnation
Hebrews 2:14-17
Gil Rugh

We’re going to look a little bit into the book of Hebrews and just overview a few basic facts about Jesus Christ and the purpose of His incarnation. We’ll start with Hebrews chapter 1, this book that we’ve studied some time ago if you were a regular part of our church family. It focuses on the high priestly ministry of Jesus Christ and one of the great portions of our bibles are those opening verses of the letter to the Hebrews. “God after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways.” In past history, God had spoken particularly to the nation Israel in a variety of ways using a variety of spokesmen but now “in these last days He has spoken to us in His Son,” and then He tells us the greatness of the One who is the Son of God. He is the One whom “He appointed heir of all things, the One through whom also He made the world. And He (His Son) is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and (He) upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” What an awesome Person the Son of God is; He is the exact representation of the nature of the Father. He’s distinct from the Father as we have noted but He is fully God. Why? We have noted in the book of Colossians where we’re told that all the fullness of Deity dwelt in Him in bodily form. How awesome that the One born at Bethlehem was fully God and now would also be fully man.

Then the book of Hebrews goes on to talk about the greatness of the Son that is summarized here so concisely from the beginning to the end. From the time when He created the world and as we have studied He existed already at the creation but for us at the beginning when He created all things to when He accomplished and finished the work of redemption and sat down at the right hand of the Father. Summarized there and He wants to show how great, how superior to everyone and everything preceding Jesus the Son of God is, and He begins by showing how superior He is to angels.

He’s so much greater than the angels that they join in worshipping Him. So verse six we’re told, “when He brings the firstborn into the world, He says, “LET ALL THE ANGELS OF GOD WORSHIP HIM.” There is none greater than God; God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Three Persons comprising the one Eternal God and this One born at Bethlehem is Himself fully Deity. You note in verse three at the end of that verse it said “when He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of God the Majesty on high.” He’s been exalted to the position He had with the Father before He came to this earth.

“He made purification of sins.” He provided salvation so great that it could cleanse us from our sin. That’s why He came into the human race. Stop and think about it. There was no other reason for the Son of God to be born into the human race. He came to make purification of sins. Stop and think, the birth of Christ is about our hopeless sinful condition. Where do we go? What could we do? How can we become acceptable before God? The answer from God is there is nothing you can do. I will have to do it. So He has His Son, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son in order that whosoever believes in Him might not perish but have everlasting life.” You’ll note in that most familiar bible verse that there are only two options, perishing or having eternal life. The only way to go from perishing to eternal life is by believing in His Son.

When you come into chapter two, He has a question in verse three. “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” If the eternal Son of God through whom all creation was brought into existence has stepped from the throne of glory to be born into the human race to suffer and die on a cross to pay the penalty for our sin, how could we hope to escape the judgment of God if we neglect that salvation? Or as He put it in verse one. “For this reason, we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.” The picture was in those days the sailing ships. They come to the safety of a harbor but if they’re not paying attention and they drift by it then they’re out to sea and the picture is Christ is the only hope of salvation.

If you neglect Him, well you don’t go to church or you’re not religious or you haven’t done a lot of things but if you don’t enter the safety of the harbor that God has provided, the salvation that is found only in Christ you’ve drifted to destruction. That’s the picture so the question is asked, how in the world would we hope to escape the judgment that God has promised when He went to such length to have His Son be born into the human race, suffer and die so He could offer us the free gift of salvation. Yet sadly, to this day two thousand years later, we have people still thinking they are going to get saved by being baptized, by being a good person, by trying to keep the Ten Commandments by various religious activities, whatever. Some just deny that I don’t think God would ever send people to hell. We must take God seriously.

That’s what Christmas tells us, the birth of Christ, this is serious. So serious that our only hope of being rescued from our sin and the consequences of our sin is that God’s Son will come and be born into the human race to take our place, to pay our penalty and then God can say I have a free gift it’s available to any and all. What do you have to do? You have to let go of whatever else you’re trusting, whatever else you’re holding onto and place your faith in Jesus Christ and Him alone for your salvation. What about my church membership? What about my baptism? I’ve been baptized at Indian Hills, that ought to be worth something. It’s not worth spit. Don’t be disappointed, don’t be deluded, it can’t do anything to get you to heaven. What about the other good things; none of us can be saved by our works of righteousness. In fact, Isaiah the prophet, hundreds of years before Christ, put it this way. “All our righteous deeds are like filthy polluted rags” in the sight of God.

If we think we could get to heaven any other way but through faith in Christ, and I say this with reverence, we are saying God made a terrible mistake. There was no need for Christ to be born at Bethlehem. There was no need for Him to suffer and die on the cross. There’s another way. They said, “well I think it was important He do that because it’s probably a combination of what He did and my good works.” No, in fact God says if that’s true, everything is wasted. It’s very narrow. We live in a day when we want to talk about being inclusive and there may be areas where inclusiveness is fine but God is not an inclusive Person in that sense. His inclusiveness is “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son in order that whosoever;” now that’s inclusive but then it becomes very exclusive; “whosoever believes in Him might not perish.” Then that famous chapter John 3 concludes by saying, “He that has the Son has life. The one who does not obey the Son does not have life but the wrath of God still abides on him.”

So come down further into Hebrews chapter two. I want to look at three points beginning in verse 14. You’ll note how verse 14 begins. He is pulling together what He has been saying. “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood.” These are people that God is going to redeem, those that He provides redemption for; those must be rescued. The children share in flesh and blood they’re human beings. We still use that same expression, flesh and blood. What’s He saying? He’s a human, I mean He’s just human, just flesh and blood. The children share in flesh and blood. “He Himself likewise partook of the same.” That’s His birth at Bethlehem. He was born there as a real true human being, flesh and blood.
He had to do it. Why? Because He had to provide redemption so we could become the children of God. It necessitated His death. Jesus told Nicodemus a very religious man who even taught the Old Testament Scriptures, “you must be born again.” In fact, if you are not born, again, you will never be part of the kingdom that I will establish on this earth. There are only two destinies; ultimately the kingdom that Christ will establish on this earth or the eternal hell, the eternal destiny of those who do not trust in Christ.

We’re studying the book of Revelation on Sunday morning as a regular part of our study at Indian Hills. That’s where the book of Revelation is going, culminating in chapters 19, 20, 21 and 22. When you get to the end of chapter 20, many people are cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death, and then in chapters 21 and 22 the redeemed are part of a glorious kingdom. He had to die.

He is going to accomplish three things in the incarnation, three purposes will be realized. You will note that word, ‘that’ expressing purpose in order “that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death that is the devil.” The second carrying on with that purpose that “He might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.” Then verse 17 He picks up to repeat that statement from verse 14. “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.” So three things, that He might render powerless the devil who had the power of death, that He might deliver those who were subject to slavery through the fear of death and thirdly that He might become a merciful high priest. We see that the work of the high priest is to turn the wrath of God away from us acting on our behalf.

Verse 14 “He partook of flesh and blood that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death that is the devil.” People don’t take the devil seriously in our day and more jokes made about him more often than serious consideration but he is a real true spirit being. He was created as a glorious angel but at a point in time in the past, he rebelled against God with a whole host of angels who joined him. We call them demons. He leads “the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” the book of Ephesians chapter six tell us. In fact, every person born into the human race is born under the authority power and control of this spirit being the devil. The bible puts it this way, “the whole world all the people in the world “lies in the power of the evil one,” the devil.

We are born in sin. We are born corrupted by sin. We are rebellious people from birth and as soon as we are able to express ourselves, we express that rebellious nature. We are selfish self-centered people. The bible puts it this way. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no not even one.” Sin is expressed in a variety of ways but we live our lives in a state of rebellion against God. We pick out certain sins that we categorize as especially serious and if we don’t do those we think we’re doing pretty well but God says in His sight “there is none righteous not even one” person. Every single person is sinful and guilty before Him and He says “the wages of sin is death.” As sinners, we live our lives under the authority and control of the devil.

Turn toward the back of your bible to 1 John, chapter three and in the context of John he’s talking about God provided His righteousness for us in Christ so that when I place my faith in Christ, when you place your faith in Christ, a transaction occurs. All my sins are declared forgiven! The slate is wiped clean and credited to my account is the righteousness of God Himself. That’s why we can be called children of God, those who have been born again. We now partake of the divine nature, not meaning we are God but we are partakers of His righteous character so our lives change. He noted in 1 John 3:7 “Little children make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous just as He is righteous.” Because verse five said what? “You know that He appeared in order to take away sins.” That doesn’t mean now that we’ve been born again if we live necessarily a sinful life but we live a life that has been changed and lives continually under the provision of the death of Christ that assures our eternal destiny. He goes on in verse eight. “The one who practices sin is of the devil for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.”

What started in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve and the devil who had rebelled against God, then lures them to follow him in his rebellion, has resulted in the slavery of everyone from Adam and Eve down to our present day. Enslaved to sin, enslaved to the devil. Christ came to set us free from the power of the devil and our own sinful desires to follow the devil. In John 8, Jesus said to the religious leaders of His day, “you are of your father the devil” and you always do his will. We can’t say the devil made me do it because he’s just working with my sinful desires and I’m doing what I want to do and even when I want to do good I don’t do it out of a heart of a desire to please God. If I did, I’d bow, prostrate myself before Him and say, “Oh God I’m a miserable undeserving sinner. I need grace I need mercy I need the salvation that only You could provide and You’ve done it in your Son Jesus Christ who was born at Bethlehem to break the power of the devil.”
In John chapter 12 verse 31, He says, in anticipating His crucifixion. Now is judgment on the devil. Paraphrase it if I can. He came to bring judgment to break his power so I no longer belong to the devil. Now I am a child of God.

Come back to Hebrews chapter two. The second reason that is given is He became flesh and blood that through death, He had to die; He might render powerless him, the devil. Remember “the wages of sin is death.” This is what eludes people. They think they can be saved by doing things. “The penalty for sin is death,” physical death, spiritual death and eternal death all three facets of death. Death in the bible is separation. The bible says “the body without the spirit is dead.” What happens at physical death is your spirit will leave your body. Spiritual death is separation of a person from God. We are “dead” the bible says “in our trespasses and sins.” We have no relationship with God. Sometimes we’re deluded into thinking we do, but apart from Christ it’s not possible. Then there is eternal death, which is separation from God for eternity. None of us will cease to exist. It’s a matter of the condition in which we will exist for time and eternity. “Through death, He might render powerless him who had the power of death that is the devil.” His power, His hold over us, was because of our sin and the consequence of sin but when He set us free and cleansed us He set us free from the control of the devil and freed “those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”

We have a sense, an awareness, we are beings created in the image of God. The relationship with God has been severed but we are by nature religious beings. That relationship we were created to enjoy that brings true fulfillment to life has been broken by sin and the result of that is the consequences of sin, which is death, but Christ came to set us free. Why do people die? The work is not yet done that God promises to do. The provision of it has been accomplished but the last enemy that will be destroyed is physical death. Immediately upon placing your faith in Christ, you are brought into a spiritual relationship with God. That’s spiritual life. You move from spiritual death to spiritual life. You are promised life for eternity but physical death still comes but God promises that at a future time, these physical bodies will be glorified and we’ll live for eternity.

Now for those who don’t place their faith in Christ they also will receive bodies that are eternal and able to suffer the awfulness of hell for eternity. What’s the hope? We are enslaved by the reality of death, it will come. You can’t escape it, physical death looms. My brother-in-law passed away within the last month. Now he had placed his faith in Christ. He could say I know where I’m going. There was no fear of death for him. He anticipated what God had promised him. I said, “you will soon be in glory.” His strength had faded he could barely say, “How long?” How long? That’s what we have. The fear of death is gone. I’m not looking forward to the process of dying but I know what is beyond death. He died to deliver us.

Come to 2 Timothy chapter one, verse 9. We will break into a sentence. “God, has saved us” and it’s by His power “and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus (now note this) who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” How amazing what Christ accomplished when He entered the human race with the purpose of dying and by His dying he abolished death and brought life and immortality to light so we could fulfill the purpose for which God created us to have an eternal relationship with Him. Think about that. How sad it is that many people drift past the safe harbor of Christ. Some people will sit in a service like this and hear the gospel, the good news of Christ. Somehow they’re not paying attention and they drift by the safe harbor, and then what hope is there? How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?

The third point back in Hebrews 2:17. “Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things.” He had a normal physical life, the difficulties, trials, and opposition He experienced culminating with the suffering of His death. 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,” now note this last statement, “to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” That word, propitiation some of you have been studying Greek recently, hilaskoma. It’s a word not used often in our bible. I think four times. Don’t hold me to that but it means to turn away the wrath of God by satisfying the demands of righteousness. You understand, we live under the wrath of God as fallen sinful beings. What Christ did and the high priest’s responsibility was to be the go between God and men. “There is one God and one mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus.” There is not an order of priests between us and God there is only one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. How fitting it is that the One who stands to mediate, to be the High Priest between God and man, is Himself God and a human being. The God-man is the mediator.

He came to be a merciful and faithful high priest. What’s the key thing the high priest would have to do? Offer the sacrifice that could turn away God’s wrath from us. Who could do that? The One who is our High Priest is Himself the sacrifice. He sacrificed Himself, paying the penalty for our sin, so we place our faith in Him. He is the One who brings us into relationship with God. ,It is called reconciliation. By the work of propitiation He has accomplished reconciliation, brought us into right relationship with God. How amazing it is that the holy God who is Holy, Holy, Holy? Sin cannot be accepted in His presence. He accepts me as His child. He accepts you as a believer as His child. It says that someday Christ Himself will present us before the throne of His Father as holy and blameless and without spot, because the sacrifice of Christ was so great, so sufficient He could provide cleansing for every single person who will ever turn and place their faith in Him alone.

Come to one passage and we will conclude, the book of Ephesians. This is another “summary” kind of passage and it will state a little differently, what we’ve just looked at. Ephesians 2:1. “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins.” Note that that’s spiritually dead. They are physically alive but they were “dead in their trespasses and sins” . . . that’s true of all of us, “in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air” . . . that’s the devil, “of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of the flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind” . . . note we “were by nature children of wrath” because we’re sinners in rebellion against God. Our very nature made us the objects of God’s wrath. We need the High Priest who came and made a sacrifice that could turn the wrath of God away from us. “We were by nature children of wrath even as the rest.” There’s no exceptions here, “but God being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us even when we were dead in our transgressions made us alive together with Christ, (by grace you have been saved) and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” You note all of this comes to us only in Christ Jesus. “For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God not as a result of works so that no one may boast.”

Is there no greater tragedy that there are people who could say, “Yes I believe in Christ” but think they’re going to be saved by their works by what they do. The message of Christmas, the birth of Christ is worth celebrating and we will celebrate through eternity that the One who is our Savior was born into the human race, would be the One who sacrificed Himself to pay the penalty for our sin. We’ll be trophies of His grace. When we get to the throne room scene in Revelation chapters four and five, we’ll find celebration in heaven over the work of salvation that Christ has accomplished. All this comes as we conclude.

Have you trusted Christ? Oh yes, I believe in Him. No, have you come to understand the seriousness, wretchedness, hopelessness of your sin and guilt before God? You may look like a good person and may be in the eyes of the world but that doesn’t count. We must see ourselves as God says we are. Have you ever seen yourself in that hopeless condition and said God be merciful to me a sinner? God I believe what you’ve promised. I’m not worthy, I’m not deserving and I don’t understand it all, but I know I need the salvation that only Jesus Christ by His coming to this earth by His dying on the cross, His victory in resurrection could provide for me. Have you ever trusted Him that way? Settle it now. Wouldn’t it be terrible if you sit in a service like this and drift past? Oh well, I’ll give it some thought. God doesn’t promise you another opportunity. He may in grace give you another opportunity but don’t drift past the opportunity of today. That’s why we celebrate. There is a Savior. His salvation was great enough to save me, its great enough to save you.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for the riches of the truth of what You’ve done for us in Christ. Thank You that He is a Savior alive today and You are to this very moment bestowing the free gift of salvation on each and every person who places their faith in Your Son, the Savior of the world. We pray in His name. Amen.

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