JESUS' MEEKNESS AND GLORY

MONDAY 2 AUGUST 2021 The glorious gospel is the good news of God in Christ Jesus made possible and available to all of mankind through Jesus' incarnation, meekness, death, burial, resurrection and glory.

Reference: Hebrews 2:9-10 New Living Translation (NLT) "But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. God, for whom and through whom everything was made, chose to bring many children into glory. And it was only right that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation."

The author of the epistle to the Hebrews is showing us that Christ was fully human. And indeed, His humanity was not superior to our humanity in any way or form, since we are told in the above Scripture that He was made lower than the angels for a little while. This means, while on earth, Jesus was not an angel or in the class of angelic beings. He wasn't a disembodied spirit, rather He was a real human and fully man.

Personally, when I first read this Scripture, it seemed to me that the person of Christ was diminished, because this is exactly the case with all mankind, as compared to angels. Psalm 8:4 (NIV) reads, "What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? you have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor." So Jesus functioned in the fleshly body as fully human and lower than the angels as He went through the process of suffering to taste and conquer death for everyone.

By Christ Jesus experiencing mortal pain, suffering and death without sinning, He was crowned with glory and honour by God the Father. Having defeated death, He brought life and immortality to light through the glorious gospel, and thus bringing many children into glory. The fact that Christ suffered pain and conquered death on our behalf means that He's been made a perfect leader through that same suffering on the cross and victory over death. Now through Him, we can receive salvation, have peace and eternal destiny with God and live more than conquerors in this present world through His love action (Romans 8:37). So, by being perfected through suffering, He was made the pioneer of our salvation.

Maybe someone is still asking, "What does it mean for Christ to become a perfect leader, made fit to bring many into their salvation?" Here's is the summary: It means that Jesus, the Son of God, came in the likeness of man and shared in our humanity so that through His death He might break the power of the devil, who holds the power of death, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death (see Hebrews 2:14-15). So because of His sufferings and sacrifice, we are able to follow and become God's children through salvation, and now we stand in grace before God, well garmented in Christ's own perfect righteousness. Shalom!

Scripture Reading - Matthew 11:29; 2 Corinthians 10:1; Philippians 2:6-8; Hebrews 12:2.

Guided Prayer: Dear Father in heaven, thank you for the gift of your Son Jesus Christ, who lived the human life perfectly, conquered sin and death, and therefore serves as my great and perfect High priest. I am not my own; I belong to my faithful Lord, Jesus Christ. By the efficacy of His meekness, sufferings and victory, my faith is daily perfected from glory to glory in Jesus' Name, Amen!