In our last study, I said that God would have us understand that His Life, this Eternal Life He gives is all about Worship. All that He did in time and eternity is to cause praise to the Glory of His Grace! “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the Good Pleasure of His Will, TO THE PRAISE OF THE GLORY OF HIS GRACE, wherein He has made us accepted IN the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:5-6)
I believe that the Book of Hebrews gives us the Divine Revelation of the outworking of that Will and Purpose of the Father in displaying all that He has done through and IN his Beloved Son!!! Never forget how “dead in trespasses and sins” we all are! (Ephesians 2:1; Colossians 2:13) Hebrews is the Divine Presentation of the MAN that Job pleaded for in Job 9:32-33 in his perplexity and confusion, “For He (God) is not a man, as I am, that I may answer Him, and that we should go to court together. Nor is there any mediator between us, who may lay his hand on us both.(NKJV) In reality, Job was pleading for a mediator who was God’s equal and man’s equal!!! None would dare lay hand upon God but God’s equal, and that of course would be God Himself. And how on earth could that same “person” then lay His Hand upon man? Such a touch would have the same effect as touching Mount Sinai!! (Exodus 19:12-13)
Isaiah portrays God’s “search” for Job’s “man”, one who could hold court with God, one to whom God would/could “listen”, and one who truly understood Job’s suffering and perplexity, and yet was fully “understanding” of God’s Righteousness. In the midst of Isaiah’s inspired words of judgement of Israel’s turning the OT worship into nothing more than idolatry, we find verses like 41:28, “For I looked, and there was no man; I looked among them, but there was no counselor, who, when I asked of them could answer a word.” And then as in 59:15-17 “Yea, truth faileth’ and he that departed from evil, maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it and it displeased Him that there was no judgement. And He Saw that there was no man, that there was no intercessor:” (Job’s dilemma) And here is God’s solution!!! “Therefore His Arm brought salvation unto him; and His Righteousness, it sustained Him. For He put on Righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon His Head; and He put the garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal as a cloak.” Interesting that God’s answer expresses Righteous salvation and vengeance at the same time. I believe that this is in keeping with his revelation of his Name to Moses in Exodus 34:5-7, of which the old Puritan Thomas Goodwin says is the 7 fold “attributive” Name of God, five parts Mercy and two parts Justice and Judgement. Again in Isaiah 63:5, “And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore Mine Own Arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me. Bear in mind that God never “winks” at sin, He never lowers His View of man’s sin and unrighteousness. His fury is unabated! It can only be satisfied by Righteous Judgement in the payment of the penalty for that sin, and that penalty is death!!!
In Psalms 80:17, David prophetically present’s God’s solution: “Let Thy hand be upon the Man of Thy Right Hand, upon the Son of Man whom Thou Madest strong for Thyself.” David makes a crucial point: God did this, His “Arm brought salvation”, and “His Righteousness sustained HIM”! In Ephesians 1:5 & 9, we are told that all that God Willed and Purposed was according to the Good Pleasure of His Will! God does what He Does in and through His Right Hand Man, for Himself, for the fulfilling of His Good Pleasure, first of all!!! This is why the Father clearly states on the Mount of Transfiguration, “this is My Beloved Son in Whom I AM Well Pleased.” (Matthew 17:5) We do greatly error and henceforth distort, the Gospel with the me’ism that defines all too much of today’s “evangelism”! God is the “offended party”, We are worthy of complete condemnation. We have insulted the Perfect Righteousness of the Most High God. And yet, through and unto the “praise of the Glory of His Grace, He has provided The Man Who is Divinely Prepared and completely adequate to satisfy God’s offended Justice, and restore humanity to the place of fellowship and communion with the Most High God, the only Means of Eternal Life and the Blessings God Wills to pour out on His Beloved Creation. (See 1John 1:1-4)
Therefore, in Hebrews 1:1-3 we read, “God, Who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days SPOKEN TO US BY HIS SON, (remember the mount of transfiguration? “This is my Beloved Son, IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED {and I might add, the Only One in Whom He is well pleased} HEAR YE HIM”. (Matthew 17:5) In fulfillment of Job’s plea, the inspired writer of Hebrews declares to us the preparation and perfection of God’s Right Hand Man, the Man of God’s own Choosing/Making. Take note of the fact that there is no division between the Son Who is the Heir of all things, the One by Whom God created the worlds, the One Who is the Brightness of God’s Glory, the express image of His Person, the One Who upholds all things by the Word of His Power, and the One Who, “when He had BY HIMSELF purged our sins, sat down at the Right Hand of the Majesty on High.” It is as though, dare I say it, in the Mind of God, there is no division between Jesus as God the Creator and Jesus as Man the Redeemer! I believe that expresses how wedded together our Saviors’ Deity and Humanity are in the Mind and Will of the Most High God!!! Here then, is how and Offended Righteous God can bring peace and fellowship to vile enemies who deserve only an eternity of separation from Him–the ultimate hell, and yet His perfect Righteousness and Justice can be Eternally satisfied. We cannot receive and enjoy the Eternal benefits, our Eternal Inheritance, apart from at least a cursory understanding of this Glorious God/Man that is the Fathers’ Pleasure, the complete embodiment of “all the fulness of the Godhead”.(Colossians 2:9) As Colossians goes on to tell us, our “completeness” is only IN HIM. From here on out, we will “consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to Him Who Appointed Him.” (Hebrews 3:1b-2a) It is only by His faithfulness and perfection in doing the Father’s Will that I can now live this life in the flesh. (Galatians 2:20) “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live: YET NOT I, BUT CHRIST LIVETH IN ME: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
I believe that the Book of Hebrews gives us the Divine Revelation of the outworking of that Will and Purpose of the Father in displaying all that He has done through and IN his Beloved Son!!! Never forget how “dead in trespasses and sins” we all are! (Ephesians 2:1; Colossians 2:13) Hebrews is the Divine Presentation of the MAN that Job pleaded for in Job 9:32-33 in his perplexity and confusion, “For He (God) is not a man, as I am, that I may answer Him, and that we should go to court together. Nor is there any mediator between us, who may lay his hand on us both.(NKJV) In reality, Job was pleading for a mediator who was God’s equal and man’s equal!!! None would dare lay hand upon God but God’s equal, and that of course would be God Himself. And how on earth could that same “person” then lay His Hand upon man? Such a touch would have the same effect as touching Mount Sinai!! (Exodus 19:12-13)
Isaiah portrays God’s “search” for Job’s “man”, one who could hold court with God, one to whom God would/could “listen”, and one who truly understood Job’s suffering and perplexity, and yet was fully “understanding” of God’s Righteousness. In the midst of Isaiah’s inspired words of judgement of Israel’s turning the OT worship into nothing more than idolatry, we find verses like 41:28, “For I looked, and there was no man; I looked among them, but there was no counselor, who, when I asked of them could answer a word.” And then as in 59:15-17 “Yea, truth faileth’ and he that departed from evil, maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it and it displeased Him that there was no judgement. And He Saw that there was no man, that there was no intercessor:” (Job’s dilemma) And here is God’s solution!!! “Therefore His Arm brought salvation unto him; and His Righteousness, it sustained Him. For He put on Righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon His Head; and He put the garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal as a cloak.” Interesting that God’s answer expresses Righteous salvation and vengeance at the same time. I believe that this is in keeping with his revelation of his Name to Moses in Exodus 34:5-7, of which the old Puritan Thomas Goodwin says is the 7 fold “attributive” Name of God, five parts Mercy and two parts Justice and Judgement. Again in Isaiah 63:5, “And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore Mine Own Arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me. Bear in mind that God never “winks” at sin, He never lowers His View of man’s sin and unrighteousness. His fury is unabated! It can only be satisfied by Righteous Judgement in the payment of the penalty for that sin, and that penalty is death!!!
In Psalms 80:17, David prophetically present’s God’s solution: “Let Thy hand be upon the Man of Thy Right Hand, upon the Son of Man whom Thou Madest strong for Thyself.” David makes a crucial point: God did this, His “Arm brought salvation”, and “His Righteousness sustained HIM”! In Ephesians 1:5 & 9, we are told that all that God Willed and Purposed was according to the Good Pleasure of His Will! God does what He Does in and through His Right Hand Man, for Himself, for the fulfilling of His Good Pleasure, first of all!!! This is why the Father clearly states on the Mount of Transfiguration, “this is My Beloved Son in Whom I AM Well Pleased.” (Matthew 17:5) We do greatly error and henceforth distort, the Gospel with the me’ism that defines all too much of today’s “evangelism”! God is the “offended party”, We are worthy of complete condemnation. We have insulted the Perfect Righteousness of the Most High God. And yet, through and unto the “praise of the Glory of His Grace, He has provided The Man Who is Divinely Prepared and completely adequate to satisfy God’s offended Justice, and restore humanity to the place of fellowship and communion with the Most High God, the only Means of Eternal Life and the Blessings God Wills to pour out on His Beloved Creation. (See 1John 1:1-4)
Therefore, in Hebrews 1:1-3 we read, “God, Who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days SPOKEN TO US BY HIS SON, (remember the mount of transfiguration? “This is my Beloved Son, IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED {and I might add, the Only One in Whom He is well pleased} HEAR YE HIM”. (Matthew 17:5) In fulfillment of Job’s plea, the inspired writer of Hebrews declares to us the preparation and perfection of God’s Right Hand Man, the Man of God’s own Choosing/Making. Take note of the fact that there is no division between the Son Who is the Heir of all things, the One by Whom God created the worlds, the One Who is the Brightness of God’s Glory, the express image of His Person, the One Who upholds all things by the Word of His Power, and the One Who, “when He had BY HIMSELF purged our sins, sat down at the Right Hand of the Majesty on High.” It is as though, dare I say it, in the Mind of God, there is no division between Jesus as God the Creator and Jesus as Man the Redeemer! I believe that expresses how wedded together our Saviors’ Deity and Humanity are in the Mind and Will of the Most High God!!! Here then, is how and Offended Righteous God can bring peace and fellowship to vile enemies who deserve only an eternity of separation from Him–the ultimate hell, and yet His perfect Righteousness and Justice can be Eternally satisfied. We cannot receive and enjoy the Eternal benefits, our Eternal Inheritance, apart from at least a cursory understanding of this Glorious God/Man that is the Fathers’ Pleasure, the complete embodiment of “all the fulness of the Godhead”.(Colossians 2:9) As Colossians goes on to tell us, our “completeness” is only IN HIM. From here on out, we will “consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to Him Who Appointed Him.” (Hebrews 3:1b-2a) It is only by His faithfulness and perfection in doing the Father’s Will that I can now live this life in the flesh. (Galatians 2:20) “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live: YET NOT I, BUT CHRIST LIVETH IN ME: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
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