Hebrews 1-4: Christmas Chapters?

This time of year, I can’t help think that the average person thinks it quite strange when the message of Christmas is shared.  God was born a man? In a dirty manger? Why? What does that have to do with “saving the world”?  Saving the world from what?  What kind of other strange things do Christians believe?  “I just can’t believe in something so strange.”  Yes, the story is nice and it reads well, but why did God choose to do it this way?

I’d like to suggest that there is no other way.  God could not just forgive people who have sinned without compromising one of His attributes and contradict His own morality.  Hebrews chapters 1 through 4 talk about this very concept.  I encourage you to read those chapters and think about the following:

•  Who is Jesus?   Heb 1:3 - “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.”  By being born, Jesus put on display all the attributes of God by living out the very character and nature of God.  This is something no other being could do, including angels and Moses.
• Why did Jesus have to become a man?  Heb 2:9 - “But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.“  Jesus became a man to suffer death for everyone.  Heb 2:10-11 tells us that the most suitable way to save the world was to make the source of that salvation perfect through suffering.  Heb 2:14-18 tells us that since the children (the world) were made of flesh and blood, God Himself took on flesh and blood to suffer death for them in order the destroy the power of the Devil and deliver those who are enslaved by sin.
• How does the death of Jesus perfect Him?  Also found in Heb 2:14-18, Jesus was made a man in every respect so that He could become a merciful and faithful High Priest and to make propitiation for our sin.  Propitiation means to appease and is always used of God towards man.  The death of Jesus appeases God in providing an acceptable sacrifice for sin.  Since Jesus was fully God and fully man, He was able to be the only acceptable means of granting mercy for our sins.  This perfected (completed) Jesus in that the justice and righteousness of God were on display at the death of Jesus.  Justice and righteousness were evidenced but were on hold ever since the fall of Adam and Eve.
• How does the death of Jesus display justice and righteousness?  Justice is the act of doing right and righteousness is the character of doing right.  The death of Jesus enabled God to carry out the sentence of death for sin (justice) without compromising His righteousness.  If God was to just forgive the sinner, without justice, He would not remain righteous.  Since Jesus was without sin, He was not guilty of sin making Him able to suffer “death for everyone”.  Justice was satisfied by punishing sin and God’s attibrute of righteousness was on display by being able to apply mercy to those who deserved justice.

I’ll leave you with the final verse of these chapters.  Heb 4:14-16 - “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.“.

This Christmas, will you consider these things so that you may recieve mercy and find grace?  Merry Christmas.