Dignity of truth. The truth can not be burned, beheaded or crucified. A lie on the throne is a lie still, and truth in a dungeon is still truth; and the lie on the throne is on the way to defeat, and the truth in the dungeon is on the way to victory

 

What do we put our hope in?

 

The government, the preacher, our parents, our job?

When the issue is peace in this life, or eternity when we are dead, what is our hope in? Is it based on absolute truth?

 

The only lasting hope we have for here and now, and eternity, is Jesus, the absolute truth.

 

In what kinds of ways is the modern church, and believers, suffering as a result of inattention to the doctrine of the incarnation?

Has it ever crossed our minds that there has arisen a Redeemer for fallen human beings and not for fallen angels? That’s exactly what Hebrews 2 says, It wasn’t the nature of angels he took on but the nature of human beings, and “tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin.”

Heb 2:14 Now since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these, so that through his death he might destroy the one holding the power of death—that is, the devil. 15 and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death. 16 For it is clear that he does not reach out to help angels, but to help Abraham’s offspring 17 Therefore, he had to be like his brothers and sisters in every way, so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in matters pertaining to God, to make atonement, for the sins of the people. 18 For since he himself has suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.

 

It is very easy and common to overlook the theological significance of Jesus’ humanity. That is one of the important themes of Hebrews 2.

 

Both the one who makes human beings holy, Jesus himself, and the human beings who are made holy are of the same family. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers (2:11). Since we have flesh and blood, he shared in our humanity (2:14) which of course implies that this was something not intrinsically his, but something he had to take on (the eternal Word “became flesh,” John 1:14).

He did this so that by his death (something he could never have experienced if he had not put on flesh and blood) “he might destroy him who holds the power of death … and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (2:14, 15).

Jesus did not take on the nature of angels (2:16 which shows that Jesus was not a merely angelic being). Rather, he became a human being, a human being with a genuine lineage, the

lineage of Abraham (2:16). If he was to serve as mediator between God and human beings, “he had to be made like his brothers in every way” (2:17 which presupposes that he already was like God in every way). So it was entirely “fitting,” then, that God should make the author of our salvation “perfect through suffering” (2:10).

The idea is not that Jesus gains through suffering a moral perfection he otherwise would have lacked, but that the perfection of his identification with us depended on participating in our common currency, which is suffering.

The author of Hebrews has already hinted at the problem that Jesus came to resolve. Originally human beings were made to be God’s vice-regents over the entire creation, a point not only made by the creation accounts (Gen. 1–2) but reiterated in the superb poetry of Psalm 8 (cited in Heb. 2:6–8). But as the author of Hebrews points out, we do not yet see everything under our feet, as Genesis 1 and Psalm 8 envisage. The Fall has intervened, and death takes its unvarying toll. But what do we see?

We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone (2:9).

The point is not exactly that Jesus is the “man” envisaged in Psalm 8, as if he were being prophetically described, but that by his mission, by his identification with us, and by his death, he becomes the first human being to be crowned with such glory and honor, as he brings many sons, a new humanity, to glory.

So on the one hand it is important to understand his humanity and work out all the Scripture says in that regard. It is important to remember Jesus Christ is still a human being. He will always be a human being.

That’s astonishing, Yet on the other side, it’s important to understand he is genuinely God and not only to combat the liberals but to see this is God in flesh. Here is the center of our worship. God’s whole purpose is all should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.

This is then tied to not only the fulfillment of prophecy, the streams of the Old Testament that make out the coming One not only as the son of David, but also as the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. The whole Davidic expectation is ratcheted up from Isaiah on. It’s really remarkable.

Now, to understand how all of God’s sovereignty is mediated through Christ. Christ is God’s agent until he turns over the entire conquest to his Father and all the kingdoms of this world become “the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever,” and so forth. The incarnation is the hub on which everything takes place.

In the case of the incarnation you have to be careful of when you say it’s important. The whole Eastern branch of the church, might focus on the incarnation too much, with respect to other things.

How can you do that to much?

There’s a sense in which you can have an emphasis on incarnation that does not see the purpose of the incarnation is toward the cross, resurrection, exaltation, and so forth. So somehow the incarnation itself becomes the great turning point, and it stands too much in isolation.

I don’t think you can ratchet up your understanding of the incarnation too much provided  you keep in view of the whole sweeping purposes of God’s redemptive plan leading to the cross, and so forth.

There are lots of texts in the New Testament that say wonderful things about the incarnation, but it is also important to remember Paul can write, “I determined when I was with you to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified,” not “… and him incarnated.” Now, of course, you have to have the incarnation to get the crucifixion but don’t stop there.

The God of the Bible transcends culture. That is to say, because he is the Creator, he existed before there was anything of what we call the universe, and all that we know of culture is a subset of that created order. He is above and beyond all culture precisely because he was there before the world began.

God is presented in Scripture as a talking God. Not talking simply in his own terminology but in the terminology of the recipient and, in fact, not only is much of this Book described as dictated by God, as in particular speeches or particular 10 words written as it were by his finger, or in concrete dictation given to Jeremiah, such that when the manuscript is destroyed by the opponents, God can clearly give the dictation again.

God has chosen to disclose himself in marvelously condescending ways, not only in the great acts of redemptive history and not only in the words of human beings but, supremely, in the person of his Son, and all three stand or fall together.

1 John, “And we have touched him and heard him and seen him.” The ultimate revelation is not more words! The ultimate revelation is the Word made flesh. So the New Testament documents see themselves, thus, as not merely a progression of more words but as those words which God has given to the first witnesses, the first generation, to bear witness to the Word incarnate.

An alien king with a strange understanding of his kingdom.

Joh 18:37  Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.

“Are you the King of the Jews?”

In the exchange that runs between here and verse 36, it’s important to understand that there are three different notions of kingship being played upon.

There was kingship in Jewish expectation. The Jews had a long history, of course. From about a thousand years earlier, there was over them a king and his successors,

They held to a promise that God would one day bring along another king from the Davidic line.

From his point of view, the only thing that worries Pilate  is if there’s some new pretender to the throne, someone who is going to challenge Caesar’s authority. That’s what he has to protect.

If there is some new king who is coming to the throne who is advocating revolution or throwing out the Romans, then from his point of view, that’s treason. the Jews, in order to get him on side, have cast Jesus as a political problem who is threatening Caesar. He comes back at Jesus and says, “Are you a king of the Jews?”

John 18:34 He replies, “Is this your own idea, or did others talk to you about me?” You see, he couldn’t answer just yes or no straightforwardly, because no matter what he said, he would have been misunderstood. If he said, “Yes, I’m the king,” well, from Pilate’s perspective, that meant he would be executed. He was a threat to Caesar.

On the other hand, if he said no when he did have these lineal connections with David and when, he does see himself as a king in some sense, he’d be lying through his teeth. He says, “Now wait a minute, Pilate. Think this one through. Are you asking me this out of your own political world, or has someone put you up to this?”

Pilate replies,  what is it you have done? Then Jesus says, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place,” which then clearly brings us to a third of kingship.

He says, “Well, I am a king. But my kingdom,” he says, “is not of this world. I’m not a political king as if I have authority from a certain legislative body or from the Roman senate perhaps or I’m a usurper. It’s not that at all. If that were the sort of king I am, then I would start a guerrilla campaign.”

Jesus understanding of this promised kingly Messiah from the line of David, well, he would actually break in God’s ruling power in order to capture people, transform them, turn them around, change people, individuals, even the culture itself, because people become his citizens. They bow to his authority. They are reconciled to God. That’s the kind of notion he has of king.

Jesus is saying in effect, “Look, if I were the kind of king you think I am, I’d have a bunch of guerrilla warriors back up in the Judean hills. That’s what I’d be doing.” He says, “But I’m not that kind of king. That’s not why I came. Now my kingdom is from another place.” This is so foreign and alien to all we think about kingship.

Verses 37 to 40. Pilate has understood very little about this. All he knows is Jesus has made some sort of claim to be a king, so he pushes farther. He says, “ ‘You are a king, then!’ Jesus answers, ‘You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this reason I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.’ ”

Pilate says, “What is truth?”

What is the truth about the hope that you place your eternity in?