For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. Hebrews 12: 3, NIV.
Dear LORD, we look to You today, for wisdom. We realize that Your wisdom is essential for us to be able to apply the lessons learned from Your Word, in a way that will bring glory to You. We ask for the strength to do this, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today we are going to continue with the thought that, Jesus led by example. He teaches us how to live life a certain way, by living it that certain way Himself. Perhaps one of the greatest lessons He has taught us, is how to humble ourselves; yet it seems to be the hardest lesson to learn and put into practice. You will notice that today we are looking at verse 3, of Hebrews 12. We have kept this text for the last, to show how Jesus was the example, not only for the Jewish Christians that would accept Him as their Savior after He ascended to take His place at the “right hand of God;” but also of their forefathers, and all the heroes and heroines that are mentioned in chapter 11, of the letter to the Hebrews (see part 6 of this series). Because He was the promised One who would come and bear our sins and provide us with salvation, He had already set the example, that others could follow, by faith. Therefore, He is both the Author, and the Perfecter of our faith!
The apostle seems to be saying to the Jewish Christians: “Lest you believe that what you are called to endure is unbearable, consider Christ’s lot. He who created humankind in the beginning, had to endure humiliation at the hand of His own creatures. He who was coming to take the place of sinners, was rejected by the very creatures He was coming to save. His act of substitution was so complete, that the Scriptures refer to it in the following terms: ” ‘For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him’ ” (2 Corinthians 5: 21)! Yet He was bruised, and beaten, and mocked, and spit upon, and finally crucified, by the very ones that He had come to save. Give some thought to this!”
Oftentimes, our lot does not seem quite as hard, when we consider the lot of others. Someone has penned the thought: “I complained that I had no shoes, until I saw a man who had no feet.” Of course there can never be any comparison between what we will ever have to suffer, and what Christ suffered on our behalf. Perhaps the objective of the apostle was to take the thought of these Christians away from their own sufferings. It is amazing how blessed we can suddenly begin to feel when we think about how much Jesus loves us, and just how much He willfully endured, in order to secure our salvation! He did not have to do it! He could have asked the “Father for more than twelve legions of angels” to help Him (Matthew 26: 53) – but instead, He chose to suffer in our place.
One situation is to not be able to defend oneself. Therefore, you suffer whatever is done to you, involuntarily. You do not have a choice. The other situation, which was that of Christ, is to have “all power, in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28: 18) at your command, and consent to voluntary, and unjust suffering! He did not have to stay on the cross. He could have decided, as perhaps many, if not all of us would have, while the crowd was jeering (Mark 15: 29-32), to come down from the cross and save Himself. But He willfully decided not to save Himself, in order that He might save us!
Whenever the road seems long and hard, and some of the things that we may have to go through seem unfair; let us consider, for a while, what Jesus suffered on our behalf, and the conditions under which He suffered. By God’s grace, I am sure that we will be encouraged, and will receive the strength we need to help us, on our journey to eternal life!