For it was fitting
for Him,
for whom are all things,
and by whom are all things,
in bringing many
sons to to glory,
to make the captain
of their salvation
perfect through
sufferings.
Hebrews 2:10
Jesus as the captain being the authority of God, the Word of God, leader of all those given to Him by His Father, presents His incarnate, and resurrected body perfect to the Father. This perfection of His body having suffered for the elect sanctifies the elect and He calls them brothers: "For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren" (Hebrews 2:11). The necessity for Jesus to come to this earth and take on a human body was that the knowledge of God was hidden due to man's idolatry and irreligion. The rebirth necessary so that man could become sanctified in the Father's eyes can only be apprehended by man if the sanctifier was in the image of God. Jesus was not only the image of God, He was God, and being God and the very image of God only He as captain could implant that image, the new birth of the soul, in man. It is only the Word of God that could teach man about the Father. No man can do what the Word of God can do for their words do not carry enough weight or authority for they themselves are confused and blinded by evil; therefore how could they convert the souls and minds of others?
There are those who would cavil and object vehemently pointing to the creation as being enough to teach men about the Father. This objection carries no weight as the objects of creation may lead a person to the idea that there is a creator, a God, but can only in a limited way teach man about the Person of God. Furthermore, creation has no saving power and if this was true that creation could teach men about the Father then why is there evil in the world? Creation has been present all along and there is no evidence that creation has prevented men from wallowing in error. It must be admitted that it was the Word of God, He who sees all that is in man and moves all things in creation. Who else, who alone, could meet the needs of the situation? It was His part and His alone, the One who ordered the universe in the first place and Who could meet these needs, the need of the situation; it was He Who in ordering the universe reveals the Father and it is to Him to renew man by His teaching. Those then, who point to the creation as the way to find God are wrong in their thinking because the creation that has been available to man has proven to be insufficient to teach man about God. Men have neglected to consider the heavens before so that they might find the true God, and even now are looking in the opposite direction. In fact, man is looking to the natural world to find the happiness and the "good life" rather than turn to God. The evidence for this fact can easily be found by just looking at the home page on your computer. It will be found that every day almost all the news items are about sexual things; i.e., so and so is wearing a slinky, and see through blouse, this one or that one is showing off her/his body, etc. Even within the Churches there can be found exercises of faith that are nothing more that an attempt to satiate themselves with sensual and emotional outbursts. We have emotions and the senses we have are part of our being and to worship God we are emotional, but our worship is in accordance to His nature causing are emotions, our senses are touched, we may cry, and should over the fact that we are sanctified even though we have nothing to offer God so that He will save us. It is the object of our senses, our emotions that we must never forget, is God, not us, not just our feelings, it is His Son's incarnation for us that causes us to move and feel love towards Him.
A problem with men is that they have turned from the contemplation of God and have turned to the created things of sense. It is this turning to senses that we see abused in some Churches, especially those Pentecostal and charismatic Churches where men and women satisfy their senses as though this was the proper way to worship God. Senses are important, but often men show allegiance to that which satisfy their inward desires by their outward overdone expressions, expressions not to be found in the Scriptures. I am not advocating a stoic approach to worship. The question for us is why are we being so emotional. Why are we being so satisfied with our outward expressions? Is our worship to God simply causing us to be remorseful over our sins? Are we humbled that God would even consider us to be called His child, to be one of the brethren of the Son of God? The very fact that the incarnation occurred and the reason for why it occurred should drive us to our knees in humble adoration to the Father, to God, to the Holy Spirit that now resides in the children of God. It is this perfection of the Incarnate Word of God that we give our allegiance to and to whom we give our worship. It to Him we give our obedience: And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him" (Hebrews 5:9). Jesus Christ is our High Priest, sitting at the right hand of the Father making intercession for all those the Father has given to Him; therefore He is worthy of our worship, a worship worthy of God, the Savior, our Savior: "Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher that the heavens" (Hebrews 7:25-26).
To those who are called,
sanctified by God the Father,
and preserved in Jesus Christ:
Mercy, peace, and love be
multiplied to you.
Jude 1b,2
Let Your Supplication Come Before Him
Richard L. Crumb
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