The LORD is near (3), Read Hebrews 5:1-11

We are continuing to think about the nearness of God through the Incarnation of our Lord.  And we are thinking of this nearness in how deeply He experienced what we experience.

·        Heb. 4:15: In what points was Jesus tempted like us?  Briefly, the answer is in 1 John 2:16:  the lust of the flesh (hedonism, the life-aim to feel good), the lust of the eyes (materialism, the life-aim to have whatever we see), and the pride of life (humanism or selfishness, the life-aim to be great without God).

o   In Gen. 3, Satan tempted in each of these.  Eve saw that the fruit was good for food (hedonism), pleasant to the eyes (materialism) and desirable to make her wise (humanism).  If we examine our temptations we see that the pain we experience is bound up in these inner motives. 

o   In the Gospels (e.g. in Matt. 4:1-11), Jesus was tempted with each of these.  To turn the stones to bread would have used His deity to diminish His true humanity (the lust of the flesh.)  Challenging jump from the temple appealed to pride.  Jesus stayed with the Father’s plan.  To worship Satan in order to get the nations He was shown (lust of the eyes) would be false worship; the Father had promised this to Jesus and Jesus trusted Him. 

·        Heb. 5:2: This passage does not say that Jesus was ignorant and going astray as we are.  Nor does it say He was weak.  Rather it says He was subject to weakness.  He was so truly Man, so near to us, that He experienced being tired, hungry and overwhelmed in His spirit, something that is never the experience of God Almighty.

·        Heb. 5:7: We need no more than the Garden of Gethsemane to remind us of the truth of Jesus’ nearness to us.  He was so overwhelmed that He sweat drops of blood.  He pled with His Father to remove the pain and no one stood with Him in this as those closest to Him slept through it all.  And note: He was heard because of His godly fear.  God answered Him, not by giving Him what He asked for but by sustaining Him through the suffering.  We can expect the same and must give the same as this One who is near to us.

·        Heb. 5:8: This is critical for us.  Jesus was so near to us that He learned obedience as we learn obedience.  Be careful: this does not say that He was disobedient.  He was not, ever disobedient.  He is the Holy One of Israel.  But as we have already noted, in His perfection He was tested fully, and it is the test that teaches us obedience.  Adam was innocent until he was tested.  He failed the test and thus learned disobedience and what it was like to live in sin.  The Second Adam was tested.  You cannot say that He is innocent, that He doesn’t know our difficulty.  Obedience and disobedience are the realms of those who have been tested.  Thankfully, while father Adam led us into sin, the God who is near to us in Christ has provided righteousness.