Question: He humbled Himself: Why did He need to humble Himself? (Phil. 2:8). C. W.
Answer: Adam by robbery sought to be equal with God, but He who was equal with God, made Himself of no reputation (or emptied Himself), and took upon Him the form of a servant, saying, in the volume of the book of God’s counsels, “Lo, I come, to do Thy will, O God.” Then He was made in the likeness of men (a sinless, holy man). “And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death,” for death had no claim on Him, “even the death of the cross.” As God, He emptied Himself; as man, He humbled Himself. It was to glorify God, to defeat the enemy, and to deliver us. And it surely is an example to us to keep in the lowly place. The lower down we get, the more like Him we are. In Romans 12:16 the word condescend should read, “Mind not high things, but go along with the lowly.” Condescend flatters our carnal pride. True humbleness is to feel we are nothing. Christ is everything.
Question: I do not understand why, in Hebrews 10:18-27, the pronouns “us” and “we” are used, as if they applied to all alike; as if the believers could be lost after having been sanctified, and sin willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, and then nothing but judgment remains for them. What does it mean? I am glad I understand John 10:27-30 as mine. M. J. A.
Answer: Yes, there are no “ifs” in John 5:24 and John 10:27-29. Each epistle is a link in the great chain of inspiration of Scripture. All are alike true. We need prayer in reading them, that God by His Spirit may unfold to us God’s mind in each one, and be ready to forget ourselves, and look at them as God speaks them without question.
In Hebrews we find an epistle addressed to those who were in the past a nation, a people, separated to Jehovah. God spoke to them by prophets. Now He speaks to them in His Son. In chapter 1, He unfolds the glories of the Son of God, greater and higher and better than angels. In chapter 2, He is lower than angels for the suffering of death, and so accomplishes atonement, and brings in His companions as trophies of His victory. Greater than ‘Moses, David,’ Joshua and Melchisedec. He is the great Apostle, and our Great High Priest. The covenant is better; the priesthood is better; the place of worship is better; the one sacrifice eclipses all, and brings in perfection. And brings all who are His into perfect blessing, and a place on high with Him, and a place of worship now in the holiest of all.
No true believer can have a less place than perfected forever by that one sacrifice, and everything for the believer is eternally secured now.
When Israel crossed the Red Sea we find many there who never reached the Jordan. (See 1 Cor. 10:1-11).
That is what we see in the Epistle to the Hebrews. The profession is looked at, and so we get (chapter 3:6, 14), “If we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.”
Are you a believer? Is there any danger of your going back to the Jewish sacrifices, or saying, “Christ is not the true Sacrifice, He is not the Son of God”? Well, if you say that, then you are no believer at all, and nothing remains for you but judgment. Christ will not die again.
You, as a poor, weak believer, might say, “I am afraid I am not a Christian.” Peter denied that he knew the Lord, with oaths and curses, yet all the time he really loved Him, but that is the believer’s weakness, whereas in Hebrews it is denying the person of Christ. The willful sin is the unbelief that denies Christ to be the Son of God. Could that ever get into your heart? Dreadful thought! If so, and you despise Him, there is no other Saviour, and nothing for you but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation.
But the writer of the Hebrews was persuaded better things of them than these, and things that accompany salvation (6:9, 10). What accompanies salvation? God sees in the heart of those who are true believers a work and labor of love, which ye have shown to that blessed name in your ministry and love for all who are His. The believer’s faith is divine (Eph. 2:8; and see Phil. 1:6).