We appreciate you staying
with us for our continuing
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study in Hebrews Chapter 2.
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And James, we were
noticing that there is a justice
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dimension to the
character of God.
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There is justice in the
universe, a just God created
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the universe and right
there the Apostle, Paul brings
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to our attention, that
this justice aspect of the
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character of God.
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It has to be met, it
has to be reconciled.
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It's not an arbitrary
type of thing though Ty.
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Sometimes people will
think of God as arbitrary
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in being just, God is arbitrary
and punishment towards sin.
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You sinned you disobeyed me,
I am going to recompense that.
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Like a parent
disciplining their child, No!
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This is consequential.
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In other words sin
brings a consequence.
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The wages of sin is death.
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That is what the Bible
teaches and God understands
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that even better than we do.
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So, what God has done basically,
is even though we have sinned.
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Even though humanity are
the ones that should receive the
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consequences of sin, which
is death, God has stepped in.
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He has bridged that gulf.
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He is the One that is
taken the consequences of our
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sins upon Himself.
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And so Paul introduces
Chapter 2 by basically saying,
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there is it just recompense
for disobedience I want to show
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you the plan of salvation.
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I'm going to show you
what has happened here.
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God created us this way,
but now we don't see this,
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what do we see before
we get to seeing what the
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consequences are
for us, we see Jesus.
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Praise God, we see Jesus,
Jesus steps in and takes upon
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Himself those
consequences for all of us.
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Not just for a few not
just for the believers,
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but for all Hebrews
Chapter 2 verse 9 tells us.
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I love what James, said
that in Jesus Christ, mercy
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triumphs over justice.
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Mercy doesn't
cancel out justice.
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Your talking about
the book of James, not me.
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Yeah, the book of James,
cause I would say that too.
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mercy triumphs over,
it doesn't cancel it out
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God is just always
has been always will be.
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Justice is a reality
of the character of God.
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It is not something
that God fabricates.
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It is not something God
imposes so much, as it is what
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God is at heart in
character, there is a reality of
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justice, and there is
refuge in Jesus Christ.
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There is an escape from
the consequences of sin,
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through Jesus Christ and
that is what Paul is bringing
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to our attention there.
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And God's reality of justice,
not because God is loving and
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just, merciful and
just, God is a reality
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of justice because God is
love and love is a justice as
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reality of love,
justice is part of love.
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Not at odds with love I
love that that is so powerful.
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So Paul goes into this.
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I guess we could
refer to it as the rationale
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or the logic of the
gospel in his argument here.
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There are two vital events
that are connected together
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and they are the
incarnation and the cross,
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or the death of Jesus Christ.
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The incarnation, according
to Paul's reasoning here, is
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the necessary prerequisite
or the necessary set of
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circumstances that God
must enter-into in order for
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the cross to be rendered
an authentic revelation of
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His love and authentic
sacrifice, because think about
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this James, what if we
were to imagine that God came to
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earth retaining all of
His divine attributes and
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advantages, and then
went through His experience in
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Gethsemane and across
cried out my God my God,
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why have you forsaken Me.
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But in that declaration
omniscience for example,
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would have transcended
the experience omnipresence.
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I mean, He would have
been at the cross experiencing
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what ever we are
witnessing simultaneously.
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If omnipresence was retained
He would is simultaneously
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with the Father in heaven.
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And there is a sense in
which it would be as charade.
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It would be play acting but
the incarnation makes it real.
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It makes an
authentic God stepped down.
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He really truly took humanity
on Himself and in doing so
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could experience
suffering and death.
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Yes, and we see this
in Philippians Chapter 2,
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I mean in Philippians
2 beginning with verse 5,
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God again, gives us through the
Apostle Paul, a clear picture
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of what has happened in the
incarnation of Jesus Christ,
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beginning with that
incarnation and then leading us
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to the cross.
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Philippians Chapter 2
is powerful "Let this mind
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be in you, which was also
in Christ Jesus", verse 5,
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"who being in the form of God
did not consider it robbery. "
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Or something to be held onto,
"to be equal with God but made
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himself of no reputation,"
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or, as another verse says, "made
Himself," another version says
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made Himself
nothing, "taken upon Him.
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the form of a servant, and
being found in the likeness.
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the likeness of men, humbled
himself and became obedient
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unto death, even the death of
the cross," so again there's a
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connection there the incarnation
necessary in order for the
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cross to be experienced.
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And that is what Paul is
bringing out here in Hebrews 2.
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Paul is basically telling
us in verses 9 and onward that
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it was vital for
Jesus to become one with us.
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Look at verse 11, for example,
both he who sanctifies and those
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who are being sanctified
are all of one for which cause
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He is not ashamed to
call them brethren. "
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If you look at this and
summarize this you realize that
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Christ became one with those He
sanctified, Hebrews 2 verse 11.
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He is not ashamed to
call us brethren, in verse 14.
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He also likewise partakes
of the same flesh and blood as
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humanity, and verse 16, "he took
of himself on himself the seed
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of Abraham. "
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A vital connection here so
that we can understand He did
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indeed become one
with the human race.
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Back in Philippians 2, James
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I'm just recalling the
Philips translation, which does
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a really good job on this
particular section, where as in
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the King James version,
New King James Version it says,
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made himself of no reputation,
and in the New International
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Version it says, "made
himself nothing,", well.
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The Philips translation
says that He laid aside His
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divine
prerogatives or advantages.
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And so you have to
wonder, what are the divine
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prerogatives and advantages
what are those abilities.
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What are those powers,
prerogatives that are unique to
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the Divinity that humanity
does not itself experience
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In any way, and we learn in
Scripture that there are three.
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what we call the three
Omnis, God is omnipresent.
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God is omnipotent God is
omniscient, which means God is
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all present, all knowing,
or all-powerful or all knowing.
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It is really interesting when
you trace the life of Jesus,
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there are comments in the
Gospels that touch on every one
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of these, for example,
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with regards to omniscience,
Luke's Gospel says that the
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child grew in
knowledge and wisdom.
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So He was learning
things, He was going
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through a learning process.
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He was omniscient, He even
said at one point in the Gospel
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of Matthew, He said no man
knows the day or the hour of the
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coming of the Son of Man.
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His second coming, not even
myself, but the Father only got
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God is omniscience in
that sense, He emptied Himself.
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That's another
version, He emptied Himself.
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Yes regardless and regarding
omnipotence, he said in the
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Gospel of John, "I can't
of my own self do nothing. "
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Nothing, Absolutely nothing.
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Everything that we witness at
what we recognize or witnessing
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in Jesus, is we're
witnessing the Father's
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omnipotence, working
through Him as a human being
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at the Father's power.
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He when we come
to the cross, James,
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Oh here's another one Ty.
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When Jesus was leaving the
disciples, He said I've got to
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leave so I can send the Holy
Spirit because I can't be with
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you everywhere at one time.
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I've confined Myself to My human
body Omnipresence laid aside.
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He laid aside His divine
prerogatives for our salvation,
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and this is amazing because
it communicates to us that the
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sacrifice that God made
to save us James, was real.
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It was authentic,
this was not play acting,
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He literally really truly
did not consider equality with
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God something to be grasped and
held onto, but laid it aside,
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condescended, took
our human experience and
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nature upon Himself, and
then pass through human life,
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all the way to the cross and
experienced a real sacrifice.
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Why did He do this is
says the Philippians Chapter 2,
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He did this so He can aid
as He did so He can help us.
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Jesus didn't come just to
die for us, just to die for us,
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He came to do more
than just die for us.
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He came to change our
lives, enabling us to be helped
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by Him, because He
was not omnipotent.
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He was not omniscience,
He was not omnipresence.
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In other words, He did not rely
on to all these innate powers
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that divinity has, He
emptied Himself of those powers
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and laid aside His divinity,
if you will, cloaked with
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humanity and became like us.
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He relied upon God,
we can rely upon God.
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Now, we want to hasten
to add and to clarify that
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when laying aside His
divine attributes and His divine
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prerogatives, we are not saying
and the Scriptures are not
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saying that He ceased to be God.
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Good point will we
are seeing in Jesus.
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Is He is 100% God, that's
clear in Chapter 1 of Hebrews,
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But He became 100%
humanity that is the mystery of
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Godliness, that is what
makes what makes His incarnation
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a mystery that we cannot
fully phantom or understand.
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He retained the divine
character for sure, while laying
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aside the attributes but
we also want to hasten to add
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that just because
that is a mystery.
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There is no mystery in
understanding He did indeed
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become human.
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He did indeed
become flesh and blood.
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He can indeed aide us or help us
He is one with those brethren.
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One with us and humanity.
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that is the next point we
really want to make James,
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is that when we are looking
at Hebrews 2 and we encounter
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the incarnation we come to
the conclusion of the book.
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Paul's logic is to say to
us okay, God became human,
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so that He could experience
death authentically really
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truly make the self-sacrifice
and also this sacrifice was made
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This condensation into humanity
was made so that a very clear
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perception on the part of human
beings, could be made of God
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sympathy for us.
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He is compassionate.
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He is merciful toward us,
and so we encountered that
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mercy, and that compassion
in the person of Jesus Christ.
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And I love this too, because
in the context of this is
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says that He became partaker,
verse 14 of Hebrews 2, of
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flesh and blood, and He did this
so that He might through death
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destroy him that
had the power of death.
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That is the devil and deliver
them who through fear of death
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for all their
lifetime subject to bondage.
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There is here a very
real reality of what Christ
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accomplished for us
because we are in our humanity.
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We are afraid of
death, we are afraid of the
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consequences of death.
00:11:08.09\00:11:09.06
So Jesus went ahead and tasted
that God an out-of-the-way
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for us, and now offers us life.
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And no doubt James, I don't know
about you, actually I do know
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about you, but the more I delve
into and understand the Gospel,
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and come to know and
appreciate God in Christ.
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I just have sensed
over the years, the fear of
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death and the
bondage that we are in.
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This fear of death and
just shutting off, like unwanted
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pounds, because we are
definitely more and more
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confidence that everything
we see in Jesus brings us to a
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point of resolve and
ease and confidence that
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God is on our side,
He is here to help us.
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He is infinitely merciful.
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God loves us with a love
that knows no bounds, and it
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is proved beyond all shadow
of a doubt in the sacrifice of
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Christ in this sacrifice,
reconciles the problems
00:11:59.12\00:12:02.00
of justice and mercy.
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It makes God love, God can
justly satisfy sin because He
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has become a part of
the corporate humanity.
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Humanity is the one who should
receive the consequences for sin
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God has done that and became
human and He can rightly do it
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because He is God.
00:12:16.50\00:12:17.47
He is the only one that
can actually satisfy the
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consequences of sin.
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This is incredible
friends, because you and I,
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we are completely
undeserving of this.
00:12:23.90\00:12:26.19
But God in His great mercy
and love has reached out to us
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in the person of Jesus Christ
we share are looking forward
00:12:30.67\00:12:32.79
to study the book of Hebrews
for you as we launch into
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Chapter 3 at our
next time together.
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God bless
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