PASTOR OLUWASEYI OSANYINBI
HEBREWS 2:10-18
Talking about our relationship as believers with Jesus, the ultimate is not a sheep-shepherd relationship. That relationship is more like an outward one. We should rather migrate to a people-priest relationship which is capable of ministering to us beyond the physical.
All things in creation are created by and for the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the prototype of everything in creation, He is the firstborn of every creature. He is the first among many brethren.
Jesus was perfected through sufferings so that He could be qualified to be the captain of our salvation. Jesus would not be qualified to bring salvation unto man if he was not exposed to the problems of man. He had to learn obedience by suffering.
God does not pick people for His use haphazardly. He looks around to see those people who can be committed to Him. David was carefully selected after he had been tried and tested several times. His brothers were rejected because they were not fit as a result of their character defects.
Jesus who sanctifies us and those of us who are being sanctified by Him are of the same stock, we are both perfected through suffering. As such, Jesus is not ashamed to call us brethren.
Jesus took on flesh and blood so that He can be a qualified representative of us humans who are partakers of flesh and blood. Through death He destroyed the Devil. The Devil had the power of death and Jesus had to deal with that by dying.
As elusive as sin was, God killed it by personifying it in Jesus and dealing with it. The Jesus who died on the cross is different from the one who resurrected. The Risen Christ is the one who has power over all things including death. Jesus dealt with death and released those who through the fear of death were subject to bondage all their life.
The fear of death can paralyze anyone. As such, one of the first trainings for a soldier is to crush the fear of death. Death often looks invincible to us but we forget that Jesus is over and above the one who had the power of death.
As a result of Jesus’ victory, the devil no longer has the power to kill anyone indiscriminately. He now requires permission to kill and that is the importance of the ekklesia, that is, the Church. Whatever we permit on earth is what will be permitted in heaven as far as we are in sync with God.
Jesus was made like us His brethren so that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God. The things pertaining to God are summed up in perfection. Jesus as our High Priest makes propitiation for our sins thereby making us perfect.
We are perfectly qualified as God’s battle axes because we are weak and we can depend wholly on Him to survive in battle. Gideon was the least in his family, his family was the least in their tribe and their tribe was the least of all tribes in Israel. However, God used him beyond what he could ever imagine.
Jesus is merciful and faithful from eternity past to eternity present. Even when we leave the surface of the earth, He remains our Faithful High Priest. He is able to aid those of us who are tempted because He himself had suffered. We do not have any excuse for falling into sin because we have a role model in Jesus who has made every resource available to us.