Monday, October 3, 2016

Jesus Is Our Unashamed Brother

Jesus is fully God and fully man.  I'm reading through the book of Hebrews and if you were to very simply summarize Hebrews chapter one you would say, "Jesus is God."  If you were to simply summarize chapter two you would say, "Jesus is a man."

Jesus being fully God and fully man has many implications but I want to focus on one in particular.

"In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.  Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family.  So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers."  Hebrews 2:10-11

God the Father sent Jesus to bring many sons to glory.  This means that we who are Christians are sons and daughters of God Himself!  This is amazing.  If I am a son of God the Father that means that I am in line to receive everything from the Father that a son would expect to receive.  This is incredible.  God did so much more than save me from death.  God did so much more than save me from slavery to sin and what Hebrews calls "slavery by their fear of death."  God didn't just save me, He adopted me.

But wait, there's more.

Jesus is our brother... and He's not ashamed of us.

"Both the one who makes men holy (Jesus) and those who are made holy (us) are of the same family."  *Parenthesis added. 

Jesus and I are in the same family.  This is incredible.  This means that the same love that the Father has for Jesus He has for me.  This means the same thanksgiving feast the Father is preparing for Jesus is for me, too.

"So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers."

Jesus is not only my brother but He's cool with that.  He's not ashamed to have a weak punk like me for a brother.  And He's not ashamed to have you as a brother/sister either.

This begs the question: why am I ashamed of Jesus?

If Jesus isn't ashamed to be my brother, why am I ashamed of Him sometimes?  Jesus has every reason to be ashamed of being my brother; I mean, He had to die to cover for me.  But I have never and will never have a legitimate reason to be ashamed of brother Jesus.  Jesus has never and will never be anything other than awesome, yet I am at times ashamed.  I've worried that others will think less of me because of my love for my brother Jesus and that is shameful.  If Jesus can be unashamed to be my brother then I should be ecstatic to be His brother, especially since He died to enable the Father to adopt me.

The Gospel invites us into a privileged family.  As the old song says, "I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God."  I'm blessed to have God as my Father, Jesus as my big brother and every Christian from every race, tribe and tongue as my brothers and sisters.

Thank God that Jesus is our unashamed brother today.

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