DFD, Book 2, Lesson 2, Question 5

Published date: 03-8-11

A few of you caught Christopher Hitchens on “60 Minutes” the other night. You can view the 15 minute piece at the 60 Minutes website. Our “Reason For God” Sunday School class watched Hitchens and Christian apologist William Craig debate the existence of God in a fascinating exchange. Hitchens may be the most articulate, engaging atheist out there. I can’t help it – I like the dude. And he makes my faith stronger. How? His are some of the best anti-faith arguments around. If you can withstand a punch from the likes of Christopher Hitchens, and respond with a better argument, your faith will be stronger in the end. Never run away from people like this. God’s a big boy. He can handle scrutiny. And his people should be able to as well.

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Examine and comment on Psalm 19:7-11.

 What the Bible is called: precepts, commands, fear of the Lord (doesn’t quite fit), ordinances

Its characteristics: right, radiant, pure, sure, righteous

What it will do for me: gives joy to the heart, gives light to the eyes, endures forever, is more precious than silver, and is sweeter than honey, it warns me and rewards me

Journal about what impresses you about these things.

 I marvel again at David’s writing capacity. Here he captures fully and beautifully the many ways God’s Word can affect us when we read it (and to think that David experienced all these things having only the books of Moses as his ‘Bible’.) I can honestly say that I have experienced each of the things he mentions: in finishing a quiet time, I often find my very spirit revived. Or come away with a renewed determination to do the right things. Or have an inner filling of joy or peace that wasn’t there when I first cracked the book open. No wonder I keep coming back. The Bible is truly ‘living’. It certainly beats starting my day with the Today Show or the Weather Channel.

 Bible Reading (Suggested): Hebrews 2:14-18

Hebrews 1 stresses the divinity of Christ. Hebrews 2 turns to focus on his humanity. Jesus is fully God and fully human. And why is it necessary for Jesus to be a fully flesh and blood human? Verse 11 says, “Both the one who makes men holy (i.e. Jesus) and those who are made holy (all the rest of us) are of the same family.” And therein is a clue. To save us (‘make us holy’) Jesus had to be like us.

Verse 14 elaborates on the principle. “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil.” Verses 16 and 17 repeat the point. If Jesus were coming to save angels, he would have taken on the nature of an angel. But no, he came to save ‘Abraham’s descendants’. “For this reason, he had to be made like his brothers in every way,” (vs.17).

Think of it in terms of buying a car. Every car has a ‘value’. If you want to trade-in your 1995 Civic for a new Accord, the seller will laugh you off the lot. But if you come in with a mint 2005 Corvette and want to swap out, you’ll probably have yourself a deal. The cars have equal value.

A human life also has a ‘value’. But we sold ourselves to sin and to the devil through the rebellion of our first parents. God however wants us back. For centuries, God had his people offer animal sacrifices as a way to ‘pay the price’ for sin, but everyone knew that an animal and a human do not have equal value. So nothing really changed about our condition all those centuries. At best, those sacrifices were a teaching tool, or a foreshadowing of something better that would come (a point the author of Hebrews will make later on.) 

To ’buy us back’ (i.e. to ‘redeem’ us) for God, Jesus was born into this earth fully human (he ‘laid aside his majesty’ as a song we sing puts it), then ‘traded in’ his perfect human life for us (‘atonement’ is the word Hebrews uses.) For those who accept Christ’s offer of exchange, sin no longer owns them. Their condition has changed. A new life with new possibilities begins.

When I look at the Cross on which my Savior died, I see there Heaven’s assessment of how much value I have in his eyes. Never doubt it, dear one, how much you matter to him.

Also, when I look at the Cross, I see a God who can perfectly identify with everything I go through in life, because he went through it himself as a human being. Another prominent theme in Hebrews is that in Jesus we have someone who can help us because he was like us. Verse 18 is the first of many repetitions of this encouraging thought: “Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”

Lent is a season when we are called to do some serious and sober reflection on the sufferings of Christ. I’d say we’re off and running, thanks to the book of Hebrews. Two beautiful lessons we learn from the Cross today: you matter, and He cares.