By Riste Micev serving in Novi Sad, Serbia
10 In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. 11 Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. 12 He says,
“I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters;
in the assembly I will sing your praises.”
13 And again, “I will put my trust in him.”
And again he says, “Here am I, and the children God has given me.”
Hebrews 2:10-13
Why did God become man? Picture the stars, the shepherds, the angels, and hear their message: ‘Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.’ Their message wraps together two seemingly impossible things: that the Lord should be born as a baby.
When the angels announced the good news, it was as if they said: ‘Today a man and a king is born to you who is also God.’ That Jesus is both fully God and fully man is at the heart of the incarnation – but why did God become a man?
Hebrews 2:10-13 gives us one reason (of many!): to bring us to glory. Romans 3:23 tells us that we ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’. Yet God desired and planned to bring humans back to glory, not through their owns works but through his Son. Hebrews 2 is filled with different heights: Jesus is higher than the angels yet was made lower for a little while when he was born as a man.
He remained truly and fully God – not 50% man, 50% God but 100% man, 100% God. Jesus’ purpose was to make God’s sons and daughters – his brothers and sisters – holy. But to do this for us, he needed to be like us, so we could be made like him. And he also needed to suffer.
The author of Hebrews says Jesus, ‘the pioneer of their salvation’ was made ‘perfect through what he suffered’. Jesus has never been imperfect or sinned; his perfection is his complete devotion and submission to his Father to achieve the ultimate goal – the salvation of sinners.
Jesus humbled himself from the heights of heaven’s throne room and a perfect relationship with his Father, to the depths of a criminal’s death, taking his Father’s judgement on sinners. And in doing so, he opened the way for glory, entering it first and taking many with him. He pioneered our salvation. What a King. What a brother. What a God.