Thursday, January 20
Another reason why Jesus adopted our human nature and lived among us was so that He could be our example, the only one who could model for us what is the right way to live before God.
Read Hebrews 12:1-4. According to the apostle, how should we run the race of the Christian life?
In this passage Jesus is the culmination of a long list of characters whom the apostle provides as exemplars of faith. This passage calls Jesus “the author and finisher of our faith”. The Greek word archegos (“author”) can also be translated “pioneer.” Jesus is the pioneer of the race in the sense that He runs ahead of the believers. In fact, Hebrews 6:20 calls Jesus our “forerunner.” The word “finisher” gives the idea that Jesus had displayed faith in God in the purest form possible. This passage teaches both that Jesus is the first one to have run our race with success and that He is the one who perfected the art of what living by faith is all about.
Hebrews 2:13 reads: “And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me”. What is happening here is that Jesus said that He would put His trust in God. This reference is an allusion to Isaiah 8:17, 18.
Isaiah spoke these words in the face of a terrible threat of invasion from Northern Israel and Syria (Isaiah 7:1, 2). His faith contrasted the lack of faith of Ahaz, the king (2 Kings 16:5-18). God had exhorted Ahaz to trust in Him and to ask a sign that He would deliver him (Isaiah 7:1-11). God had already promised him, as a son of David, that He would protect Ahaz as His own son. Now, God graciously offered Ahaz to confirm that promise with a sign. Ahaz, however, refused to ask for a sign and, instead, sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, saying, “I am thy servant and thy son” (2 Kings 16:7). How sad! Ahaz preferred being “son” of Tiglath-pileser than the son of God.
Jesus, however, put His trust in God and in His promise that He will put His enemies under His feet (Hebrews 1:13; 10:12, 13). God has made the same promise to us, and we need to believe Him, just as Jesus did (Romans 16:20).
How can we learn to put our trust in God but by daily making choices that reflect this trust? What’s the next important choice you need to make, and how can you make sure it does reveal trust in God?
