Grace - Hebrews: Consider Jesus, Part 4

"...we must pay much closer attention to what he have heard, so that we do not drift away from it."  Hebrews 2:1

Hello Everyone!

We have a natural tendency to take our eyes off of Jesus.  It's not because of a sinful nature inside of us, but rather because we contend with the customs and traditions of this world (Romans 12:2) and the elementary things of this world.  This is crucial to understand, as the writer of Hebrews states, because we do not want to drift from what we've heard.  Let me first point you to the things we should move FROM, and then I'll show you what it is upon which we are to STAND:

Colossians 2:8 - "See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ."

Colossians 2:20-21 - "If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees...in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men?"

Hebrews 5:12 - "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food."

Hebrews 6:1 - "Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God."

In my next email on Hebrews, I'd like to talk about the above cited verses and show how they point to Jesus, of Whom the Father considered it befitting that He should accomplish the requirements of the Law and sanctify us once and for all. It  (See Hebrews 2:10-11.)

Lastly, consider the word spoken by Christ, to which I believe Hebrews 2:3 is referring:

Luke 24:44 - "Now He [Jesus] said to them, 'These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.'"

Jesus then shows us the singular message of Moses, all the Prophets, and the Psalms:

"that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem" (Luke 24:46).

We must keep our eyes on Jesus, and as He is revealed to us by Holy Spirit more and more, we will eventually see ourselves in the proper light.

1 Peter 3:18 - "For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit."

Dear friends, by faith you are righteousness, dead to sin and striving according to the flesh, and you have been made alive in the spirit.  This is your inheritance; this is your victory.

Grace=Peace,

Jeremy

http://jdkrider.blogspot.com/2012/09/grace-hebrews-consider-jesus-part-3.html