This is my relay study response for the work on Union with christ.

What naturally comes to mind when you think about who Jesus is?

Thank the Lord that my answer to this question has changed over time. I can’t help but think of the answer to this question in response to how I might have previously answered it. Naturally my mind would go to the stereotype Jesus, the long brown hair, perfectly crafted beard, and Daz white shining robes and this, to be honest is probably not uncommon; if anything it is a response that is characteristic of many. This was probably to some extent my view of Jesus pre-university. Any thoughts of his character would come secondarily to this picture of a blissed out hippy Jesus from the kids’ illustrated Bibles. His character would be, of course, that of a loving and caring teacher, surrounded by children and lambs under a tree in as meadow, essentially idyllic.

The important question then is what has changed? By the grace of God my picture of Christ has significantly deepened (let’s ignore the possibility that it could have been much shallower). My natural instinct now is to respond to this question with joy, having learned so much over my time in university and on Relay my picture of Christ is far more full of the excellence and majesty of his reality and thus as my thoughts turn to the Author and Perfector of my faith my heart is lightened.

First then he was a man, really fully human in all the factors that entails, right down to dirt in his fingernails and stubbed toes. A dusty carpenter’s son living in a fishing community near a lake in the Near East. As a picture of humble origins goes this is a decent one, the saviour of the universe started here. Having recently seen the Mark Drama when I think of Jesus my view is inextricably linked with the account Mark gives, but here I see a man who expressed real humanity, real feeling and real emotion. As we see a saviour who was made perfect in weakness, the gospels really do show us an incredible reality. I see a man who was incredibly courageous, who could walk into a city with a crowd of people cheering his name, who 3 days later would be cheering for his death. But I also I think there is a stark loneliness to the gospels, not that Jesus was without friends but that he was resigned to his task and to his death. And as such he was walking the earth often in contact with people who would be his murderers and betrayers, fully worthy of the title of a ‘man of sorrows and well acquainted with grief’.

How has your understanding of who he is grown?

The core of my understanding has changed by really applying the truth – this man was God. This should be immediately obvious, and it is in the background that the existence and importance of the Trinity means that Christ’s deity should always be at the forefront of my mind, but it isn’t always. It’s possibly too easy to have a working picture of Christ and a good understanding of the Trinity and yet still look at the gospels with the view of a ‘storybook Jesus’. Dangerous indeed, but what weight is lent to every page of the gospel when seen through the lens of the triune God, that this 2000 years dead (and risen) Israeli carpenter really was fully God.

When we read of Jesus speaking to the Pharisees about their spiritual blindness do we really connect that with the God of Malachi who says:

“A son honours his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honour due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the Lord Almighty.

“It is you priests who show contempt for my name” (Malachi 1:6)

Or do we just see it as a mild rebuke? Do we see Jesus clearing the temple merely as a moment of frustration with injustice or the righteous anger of a God whose glory has previously filled the most holy place? These comparisons are necessary, in all honesty our theology makes neither sense nor impact without them. The question that comes to my mind then is ’how can this Jesus have any part with me?’.

Recently then I have been writing Bible studies on Hebrews as part of my Relay discipleship. Hebrews’ drawn out description of our union with Christ then has been incredibly helpful to me in improving and correcting my picture of our union with Christ. Forgive the lengthy quote here but it has been deeply formative in the last month.

5 It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. 6 But there is a place where someone has testified:

 

“What is mankind that you are mindful of them,

a son of man that you care for him?

7 You made them a little lower than the angels;

you crowned them with glory and honour

8     and put everything under their feet.”

In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. 9 But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

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.”

14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. – Hebrews 2:5-18

An incredible piece of scripture and how glorious the picture of Christ we see here painted. How often do we think of Christ as both creator and sustainer? The reality of that means that he was sustaining the life of the very people who were beating him as he was crucified; what incredible mercy and grace that this could be true. A sensible question really is how as imperfect human beings could we ever have any part with a perfect God? Our only hope is that God himself would come to us, we need an mediator.  The author of Hebrews’ view on this is borne straight out of the incarnation, the creator of the universe sets aside his glory to take the lowly position of a created thing, lower even than his heavenly servants, the angels. We see that he suffered, even to death on a cross fulfilling all that was said of him. His reward though? That he would be crowned with honour and glory, that which only he is truly fit to attain.

The consequence of all of this for us? That Jesus, fully man, fully God, is not ashamed to call us brothers, our Lord has claimed equality with us. Astounding the model that salvation takes, and what humility we see in Christ that he would take our place, be our atonement, bridging the gap we could never leap in order that we could participate in his death and subsequently in his resurrection. Faith in the atoning work of Jesus blood is the very core of our belief, as we are reminded earlier in Hebrews ‘how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?’ (Heb 2:3). How beautiful a theology then, to have a humble saviour, the very picture of saving grace. Few things have made such a profound impact to my faith as this work in Hebrews recently, I feel my picture of Christ now flows naturally out of these passages, and is in all facets, more glorious than I previously saw.

What practical steps will you take to “warm your heart by the fire of the gospel” every day?

If there was ever a clearer exhortation to keep studying then I have not found it, Hebrews is as incredibly profound as it is deeply complex and I must admit to spending more time than I expected trying to pull apart each passage and understand it, but all to my good I am sure. Applying the truth of this passage to my heart daily , however a struggle, is what is daily fortifying the foundations of my faith; that Christ comes down and proclaims me ‘brother’ is staggering. Especially considering my continued understanding of how little I merit that situation.  ‘shall we go on sinning that grace may increase? By no means!’ but do I grow in my understanding of my sinfulness, yes each day and painfully so. So either my understanding of grace increases in tandem or I am utterly crushed, thus my knowledge of my status as a brother of Christ becomes by the day more astounding.

Tim Keller once described the death of Christ as ‘violent, voluntary and vicarious’; that Jesus died a painful, prolonged and violent death, willingly for a people who would constantly reject him. Few things give this insight quite as forcefully as the Mark Drama, the whispers, shouts and eventually roars of ‘CRUCIFY HIM’ that come from the crowd, the stark pain of that scene, a man so alone, so utterly abandoned. And to have to sit there and say to yourself ‘that is what my sin cost’ and to acknowledge that you are just as culpable as those Pharisees screaming abuse in his face. Do I want that to be my place? Absolutely not, yet it is correct, that is my human nature right there, that I would call for the death of my Lord. So how beyond my understanding that after that he would still call me brother. Praise his name.

Guilty, vile, and helpless, we,

Spotless Lamb of God was He;

Full atonement—can it be?

Hallelujah! what a Saviour!