Hebrews Chapter Twelve, Christ Finished His Redemptive Work

 

Hebrews 12:2b who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

 

The motivation of our Lord was, “the joy set before Him.” This verse brings the readership back to Hebrews 2:9, 10, where we read, “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.”

Elsewhere, we read in Isaiah, “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul and be satisfied,” Isaiah 53:10, 11.

 

There was the joy of doing His Father’s will, and there was the joy of bringing many sons to glory. Jesus tasted death for every soul that would ever live. God made His soul an offering for sin; it was the culmination of every sacrifice Judaism had performed, embodied in the selfless death of a single Man. His death gave us life, and access to the Father.

 

Of this matter it is written, “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,” Philippians 2:9, 10. In Philippians, Paul writes that Jesus did not think it robbery to be equal to God, and despite His equality, being God, made Himself of no reputation, and coming to Earth in the form (or likeness) of a bondservant. Hebrews adds another detail into this momentous occasion, that our Lord, having come as a bondservant, and doing His Father’s will, despised the shame of its fulfillment. Despise is a strong word, but here in the Greek the language barrier becomes a little muddled. The NIV employs the term, “scorning.” The Greek word is, “kataphroneo,” and means, “to think little of, slightly of, or nothing of another. Literally, to think down upon.” Intense hatred is not in view here; rather, Jesus thought nothing of the shame the stigma of the cross brought upon Him. He was doing His Father’s will, even when His fidelity led Him to darkness and separation from the Father on the cross. He saw the travail of His soul—the untold millions saved by His sacrifice—and was satisfied. The humiliation of the cross, we are informed, meant nothing comparatively.

 

Now our risen Savior is seated at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. This reality is confirmed numerous times in the New Testament, and foretold in Psalm 110:1. Jesus testifies of this truth before the Sanhedrin in Matthew 26:64. Mark confirms this fact by stating, “He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God,” Mark 16:19. Peter, citing Psalm 110:1, reveals this reality to the men gathered during Pentecost, Acts 2:34. Stephen sees the risen Christ just before his martyrdom, but rather than sitting, it seems that the Lord stood to greet His servant, Acts 7:55, 56. Even in our current study, we have seen that Jesus, when He finished His offering for sin forever, sat down at God’s right hand, Hebrews 10:12.

 

In light of the former verse from Hebrews, it must be stressed once more that Jesus our Lord sat down at God’s right hand. His work is finished, as He proclaimed in triumph in John 19:30. Salvation is an accomplished fact that may be immediately and freely received by any who believe in Him. The altars of the Roman and the Eastern Orthodox Church will not permit Jesus to come down from the cross, and Rome seems to obsess with our Lord being a perpetual babe in Mary’s arms. That is because Rome sells religion, and if the truth were preached, indulgences would cease at once and Rome’s coffers would suffer violence. But the Bible is explicit in the truth that Jesus died (past tense), rose from the grave, ascended into Heaven, and now sits to at Father’s right hand, waiting. He is not in the Catholic wafer, or summoned by the prayer of priest craft. The Pontifex is not His vicar; in fact, if the Pope believes the Catholic gospel, he isn’t even saved. Christ suffers no more. He dies no longer; death has no dominion over Him. He sits in victory at the Father’s right hand, waiting to return so that He may rule from a united Israel, governing the world. It is the failure to recognize this fact that endangers those who court religion. Such people who have a knowledge of the truth, but do not apprehend it by faith have, “trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace,” Hebrews 10:29.

 

What is the conclusion to be reached? The Jewish Christians were counseled to lay aside the encumbrance of the Law and their personal sin, and to look to Jesus. He, it is written, is the Author and Finisher of one’s faith. Moreover, He endured the cross and its shame for the joy set before Him. He saw what His travail would accomplish, and esteemed the humiliation of the cross as nothing. His love for us was far greater, infinitely more powerful than the cross that represented His suffering death for the sake of mankind’s sin. Now our Lord sits, having finished His work of redemption. The Father will once more send the Son, not as Savior for the sake of sin, but as our Deliverer from this evil world as He gathers His own to Himself, Jew or Gentile, Hebrews 9:28.