Hold Fast

By Pastor Chad

Christians have many distinct and integral beliefs that make Christianity unique from all of world religions. One belief, however, that connects with the human condition is the personal nature of God. This personability of God is emphasized in the incarnation. Jesus, the Son of God, did not simply walk among us, He became one of us. And in so doing, He assumed all our human frailties and overcame our human depravity. He did this by resisting the very temptations to which you and I consistently succumb. 

Jesus took on our human frailties in two ways. First, He assumed our human weaknesses through the sufferings He endured. Jesus felt pain. He experienced hunger. He grew tired. He had aches and pains. He had sleepless nights. He became weary. He wept. He bled. He suffered hardships. He felt the sting of rejection. He suffered the heartbreak of loss. He experienced the agony of death. He knew human weakness as we do. I can’t draw this point out more beautifully than Isaiah 53:3: “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

Second, Jesus took on our human weakness by enduring the temptations we encounter. This is not to say that Jesus was tempted by every conceivable sin available to and known to man. What this means is that He experienced the same sinful temptations you and I experience, yet He never gave in to those temptations. Thus, Jesus as a suffering Son of God, withstood the bombardment of the devil, yet unlike Adam, He did not give in.

In Hebrews 4:15, we see this reality declared, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Our God is not an impersonal loof that cares little for the sufferings and hardships of mankind. He showed his personal nature by sending his one and only eternally begotten Son. And it is this Son that assumed a human nature and walked among us. He experienced the same human frailties and hardships that we endure to show a sympathy and love to us that comes from a full participation within the human race.

He became one of us. We commonly hear defenses of human actions with the retort: Don’t judge unless you’ve walked in my shoes. This defense is baseless, but it is a standard human justification to deflect from guilt. Such a response cannot be given when standing before God. You see, He has walked in our shoes (as the saying goes). He walked among us. He lived among us. He suffered with us. And He suffered for us. 

One of the distinguishing features of Christianity is that we boast of a God that is not only high above all others, but He is personal and close to His creation.