Hebrews 1:3
"Who (speaking of God the Son, this is Christ) being the brightness of his glory (Elohim), and the express image(to brand or imboss a character, a likeness of) of his person(ie...God's character), and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty of high;"
Why? Because it was perfect. There wasn’t anything more to be done. So all through the Epistle of Hebrews we have this emphatic statement that He was the Son. He finished the work of redemption and mans salvation when He finished it, He "sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." He was able to sit down because in God's omnipotence we were in Him and counted as one being with Christ. All right, now then, let’s move on into Hebrews chapter 12 verse 3.
Hebrews 12:3
"For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds."
In other words, go back and experience some of the things He went through leading up to the crucifixion. The weak link of man is the mind, its in the mind that imaginations run wild and doubt and unbelief has its entry point. And Paul says to these people:
Hebrews 12:4
"Ye have not yet resisted unto blood (death), striving against sin."
What’s it speaking of? I think it’s speaking of those sweat drops of blood that came on His brow as He was approaching the work of the cross. Or the resisting of the evil works of darkness (in Religion) that so easily besets us and those around us and the intuition, imagination of doubt which is unbelief in the revelation of Christ in you. Now verse 5:
Hebrews 12:5
"And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:"
Now of course, Paul as I’ve said so often, can shift gears. Now all of a sudden he’s coming back to the response of the people to whom he’s writing and he says, "You haven’t gone through anything like this, but you have forgotten a lot of things, one of which was that God is going to chasten the one that He loves." Now many people don’t like to accept that fact. But you see, whenever God puts the believer through a hard situations, it isn’t because He doesn’t love Him; it isn’t because He has left off taking care of him - but rather it’s for what purpose? To increase their faith and dependency on Him (Christ) through the trials. It’s to increase our trust that, come what may (yes it may entail suffering, it may entail some sickness, it may entail the loss of a loved one, but “IF” we hate not the world, our earthy life, mother, father, brother, sister and things we're NOT worthy of Him), through it all what’s the promise? "I’ll never leave you nor forsake you." He's perfecting His divine character within us just as Jesus Christ revealed God's character (goodness, Love, Grace, Truth or spiritual reality, patience, longsuffering ie...the fruit of the Spirit) in His being as the son of man. He’ll never leave off being all that He has claimed to be. All right, so he says, "Don’t despise the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked." Now here’s the reason in verse 6.
Hebrews 12:6
"For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." He’s going to discipline us from time to time. He’s going to "scourge every son whom he receives." Now it isn’t because of meanness. It isn’t because He likes to see us grovel and suffer, but He is disciplining us in order to have us walk a stronger walk of faith and as said above to develop, or restore His character within. Again, you take all the witnesses of chapter 11, they didn’t have a rose-petaled pathway and I’ve used that expression over and over. When we become a believer and then a receiver it is not that all of a sudden everything is going to go our way. God's method of refining is a slow heat NOT a blast-furnace. Most of the time it’s the opposite. It just get’s tougher to be a believer than it is to be out there in the world. Stuck in some kind of religion separated from Christ and God the Father. Because we’ve got all the opposition of satanic forces against us. Satan has hated everything that pertains to God ever since Adam and Eve were in the Garden and that hasn’t changed. So we have to be aware that things are going to come up in our lives that we think are rather uncomfortable. Some of it God permits as a chastening process to increase our faith, to increase our Christian discipline to perfect Christ within. In bringing many sons to the knowledge of Him. All right, verse 7:
Hebrews 12:7a
"If ye endure chastening,…"
He’s going to use the example of physical parents. Why do we discipline our kids? Why, because we love them. Not because we love to disappoint them. We discipline them because we love them. All right, and he’s bringing it right into the Christian experience. This also means to sit under, that is we're to sit under God listening with a receptive heart as a little child, in child like faith while He tutors us.
Hebrews 12:7
"If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?"
If a father never disciplines, he’s not a father and here's the tough part he loves not his son. His kid becomes a wastrel, spare the rod spoil the child. In the world he may become wealthy, famous, and well thought of but God does not know him. As he remains spiritually dead, separated from God. Even though he attends church serves every time the doors are open he still remain separated from God because religion is God's and mans worse enemy. All right, verse 8:
Hebrews 12:8
"But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons."
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