It makes good sense that the God who got everything started and keeps everything going now completes the work by making the Salvation Pioneer perfect through suffering as he leads all these people to glory. (2:10)
"Our main and central task is to live in responsive obedience to God's action revealed in Jesus. Our part in the action is the act of faith." Eugene Peterson, Introduction to Hebrews
I continue to wrestle internally as God calls me to acts of obedience that are far beyond my skills and abilities. Each requires an enormous amount of unfamiliar and uncomfortable emotion, and each requires me to step way beyond my comfort zone. I feel like I'm swinging in the wind, out over a giant cliff - absolutely not where I want to be. Too often lately, my eyes have been on my circumstances and the ground far beneath me, rather than on the One who holds me firmly in His grip.
"If we are going to live as disciples of Jesus, we have to remember that all efforts of worth and excellence are difficult. The Christian life is gloriously difficult, but its difficulty does not make us faint and cave in - it stirs us up to overcome. Do we appreciate the miraculous salvation of Jesus Christ enough to be our utmost for His highest - our best for His glory?
"God saves people by His sovereign grace through the atonement of Jesus... But we have to "work out" that salvation in our everyday, practical living (Philippians 2:12). If we will only start on the basis of His redemption to do what He commands, then we will find that we can do it. If we fail, it is because we have not yet put into practice what God has placed within us. But a crisis will reveal whether or not we have been putting it into practice...
"Thank God that He does give us difficult things to do! His salvation is a joyous thing, but it is also something that requires bravery, courage, and holiness. It tests us for all we are worth. Jesus is "[leading all these people] to glory" (2:10), and God will not shield us from the requirements of sonship. God's grace produces men and women with a strong family likeness to Jesus Christ, not pampered, spoiled weaklings. It takes a tremendous amount of discipline to live the worthy and excellent life of a disciple of Jesus in the realities of life. And it is always necessary for us to make an effort to live a life of worth and excellence." Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest
I desire to live a life of worth and excellence for my Lord, but in the midst of life's painful realities, I forget the requirements - bravery, courage, holiness. I'm thankful for this reminder because it refocuses me on Jesus, the Salvation Pioneer. It comforts me to remember that He knows everything I'm going through because He's experienced it all.
It's obvious, of course, that he didn't go to all this trouble for angels. It was for people like us...when he came before God as priest to get rid of all the people's sins, he would have already experienced it all himself - all the pain, all the testing - and would be able to help where help was needed. (2:16-18)
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