September 7, 2018 - Suggested Reading Hebrews 2 for Sept 9ths message on Matthew 5:48 in our summer worship service at 10am

“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.”

 Hebrews 2:10 (NIV) 

This chapter is a warning for all of us, to not drift away from the faith.

The apostle gives us a positive action to take for he tells us to “pay the most careful attention to what we have heard”. I am guilty of not paying close attention to many things and people in my life, and each time I don’t pay attention, there are negative results. How much more negative will the result be when I don’t pay close attention to what the Gospel says?

The Gospel teaches that Jesus was made lower than the angels for a little while, and then crowned with glory because He suffered death. The Gospel teaches that Jesus is the pioneer of our salvation (that is He traveled the path before us, He blazed the trail for us to follow) and that enduring suffering prepared for Him is what made Him perfect.

We need to pay attention to this, for our natural expectation is that we would be spared suffering, because of the sufferings of Christ. We think great- He suffered for me, so I don’t have to suffer, and we miss the truth. The truth is that how our Lord was made perfect is how we will be made perfect and suffering is the tool that will be used.

Isaac Watts asked this question in his hymn entitled Am I a soldier of the Cross;

 Must I be carried to the skies On flowery beds of ease,

While others fought to win the prize And sailed through bloody seas?

 May we pay attention to the Gospel, expect suffering, and not drift away.