“For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers.”
Hebrews 2:11
This verse is very powerful to me. It’s a statement that completely changed the way that I view my relationship with Christ. The writer of Hebrews makes a fairly simple statement that, maybe if I were smarter, I could have worked out myself, but there’s something about the way he puts it that brought the truth into a new light for me.
If you asked me where I believe I came from, I would tell you that I believe I was created by God. If you asked me where Jesus came from, I would tell you that I believe he is the only begotten Son of God. In my mind, though, that would never put us on the same level. However, the writer of Hebrews views it differently. He says that both Christ, the one who sanctifies, and I, the sanctified, have the same source. That point, I never would’ve contested. It’s the significance of that point that I never pieced together myself.
Because you and I have the same source as Christ, though we are not worthy and though we are not begotten Sons of God as he is, he is not ashamed to call us brothers. Jesus is pleased to call us his own brothers and sisters. I would never consider myself worthy to be called the brother of Christ, a true Son of God as he is. Christ, however, through his sacrifice on our behalf, does exactly that. He makes us worthy. He restores us to a position as an heir of God, a true son or daughter of his very same Father. He makes us heirs of God and thus co-heirs with himself.
Through his death and resurrection, Christ has given us the place in the Kingdom of God that he alone deserves, the place of the true son and true daughter.
I don’t know about you, but the fact that Christ would view me as his own brother, as a true child of the same Father, brings a whole new power and meaning to the way I’ve always thought of myself. Christ wants a relationship with us not as a distant king or a grudging hero, but as a brother who shares the riches of his own inheritance with us.
Prayer:
Father,
Thank you for adopting us as your own true sons and daughters through Christ. Thank you for the relationship that he desires to have with us, that you desire to have with us. Help us to embrace Christ as our brother and you as our true Father and to live our lives accordingly.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
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