Made Holy by Joe La Bianca


Hebrews 2:11-13
Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. He says, “I will declare your name to my brothers; in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises.” And again, “I will put my trust in him.” And again he says, “Here am I, and the children God has given me.”
Now that Jesus has made us believers holy, we are the same as He is. It is no longer a holy God and sinful people. We are called holy too, just like Jesus. We are given His goodness. This is because we admitted our utter sinfulness and inability to be good. Quite the paradox, isn’t it? This is a case of the first being last and the last, first. This fantastic revelation is found right in our verse. Believers are in God’s family now.
No one could be good to get into God’s family. Jesus had to make us holy for that to happen. All cross and resurrection believers, everywhere, have been made holy by Jesus. No one could ever make themselves holy. The word “holy” means “to be set apart for God.” Jesus sets us apart for God when we believe in Him. Before faith in Christ, we were not special, for we were lumped together with everyone else. But now that we have been saved by Christ, we enjoy a separateness and distinction that unambiguously reveals us to be the children of God.
Jesus feels no shame in calling us brothers. We are not merely called the brothers and sisters of Christ, we are announced to be so. Jesus declares that we are one with Him in the middle of many witnesses. Saints in heaven and on earth are told of Christ’s love for His own. So how can we be ashamed of Jesus? Sure, we can be ashamed of how many people act in His name. We can be ashamed of all kinds of Christians who do all sorts of dumb things. But we should never be ashamed of the One who is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters. To be embarrassed of Jesus is a shame!
Jesus is unashamed of us because He has made us holy. If we dare try to make ourselves holy by self merit, we would then know what the shame of Christ towards us really is. Christ makes us holy and so there is no disgrace in us. All the praise for our lofty position goes straight to Jesus for His wonderful grace.
Jesus considers us to be brothers inasmuch as He took on flesh and blood when He condescended. Messiah came and announced the Father to those He became like. God the Son was found in appearance as a man, in the middle of the congregation, praising the Father. As humankind, we finally have someone to represent us. Jesus, the One who sanctifies men for God, lowered Himself to become flesh and blood as a fellow human brother, preached the Father by celebrating God at meeting, taught us to trust the Deity because God is trustworthy, and begot a family for God through His cross. Believe all these wonderful things about Jesus and teach your heart to trust God.
When we understand God, we will trust Him. When we know how much He loves us, through His Son’s actions, we will love Him too. I visit Christian sites and so many of them tell people to love Jesus. Then they say that we must show that we love Him. This is how these people think salvation happens. Why would anyone love someone without a reason? They tell us to love Jesus and that’s it. Let me tell you that nowhere is it said that loving Jesus is what saves us. Nowhere is it revealed that the gospel is going around and telling people to love Jesus without a reason. Loving Jesus does not take away sins. Trying to force yourself to love God because you are afraid of Him is insincere. The way to be saved is to believe in what Jesus has done by taking our punishment and forgiving us on the cross. When we believe this simple truth, we are saved. When we realize that Jesus has done all this for us just because He loves us, then and only then will we love Him. We love God because He first loved us. I am afraid for these people who think they are gaining an entrance into God’s family because they show that they love Jesus. They do not love Jesus before they understand this truth. Everywhere in scripture, Jesus is doing great things for us. We cannot escape the gospel of grace when reading the Bible. And why would we want to? Only a self-deceived person could miss the large number of verses, chapters, and books that so variously teach the loving grace of the Savior.
Try to realize just how loving and kind Jesus is; that God would lower Himself and become a man is mind boggling. It’s like a man, in order to save the ants, becoming an ant himself. Only God showed far more love in becoming a man than that. For God to tire, sweat, and become hungry, shows such overwhelming grace. It is graceful for Him to be willing to do such things, never mind bearing our sins in His own body, while dying a criminal’s death on a cross. Just think: Jesus, who is sinless, perfect, and all pure, actually bore our sins in His own body. What love! What over-the-top grace! What drastic measures He took for our salvation! Let’s never forget the great lengths Jesus went through to save us.
Jesus became the same as us in order to do it for us. God requires perfection, so Jesus perfectly obeyed the law, and then received the punishment that was due us. We can never love Jesus enough to pay Him back. We cannot match Christ’s love with ours. This is why John says in his gospel when referring to himself, “The one whom Jesus loved.” We don’t love in order to earn salvation, we love because salvation was earned for us.
Do we indeed love Jesus? If we are ungrateful, sin-practicing people, then we should look to Jesus in faith, and learn just who He is. The correct understanding of Christ will birth in us a thankful appreciation for our Savior, and a loving obedience that springs from faith.
When Jesus was forsaken by God on the cross, it was because the sins in His own body induced God to separate Himself from the Son. Paul said that Jesus became sin, not a sin offering only, but sin. Peter said that Jesus bore our sins in His body. Now how can that be a mere sin offering? No, there was a real exchange going on. Jesus became sin so we could become holy. If Jesus didn’t bear our sins then we can’t bear His holiness. Be careful how you treat the cross.
These sins were not His own, though Jesus did indeed somehow carry them. They were our sins. Since God and sin can never be one, Jesus was in that instant forsaken by His Father. This was the first time in the eternal existence of God that the fellowship between Persons was severed, and Jesus acutely felt this, hence His cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Jesus is the Truth, and the Truth said that He was forsaken by God. I believe when Jesus was abandoned by God on the cross, He lost all knowledge of His purpose. His reason left Him the instant the sin of the world was laid on His shoulders. He didn’t know why He was forsaken for that moment because He truly was left alone by His Father. He didn’t have His Father anymore. All the peace, the oneness with God, and the lucidness of mind left the cursed Man on the cross. Cursed is everyone hung on a tree. How would you feel if the absolute love and fellowship of your eternal Father was all of a sudden gone? You would go mad for as long as you were apart. When Jesus was in that moment, I believe He didn’t know just how long it would last. As far as He was concerned, He lost His Father forever. All this for us. All this for us. Guess who else felt the separation? That’s right, the Father. We need to realize the Father’s side as well, and in doing so, realize His great love and willingness to save.
Jesus trusted God before the cross, during the cross, when things were out of His control, and after the cross. We must also trust God. Trusting God will help us through all the aspects of life. When things get out of control, trust God and you’ll make it, even if it is by the skin of your teeth. Trusting God will give the little extra that you need to overcome, without which, you would fall.
In closing, we are made holy by Jesus. For Jesus to make us holy, He had to take on our likeness as man, and so we are called brothers. Jesus is unashamed to call us brothers and sisters because we are new creations who are of Christ. He made a tree good. All glory, therefore, goes to Jesus for our holiness.
The Messiah visited the earth 2,000 years ago, and those who perceive this are called “blessed.” He came and declared the gospel to us and showed us the way of salvation, for He is salvation incarnate. He taught us to trust God, by Himself trusting His Father during His life. We will appear with Christ as the children God has given Him. It’s good to know that we are of the same family as Messiah. As believing people in Christ the Lord, we will share His inheritance and take our place in the house of God, truly one with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen!