Devotion Booklets for Seasons of the Church Year 2016 | Page 43

Friday—December 30th

The Lord Comes to Save Us!
Hebrews 2:14-18
It is stunning. Just stunning. Jesus didn’t become an angel. He could’ve, but he didn’t. He
could’ve died for the devil and the rest of his minions. He could’ve, but he didn’t. Inexplicable
grace put his heart and his interest somewhere else. It is us he helps. It is us he lived among. It
is us he came close to – so close as to take up our skin and to wear our sin.

He had to be human if he would help us. For centuries God’s people knew deep down that the
goats and the calves and even the bulls wouldn’t and couldn’t finally help them. In fact, wasn’t
that the whole deal? Year and after year they had to come back with those sacrifices because
they were not complete or total or satisfying. Goat for human doesn’t actually compute. No, it
had to be a real and equal kind of eye for eye and tooth for tooth exchange. That alone would
adequately deal with sin in a satisfying, complete, and total way.
So he came. With eyes. With teeth. With real humanity. He came. He came as the ultimate
human to be a good enough and a complete enough and a satisfying enough sacrifice to make
atonement for the sins of the people. And he was just that. Good enough, I mean. Jesus was so
good that he had God declaring his love for him from heaven. “This is my Son, whom I love.”
“Wow, he’s so good,” God was saying.
He was that good. He was so good that his death meant the end of death. He was so complete
that his sacrifice made death give up the ghost. He was so satisfying with his atonement that
death was no longer hungry for us. Death’s belly has been permanently filled to the brim with
Christ.
Can you sense the freedom in that? The way it makes your soul dance just a little bit? The way
it makes you live a little more like you mean it? The way it makes you joy at his power? This is
the power of the Lord’s coming for you. It’s freedom.

PRAYER:
Lord Jesus, thank you. Thank you for your humanity. Thank you for your trading yourself for
us. You made death give up the ghost and freed us from fearing it. Thank you. Make our souls
and our lives dance for you today and forever. Amen.
ACTIVITY:
Discuss a trade you’ve made in your family. What made it a fair trade? What did Jesus give in a
trade to have you eternally? What made it fair?

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