Posted by: Sherm Nichols on Thu, Aug 19, 2010
Hebrews 5:9 (NIV) ...and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him…
I’m not sure we give enough thought to an eternal, transcendent, immutable God and what it means for Him to insert Himself in self-imposed confines. God doesn’t change. There is no variation or shifting of shadow about Him. The essence of God will never change. But, from a human perspective, God does make changes around Himself. For instance, “before” creation, God was not Creator of Heaven and earth. Once He did that, there were some changes. God obligated Himself by creating man and being involved in that creation. God made promises, promises He didn’t have to make, but now that He has to keep.
Then we get to places like Hebrews 5:9, and there are words applied to our unchanging God that you don’t use about unchanging beings – “…made…became…” Ponder the mystery with me. Jesus was “made perfect.” Jesus “became” something. My understanding is that this whole concept is tied to the incarnation. God “became flesh” and lived among us. The unchanging God not only took on a different form, but took on a form and journey that would require Him to be “made” and to “become.” Before His suffering and death, Jesus’ earthly status was not complete. For 33 years, from the manger to the cross, Jesus was becoming the source of eternal salvation. He wasn’t until it was finished.
Jesus became. How shallow and pathetic my own nature sounds next to these words. The Lord calls me to grow up, to make and keep commitments, to be transformed by the renewing of my mind. And what do I do? I resist. My flesh resists the change. My flesh, in this transitory, ever-changing world, resists becoming the better things the Lord has for me to become. I don’t like to have to adjust my tastes and comforts. I don’t like to change my plans. I don’t like to give up bad habits, or to add new practices and disciplines for growth. My mind doesn’t like to be stretched.
I plan, one day in Heaven, to praise the Lord not only for Who He is, but also for what He deliberately became for me. God made Him, Who had no sin, to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Turns out that not all change is bad.
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