“God…has spoken to us by his Son”. Hebrews 1:1,2
Dear friends,
Are you just a little bit confused? We are receiving so many messages, aren’t we, about Covid-19 regulations. It seems that no sooner have we been told one thing than the game changes and we have to take note of something else. But the Government is doing its best to deal with a situation over which they have little or no control. Furthermore, there are so many opinions about what needs to be done and what steps are best for schools, or restaurants, or health workers, or care homes, or families. So many changes; so many voices.
If only all this confusion and uncertainty were to cause men and women to realise, maybe for the first time in some cases, that we need to listen to a higher voice, to follow a better guidepost, to adhere to a supreme source of principles to direct us through this life – pandemic or no pandemic. If only we were to look to an authority more reliable, more true, more certain than the best of any human wisdom.
Well, Hebrews 1:1,2 tells us that “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son”. In Jesus we have the authentic voice of God! We do well, or rather we simply must, listen to him. He is God’s last word to the world. He is the very language through whom God speaks to us.
At that first Christmas God came and shared in our human nature. Why? “He…shared in (our) humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death”. (Hebrews 2:14,15).
There are so many things that men and women fear today: coronavirus and its effects, no-deal Brexit with its effects, global warming and its effects, terrorism and its effects, the erosion of freedom of speech and conscience and its effects, and so one might go on. But the great fear that people prefer not to dwell on or mention is death, the result and penalty of human sin. If that fear can be overcome then all other fears fall away. And Jesus has overcome it for us – by his death for sin and his resurrection as evidence that the Father has accepted his sacrifice for us.
God spoke of old many times and in various ways but now we have his last and final word in Jesus. We need no more than Jesus, and nothing less than Jesus.
May the restrictions and limitations that seem to be the order of the day this Christmas enable us all to reflect more fully than ever on Jesus, the Son through whom God speaks and whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe!
Your brother in Christ,
