Jesus Is My Brother — But What Does That Mean?
00:00:00.000 | A listener to the podcast named Travis in Turlock, California writes in with a really
00:00:06.040 | good question.
00:00:07.040 | Here it is, Pastor John.
00:00:08.040 | "There are Scripture passages like Hebrews 2.11 and Romans 8.29 that speak of Jesus as
00:00:14.660 | our brother.
00:00:16.320 | There seem to be some opinions on how we might interpret this.
00:00:18.600 | So my question to you is this.
00:00:20.200 | In what sense is Jesus my brother, and how does the brotherhood of Jesus add weight and
00:00:25.860 | wonder and affection to our worship?"
00:00:29.040 | Well I love the way that question is framed.
00:00:34.240 | How does the brotherhood of Jesus to us add weight and wonder and affection to our worship?
00:00:45.660 | That's exactly the right question.
00:00:48.240 | Oh, that all of our questions were framed that way.
00:00:53.680 | I am sure that my thoughts about this are utterly inadequate to the greatness of the
00:01:02.800 | Son of God being my brother.
00:01:07.160 | I mean, that is such a staggering thought that what I'm about to say feels to me inadequate.
00:01:16.800 | But he asked, we have a Bible, God doesn't give us the legitimacy of staying silent.
00:01:24.200 | So Travis mentioned—I'm going to look at maybe two or three texts and see if I can
00:01:28.280 | just let these texts do the work.
00:01:31.160 | Travis mentioned Hebrews 2.11, so let's read it and maybe verses 10 and 11 together because
00:01:36.720 | I think the key is in the way verse 11 relates to verse 10.
00:01:41.560 | For it was fitting, it was fitting that he, this is God the Father, for whom and by whom
00:01:49.520 | all things exist in bringing many sons to glory should make the founder.
00:01:55.720 | So it was fitting that he should make the founder, that's Jesus, it's fitting that
00:01:59.960 | he should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.
00:02:04.840 | So God thought it fitting, suitable, appropriate, beautiful to complete, to make perfect the
00:02:14.680 | beauty of Christ through suffering, and here comes the ground.
00:02:19.040 | Because verse 11, because he who sanctifies, we know that's Jesus because of the way
00:02:25.880 | chapter 13.12 refers to the he who sanctifies.
00:02:29.680 | For Jesus, he who sanctifies, and those who are sanctified, his emerging sons of God and
00:02:36.920 | brothers are all of one.
00:02:41.560 | That's difficult to know what that refers to, but it could be all of one Father or all
00:02:45.440 | of one human nature, all of one.
00:02:49.080 | That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers.
00:02:56.240 | So he's not ashamed to call us brothers because in bringing us to sanctification through Jesus'
00:03:09.200 | death for us, which was fitting in bringing many sons to glory, therefore he's not ashamed
00:03:16.000 | to call us brothers.
00:03:17.160 | So the writer is giving a reason for why it was fitting that Christ lead many sons to
00:03:26.160 | glory through sufferings.
00:03:28.480 | And one great aim of God in salvation is that he have a great unified family of children
00:03:38.840 | with Jesus Christ being both essentially different from and yet deeply united to his other human
00:03:49.840 | brothers and sisters, both really different and really like.
00:03:56.760 | But if all the brothers and sisters in the family have experienced suffering except one,
00:04:04.160 | then the unity is jeopardized, and so for the sake of a common spirit of unity and sympathy
00:04:11.200 | and camaraderie even in suffering, Christ takes on human nature and he leads many sons
00:04:21.060 | to glory and into his brotherhood through suffering and death.
00:04:25.840 | In other words, the reason it's fitting for Christ to suffer to lead many sons to glory
00:04:31.960 | and many brothers into brotherhood to glory is that this suffering expresses his being
00:04:41.520 | a good, beautiful comrade, brother.
00:04:46.480 | All of this hangs on God's aim to create a family that's so unified and so deeply interwoven
00:04:56.280 | and empathetic that the family would be jeopardized, would be undermined if the perfect oldest
00:05:05.200 | brother does not go through all the pain of the rest of the children.
00:05:12.080 | So to answer Travis's question, what adds weight and wonder and affection to our worship
00:05:19.080 | of Christ is that it's the combination of the exalted uniqueness of Jesus as the Son
00:05:29.720 | of God, the Son of God, on the one hand, and his utter condescension to share our nature
00:05:39.560 | as humans and our suffering as fallen, mortal, all so that he could be included and we could
00:05:49.800 | be included in the divine family with Christ as the ever-exalted and superior, unique,
00:05:59.800 | divine older brother.
00:06:03.000 | That's my best shot at Hebrews 2.11, and it is a glorious picture.
00:06:09.920 | And here's Romans 8.29, which he also mentioned, and I think it's essentially the same argument.
00:06:17.320 | He says, "For those whom he, God, foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image
00:06:23.160 | of his Son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers."
00:06:30.280 | Now there's a double purpose there, a double purpose of God in predestination.
00:06:35.840 | One is conformity to the image of the Son of God so that we can actually be called brothers
00:06:42.280 | because of this unity, this conformity, this union with Christ.
00:06:47.040 | We're brothers by likeness, not just legally, but by likeness to his image.
00:06:52.800 | But the stress also falls on the fact that Jesus is the firstborn among the brothers,
00:06:59.520 | and that term "firstborn" should probably have here the complete weight that it had
00:07:05.880 | in the Old Testament, like Psalm 89.27, where it says, "And I will make him the firstborn,
00:07:12.400 | the highest of the kings of the earth."
00:07:15.600 | That's not a small word in Paul's vocabulary.
00:07:19.520 | So the reason this gives weight and wonder to our worship of the Son is, again, the combination
00:07:28.320 | of oneness with us as we are conformed to his image and difference from us in being
00:07:36.600 | the firstborn in the fullest sense of the highest of the kings of the earth.
00:07:42.840 | Our elder brother is one with us and yet infinitely above us, and it's the conjunction of those
00:07:51.200 | two things that is peculiar—I like to say the peculiar glory—that we worship.
00:07:58.600 | And if we let ourselves linger in Romans 8 for just a bit, we'll remember in verses
00:08:05.840 | 16 and 17 that being a brother of Christ means being a fellow heir with him.
00:08:15.180 | So Paul says, "The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of
00:08:19.240 | God, and if children, then heirs," and then he adds, "fellow heirs with Christ."
00:08:25.240 | That's what brothers are.
00:08:26.480 | They are fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him.
00:08:31.600 | Now that is simply breathtaking for us poor, weak, sinful, ignorant humans.
00:08:39.840 | Fellow heirs with the Son of God because we're in the family by the Spirit of adoption.
00:08:47.960 | What's a state that we inherit with Jesus is the universe.
00:08:53.280 | It's everything that exists except God.
00:08:57.640 | And the implications of this is a weight of worship that should make us humble, joyful
00:09:04.880 | worshipers on Sunday and should make us the most free from materialism.
00:09:10.880 | We own everything by inheritance, free from materialism, radical lives of love.
00:09:17.400 | And maybe one last text because I love this one.
00:09:20.280 | I preached a sermon one time called "How to Become the Mother of Jesus," and I could
00:09:24.200 | have preached on how to be the brother of Jesus because they're both in the same text.
00:09:28.760 | Mark 3, 32 to 35, there was a crowd around Jesus and they said, "Hey, your mother and
00:09:33.520 | your brothers are outside seeking you."
00:09:35.280 | In other words, the people that are closest to you, that seem to have the closest human
00:09:40.880 | ties, they want to talk to you.
00:09:44.040 | Now Jesus' answer is simply stunning.
00:09:46.840 | He says, "Who are my mother and my brothers?"
00:09:49.760 | And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my
00:09:55.000 | brothers.
00:09:56.000 | For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother."
00:10:03.280 | So how to be the mother of Jesus is to obey God, and you'll be the mother of Jesus.
00:10:08.440 | Well, what does that mean?
00:10:10.120 | Be the mother or sister or brother of Jesus?
00:10:12.880 | It doesn't mean you'll be as close to him as you can get.
00:10:18.480 | Your intimacy of relationship will be very, very, very close.
00:10:23.800 | There will be privilege, there will be access, there'll be protection.
00:10:26.920 | It's wonderful to have a big brother who's strong when you're getting in a fight on the
00:10:31.800 | playground.
00:10:32.920 | It's wonderful if you're watching your son die to have him care for you and put John
00:10:38.120 | in charge of you because he's a good caregiver to his mother.
00:10:42.800 | You want Jesus to be a good caregiver to you?
00:10:45.280 | Then become the mother or the brother of Jesus by obeying the will of God.
00:10:51.200 | So weight and wonder, like Travis says, the weight and the wonder of our worship of Jesus
00:10:59.680 | is always a mingling of trembling reverence at the unique divine greatness of the one
00:11:07.420 | who is and the unspeakable loneliness that unites him to us in a shared human nature
00:11:16.240 | and suffering and amazingly intimate friendship.
00:11:22.120 | Marvelous implications here, Pastor John.
00:11:24.000 | Thank you for unpacking these loaded passages on this precious truth.
00:11:27.880 | Well, for more details about this podcast or to catch up on past episodes that we've
00:11:31.560 | released or to subscribe to the audio feed, even send us a question of your own like Travis
00:11:35.000 | did today, go to our online home.
00:11:37.240 | DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:11:38.240 | And Pastor John and I will return on Friday to hear from a listener who wants to know
00:11:44.960 | when it comes to the hardening of our hearts and the softening of our hearts, what can
00:11:49.520 | we do to make our own hearts softer?
00:11:52.660 | Is there anything we can do?
00:11:54.000 | And if so, what is it?
00:11:56.000 | I'm your host Tony Reinke, and we will see you on Friday.
00:11:58.360 | Bye.
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