Jesus the Author of Salvation

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. (Hebrews 2.10)

Jesus is the author of our salvation. As Christians we readily agree that Jesus created the salvific bridge that brings us face to face with God the Father. What becomes more difficult when we stop to reflect is the means by which he composed that bridge of salvation. It is difficult, in our hunger for comfort, to receive Jesus as the author of our salvation because He generated our salvation through suffering.

We kneel before the cross but do we truly recognize his suffering? Jesus did not leap to the cross and, in a moment, die. He endured countless hours of beating and abuse at the hands of men just like you and I. He suffered the humiliation of watching his closest followers betray Him in His time of greatest need. He suffered over decades by the emptying of Himself to step down into our sin-broken abuse of His creation.

In His suffering He is united to us through His humanity, and through His suffering we are now united through His perfect salvation with the Father. Can we truly fathom the love of our Lord Jesus, the author of our salvation who knew the beginning, the end and the excruciating middle of the story? From the eternal word of His mouth Jesus spoke into existence our salvation through His suffering; and by His passion we have been brought into redeemed relationship with God! We can rest assured that our personal stories—beginning, end and middle—are being guided by our Divine Author toward glory.

Praise you Jesus, the author of my salvation. I weep at your suffering and thank you for not holding back from it for my sake.

Jesus the Taster of Death

…Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. (Hebrews 2.9)

It was common in ancient times for kings to have food-tasters, people who would sample the food and drink at the royal table, cupbearers, to keep the king from being poisoned. Nehemiah is a perfect example of this lived out in the Bible as a servant who lays his life on the line day in and day out for the sake of preserving the life of his sovereign. There is something noble about this high view of royalty.

And yet, as always, Jesus turns our worldview on its head. He is the sovereign and eternal King, the matchless one, the everlasting God but he took the bitter cup set before us. As His servants we are ready to taste the cup in His hands but he placed it His own lips and drank deeply of its death. He is the cupbearer for the nations. He tasted death for all of humanity, the redeemed, the unreached and those still lost in the darkness of unbelief. Jesus, crowned with all the glory and honor of the government on His shoulders, took the cup for us.

Now, Jesus invites us to take the cup. He has tasted death and consumed the poisonous sting. We may suffer martyrdom but the fear of death has been destroyed. We can take up the cup knowing that the suffering in its liquid is only a temporary gate through which is the presence of our Jesus the taster of death, our abiding cupbearer.

Jesus, thank you for tasting death and removing its sting from my servanthood that I might have everlasting life.