“Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.”
— Hebrews 5:7–8 (KJV)
Here beginneth the first movement: the suffering of the Head, before ever we speak of the suffering of the body. For the Church hath no sorrow that her Lord did not taste first, and no glory that He hath not already entered. Four chapters stand in this movement as four watches of one night: the flesh He took, the tears He wept, the press He endured, and the obedience He learned. Mark this well, O reader: the epistle to the Hebrews saith not that He pretended flesh, nor that He visited flesh, but that there were DAYS of His flesh — datable days, dusty days, Galilean and Judaean days under Tiberius Caesar. The pleasure of the suffering is no theory from an ivory chamber; it was walked out in sandals.
CHAPTER 1: WHO IN THE DAYS OF HIS FLESH
Galilee and Judaea under the procurators of Rome, in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
— John 1:14 (KJV)
What manner of scripture is this — the days of his flesh? Could not the Spirit have said, the days of His ministry, or the days of His humiliation? Nay; the Holy Ghost chose the word flesh, σάρξ (sarx), that no man might imagine a phantom Christ, a Christ of porcelain who felt nothing. He was hungry in the wilderness and thirsty at the well; He was wearied with His journey and slept in the storm; He groaned in His spirit and was troubled. The eternal Word took unto Himself nerves that could burn, tears that could fall, and a heart that could break. This is the scandal and the glory of Bethlehem.
Consider what it meant for Him who inhabiteth eternity to be measured by days. He who made the sun submitted to sunrise and sunset; He who is the Ancient of Days consented to be an infant of days. The Hebrew fathers called Him עַתִּיק יוֹמִין (Attiq Yomin), the Ancient of Days; yet in the days of His flesh He grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. Is a mystery greater than this found anywhere in heaven or earth? I trow not.
And wherefore did He take flesh? Hear the apostle: Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death. Behold the divine strategy: He became a partaker of our flesh, that we might become partakers of His glory — yea, partakers of the divine nature. The exchange runneth in both directions, as a golden ladder set up on the earth whose top reacheth to heaven. He came down our side of the ladder that we might go up His side.
Therefore despise not thy flesh, O saint, nor curse the body of thy humiliation; for God Himself hath worn one like it, and wore it unto death, and weareth one glorified at this hour at the right hand of the Majesty on high. The days of thy flesh are not days of exile from purpose; they are the very theatre wherein God is well pleased to reveal His Son in thee. In the days of HIS flesh He redeemed the days of THY flesh. The Peshitta saith He was revealed ܒܒܤܪ(b'besar), in the flesh — and by that flesh, thy flesh is sanctified for glory.
