Hebrews 6:13 -20 - "THE CERTAINTY OF GOD’S PROMISES"

We have a key word in our text: “Promise”[1] (6:12,13,15,17). Before we unpack that, let me ask you a few searching questions: 

Can you remember promises that have been made to you, but which weren’t kept? How did you feel about that? What impact did that have on your life? 

And then these questions: Can you remember promises that you made and didn’t keep? What impact, do you think that has had on others, and what would have been  the result of those broken promises?

Is there anyone in this world that has not experienced broken promises? 

And then this last and important question: Is there anyone who never breaks a promise? 

Last week Pastor Brits took you through that challenging text in 5:11- 6:12, in which the writer warns his readers concerning the real danger of apostasy – of falling away, of cutting yourself loose from the heavenly gift, the Lord Jesus (6:4), the promised Saviour and the chilling consequence of that: 

“It is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted  the heavenly gift, and have  shared (tasted)  in the Holy Spirit and have  tasted  the goodness of the Word of God and of the powers of the age to come, and then  have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance…”  (6:4-6)

The writer however expresses his confidence that this is NOT the case with his readers:

9 Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. 10 For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. 11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Well, there we are.  He is convinced that these men and women who are tempted to abandon Christ, the promised Saviour, will not do so, but that they will persevere  in the  full assurance of hope and  that they will be  imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

The promises…This now becomes our connecting thought in 6:13, where we read concerning the  promise God  made to Abraham: “For when God made a promise  to Abraham…”. Let’s stop and rehearse what we have learned so far.

We have learned that this letter was written to Hebrew Christians who struggled to hold on to their faith in Jesus alone. They were tempted to substitute the absolute glory of Jesus with the lesser glories of created glorious beings like the angels. They were tempted to substitute the Lord Jesus, that perfect man from heaven with great and revered, but imperfect men, like Moses.

The problem lay in the fact that the Christian life must be lived from the principle of faith in Christ ALONE. Here is the problem. We must live in the future hope of His promises (e.g. John 14:1-3), and that is not easy. We have believed in Him, and we believe that He has redeemed us from the consequences of sin, but we are groaning inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Rom. 8:23).  There is incompleteness while we are waiting and Romans 8:18-24 makes that very clear. We have been told that there is more to come. There is an inheritance in the waiting.  We are heirs[2] - we will inherit[3]  the full promise of our salvation, but it takes so long! We must wait for our promised inheritance in “faith and patience”.  It is this waiting process, that is so very challenging.  To live this Christian life we need faith and patience. We need to live in the hope of the future promises of God. This is very difficult for our generation which lives very much in an  age of instant gratification. 

We don’t like waiting. 

We don’t do well with patience.  

But that  is what is required  here, and again I ask you to consider  6:11,12, which   introduce us to  our  text  which deals with the certainty  of God’s promise.  God’s promise is obtained by patience, faith, hope – all looking towards the future. 

This is what we learn here.

Abraham- an example 

And now we are given the example in the person of Abraham, last mentioned in 2:16. Abraham is a massive figure in the Bible when it comes to illustrating the practical outworking of faith, hope and patience. These attitudes exemplified in the life of Abraham help to persevere in the Christian life and to obtain the promise. Faith, hope and patience in Christ are the antidote to drifting away (2:1) and falling away (3:12). They are the antidote to developing a hardened heart (3:7,13, 15; 4:7). They are the antidote to becoming dull of hearing (5:11) and sluggish (6:12).

And now we need to see something beautiful and so very encouraging in this. At the heart of this passage is not a call to self- effort, to do more. At the heart of this passage is a promise from God. The call is  not to do more, but to trust more, to lean more upon God’s promises!

Back to Abraham! Remember that Abraham became God’s friend by virtue of the fact that God first appeared to him   in Ur of the Chaldees (Gen. 11:31, 12:1).  God sought out Abraham. Thereafter God called him and then He gave him a promise, that He would bless and multiply Abraham’s offspring (Gen. 12:2,3 cf.re- iterated in  Gen. 22:15-18). The promise, was accompanied by an oath, and since there was no one higher to swear by, God swore the oath – which is “final for confirmation” (6:16), by Himself (6:13). An oath bears “the unchangeable character of His purpose” (6:17) and this purpose will stand because God cannot lie (6:18).

Having said that Abraham   had to patiently wait for a very long time to obtain the promise. The promise was a son to be born of the covenant wife, Sarah. Isaac was born against hope when his wife Sarah was old and barren, and when he was already 100 years old (Gen. 21:5). 

How did Abraham cope in this long, long wait?  Well, he believed God! To be sure, Abraham doubted the promise at times, but that  doesn’t mean that the promise itself was ever in doubt. The promise comes from God, who cannot lie.  The same is true for us. Just because we, at times doubt God’s promises, that doesn’t mean that His promise is ever in doubt. He keeps His promises, because God’s character is unchangeable and “it is impossible for God to lie,” (6: 18). It may have taken a long time for it to come to pass, but God brought it about in His own time.  God is never in a hurry, but always on time.  And so, Abraham hoped against hope (Romans 4:18-25).  He trusted God to build his covenant family line,…”and thus  Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise” (6:15).  This patience was built on the basis of faith and the  assurance of hope  (6:11,18). And that   is all built on the  unchangeable character of God’s purpose guaranteed by an oath  (6:17), so that  by two unchangeable things  (i.e. the promise and the oath), in which it is impossible for God  to lie, WE who have fled for refuge (to Jesus) might have strong encouragement  to hold fast to the hope set before us (6:18)

This hope, says 6:19, is a “sure and steadfast anchor of the soul.”  An anchor keeps a boat from drifting away.  

What is the nature of our soul anchor? How do we know that the anchor will hold? Again, we are reminded  that,  that anchor held for Abraham, because God  had promised, on oath, that he would be the father of many nations.  

Now we need to apply  all this to these  dull of hearing, sluggish,  Hebrew Christians who were in danger of drifting away. We also need to apply this to ourselves.  God's great promise on oath to them and to us is the Lord Jesus Christ, our great High priest, after the eternal  order of Melchizedek (this will be explained in Chapter 7)

Hope in the Work of Christ!

6:19 says that we have, “a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain.”  

6:20 says that Jesus is “a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”  The concept of an OT high priest entering behind a curtain into the holy of holies to make atonement is  a strange concept  to us. To the Jews the concept of a priest in the order of Melchizedek (and nor according  to  the order of Levi) was  even stranger.  But the big point is that we do need a high priest to present   the sinner before a holy God! That was the function of the Old Testament priest, and in many ways that is still the Roman Catholic model.  

So then, who is the priest to whom the NT Christian must look?  Many evangelicals are tempted to look  to their  pastor (cf. the Corinthian church problem with Apollos, Peter and Paul[4] ). But we must not do that.  Our great pastor and High Priest is Jesus ALONE. 

He ALONE  is the promised gift from God. 

Jesus ALONE can deal with our sin and our guilt.  

Jesus ALONE secures the promise and blessing of God.  

Jesus ALONE secured the promised land (Heaven) and the promised rest for us. 

Jesus ALONE can do this because He ALONE is qualified to enter into the presence of God, behind the curtain,  into the holy of holies. His going into the holy place in heaven and offering Himself as a sacrifice on our behalf, His resurrection, His ascension, enables Him to be the Mediator between a holy God and a sinful people.

Jesus ALONE is God’s promise by whom and through whom we can enter into that great assembly of true believers. By Him ALONE we inherit that great promise and blessing of a city and country whose designer and builder is God (see 11:10). That is where we are heading. That is our promised destiny. That is  our future hope.

So, in times of temptation and inclination to drift, when we become sluggish, we must hold on to the promise given by oath. God has fulfilled the promise and the oath by the blood of His Son on the cross. He is our anchor.   The anchor is one of the earliest symbols in the history of Christianity. He ALONE is our promise and hope. Hold on to  Jesus – and the fulfilment of  His promise  in patience, and faith and hope -  to be where He is (John 14:1-3)

In 1572 the Scottish Reformer John Knox (1514 – 1572) was dying. In his last hours he asked his wife to go get his Bible. He asked her  to “read where I first cast my anchor”. She read to him the verses where he had first come to faith in Jesus Christ,  and the text  where he had first found hope. It was in John 17:3: “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”  In His death He held on to the promise of Christ.[5]

The temptation for us to drift away may not be the same as those Hebrews who were tempted to turn back to Judaism, but the temptation for us is certainly always that we may be looking for hope somewhere else other than the Word of God and the work of Christ. We tend to  regard this world as our only home. Therefore many put their hope in the solutions that man offers for our many earthly problems. We look at political and philosophical solutions. We put our hope in better education or in social reform, but what does it lead to? We still feel like being adrift in a sea of change and unpredictability.

We have a better soul anchor. We have that greater hope, and we must look to Jesus with patience and faith. 

And it is no risk at all. You may trust His Word entirely, for all God’s promises are yes and amen in Christ  (1 Cor. 1:20). He will not fail you.

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[1]  Promise : epangelia lit.  “to proclaim/ announce upon” – an undertaking to give or do something ( Vine), hence a promise

[2] Rom. 8:17

[3] Eph. 1:11,14,18

[4] 1 Corinthians 1:12

[5] https://www.wicketgate.co.uk/issue87/e87_6.html

Hebrews 2:5-18 "JESUS, NOT MOSES, IS THE FOUNDER OF GOD’S HOUSE "

 

I am delighted to address you this morning in the words of the writer to the Hebrews, “Holy brothers and sisters, you who share in a heavenly calling…” (3:1)

Our text is at once a new slant and yet a continuation of that which the writer to the Hebrews is seeking to communicate to his readers.  You will remember that this letter is written to a group of Hebrew Christians who somehow had lost perspective of their great salvation in Christ over time. 

They were tempted to substitute the Christ of their salvation, whose Being and Nature is described in 1:3.   

They were  tempted  to return to Judaism, and in so doing, they were beginning to drift away (2:1). 

This is a very serious matter and when we get to chapter 6:4-6 we will see that this has very serious consequences: 

4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

Drifting from Jesus is a slow process. It happens incrementally, and finally people that once believed in Jesus give up on Him, and they give up meeting with the people of Jesus, a matter addressed in 10:24,25 -  

“23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

This is utterly relevant to our own day. This Covid season has exposed our hearts like little else since the end of WW2, after which huge sociological changes came upon our world and the church.[1] I spoke to a pastor in our Sola 5 connexion this past week and he tells me that 50 percent of their membership has not returned to regular worship, and Covid has apparently provided a respectable reason.  In our congregation  thankfully we do not have such a high percentage, but we do have members whose love for Jesus and the church has cooled. Huge events like this have that sort of effect, and since the Christian faith and the church   form a  familiar routine for many   that are not thoroughly connected to Christ, they drift away, and they discover that  they  are not really missing  Christ and His body.  They then search for renewed meaning and in that process (and with Satan’s help fueling the natural desires of the flesh) the soul substitutes its contentment in God and in Christ for lesser beings and things and activities.[2]  Our fallen religious instinct (and yes, we are all religious – but perverted by original sin) drives us to lesser  beings. 

And so we have seen in Chapter 1: 4-2:18 that these Hebrews were moving away from Jesus  by beginning to consider the angels - these marvelous and mysterious heavenly beings -    as superior to Jesus.

Hebrews 2:1-6

But in addition to that, we shall now see, they were thinking that Moses, that huge Old Testament figure was superior to Jesus. Again this apostolic writer labors to show them that they were heading into treacherous waters, and so he strongly exhorts them to take another good look at Jesus.  

Now Moses’ importance to the Jewish mind cannot be overstated. Moses was revered as the greatest of all Hebrews. His history and his legacy in the Bible is huge.  He was chosen by God in the unique encounter of the burning bush (Ex. 3). He was the great deliverer of his people when he led them out of Egypt (Ex. 7-12). He was the great intercessor of his people when they sinned (e.g. Ex. 17:4, 8-13; 32:11-14, 31-32). He received the 10 commandments on Mt.Sinai, and from him came the law of Moses. (Ex. 34:29-35); He was Israel’s greatest prophet (Deut. 34:10,11).  He was second only to Adam in his experience of intimacy with God[3].  Numbers 12:6-8 reveals this concerning Moses:  

6 …"Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. 7 Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. 8 With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD.“

The first 5 books of the Bible, the so called Pentateuch, are attributed to Moses. Moses was the meekest and humblest person on the face of the earth (Num. 12:3). His character was undoubtedly forged in the desert during those 40 years.  And now you will understand the high regard which the Hebrew people had for Moses. He seemed, like the angels to be superhuman, and now we can understand why the writer finds it necessary to establish the superiority of Christ over Moses. The danger of drifting back into Judaism is real.  Drifting into the past and into lesser loves and 'the good old days' and sentimentalism is a real temptation for all of us when Jesus shifts out of sight.

1.       A CALL TO FOCUS ON JESUS! (3:1)

It is with this thought in mind that the writer calls them to consider Jesus: 

1 Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession..., 

Please  take note that his appeal is to their confession of faith: they are  brothers, they are holy, they share  in a heavenly calling. This is what they professed, but now the writer holds them accountable   to their commitment to Jesus, their apostle[4]  and high priest. By these titles Jesus superiority to Moses is asserted.

The word apostle means ‘sent one’, and we must remember that Jesus repeatedly refers to Himself as One sent by the Father into the world[5].  In that sense Jesus occupies the foundation of all apostolic work. As high priest He fulfills the office perfectly as mediator between man and God, because He is both, the Son of Man and the Son of God.  As such then they and we are called to consider[6] Jesus. The word is intense and calls us to examine Jesus closely. The apostle Paul expresses this intense desire to know Jesus in Philippians 3:10,  

“… that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” 

In  Hebrews  12:1,2 we  have another call to look closely at Jesus, 

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

This writer understands  that the survival of these people to whom he is writing  depends  on a close, intimate  look  on this Jesus, both as  the  apostle sent from God  and as high priest  standing between them and God. Oh, how we need to cultivate intense look at Jesus through our private Bible reading, in regular prayer and meditation, and through hearing the Word of Jesus preached to us often. Consider Him! (cf. also 12:3). Take a thorough, clear and close look at Jesus, and you will see the immense difference between Him and other great personalities and beings, whose lesser glories  we so easily fall for.  The antidote to every spiritual illness is a better sight of Christ. Get to know Jesus as He is presented to you in the Bible. Then you will never leave him.

2.        A CALL TO OBSERVE  THAT JESUS IS GREATER THAN MOSES (3:2-6)

And now the writer helps  them and us to  see  just in which way Jesus is greater than Moses,

2  Jesus…who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house. 3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses--as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. 4 (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) 5 Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 6 but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

While both Jesus and Moses were faithful in their God given callings, Jesus calling was greater because His work was greater.  By way of an illustration the writer uses the analogy of a house and its builder. An architect, a builder is always greater than the building which he designs and builds. So the point is that Jesus is superior to Moses because Jesus is the builder, and Moses is part of the building or household as a steward and servant. Now we need to remember that this comparison does not minimize or devalue Moses. His faithfulness is not in question. We know that he was highly  honoured by the Jews and in history. The fact however is that Jesus build the  true house, the temple of God, the church, just as He build the universe (1:2). Moses served as a great leader in the house of God, but Jesus by  His shed blood and broken body built  the living temple  of God. Moses upheld the sacrificial system. Jesus Himself was the ultimate sacrifice.

Verse 5 makes this great distinction between Jesus and Moses even more  clear: 

“Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant… but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son.”  

The word used to describe Moses servanthood is rare and only used here in the NT. It is the word “therapōn”, (from which we derive the word therapy or therapist) denoting an honoured servant who is far above  a slave, but who is  still a servant. Moses was truly a servant of the LORD (Ex. 14:31; Num. 11:11;12:7; Deut. 3:24; Josh. 1:2). In Exodus 35-50 alone there are 22 references to Moses’s faithfulness to God.

In fact, Moses was  a faithful servant and witness to Christ.  We are told  that he was to “to testify to the things that were to be spoken later.” Moses, therefore in this sense is another John the Baptist (who was not the light- John  1: 6-8), but simply  pointing and testifying to the greater  One to come. In fact, Moses law, and the entire sacrificial system, the ceremonies, the priesthood, the tabernacle were all pointing  to  their fulfilment  in the  coming  Christ. That is why Jesus said to the Jews, 

“For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.”(Jn. 5:46). 

And after the resurrection, walking with 2 disciples on the Emmaus road we read this:   

27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (Lk 24:27). 

Moses was a faithful servant, and in one sense he was a son of God, but He was not the eternal Son. Christ is the faithful son over the house of God (3:6). Moses pointed to Him, but Jesus fulfilled all the OT prophecies even unto the cross. Such was the ministry of our faithful apostle and high priest, the One sent from God to redeem us from our sin.  Jesus is greater and better than Moses. Infinitely!

Does our faithful apostle and high priest require anything from us?  

Yes He does!

1.       We have already seen that we must intensely consider Him – the Son of God. And now two more things:  “And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.”

2.       We are His house, in being and doing. We are the living temple of God – not Moses’s  tabernacle, nor David’s temple – these all pointed to the living church . As such we need to identify with His house, remembering that it is He that calls us and gathers us into this living community. To be disregard   the church means to disregard Christ.

3.       In this we must persevere: “we must hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.” We will find this  condition  again and again in the book of Hebrews: we need to persevere in the Christian life. We must hold on. We must hold on in the context of His house.  It is the  test of a true faith. The doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints  is not only rooted  in the fact that God  has saved us decisively, but that this fact  must be seen  and worked out in our lives within the house that Jesus  has built .

Are you persevering? Or are you drifting from Christ and His house?

Is Jesus as dear to you as on the first day when you met Him? 

Are you holding fast to your confidence  and boasting in your  hope in Christ?

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[1] My dear father left Germany as a thoroughly disillusioned and god-less man. (Thankfully he did not die that way!)  The war and Adolf Hitler had killed the soul of the German nation. Hitler was greatly influenced by   Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), a German philosopher and writer whose work has exerted a profound influence on modern intellectual history. Nietzsche said famously, ‘God is dead‘.  Nietzsche believed there could be positive new possibilities for humans without God. Relinquishing the belief in God opens the way for human creative abilities to fully develop. The Christian God, he wrote, would no longer stand in the way, so human beings might stop turning their eyes toward a supernatural realm and begin to acknowledge the value of this world. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_is_dead]

[2] Since Satan cannot destroy the gospel he has  too often neutralised its usefulness  by addition, subtraction or substitution (J.C. Ryle)

[3] R.Kent Hughes: Hebrews Vol 1, p.90

[4] The term apostle  for Jesus is only used once, here ; the term high priest  is used 12x in Hebrews 

[5] Over 10 times in John’s writings

[6] Katanoeō ( also 10:24)  – to perceive clearly, to understand fully,  to consider closely

HEBREWS 2:5-18 "JESUS, THE FOUNDER OF OUR SALVATION"

 

The greatest struggle our fallen natures have, is with God, and all He represents. Have you noticed how every major doctrine in the book of Genesis is being attacked or distorted in these days? We will mention only a few:   

In the beginning God… (1:1). God Himself has been declared dead by some and non-existent by others. Many more have distorted His true nature and attributes, making Him less than He is.  

In the beginning God created…(1:1). The doctrine of personal creation has been substituted with the theory of impersonal evolution. 

God created man in His image…(1:26)  Many now reduce man to the level of an animal. 

God created man and woman… (1:27). The insistence is now on gender neutrality. 

The principle of 7^th day rest from work (2:1-3) has been routinely ignored and disregarded for a long time. 

The definition and doctrine of marriage as between a man and a woman (2:18-25) has been challenged by the homosexual agenda.

There is this tendency to constantly make the Tri-une God, and especially now the Lord Jesus, less than He is. Whenever we make God or Christ less than He is, or whenever we substitute His superiority with lesser beings or things we lose focus. Hence we find the emphasis in  Hebrews 2:1 on the danger of drifting away[1]. This is why the letter to the Hebrews was written. 

The Christ who was preached to them and revealed to them (1:1-3) was now no longer in focus, and where the proper focus is blurred, other things are  quickly substituted in His place. The human heart was made to worship. The fall has distorted our capacity to worship, and we quickly substitute our God ordained focus, being on Himself, to lesser and created things.[2] The focus has shifted on to created beings such as the glorious angels were. So, from 1:4 until and including our present text, the writer is helping his readers to see that their focus must not rest on angels, but on the Lord Jesus. 

He is the Founder of our great salvation (2:3). 

He is infinitely more superior and more worthy and more glorious than the angels, for Christ is God Himself (1:3). 

We will drift away from the Author of our salvation, when we make the glorious angels our focus.  When you lose your focus on Jesus, you lose the heart of the Christian faith. This is the reason why you find so many church buildings, formerly dedicated to the glory of God and for the preaching of Christ, now mere buildings, with no true worshippers. Ichabod! The glory of God has departed.[3] And the cults and false religions are snapping these buildings up, creating even more distortion in our society.

Follow now as the writer urges them not to drift away –  to not  lose focus on the person and work of Jesus as  he sets out to show that Jesus as the Son of God is not only greater than the angels (1:5-9), but also  that as the Son of Man Jesus is greater than the angels! And so we see in 2:5-13 that Jesus’ coming as a man does not make Him less superior than the angels,  and in 2:14-18  Jesus  superiority to the angels is not less, because He suffered for us as a man. Don’t let the thought that Jesus was now less than the angels distract you from His real substance! Follow the logic…

1.   Don’t think that Jesus’ becoming a man makes him less divine (2:5-13)

2:5 “Now it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking”.  He reminds us that angels are not ruling this world - they're simply ministering to this world (1:14). The world is not subjected to them, but to Christ. The earth is His footstool (1:13). It is subjected to Him. It is under His feet (2:8). 

What is meant by "the world to come"? Surely it means the same as ‘these last days' referred to in 1:2[4]. The new world order began with Christ's birth, death and ascension. It is true that the world to come (the true new age) is not yet clearly seen, but it has begun by virtue of the fact that Christ has reconciled man with God. Man has been saved, redeemed and restored to a hope of eternal life. The kingdom of God is now here, but it is in the making. It is both here and still to come.

2:6-8 It has been testified somewhere, "What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? 7 You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honour, 8 putting everything in subjection under his feet." Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. It is God’s purpose that man should rule, not angels.  

Now follows a quote from Psalm 8:4-6. When you look up at the stars and consider the vastness of the universe then man appears quite insignificant. But by design he is not. God, who has made man in his image, is mindful of man. He cares for man. Man is only for a little while lower than the angels. Man remains the peak of God’s creation. In truth man is crowned with glory and honour. In truth man was created to have dominion over this world.  The fall has distorted everything, we do not see everything in subjection to Him, but do not be impatient.

2:9 “But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.  

Although  we do not  yet see man in the position  that God intended for him, we do see a representative  Man –  a  man called Jesus, in that position.  We see Him now by faith (Chapter 11) as He is revealed to us in the Scripture (1:1-3).  To restore all things and to restore man’s proper dominion, Jesus took on flesh and became like us. He became the Son of man. He knows what it is to be lower than the angels. He lived in this fallen world. He took upon Himself the sin of this world, suffering in fallen man’s place. 'Suffering' is an important concept in this letter[5]. Jesus was not protected from trouble and pain. When we find ourselves immersed in the harsh realities of human experience, He knows exactly how we feel. He knows what it is to live under the threat of death. He Himself suffered death (2:9), and being who He is, He also conquered death (2:14 - 15).  “He tasted death for everyone”. The next few verses (2:10,11) will explain  just  who these  are that Jesus  died for.  Before we get there, remember that the point here is to show who Jesus is. He being in very essence God (1:1-3) is the One who died for man, and rose for man. He is the ascended Lord, who is now in heaven – ‘crowned with glory and honour’.  NO angel could save like this. We as people cannot point to any angel  and say- my salvation is because of Him.

2:10 10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. 

For those that stumble over the fact that God the  Father and Creator (by who all things exist) sent His Son, Jesus into the world to suffer and die,  and  who therefore  think that  this is  weakness (cf. the foolishness of the cross- 1 Cor. 1:18), think about  what His so called weakness  accomplished. In His suffering on the cross He who is now crowned with glory and honour (2:9) brings many sons to glory i.e. many among mankind to the same place and position where He is NOW.  It was not an angel who did this. The Christ of God suffered to achieve this for us! Worship Him!

2:11-13 “For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, 12 saying, "I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise." 13 And again, "I will put my trust in him." And again, "Behold, I and the children God has given me." 

Now see this. There is a unique union between Christ and those whom He saves. He is their brother. And as our brother (being the Son of man), he remakes us as mankind in his image. He sanctifies us. He makes us holy.[6] 

Although believers are moving day by day towards their future destiny as sons of glory, something is also happening to us presently. In Christ we are made holy              (sanctified). Being made holy means nothing less than becoming like Jesus i.e. we are thus of the same source and family (2:11a). That is why He is not ashamed to call us brothers (2:11b). Through Jesus’ work we become family of God, children of God.[7] The OT texts from Psalm 22:22, Isa 8:17,18 support  this. Redeemed people are the family of God. No angel did this. Jesus ALONE did this.

SUMMARY: We must get our biblical theology right. In Hebrews 2:5 - 13 we learned that we must not be overtaken by the apparent glory of the angels. We must not replace them with the greater glory of Christ. Don’t think that Jesus is second rate because He became a man. We must also understand redeemed man’s  future glory in Christ.  Although fallen man is presently lower than the angels, redeemed man  by the work of the Son of man is  not. They will rule the world. They will judge the angels (1 Cor. 6:2,3).

2.   Don’t think that Jesus’ suffering as a man  makes him  weak (2:14-18)

2:14 - 16 14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham.

Jesus’ weakness and suffering and death was a stumbling block for many in his day. But do not let that temporary picture of weakness fool you. All this had to happen. This was divine logic at work.  Jesus had to share in our flesh and blood partaking of  the same things (2:14a). Jesus needed to die to destroy Satan’s chief tool – death[8],  through His resurrection (2:14b) in which  all will share.  Now, it isn't that the Christian won't die. We all must die (Heb.9:27). Even when you have been born again, you must die that "first death".  But Christians will not have to face the fear of the second death[9]. And thus we are reminded that Jesus delivers his brothers and sisters from the slavery of fear (2:15) and in this all we are reminded that He helps man and not angels (2:16), and so follows the very clear assertion that… 

(i)            2:17 "He had to be made like His brothers in every way " (v.17a see also v.11).  An important aspect we need to add to here that Jesus, though He was a man, He did not share in their sin nature (Heb.4:15).  This is also the reason why Jesus could be a 'merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God.'  Only men (not angels) could be high priests. Jesus became the perfect high priest  (2:17b cf. Hebrews 8)...  to make propitiation for the sins of the people. In this sacrifice He is both the High priest who presents the sacrifice, and the sacrifice itself. He makes propitiation (taking away the wrath of God) for our sins! Truly we must  thank Jesus and not angels  for this!

(iv)       12:18 i8 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.  Jesus can help man, because He has experienced man’s weakness. No angel could do this.

SUMMARY: Jesus’s ordinary manhood and his death on the cross was seen by many as a weakness. Angels, by way of contrast were always glorious, shining creatures. They appeared more glorious. Don’t be fooled! Remember, that the wisdom of the cross is foolishness to this world. But it is the wisdom of God. 

The Hebrews who were in the process of drifting away needed to see Jesus for who He was: (i) The Son of Man who is the glorious Son of God 

(ii) who died on  a cross  of shame  so that  they could become the sons of God.

A true view of Jesus and His purpose for this world, and for us, is the gos-pill that will cure us from drifting away into lesser loves. May God be pleased to settle this truth in your hearts.

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[1] Gr. parareō, lit. to flow past ;to let slip

[2] Romans 1:18ff

[3] 1 Samuel 4:21

[4] see also 6:5

[5] see 2:18; 5:8; 10:32; 11:26,36; 13:12

[6] Sanctification is another important theme in this letter (10:14,29 ; 13:12)

[7] 1 John 3:1

[8] Obviously we must understand , that Satan holds the power of death only in a secondary and not in an ultimate sense .

[9] the second death- Rev. 2:11; 20:6; 21:8; Rom. 6:23