Since therefore the children partake of blood and flesh, he also, in like manner, took part in the same, that through death he might annul him who has the might of death, that is, the devil;
Hebrews 2:14 explains why the Son of God became a man: only a man could die, and only death could break the devil's hold. Two questions follow — why flesh and blood, and how did the devil ever hold "the power of death"?
The verse uses one word for the children and a different one for Christ.
The children were flesh and blood; that is, they were really men. Notice the difference in wording here, which points to what the original says. The children are partakers — that is, they belong to the order of flesh and blood; they are simply human. He too became fully man. But the word used of Him suggests that He came into it from outside, in grace: "He Himself likewise partook of the same things." He came into the human sphere. It was apart from sin, of course, but He shared in it and joined Himself to man.
How far did that likeness go?
Christ really took human nature, though not in a state identical with ours... but He took it so that He could die.
In Israel, a near relative could buy back what a poor man had lost:
Boaz acts this out in the Book of Ruth. That picture shows how necessary it was for the Lord Jesus to take up perfect Manhood, apart from sin. So He "partook" of "flesh and blood," as Hebrews 2:14 says, so that by death He might annul the devil's power over us. If He had taken hold of angels only, He could not have filled the picture as our Kinsman-Redeemer, or paid the price that was needed.
Death came as God's sentence. The devil holds its power because of man's own choice in Eden.
Satan had the judicial power of death. He got it through man in Eden, who deliberately took his word instead of God's... So death was God's judicial sentence on man. Satan was tied to it so closely that Scripture says he had the power, or authority, of death. Satan in that way was the executioner of God's judgment upon man. And how he has used his authority! How he has held the fear of death over people's heads!... Satan is master of man's religion, and you will find that the fear of death drives most of it.
Angels cannot die. That is why only a man could deal with death.
Death is possible for man since he is a partaker of flesh and blood. His blood can be shed, his flesh can decay, his spirit can return to God who gave it — and none of this is possible for angels... What could destroy (that is, annul or bring to nothing, make of no effect) the devil and the power he wields? One thing only. Nothing but DEATH could annul death. And it must be the death of a MAN to annul death for men.
The Lord did not attack the devil from a distance. He walked into the one place where the enemy's grip was total.
The Son of God became man, as the children were men, so that He could meet Satan in his last stronghold, death. By dying He drained Satan's power away for those who, under law, lived all their lives troubled by fear in their conscience... Satan is no longer to the believer the King of terrors. Christ has disarmed the enemy by submitting to death, and his power is gone for ever for His own.
He won the victory by dying, and rising showed it:
Satan used all his power through death. Christ gave Himself wholly to that. In the resurrection of Christ all Satan's power was over — it is Christ's work that annuls it.
The word translated "destroy" means to cancel or make powerless, not to wipe out of existence. The devil is still active, and people still die.
The Lord by His death has annulled his power (Heb. 2), but death itself is not yet done away with; it will be the last enemy to go... Still in himself Satan remains, having the power of death, and death itself is not gone... but the Christian is not truly under his power at all.
- Kin — He came into flesh and blood from outside, in grace. Only a near relative could pay the price, and no angel could.
- Claim — the devil's power of death is judicial authority. Man handed it to him in Eden by taking his word instead of God's. He holds it as executioner and rules by fear.
- Cross — nothing but death could annul death, and it had to be the death of a man. So the Son became man so that He could die.
- Conquest — He met the enemy inside his own stronghold. The resurrection showed the power was gone. Satan is no longer the King of terrors to the believer.
- Countdown — annulled is not the same as abolished. The devil remains and death still comes. But the Christian is no longer under his power.
and might set free all those who through fear of death through the whole of their life were subject to bondage.
Hebrews 2:15 gives the reason the Son of God took flesh and blood. A whole race lived under the shadow of dying, and that fear held them in slavery for life. So what makes death so frightening? Why did it take a death to break the fear? And is the freedom real now?
The dread is not just about the body's end. It reaches to what waits on the other side.
The natural man fears death, for "it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment." A brave man may not fear physical death. But no man is brave enough to think of the judgment of Almighty God without trembling. It is the judgment after death which "makes cowards of us all." Our Lord bore that judgment in His death, and so removed its curse from us.
Satan does not need a lie here. He works on the fear with a fact that is true.
The devil knows that the wages of sin is death. He is quick to use this solemn truth to keep the sinner in fear of death and its consequences all his life. The Lord, on whom death has no claim, goes into death and bears the death penalty that was on us. So He robs the devil of his power to terrify the believer with death.
Writers are careful about where the deliverance comes from. Taking flesh and blood was the means. His death was the end in view.
Incarnation is a blessed truth, but here it is only the means to the end specified. When it is misused, as it often is, it clouds and shuts out that death which defeats the enemy and sets the captives free. That death is the true ground of God's righteousness, because there alone was sin judged definitely and in grace toward the guilty.
Kelly presses the same point positively: nothing less than that death would do.
Nothing but the death of Christ could bring to nothing him who had the power of death; nothing else could deliver all those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Christ did not win this victory from a safe distance. He won it in the very place where the enemy ruled.
He is not only glorious in heaven. He has also conquered Satan in the very place where Satan held his sad rule over man, the place where the judgment of God lay heavy on man.
Christ has gone into the very thing we feared. For the believer, death now plays the opposite role.
Death has two very distinct characters: as the wages of sin, and for God. While it is the witness of man's sin, yet because of the death of the Lord Jesus death is now one of our servants. All things are ours, whether life, or death, or things present, or things to come. Death is for us now as it was against us before, because Christ has tasted death.
Ridout says what dying now means for the believer:
Instead of our enemy, "the king of terrors," death has become our servant. It opens the door to our Lord's presence, where we enjoy sweet communion with Him while we wait for the resurrection of the body.
The verse marks out both the people and the period. Grant notes that the slavery lasts a "lifetime" — a word that sets a limit.
This means deliverance for those who were "all their lifetime subject to bondage" — the bondage of sin, by which Satan had wielded his power over mankind. "The sting of death is sin," and as long as that question stayed unsettled, "the fear of death" held souls in bondage. He is speaking of believers, of course. Unbelievers know nothing of the present deliverance from this fear and bondage that all who trust in the precious blood of Christ enjoy. Notice too that this bondage is during "lifetime," not after death. Even the unsaved are not in such bondage after death. Satan can exert no more authority over them.
Before the cross, even God's own people felt this weight.
Even His own people in Old Testament times were in bondage, more or less. When Hezekiah was told to set his house in order because he would die, he wept bitterly and begged God to spare him. In a certain sense he was in bondage.
- Cause — the fear is not of dying but of what follows it: the judgment of God. No courage can face that.
- Captor — the devil takes a true fact, that sin earns death, and works it into a lifelong slavery.
- Cross — the deliverance rests on Christ's death, not on His coming in flesh alone. His birth was the means; His death was the end in view.
- Conquest — He broke the enemy in the very place where the enemy ruled, so believers now face a defeated foe.
- Consequence — death has changed sides. Once against us, it now serves us, opening the door to Christ's presence. The bondage it caused lasts only a lifetime.
For he does not indeed take hold of angels [by the hand], but he takes hold of the seed of Abraham.
Hebrews has just said that the Son shared in flesh and blood, as the children do. Verse 16 says who He came to take hold of: not angels, but Abraham's offspring — and some older versions translate it in a way that changes the sense.
Older English versions render this "He took not on Him the nature of angels." Commentators reject that. The Greek verb is in the present tense, and it means to lay hold of.
Many versions translate verse 16 wrongly, and none perhaps worse than our own Authorised Version. The sense is completely changed. The verb is given a past form instead of the present tense... The word means to lay hold of, especially when it is used with a genitive, as it is here. Never does it mean to take a nature... The Holy Spirit here goes on to Christ's making a special object, not of angels but of Abraham's seed. Why Abraham rather than Adam? It is because of another truth. It is no longer the taking on of human nature, but the cause He undertakes for them.
The picture is of a hand reaching down to lift someone up.
The word used here means "to take hold of." It has been said that "it is constantly used for 'taking up a person to help him,' though in other senses as well." What amazing grace this is, when we see what it involved. He took a part in flesh and blood, which is the common lot of mankind; and He took it so that He might die.
The verse says Abraham, not Adam. Older versions say "seed" where the ESV says "offspring." One writer shows what would follow if the verse said Adam.
And shall I say He gave all this to every human being? Scripture does not say so. Suppose it had said, "He takes hold of the seed of Adam." Then everyone who has human nature would have to be saved, and would have to be brought in as a co-heir of this glory. But it is said, "Of the seed of Abraham He takes hold." And who are they? Those who are of faith.
The verse also closes a door. Fallen angels have no rescuer, and the reason lies in the form the rescue had to take.
Hebrews 2 shows this plainly. On the one hand, since the children shared in blood and flesh, He also Himself took part in the same, in the same way. On the other hand, He does not take up angels; He takes up the seed of Abraham (or the children spoken of, those who believe). So He became man to die for men; He did not become an angel to die for angels... The holy angels do not need it; the fallen ones await their everlasting doom.
Angels who never fell are outside this too, and for a different reason.
An angel has no need of mercy, of grace, of forgiveness, of divine righteousness, of a sacrificing priest, or of power that holds him up in weakness and raises him from the dead... Now grace and redemption, patience, mercy and divine righteousness do not apply to a state like that. To fallen man they do.
The phrase marks out a class, not a nation, so it reaches beyond those born Jewish.
We may well thank God that the Lord takes hold of the seed of Abraham! We who were once Gentiles could never be members of the privileged nation. But all true believers are certainly members of a privileged class — the seed of Abraham. The Lord has taken up their cause, and He has borne their sins.
To take hold of people in this condition is to accept everything that comes with them.
If He takes us up, He must take us up with all our burdens too. He must charge Himself with us, from the place of our ruins to the place of His glories... the Son, who is the Christ, made the interests of chosen sinners (here called "the seed of Abraham") His care. He charged Himself with their blessing. He kept them in view in all His ways and doings, until He takes them into the glory... In all the successive parts of His history, from the first to the last, He never lets them go.
- Hold — The verb is in the present tense. It means to lay hold of someone to help them. It does not mean taking on a nature.
- Cause — What Christ takes up is not angelic nature but a people's cause. He shared flesh and blood so that He could die for them.
- Abraham — Not the seed of Adam, which would take in everyone by birth, but the seed of Abraham: those who are of faith.
- Passed by — He became man to die for men. He did not become an angel to die for angels. Angels who never fell need no mercy, and fallen ones await judgment.
- Kept — Having taken hold, He takes the burdens too. He carries His own from the place of their ruin to the place of His glory, and never lets go.
Wherefore it behoved him in all things to be made like to [his] brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things relating to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
for, in that himself has suffered, being tempted, he is able to help those that are being tempted.
Hebrews 2 ends by explaining why the Son had to become a real man. Only someone who has been through the trial can steady another person going through it. Two questions follow: what kind of temptation did He face, and what help does He give now?
The verse ties His help to His suffering.
He suffered — never yielded. We do not suffer when we yield to temptation; the flesh takes pleasure in the things by which it is tempted. Jesus suffered being tempted, and He is able to help those who are tempted. … But when, in the light of the Holy Spirit and in faithful obedience, the Spirit resists the attacks of the enemy, whether subtle or persecuting, then one suffers. This is what the Lord did, and this is what we have to do.
The order of the words matters. Where the ESV reads "suffered when tempted," older translations read "suffered being tempted" — the wording this writer follows.
Notice too, in Hebrews 2:18, "in that He Himself has suffered being tempted" — there never was anything else. It is not that He suffered after being tempted, which a man may do who yields and then repents. There could not be distress of conscience in the Lord Jesus, any more than the workings of unbelief that we may feel. He suffered in His entire moral being the sufferings of holiness and grace. He loathed and rejected everything the enemy set before His holy nature… There was no sin in Adam and Eve when they were tempted, so fallen humanity is not necessary to temptation. And when our first parents were tempted, there was no suffering: they yielded. Christ, the last Adam, is the contrast. He was tempted far more, and yielded in nothing. He met every assault with the word of God, instead of letting it slip and breaking it as they did.
The same word covers very different things, so one writer defines it with care.
Temptation means trial. In Christ's case it never means what is in fallen man — the inward pull toward evil. This is what the Holy Spirit expressly denies of Him. … We are too familiar with the human and selfish argument that He could not sympathise with us properly if He was free from those inward, evil workings. … But suppose we needed the Lord to face the same inward struggle to feel fully with us. On that ground we would want Him to have yielded, as we so often have, so He could sympathise with our failures. No — that ground is completely opposed to Christ. What the word reveals as the remedy for evil within and without, in every form and degree, is not Christ's sympathy but His propitiatory suffering for us. He sympathises with us in our holy temptations, not in our unholy ones.
"Able" here is not a claim about raw power.
"Able to help," as in Hebrews 2:18, does not refer to strength, though of course strength must be there. It means knowledge He gained by experience — of the opposition, the difficulties and the trials on the road. So He could understand them and be touched by them. He gets for us all the grace and help we need for the way down here.
One writer notes who this help is for.
…verse 18 plainly mentions this second service, His help for His people… The tempted. Then there is One on high who is specially interested in them and ready to help all such. No one can say, "No one cares for me." Someone may cry with the psalmist, "No refuge remains to me; no one cares for my soul." Then, thinking of the Lord, they must say with him, "You are my refuge" (Psalm 142:4-5).
The letter builds this help into a sequence, and the later chapters fill it out.
These early chapters of this great Epistle attribute three things to the "Great High Priest." In Hebrews 2:18 "He is able to help." In the section we are considering He is "able to sympathise." Then "He is able also to save," Hebrews 7:25.
One writer draws out the practical result.
He proved Himself in lowly experience — He suffered rather than yielding to temptation. So He is Himself a strength to His suffering people. He can give grace so that they bear temptation rather than give way to it. Having such a High Priest, what a shame that we should ever give way when tempted.
- Suffered. He never yielded, so temptation was pure pain to Him. The one who gives in stops suffering and starts enjoying.
- Sinless. His trials came from outside, never from inward desire. His propitiatory suffering — not His sympathy — deals with the evil inside us.
- Qualified. "Able" describes knowledge He gained on the road, not just power held in reserve.
- Active. He is using that ability right now for one group — the tempted — so no one can say nobody cares.
- Enough. He gives grace to bear rather than fall, and the same "able" runs on: able to help, able to sympathise, able to save.