but we see Jesus, who [was] made some little inferior to angels on account of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; so that by the grace of God he should taste death for every thing.
Psalm 8 said God would put everything under man's feet, but no one sees that world today. Verse 9 answers with a different sight: one Man, already crowned, and the death that brought Him there.
The psalm has not failed. Part of it has already come true, and that part guarantees the rest.
We do not yet see everything this psalm announces: that all things should be put under His feet. But a part is already fulfilled, and this is a guarantee to the heart that the whole will be. Made a little lower than the angels to suffer death, He is crowned with glory and honour. He has suffered death, and He is crowned as the reward for His work. By that work He perfectly glorified God in the place where God had been dishonoured. And He saved man — those who believe in Him — where man was lost.
He did not merely receive the crown. He has a right to it.
He has rights because of His suffering — He tasted death for everything (Hebrews 2:9). He is now crowned with glory and with honour. The cross entitles Him to the crown.
The "seeing" in this verse is not the ordinary kind of sight.
"But we see Jesus." This is faith's language. We see with the eyes of a believing heart. What we see is the Person of the Son of Man at the right hand of God. Since it is truth, then truth in the heart responds to it. He chose to be made a little lower than angels, though in nature He is infinitely higher than they are. Now He is crowned with glory and honour.
One reason took Him below the angels. That reason also shows why no angel could take His place.
It was "for the suffering of death" that Jesus was made lower than the angels. What a low abasement for the Son of God! What was Adam's highest honour was only the first immeasurable step down for God's Fellow. That descent for our sakes ended in the grave. Death has no power over angels. It never reached so high. Its prey is man. God appointed it so, judging His sinful creature with a penalty that could be paid — if only someone fit could be found to stand in his place.
Every person tastes death. The words "by the grace of God" show why His tasting of it was not like ours.
His work had to be real, matching the responsibility He had taken on Himself. It also involved the glory of God in the place where sin was. So He had to suffer; He had to taste death. It is by the grace of God that He did so — we, because of sin; He, because of grace for sin.
Commentators differ over the last words. The ESV reads "for everyone." An older translation reads "for every thing," and some hold that the wider sense fits the context best.
How blessed and exact are the words added: "that He by God's grace should taste death for every thing"! This rendering, rather than "man," seems to suit the drift of the context best. It means the whole sphere — not just a universe, but "every thing" that His death brings under its reconciling power. The following verse brings in persons, and different language is used there.
That wide reach raises a question. Does it mean every person can say their sins were borne?
Both things are blessedly true of the death of Christ — He died for all, and by the grace of God He tasted death for every man. But according to the teaching of Scripture, only believers are entitled to say that He bore their sins in His death on the cross. That claim involves faith in His work. It also involves the benefits of His death coming to those who have that faith.
- Down. He was made lower than the angels for one reason — death. Angels are beyond death's reach; only a man could die, and He became one to do it.
- Death. We taste death because of sin; He tasted it by grace, for sin. The same experience, opposite causes.
- Reach. That death touches "every thing" — the whole scene that will come under His feet. But only faith in His work lets a person say He bore my sins.
- Crown. The glory is the reward of the suffering, not a substitute for it. The cross is what entitles Him to the crown.
- Sight. We cannot yet see all things under Him. We can see Him. That half-fulfilled psalm is the guarantee that the rest is coming.
For it became him, for whom [are] all things, and by whom [are] all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make perfect the leader of their salvation through sufferings.
Hebrews 2 has just shown Jesus crowned with glory and honor after He tasted death. Verse 10 asks why God chose that road. The answer is not that suffering was unavoidable. It was fitting. It matched who God is.
The verse starts with God's own character, not with our need. One writer explains the word, then follows it to the goal God had in view:
That word "became" means it was consistent with all that He was. It was suited to the character of God. Look at what He was going to do. He was going to bring people to glory. That was God's great object. And whom is He going to bring to glory? Many sons. He is not satisfied to bring a few men to glory, nor even to bring many. When they are brought to glory they are to be in an eternal relationship of sonship with Himself. We can easily imagine God redeeming us without bringing us into the relationship of sons. He might have given us a distant place in His glory. But God's thoughts go far beyond that. He will have a family of children around Himself.
The verse names God as the One all things come from and exist for. So why not lift people to glory by sheer power? One writer answers that God's own nature sets the terms for what His power does:
A Saviour from sin must be a sufferer. Power alone is not enough. The divine nature has its own necessities, and they set the terms on which divine power goes out... All things look to Him in their origin and their end... The moral conditions required a penalty. God's holiness must be vindicated at personal cost, but God's love is set on bringing sons to glory. There could be no perfecting of His blessed Person. But the conditions required for becoming a Saviour had to be met.
The ESV says "founder." Older translations say "captain." One Greek word lies behind both, and it is used of Christ elsewhere:
Archegos means "beginner, leader." In Acts 3:15 it is "prince" (the margin says "author"): the Lord Jesus is the originator of life. In Hebrews 12:2 the Lord Jesus is the "leader" and completer of faith. He began and finished the whole course. In Hebrews 2:10 older English versions read "captain": He was "leader" of their salvation through suffering.
A leader goes ahead of his people. How far ahead did this one go? One writer compares Him with David, who led a band of followers through hardship:
The Captain or Leader of the band must therefore pass through those sufferings Himself. Notice one point here. David was the captain of his band, and he suffered much. But he and his followers suffered together, so from time to time they must have met new experiences. Our Captain suffered it all first, and in doing so He did not stop short of death.
The phrase troubles many readers. How can the sinless Son be made perfect? Every writer here agrees that nothing was lacking in Him, but they stress it differently. One puts the perfecting in His work as Saviour:
It was not His Person that had to be perfected, for He is perfect. But He had to be perfected through suffering as a Saviour... Before the foundation of the world, knowing the coming ruin of man, He purposed to bring many sons to glory. This is divine love.
Another ties the word to the outcome God had in view:
It was fitting for Him to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. "Perfect" here means the full result of glory: to bring Him into the state of a glorified Man, if He would bring sons to glory. In Himself He was the perfect One. He is always in the bosom of the Father.
God Himself set what a Saviour must be. So the Saviour He gives meets that standard:
It was fitting for the glory of God to give you a perfect Saviour. Do you believe it? What thoughts rise in the soul when we come to that! Do you have Him, so that you are never tempted, even in a single thought, to look beyond Him? We have a salvation that cannot be questioned and cannot fail, one that will stand the shock of every coming day.
- Fitting. The cross suited God's own character. God chose that road by what He is, not only by what we needed.
- Sons. The goal was never a distant place in glory but a family: many sons, in eternal relationship with Himself.
- Suffering. Power alone could not do it. God's holiness had to be vindicated at personal cost. So a Saviour from sin had to be a sufferer.
- Leader. The word means beginner and leader. He starts the salvation. Unlike David with his men, He went through every suffering first, all the way to death.
- Perfect. Nothing was added to His Person. God perfected Him as Saviour and Leader. Commentators differ on where the stress falls: on His fitness to save, or on His place as glorified Man. Either way, we get a salvation that will stand every coming day.
For both he that sanctifies and those sanctified [are] all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
Hebrews has just called Jesus the leader of salvation, brought to glory through suffering. Now it says He and the people He saves are of one — so on what ground can the Son of God call sinful people family?
The word has a particular sense in this letter. It does not mean the inward change in a believer's character.
Christ by His finished work has set apart His people to God. That is what sanctification mainly means in this letter. It does not mean the work of the Spirit in our hearts — that is the sanctification of the Spirit. There is also the Father's sanctification, you might say, in His choosing us in Christ before the world was made. That would be sanctification according to the purpose of God. But the sanctification spoken of here is mainly the work of Christ. That work has cut us loose from Satan and sin forever, and set us before God as His ransomed people.
The wording is careful. Where the ESV says they "all have one source," older translations read "all of one," and that is the phrase these writers weigh. It does not say Christ and believers are one. It says they are of one.
This wonderful expression seems to point to this. Christ came into our position and bore the consequences. He has truly brought us into His position before God, as Man. So He and His own — the Sanctifier and the sanctified — are seen as one company before God. It is worth noting, though, that the Word of God never says of Jesus and of men that they are all one. It says that "He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all of one."
Some stretch the phrase to mean that Christ became one with the whole human race by being born. The verse itself blocks that reading.
If we say "of the same mass," we can push the expression too far. It would sound as though He and the others were of the same nature as children of Adam, sinners together. In that case He would have to call every man His brother. But He gives that name only to the children God has given Him, the "sanctified" ones. But He and the sanctified ones are all as men in the same nature and position together before God. When I say "the same," it is not in the same state of sin, but the contrary.
Commentators differ over what the "one" points to. Some read it as one Father.
Here is the "Firstborn among many brothers," and everything in the passage assures us that "of One" or "out of One" means "of one Father." Yet there is an infinite difference. So it is divine love in Him that makes Him recognise and welcome "brothers" like these. He is the divine Son; they are only human. He is the Sanctifier; they are the sanctified; yet He is not ashamed of them.
Others hold back from settling it.
I hold back from saying flatly that the "one" spoken of here refers to the Father, because that is not the general theme of this letter. Yet there is no doubt of a strong case that this may be just the meaning, for He speaks of them as His brothers.
The name belongs to a particular point in His history. He did not always use it.
You might suppose that no such fellowship could exist, since He is the Sanctifier and they are the sanctified. But it does exist: "That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers." He never called them that until He became a man. And even then He did not use the name in full until He was a man risen from the dead.
Because the relationship rests on His grace and not on any equality, the freedom He takes is not one we may take back.
They are of one Father — He by very nature and title, we by His infinite grace. By nature it would be impossible for Him to call us brothers. But through the power of His perfect salvation He is not ashamed to do so. Let us say it again: He does this in grace. For us to call Him "Brother" would be an unfitting abuse of that grace.
- Set apart. In Hebrews, "sanctified" means set apart to God by the finished work of Christ. It is not the Spirit's inward work in the heart.
- One company. He came into our position and brings His own into His position. So Sanctifier and sanctified stand before God together.
- Not everyone. The verse speaks only of the sanctified, the children God gave Him. It does not speak of the human race by birth.
- Not ashamed. The gap between the divine Son and human believers is infinite. That He still owns them is love, not likeness.
- Risen and spoken. He took the name "brothers" as a man, and used it fully as the risen Man. It is a grace He gives downward, never one we claim upward.
saying, I will declare thy name to my brethren; in [the] midst of [the] assembly will I sing thy praises.
Hebrews 2:12 puts Psalm 22 into the mouth of the risen Christ, proving the claim just made: He is not ashamed to call believers His brothers. Two things stand out — when He first spoke this way, and the picture of the Son singing among redeemed people.
Psalm 22 has two halves. The first describes the crucifixion, the second what follows it — and the voice changes between them.
It is a wonderful psalm. The first part is occupied with the cross, where our blessed Lord was made sin for us. At the very depth of His anguish you find Him forsaken by God and persecuted by men. His hands and feet are pierced as He is nailed to the cross. And yet, in the middle of all that, after the cloud of divine wrath has passed, we hear Him say that God has heard Him. And so He dies. After He has finished the work of redemption, giving up His spirit to the Father, you find a blessed contrast. It is no longer one who is forsaken, nor even one who has cried to God and been heard. Instead we hear a strong, sweet, mighty Voice telling out the praises of God among those whom He calls His brothers.
Commentators mark when Jesus first used this word of His disciples. It was not at His birth, but after He rose.
As God was not ashamed to be called the God of the fathers, so Christ is not ashamed — I do not say to be called Brother, but — to call us, the children, brothers. It is His relationship, which He nowhere extends to man as he is, nor even to His own disciples though born of God, until He rose from the dead. Before then the most He said was quite vague: "Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother." As risen, He sends the new message: "Go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"
The verse does not say what name He tells out. Writers answer it from the shift in language between the Old Testament and the New.
"Your name" — what name? When bearing sin He speaks of God. When looking on to deliverance, or in enjoyed relationship, the godly Israelite speaks of Jehovah. But in the New Testament, God remains God and must always be the Judge of sin. Father is the characteristic term of a relationship. The Son of God knew that relationship from eternity, and knew it just as truly as man — but in a truth and fullness that belonged to Him only.
That naming produces something in return.
He declares the Father's name to us, and He leads His brothers' praises to the Father. It is the declaration of the Father's name that produces worship in the hearts of His brothers, and this He presents to the Father as an offering.
The Psalm also speaks of praise "in the great congregation." Writers set that future scene apart from the one Hebrews applies to now.
The time had not yet come for Messiah's praise of God in "the great congregation." That is Judah and Ephraim in their full twelve tribes, when all the ends of the earth will also remember and turn to Jehovah. Verse 22 is plainly different. The Spirit who inspired the letter to the Hebrews applies it now. The truth of it came true that evening. Jesus came, though the doors were shut for fear of the Jews. He stood among the assembled disciples and said, "Peace be with you." The Psalm stresses the united praise of the assembly which Jesus Himself leads as "in the midst." He is in the midst wherever two or three are gathered to His name. How unbelieving, then, to doubt that He will lead our praise!
The song follows from the place He has brought His people into — the same place He now holds Himself.
Christ is singing the praises, but He raises the song of praise as the result of His own place and ours being the same. He comes and brings us into this place and says, I will sing in the midst of the assembly. He went down into the place of death and drank the cup of wrath. Then He comes out into all the blessedness of His Father's delight — not only as His eternal delight, but as having done the work for God. He comes out and tells us His name, and then says, "you must come and sing with me."
Our part is to be in tune with Him.
The degree to which we realise this joy, the sweetness and volume of the note we add, of course depends on our spiritual state. But no note that is not founded on the perfect peace and joy of redemption is at all in tune there.
The word here does not carry everything it carries elsewhere. Commentators differ on how much weight to give it, and one writer draws the line carefully.
In Hebrews we never find the body of Christ as such referred to. We have the church, but even when the word "church" occurs, it is the church quite generally, as in Hebrews 2:12, or viewed in the units that compose it — not at all in its unity.
- Cross first. The verse comes from the second half of Psalm 22. The forsaken Sufferer falls silent, and a strong voice rises once the work is done.
- Brothers second. He never called His disciples "my brothers" until He was risen. The relationship rests on redemption accomplished, not on His birth alone.
- The Name third. What He tells out is Father — the relationship He knew from eternity, now shared with those He calls His own.
- The song fourth. The declared name produces worship. He Himself leads it "in the midst," wherever two or three are gathered to His name.
- Our voice last. We do not start the song; we join it — and the note only rings true when it rests on the peace and joy of redemption.
And again, I will trust in him. And again, Behold, I and the children which God has given me.
Here the writer puts two short lines from the Old Testament in the mouth of Christ. Both prove one thing: He is truly Man. The first shows Him leaning on God, as any man must. The second shows Him standing with a company He was given.
The first line proves He is truly human. It also draws a sharp contrast with Adam.
"I will put my trust in Him." This is quoted in Hebrews 2 to prove His humanity. Two things make a man perfect: dependence and obedience. Both were in Christ. They are the opposite of what was in Adam when he sinned. Christ was always the dependent and obedient One. Independence is sin: there is the principle of sin in it.
Where do the words "I will put my trust in Him" come from? Commentators differ. One writer weighs the places where the words appear and argues from the speaker's situation.
Three passages in the Greek Old Testament contain the words quoted in Hebrews 2:13… In both the other places where the same words occur, the speaker knows he has been delivered. In Isaiah 8 it is not so. Now the Lord's deliverance came in resurrection. We cannot suppose He would use such language after that event. So we believe the second quotation in Hebrews 2:13 comes from Isaiah 8, where the speaker is a dependent, trusting man, just as here.
His dependence does more than prove His humanity. It puts Him side by side with His own, living the same way.
Taking a position as Man, the Lord identified Himself with His own in the only proper life for a man to live — the life of dependence upon God.
He does not take these children. God gives them. The same words appear elsewhere for a different reason.
Notice again that His own unique distinction is stated first. This makes the wonder and beauty of His grace in joining Himself to His saints even greater. He receives these children as a gift from God. He uses a similar expression when, speaking as the Divine Son of God, He says, "I have manifested Your name to the people whom You gave Me out of the world" (John 17:6). In the first case they are a gift from God because of His sufferings and death. In the second they are a gift from the Father to His Son because of the eternal worth of His Person.
The wording is easy to misread. Scripture calls them children — but not Christ's children.
On the passage, "Behold, I and the children God has given Me," I would just point out that though we often hear people talk about Christ's children, this passage does not call them that. On the contrary, part of the apostle's argument is that they are Christ's BROTHERS. They were God's children. God, as their Father and as His Father, gave them and entrusted them to Him. So He became their elder brother and guardian.
These words also mark out a group inside Israel. Notice carefully what they are not called.
The quotations from Isaiah 8:17-18 connect the godly in Israel with Christ, the great prophet, on His path of reliance on God, away from all the unbelieving alliances of men. They are not linked to Him as His brothers, for they were not yet marked out that way. Nor are they exactly His children. They are the children whom God gave Him. This is the righteous remnant joined to the Messiah, morally separate from the rest of the nation.
Isaiah shows this company standing with Christ while the nation trips over Him. It also shows who He is.
He and the children Jehovah gave Him — the One who sanctifies and those He sanctifies — are for signs and wonders, while He is a rock that both houses of Israel stumble over… He was as truly man as He was Jehovah, and we who are given to Him reap the blessing of both facts joined in His person.
Isaiah had two sons of his own, and their names carried a message. One writer follows that line forward to believers, and on to a day still ahead.
The last quotation is from Isaiah 8:18. The children the Lord had given to Isaiah were for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord. The two sons of Isaiah had received their names, full of meaning, from heaven. Believers are children. They belong to Him. They are signs and witnesses both to unbelieving Israel and to the world… And some day, in the day of His glory, He will declare in triumph, "Behold, I and the children God has given Me."
- Manhood — both quoted lines prove one thing: Christ is truly Man.
- Trust — dependence and obedience make a man perfect. Independence carries the principle of sin in it.
- Gift — He does not take the children; He receives them, because of His sufferings and death.
- Company — they are God's children, entrusted to Him. So He becomes their elder brother and guardian.
- Display — they are signs now while the nation stumbles. In the day of His glory He will present them.
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.