Hebrews Chapter 2 The reason for His Humiliation; Jesus made like His Brothers.
Heb 2:5 For He has not put in subjection to the angels the world to come, of which we speak. There is a sense in which Satan and his evil fallen angels are in control now. He is called the Prince of the Powers of the air.
JFB . The world that is to come. The world to come” is the new dispensation brought in by Christ, beginning in grace here, to be completed in glory hereafter. It is called “to come,” or “about to be,” as at the time of its being subjected to Christ by the divine decree, it was as yet a thing of the future, and is still so to us, in respect to its full consummation. In respect to the subjecting of all things to Christ in fulfillment of Psa_8:1-9, the realization is still “to come.
Heb 2:6 But one testified in a certain place, saying, "What is man, that You are mindful of him; or the son of man, that You visit him? MKJVHeb 2:6 But someone somewhere testified, saying: "What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You visit him?
But — It is not to angels the Gospel kingdom is subject, BUT ...
one ... testified — the usual way of quoting Scripture to readers familiar with it. Psa_8:5-7 praises Jehovah for exalting MAN, so as to subject all the works of God on earth to him: this dignity having been lost by the first Adam, is realized only in Christ the Son of man, the Representative Man and Head of our redeemed race. Thus Paul proves that it is to MAN, not to angels, that God has subjected the “world to come.” In Heb_2:6-8, MAN is spoken of in general (“him ... him ... his); then at Heb_2:9, first JESUS is introduced as fulfilling, as man, all the conditions of the prophecy, and passing through death Himself; and so consequently bringing us men, His “brethren,” to “glory and honor.”
You are mindful of him. Mindful mimnēskō Thayer Definition:
1) to remind 1a) to be recalled or to return to one’s mind, to remind one’s self of, to remember 1b) to be recalled to mind, to be remembered, had in remembrance
1c) to remember a thing 1d) be mindful of
Matthew Henry “the great God concerning his wonderful condescension and kindness to the sons of men. (1.) In remembering them, or being mindful of them, when yet they had no being but in the counsels of divine love. The favours of God to men all spring up out of his eternal thoughts and purposes of mercy for them; as all our dutiful regards to God spring forth from our remembrance of him. God is always mindful of us, let us never be forgetful of him. (2.) In visiting them. God's purpose of favours for men is productive of gracious visits to them; he comes to see us, how it is with us, what we ail, what we want, what dangers we are exposed to, what difficulties we have to encounter; and by his visitation our spirit is preserved. Let us so remember God as daily to approach him in a way of duty. (3.) In making man the head of all the creatures in this lower world, the top-stone of this building, the chief of the ways of God on earth,“
Heb 2:7 You have made him a little lower than the angels. You crowned him with glory and honor and set him over the works of Your hands.
M.H. again in application the Jesus Christ says “That God had made him a little lower than the angels, in his being made man, that he might suffer and humble himself to death. [4.] That God crowned the human nature of Christ with glory and honour, in his being perfectly holy, and having the Spirit without measure, and by an ineffable union with the divine nature in the second person of the Trinity, the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in him bodily; that by his sufferings he might make satisfaction, tasting death for every man, sensibly feeling and undergoing the bitter agonies of that shameful, painful, and cursed death of the cross, hereby putting all mankind into a new state of trial. [5.] That, as a reward of his humiliation in suffering death, he was crowned with glory and honour, “
Heb 2:8 and made them rulers over all things." It says that God made them "rulers over all things"; this clearly includes everything. We do not, however, see human beings ruling over all things now. GNB
Heb 2:8 You put everything under his control." When God put everything under his Son's control, nothing was left out. However, at the present time we still don't see everything under his Son's control. GW
Barnes Notes : Thou hast put all things in subjection ... - Psa_8:6. That is, all things are put under the control of man, or thou hast given him dominion over all things.
For in that he put all in subjection - The meaning of this is, that the “fair interpretation” of the passage in the Psalm is, that the dominion of “man,” or of human nature over the earth, was to be absolute and total. Nothing was to be excepted. But this is not now the fact in regard to man in general, and can be true only of human nature in the person of the Lord Jesus. There the dominion is absolute and universal.” The point of the argument of the apostle may be this. It was the original appointment Gen_1:26 that man should have dominion over this lower world, and be its absolute lord and sovereign. Had he continued in innocence, this dominion would have been entire and perpetual. But he fell, and we do not now see him exerting this dominion. What is said of the dominion of man can be true only of human nature in the person of the Lord Jesus, and there it is completely fulfilled.
But now we see not yet all things put under him - That is, “It is not now true that all things are subject to the control of man. There is indeed a general dominion over the works of God, and over the inferior creation. But the control is not universal. A large part of the animal creation rebels, and is brought into subjection only with difficulty. The elements are not entirely under his control;
Heb 2:9 But we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, so that through God's grace he should die for everyone. We see him now crowned with glory and honor because of the death he suffered.
Heb 2:9 “ Jesus was made a little lower than the angels, but we see him crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death. Through God's kindness he died on behalf of everyone.
“How glorious is the destiny of man! Created in the Image of God, he was to bear God’s likeness in this too, that as king he was to be ruler of all. The whole world to come was made subject to him. Man had received a life a nature a spirit that was capable of partaking of His Life and Spirit. Even to sitting on His throne and sharing with Him the dominion over all creation Gen 1:26-27 What a destiny!
This destiny was fulfilled in Jesus. He proved what the life of man was meant to be - how humility and subjection to God were the sure path to glory and honour. He came and he glorified a life of humiliation as the training school for the exaltation to the right hand of God; fulfilling man’s destiny in Himself as Son of man, He , as Son of God, fulfilled it for us too.
He came as the Second Adam.He stand to us in a relation as close, as real, as intimate, as Adam did. As complete as was Adam’s communication of a sinful nature, wqill be His impartation of a new, of His own nature. .. His humaity is the revelation of what we can be; His Divinity is the pledge that we can beit.
We see not yet all things subject to man, but, and that is enough, we see Jesus Crowned with Glory and Honour.” Andrew Murray The Holiest of All p.72-73
Application :
1) Your destiny is to sit with Jesus on His Throne. Live like you are preparing for it.
2) How terrible was man’s fall into sin that we are now subject to the world It’s King became its slave. The path of Humiliation and self-denial alone can lead us to our destiny in God.
3) Note the place of glory where Jesus is now and the path of Humiliation that brought Him there.
4) It is the spirit that is subject to God on earth which God will make all things subject to in heaven.
Death of Deitrich Bonhoeffer
After the invasion of Poland and then France, Bonhoeffer was now required to report regularly to the police. He was forbidden to speak in public or publish books.[12] In 1943, while working for the underground, Bonhoeffer fell in love with and became engaged to Maria von Wedemeyer. Three months later he was arrested by the Gestapo. “Your life would have been quite different, easier, clearer, simpler, had not our paths crossed,” he wrote to her. But Maria stayed faithful to Bonhoeffer to the very end.[13] While in Tegel Prison, Bonhoeffer wrote: “Church is only church when it is there for others.” One of the guards, Sergeant Knobloch, tried to smuggle Bonhoeffer out disguised as a mechanic. But Bonhoeffer rejected the escape plan in order to protect his fiancée and family.[14] A British fellow prisoner said later that ‘Bonhoeffer was all humility and sweetness with a deep gratitude for the mere fact that he was alive.’[15] After Bonhoeffer was hung at Flossenburg, the prison doctor reported: “In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.”[16]I thank God for the courage of Bonhoeffer that he sacrificed his own life in order to make a way forward for others. Bonhoeffer was truly a man who embraced his destiny.
Heb 2:10 It was only right that God, who creates and preserves all things, should make Jesus perfect through suffering, in order to bring many children to share his glory. For Jesus is the one who leads them to salvation. GNB
Heb 2:11 He purifies people from their sins, and both he and those who are made pure all have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his family. GNB
Heb 2:10 For it became Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons into glory, to perfect the Captain of their salvation through sufferings.
v.10 For it became Him (or it was only right or fitting)
became πρέπω prepō Thayer Definition:
1) to stand out, to be conspicuous, to be eminent 2) to be becoming, seemly, fit
"There was a fitness or propriety in it; it was such an arrangement as became God to make, in redeeming many, that the great agent by whom it was accomplished, should be made complete in all respects by sufferings. The apostle evidently means by this to meet an objection that might be offered by a Jew to the doctrine which he had been stating - an objection drawn from the fact that Jesus was a man of sorrows, and that his life was a life of affliction. This he meets by stating that there was a “fitness” and “propriety” in that fact. There was a reason for it - a reason drawn from the plan and character of God. It was fit, in the nature of the case, that he should be qualified to be “a complete” or “perfect Saviour” - a Saviour just adapted to the purpose undertaken, by sufferings. Barnes Notes
v.10b in bringing many sons into glory
in bringing — The Greek is past, “having brought as He did,” namely, in His electing purpose (compare “ye are sons,” namely, in His purpose, Gal_4:6; Eph_1:4), a purpose which is accomplished in Jesus being “perfected through sufferings.”
many — (Mat_20:28). “The Church” (Heb_2:12), “the general assembly” (Heb_12:23).
sons — no longer children as under the Old Testament law, but sons by adoption.
unto glory — to share Christ’s “glory” (Heb_2:9; compare Heb_2:7; Joh_17:10, Joh_17:22, Joh_17:24; Rom_8:21). Sonship, holiness (Heb_2:11), and glory, are inseparably joined. “Suffering,” “salvation,” and “glory,” in Paul’s writings, often go together (2Ti_2:10). Salvation presupposes destruction, deliverance from which for us required Christ’s “sufferings.” JFB
should make Jesus perfect through suffering,MKJV
should perfect by suffering the Prince Leader who had saved them. WNT
Perfect through sufferings - Without suffering he could not have died, and without dying he could not have made an atonement for sin. The sacrifice must be consummated, in order that he might be qualified to be the Captain or Author of the salvation of men, and lead all those who become children of God, through faith in him, into eternal glory. I believe this to be the sense of the passage; and it appears to be an answer to the grand objection of the Jews: “The Messiah is never to be conquered, or die; but will be victorious, and endure for ever.” A.C.
The work of a leader involves three things
1) He must lead the way through all the difficulties, showing it to those who follow.
2) Those who follow must yield themselves wholly to His guidance, walking even as He walked.
All His followers must walk as He walked. We must become like Him and expereince what He experienced - death to self will. This calls for fellowship and conformity. His substitution and death for us rests on our identification and following Him.
3) He must take charge of his followers, seeing that all hindrances are removed and providing for all their needs. Jesus is responsible for you as your leader. Follow Him and Trust Him. He meekly submitted to the Will of the Father through suffering. Seek to get a very clear hold on this truth and allow Him to lead you.
Jesus calls us His Brothers.
Jesus calls us His Brothers.
Heb 2:11 For both He who sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of One, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brothers,
Heb 2:12 saying, "I will declare Your name to My brothers; in the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You."
Heb 2:13 And again, "I will put My trust in Him." And again, "Behold Me and the children whom God has given Me." MKJV
A.M. Why was it necessary for God, in leading many sons unto Glory, to make the Leader of their salvation perfect through suffering? The answer is, He that sanctifies, i.e. Jesus, and they who are sanctified, God’s sons, are all out of One
Sanctifiy G37 ἁγιάζω hagiazō
Thayer Definition:
1) to render or acknowledge, or to be venerable or hallow
2) to separate from profane things and dedicate to God
2a) consecrate things to God
2b) dedicate people to God
3) to purify
3a) to cleanse externally
3b) to purify by expiation: free from the guilt of sin
3c) to purify internally by renewing of the soul
For both he that sanctifieth - This refers, evidently, to the Lord Jesus. The object is to show that there was such a union between him and those for whom he died, as to make it necessary that he should partake of the same nature, or that he should be a suffering man; Heb_2:14. he undertook to redeem and sanctify them. He called them brethren. He identified them with himself.
There was, in the great work of redemption, a oneness between him and them, and hence, it was necessary that he should assume their nature - and the fact, therefore, that he appeared as a suffering “man,” does not at all militate with the doctrine that he had a more exalted nature, and was even above the angels. Prof. Stuart endeavors to prove that the word “sanctify” here is used in the sense of, “to make expiation” or “atonement,” and that the meaning is, “he who maketh expiation, and they for whom expiation is made.”
Bloomfield gives the same sense to the word, as also does Rosenmuller. That the word may have such a signification it would be presumptuous in anyone to doubt, after the view which such people have taken of it; but it may be doubted whether this idea is necessary here. The word “sanctify” is a general term, meaning to make holy or pure; to consecrate, set apart, devote to God; to regard as holy, or to hallow. Applied to the Saviour here, it may be used in this general sense - that he consecrated, or devoted himself to God - as eminently “the consecrated” or “holy one” - the Messiah (compare the note at Joh_17:19); applied to his people, it may mean that they in like manner were the consecrated, the holy, the pure, on earth. There is a richness and fulness in the word when so understood which there is not when it is limited to the idea of expiation; and it seems to me that it is to be taken in its richest and fullest sense, and that the meaning is, “the great consecrated Messiah - the Holy One of God - and his consecrated and holy followers, are all of one.” “All of one.” Barnes
v.11. they who are sanctified are all of One
all of one: they are both of one God and Father, Christ's God is their God, and his Father is their Father; they are of one body, Christ is the head, and they are members; they are of one covenant, Christ is the surety, Mediator, and messenger of it, and they share in all its blessings and promises; they are of one man, Adam, Christ is a Son of Adam, though not by ordinary generation, they descend from him in the common way; they are all of one nature, of one blood; Christ has took part of the same flesh and blood with them: J. Gill
Who are sanctified [are made holy]
God is Thrice Holy. It is the very nature of His being. We receive His Holiness as a gift because the Life of God in us by the Holy Spirit gives us the Heart to love and please God.
So we are just like Jesus who willingly lived to please His Father. Like Jesus we are partakers of the Life and Holiness of God.
We have an inner oneness with Jesus
By becoming a man He and we are [of One] have the same Father. “He is not ashamed to call them Brethren” He came down to be an elder brother to us. He has shared in our Humanity and knows our weaknesses but still is unashamed to call us Brethren.
Heb 2:12 as when He says: "I WILL PROCLAIM THY NAME TO MY BROTHERS: IN THE MIDST OF THE CONGREGATION I WILL HYMN THY PRAISES;"
Heb 2:13 and again, "AS FOR ME, I WILL BE ONE WHOSE TRUST REPOSES IN GOD;" and again, "HERE AM I, AND HERE ARE THE CHILDREN GOD HAS GIVEN ME." WNT.
Jesus reveals to us the Name and Character of our Father. As we bow in humble adoration before the Father he will say to us, “My Brother - My Sister”; “He that does the will of God the same is my Brother and sister….” True Holiness is allowing the Divine Life of the Holy Spirit to have control. This is the mark of a true believer in Jesus Christ. This desire to live in the Will of God.
"AS FOR ME, I WILL BE ONE WHOSE TRUST REPOSES IN GOD;" Jesus lived by constant faith in God and He is the author and Finisher of our Faith. He is the leader who opened to us the Path of faith which we must follow.
v.14-15 through death He might render powerless him who had authority over death, that is, the Devil,
Heb 2:14 Since then the children referred to are all alike sharers in perishable human nature, He Himself also, in the same way, took on Him a share of it, in order that through death He might render powerless him who had authority over death, that is, the Devil,
Heb 2:15 and might set at liberty all those who through fear of death had been subject to lifelong slavery.
He became a man
1. to be our Leader
2. To be perfected,
3. to prepare a way for us to follow
4. So that we can come near to a Holy God.
Now we have another reason for His coming as a man. That he might deliver us from the power of Death and the Devil. [that through death he might bring to nought him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; ]
Bring to nought [cease the work] ABP+ G2673
καταργέω katargeō Thayer Definition:
1) to render idle, unemployed, inactivate, inoperative
1a) to cause a person or thing to have no further efficiency
1b) to deprive of force, influence, power
2) to cause to cease, put an end to, do away with, annul, abolish
2a) to cease, to pass away, be done away
2b) to be severed from, separated from, discharged from, loosed from any one
2c) to terminate all intercourse with one
Barnes Notes:
He might destroy [render powerless]- That he might “subdue,” or that he might overcome him, and “destroy” his dominion. The word “destroy” here is not used in the sense of “closing life,” or of “killing,” but in the sense of bringing into subjection, or crushing his power. This is the work which the Lord Jesus came to perform - to destroy the kingdom of Satan in the world, and to set up another kingdom in its place. This was understood by Satan to be his object: see the Mat_8:29 note; Mar_1:24 note.
That had the power of death - I understand this as meaning that the devil was the cause of death in this world. He was the means of its introduction, and of its long and melancholy reign. This does not “affirm” anything of his power of inflicting death in particular instances - whatever may be true on that point - but that “death” was a part of his dominion; that he introduced it; that he seduced man from God, and led on the train of woes which result in death.
Our High Priest is faithful and able to Succour us.
Heb 2:16 For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
Heb 2:17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
Heb 2:18 For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.
but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
He took not on him the nature of angels - Margin, “He taketh not hold of angels, but of the seed of Abraham he taketh hold.” The word used here - ἐπιλαμβάνεται epilambanetai - means, to take hold upon; to seize; to surprise; to take hold with a view to detain for oneself. Robinson. Then it means to take hold of one as by the hand - with a view to aid, conduct, or succour; Mar_8:23; Act_23:19.Barnes
Heb 2:17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. KJV And for this purpose it was necessary that in all respects He should be made to resemble His brothers, so that He might become a compassionate and faithful High Priest in things relating to God, in order to atone for the sins of the people.
Wherefore in all things it behoved (was fitting and necessary) for him to be made like unto his brethren
it behooved him (was fitting)— by moral necessity, considering what the justice and love of God required of Him as Mediator (compare Heb_5:3), the office which He had voluntarily undertaken in order to “help” man (Heb_2:16).
his brethren — (Heb_2:11); “the seed of Abraham” (Heb_2:16), and so also the spiritual seed, His elect out of all mankind.
be, etc. — rather as Greek, “that He might become High Priest”; He was called so, when He was “made perfect by the things which He suffered” (Heb_2:10; Heb_5:8-10). He was actually made so, when He entered within the veil, from which last flows His ever continuing intercession as Priest for us. The death, as man, must first be, in order that the bringing in of the blood into the heavenly Holy Place might follow, in which consisted the expiation as High Priest.
RWP says “It behoved him (ōpheilen). Imperfect active of opheilō, old verb to owe, money (Mat_18:28), service and love (Rom_13:8), duty or obligation as here and often in N.T. (Luk_17:10). Jesus is here the subject and the reference is to the incarnation. Having undertaken the work of redemption (Joh_3:16), voluntarily (Joh_10:17), Jesus was under obligation to be properly equipped for that priestly service and sacrifice.
In all things (kata panta). Except yielding to sin (Heb_4:15) and yet he knew what temptation was, difficult as it may be for us to comprehend that in the Son of God who is also the Son of man (Mar_1:13). Jesus fought through to victory over Satan.
To be made like unto his brethren (tois adelphois homoiōthēnai). First aorist passive infinitive of homoioō, old and common verb from homoios (like), as in Mat_6:8, with the associative instrumental case as here. Christ, our Elder Brother, resembles us in reality (Phi_2:7 “in the likeness of men”) as we shall resemble him in the end (Rom_8:29 “first-born among many brethren”; 1Jo_3:2 “like him”), where the same root is used as here (hoiōma, homoios). That he might be (hina genētai). Purpose clause with hina and the second aorist middle subjunctive of ginomai, to become, “that he might become.” That was only possible by being like his brethren in actual human nature.
Merciful and faithful high priest (eleēmōn kai pistos archiereus). The sudden use of archiereus here for Jesus has been anticipated by Heb_1:3; Heb_2:9 and see Heb_3:1. Jesus as the priest-victim is the chief topic of the Epistle. These two adjectives (eleēmōn and pistos) touch the chief points in the function of the high priest (Heb_5:1-10), sympathy and fidelity to God. The Sadducean high priests (Annas and Caiaphas) were political and ecclesiastical tools and puppets out of sympathy with the people and chosen by Rome. “
to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. To make Propitiation for the sins of the people.
in order to atone for the sins of the people.
atone; make reconciliation G2433 ἱλάσκομαι hilaskomai
Thayer Definition:
1) to render one’s self, to appease, conciliate to one’s self
1a) to become propitious, be placated or appeased
1b) to be propitious, be gracious, be merciful
2) to expiate, make propitiation for
To make reconciliation - By his death as a sacrifice. The word used here - ἱλάσκομαι hilaskomai - occurs but in one other place in the New Testament Luk_18:13, where it is rendered “God be merciful to me a sinner;” that is, reconciled to me. The noun (ἱλασμός hilasmos - “propitiation”) is used in 1Jo_2:2; 1Jo_4:10. The word here means properly to “appease,” to reconcile, to conciliate; and hence, to “propitiate” as to “sins;” that is, to propitiate God in reference to sins, or to render him propitious. The Son of God became a man, that he might so fully enter into the feelings of the people as to be faithful, and that he might be qualified as a high priest to perform the great work of rendering God propitious in regard to sins. How he did this, is fully shown in the subsequent parts of the Epistle.
Heb 2:18 For in that he, himself, hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.
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| Jesus: able to help in Temptation |
WE don’t use the word succour very much now. It means “assistance and support in times of hardship and distress..synonyms: aid ; help ; bring a helping hand; assist” Google dictionary”
He is able is succour and assist in every temptation and situation. His mercy and faithfulness is available to all who will come to Him for Help. *******************************
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