A PERFECT SAVIOUR.
Hebrews 2:10-18.
I. The Father deemed it an appropriate method to secure our salvation by sending His Son into this world to be one with us (Hebrews 2:10-11). This was determined from all eternity, and was not some kind of afterthought (John 3:16). Jesus came willingly, knowing what must be done (Hebrews 10:5-7).
The pioneer of our salvation was “made perfect through suffering” (Hebrews 2:10). This does not imply that Jesus was ever anything other than perfectly moral: but it suggests a level of experience which we all go through (sufferings) being experienced voluntarily by the divine Son. Given the vicarious nature of His sufferings, He thereby “brings many sons into glory” (Hebrews 2:10).
II. Jesus sanctifies us - sets us apart for God - by becoming one with us, and making us one with Him (Hebrews 2:11). ‘The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us’ (John 1:14). He drew us into the family of God, counting us as both brethren and sons (Hebrews 2:12-13).
There are three quotations indicated here in verses Hebrews 2:12-13. First, Psalm 22:22 reminds us, from its context, that we are drawn into the family of God only through the furnace of Jesus’ own sufferings. Secondly: because Jesus “put His trust in the LORD” (Hebrews 2:13; cf. Isaiah 8:17; Matthew 27:43), so can we (Psalm 16:1; Psalm 18:2; Psalm 36:7; Psalm 91:2; Isaiah 12:2; Isaiah 50:7). Third, the context of Isaiah 8:17-18 speaks of a remnant of God’s children who are redeemed out of the furnace of God’s judgment against ‘Immanuel’s land’ (cf. Isaiah 8:8).
As the One like unto Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15), yet greater than Moses (Hebrews 3:1-6), Jesus became one with His own people. ‘He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But to all the people who received Him, He gave the right (the power, the authority) to be sons of God: to everyone who trusts in His Name’ (John 1:11-12).
III. It was necessary that Jesus should partake of flesh and blood in order to procure our salvation (Hebrews 2:14).
1. Jesus overcomes death (Hebrews 2:14), and the fear of death (Hebrews 2:15), through His own death upon the Cross. Death is swallowed up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:54). The Lord’s people are delivered out of the very jaws of hell (Hosea 13:14).
2. Jesus destroys him that had the power of death, that is, the devil (Hebrews 2:14). He breaks our bondage (Hebrews 2:15) in a new exodus (Luke 9:31), and leads us into everlasting life. No angel could have accomplished this, so it was necessary that He should become man (Hebrews 2:16).
IV. Jesus became man, taking upon Himself the seed of Abraham (Hebrews 2:16) - in whom all nations are blessed (Genesis 22:18). He was made like unto His brethren, and therefore has the capacity to be a merciful and faithful high priest. As both High Priest and sacrifice, Jesus makes reconciliation with God for the sins of His people (Hebrews 2:17).
Jesus did not have His life taken from Him, but laid it down - and took it up again (John 10:17-18). The perfection of completion was punctuated in His last words upon the Cross: ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30).
V. Having undergone sufferings, and overcome temptations on our behalf (cf. Hebrews 4:15), Jesus continues to minister to us in the midst of the challenges and changes in our own lives (Hebrews 2:18).
Whether viewed as the babe in a manger, or as the man upon the Cross; as the risen Lord, or as the King upon the throne - Jesus is well able to identify with His people’s personal perplexities.
