Tuesday, September 22 –
We continue our reading thru the New Testament today by
reading Hebrews 2:1 – 18. After you have finished reading the passage, please
come back, and we’ll walk through it together one more time.
Hebrews is – probably – the most theological book in the New
Testament. One can argue that Romans is either ahead of it or alongside it, but
Hebrews is full of Theology. Good theology
leads to practical theology. For
example, now that we know that Jesus is the same as God and superior to Angels,
we cannot help but ask, “so what”? The answer
is in the second chapter – “So we must listen very carefully to the truth we
have heard, or we may drift away from it. For the message God delivered
through angels has always stood firm, and every violation of the law and every
act of disobedience was punished. So what makes us think we can escape if
we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus
himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak?” (2:1-3).
The author uses the phrase “drift away” to describe what was tempting
the Jewish believers. The warning comes
from the doctrine of Christ in chapter 1.
Having received Christ as Savior, what would they gain, and where would
they go, by giving up on faith in Christ?
The Old Testament tells the story of the children of Israel being
rescued from slavery in Egypt and delivered through the Red Sea by Moses only to
discover the struggle of living in freedom that made some of them want to go back
to Egypt!
He argues from the lesser to the greater in saying if the
message of the Law delivered by Angels was strict, how can we think missing the
greatest revelation in Jesus will be acceptable? The Law was a temporary, Old Covenant, and
Jesus came offering a permanent New Covenant.
To reject Jesus is to reject the only means of salvation and life eternal!
“How shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation,
which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard
him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders, and various miracles and
by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will (2:3-3).
Jesus’ ministry demonstrated how God brought about a change in the Covenant
dealings with Jews and Gentiles. No
longer would the Law be the basis for the covenant God made, but now in Jesus,
God revealed the way of Grace, with signs, wonders, and miracles coming from the
Holy Spirit.
The author is not done with the comparison of Jesus to God’s
Angelic hosts, and in returning to this theme, He demonstrates that the first
few verses were a parenthesis in his argument -
“It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we
are speaking. But there is a place where someone has testified: “What is
mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him? You
made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor
and put everything under their feet.” In putting everything under them,
God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see
everything subject to them. But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than
the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he
suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone”
(2:5-9).
In shifting back to the comparison of Christ to Angels, he also wants us to
recognize how God has elevated the role of humankind – “crowning them with
glory and honor, and putting everything under their feet.” In the creation, God had put everything under
Human dominion (Gen. 1:26-28), but in the Fall, that dominion reverted to chaos. Borrowing from the language of Psalm 8, the writer
reminds them that in Christ, the creation is being restored because Jesus
suffered death – i.e., became human like us, and so destroyed the power of
death over all who believe in Him. Augustine wrote in the 5th century,
“In order to be a mediator, the Son willed to take ‘the form of a servant’
below the angels, being simultaneously the way of life on earth and life itself
in heaven.”[1]
In Jesus, we have one who became
like us to experience what we experience – futility, suffering, death – and thus
pioneered the way through life by faith triumphing over death.
Jesus came to do more than save us; he came to transform our
lives. In his death, he brought
salvation as a covenant of grace, “bringing many sons and daughters to glory…perfect
through what he suffered” (2:10). As human beings, we were destined for
alienation, having no knowledge of God, working for something we could never
achieve. But, in Christ, God has made us
into a new creation -
“Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the
same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.
He says, “I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters; in the
assembly I will sing your praises.” And again, “I will put my trust in
him.” And again he says, “Here am I, and the children God has given me”(2:11-13).
Now we are brothers and sisters in God’s family, made holy – set apart by God –
for his purposes. Nothing could
anticipate all that Jesus would accomplish in His atonement. Without Christ Jesus, we would still be alienated
and separated from God, but now in Christ Jesus, we are in the family of God.
Jesus Christ became fully human that he might take on all
that humanity cannot take on. Through
his death, he destroyed not only the power of death but also the fear of death
that all humans live in -
“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, and deliver all those who through
fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not
angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham (2:14-16).
Jesus’ death atoned for our sins and cleared the way through death to life in
Heaven with Christ. Satan continues to
use the fear of death over many people, but in Christ, we have no fear. Our future is not determined as if death is
the end; for death is but a doorway from life on earth to eternal life in
Christ. Do we fear the unknown of death? Sure. Christ
is faithful to minister to us both in life and death.
“Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he
might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make
propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has
suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted” (2:17-18).
While living on earth, we will never be free of fear, suffering, pain, and
death. Yet, Christ Jesus pioneered a way through all of those things. Jesus is merciful, a faithful high priest,
who made propitiation (the sacrifice of atonement) that not only pays for our
sin but understands what sin does to us.
He knows not only what we need but also how to meet our needs.
Think about how Prayer is not a recitation of requests, but a conversation with our living Savior, who already knows our need. We must learn to go to Christ in good times and bad.
Peace
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