10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.
11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren,
12 saying,
“I WILL PROCLAIM YOUR NAME TO MY BRETHREN,
IN THE MIDST OF THE CONGREGATION I WILL SING YOUR PRAISE.”
13 And again,
“I WILL PUT MY TRUST IN HIM.”
And again,
“BEHOLD, I AND THE CHILDREN WHOM GOD HAS GIVEN ME.”
14 Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
15 and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.
16 For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham.
17 Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
18 For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.
Flowing beautifully from the transition of Hebrews 2:9, the preacher now speaks in better detail of what it means that Jesus “was made a little while lower that the angels”. Thus the preacher is taking us from the exulted Son who sits at the right had of God with all things in subjection to Him to the incarnate Christ. The preacher is continuing to build up to the high priestly work of Christ and so we will deal with the sacrificial work of the cross in better detail later, but focus now on the importance of His incarnation.
“For it was fitting for Him”, that is the Father, “to perfect the author”, the Son, “of their salvation through suffering”. Now when read straight forward in our current understanding of language this presents a huge problem in our Christology—our doctrine of Christ. Was Christ not perfect? Was there sin in Jesus? And if not sin, was there some kind of weakness in Jesus—was He lacking in some way before the incarnation? The answer is of course, “NO!” Rather, the word rendered perfect here can also mean completion. Thus the preacher is saying that by the sufferings of Jesus, which makes reference to the cross, the plan of God for redemption was accomplished, finished, completed, and perfected. So the perfect Son of God became through suffering the perfect Savior. This had to be done because God, “for whom are all things, and through whom are all things”, decreed it necessary to “bring many sons to glory”.
“For both He who sanctifies”, which is the Son by the work He accomplished, “and those who are being sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren”. Here we see the preacher building toward the high priestly work of the Son, but mainly wanting to stress the humanity of the Son and His identification with the brethren. It is by the work of Christ that we are made into one family with the Father. Thus the preacher quotes from Psalm 22 and Isaiah 8 showing the way the Son is not ashamed to be called our brethren. By the incarnation the Son has been made like us and now is apart of us in a whole new way.
“Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same”. Thus, when we envision the incarnate Son, we must see Him as completely human. Though the mind cannot fathom its complexities, we must see Him as fully God and fully man—the God-man. He had to be completely like us so “that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil”. If the Son had not shared completely in our humanity, He would not have been able to “free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.” Because the Son, as man, being born into this world and by implication it is necessary for Him to depart through death, passed into death and conquered him who had power over it. We now no longer have to be enslaved to it through fear, but now can have hope in what lies on the other side.
“For assuredly He does not give help to angels” because the Son did not share in their nature. The very fact that the Son came in the flesh is the evidence that He came to give “help to the descendent of Abraham”, who are those who are of the household of faith. So now that Christ has been “made like His brethren in all things”, taking on our very nature of flesh and weakness, He has “become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God”. He now fills the role of the high priest of the Old Covenant as He makes “propitiation for the sins of the people.” And since He is like us in our nature and “was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.” We do not have a high priest who can not sympathize with us, but one who understands everything perfectly because He suffered, yet remained perfect.
We must therefore listen to the preachers words to “pay much closer attention to what we have heard” because it is by this understanding of who the Son is and what He has accomplished and for what end it happened, that we will be kept. Through the incarnation the Son, who is the Word of God, became flesh and dwelt among us enduring the same struggles we endure: hunger, tiredness, frustration, and most importantly temptation. Because the Son was not a partial man, but a whole man, we can come to Him in full confidence that He will be able to sympathize with us, and we can come even more confidently because He calls us His brethren and children identifying with us. And by His coming to us in our form He is able to represent us before God and aid us in our weakness.
Thus we should give greater time to meditating on who Christ is and what He has accomplished as a man. To often we focus on our limitations because we are mere men, but the Son as man resisted temptation and was therefore able to offer up the perfect sacrifice. Also we should be able to live more boldly because we do not have to fear anything any more, because if death is the worst thing that can happen to us, and there is no fear in death because the Son has conquered the devil who had power over it, we have nothing to fear. Instead, death is the gateway into eternal bliss because the Son has propitiated our sins and has gone on before us as our pioneer.
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