THE IMPERISHABLE MANHOOD OF ISRAEL'S DEPARTED MESSIAH
(Suggested Reading: Heb. 2:5-18)
What is really the second chapter opens with verse 5, picking up the connection with the subject of angels in 1:14 sent out to serve those about to become heirs of salvation. How they carry out this service is not told us but it is a necessary work in a world opposed to God and His people. In 2:5 Paul tells us something more about the angels they are not to rule "the world to come" i.e. the millennium. Angels are servants then, not rulers. Once the Son of God assumed manhood the question of angelic rule came to an end. At the appointed time man in Christ will share the rule of the universe with the Son of the Father's love.
That is why direction shifts rapidly away from the subject of angels to man "but one in a certain place *1. testified saying, "What is man that Thou rememberest him, or the Son of Man that Thou visitest him?" Well, why should God remember man? To this question there is no ready answer until a second question makes an answer unnecessary. This second question is "or the Son of Man that Thou visitest Him?" The Son of Man, of course, is Christ. Son of Man is one of Christ's official titles. It means the rejected One in this world, but the Lord of the worlds to come. When did God visit Christ as man, though? Again the Jew is referred to his Holy Scriptures "Thou hast proved my heart, Thou hast visited me by night Thou hast tried me, Thou hast found nothing. My thought goeth not beyond my word" Psa. 17:3. The Gospel of Luke gives us a good illustration of this night trial and proving "and it came to pass in those days that He went out into a mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God" Luke 6:12.
We See Jesus
Two opposite views of Christ are given us in 2:7. One speaks of His incarnation and life as man on earth "thou madest Him a little lower than the angels" that is in becoming man. This makes it clear that man is lower in the sphere of creation than the angels, and Christ became man. But if Christ humbled Himself God exalted Him, for the latter part of the verse tells us, "Thou crownedst Him with glory and honor and didst set Him over the works of His hands "2.* This is Psa. 21 where God sets a crown of pure gold on Christ's head. This is God's answer to man's wickedness in cutting Christ off from the land of the living. But this is in resurrection. He asked for life and God gave Him life in resurrection length of days forever and ever. So God has reversed man's judgment on Christ. Man awarded Him a cross God awards Him a crown, and life as Man forever and ever. This the Christian sees by faith v.9. But it is not enough to reverse man's judgment He must be put over all creation and His enemies must be subdued. God sees this as already accomplished but as for us "we see not yet all things put under Him." What we do see however is Jesus, crowned with glory and honor.
By faith we see the glorified Man. He was once on this earth in flesh and blood v.14 that is He had a body capable of suffering, capable too of death but not subject to it. He was "made perfect through sufferings" i.e. by experiencing suffering in the body which He could not until incarnate. He tasted death "for everything... that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil." Stephen saw Jesus and was given grace to die for Him Paul saw Jesus and was given grace to live for Him Phil. 1:21.
Christ As the Leader of Our Salvation
Because Christ is the leader of our salvation we must follow Him. That was the Lord's parting message to Peter "Follow Me." Peter understood what the Lord meant for he wrote of "the sufferings of Christ" (the penalty for following a rejected Christ in this world) "and the glory that should follow" (the heavenly reward later) see 1 Peter 1:11. Paul starts with the glory of Christ Acts 9:3 then the sufferings Acts 9:16. Because Christ is the leader of our salvation in Hebrews, many sons are first brought to glory where He is now but we are not allowed to forget His former sufferings.
Even in glory, though, something is missing of what belongs to Christ, for "we see not yet all things put under Him." Until that time God compensates Him by giving Him the company of those whom He has redeemed. These were first called His fellows that is companions, which confirms this thought. Here they are known by other names sons 2:10 brethren 2:11 and children 2:13. So "it became Him" this expression is a revelation of God's character what was consistent with God Himself. But to continue "it became Him for whom are all things" (for He is heir of all things) "and by whom are all things" (for He created them) "to bring many sons to glory." We are brought to that bright glory as sons with God's Son a relationship of dignity, affection, understanding of God and liberty in His presence. Man was born to sonship see Luke 3:38 and the prodigal son discovered that he could only return to his father as a son not as a servant. Jesus has brought us-back in peace and free the leader of our salvation made perfect through sufferings. Because of this we know our Father's heart in a way that Adam never could in innocence. So the leader of our salvation will bring us home to His Father's house. He is not ashamed of us when we get there for the sanctifier (Christ) and the sanctified (us) are all of one *3. for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren. Brothers in the Lord are those who have had His life eternal life communicated to them, as the Lord told Nicodemus in John 3. To these brethren He would declare the Father's name and lead the songs of praise to the Father in the glory *4. As the leader of our salvation He brings us to glory as sons. Then in the glory, our salvation completed, He becomes the leader of praise in the center of the church. Next Paul comes to "children" those in the family of God 5* the godly of all ages. Admission to the family is based on the death and resurrection of Christ whether the children come from past, present, or future ages. That is why "I will put my trust in Him" precedes "children." Men railed, "He trusted in God let Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him" Matt. 27:43. The prophet said, "Who shall declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the land of the living" Isa. 53:8. Here we find that it is God who answers this question by giving Him His children in resurrection.
This blessedness is the fruit of the travail of Christ's soul. It is God's consolation to Him just as Joseph was given Asenath as a wife because He has lost Israel and is not yet ruling the nations. We are His companions now, and will soon join Him in songs of praise to His Father in the place He has prepared for us.
God has pulled the curtain back, so to speak, to the blessedness of future glory with Christ, and our present joy as His companions, till all be light. However the other side of things is that we are a needy people. To begin with we were born into this world in bodies of flesh and blood, corruptible bodies because of Satan's power of death over man. We needed a deliverer. Who would take up our cause, and who, after having delivered us, would help us in a world opposed to God when we ourselves are overloaded with infirmities?
Christ Our Sacrifice and Priest
The closing verses of Chapter 2- i.e. vs. 14-18 sum up what was before God in Christ assuming manhood. One object was to become the sacrifice the other to become the priest.*6 This could never be under the law of Moses. The office and its leading function were separated. Aaron was the priest but Moses could not be the sacrifice, for he could not make an atonement for the people's sins see Ex. 32:30-32. But in Christ the sacrifice and the priest are one. This is fitting since Israel's high priest performed two great functions sacrifice outside the tabernacle and burning incense inside it. But Christ's sacrifice is past. Today He is inside, performing the other function of the high priest burning incense inside on the golden altar as it were. Incense speaks of prayer and intercession going up to God on our behalf see Psa. 141:2 and Luke 1:9-11. The fire to burn the incense had to come from the brazen altar outside where typically Christ had been sacrificed. Connecting the two we see that Christ's intercession to God is only for His own people those who have been redeemed by the blood of His own sacrifice.
These closing verses give us the emerging principle of the whole book of Hebrews, and therefore merit close attention. Paul wants his readers to give up the temple and its ritual. To give them a proper orientation he brings them back in spirit to the tabernacle in the desert where their fathers had once worshipped God. This is a gradual development in the epistle. Paul has purposely brought before the Jews their threefold link with God. In Chapter 1 he pointed out that God spoke to them through the law and the prophets and finally in the Person of His Son. Chapters 1 and 2 are full of quotations from the Holy Scriptures, the oracles of God committed to them. When we come to Chapter 3 he will point out a summit privilege they enjoyed the tabernacle, God's house, where God Himself dwelt in the midst of His people.
Paul wants the Jewish Christians to think of a heavenly tabernacle in which Christ is the great high priest. On earth He had been the sacrifice so that will never be repeated. He goes into the holy and most holy places and burns incense. That means He intercedes to God for His people. It is not something we ask Him to do for us as when we pray for our needs. No. As high priest He goes to God for us. He is the intercessor. Why does He do it? Because of the yawning gap between our standing "sons," "brethren," "children," even "companions" and our feeble state in this world poor people who are sick, persecuted, bereaved, etc. This is a spiritual work in our souls to help us overcome the obstacles in the race to heaven. He strengthens us for conflict in the world and praise in the church. That is the essence of His high priesthood.
Christ then had two motives in coming into this world to be the sacrifice and to be the priest. Only one who was God's Son could be an acceptable sacrifice that is Chapter 1 and only the man of Chapter 2 Could be the priest.
“The atoning work is done
The victim's blood is shed
And Jesus now is gone
His people's cause to plead
He lives in heaven their great high priest
And bears their names upon His breast.
And though awhile He be
Hid from the eyes of men
His people look to see
Their great high priest again
In brightest glory He will come
And take His waiting people home.”
“Follow Me" the Leader of the Race From Earth to Heaven
At this point we would like to raise the question why God has been occupying us with the glories of His Son in Manhood when, as we understand it, the great subject of the epistle is running the race from earth to heaven. The answer is that you cannot run a race from one point to another unless someone else has trail blazed the path for you marked it out as a surveyor does, built the roadway and used it. Then and then only can others follow in his steps. This is what Jesus meant when He said "Follow Me" to Peter. Paul puts it this way, "For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the leader of their salvation perfect through sufferings" 2:11.
So God has gone to great lengths to point out the glories of the Man who has mapped out the route from earth to heaven and traveled it before we did. He is the Creator of all things. He upholds the created universe by the word of His power. He has created beings to inhabit the heavens the angels He has created other beings to inhabit the earth men. But in taking on manhood Himself He has made it clear that the world to come will not be in subjection to angels but to men 2:5-16, who, now on earth, are to follow the path He marked out from earth to heaven. How especially favored we are His "fellows" 1:9 those who are to be His companions in glory God's sons brought to glory 2:10 the brethren of Christ 2:11 and John 20:17 children in the family of God 2:13 those whom the Father gave to Christ cf also Isa. 8:18.
Having finished God's work perfectly on the cross, God has encircled the brow of His Son with glory. He has set a crown of pure gold on His head. In reciprocal affections Christ declares the Father's Name to His brethren and becomes the leader in praise to the Father in the midst of the Church.
Mrs. J. A. Trench captured these thoughts in her hymn:
“All the path the saints are treading
Trodden by the Son of God
All the sorrows they are feeling,
Felt by Him upon the road.
All the darkness and the sorrow
From around and from within,
All the joy and all the triumph,
He passed through apart from sin."