Hebrews 2

Division 2. (Hebrews 2:5-18; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13.)Christ, Captain of salvation, contrasted with Moses and Joshua, in his humiliation to death for his brethren, annulling the devil and delivering those subject to bondage. In the second division we have now the way in which the Lord becomes the “Originator of salvation” for His brethren, the Kinsman-Redeemer. We see Him here already crowned with honor and glory, and to be set over the world to come; and then look down from this to see His humiliation and suffering with the purpose of God in it; thus leading on to the view of His complete glory as Son over the house of God. This, in the first place, is the universe, and gives Him, therefore, His connection with all God’s purposes from the beginning; but then it is the priestly house; which leads us on to the great subject of the epistle, -how He has given to us an entrance into the Holiest, and brought us nigh to God perfectly revealed.

Hebrews 2:1-4

Section 3. (Hebrews 2:1-4.)The publication of these good news with threefold attestation. We have now the proclamation of glad tidings such as these, and that in a threefold way: first as begun to be spoken by the Lord Himself; then, as confirmed by those who heard Him; and finally, as attested by the Holy Ghost with signs and wonders and various acts of power. All this declares, indeed, the necessity of that salvation which the gospel proclaims. God has been in earnest about it. We, says the apostle, must give earnest heed to it also. Alas, it is man’s chief blessing which he constantly refuses, and which even Christians, as has been fully demonstrated in the history of the Church, have proved themselves least competent to hold. That God’s grace could not, after all, fail of its object, should be self-evident.

God will not leave Christ without that which love in Him could account His recompense. He must see of the fruit of the travail of His soul. He must be satisfied. But with all this, the incompetence of man is fully demonstrated, and nowhere so much as when God has spoken and wrought after this manner. But the apostle is addressing himself in the first place to unbelieving Jews, or to those who might have given a temporary and superficial faith to Christianity. He therefore declares that if the law required that every transgression and disobedience should receive just retribution, it would be indeed impossible for those to escape who should neglect so great a salvation.

What must be the final portion of those for whom God’s work by His Son and Spirit should yet be in vain?

Hebrews 2:5-9

Section 1. (Hebrews 2:5-9.)As already crowned with glory, and to be over the world to come. The first section, then, shows us Christ as Man destined to be set over the world to come, though, as yet, not seen with all things put under Him as such, but crowned with glory and honor. The world is here the “habitable earth to come,” to which the psalmist is looking on now. Angels are not set over that. The Son of Man is, and He is the representative Man for God, -not the first, but the Second Man. The first man is fallen, and the race with him. The Second Man it is in whom the restored earth stands, and whose work reaches even to the reconciliation of the things in heaven. Here we have again the testimony of the Old Testament. The habitable earth was designed for man, as is plain, at the beginning, and, spite of his fall, the purpose of God in this cannot be defeated. The angels are not to displace him here. In the quotation of the eighth psalm man is seen indeed, not merely made naturally a little lower than the angels, but such an one as makes it a matter of God’s condescending grace, if He remembers him at all. The very glory of God in the heavens over his head makes the psalmist ask with astonishment, how God can visit this fallen son of man. The answer is plainly that it is not the fallen man with whom God is occupied, but Another altogether.

And when Christ is seen, then the glory of the visible heavens is all eclipsed in comparison. What does it all amount to when compared with the glory of Him who is now before the eye of God, made indeed Himself a little lower than the angels, but to be crowned with glory and honor, and with all things put in subjection under His feet! The apostle emphasizes this in the most absolute way: “For in that He put all in subjection under Him, He left nothing that is not in subjection under Him.” It is quite true, he says, we do not see that yet. That is a mystery revealed to faith: it is not yet a manifestation. Nevertheless, “We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels on account of the suffering of death,” which He had to endure, “crowned with glory and honor. Here is One who has plainly come to seek the lowest place, and not the highest, but who, just in that very way, is exalted to the highest. Here is a true Man, and even a Son of Man; and One who has come under the penalty of sin in order that He might remove it; by the grace of God tasting death, realizing all the bitterness of it, “for every one” or “every thing,” as we may otherwise read it; in either case, for the ransom of all the creation, wherever sin had blighted it. The first man stood for the whole scene with which he was connected, and which fell with him.

The Second Man, in the same way, stands in connection with the whole scene, but as Redeemer and Restorer. The habitable earth to come is the sphere of the first man, but in the hands of the Second. It is earth, not heaven (as is plain by the psalm), and can only take in part of the scene in Hebrews 12:22-24; as, for instance, Zion, but not the New Jerusalem. The eighth psalm may give hints of a wider dominion, but its plain speech does not go beyond the earth; but thus the purpose of God in man’s creation is vindicated abundantly, nay, shown to be inconceivably more wonderful than could appear at the beginning. God is glorified in Him with a glory which fills not the earth only, but also heaven.

Hebrews 2:10-18

Section 2. (Hebrews 2:10-18.)His humiliation and suffering as Kinsman Redeemer. In the next section we find the Lord’s work as Saviour dwelt upon. A Saviour from sin must be a Sufferer. Power simply cannot suffice. There are necessities of the divine nature which condition the forth-putting of divine power. Divine holiness must be vindicated at personal cost, but divine love is bent upon bringing sons to glory. There can be no perfecting of the blessed Person, but there must be the perfecting of a Saviour. “It became Him,” therefore, “for whom are all things and by whom are all things, . . . to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” This word “Captain” may be better translated “Leader,” or, better still, “Originator”: One who establishes the way by which He will bring others through to salvation. Nor is it indeed only salvation for which He destines them, but He brings them as sons, new-made, to a glory unimagined. How beautiful is the reminder that if there are conditions of all this, they are conditions which spring from the very majesty of Him who is bringing these sons to glory. For Him are all things, by Him are all things. This does not make Him work independently of that which must display and vindicate His holy nature. The power of God is indeed limited, but only by His own perfections.

Truly omnipotent, that does not mean, of course, that He can do that which is in any way unworthy of Him; and how gloriously does He display Himself in One who comes down Himself to suffer according to the requirements of divine holiness, -Himself to take the penalty which in righteousness He has imposed! How thoroughly the rightness of the penalty is seen as taken by the Son of God Himself, God glorified in it! The voice of the twenty-second psalm is that of One who bears witness thus in the sufferings, the unequalled sufferings, in which He is found. “But,” says He, “Thou art holy, O Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.” He shall inhabit, He shall dwell amongst the praises of a people such as these have, alas, proved themselves to be. He shall dwell amid these praises for eternity, but in holiness, as alone He can. He shall satisfy Himself in that in which His people too are not only satisfied, but overflow with the joy which they trace to Him, and which, therefore, is the joy of worship. Here, then, are sons related as such to the glorious Son, who has come down to be the Son of Man also. “Both He who sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of One, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” Here, surely, is the First-born among many brethren, and all the connection assures us that “of One,” or “out of One,” means really “of one Father.” Yet there is an infinite difference, so that indeed it is divine love in Him which makes Him recognize and welcome brethren such as these. He is the divine Son. They are only human. Moreover, He is the Sanctifier they have need of sanctification yet he is not ashamed of them. By and by, He will conform them to His own likeness, so that they may indeed be the companions of His heart for evermore. But this is, again, so new and strange, apparently, that the apostle must produce the Old Testament scriptures for it. He produces three: the first from the twenty-second psalm, where, immediately after the sin-offering is accomplished, and the Sufferer is heard from the horns of the aurochs (the buffalo), He is heard saying: “I will declare Thy Name unto My brethren; in the midst of the assembly will I praise Thee.” It is the gospel of John that gives us the primary fulfilment of this: “Go and tell my brethren,” says the risen Lord to Mary, “I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and unto My God and your God.” Here is the distinction indeed preserved which must always remain between the Sanctifier and the sanctified, between the Former of the relationship and those who are brought, through grace, into the relationship. But this difference is only one main element of the blessing itself, and it is in the full enjoyment of what His grace has wrought that He gathers around Him the assembly of the redeemed to sing praise to God in their midst. It is not here that they sing, but He sings. Their song will come in due time, but His must have the priority, and must have the pre-eminence. Who is the one who can sing praises to God like Him?

Who can be, in that sense, associated with Him? By His Spirit, no doubt, He can and will bring His people into fellowship with Himself. Their joy is His joy, and His joy their joy, but far more blessed than any song in common is the song of this single Voice in the midst of those He gathers. The two other quotations are side by side in Isaiah (Isaiah 8:17-18), in which the prophet personates, after the manner of the Psalms, the One to come. “I will put my trust in Him” is from the Septuagint, where, in our common version it is: “I will wait upon Him;” but in either way it is the expression of that trust in God which in Christ was absolute, and which made Him “the leader and finisher of faith,” the One who in His own Person was the perfect example of it. This makes in a practical way the family of faith His brethren. The third quotation is different, again, in its expression of the same truth. Indeed, it looks as if it were not the same. “Behold, I and the children that God has given Me” seems to refer to the natural relation of father and children, as in the prophet’s case it certainly did; but here again we are to remember the typical significance, and find therefore, in this, Christ as the last Adam; which supplies thus a most important link in the chain of evidence, for it is as this that He is the Representative-Head of those for whom He laid down His life. The first Adam was, by the human life which he communicated to his descendants, a real first-born among brethren; and Christ is the same among those to whom, as life-giving Spirit, far beyond the power of the first Adam, He communicates divine life. We are here again very near to the gospel of John, and are listening to the Voice which said: “As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him;” but, for this, the corn of wheat must fall into the ground and die, that it may bring forth fruit. The passage here goes back even of this, to His taking flesh to die; and since, then, “the children are sharers of flesh and blood, He Himself, in like manner, took part in the same, that through death He might bring to naught him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and set free those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” This is not putting away of sins exactly, but it supposes it. The shadow of death is dispelled by the Light of Life descending into it; and, as again the Lord says in John, of the effect of His coming as the Resurrection and the Life: “He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live,” -(that refers to the past, but again) -“He that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.” Death was, in the past. He has now abolished it for faith, and brought life and incorruption to light by the gospel. It must be noted here, as it often has been, that while the children are said to be partakers of flesh and blood, -this “partaking” being a real having in common, a participation of the most thorough kind, -in His own “taking part,” another word is used which implies limitation. It does not indeed show the character of the limitation but the difference between the words makes us necessarily ask what, in fact, that was; and the answer comes to us immediately, that while His was true humanity in every particular necessary to constitute it that, yet humanity as men have it, the humanity of fallen men, was not His. Here there must be strict limitation. We must add, as the apostle does afterwards with regard to His temptation, “sin apart.” Sin, with the consequences of sin, He could not take. Death could have no power over Him, except as He might submit Himself voluntarily to it, and this He did; but it was obedience to His Father’s will, and no necessity of His condition, as it is of ours. “For He taketh not hold of angels, but of the seed of Abraham He taketh hold; wherefore it behooved Him in all things to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things relating to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” All this is in language which an Israelite would well understand; but the seed of Abraham, the people, are to be seen in the light of Christianity as the company of faith. If Israel nationally answered to this description, then, of course, they could claim as such the old promises; but even here not exclusively, for the apostle’s words, that “they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham,” must necessarily apply at all times and under all circumstances. The apostle has, in fact, however, before the end of the epistle, a word of exhortation as to leaving the camp because of Christ’s rejection; and those to whom it is written, though Hebrews, are immediately here addressed as “holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling,” -which Israel’s was not. “The people” and “the seed of Abraham,” must be understood here, therefore, in the light of this. The Day of Atonement is, of course, contemplated in the making of “propitiation for the sins of the people.” Upon that day the sins of Israel were put upon the head of the scapegoat and taken away. It belonged to the series of feasts of the seventh month, which, in contrast with those in the early part of the year, the Passover and Unleavened Bread, the Sheaf of First-fruits, and Pentecost, are all national, and speak of the fulfilment of the promises to the nation in God’s “due time.” Thus, in the Feast of Trumpets, at the beginning of it, the new moon, (when the light of divine favor is beginning to shine again on Israel,) we have the feast of recall to the people. On the tenth day, the Day of Atonement, they come under the value of the work of Christ; while, beginning with the fifteenth, the Feast of Tabernacles exhibits them in the joy of their re-establishment in the land. The first series of feasts they lost through their refusal of Christ when He came, and in the prescient wisdom of God we find the Passover to have been a family rather than a national feast, that “thou shalt be saved and thy house,” which Christianity proclaims. The feast of Unleavened Bread took form from the Passover, which it accompanied; and the Sheaf of First-fruits, that is, Christ risen, and Pentecost, the coming of the Spirit, are characteristically Christian. Israel’s unbelief has delayed blessing for them; and as a consequence there is the gap which follows in the services of the year. This explains in the simplest way the mystery of the two goats of the Day of Atonement, of which much else is sometimes made. For Israel, in consequence of their rejection of the blessing when it was offered, the putting away of sins, as in the scapegoat, is separated by a gap of time from the work which actually puts them away. This is exactly what is pictured in the two goats. When their sins are put upon the scapegoat, there is no actual sacrifice, no real atonement made at all. The goat is a scapegoat, that is, a goat that gets away, not that is offered. There is positively no offering of this goat, a thing from which, through not understanding it, much confusion has arisen. Atonement is not made “with it,” as in our common version, but “for it” (Leviticus 16:10), as the words (kapper al) elsewhere and constantly are rightly taken to mean (Exodus 29:36; Exodus 30:12; Exodus 30:15-16; Leviticus 1:4; Leviticus 4:20; Leviticus 4:26; Leviticus 4:31; Leviticus 4:35, etc.). The difficulty, of course, is obvious. How can propitiation be made, or why does it need to be made, for the goat? But the answer is not far to seek. It is indeed because the two goats are for one sin-offering, while in fact only one is offered (Leviticus 16:5). The Lord’s lot falls on the one to be offered, the other escapes. The atonement which ideally he was to make, is, in fact, made for him by the former one. The application is simple in view of Israel’s history. The first goat is offered and its blood carried into the holiest of all when the high priest enters it. Not till he comes out again are Israel’s sins put upon the scapegoat and carried away. The Day of Atonement is thus made to extend back through the whole Christian period. We have the link of the future with the past. The atonement, all of it, was made once for all, before Christ as High Priest entered the heavens.

When Israel’s sins are put away He will have come out again; but then, of course, no fresh sacrifice can be offered. The scapegoat is, therefore, not a fresh sacrifice. It points simply to a former time in which the actual one took place, and the two goats are necessary to preserve the connection, and point out the delay of blessing which the national unbelief occasions. Another thing, also, must not be overlooked. When the high priest goes in, he takes into the sanctuary not merely the blood of the goat which is for Israel, but that of the bullock, which is for his own priestly house. Here, assuredly, it is that Christians have their typical representatives. They are, as Peter says, “a spiritual house, a holy priesthood” (1 Peter 2:5), and here we find the “sanctified ones,” the “companions” of Christ, “partakers” (metochoi, Hebrews 2:14), for whom the great High Priest appears before God. Notice, too, that on the Day of Atonement, the high priest does the whole work. None of the priestly family appear at all, except as they have part in the offering made for them.

This has been noticed as exceptional, and to throw doubt on the offering of sacrifice as distinctly priestly work. Being so exceptional, we must not argue for its necessity; and even the fact that the high priest entered the holiest, not in his garments of glory and beauty, but in the plain white linen garments, is urged on the same side. We shall have to inquire as to this elsewhere, rather than here; but it is enough here to say that the words will not admit of such a thought as this. Christ must be “a merciful and faithful High Priest in things relating to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” How could one insist more upon the distinct priestly character of making propitiation than by saying He was the High Priest to do it? Once more we have to distinguish between the offering of sacrifice, which was always priestly and nothing else, and the killing of the victim, which was commonly the act of the one who brought the victim. The offering was upon the altar, (except in the sin-offerings for the high priest and for the congregation), and that was the complete manifestation of the character of the Lord’s death upon His own side, not His life taken from Him, but given up, and with this all that was implied in and associated with His death, -the deeper reality of His bearing sin in His own body upon the tree. The offering of sacrifice was thus absolutely priestly and nothing else. It is quite true that at exceptional times, when things were out of joint in Israel, God might sanction the work of a prophet in this way; but as a regular thing, the offering of sacrifice was that into which no other but a priest could dare intrude. The Day of Atonement was exceptional in this, that it was by eminence the Day of Atonement; and therefore all that belongs to it is emphasized in a special way. Thus it is that now even the ordinary priests disappear, and on this special Day of Atonement one figure alone is kept before our eyes. However, all this will be plainer as we proceed. The people for whom our High Priest atones are, of course, wider than Christians or the priestly house. They are all the true seed of Abraham, the family of faith through all time; and this definition is precise enough to escape all ambiguity, and wide enough to bid all men welcome to participate in the value of the atonement. The propitiation for the whole world, of which John speaks (1 John 2:2), is thus quite easily reconciled with “a propitiation through faith by His blood” (Romans 3:25), because faith is that to which all men are invited. Let a man believe, then he finds an absolutely efficacious atonement according to divine knowledge of his need and grace to meet it. “The worshiper once purged has no more conscience of sins.”*
In the last verse of this section we have the sympathy of the great High Priest with us guaranteed by His human experience: In that He hath suffered, being tempted, He is able to succor those that are tempted.” Temptation to Him was suffering, and only that. The man who is drawn away by the temptation does not suffer, so far. He enjoys. With the Lord, temptation was the cause of suffering simply; nor do we desire or need sympathy with us in being led away; but, on the other hand, in the suffering simply which sin occasions to every soul that is right with God. Thus, here is the true sympathy of the Priest that we need, One able to realize our weakness, and One who has Himself stood for our sins, under the whole burden of these before God; One who is able, therefore, to show us the most perfect grace in ministering to the need we have under the temptation.