Hebrews 2:5-18--The Founder of Salvation

​Hebrews 2:5-18 English Standard Version (ESV)
Listen:  https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Heb.2.5-Heb.2.18
The Founder of Salvation
5 For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. 6 It has been testified somewhere,
“What is man, that you are mindful of him,
    or the son of man, that you care for him?
7 You made him for a little while lower than the angels;
    you have crowned him with glory and honor,
8     putting everything in subjection under his feet.”
Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. 9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, 12 saying,
“I will tell of your name to my brothers;
    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 God has given me.”
14 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, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 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. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

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We have just been talking in chapter 2 about how Jesus is more excellent than the angels and how God has a relationship with His Son that no mere man or angel has ever had--though Satan tried to usurp this role and was cast out of heaven.  We pick that thought back up after a brief aside that reminded us that the entire point of telling us that Christ is more excellent is that we need to make a decision here and now about what we are going to do with the gospel--accept it by faith or reject it.

Both man and angels are created beings and while in this life it may appear that angels have been given dominion over us because they can do things that we cannot, God has chosen man to be the federal head over creation and to give us stewardship of the earth and all that is in it.  Even more important than that though, God made us in His image so that we could know Him and have a relationship with Him unlike any relationship that the angels have because the dye is cast for them and they are made in such a way where they are always obedient to the will of God or actively trying to rebel against the will of God, but they do not appear to be able to choose to act out of love for God--instead, they just act in a way consistent with their nature.  There is no chance for redemption with the angels, and we are told that they are witnesses to that mystery and marvel at it.

But the text points out that just as Adam was the first federal head of the human race, we needed someone better than Adam and better than all other men who could be a Second Adam and succeed where Adam failed.  As the perfect representative for all mankind, Jesus could die in our place and take our sins upon himself and pay our penalty because He had no penalty of His own to pay.  He did this to restore creation and create a remnant of redeemed people until Himself for His glory and the glory of God the Father.  We focus in on this picture once again of Jesus being high and lifted up and seated on the throne. but also that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and that Jesus is The Way--the one and only way--to the Father.  Here though we have a new term for Jesus--brother.  We see that God's plan was more than for Jesus to save us to make us servants (though we are), but to adopt us into the family of God and to be co-heirs with Jesus and as those who were adopted by choice, we have equal status in the family with the who are the "flesh and blood" children of the father--this is something we miss about the culture that this letter is being written to because we often experience family structures where the adopted children may feel they are not really a part of the family and aren't really loved by the parents, and maybe are made to feel that way by their siblings, but we can say with great confidence that God knew everything about us and loved us before we loved Him and He chose us for no other reason than His good pleasure.  Let me say it again--if you are God's child, God chose you.  Jesus came and paid the ultimate price so that you might be called a son or daughter of God and that we might be able to call Jesus our King, our Lord, our Friend (since He has told us His plan), Redeemer, Savior, but also Brother--because we now have the same Father.  Even so, Jesus will have a special relationship with God as He is the only one worthy as we will see in the book of Revelation (when we get there) to open and unroll the scroll that is the title deed to all creation.

The last section focuses on yet another reason that Jesus died--to free us from the bondage of sin and the power of death caused by sin.  In the Garden of Eden, Adam was told to not eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil because in the day that he did, he would surely die.  This was part of the problem that Jesus needed to address and it was shown that Jesus was given authority over death when He raised Himself from the dead on the third day.  Death could not hold Him, the grave could not keep Him.  Together we can say,

"“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory?
    O death, where is your sting?”

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ  (I Corinthians 15:54b-56)

Jesus has become our Great High Priest so that He can represent all of his brothers (in Christ) before God and make intercession for us by presenting His blood which is the satisfaction of the demands of God's Law.  He prays for us and pleads our case as our defense attorney as we have an Advocate before God.  This is something that no angel has and is part of the mystery that they marvel at because while they witness it they cannot understand it.  Jesus has been where you are.  He lived a human life where He experienced every kind of difficulty and frailty that we do.  He was poor, homeless, hungry, exhausted, overworked, underappreciated, ridiculed, hated, beaten, tortured. and was even called the devil incarnate by some of the religious leaders who wanted to keep the Jews from following Him.  He came to His own people and they did not recognize Him or receive Him (in general, though a few did--and some Gentiles did too).  Men chose to love the darkness and hate the light because they felt safety that their sins were hidden in the darkness and did not want the light to expose them for who they truly were, but Jesus came to bring light into the world and to take away our filth and give us freedom and abundant life.  "Those who I have made free are free indeed" and "It is for freedom that we have been set free."