The Book of Hebrews

Greek Study

Explanation

The "therefore" ties the warning to chapter 1: because the Son is so great, we must give "the more earnest heed" to His message. The writer argues from lesser to greater. If "the word spoken by angels," the law given at Sinai, was binding, and every breach of it was justly punished, then how much more accountable are we for a salvation spoken not by angels but "by the Lord" Himself. Notice the danger is stated gently but seriously: not "lest we reject it," but "lest at any time we should let them slip." People rarely renounce Christ in a single decision; they drift, a neglected prayer life, a skipped gathering, a slow cooling, until they have floated far from the harbor without ever deciding to leave it.

Gospel Focus

Notice who spoke this salvation: it "began to be spoken by the Lord." The message did not come first through a prophet or an angel, but through the Lord Jesus in person, and God then "bearing them witness" with "signs and wonders... and gifts of the Holy Ghost." The Lord who spoke, the God who confirmed the word, and the Holy Ghost whose gifts attested it are one God at work in one salvation. And that salvation is "so great" precisely because the One who brought it is the exalted Son of chapter 1, God manifest in flesh. To drift from Him is not to lose a religion but to let slip the very hand of God stretched out to save us.

Old Testament Source

This is Psalm 8:4-6, a psalm marveling that God would crown frail man with glory and give him dominion over creation. God's plan for humanity was rule and glory, "all things in subjection under his feet." But the writer adds the honest note of experience: "now we see not yet all things put under him." Because of sin, man does not reign; he is enslaved by death and the devil. The glorious destiny is unfulfilled, and so the psalm leaves us waiting for a Man in whom it comes true.

Greek Study

Explanation

The writer's point is that "the world to come" is not handed to angels but to man, and ultimately to one Man. Psalm 8 describes the dignity God intended for humanity: a little lower than the angels, yet crowned with glory and set over the works of God's hands. That intention has not been realized in us; we see a world in disorder, not man in dominion. So the psalm becomes a prophecy that hangs unfulfilled, waiting for its true fulfillment, which the very next verse supplies.

Gospel Focus

The psalm's soaring picture of man crowned and reigning collides with the world we actually see: "we see not yet all things put under him." Sin has left humanity's crown in the dust. But the sentence does not end in that defeat — the very next words answer it: "But we see Jesus" (Hebrews 2:9). What Adam forfeited, one Man regains; the destiny of the whole race is fulfilled in Him. And this true Man is God Himself, stooped into our nature to win back the dominion we lost — the last Adam restoring what the first threw away. Humanity's glory is not found by looking at ourselves, but by looking at Jesus.

Greek Study

Explanation

Where Psalm 8 waits, this verse answers: "But we see Jesus." The destiny unfulfilled in fallen man is fulfilled in the Man Christ Jesus. He was "made a little lower than the angels," but notice why, "for the suffering of death." He came down in order to die. And having died, He is "crowned with glory and honour," the very crown Psalm 8 spoke of. The path to the crown ran through the cross. He tasted death "for every man," so that the dominion and glory lost by the first man might be won back by the last Adam for all who are His.

Gospel Focus

Hold the two chapters together. The One of chapter 1 who upholds all things by the word of His power is the One of chapter 2 who was "made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death." How can the God who cannot die taste death? By becoming a man. The eternal God took a true human nature in Jesus, and in that humanity He suffered and died. This is not two Gods, one who dies and one who cannot; it is the one God who, in the flesh, "by the grace of God should taste death for every man." The immortal One entered our mortality to swallow up our death. God did not send someone else to die; He came Himself, in genuine humanity, to the cross.

Greek Study

Explanation

It "became him", it was fitting for God, whose all things are and by whom all things exist, to save us this way: by making "the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." The Leader qualifies to bring "many sons unto glory" by first walking the road of suffering Himself. And the writer states the astonishing kinship it creates: "he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one." The Sanctifier and the sanctified share a common origin and nature, so the Son "is not ashamed to call them brethren." He proves it from Scripture: He declares God's name to His brethren (Psalm 22:22), puts His trust in God as a true man (Isaiah 8:17), and gathers the children God gave Him (Isaiah 8:18).

Gospel Focus

"All of one." The One who sanctifies and those He makes holy share one nature, because He truly became one of us. This is the wonder of the incarnation: God so joined Himself to humanity in Jesus that He calls us brethren without shame. Yet note the God-ward direction of His human life: "I will put my trust in him," and "I will... sing praise unto thee." In His genuine manhood the Son trusts and worships God, exactly as a real man must, for He took our whole human experience upon Himself. This is not a second divine person praying to a first; it is the one God, having become man, living out a true human life of trust and praise before the Father, so that He might lead His brethren home.

Greek Study

Explanation

Here is the logic of the incarnation stated plainly. Because "the children," those He came to save, are "partakers of flesh and blood," the Son "also himself likewise took part of the same." He had to become truly human to die, and He had to die to defeat the one who wields death. By dying and rising, He destroyed the devil's power and set free those who had lived "all their lifetime subject to bondage" through "the fear of death." And He came for us, not for angels: "he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham." He laid hold of human nature, of Abraham's line, to save the children of Abraham's faith.

Gospel Focus

The great fear that has haunted humanity since Eden, the fear of death, is broken at the cross. And it is broken because God Himself took part of flesh and blood. Only God could conquer death; only a man could die. In Jesus, the one God became man precisely so that, "through death," He might destroy the devil's power over death and free the captives. So the empty tomb is God's own victory in our own nature. The believer need no longer be enslaved by the dread of dying, for the God who tasted death for us has risen, and in Him death is a defeated enemy.

Greek Study

Explanation

Now the purpose of the whole descent is gathered up: "in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest." He had to become fully human to serve as our priest, "in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." A priest represents people before God and offers the sacrifice that covers their sins; Jesus is both the priest and the sacrifice. And because "he himself hath suffered being tempted," He is not a distant helper but a sympathetic one: "he is able to succour them that are tempted." He knows our trials from the inside.

Gospel Focus

The chapter that began with the Son far above the angels ends with Him as our merciful High Priest, made "like unto his brethren." This is the heart of the Apostolic gospel: the one God did not stay at a distance but came near, taking our nature, our temptations, and our death, so that He could both atone for us and sympathize with us. The God who upholds the universe ran to the cry of sinners and became their priest. So when we are tempted and weak, we do not approach a God who cannot understand, but the One who became man, suffered, and now, having made reconciliation for our sins, runs to help us. The greatness of chapter 1 and the nearness of chapter 2 are the same Lord Jesus Christ, God with us and God for us.