Heb 2:1-18
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This is the reason why it is so much the more needful to hearken t
the word spoken, in order that they should not let it pass away form
life and memory.
God had maintained the authority of the word that was communicated
by means of angels, punishing disobedience to it, for it was a law.
How then shall we escape if we neglect a salvation which the Lord
Himself has announced? Thus the service of the Lord among the Jews was
a word of salvation, which the apostles confirmed, and which the
mighty testimony of the Holy Ghost established.
Such is the exhortation addressed to the believing Jews, founded on
the glory of the Messiah, whether with regard to His position of His
Person, calling them away from what was Jewish to higher thoughts of
Christ.
We have already remarked that the testimony, of which this epistle
treats, is attributed to the Lord Himself. Therefore we must not
expect to find in it the assembly (as such), of which the Lord had
only spoken prophetically; but His testimony in relation to Israel,
among whom He sojourned on the earth, to whatever extent that
testimony reached. That which was spoken by the apostles is only
treated here as a confirmation of the Lord's own word, God having
added His testimony to it by the miraculous manifestations of the
Spirit, who distributed His gifts to each according to His will.
The glory of which we have been speaking is the personal glory of
the Messiah, the Son of David; and His glory in the time present,
during which God has called Him to sit at His right hand. He is the
Son of God, He is even the Creator; but there is also His glory in
connection with the world to come, as Son of man. Of this Chapter 2
speaks, comparing Him still with the angels; but here to exclude them
altogether. In the previous Chapter they had their place; the law was
given by angels; they are servants, on God's part, of the heirs of
salvation. In Chapter w they have no place, they do not reign; the
world to come is not made subject to them that is, this habitable
earth, directed and governed as it will be when God shall have
accomplished that which He has spoken of by the prophets.
The order of the world, placed in relationship with Jehovah under
the law, or "lying in darkness," has been interrupted by the rejection
of the Messiah, who has taken His place at the right hand of God on
high, His enemies being not yet given into His hand for judgment;
because God is carrying on His work of grace, and gathering out the
assembly. But He will yet establish a new order of things on the
earth; this will be "the world to come." Now that world is not made
subject to angels. The testimony given in the Old Testament with
regard to this is as follows: "What is man, that thou art mindful of
him; or the son of man that thou visitest him? Thou hast made him a
little lower than the angels; thou hast crowned him with glory and
honour; thou hast set him over the works of thy hands; thou hast put
all things under his feet." Thus all things without exception (save He
who has made them subject to Him), are, according to the purpose of
God, put under the feet of man, and in particular of the Son of
man.
When studying the Book of Psalms, we saw that which I recall here,
namely, that this testimony in Psalm 8 is, with regard to the position
and dominion of Christ as man, an advance upon Psalm 2. Psalm 1 sets
before us the righteous man, accepted of God, the godly remnant with
which Christ connected Himself; Psalm 2, the counsels of God
respecting His Messiah, in spite of the efforts made by the kings and
governors of the earth. God establishes Him as King in Zion, and
summons all the kings to do homage to Him whom He proclaimed to be His
Son on the earth. Afterwards we see that being rejected the remnant
suffer, and this Psalm 2 is what Peter quotes to prove the rising up
of the powers of the earth, Jewish and Gentile, against Messiah.
(Act_4:26) But Psalm 8 shews that all this only served to enlarge the
sphere of His glory. Christ takes the position of man and the title of
Son of man, and enjoys His rights according to the counsels of God;
and, made lower than the ange ls, He is crowned with glory and honour.
And not only are the kings of the earth made subject to Him, but all
things, without exception, are put under His feet. [8] It is this which the
apostle quotes here. The Christ had already been rejected, and His
being established as King in Zion put off to be accomplished at a
later period. He had been exalted to the right hand of God, as we have
seen; and the wider title had accrued to Him, although the result was
not yet accomplished.
To this the epistle here calls our attention. We see not yet the
accomplishment of all that this Psalm announces, namely, that all
things should be put under His feet; but a part is already fulfilled,
a guarantee to the heart of the fulfillment of the whole. Made a
little lower than the angels in order to suffer death, He is crowned
with glory and honour. He has suffered death, and He is crowned in
reward for His work, by which He perfectly glorified God in the place
where He had been dishonoured, and saved man (those who believe in
Him) where man was lost. For He was made lower than the angels, in
order that, by the grace of God, He should taste death for all things.
It appears to me that the words "for the suffering of death," and "a
little lower than the angels" go together; and "so that by the grace
of God" is a general phrase connected with the whole truth stated.
This passage then, which is thus applied to the Lord, presents Him
as exalted to heaven when He had undergone the death which gave Him a
right to all in a new way while waiting till all is put under His
feet. But there is another truth connected with this. He had
undertaken the cause of the sons whom God is bringing to glory, and
therefore He must enter into the circumstances in which they were
found, suffer the consequences thereof, and be treated according to
the work He had undertaken. It was a reality; and it was fitting that
God should vindicate the rights of His glory, and should maintain it
with reference to those who had dishonoured Him, and that He should
treat the one who had taken their cause in hand, and who stood before
Him in their name, as representing them in that respect. God would
bring the captain of their salvation to perfection through sufferings.
He was to undergo the consequences of the situation into which He had
come. His work was to be a reality, according to the measure of the
responsibility which He h ad taken upon Himself, and it involved the
glory of God where sin was. He must therefore suffer; He must taste
death. It is by the grace of God that He did so we, because of sin;
He because of grace for sin.
This shews us the Christ standing in the midst of those who are
saved, whom God brings to glory, although at their head. It is this
which our epistle sets before us He who sanctifies (the Christ), and
they who are sanctified (the remnant set apart for God by the Spirit)
are all of one: an _expression_, the force of which is easily
apprehended, but difficult to express, when one abandons the abstract
nature of the phrase itself. Observe that it is only of sanctified
persons that this is said. Christ and the sanctified ones are all one
company, men together in the same position before God. But the idea
goes a little farther.
It is not of one and the same Father; had it been so, it could not
have been said, "He is not ashamed to call them brethren." He could
not then do otherwise than call them brethren.
If we say "of the same mass" the _expression_ may be pushed too far,
as though He and the others were of the same nature as children of
Adam, sinners together. In this case He would have to call every man
His brother; whereas it is only the children whom God has given Him,
"sanctified" ones, that He calls so. But He and the sanctified ones
are all as men in the same nature and position together before God.
When I say "the same," it is not in the same state of sin, but the
contrary, for they are the Sanctifier and the sanctified, but in the
same truth of human position as it is before God as sanctified to Him;
the same as far forth as man when He, as the sanctified one, is before
God. On this account He is not ashamed to call the sanctified His
brethren.
This position is entirely gained by resurrection; for although in
principle, the children were given to Him before, yet He only called
them His brethren when He had finished the work which enabled Him to
present them with Himself before God. He said indeed "mother, sister,
brother;" but He did not use the term "my brethren," until He said to
Mary of Magdala, "Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend to my
Father and your Father, and to my God an your God." Also in Psalm 22
it is when He had been heard from the horns of the unicorn, that He
declared the name of a Deliverer-God to His brethren, and that He
praised God in the midst of the assembly.
He spoke to them of the Father's name while on earth, but the link
itself could not be formed; He could not introduce them to the Father,
until the grain of wheat, falling into the ground, had died; until
then He remained alone, whatever might be the revelations that He made
to them and in fact, He declared the name of His Father to those whom
He had given Him. Still He had actually taken the human position, and
He Himself was in this relation ship with God. He kept them in the
Father's name, they were not yet united to Him in this position; but
He was as man in the relationship with God in which they also should
be, when brought in by redemption into association with Himself. That
which He does in the latter part of the Gospel by John is to place His
disciples in the explanations He gave of the condition in which He
left them in the position which He in fact had held in relationship
with His Father on earth, and in testimony to the world, the glory of
His Person as representing and revealing His Father being necessarily
dis tinct. And, in seeking t associate with them, He associated them
with Himself and Himself with them when He ascended to heaven,
although no longer corporeally subject to the trials of their
position. [9] He
was not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, though risen, yea, only
when risen, "I will declare thy name unto my brethren, I will praise
thee in the midst of the assembly." And speaking of the remnant
separated from Israel, He says, "Behold I and the children whom God
hath given me are for signs unto the two houses of Israel;" and again,
"I will put my trust in him" another quotation from Isaiah 8. So in
the Psalms, especially in Psalm 16, He declares that He does not take
His place as God "my goodness extendeth not to thee," but that He
identifies Himself with the excellent of the earth that all His
delight is in them. This is again the remnant of Israel called by
grace.
Christ associates these sanctified men, godly men on earth, with
Himself. In the passage quoted it is still His place on earth: His
sufferings, His exaltation, future glory, divinity are, as we have
seen added here.
Having taken this place as of, but at the head of, the chosen band
their servant in all things, He must conform Himself to their
position. And this He did: the children being partakers of flesh and
blood, He took part in the same; and this, in order that by death He
might put an end to the dominion of him who had the power of death,
and deliver those who, through fear of death, had been subjected all
their life to the yoke of bondage.
Here also (the apostle seeking always to display the glorious and
efficacious side, even of that which was most humbling, in order to
accustom the weak heart of the Jews to that portion of the gospel) we
find that the Lord's work goes far beyond the limits of a presentation
of the Messiah to His people. Not only is He glorious in heaven, but
He has conquered Satan in the very place where he exercised his sad
dominion over man, and where the judgment of God lay heavily upon
man.
Moved by a profound love for man, the Son become the Son of man
enters in heart and in fact into all the need, and submits to all the
circumstances, of man in order to deliver him. He takes (for He was
not in it before) flesh and blood, in order to die, because man was
subjected to death; and (in order to destroy him who exercised his
dominion over man through death, and made him tremble all his lifetime
in the expectation of that terrible moment, which testified of the
judgment of God, and the inability of man to escape the consequences
of sin) and the condition into which disobedience to God had plunged
him. For verily the Lord did not undertake the cause of angels, but
that of the seed of Abraham, and in order to proclaim the work that
was necessary for them, and to represent them efficaciously and really
before God, He must needs put Himself into the position and the
circumstances into which that seed were found, thought not the state
they were personally in.
It will be remarked here, that it is still a family owned of God,
which is before our eyes, as the object of the Saviour's affection and
care the children whom God had given Him, children of Abraham after
the flesh, if in that condition they answered to the designation of
"seed of Abraham" (this is the question of Joh_8:37-39), or his
children according to the Spirit, if grace gives it them.
These truths introduce priesthood, As Son of man, He had been made
a little less than the angels, and, crowned already with glory and
honour, was hereafter to have all things put under His feet. This we
do not yet see. But He took this place of humiliation in order to
taste death for the whole system that was afar from God, and to gain
the full rights of the second Man, by glorifying God there, where the
creature had failed through weakness, and where also the enemy, having
deceived man by his subtlety, had dominion over him (according to the
righteous judgment of God) in power and malice. At the same time he
tasted death for the special purpose of delivering the children whom
God would bring to glory, taking their nature and gathering them
together as sanctified ones around Himself, He not being ashamed to
call them brethren. But it was thus that He was to present them now
before God, according to the efficacy of the work which He had
accomplished for them; He would become a priest, being able through
His life of humiliation an d trial here below, to sympathize with His
own in all their conflicts and difficulties.
He suffered never yielded. We do not suffer when we yield to
temptation: the flesh takes pleasure in the things by which it is
tempted. Jesus suffered, being tempted, and He is able to succour them
that are tempted. It is important to observe that the flesh, when
acted upon by its desires, does not suffer. Being tempted, it , alas!
enjoys. But when, according to the light of the Holy Ghost and the
fidelity of obedience, the Spirit resists the attacks of the enemy,
whether subtle or persecuting, then one suffers. This the Lord did,
and this we have to do. That which needs succour is the new man, the
faithful heart, and not the flesh. I need succour against the flesh,
and in order to mortify all the members of the old man.
Here the needed help refers to the difficulties of the faithful
saint in fulfilling all the will of God. This is where he suffers,
this is where the Lord who has suffered can succor him. He trod
this path, He learn in it what which can be suffered there form the
enemy, and from men. A human heart feels it, and Jesus had a human
heart. Besides, the more faithful the heart is, the more full of love
to God, and the less it has of that hardness which is the result of
intercourse with the world, the more will it suffer. Now there was no
hardness in Jesus. His faithfulness and His love were equally perfect.
He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief and weariness. He
suffered being tempted. [10] .
Note #8
Compare the answer of Christ to Nathanael at the end of John 1;
also Matthew 17 and Luke 9, where the disciples are forbidden to
announce Him as the Christ, and He declares He is about to suffer as
Son of man, but shews them the coming glory.
Note #9
This however in relationship with God. They did not represent nor
make known the Father as He did. Also, while we are brought into the
same glory with Christ and the same relationship with the Father, the
personal glory of Christ as Son is always carefully secured. It has
been justly remarked to the same purpose by another, that He never
says "our" Father with the disciples. He tells them to say "our" but
says "my and your," and it is much more precious.
Note #10
Four distinct grounds may be noticed in the Chapter for the
humiliation of Jesus: it became God there was His glory; the
destruction of Satan's power; reconciliation or really propitiation by
His death; and capacity for sympathy in priesthood.
