The Humanity of Christ (Hebrews 2:10-18)
Today is Independence Day here in the US (July 4, 2021). Though there are many reasons for us to be discouraged about where our country has been and where it is currently at, we ought also to thank God for the many freedoms we enjoy today. And for the fact that they didn’t just drop out of heaven; they didn’t appear out of nothing. We ought to appreciate the risk that those men took and the sufferings that they endured by signing their names to the Declaration of Independence. Because of their bold step, they vouchsafed for us the political liberty that we enjoy today.
And yet, there is a freedom that
the Bible talks about that is infinitely more important than the political
freedom we enjoy here today. Paul talks
about it to the Galatians: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith
Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage”
(Gal. 5:1). Paul is not talking there
about political liberty; he is rather talking about the freedom we have from
the curse of God’s law. When the signers
of the Declaration put their names to that document, they became at that moment
rebels against King George of England.
But through our sins we have become rebels against the King of the
universe. Our position is infinitely
worse than theirs. And whereas they had
a chance of defeating the armies of King George (and they did), we have no such
prayer. In short, there is no lasting
hope for any person who is in a state of opposition to God and under his just
wrath.
Except that God didn’t send his
armies of angels to destroy us. Instead,
he sent his Son to die for us in order to secure for us the liberty we once
threw away through sin. This is what we
are talking about here in the book of Hebrews.
In particular, it is a reminder to the Hebrew Christians that they were
in danger of neglecting and despising the most precious freedom one could
possibly enjoy: the freedom of knowing God reconciled in Christ, this “so great
salvation” (2:3).
The book of Hebrews is incredibly
balanced, at least from a pastoral point of view. The writer not only warns his readers of
God’s judgment, he also holds up for them the glory of Christ to see so that
they will be attracted to it.[1] There is great wisdom in that because you
must not only flee from the wrath to come, but you must also flee to
Christ. There are all sorts of people
who are trying to get into heaven – fleeing from the wrath to come – by being deeply
religious or spiritual or by doing lots of “good works.” But they are not fleeing to Christ, and
that’s tragic because there is no other name under heaven given among men
whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:12).
Being religious without Christ has no real value in the end. The apostle Paul lamented that many of his
fellow Jews had “a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God’s
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not
submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God” (Rom. 10:2-3). Of course, to submit to the righteousness of
God is to believe in Jesus (4). Those
who do not are not saved (1).
So even though this chapter began
with a stern and serious warning of God’s judgment on those who drift away from
the faith, the writer knows that this is not enough. We need to see the glory of Christ as Lord
and Savior in such a way that we are drawn to him. And that is why we have the verses before
us. They are meant to help you “taste
and see that the Lord is good” and that therefore “blessed is the man that
trustest in him” (Ps. 34:8).
In these verses, the writer is
expanding on his argument in verses 5-9.
Remember that in those verses, he was arguing that it is no argument
against the supremacy of Christ over the angels that he became a man. However, it is one thing to see that there is
nothing inherently wrong with the incarnation, it is another thing to see that
it was necessary. And this is
what is happening in verses 10-18. You
see this theme struck both at the beginning and at the end of the text. In verse 10, he begins by saying, “For it
became him . . . to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings.” To suffer was a part of the
human experience of our Lord. And this,
our author explains, was fitting and appropriate. Then, in verse 17, he writes, “Wherefore in
all things it behooved him to be made like his brethren.” It had to be this way, is what is being said.
Of course, the question is, why
was it necessary? And the answer is that
it was necessary so that our Lord might become the captain of our salvation so
that God might be able to bring many sons to glory (10). This verse summarizes the argument in the
following verses. In these verses, then,
we have three things. First, we have the
necessity of the incarnation (it became him). Second, we have the extent of the
incarnation (to the point of suffering).
Third, we have the blessings of the incarnation (he brings
many sons to glory). [We will
deal with the first two points today, and the third point more fully later.]
The Necessity of the
Incarnation
The necessity is stated at the
outset, but the actual reasons for it come in the following verses. The basic argument is this: for Jesus to
become our Savior, he had to become one of us.
You see this in verse 11: “For both he that sanctifieth and they who are
sanctified are all of one.” The one who
sanctifies is Jesus and the ones he sanctifies are his people. They are said to be “all of one” which means
they share a common human nature. The
point is that for our Lord to be the one who sanctifies and cleanses his
people, he had to share their nature.
Now why is that the case? Why did our Lord have to become incarnate in
order to sanctify his people? And the
answer is that in order to sanctify us he had to participate in our sufferings
and die: “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he
also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might
destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (14). He had to die for us in order to defeat death
for us, and that meant that he had to become human and mortal.
Of course, that leads to another
question, which is: why did he have to die in order to defeat death? And we see the answer in verse 17: “Wherefore
in all things it behooved him to be made like his brethren, that he might be a
merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make
reconciliation for the sins of his people.”
That is a very significant statement.
It tells us that we are to interpret what our Lord did on the cross in
terms of sacrifice, for he was a priest to God for us. As our priest, he made reconciliation for our
sins, or, more accurately, he propitiated God’s just wrath against us on
account of our sins. And he did this by
dying for us, by becoming a substitutionary sacrifice for us. As Paul put it very succinctly in his letter
to the Corinthians, he died for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3).
The basic assumption here is, of
course, that only someone who shares our nature could stand in our place and
satisfy God’s just requirements on our behalf.
Our author makes this very point again in 10:4, when he says, “For it is
not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.” Why is it not possible? It is not possible because there is no real
correspondence between an animal and a human.
Humans sin, and it is human death, not animal death, which is required
by that sin. Only a human could be a
substitute for another human.
But this is not the only reason
why it was necessary that Jesus become incarnate. It wasn’t sufficient that just anyone stand
in our place. For the reality is that
any other human would not have gotten the job done. Why?
Because any other man or woman would not have been worthy or able to
bear the punishment of the sins of the “many sons” who are being brought to
glory. Consider, for example, what the
psalmist says: “Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of
his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice, that he
should live on forever and never see the pit” (Ps. 49:7-9, ESV). It is just not possible. No one can bear God’s wrath against sin. But who could do such a thing?
Only one person: Jesus
Christ. For he is not only a perfect
human being, fit to represent us, but he is also the eternal Son of God, and
therefore able to bear the infinite punishment due to sin. This is why our Lord is called the “captain”
of our salvation. I love that word. It is use in three other places in the NT,
every time with reference to our Lord: twice in Acts (3:15; 5:31) where it is
translated “Prince” and twice in Hebrews (2:10; 12:2), with the translations
“captain” and “author.” It carries the
connotation of “champion”[2]
and this is what I think best gets at what our writer is saying. Jesus is our champion in battle against sin
and death.
Ancient armies used to decide the
outcome of a battle by substituting champions who would represent each side,
much like the combat between David and Goliath.
In our case, the only champion who was able to stand in for us was Jesus
Christ, and he has done just that. He
has stood in our place and defeated the one who had the power of death, the
devil (14). And in defeating the devil,
he conquered death for us.
Here we see just how important it
is that Jesus is both fully God and fully man.
If you take away either his humanity or his divinity from him, he cannot
stand in for us as the captain of our salvation. Take away his humanity and he couldn’t be a
fit representative for us. Take away his
divinity, and he wouldn’t be able to fully propitiate God’s wrath against
sin. Which is why those who reject
either Christ’s humanity (like the early Docetists) or his divinity (like the ancient
Arians or the modern-day Jehovah’s Witnesses) end up making salvation a matter
of works rather than grace. For if Jesus
is not a man, then he really couldn’t stand in for us and so it still remains
for us to make things right with God.
And if he is not God, then he couldn’t have fully satisfied God’s
justice on our behalf and so it still remains for us to make things right with
God.
The
Extent of the Incarnation
The
next thing we see in this text is the extent of the incarnation. How human did Jesus become? Hebrews tells us that he became fully human. He entered into every aspect of human
existence – with the exception of sin – by taking to himself a true human body
and soul. He entered fully into the
physical and emotional and volitional experiences of mankind. He knows what it is like to suffer, for he
became the captain of our salvation “through sufferings” (10). He knows what it is like to die, for he
destroyed death “through death,” by dying for us (14).
In
fact, the author here quotes several OT passages in order to underline this
reality. In verses 12-13, he quotes from
Psalm 22 and Isaiah 8. Psalm 22 is one
of those obvious Messianic passages. It
opens with the words, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Ps. 22:1),
the very words that our Lord uttered on the cross as he bore the punishment for
sin that we deserved (cf. Mt. 27:46). As
you go through the Psalm, we see other ways in which the experience of the
psalmist foreshadowed that of the Messiah.
The way his enemies mocked him (Ps. 22:7-8; cf. Mt. 27:42-43), the way
they parted his garments among them (Ps. 22:18; cf. Mt. 27:35), and the general
description of his suffering all point to the death that our Lord suffered on
the cross. And yet at the end, there is
this note of exultation. Death was not
the end of our Lord, for he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. And in his state of glorification, he says,
“I will declare thy [God’s] name unto my brethren in the midst of the church
will I sing praise unto thee” (Heb 2:12; cf. Ps. 22:22). He can call the people of God “my brethren”
precisely because he entered into every aspect of their suffering. He identified with us in the most intimate
manner possible.
Then
he quotes from Isaiah 8:17-18. In these
verses, Isaiah was speaking of himself, his children and his disciples. But the context is a Messianic context. In 8:14, we are told that the Lord “shall be
for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to both the
houses of Israel,” a text which is directly applied to our Lord in the NT (cf.
1 Pet. 2:8). Then in the next chapter
(9:6-7) we are told of the Son who would be given who would take the throne of
David and rule forever, the Mighty God.
This again is another obvious reference to the Christ. It is with that context in mind that the
author of Hebrews applies Isa. 8:17-18 to Jesus. The first passage points us again to the
humanity of Christ, for although he is eternally God, when he became incarnate,
he entered fully into the experience of humanity. As a man, he “grew in wisdom and stature and
in favor with God and man” (Lk. 2:52).
He learned obedience through the things which he suffered (Heb. 5:8). And in his humanity, he had to put his trust
in God the Father for the strength he needed to complete his task: “And again,
I will put my trust in him” (2:12).
Passages
like this remind us that our Lord didn’t cheat when it came to his
humanity. Though our Lord never ceased
to be God, he did not allow his divine nature to interfere with his experiencing
the limitations of humanity (cf. Phil. 2:8).
As a man, therefore, he had to put his trust in God his Father. In verse 14, when our author says that “as
the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise
took part of the same,” he is underlining as emphatically as he can his
identity with us in the frailty of our humanness (excepting sin of
course). So, when he was hungry, he
experienced hunger like you and I experience it. When he was exhausted, he experienced
tiredness the same way we would experience it.
When the nails were driven through his hands, he experienced pain in the
same way we would have experienced it.
And through it all, he put his trust in God for the strength he needed
to persevere, just like we must do when we face the storms and trials of life.
It
was as a fellow-truster-in-God that our Lord says, “Behold I and the children
which God hath given me” (2:12). Here
again we see the closest identification of our Lord with his disciples. It ought to remind us of what our Lord
himself said in John 6: “I came down from heaven [there is the incarnation],
not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father’s will which hath sent
me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise
it up again at the last day” (Jn. 6:37-38).
He is able to resurrect us at the last day precisely because he
identified fully with us and was therefore able in our place to keep God’s law
that we broke and satisfy God’s justice that we deserved.
This
is also the point of verse 16: “For verily he took not on him the nature of
angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.” The point seems obvious, but there is
something we might miss. The point is
not only that he could not have redeemed us if he had been an angel (which, by
the way, he is not!); he had to become a man.
But we might also miss the fact that God didn’t have to save us – for he
didn’t save the fallen angels. He
left them to perish. So might he have
done for us. We should never think that
God somehow owes humanity a second chance or that he owes us a shot at
salvation. He doesn’t. He could have justly left us to perish. We are rebels, traitors to God. And it really ought to surprise us that God
has in fact saved us, because it required the suffering and the death of the
Son of God. Why would God do that for
miserable creatures? The distance
between you and a worm is not so great when compared to the distance between
God and man. And yet, as Isaac Watts put
it, God has done all this, “for such a worm as I.”
We
see this note sounded again in verse 17: “Wherefore in all things it
behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and
faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for
the sins of the people.” He does not
want us to think that there is some aspect of our experience that Jesus didn’t
enter into as a man. I may have suffered
in some ways that you have not; and you will have suffered in ways that I have
not. We can sympathize with each other,
but neither of us can really say that we fully understand what the other is
going through. But if I understand this
text correctly, it is saying that our Lord so identified with us in our pain
and suffering (Jesus “took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses,” Mt. 8:17),
that we can take them to one who can truly sympathize with us. Isn’t this what our author explicitly says
later? “For we have not an high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all
points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may
obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:15-16). In all points!
There
is another point we need to emphasize.
With suffering comes the inevitable temptation to become disillusioned
or bitter against God. And then if Satan
can’t tempt us away from God through pain, he will try to do it with illicit
pleasures. The point is that temptation
is often temptation to sin. And yet, as
it says in Heb 4:15, our Lord was tempted in all points like as we are, yet
without sin. And then in our text, “For
in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour [help]
them that are tempted” (2:18). The question that comes is this: how can our
Lord truly identify with us and help us in temptation when our temptation is
almost always accompanied by sin, and our Lord never sinned?
The
question is ill-informed, however. It
turns out that it is precisely because our Lord did not sin that he can say
that he was tempted in all points like as we are. Let me put it like this as an
illustration. Suppose you have two
prisoners of war, both who are tortured by their captors in order to get
information out of them. One of the
prisoners eventually breaks and gives the enemy the information they want. He does this of course to stop them from
hurting him. But the other does not
break and so they keep on at him until eventually they have to give up. Which one of the prisoners, do you think,
suffered the most? The one who broke or
the one who did not break? The one who
gave in, or the one who did not give in?
Can the one who gave in tell the one who did not, “You can’t really
understand what I went through”? No! Actually, the one who did not break is able
to say to the one who did, “Though you can’t understand fully what I went
through, I can fully understand what you went through!”
In
the same way, when it comes to temptation, our Lord can fully understand what
we go through, not because he gave in but precisely because he didn’t. Thank God he was tempted, “yet without
sin”! And that means that he knows how
to give us help in every hour of need.
Do not think that you can bring a problem to the Lord that he does not
know how to help you with. He can
strengthen you and give you the grace that you need at precisely the point that
you need it.
Moreover,
it is not just that his experience of shared humanity merely enables him to
help us (cf. 18). No, it motivates
him to help us. Is this not the point of
those words “that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest” (17)? He is merciful, which means that his heart is
moved by our afflictions and our suffering.
Now that does not mean that if we ask him to take them away he will do
so, because he knows that sometimes we need that thorn in the flesh (2 Cor. 12:7-10). And yet we should never impute to the Lord a
cold and unfeeling heart. On the
contrary, what the prophet says of God’s relation to Israel of old is equally
true – if not more so! – of the brethren of Christ: “In all their affliction he
was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his
pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old”
(Isa. 63:9). Or, as the psalmist put it,
“The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he
keep his anger for ever. He hath not
dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so
great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions
from us. Like as a father pitieth his
children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him” (Ps. 103:8-13).
And
we also need to remember that whatever sufferings we are going through, they
are at best temporary, if we belong to Christ (cf. 1 Pet. 1:6). As the apostle Paul put it, our sufferings
are “but for a moment” (2 Cor. 4:17), especially in light of eternity (18). God knows this. He will never keep his anger forever. Our sufferings will one day fade into
forgetfulness as we enter into the joy and glory of our Lord.
And
then there is that word “faithful.” He
is faithful: he never forsakes his children; he never goes back on his
promises. The one who promises us
eternal life in Jesus Christ is the one who cannot lie (Tit. 1:2). I love the way the book of Joshua ends: “There
failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD has spoken unto the house of
Israel; all came to pass (Josh. 21:45).
There will never be a moment when the Lord will forsake us, “for he hath
said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Heb. 13:5). I know that sometimes it feels like the Lord
is not with us. There can be very dark
times that the Christian goes through.
And yet we must not allow our emotions which are so changeable and
uncertain dictate to our faith. When we
are in darkness let us follow the exhortation of the prophet: “Who is among you
that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in
darkness and hath no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD and stay upon
his God” (Isa. 50:10). We can do this
because we have a merciful and faithful high priest.
Let
me end with this thought. How do you
know that Jesus is for you? How do you
know that he is your merciful and faithful high priest? Another way to put that question is: how do I
know I am one of the sons God is bringing to glory? To answer that, let’s go back to verse 13:
“Behold I and the children which thou hast given me.” As I said before, that ought to remind us of
what our Lord said in John 6, for there he also talks about those whom the Father
gave to him (Jn. 6:37-39). But who are
those people? They are precisely those
who see the Son and believe on him (Jn. 6:40), who come to Christ by faith
(45), who see him as the bread and water of life (36). Have you come to Christ? Do you believe on him? If you have come and if you do believe: keep
coming and keep believing! And if you
have not come to Christ, hear his words: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me: for I am meek and lowly in
heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Mt. 11:28-30). Come to Christ!
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