Hebrews 2:14-18: Made Like Unto His Brethren

2022-08-06

Hebrews 2:14

The children, according to the previous verse, are the Lord’s disciples, namely, those who believe on Him. We saw this in Isaiah 8:16-18. They “are partakers of flesh and blood.” This means they are human, and more specifically, mortals.

See the pattern of this phrase of “flesh and blood” throughout the Scriptures.

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul” (Leviticus 17:11). The blood is the life of the flesh in a literal sense. Oxygen goes into the lungs and into the blood, and the blood carries that oxygen throughout the body. The flesh has no life without the blood.

Concerning mortality, we read, “And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 16:16-17). Mortal humanity is juxtaposed with divinity. Only God can reveal that His Son is the Christ; mortal man cannot discern it.

Likewise, mortal man cannot be saved as is. “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption” (1 Corinthians 15:50). This is why we must be born again.

Jesus “took part of the same.” This is the incarnation. He became a human being. He became a little lower than the angels. He “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:7-8). He would “taste death for every man” (Hebrews 2:9). Being in Him, He bore the brunt of death, and by implication, the wrath of God, for all of us. In that He suffered and died for us, we do not have to face the death and wrath of God. So if we die in the flesh, that power of death is gone. We cannot spiritually die any longer. We cannot face His wrath, for we were in Him when He died at Calvary.

The devil once said, “Ye shall not surely die.” Remember that? Consider Genesis 3:1-6. The man and wife received the commandment of the Lord that they would surely die. Somehow, they changed it that they only might die. But Satan denied the Word of God altogether. He knew that they would die. They would physically and spiritually die. Just as a branch cut off does not look dead at first, but it slowly withers and decomposes. This is what happened to Adam and Eve. Their bodies were seemed alive, but they knew something was very different, and the God they knew they hid from. Death is separation from God, not by proximity, but in relationship.

While we do not downplay the responsibility of Adam and Eve, we must also recognize that Satan knew all that would transpire. This was how he killed the human race. “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44). Satan is a murderer, and he murders by lying. He lied that God was holding something back in the Garden. He lied that they would become like God. He lied that they would not die upon disobeying God.

When Christ died, and rose again, He defeated Satan’s primary power over humanity. Death no longer can hold us because we live again with Him. We will be raised on the last day. Satan cannot take us to hell with him anymore. The separation aspect of death has been abolished. The best the devil can do is persecution. Though that is awful, it is not eternal, like death is.

Hebrews 2:15

By the defeat of Satan and his primary weapon against humankind, the Lord Jesus Christ has delivered us. The Scriptures say, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). But we have escaped the wrath coming on all human beings, whether it be the day of the LORD or of hell beneath, or of the lake of fire.

“...through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” People spend their lifetimes trying to avoid death in so many ways. They put it out of their minds by chasing pleasure. They may try to have the perfect diet or exercise to avoid it, and while this is not necessarily a bad thing, there are extremes. And there are endless rituals to appease the real God or false gods and spirits. The Athenians had to put up their statue to the Unknown God in case they missed a god that needed appeasing (Acts 17:23).

There is fear that leads to bondage. How do we know if God is pleased with us? What do we do on the day that we will meet him? That is why there is legitimate fear; they know there is a God, that He is good, that they are evil, and God with perfect justice will judge them with eternity in hell.

Consider these quotes. Coming from the internet, I cannot verify them with certainty. Some of them seem to be legitimate. The first one is vehemently denied by his followers. Take these with a grain of salt. However, these seem to be in line with this verse. Some of these are deathbed quotes:

1. Anton LaVey: Author of the Satanic Bible and high priest of the religion dedicated to the worship of Satan. One of his famous quotes was: “There is a beast in man that needs to be exercised, not exorcised”. His dying words were: “Oh my, oh my, what have I done, there is something very wrong... there is something very wrong.” [Highly Disputed]
2. Sir Thomas Scott: Chancellor of England: “Until this moment I thought there was neither a God nor a hell. Now I know and feel that there are both, and I am doomed to perdition by the just judgment of the Almighty.”
3. Cesare Borgia: Italian nobleman, politician, and cardinal: “While I lived, I provided for everything but death; now I must die, and am unprepared to die.”
4. Thomas Hobbes: Political philosopher: “I say again, if I had the whole world at my disposal, I would give it to live one day. I am about to take a leap into the dark.”
5. Thomas Paine: The leading atheistic writer in American colonies: “Stay with me, for God’s sake; I cannot bear to be left alone, O Lord, help me! O God, what have I done to suffer so much? What will become of me hereafter? I would give worlds if I had them, that The Age of Reason had never been published. O Lord, help me! Christ, help me! No, don’t leave; stay with me! Send even a child to stay with me; for I am on the edge of hell here alone. If ever the Devil had an agent, I have been that one.” [Disputed]
6. Voltaire: Famous anti-Christian atheist: “I have swallowed nothing but smoke. I have intoxicated myself with the incense that turned my head. I am abandoned by God and man.” He said to his physician, Dr. Fochin: “I will give you half of what I am worth if you will give me six months of life.” When he was told this was not possible, he said “Then I shall die and go to hell!” His nurse said: “For all the money in Europe I wouldn’t want to see another unbeliever die! All night long he cried for forgiveness.”
7. David Hume: Atheist philosopher famous for his philosophy of empiricism and skepticism of religion: He cried loud on his death bed “I am in flames!” It is said his desperation was a horrible scene.
8. Charles IX: The French King. Urged on by his mother, he gave the order for the massacre of the French Huguenots, in which 15,000 souls were slaughtered in Paris alone and 100,000 in other sections of France, for no other reason than that they loved Christ. The guilty king suffered miserably for years after that event. He finally died, bathed in blood bursting from his veins. To his physicians, he said in his last hours: “Asleep or awake, I see the mangled forms of the Huguenots passing before me. They drop with blood. They point at their open wounds. Oh! That I had spared at least the little infants at the bosom! What blood! I know not where I am. How will all this end? What shall I do? I am lost forever! I know it. Oh, I have done wrong.”
9. Joseph Stalin: Soviet Georgian revolutionary and politician. In a Newsweek interview with Svetlana Stalin, the daughter of Joseph Stalin, she told of her father’s death: “My father died a difficult and terrible death. . .God grants an easy death only to the just. At what seemed the very last moment, he suddenly opened his eyes and cast a glance over everyone in the room. It was a terrible glance, insane or perhaps angry. His left hand was raised, as though he were pointing to something above and bringing down a curse on us all. The gesture was full of menace... the next moment he was dead.”
10. Gandhi: At his death, he said, “For the first time in 50 years, I find myself in the slough of despond. All about me is darkness... I am praying for light.”
11. Jesus Christ: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

Christianity is not some cool thing we do on Sunday. Christ really is our life, and He is the life for everyone who trusts in Him. This is why it is dire that we share the good news of Jesus Christ wherever we go. Christ frees people from the despair of death.

And death is not merely what happens after one lives. It is a pattern of what people do in their so-called lives apart from God. They are dead people walking.

Hebrews 2:16

We have spoken at length that Jesus was not an angel, but their superior. Here, we see also that He did not become an angel, either. He became a human being, more specifically, “the seed of Abraham.” There is our last reference to angels in the book until Hebrews 12:22.

Without the incarnation, there is no redemption. Jesus became one of us. To become an angel is not the same as to become flesh and blood. “And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22). An angel has neither flesh nor blood. Recall the great exchange: “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Jesus Christ our Lord became the seed of Abraham. This is important because the Scripture said, “in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). Consider Galatians 3:6-9. To have faith in Christ is to be a descendant of Abraham, and we are a part of that blessing. Moreover, we read, “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ” (Galatians 3:16). Since we are in Christ, we are a part of Abraham’s blessed family.

Hebrews 2:17

With what motivation did Jesus enter the human experience? He knowingly entered this world, subjecting Himself to rejection by his family and countrymen. He knew His closest companions would not be there at His hour of need. He knew of the agony of Gethsemane and Calvary. He knew of the Father’s wrath.

How could He be merciful? “The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation” (Numbers 14:18). He wants to show mercy, but He cannot clear the guilty. The wrath of God must be satisfied, and it was satisfied on Jesus Christ. We were placed in him, and He carried us through that wrath. Our Lord likewise is faithful, because He did the will of God knowing what pain it would cause Him.

We have previously spoken of Jesus as the coming King that will rule from Jerusalem. Consider also how He is the great high priest here. We will discuss this further as we get to His Melchizedek priesthood. But what does a high priest do? He makes offerings on behalf of the people to God. It is sort of opposite of the office of prophet: God sends messages to people through His prophets, which is primarily the prophets of the Scriptures. The people offer gifts and sacrifices for sins to God through the priest. Jesus is both. Remember that in these last days God has spoken to us via His Son. The Son also went to the Father and offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sins once and for all.

Hebrews 2:18

In His suffering, the Lord Jesus was tempted. His temptation started, at a minimum, in the wilderness after His baptism and beginning of ministry: “Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred” (Matthew 4:1-2). The devil waited until Jesus was at a very low point before he tempted Him.

Consider when the Lord before His arrest, He being very aware of the sequence of events to follow: “And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matthew 26:39). The Lord was going to accomplish His Father’s will regardless of how terrible it would be for Himself.

His life is our life. Because we are in Him, and He withstood temptation, we can, too. That is why He can help us today in our struggles. In sickness, in pain, in struggle, in the worries of this life, we are complete in Him, and He can carry us through it all. He who submitted to the Father’s wrath is able to deliver us from temptation. Countless generations of Christians could suffer crosses and coliseums because “he is able to succour them that are tempted” (Hebrews 2:18).

Did you ever consider that the Life of Christ as recorded in the Scriptures is a blueprint for the life of every Christian? The continual emptying of ourselves for the sake of others. The suffering and temptation because we belong to Him. He will carry us through it all.

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