Look at the next six verses, beginning with 2:10.
10 For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11 For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them bretheren, 12 saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. 13 And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me. 14 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; 15 and deliver them who were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Wow, this is deep. Let’s take it a little at a time. In verse 10 the preacher tells us it was proper for God to complete the plan of salvation by permitting Jesus to suffer. The revelator of the Apocalypse tell us that Jesus is the one for whom and by whom all things were created. Yet we know Him as the Captain of our salvation. Therefore, the preacher must be referring to God the Father in the verse as the One allowing Christ to suffer. A cultural note: the use of the word sons in the verse does not exclude women. It was customary in the Semitic languages to refer to the male children alone, while intending to include the daughters. Throughout the Old Testament, daughters are only referred to for emphasis or in the exclusion of sons.
Verse 11 says we are one with Christ, therefore, He is not ashamed to call us His siblings. Jesus is He that sanctifies, and we are the sanctified. The word means made holy, set apart unto a purpose, different from the common things. So Jesus sets us apart by becoming one with us that we may be siblings with Him in the Court of Heaven.
Verse 12 is a direct quote of Psalm 22:22 (21:23 in the Septuagint). This is the support the preacher gives for his statements in verse 11. It was essential in Jewish preaching to have support for your position from Torah, or Madrasah. Since the preacher is preaching to Hebrews, he uses the custom of the culture he is trying to reach.
In verse 13 he quotes Second Samuel 22:3 and Isaiah 8:17. The preacher of this sermon is still providing support for his above hypothesis. He is setting his listeners up for a dozy of a synthesis. The upcoming verses are the meat of this part of the sermon, sort of a conclusion before the body. The whole of salvation resides in the next truth he reveals. Verses 14 and 15 belong to one statement.
Jesus became a human being, flesh and blood as we are, because we are human beings of flesh and blood as well as soul and spirit. He did this so He could share in every part of the human condition, except sin. And His death, the impossible death of the immortal one, destroyed the confinement that death held over humanity, thus breaking the power of the devil to consign us to a damnation of separation from God in death, and alleviating the fear, the stark terror, that death held for human beings. It is the fear of death that bound humanity to sin, and the removal of the power of death that freed us from the fear, the bondage of death. Thus we are free to become holy as God the Father is holy.
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