A Commentary in Simple English on the letter to Jewish Christians

CHAPTER 2

Verses 1 - 4: The First Warning: Gospel and Law

This warning is not a warning about a big, sudden change in us. It is not that one day we will be Christians, the next day we will not. The danger is that little by little we move away from God and the Good News. It takes time, and some people may not notice what is happening to us.

In these verses the writer says these things to his Jewish readers: -

1. That God has messages to give to mankind.

2. In the Old Testament, the message from God was brought to men by angels. (This is usually taken to mean the giving of the Law through Moses, but angels do not seem to have had a great part in this. I wonder whether the writer has in mind other times when God spoke through angels. This happened in the Book of Judges, for example).

3. In the New Testament, Jesus brought God's message to all men.

4. Jesus is greater than the angels are. The greater the one who brings the message, the greater the importance of the message. No one could be greater than Jesus. So the message which Jesus brings to us is greater than the message which angels brought to men.

6. There was danger in the Old Testament for those who did not obey the message.

7. The danger of not obeying the message which is brought by Jesus, the Good News, is a greater danger.

This is the first of the 'warning' passages in Hebrews. We shall find others later. In verse 1, we are told that the danger is like a boat on a river. The current of the stream carries the boat beyond a place where it could have been tied to the bank before it hits rocks. [2.1].

Verses 3 and 4 tell us three things. First, Jesus Himself had spoken the message. Second, afterwards by people who had heard Jesus repeated it. It is clear from this verse that the writer of the letter had not himself heard Jesus speak. But it was not just that people who had heard Jesus repeated what He had said. The third thing is this. God proved the truth of what they said by works of power. (verse 4). Then God gave the special gifts of the Holy Spirit to those who believed the Good News. There is a list of the gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12 :8-10. Verse 11 there says the same as the verse in Hebrews which we are looking at. God gives the various gifts to various people just as He chooses. God does not give all the gifts to all of us. Nor are all the gifts given to any one Christian. Nor does God make the choice that we would make when He gives these gifts. We see that He gives His best gifts to our fellow Christians who would otherwise be able to do little or nothing in His service. It is then that we know that it really is God Who gives the gifts.

It is clear that these ‘Hebrews’ knew about the special gifts which God gave to the church at Pentecost. They did not enjoy these gifts, or use them in worship. Some of the churches to which Paul wrote did use these gifts. See Galatians 3:5, for example.

Verses 5-9: Jesus, the Son of Man

In these verses the writer begins to leave behind the teaching that Jesus is greater than angels. He begins to move on to his next subject, which is the relation between Jesus and men. He will say much more about this in the rest of the chapter. By 'the world to come', (verse 5) he means the age when the Good News is preached. 'These last days' (1:2) are left behind. They were the days of the Temple and its worship. God has begun to deal with men in a new way, and we now still live in this 'world to come'. God still has better things for us, which He will give to men through our Lord Jesus:. Still, the beginning of God's new way of dealing with men is already here and this is subject to our Saviour and not to angels.

In verse 6, the writer uses words from another Psalm. This time it is Psalm 8:4-6. The Psalm speaks of the wonders of this world which God has made, and of the wonders of Heaven too. In Genesis 1:26, God gave to man the right to rule over everything in this world. Men have done much to destroy God's world. The greed in men means that they often take from the world far more than they need. Men have turned great parts of the world into deserts. Christians must do all that they can to see that men use the good world God has given us in a good way, so that we do not destroy it. Men are very small in this great world, yet God in His great love cares for us. So man was to be master of the world, but sin has turned this upside down, and really the world is now our master. Jesus shows us how to put this right.

In verses 7-9, we see that for the little time that He was in the world, people could see that Jesus was a man, and a poor man too. He was 'lower than the angels' in honour, for He died a shameful death. God would not leave matters there. God raised Jesus from among the dead; He has gone to God: and God has given Him glory and honour greater than that of the angels. We do not at present see that the world is subject to men. But we do see that Jesus is in glory now, and this is because He died on the cross. The world is already subject to Him. He really 'tasted' death that is, He experienced a painful and shameful death. Because of God's grace, the death of Jesus can do good to us all. God's grace is, of course, His love to sinners. Because the death of Jesus is the death of the great Son of God, all men can be saved by it and this is true in every age and every place. There is no other way by which any man, anywhere, at any time can be saved except through Jesus (Acts 4 :12).

Verses 10-13: Jesus, our Brother: Shame and glory

In verse 10, the writer says:-

1. That God the Father is the one for whose sake everything has being. All things are also 'for him' ( or 'through him' or 'by him'). We are to think about the way that this God, who is pure, who hates sin but loves sinners, could rescue us. [2.2] (See Romans 11:36 and 1 Corinthians 8 :6.)

It is because we were made in, by and for Christ that he was able to die for us on the cross. No one else can die to take away the sins of somebody else.

2. God has chosen to make many of us his sons. He has not given this honour to us because we are worth it but because he loves us.

3. God chose Israel in Old Testament days, to bring them from Egypt into the land of Canaan which he had promised to give to them. he chose us and he will bring us out of this world into .is glory. He brought Israel out of Egypt, where there was much that was good, as well as much that was bad. There is much that is good for us to leave behind in this world as well as much that is not good.

4. We can see that God did things in the right way, the way that was 'fitting' for Him. God did what we would expect of Him, although we only know a little of what He is like. The Old Testament priests had to offer animals to God and put them to death; otherwise the priests could not go into His presence. So God has set apart His Son Jesus for us as our Priest. Jesus has offered Himself to God, He suffered and died. He did this not only to save us from our sins, but also to open up a way by which we could follow Him. He is the 'author' or chief leader Who rescues us. He has gone to glory ahead of us: we follow Him. In John 14:2 Jesus tells us that He will make a place ready for us in glory, and in verse 4 He tells us that we know the way there.

5. Jesus has suffered and so when we suffer, He understands. He was perfect before. He had no sin. But then He was not the perfect person to rescue sufferers and lost sinners. Now He is! What we suffer cannot keep us back from glory at last. But we cannot have a Christ to save us without having His cross as well.

It was no easy matter, for God to bring men from nature to grace, and then from grace to glory. In verse 11, we see at once that we cannot be saved in our sins. We must be saved from our sins. (See Matthew 1:21.) Christ is pure and holy, like God, so that He is able to make us pure and holy like Himself. He will bring no one to glory except those people that He makes holy on the earth, and in this life. (See 12:14.)

But this verse also begins to open up the wonderful truth which fills the rest of this chapter. This is that Jesus, the Son of God, is one with us. So far the writer has taught us that Jesus is now far above angels; when He suffered, He was lower than them. But we do not have to think of Jesus as being far above us. He is our Brother! We may be poor. Our bodies may be weak. We may have lost the honour that men used to give us since we have become Christians. Jesus stands before God and feels no shame as He calls us His brothers. If He was not God, He would feel ashamed of us. He does not, and we should never be ashamed of Him or of His cross. God the Father is not ashamed of us either. (See 11:14.) The only shame we need to feel is when we sin, but Jesus is the One Who makes us free from sin, pure and holy. [2.3] Remember that each one of the many sons 'He will bring to glory' was once a sinner!

In verses 12 and 13 the writer once again uses words from the Old Testament. In verse 12 it is Psalm 22 :22. The first twenty one verses of this Psalm tell of the sufferings of Christ on the cross. Verses 22 to 31 speak of the glory that followed His sufferings (Luke 24:26). In these words Christ says that He will make known God's Name. That means God's special character, His love, kindness and goodness. He will sing the praises of God. But the point is that Jesus will make God's name known to us, Christian believers, and He calls us His brothers. This He does both by His own teaching and by His Holy Spirit. Then He speaks of Himself; He stands in the middle of the gathering of believers and joins in with them in the praises of God.

In verse 13 the first text is usually thought to come from Isaiah 8 :17 and the second is from Isaiah 8:18. Jesus, the Man of sorrows, is saying that He will trust in God, Who is His Father and Who is faithful. He will save Him from death but He will also save all who believe in Him. In the second half of the verse, Jesus calls us His children, and says that God His Father has given us to Jesus to be His family gathered around Him.

Verses 14-18: Why Jesus suffered for us

So Jesus is one with us and we are one with Him. In these verses the writer tells us how this helps us. We have two problems. One is our sin. Because of our sin we quite rightly fear death. If we could come to God, all would be well. But we have no way to God. That is our second problem. Angels do not have these problems. They are in God's presence. They are holy and do not sin and they do not die. So (verse 16) it is us, not angels, who need the help of Jesus. 'The descendants of Abraham' are both the Jewish people and also all believing Christians.

The way Jesus deals with the first problem is explained in verses 14 and 15 like this.

1. If there was no sin in the world, men would not fear death. Death might have been just the way to a happier and fuller life.

2. We sin. We feel guilty. So we know that beyond death there is God's judgment. We fear death.

3. The devil makes the most of this. If we have no hope, he tells us to sin more and more. He holds the power of death.

4. It was God's purpose to rescue men and the way to do this was by the suffering and death of His own Son, the promised Messiah, Jesus, Emmanuel, 'God with us'.

5. Jesus has already destroyed the works of the devil (1 John 3 :8). God hates death and will destroy death and hell (Rev 20 :4). 'So fear not to die: fear not to go to the grave. Emmanuel has been there ......He will bring us out of the dust again, for Emmanuel is “God with us'“ Who is God over death, over sin........God over all.........' (Richard Sibbes) [2.4]

6. So we have Good News! We are no longer all our lives slaves to sin, fear and death. If we move on to verses 17 and 18, we find that the writer begins to talk of Jesus as our 'priest'. He will say much more about this from 4:14 onwards. See especially 5 :1. The Old Testament priests from the time of Moses onward were chosen from among the people; they were not brought in from outside the people of Israel. They had to go in to God's presence. Not all the people could go to God in those days. Then the priests had to bring gifts to God and kill animals as offerings to Him as well. Of course, all Christians are now priests. (See 13:15,16.) Jesus has made a way for us to come to God, and has died as an offering to God because of our sins, so we cannot bring any other offering - except to love Him and obey Him, to worship Him and trust Him.

7. We are no longer slaves, but sons now if we belong to Jesus. See John 8.34-36

From these verses, the main things which we can learn are:-

1. That the Son of God had to become a man so that He could be our High Priest.

2. That He had to be a real man, with flesh and blood! (verse 14) so that He would have a body which He could offer to God in death for our sins; and

3. that He was tempted so that He would understand how we feel when we are tempted (verse 18). When we are tempted, it is often because our old sins come to life again in us. When things outside ourselves tempt us, they often meet with help in us from wrong desires. This was not true of Jesus: He had no sin. Yet we may be sure that the Devil tempted Jesus more strongly than he ever tempted anyone else. Jesus was tempted so much that He suffered, but still He did not sin.