JESUS BECAME ONE OF US
Opening Prayer
As I read your Word, Lord God, help me to understand and apply to my life today what you teach me.
Read HEBREWS 2:10–18
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
10 In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. 11 Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.[a] 12 He says,
“I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters;
in the assembly I will sing your praises.”[b]
13 And again,
“I will put my trust in him.”[c]
And again he says,
“Here am I, and the children God has given me.”[d]
14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like them,[e] fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Footnotes
- Hebrews 2:11 The Greek word for brothers and sisters (adelphoi) refers here to believers, both men and women, as part of God’s family; also in verse 12; and in 3:1, 12; 10:19; 13:22.
- Hebrews 2:12 Psalm 22:22
- Hebrews 2:13 Isaiah 8:17
- Hebrews 2:13 Isaiah 8:18
- Hebrews 2:17 Or like his brothers
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
Open your ears to hear God’s voice in the Scriptures today.
Think Further
Verse 16 contains the last reference to angels in these first two chapters: ‘For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants’ (v. 16). They explain why Jesus had to become fully human. God planned to bring many sons and daughters to glory through Jesus, the pioneer of our salvation – the one who blazed the trail for us and is now crowned with glory and honor. To do that, he needed to identify with those sons and daughters in every way, including their suffering. This identification was so close that he refers to them as his brothers and sisters. Since Jesus came to redeem his brothers and sisters rather than the angels, he didn’t become an angel: he became one of us.
He did this so that he could become a ‘merciful and faithful high priest in service to God’ (v. 17). Aside from a hint in Hebrews 1:3 about Jesus making atonement for sins, this is the first explicit reference to the theme that will occupy the writer in chapters 5–10: Jesus is our Great High Priest. As Alexander Nairne wrote over a hundred years ago, it was as though the author was saying, ‘Think of him as a priest and I can make you understand.’1
The writer draws two implications here about Jesus, the merciful and faithful High Priest. He was faithful to God in the past when he offered himself as a sacrifice of atonement to deal with our sins, and he is merciful to us now in his ongoing ministry before God. Since he was tempted as we are and suffered in that temptation, he can help us when we are tempted. These two aspects of the work of Jesus will be gradually unpacked as the letter proceeds.
Apply
References to suffering imply that the readers were enduring suffering and were tempted to give up. Pray today for those who suffer hardship for Jesus, wherever they are.
Closing prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you for your care for those who follow you. For those suffering for your sake, I ask for courage. Continue to remind them of your compassion and faithfulness.
1 Alexander Nairne, The Epistle to the Hebrews, Cambridge University Press, 1922, plxviii
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