For as much 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, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not on him He took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham. 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, For in that He Himself has suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted. Heavenly Father, we thank You so much for Your Word. Lord, we look to it and we receive hope, we receive grace, we receive instruction for living, we receive so many things. It's just enjoyable to read and to think about all these marvelous things. And today, Lord, we're covering this portion of Scripture, Lord, in which Christ is exalted again, of course. And Lord, please help us to understand. Please help us to think about Christ today and his condescension, Lord, to become like one of us. And he was not like one of us, but he became a man flesh and blood, just like we were, and He died all the way to death, Lord. And thank You for that. Thank You for Him. Help us to trust in Christ for our salvation, for there is no other hope. There is no other way that Your justice can be satisfied. There's absolutely no hope apart from Christ. So give us that hope. Give us Christ and help us today in the study of Your precious Word. In Jesus' name we pray. All right, so we're going to start then with verses 14 and 15. I'll read again. For as much 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, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. In the former verses, as was shown, the apostle declared the necessity that there was on the part of Christ, intending to bring many sons unto glory, to constitute such a union between them and the captain of their salvation, that it might be just for him to suffer in their stead. In these, he proceeds to manifest in particular what that nature is and the common participation in which the union consistent, wherein they were all of one, and what were the special reasons why the Lord Christ was made partaker of our nature. So to deliver man, Jesus Christ had to share his nature. We are in the presence of a mystery here. The fact that he himself partook of the same nature sums up the perfect humanity of Jesus. When this statement is set over against the statements in chapter 1 about the divine sonship of Jesus, the mystery deepens. His superiority to angels is set against his equality with man. There can never be a wholly satisfactory explanation of these two facets of his nature, because man has no suitable frame of reference in which to consider it. There are no human analogies for an infinite, eternal being to take a human nature, flesh and blood, and a human spirit as well, into union with himself is just like, what? How can you comprehend that? So the synonymous parallelism in the statements in verse 14a, that is, The children are partakers of flesh and blood. He likewise took part of the same. Indicates that any semantic difference between the verbs that refer to the children and to the son, respectively, ought not to be pressed here. The meaning of the two roots is virtually synonymous. Two different Greek words are used, though, so both describe a whole participation in a shared reality. The distinction lies in the variation of the verbal tenses. I have to get too Greek on you guys, but the perfect tense of kikoinonikon, which just means, you've heard of koinonia, right? Koinonia, that just means like sharing, right? So kikoin, this is perfect, the perfect tense of that. And the perfect tense in Greek marks like a special, like a nature, an essential characteristic So like we are naturally just essentially flesh and blood that marks the original and natural state of humanity. While the Aorist tense of meteskin, which is the other Greek word for Christ sharing in our humanity, it marks the original and natural state of humanity while the Aorist, oh sorry, while the Aorist emphasizes that the sun assumed the human race at a fixed point in time by his own choice. There is no direct or clear English equivalent for this tense, though it is generally rendered as a simple past tense in most translations. The events described by the Aorist tense are classified into a number of categories by grammarians. The most common of these include a view of action as having begun from a certain point. So whereas man is naturally and essentially blood and flesh, as is written here, Christ is not naturally a man, but became one at a moment in time, the Incarnation, right? That's what we understand. Mary being birthed, that Christ conceived him. He didn't have a human father, and yet there he was, a full Christ formed in her. As a baby, it's amazing if you think about it. By means of this distinction, the transcendent character of the Incarnate Son is maintained precisely in a context in which the accent falls upon his full participation in the human condition. Interesting, yeah? The way he's so precise, the Greeks here, it's amazing. There's a twofold state and condition of the children to be brought unto glory. One, their natural state and condition, They were all of them in common partakers of flesh and blood, or as much then as the children were partakers of flesh and blood. Two, their moral state and condition. They were obnoxious unto death, as it is penal for sin, and in great bondage through fear of it. Them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. There is a double affirmation with respect to Christ also, the captain of salvation. As to their natural condition that he did partake of, he was the same, right? He also did partake of the same. As to his moral condition, he was himself perfectly free of all sin and yet freed them from it and delivered them. That's what the text says. Jesus is free from all sin, right? He has no sin whatsoever, and he delivers us from sin. So it is implied then that they were subject of not to think they were guilty of death, and that it was penal due to sin as contained in the curse of the law. On this supposition lies the whole weight of the mediation of Christ. Children to be brought unto glory were obnoxious unto death, and subject to the curse and wrath of God, from which he came to deliver them. So the first effect of this obnoxiousness unto death occurring in them is that they were filled with the fear of it, or fear of death. Fear is a disturbance of mind. We're in Hebrews chapter 2. Yeah, like verse 14. We're in 14 and 15. We're starting. Okay, so the first effect of this obnoxiousness unto death occurring in them is that they were filled with the fear of it, or fear of death. Fear is a disturbance of mind arising from the apprehension of a future negative condition. And the worse this condition is, the greater will be the perturbation of the mind. As far as we are aware of it anyway. The fear of death then is that trouble of mind which men have in the expectation of death to be inflicted on them. as a punishment due unto their sins. And this apprehension is common to all men, arising from a general presumption that death is penal, and that, quote, the judgment of God, that they which committed sin are worthy of death. As Romans 1.32 says, who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them, Romans 2.15 comes into play to show that every man's conscience is defiled and corrupt. It is also confirmed by the law whose known sentence is the soul that sins shall die. And the troublesome expectation of this condition is the fear of death here intended. And according to the means that men have to come to this knowledge of the righteousness of God and their own sinfulness, their apprehension of the evil that is in death is increased. But even those who had lost all clear knowledge of the consequences of death, or the dissolution of their present mortal condition, yet on a confused application of its being penal, always esteemed at the most dreadful of all things that are so unto human nature, that is, they are terrified of death, right? Everyone is. And in some, this is heightened and increased until it comes to be, quote, a certain fearful looking for judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. That's Hebrews 10, 27. Coming up to that. Every man outside of Christ is governed by his fear of death. It is clear that no one ever talks about it, and our lives are an attempt to put off death as long as possible. color our hair, right? Yeah, we drive shiny new cars. We live like we were 20 years old or something, right? But when we're like 60 or even more, it's crazy how people live nowadays. Men and women do everything to pretend they are young when they are not. This is the fear of death working its way out into our subconscious, into everything that we think and do. Many other things we do how we live, how we take vitamins, all kinds of things, everything we do to keep ourselves from dying. Those who claim to be free of the fear of death or even the worst, they're terrified. So they are by this means brought into bondage. The troublesome expectation of death as penal brings them into bondage into nature where we must a little inquire. Sundry things occur, I mean, concur to make any state a state of bondage with this. One, that it be involuntary. No man is in bondage by his will, not which a man chooses, not bondage unto him. A man would have his ear bored, right? And even though he were always a servant, was never in bondage, for he enjoyed the condition that pleased him. Properly all bondage is involuntary. Bondage generates strong desires after and puts men on all manner of attempts for liberty. Yokes gall and make them on whom they desire ease. So long as men are sensible of bondage, which is contrary to their nature, they will desire and labor for liberty. Third, bondage perplexes the mind. It arises from fear, the greatest perturbation of the mind, and is attended with weariness. and distrust, all of which are perplexing. And where bondage is complete, it lies in a tendency unto future and greater evil, such as the bondage of condemned malefactors, who deserve the day of execution, such as the bondage of the great demons who are kept in chains of darkness. And all these things concur in the bondage here intended, which is a dejected, troublesome state and condition of mind arising from the apprehension and fear of death to be inflicted and their disability in whom it is to avoid it, attended with fruitless desires and vain attempts to be delivered from it and to escape the evil fear. And this is the condition of sinners out of Christ, where of their various degrees answerable unto their convictions. But our author treats not here of men's being servants unto sin, which is voluntary, but of their sense of the guilt of sin, which is wrought in them, even whether they will or not. And by any means they would cast off the yoke of it, though by none are they able to do so. where they are said to continue in this state all their lives. Not that they are always perplexed with this bondage, but that they can never be utterly free from it. For the apostle does not say that they were thus in bondage all their days, but they were obnoxious and subject unto it. They had no ways to free or deliver themselves from it, but at any time they might righteously be brought under its power And the more they cast off thoughts of it, the more they increase their danger. This was the estate of the children whose deliverance was undertaken by the Lord Jesus Christ, the captain of their salvation. And hence, we may observe that all sinners are subject unto death because it is penal. The first sentence reaches them all, Genesis 2.17. The wages of sin is death. And then, as they are all said to be by nature children of wrath, Ephesians 2.3, we are by nature children of wrath, obnoxious unto death, to be inflicted in a way of wrath and revenge for sin. This passes upon all, and as much as we have all sinned, Romans 5.12, all have sinned. This all men see and know, but all do not sufficiently consider what is contained in the sentence of death, and very few how it may be avoided. Most men look on death as the common lot and condition of mankind on the account of their frail natural condition, as though it belonged to the natural condition of the children and not the moral and were a consequence of their being children of Adam. Death is penal, and its being common unto all hinders not, but is the punishment of everyone. How it is changed unto believers by the death of Christ shall be afterward declared. In the meantime, all mankind are condemned as soon as born. Life is a reprieve, a suspension of execution. If during that time a pardon be not effectually found out, the sentence will be executed according to the severity of justice." Right? It is. Under this law are men now born. This yoke they have put on themselves by their apostasy from God. Neither is it to any purpose to fight against it. There is but one way of delivery. Fear of death. as it is penal, is inseparable from sin. Before the sinner be delivered by the death of Christ, they were all in fear of death. There is a fear of death, and that's inseparable from our present condition. That's what nature's turning away of its own dissolution, right? We naturally fear death. at least are uneasy with it. Even if you're a Christian, you can look at death and be like, I'm not so happy about it. That's funny. But it's not the end, unfortunately, for them. And this has various degrees occasioned by the differences of men's natural constitution and other accidental occurrences and occasions, so that some seem to fear death too much and others not at all. I mean, of those who are freed from it as it is the curse and under the power of Satan. But this difference is from occasions foreign and accidental. There isn't all naturally the same turning away from death This is a guiltless infirmity, like our weariness and sickness inseparably annexed unto the condition of mortality. We naturally hate death. But sinners, in their natural state, fear death as it is penal, as an issue of the curse, as under the power of Satan, as a dreadful entrance into eternal ruin. There are indeed a thousand ways whereby this fear is for a season stifled in the minds of men. Some live in brutish ignorance, never receiving any full conviction of sin, judgment, or eternity. Some put off the thoughts of their present and future state, resolving to shut their eyes to it and rush into it when they can no longer avoid it. Fear presents itself unto them as the forerunner of death, but they avoid the encounter and leave themselves to the power of death itself. Some please themselves with vain hopes of deliverance, though well they know not how nor why they should be taken out and delivered from it. But let men forego these helpless shifts and suffer their own light to be excited with such means of conviction as they do enjoy, and they will quickly find what a judgment there is made in their own soul concerning death to come and what effects it will produce. they will conclude that it is the judgment of God that they which commit sin are worthy of death, Romans 1.32. And then their own conscience is to accuse and condemn them, Romans 2.14 and 15, whence unavoidably fear, dread, and terror will seize upon them. And then fear of death as penal renders the minds of men obnoxious unto bondage, which what it is we have in part before declared, but it's a state of trouble which men dislike, but cannot avoid. It's a penal disturbance arising from a sense of future misery. Men would quit themselves of it, but they are not able. There's a chain of God in it that is not to be broken. Men may gall themselves with it, but cannot remove it. And if God take it not from them without granting them a lawful release and delivery, it is to their further misery. And this is, in some measure or another, the portion of everyone that is convinced of sin before he is freed by the gospel. Right? When you're convicted of sin, and before you receive Christ, you're dying. I remember I was agonizing, like, what do I do? How can I get out of this? They're so terrible. And then you find Christ, and you're like, oh, that's how. And some have disputed what degrees of it are necessary before believing. Like how much do you need right before you believe? But what is necessary for anyone to attain is his duty. But this bondage can be the duty of no man because it is involuntary. So the human dilemma is clear, right? Sin has enslaved every human being all their lives to the fear of death. They are bound with the chains of sin and hounded with fear every conscious moment without cease. And there's no hope. There's no hope apart from Christ. For the unsaved, death is a fear-ridden concept from start to finish, where it's completely uncertain. The end of everything held dear in life Absolutely no guarantees, or any hope for that matter, for what lies ahead. Only with Christ does hope enter the picture. And with His death on our behalf, hope becomes certitude. Our future is filled with promises and wonderful beyond belief. Anticipation replaces fear for the believer. So they being of flesh and blood, which which must be attended with many infirmities and exposed to all sorts of temptations and miseries, he himself would also partake of the same. His delight was of old in the sons of men. Remember Proverbs 8, 31, where it says, Christ delighted in the sons of men. Amazing. And his heart was full of thoughts of love towards them. And that alone put him on this resolution. Revelations 2.20, Revelation 1.5. When God refused sacrifices and burnt offerings as insufficient to make the atonement required, and the matter was rolled on His hand alone, it was a joy unto Him that He had a body prepared wherein He might discharge His work, although He knew what He had to do and suffer therein. Psalms 40, 7-8. 10, five to nine, he rejoiced to do the will of God in taking the body prepared for him, because the children were partakers of flesh and blood. Though he was, quote, in the form of God, equal unto God, right? The father and the son are exactly identical, as we covered in the previous chapter. Though he was in the form of God, equal unto him, Yet that mind, that love, that affection towards us was in Him, that to be like unto us, and thereby to save us, He emptied Himself and took on Him the form of a servant, our form, and became like unto us, Philippians 2, 5-8. All sinners out of Christ are under the power of Satan. They belong unto that kingdom of death, where if he is prince and ruler, the whole world lies in wickedness, or the whole world lies in the power of the wicked one. Same thing, if the guilt of death be not removed from any, the power of death covers them, right? That's our natural condition. The means whereby Satan was thus destroyed is also expressed. It was, quote, by death, by Christ's own death, This, of all others, seemed the most unlikely way and means." Right? Like, why would the death of Christ? What the? Makes no sense. But then you're like, oh. But indeed, was not only the best, but the only way whereby it might be accomplished. And the manner how it was done, thereby, must be declared and vindicated. The power of Satan in reference unto death, before mention, was all founded in sin. The obligation of the sinner unto death is that which gave him all his power. The taking away then of that obligation must be the dissolution of his power. The foundation being removed, all that is built upon it must needs fall to the ground. Our principle end of the death of Christ was to destroy the power of Satan. Destroy him that had the power of death. This was promised of old, right, in Genesis 3.15 and 16. He was to break the head of the serpent. From him sprang all the miseries which he came to deliver his elect from, and which could not be effected without the dissolution of his human life. He was anointed to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that were bound, Isaiah 61.6. To this end, he was to conquer him who detained them, which he did by his death, Colossians 2.15. And so led captivity captive, Psalm 68.18. Spilling this enemy and self-avenger, Psalm 8.2. Binding the strong man, Matthew 12. 1, 2, 9, and dividing the spoil with him, Isaiah 53, 12. That's all Christ did, amazing. And this he did by the merit of his blood and the atonement he made for sin. His gracious act took away the obligation of the law unto death and disarmed Satan. And moreover, by the power of the eternal spirit, whereby he offered himself unto God, he conquered and quelled Satan. Satan laid his claim unto the person of Christ, but coming to put it in execution, he met with that great and hidden power in him, which he knew not, and was utterly conquered. And this, as it gives us a particular consideration of the excellence of our redemption, wherein Satan, our old enemy, who first foiled us, who always hates us and seeks our ruin, is conquered, spoiled, and chained. Faith in the death of Christ is the only way we can win conquest over him, over Satan. You have to always remember it. Verse 16, for verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham. That's what our text says, anyway. The text here is given by the part that is outside the square brackets. For verily he took not on angels, but he took on the seed of Abraham. What does that mean? He took not on angels. The Greek word here, generally means to lay hold of or to seize upon anything with the hands, but also means, by a metaphor drawn from laying hold of another to rescue him from peril, translates to help or to succor. So the meaning of the phrase is that he does not help angels, but helps the seed of Abraham. You can look at other translations have this as well. The ESV has exactly that. That's actually the correct translation. It makes no sense to say took on. Angels like that makes no sense. That's why they put him in the nature of that's their interpretation, but the Greek word actually actually means to help and sucker. As a secondary meaning so that that makes sense here. Or he he didn't help angels, right? He helped the seed of Abraham. So the thought of the writers Swings back to the theme of angels again, and he expressed the closing segment at once, that what he has just said has no relevance for them. He's reminded of Isaiah 41, eight to nine, where, quote, the seed of Abraham is mentioned as the chosen servant of God. And he's, quote, taken from the ends of the earth. In other words, one bondage is exchanged for another. That is, we go from being slaves to Satan to slaves to Christ, right? That's a glorious thing, right? Yeah, so, but in other words, oh, sorry. But the exchange is most unequal since those who serve the devil have no status like the descendants of Abraham have. Angels are not included in the act of deliverance since they have no need of it, anyway. At least this is true of the good angels. The bad angels cannot be saved. There is no salvation for them in Christ. Well, the author had just written that Christ would, quote, destroy him and had the power of death, that is, the devil, which certainly includes all evil angels. But angels seem to, like, group together somehow. That one guy had how many, a thousand devils in him, something like that. It's like, what? A legion, you know, how much is a legion? Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. Anyway, so the writer may have concentrated on the descendants of Abraham because the epistle is addressed to Hebrews. It should be remembered, however, that when Paul wrote to the predominantly Gentile Roman Church, he could speak of Abraham as our forefather according to the flesh, while Jesus pointed out that Abraham's children were those who do what Abraham did, John 8, 39. In a spiritual sense, Abraham's offspring includes all who share his faith, and this must be the sense in which the present passage should be understood. So yeah, you could be Abraham's child as well if you do what Abraham did. Trust in Christ. Wherefore, oh, verse 17 and 18 now. Oh, excuse me. So verse 17 is, wherefore in all things it behooves 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. For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted. Well, this is amazing. Also, Christ was made like unto them in all things which matter and in the essence of human nature, a rational spiritual soul and a mortal body quickened by its union there with all. This was necessary for him to be like the brethren and not to have a fantastical body, right, or a body animated by the deity. No, he had a human spirit, as some has fancied of old. But they, he should take this nature upon him by natural generation, after the manner of the brethren, this was not necessary. Otherwise, why would we have a virgin birth? Yea, so to have done would not have furthered the end of the priesthood, but actually rendered him incapable of being such a priest as he was to be. But whereas the original contagion of sin is derived by natural procreation, you're born a sinner, you're just born, you didn't do anything, right? But no, you're still a sinner, because you're Adam's child. So anyway, if Christ had been born of Adam, or had a father, then he would have been a sinner. And then how could he have been holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, as it became our high priest to be, Hebrews 7.27. Again, it was not necessary that this human nature should have its individuation from itself and a particular subsistence in and by itself. Sorry about that language, but it just had to be like a perfect and yet natural body and spirit. And so David could have also overthrown his priesthood. But whereas the efficacy there depends on the excellency of the divine nature, this could not have given its influence there, had not the human nature been taken into the same personal subsistence with itself. Oh, sorry. Only as we said, he had to be perfectly human and also God. I can't really make sense of that, really. How can it be possible? And yet, anyway, only as we said that he should have a human nature, truly and really, as the brethren, and therein be like unto them, this was necessary, that he might be an offering priest, and have of his own to offer unto God. Now we're getting to the offering. But he was also like us in temptation, for the reason which our author gives us in the last verse. But here also some difference may be observed between him and us. For the most part, our temptations arise from within, and from our own unbelief and lust. But from these things, he was absolutely free, for he had no inward disposition or inclination unto the least evil. being perfect in every way, and all their operations in his natural being were perfect, right? So he didn't have any temptation to sin from internal. When the prince of this world came to him, he had no part in him, nothing to close with his suggestions or to entertain his terrors. But the fact that we always fold in the middle of temptation means that we never experience the full weight of temptation, right? Like you and I, we go to temptation level. We're like, oh, we sin. Ah, pathetic. But Christ, he went all the way, right? He never sinned. And so he didn't succumb to temptation. So that means he did experience the full weight of temptation every last drop. He was tempted by the devil and very tempted by Satan. Yeah, but we, it doesn't take much to make you sin or me sin, right? We sin right away. But Christ never sinned, so he, he received greater temptation than we ever did. Yeah, 2 Corinthians 5. That's what it says on there. Yeah. And I believe in it. That's a pretty funny concept as well. Yeah. Yeah. So it was transferred to them, like, at least conceptually. The priest basically put all the sins of the Jewish people in this land. That's the sacrificial animal that was without blood. And so it was, I showed, in essence, God was telling the priest, take all those things and put them on there and sacrifice them. I will receive that blood. But this is what happened to Jesus. So when Jesus was sacrificed, God put all of our sins on him and accepted his blood. So the picture of all the sacrifices in the Old Testament shows you how that was, because the priests were supposed to put all the sins of the people on that animal to create something to kill it. And so that was the picture of what the prophecy put up. All those people sinned, but that animal did not sin, the human being did. So the sacrifice had to be a human being. And how can there be a perfect human being unless God is in flesh? If he's not in flesh, then where is he? Okay, but his essence is from God. And so, when he now is a perfect human being, so God the Father would be able to take all of our sins and put them on him. Amazing. Does that make sense? Yes, I think so. All right, so the general end of his conformity unto the brethren is that he, quote, might be a merciful and faithful high priest. Two things are consigned to it. First, the office that he was designed unto was to be high priest. Secondly, his qualifications for that office, he was to be merciful and faithful. His conformity unto the brethren, as we've seen, consisted in two things. First, his participation of their nature, Second, his entering in with them in the condition of suffering and temptation. The first of these was necessary unto his office, the latter unto his qualification. He was made man that he might be a high priest, and he suffered being tempted that he might be merciful and faithful. There was no more required that he might be a high priest, that he should partake of our nature that he might be merciful and faithful. That kind of mercy and faithfulness which the brethren stood in need of was moreover required that he should suffer and be tempted. For this cause, therefore, he was made like unto them in the infirmities of their nature, their temptations and sufferings from which all their sufferings and sorrows arise. Hence was the necessity of the qualifications for his office which by his sufferings and temptations, which he endured, and they are to mercifulness. First of all, he was merciful. Mercy in God is a naked, simple apprehension of misery, right, made effective by an act of his holy will to relieve. Mercy in Christ is a compassion, a condolence, and it has a moving of pity and sorrow joined with it. was in the human nature of Christ, a grace of the Spirit in all perfection. Now being such a virtue as in the operation of it deeply affects the whole soul and body, incomparably more excellent in Christ than in all the sons of men. Yea, the worst of his enemies, expressing itself by sighs and tears, intimating the deep compassion of his heart, And this made him, as it were, even forget his own miseries and his greatest distress. And when seeing the daughters of Jerusalem mourn for him as he was going to his cross, it reminds him of that which his compassionate heart was fixed on, even though they're approaching misery and ruin. Like you read that, it's like, what? Amazing. But yet neither is this mercifulness in general that which our author intended, He considers it as excited, provoked, and drawn forth by his own temptation and suffering. He suffered and was tempted that he might be merciful, not absolutely, but a merciful high priest. And this mercifulness of Christ is the gracious condolence and compassion of his whole soul with his people and all their temptations, sufferings, dangers, fears, and sorrows with a continual sense of will and affection unto their relief, implanted in him by the Holy Ghost as one of those graces which were to dwell in his nature in all fullness, excited and provoked as to its continual exercise in his office of high priest by the sense and experience which he himself had of those miseries which his people undergo." That was long. You know, uh, you gotta remember God came in incarnate, came into man. So now he's a minister. Jesus had to live in the limitations of this body. The same body that you and me have. Okay? So, the limitations that he had, he had. When that was done, Bible says he was wet. He, he, he, he, this is his dear friend. Okay, he experienced what that grief was, all that. When he brought him to Yosemite, when he, you know, he called his three best friends, Peter, James, and John. Come pray with me. Those guys fall asleep. I, I, I, you know, uh, he, he, we all have those sort of friends that, that, that, I mean, let your will be done, but I don't want to be separated. You know, we see the forsakenness on the cross. I mean, Jesus experienced the same pain and passion that we have because he was living, just because he was God, he had to be completely human and experience the pain and suffering that he's experienced. He's experienced a lot of that stuff that we've experienced. So that's why he said that in all things, he's experienced everything. So our pain and suffering that we go through, sickness, health, or grief, Christ experienced it all. And he would, I mean, to try to explain, I still got some material to cover there. All right, so the other qualification mentioned is that he should be faithful. Some understand by this word true and rightful, made so in a due manner, whereas the apostle, I mean the author, speaks expressly, Hebrews 5.5. Others, his general faithfulness, integrity, and righteousness in the discharge of his office, being faithful unto him that appointed him, Hebrews 3.2. But neither of these senses answers the special design of the author, nor his referring of his qualifications unto his conformity with the brethren in suffering and temptation. So it must also answer that mercifulness, which we have before described, consists, therefore, in his exact constant and careful consideration of all the concernment of the brethren under their temptation and suffering. That is, Christ pays attention to his people, cares for them, and watches out for them. It's amazing. This he is excited unto by his own experience of what it is to serve God in such a condition, not his faithfulness, and in general, whereby he discharged his whole office and accomplished the work committed unto him, mentioned in John 17.4. his constant care and condescension unto the wants and sorrows of his suffering and tempted brethren here intended. Consider, for instance, Isaiah 40, 11. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those that are with young. This naturally does through his people. Now none was ever appointed a priest by the oath of God, but Christ alone, as the apostle declared, Hebrews 7, 20 and 21. And how this difference, and how this difference is office from that of others shall, what? I don't know what I wrote. And how this difference is office from that of others shall in that place be made manifest. He alone had somewhat, of his own to offer unto God. Other priests had somewhat to offer, but nothing of their own. They only offered up the beasts that were brought unto them by the people. But the Lord Christ had a body and soul of his own prepared for him to offer, which was properly his own, and at his own disposal, Hebrews 10, 5. He alone was set over the whole spiritual house of God, the whole family of God in heaven and earth. This belongs unto the office of a high priest, to preside in and over the house of God, to look to the rule and disposal of all things. Now the priests of old were, and as this part of this office, confined into the material house or temple of God, but Christ was said over the whole spiritual house of God and to rule and dispose of it, Hebrews 3, 6. He alone abides forever. The true and real high priest was not to minister, for one age or generation only, but for the whole people of God until the end of the world. And this prerogative of the priesthood of Christ, the author insists upon, Hebrews 7, 23 and 24. He alone did and could do the true and proper work of a priest, namely, make reconciliation for the sins of the people. The sacrifices of other priests could only represent what was to be done. The thing itself they could not perform. It was not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin, as the Apostle shows in Hebrews 10.4. But this was done effectually by that one offering, quote, which this high priest offered in Hebrews 10.11 and 14. who would come unto God by Christ may see what, in the first place, they are to look after. Indeed, if they are once brought into that condition where they will seriously look after him, they will not be able to look away from it, though for a while they may be unwilling to look to it. Reconciliation they must have, or they can have no peace. This lies straight before them. They are willing, it may be, to look upon the right hand and the left to see if there be anything die them that will yield them relief. All is in vain. If anything gives them ease, it also gives them poison. If anything gives them peace, it also gives them ruin. Think about drugs or anything you want to think about, right? Gives you peace, but then ruin. Reconciliation by the blood of Christ is the only relief for our souls, and nothing more discovers the vanity of much of that religion which is in the world than the lack of concern that men have in looking after this, which is the foundation stone of any durable building in the things of God. People will do this, and people will do that, but how they shall have an interest in the reconciliation made for sin, and trouble themselves not at all. Such have need not only to be saved by his atonement, but to be relieved, favored, and comforted by his grace. They did not want, they did not only want one to undertake for them, but to undertake for them with care, pity, and tenderness. their state-required delivery with compassion. God, by that way of salvation that He provides for them, intends not only their final safety in heaven, but also that in the sense of the first fruits of it in this world, they may glorify Him by faith and thankful obedience. So the larger context, I'm going to step back and take a quick look here, the larger context of 2.10-18 is a meditation on Psalm 8, which serves to direct attention to the man Jesus in his humiliation and exaltation. Although for a brief while he has been made lower than the angels, he is now, quote, crowned with glory and splendor because he suffered death so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. Verse 9. The reference to Jesus' death prompts the writer's reflection upon the appropriateness of the incarnation and death of the Son of God. The pre-existent Son entered the human race and assumed its conditions, especially its liability to death, in order to redeem humankind. The paragraph thus brings into focus the full and authentic reality of the humanity of Jesus, and its significance for the redeemed community. The dominant concept of the entire passage is that of solidarity of the Son with His people. That solidarity is affirmed in the statement that the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family or of the same nature. And on that list of citations from Psalms and Isaiah, The brothers of the psalmist are the congregation of the faithful with whom Jesus lifts his voice in singing the praises of God. They are those who trust the Lord, the spiritual remnant concerning whom Isaiah had so much to say, and who were represented in the writer's day by Jesus and all those who responded to his call. The divine Son became one with his people in order to die for them. This was affirmed very generally in verse nine with a declaration that, quote, he might taste death for everyone, indicated that his death was for the benefit of others. The nature of the benefit derived from his death, however, remained unspecified. The following verses clarify that the death of Jesus opened the way for others to participate in the glory of God as a result of deliverance from enslavement to the devil and the removal of their fear of death. Jesus' acceptance of the mode of existence common to all persons and his identification with the community of faith constitute the pledge of the glorification of the human family in the people of God. Within this setting, Jesus is presented as a champion and high priest, drawing upon the motif of individual representative combat, the portrayal of Jesus as a protagonist of an oppressed people addressed a word of comfort and encouragement to Christians in crisis. The depiction of Jesus as champion pointed out the immediate crisis of the community to the triumph that already has been cured for the people of God. Right? Christ already won. He's sitting on the throne and we're in him. It doesn't matter what happens. The element of triumphalism in the metaphor complemented the theology of glory expressed in verse 10. Champion Christology, that's what we have, provided a fresh interpretation of the incarnation from the perspective of the tradition that God is the champion who rescues those enslaved by the prince of death. A sober reminder that the champion overcame his adversary through death. exhibited the costly character of the grace of God extended to the community through the Son. It cost Christ everything. This fruitful approach to the incarnation and death of the Son is not sustained, however, beyond verse 16. In verse 17 to 18, the writer prepares to lead his hearers directly into the body of the discourse devoted to the exposition of Jesus as priest and sacrifice. Common to the concepts both of champion and of high priest are the elements of representation and solidarity with a particular people. The presentation of Jesus in 2, 10 to 18 provided assurance that the exalted son continues to identify himself with the oppressed people of God exposed to humiliation and testing in a hostile world. The end. Actually, who actually wrote that? You put that together yourself? Yeah. Any questions? I should ask. Any questions or comments? Anybody? No. I didn't see a lot of news on New Year's. I mean, as you were reading, Jesus is right there with you. He said everything that you said about everything. I mean, I was well thinking of you and now thinking of you and he just aged it all. Whatever, you know, whatever you were talking about, he was just so right. Truly, even as you know, as Mark said, you know, it had to become man in order that we could not follow our feelings and our thirsts and our desires and our needs and our throats. He was sinless, right? Like internally, he didn't have anything. of the things like within you, you think, maybe I'll give church on something. I'm like, he never had such a thought. Like, he never asserted him. He experienced physical suffering. He experienced emotional suffering. He experienced spiritual suffering. He experienced mental suffering. So that's everything we deal with in our human life. So sometimes we say, well, I don't understand. He does, yeah. All of those stuff. Yeah. 415. Do you want me to read it? 415? Yeah, that's what we just deleted. Hebrews 4.15, 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. Yep. Amazing how like the book of Hebrews like references itself and repeats itself. I mean, just look at the family dynamic. When Jesus was being crucified, He looked at his mother Mary, he looked at John, and said, John, this is your brother. Now, Jesus' brothers were there. His half-brothers were there. He didn't tell any of his half-brothers, look after mom. He took a stranger, John. We had those family dynamics that we were just like, no, I'm not going to have my brother care for mom. Mom will surely die under his care. But when you look at all those dynamics of his household that he grew up in. Now his two brothers didn't get saved until later. James and his two brothers. James and the book of Judas. His name was Judas, but he's short in name. If you want to see his, that would be scary. Jude and James is Jesus' half-brother. They got saved after Jesus was crucified, but he but but when you see the family down that even even you know Mother behold us John John take care of all There were guys over you say there wasn't do that and James Last supper they were that the last supper. No. No, they weren't. He said they weren't disciples, but they never did neighbors his half-brothers that got saved later in life. Because I didn't think I was always thinking Mark and Luke, but they weren't at the table either. They weren't having a life supper with the Jews and the prophets. And, and, uh, uh, look at, um, uh, you look at, you look at Jesus's life, okay? His father was a carpenter. So Jesus learned carpentry. He learned how to build things. How to do that. Well, he died sometime. And we don't know if Jesus was a teenager or in his 20s. But his father was dead. You've got to ask yourself, God, why? Why did Joseph die? I didn't know that. He doesn't appear, at least, in the emulator. Why did he die that young? He died that young, his father? We don't know. We don't know. But he was dead when the crew So you look at all these family dynamics, so you can imagine grief that Jesus even went through knowing that. But John the Baptist, you know, John the Baptist had to die for Jesus to live. And then you ask yourself, sure, why did you have to come to town? Was there any other way? But see, our reason is not like that. You don't quite understand that. But here's John the Baptist. Jesus said John the Baptist is one of the greatest prophets ever on this earth. He's probably in heaven having a good time. But he left this earth executed. Execution. Even Paul. Paul was executed the same way. It's just what they say. I don't know. Yeah, but what I'm saying is that they've all, they've all got, except John. John died of old age. That's right. Yeah, he died at old age right now. And John, they say, was the youngest of us. I think that's why he was, he was like a teenager that Jesus recruited. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time. Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to study your word and to dig into it. Lord, we thank you for the grace that you help us to understand and to believe and to apply the word to ourselves. Lord, help us to receive Christ. Help us to trust in him. Help us to glorify him in our lives and do everything for him. Lord, we do thank you. for Him and for His work and for Him building the church. Lord, thank You that He is the priest seated on His throne. Lord, He is King as well. And we thank You for Him in every way. Lord, we trust in Him and help us to live our lives for Him. And fill us with Your Spirit, Lord. Help us to walk away from here rejoicing in Your gladness and help us to trust in You more and more and more every day. In Jesus' name, I pray. Alright. See you guys.