Hebrews 2: A Wonderful Gospel to be held onto  

• v.1-4 A Need to Pay Attention
• v.5-8 Mankind’s Eventual Possible Destiny
• v.9-18 Jesus: Pioneer, Saviour & Helper in human form

[Preliminary Note: Having started, in chapter 1, making the case for Jesus’ preeminence, the writer seeks to stir his readers to pay more attention to these things to avoid drifting away from the faith.]

v.1-4 A Need to Pay Attention

v.1 We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.

v.2,3 For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him.

v.4 God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

[Note: A challenge not to drift from the faith; if the Law was binding, how much more the gospel? God has confirmed it by supernatural power.]

v.5-8 Mankind’s Eventual Possible Destiny

v.5 It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking.

v.6 But there is a place where someone has testified: “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him?

v.7,8 You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor and put everything under their feet.” In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them.

[Note: Angels aren’t the key players at the end, but mankind, made to become eventual rulers [Psa 8:4-6].

v.9-18 Jesus: Pioneer, Saviour & Helper in human form

v.9-15 Jesus, made perfect through death, enabled many to become children of God

v.9 But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

v.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.

v.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.

v.12 He says, “I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters; in the assembly I will sing your praises.”

v.13 And again, “I will put my trust in him.” And again he says, “Here am I, and the children God has given me.”

v.14,15 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— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

[Note: Jesus who came in human form, is now exalted on high and is now seen as perfect in what he achieved by making possible a holy family within mankind, in the same family as Christ himself [Psa 22:22], part of the family of God [Isa 8:17,18], and having shared in our humanity and passing through death, he delivered us from the fear of death.]

v.16-18 He saved people not angels

v.16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants.

v.17 For this reason he had to be made like them, 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.

v.18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

[Note: It’s people of faith Jesus saves, not angels, and he had to become human to carry our sins in his body on the Cross. Having overcome all temptations, he can now help us in our temptations.]

[Additional Note: The Flow of Writing: The writer continues to extol Jesus by extolling what he has achieved in us, bringing the Gospel with signs and wonders. He has raised us up to achieve our potential so that, now he has been crowned with glory in heaven, he has enabled us to be children of God. He’s achieved this, having done all he’s done using a human body like ours and thus sharing our experiences. In the next chapter he parallels Jesus to Moses, the hero of Judaism, but places him far above Moses. We are to hold to these truths in order to resist unbelief and becoming hard-hearted, which would mean we lose our inheritance.]

For those who may wish to make a study of this chapter, to perhaps think some more about what you have been reading, use the link below: