Hebrews 2:10–18

2:10 Ancient pagans and Jews found Jesus’ suffering on the cross both foolish and offensive, not at all a “fitting” way for the creator and sustainer of “all things” to remedy the plight of humanity (cf. 1 Cor. 1:18–25). But it is the plight of the “many sons” whom God purposes to lead to glory that makes Christ’s cross the only fitting and necessary (“had to be”; Heb. 2:17) means of rescue, since their slavery to the fear of death (and the Devil) could be broken only by the propitiating death of their brother, the divine and messianic Son, on their behalf.

The “many sons” whom God leads to glory define more specifically the “everyone” of verse 9. “Glory” encompasses inheriting salvation (1:14) and dominion in “the world to come,” as described in Psalm 8 (cf. Heb. 2:5–8). All those for whom Christ “[tasted] death” (v. 9) are the sons and heirs whom God will lead to glory. They are “the offspring of Abraham” (v. 16) whom the Son laid hold of and helps, for they follow in the footsteps of Abraham’s patient faith (6:12–15; cf. Rom. 4:9–12). The Greek term archēgos, translated “founder,” appears thirty-five times in the LXX, typically with reference to leaders of families and clans. In extrabiblical Greek it designates founders of cities and champions who fight on behalf of a nation. It is applied to Jesus also in Hebrews 12:2 (of faith) and in Acts 3:15 (of life) and Acts 5:31 (with “Savior”). In light of the way Hebrews 2:14–15 will portray Christ as the children’s representative combatant (kinsman-redeemer), “champion” is another good English equivalent.¹

God has made the Savior “perfect through suffering.” Perfection is a prominent theme in Hebrews (5:9; 7:11, 19, 28; 9:9, 11; 10:1, 14; 11:40; 12:23); the perfecting of Christ himself is mentioned again in 5:9 and 7:28. Jesus was and is undefiled by sin (4:15; 7:26), so with respect to Jesus the concept of progress or moral growth from sinfulness to holiness is unthinkable. Rather, when Hebrews speaks of Jesus’ being “made perfect,” it is employing the LXX sense of consecration and ordination to priestly office (Ex. 29:9, 29, 33, 35; Lev. 4:5; 8:33; 16:32; 21:10; Num. 3:3; etc.). As Hebrews 2:17–18 and 5:8–10 show, Jesus underwent this induction to his priesthood not through external rituals of washing and anointing but through his lifelong obedience to the will of God amid trial and suffering, climaxing in his death.

2:11 In Hebrews, to “sanctify” bears priestly overtones of “cleansing” people so that they may enter God’s holy presence in worship (9:13–14; 10:14; 13:12). Just as Aaronic priests had family solidarity with their Israelite kinfolk (5:1; 7:5), so Christ shares a family tie with his brothers and sisters. Behind the phrase “all have one source” is the ambiguous Greek “all from one.” This probably refers to their sharing one father. But who is this father? He is not Adam (obliquely alluded to in 2:6–8) nor Abraham (2:16). Rather, he is God the Father, for the sanctifier is God’s Son, and those whom he sanctifies are God’s many sons. Their prior union in the electing purpose of God is the reason for the Son’s incarnation on behalf of his brothers’ redemption (2:14, 17).

2:12 We might expect that the brothers’ vulnerability to fear of death, arising from sinful guilt, would make the glorious divine Son ashamed to identify them as his siblings, but the opposite is true, as Psalm 22:22 shows. Later we will learn that God is not ashamed to be called the God of ancient people of faith (Heb. 11:16). In response, we must readily bear the reproach of Christ (11:25–26; 13:13) and identify, without shame, with those who suffer for Jesus’ sake (13:3; cf. 10:32–34; 2 Tim. 1:8, 12, 16). Here our preacher calls us to marvel that, in the words of Psalm 22, the gloriously divine and messianic Son identifies himself without embarrassment with his sinful, struggling siblings.

Psalm 22 traces a trajectory of suffering (Ps. 22:1–21), beginning with the forsakenness by God echoed in Jesus’ outcry from the cross (Matt. 27:46), to salvation and celebration (Ps. 22:22–31). This is the two-phase path our preacher traced in his Psalm 8 citation: first lower than angels, then crowned with glory. So he cites Psalm 22:22, the psalm’s turning point from suffering to glory, not only because it mentions “my brothers” but also because as a whole this psalm projects the pattern of the Christ’s redemptive mission (Luke 24:25–27; 1 Pet. 1:11).

2:13 Isaiah 8:17–18 provides further support for the family ties linking the Son with those he sanctifies. Christ himself speaks through the prophet’s confession of trust in God in the midst of his children. (The wording of 2 Sam. 22:3 and Isa. 12:2 parallels Isa. 8:17.) Jesus’ faith is not identical to ours; he is the Righteous One whose obedience justifies the ungodly (Isa. 53:11; Rom. 3:21–26; 4:5), so he is the object of our faith (Phil. 3:9), the unique mediator through whom we approach God (Heb. 7:25; 10:19–22). Yet Jesus himself trusted the Father’s promise to reward his impeccable obedience and sacrificial death, and he is therefore the champion (archēgos) of our faith (12:2).

2:14 Two factors mandated the Son’s incarnation. First, he shared one Father with his brothers, who needed salvation (Heb. 2:10–13). Second, his brothers are human beings with “flesh and blood” bodies, vulnerable to corruption, liable to judgment, and threatened by death (cf. Eph. 6:12; 1 Cor. 15:50). His humble condescension to partake of their same flesh and blood, to embrace full (though unfallen) human nature, made it possible for him to die on their behalf (Heb. 2:9) and, in so doing, to disarm the Devil of his power to inflict death. The Greek term katargeō, rendered “destroy,” can mean eradication (1 Cor. 15:26; 2 Thess. 2:8) but typically refers to nullifying, neutralizing, or depriving of power (e.g., Rom. 3:3, 31; 4:14; Gal. 5:4, 11), which is the immediate effect of Christ’s death on the Devil. The Devil wielded death-inflicting power first by luring humans to defy God’s prohibition (Gen. 3:4) and then by accusing them before God’s just tribunal (Zech. 3:1; John 8:44; Rev. 12:9–11). But the death of Jesus the innocent in the place of his guilty brothers has deprived the Devil of the capital charges he had lodged against them (cf. Col. 2:14–15).

2:15–16 The Devil’s defeat through Jesus’ death delivers those enslaved by the fear of death, while the propitiation of God’s wrath against their sins (v. 17) removes the verdict of condemnation and the prospect of sin’s sentence: eternal death. The author conveys the Son’s battling and defeating the Devil through his own substitutionary death with wording echoing Isaiah’s portrait of the Lord as his people’s kinsman-redeemer. He has come to free captives from the tyrant (Isa. 49:24–26). He “helps”—that is, “takes hold of” (epilambanomai; LXX Isa. 41:9, 10, 13; Jer. 31:32, cited in Heb. 8:9)—“the offspring of Abraham” and calms their “fear” through his “help” (boētheō). (These terms all appear both in Isa. 41:8–13 LXX and in Heb. 2:16–18). Those whom the Son has redeemed are coming into clearer focus: the “everyone” of Hebrews 2:9 are the “many sons” of verse 10, who are the “offspring of Abraham,” imitating Abraham’s faith (6:12–13; 11:11, 18; cf. Rom. 4:12).

2:17 Having portrayed the Son’s redemptive death in military (that is, royal) terms as the defeat of the Devil and the emancipation of his slaves, our author now views the Son’s sacrifice from a priestly perspective, introducing Jesus’ office as High Priest, a title that hereafter will be applied repeatedly to Christ (3:1; 4:14, 15; 5:1, 5, 10; 6:20; 7:26, 27, 28; 8:1, 3; 9:7, 11, 25; 13:11). This is the main “point” of the sermon that is the book of Hebrews (8:1). Priestly intercession demands identification with those on whose behalf the priest intervenes with God, for their shared nature qualifies the priest to act as their representative, while their shared experience of suffering enriches his sympathy for them in their trials (4:14–5:4).

Jesus’ priestly attributes, his being “merciful and faithful,” reflect the Lord’s declaration of his name to Moses on Mount Sinai as “merciful and gracious, . . . abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Ex. 34:6; cf. Ps. 40:11). These qualities make Jesus the perfect mediator between weak and sinful humans who need merciful help (Heb. 4:15) and the holy God who demands faithfulness in those who approach him. In the days of Samuel, the priest Eli failed to protect God’s sanctuary from defilement by Eli’s own corrupt sons, so God declared that he would remove Eli’s house from the priesthood, replacing it with a “faithful priest” (1 Sam. 2:35). Jesus is that faithful priest, whose ministry replaces not only Eli but the entire Levitical-Aaronic order (Hebrews 7). In the next paragraph (3:1–6), faithfulness will be the point of comparison between Moses the servant and Jesus the Son (cf. Num. 12:7).

Scholars debate whether the term translated as “propitiation” (hilaskomai) expresses only the removal of sin’s guilt (expiation) or also includes the deflection of God’s wrath from the guilty (propitiation). Key OT and NT texts mention divine wrath in contexts implying its removal, along with that of sin’s defilement, through sacrifice (e.g., Ps. 78:21, 38; Rom. 1:18; 2:5; 3:23–26). Here, both effects of Christ’s sacrifice are in view: guilt is removed and God’s just wrath is placated.

2:18 Having undergone death for others, our High Priest was subsequently raised to “indestructible life” (7:16; cf. 13:20). He “always lives” to “save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him,” interceding for them (7:25) and providing timely, empathetic, and strong help to his suffering people in their trials.