Hebrews 2:10 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Hebrews 2:10

Comments

We are now led back to the one whose plan is being implemented in all this – God the Father. It was he who made every choice and arranged things in order. Nothing happened without his all-wise consideration of what was best and what would work out for the greatest honour to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and for the good of his people. It was fitting in his estimation, and we understand some of reasons why. In this way Christ was singled out as the head of his people and as the only Mediator. All blessings for man come through him for no man could gain any favour with God unless it were through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every good gift that we receive has been won for us by him. Therefore he was distinguished from every other man and he was first elevated to that predicted place of blessing so that in him all his people would see God’s intention for the human race on display, and how life would be attained out of so hopeless a background. ‘It became him’ – difficult to translate. It was essential for God to do this thing. The Greek indicates something conspicuous or towering, it was conspicuously necessary for God to save man; his attributes seem to demand that he does it. Man has fallen man has fallen into sin; he is under condemnation; he must be judged; everyone, the entire race is lost and condemned. God is holy, so if he is going to save a people, he must provide a saviour a sin bearer. No man could atone for the sins of other men. God himself becomes incarnate second person of the Trinity and he makes the atonement and takes the punishment of sin. ‘In bringing many sons to glory’ is the statement here ‘in bringing many sons to glory’. The language breathes the initiative of God. How rich the term is! He must move our hearts because we are so stubborn, proud, rebellious, foolish, and ignorant. The Spirit draws us and works in our hearts and we hear the call of Christ. We repent and we come and we’re described as sons, because we are adopted into the family of God, not meaning that we become like God or that we become divine, but we are in the family of the redeemed and we’re treated as sons. The Father has sovereign power and infinite authority to make such choices. All things that are created are created because of him and are intended as a vehicle of revelation of his glory. Every single strand is in place to bring him honour and to please him. He is the author of all things, having power over the physical world and the spiritual world, heaven and hell, the past, the present and future. He directs the course of history and nothing that exists is outside of his control. In his hand are the thoughts of man and all processes of the physical world, including so called random and chance events.It pleased the Father to make the captain of our salvation perfect through suffering. The word captain could be translated originator or initiator. In olden times the captain was the conspicuous head and he led the way at the head of his troops. He is the founder and leader of our salvation. He has been before us as our forerunner; he has suffered and died to secure salvation for us; he has risen again from the dead and ascended into heaven. In order to demonstrate that we shall all rise, he has been raised before us. Perfect here means complete. The Lord himself said, I shall be perfected made complete by Calvary, entirely qualified to save. Was Christ not qualified to save before Calvary? No, not entirely because salvation required atonement. His tasting death for each one of his people was in order that he might save them from ‘all miseries in this life, from death itself and the pains of hell forever’. Only by suffering could this be achieved, for he must take the actual punishment due to his people for their sins, so that they may be freely forgiven. He died at a point in history in the sight of all the world, so that men and angels might understand with awe the amazing grace by which God has chosen to redeem the elect. By his sufferings he became the captain of our salvation, for the salvation of the elect was the great prize which he had in view in all that he endured in this world.

Application

To what do earthly influences bring us? Moments of happiness and success, but nothing very much. You can fasten all your hope on some political movement or some personality, or entertainer, but where will that person or that movement ultimately bring you? Only to death, and possibly to great disappointment even before death and disillusionment. But God brings many sons to glory to everlasting life and happiness and bliss.

Questions

But why does the text say that he was made perfect through suffering? Was he not perfect already? What did he lack that anything could be added to him? Certainly this verse applies to his human nature and not his divine nature. His human nature was capable of growth and increase in wisdom, for it was a true human nature and not just a façade. It was able to be tempted and to suffer weakness, hunger, pain and sickness. The statement here is that Christ was added to by bearing suffering and bearing it with perfect patience. This suffering is connected with tasting death for every one of his people in the previous verse. He suffered, it is true, in even coming into this world in the first place, for it involved the hiding of his glory (Philippians 2:7-8) and enduring the presence of human unbelief (Matthew 17:17). But his suffering reached a climax at the cross where he took the eternal punishment of his people in a substitutionary atonement. By this he learned perfect obedience, for there was no harder task which his Father could have commanded him to do.

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Hebrews 2:10 Commentary and Bible Study