CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 2

Verses 1-4. This is an exhortation of the Holy Ghost brought in parenthetically. We must keep close to the word of God, the more so as having been pronounced by the Lord Himself. How shall we escape if we neglect it? This greater privilege imposes greater responsibility. It is the preaching of a great salvation, made by the Lord Himself when on earth; not the gospel preached and the church united after the death of Christ. This testimony consequently goes on to the millennium without speaking of the church, a fact to be noticed not only in these verses but in the whole epistle.

We find also in this exhortation that the testimony of the apostles is swallowed up in the apostleship of Christ. Paul is apart from it; thus we see a difference between the testimony of Paul and that of Peter. In Peter’s discourses in the Acts he never presents the Lord as Son of God. In conformity to the testimony addressed to Israel, he presents in Jesus the Man approved of God down here, risen afterwards, and glorified by God in seating Him at His right hand, “as Lord and Christ.” Whilst Paul, who was brought in outside the teaching of the twelve to reveal that free grace of God which forms a church united to Christ in heaven, sets himself from the beginning of his testimony to shew clearly that Jesus is the Son of God.

Verse 5. “For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come of which we speak.” This is millennial glory. The words “the world to come” do not apply to heaven, but there will be a change on earth. Angels are the instruments of the providential government of God during the present period. We are still in the age which existed before the coming of Christ — an age which began with Noah. But we must notice the two principal phases of it: Moses and Sinai, the time of separation from the age for Israel; and Nebuchadnezzar in whom God entrusted the power to the Gentiles when He declared His people Lo-Ammi; “not my people.”

Verse 9. “A little inferior to the angels for the suffering of death”; “a little” refers to the degree rather than time. Jesus went down to the lowest of creation to be able to grasp it all. But this point is not unfolded here; it is only said that He went lower than the angels. Notice that in this place the death of Jesus is attached to God’s grace; “By the grace of God,” it is said, He suffered death for all. It is the Man who died to accomplish the grace of a God of love. Other passages present, in the death of Christ, the Man falling under the judgment of God.

Verse 10. “For it became him for whom are all things,” etc. The first object was to bring many sons to glory; but it was necessary that the One who presented Himself before the majesty of God for man should bear the consequences of the state in which man was found. “It became him,” God, “for whom are all things and by whom are all things.” It became His Majesty that the Prince of salvation should pass through the suffering of death.

Verse 11. “For both he that sanctifieth and those who are sanctified are all of one.” Christ is a separated Person and exercises a sanctifying power. We, as children of faith, are sanctified by the double fact that we are separated in Him, and we receive of His power a new life. What He is as man, we are by the new life in us. When on the earth He was dependent on His God, obedient, separate from evil, etc.: we are such also by a moral fact, and become so practically.

“Are all of one.” We are in the same condition as the Head of this new family, which could not be the case with angels. The first time we see Jesus identifying Himself with man is when entering His public career. At John’s baptism He identified Himself with those in whom grace had produced the first movement of faith in answer to the testimony of God. He did not place Himself with the infidels who despised the testimony of John and refused His baptism, but with the pious remnant in whom, though very weak at the beginning, grace was operating. That class of people, put aside by John’s baptism, formed at the time the sanctified ones, “the saints in the earth” on whom the good pleasure of the Lord was resting; Psalm 16. But it is not said of Jesus and of men, that they are all of one: it is said, “He that sanctifieth and those who are sanctified are all of one.”⁺

“He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” Jesus gave this title of ‘brethren’ after His resurrection, not before. He has put us into His position, but not when He came down to ours.⁺⁺

Verse 12. “I will declare thy name to my brethren, and in the midst of the church will I praise thee,” Psalm 22.⁺⁺⁺ Jesus knows so well the Father’s favour towards anyone who finds himself in the grasp of death, that He can declare to His brethren the name of a Saviour-God and reveal all His kindness.

Verse 13. “I will put my trust in him,” as God. Taking the position of man, He had necessarily to take this condition. He walked as a pious man in the dependence of faith. These words “I will put my trust in him” correspond to the expression “all of one” (verse 113. They shew that walking by faith and realising the life of the remnant were in Jesus who identified Himself with the rescued ones of His people. The two things, the life of faith in Messiah, and His association with the remnant of Israel, are found in Psalm 16: 1-3.

⁺This contradicts the doctrine of the Irvingites, whose error is to identify Christ with sinners and not with the sanctified.

⁺⁺To shew the preference He had for His disciples when on the earth, the Lord said, “My mother and my brethren are those who hear the word of God”; but it was not for them a title of relationship with Jesus.

⁺⁺⁺We remark in Psalm 22 three classes of people associated with the joy of Messiah delivered from death. In verse 22 are those whom Jesus names His “brethren,” and of whom He makes a congregation — the “little flock” — “Go and tell my brethren.” In verse 25 is “the great congregation”: Judah and Israel; in verse 27 “All the ends of the earth.” The title of “brethren” belongs to the remnant which will be on the earth after the rapture of the saints, also to the one which exists now, and the blessing of Hebrews 2 will be free to have its course in favour of the saints till the moment of Christ’s appearing.

^[p. 7] Verses 14, 15. Jesus had to meet Satan in the very circumstances where man was. The adversary, in stamping death upon man’s conscience, kept him in entire captivity. The law did nothing less than add to the power of the enemy on the conscience; but Jesus comes forward, and the enemy sees himself compelled to throw against Him this dreaded death. Jesus received the blow, overcomes death, and delivers His own.

Verse 16. “The seed of Abraham.” It is always the same thought: Christ identifying Himself with the sanctified.

Verse 17. “The sins of the people.” It is an expression of the Old Testament. The Jews are kept in view all through this epistle.

Verse 18. “He himself hath suffered being tempted.” Christ Himself has experienced our trials; He has endured the temptations, etc. But let us not forget that He was found there not by necessity but by the Spirit of God.⁺

“Himself has suffered.” There is no suffering when one gives way to temptation, but there is suffering if one resists it. In that case, the more there is of suffering, the more of spiritual life is revealed. Christ was really tempted; and though for Him the evil could come only from outside, still He suffered under the pressure of temptation. Having known temptation, Christ can sympathise with those who suffer being tempted, and He can come to their help. He does not bring any help to innocent man, nor to man in sin, but He brings succour to the saints in their struggle with sin. The power of temptation is less when it is felt than before it is felt or discerned. But when the struggle comes we find Christ to sustain, however serious may be the case. If one has fallen, two things remain to do; to extirpate whatever opened the door to the enemy (in other words, to judge the evil to the root); and in the future to leave oneself in the Lord’s hands. The two things are seen in Peter’s case; John 21.

⁺“Being tempted” is to be induced to act beneath the position in which we are before God. There man fell. Jesus alone could stand. The Christian is also tempted; the worldly man, as slave, is the more easily carried away by Satan.

^[p. 8] Chapters 3 and 4 are a digression; they present a subject totally different, which, though not the apostleship nor priesthood, is nevertheless attached to these two subjects. There are literally two digressions: the first (chapter 3) looks at the Son as set over His house, and is linked to the glory of God in chapter 1; the second (chapter 4) takes up the promised rest, and links itself to the glory of the Son of man in chapter 2.