Hebrews 2
2
Warning against Neglect
1We must, therefore, pay even more attention to what we have heard, so that we will not drift away. # Jos 24:27; Mc 5:13; 1Co 9:27; 10:6; 11:34; Ti 3:14 2For if the message spoken through angels was legally binding # Or valid, or reliable # Dt 33:2; Ac 7:53; Heb 1:1 and every transgression and disobedience received a just punishment, # Nm 15:30; Heb 10:28 3how will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? # Is 45:17 It was first spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him. # Lk 1:2; Heb 1:2; 10:29 4At the same time, God also testified by signs and wonders, various miracles, and distributions of gifts from the Holy Spirit according to His will. # Jn 4:48; Ac 2:22,43; 5:12; 8:13; 14:3; 15:12; Rm 12:3-8; 15:19; 1Co 12:4; 2Co 12:12; Eph 1:5; 4:8
Jesus and Humanity
5For He has not subjected to angels the world to come that we are talking about. 6But one has somewhere testified:
What is man that You remember him,
or the son of man that You care for him?
7You made him lower than the angels
for a short time;
You crowned him with glory and honor # Other mss add and set him over the works of your hands
8and subjected everything under his feet. # Ps 8:5-7 LXX
For in subjecting everything to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. As it is, we do not yet see everything subjected to him. # Jb 7:17; Ps 8:4-6; Mt 22:44; Ac 2:35; 1Co 15:25-27; Eph 1:22; Heb 10:13 9But we do see Jesus — made lower than the angels for a short time so that by God’s grace He might taste death # Jn 8:52; 1Co 15:54-56; Php 2:8; Col 1:22; Heb 9:15; 1Pt 3:18 for everyone — crowned with glory and honor # Ac 2:33; 3:13 because of His suffering in death. # Jn 3:16; 2Co 5:15; Php 2:9
10For in bringing many sons to glory, it was entirely appropriate that God — all things exist for Him and through Him — should make the source # Or pioneer, or leader of their salvation perfect through sufferings. # Lk 13:32; 24:26; Rm 11:36; Heb 7:28 11For the One who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. # Or father, or origin, or all are of one That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers, # Mt 28:10; Jn 20:17; Ac 17:28; Heb 10:10 12saying:
I will proclaim Your name to My brothers;
I will sing hymns to You in the congregation. # Ps 22:22; Heb 12:23 # Ps 22:22
13Again, I will trust in Him. # 2Sm 22:3 LXX; Is 8:17 LXX; 12:2 LXX And again, Here I am with the children God gave Me. # Ps 18:2; Is 8:17-18; 12:2; Jn 10:29; 17:6 # Is 8:18 LXX
14Now since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these, so that through His death He might destroy the one holding the power of death — that is, the Devil # Jn 1:14; 1Co 15:54-56; Col 2:15; 2Tm 1:10; 1Jn 3:8 — 15and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death. # Rm 8:15; 2Tm 1:7 16For it is clear that He does not reach out to help angels, but to help Abraham’s offspring. # Lk 19:9; Jn 8:39; Rm 4:16; Gl 3:7-9,29 17Therefore, He had to be like His brothers in every way, so that He could become a merciful and faithful high priest in service # Lit things to God, to make propitiation # 2Co 5:21 for the sins of the people. # Lk 18:13; Rm 3:25; Php 2:7; Heb 4:15; 5:1-2; 7:26-28; 1Jn 2:2; 4:10 18For since He Himself was tested and has suffered, He is able to help those who are tested.
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© 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved.
Hebrews 2
2
1-4It’s crucial that we keep a firm grip on what we’ve heard so that we don’t drift off. If the old message delivered by the angels was valid and nobody got away with anything, do you think we can risk neglecting this latest message, this magnificent salvation? First of all, it was delivered in person by the Master, then accurately passed on to us by those who heard it from him. All the while God was validating it with gifts through the Holy Spirit, all sorts of signs and miracles, as he saw fit.
The Salvation Pioneer
5-9God didn’t put angels in charge of this business of salvation that we’re dealing with here. It says in Scripture,
What is man and woman that you bother with them;
why take a second look their way?
You made them not quite as high as angels,
bright with Eden’s dawn light;
Then you put them in charge
of your entire handcrafted world.
When God put them in charge of everything, nothing was excluded. But we don’t see it yet, don’t see everything under human jurisdiction. What we do see is Jesus, made “not quite as high as angels,” and then, through the experience of death, crowned so much higher than any angel, with a glory “bright with Eden’s dawn light.” In that death, by God’s grace, he fully experienced death in every person’s place.
10-13It makes good sense that the God who got everything started and keeps everything going now completes the work by making the Salvation Pioneer perfect through suffering as he leads all these people to glory. Since the One who saves and those who are saved have a common origin, Jesus doesn’t hesitate to treat them as family, saying,
I’ll tell my good friends, my brothers and sisters, all I know
about you;
I’ll join them in worship and praise to you.
Again, he puts himself in the same family circle when he says,
Even I live by placing my trust in God.
And yet again,
I’m here with the children God gave me.
14-15Since the children are made of flesh and blood, it’s logical that the Savior took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by his death. By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil’s hold on death and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death.
16-18It’s obvious, of course, that he didn’t go to all this trouble for angels. It was for people like us, children of Abraham. That’s why he had to enter into every detail of human life. Then, when he came before God as high priest to get rid of the people’s sins, he would have already experienced it all himself—all the pain, all the testing—and would be able to help where help was needed.
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.