The Book of Hebrews

Chapter 2

Review of
Chapters 1 & 2

Imagine yourself as a Jewish new believer in Jesus Christ in Jerusalem in the years 62-67 A.D. 

You have lived your life in traditional Judaism, believing in Moses and the practices of the Levitical Law, sacrificing of animals at the temple for the forgiveness of sins, and being obedient to everything that the Law requires. You lived your life being trained in the Old Covenant Scriptures in the synagogue. Your whole education since you’ve been five years old has been the training in the Torah and its Laws. Day in and day out! The Law, along with the superiority of Moses and the prophets and God’s angels have been the authority over you. It’s been your way of life (as we learned in chapter 1).

In your years of training in the Torah you learned the hundreds of scriptures that prophesied the Messiah to come, and now, all these years later, you have come to believe in this Jesus as the Messiah to save the world. You also know Jesus was crucified and died. You may have even been there when He was crucified, and now you have become one of them that believe He rose again from the dead. You have come to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, superior to Moses and the angels through the apostle or leaders of this new movement that’s been sweeping Jerusalem and beyond. Even Gentiles are beginning to believe in Him – and it is spreading to other parts of the world.

You are now known as a person of “The Way,” meaning your are one of those followers of Jesus Christ Who claims to be the Son of God. What you are learning is a whole new way of life. But how do you stop offering sacrifices at the temple…after all, that was a critical part of your faith. And everyone is still doing it! You are having a difficult time eliminating that out of your life. 

While you are being criticized by family and friends, being called a heretic from your faith of Judaism, you are surviving by congregating together with other believers to strengthen one another in your new faith. Leaders - even some of the apostles of Jesus have been In Jerusalem to teach you more about Christ, and you are growing in your faith.

Then terrible things began to happen.

Peter, the leader of The Way to the Jewish people is off to other parts of the world, and during this time settled himself in Rome. If the writings of this book is as late as 67 A.D., which I doubt, he could even have been martyred at this point as he died in 67 A.D. James who is the half-brother of Jesus when He was in the flesh was the pastor of the Church in Jerusalem, but he was killed just a few years ago (57 A.D.), and nobody is running the Church and the people are scattering. Saul, renamed Paul, who once was a Jewish pharisee on the Sanhedrin Council, and became a believer in Christ…but… he went to preach to the Gentiles and is now in prison in Rome - and we just aren’t sure whether we can trust him at this point! Most Jews claim he is a traitor. He even changed his name to the Gentile name of Paul. Where are all the leaders? They are scattering or they have been killed. And you are still being criticized by family and friends, being called heretics from your faith of Judaism. Then, let’s not forget about the Judaizers who claim to be followers of Jesus, but believe you must keep all the Jewish laws, including circumcision and the sacrificing of animals for forgiveness of sins, and they are badgering you constantly. You are trying to keep up your faith in Christ, but it seems to be getting harder and harder.

That’s where we begin chapter 2 of Hebrews.

Warning: Stay in Faith

The times of this writing (62-67 A.D) when persecution was mounting and believers were floundering in their faith in Jerusalem - some even drifting away from their belief in Christ - meaning they came to belief in Jesus, but drifted in their faith, to some even losing their faith. 

In other words, we will learn that there is no such thing in Scripture that states – “once saved, always saved.”

The Apostle Paul, as the probable writer of this book, delivers here a profound message of the supremacy of Christ and His shared humanity, reminding his audience (and us today) of the sacrifice Jesus endured and the salvation given to all who would believe and receive Him as their own.

Hebrews 2:1 Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. 

Paul begins by encouraging these Jewish Messianic believers to grow in their faith. But he also includes a warning to take the words of Christ seriously to not neglect their incredible gift of faith – embrace it fully. For these words given here contain the words of Christ as passed on down by “those of us” (meaning the author was an eye witness of Jesus) who is echoing the words of Jesus – hearing directly from Him.

These were commands to obey - dealing with Christ, Who is God (2^nd person of the Godhead) and superior to all others, including the Old Covenant prophets, including Moses, and all of God’s angels.  If His words were not heeded and obeyed, the warning came of danger of drifting away from their relationship with Christ. In other words, they were in danger of losing their eternal salvation.

² For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, ³ how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him,

Angels under the Old Covenant were entrusted as messengers of God to the prophets, of which God's people believed, received, and became obedient in the same way as they obeyed the Law as given to Moses by God.  “And now,” the apostle speaks out, “how much more we need to believe in Christ, being superior to all God’s angels.”

These believers in Christ were now asked to heed the message given to them by God's Son Jesus through those who directly received His message, meaning the apostles and the “echoers” who preached Jesus as part of the Godhead, Him being superior over the prophets and the angels.  Then the warning came that if they endangered themselves by drifting away from their faith in Christ Jesus, how could they expect to maintain their eternal salvation?

Our eternal salvation is something so great that it goes beyond our comprehension. We have been rescued out of the pit of hell because we chose to believe and follow Jesus Christ, being obedient to His ways. Therefore, we must never take our eternal salvation for granted. By not taking our faith seriously or not heeding the words given to us by Jesus, the danger is we can slowly drift away from our faith and eventually lose it all. We would then be worse off than an unbeliever. What does THAT mean?

Our Bibles tell us that there is one sin that God can never forgive – and that is the sin of blasphemy or the unpardonable sin.

Matt 12:31 Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.

When an unbeliever comes to belief in Jesus, it is done by the working of the Holy Spirit Who softens a person’s heart, bringing them to repentance, realizing they are a sinner and need forgiveness from God.

The word “believe” means to change one’s mind and turn the direction of their life from unbelief to belief. It took the act and power of the Holy Spirit working in the person’s life to soften the heart to believe.

We must remember, once we allow the Holy Spirit to take over our life, He is the One Who teaches, guides, instructs, comforts and empowers a believer to grow in their faith in Christ.

Sadly, not all believers choose to grow in their faith, believing they said a prayer to accept Christ is all that is necessary, while, either they were not sincere in their heart, or they have allowed the world to overtake what the Holy Spirit wants to do in a person’s life. Dangerous position to be in!

We NEVER stay the same in our faith. We are either growing in Christ or backsliding in our faith.

If a believer begins to harden his or her heart, going from belief in Christ to unbelief in Christ, the heart is continuously rejecting the voice of the Holy Spirit within and eventually that person consciously rejects the holiness of God, Who Jesus is, and as such has rejected the very person of the Holy Spirit who was working on the softening of their heart to the things of God. As such, that person’s heart has become so hardened, as they have rejected the very power which was working within them to soften their heart to come to belief in the first place.

• Eventually that rejection of the Holy Spirit refuses to allow Him to soften his or her heart, bringing that person to completely push the Holy Spirit out of his or her life. The Holy Spirit has been completely cut off/severed from that person. That heart then is forever closed to the Holy Spirit because it can never be softened again. The Holy Spirit can never return because the person will never have the ability to have a soft heart toward God again because of rejecting the very One Who softened his heart in the first place. Thus, his sins can never be forgiven. That is the Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit or the Unpardonable Sin.

If a carnal (fleshly/worldly) believer is questioning whether he or she has committed the unpardonable sin – just the fact that they are concerned shows the Holy Spirit is still within; There still is a responsiveness to the Spirit’s conviction. This believer, however, is on very dangerous ground. Staying on that same path, this worldly believer will continue his or her rejection of Christ till one day, he or she no longer cares because that person has pushed the Holy Spirit out of their heart. It will then be too late. Blasphemy has been committed.

The Book of Revelation talks quite a bit about this, using the word “apostasy.”

The world, the flesh and the devil are always there to tempt us to backslide in our faith. When we make a commitment to Christ, we must keep our eyes on the rewards that come with our eternal salvation. To then stay in the will of God, we need to purpose daily to have Christ as our anchor and rudder of life. His anchor will hold us TO the truth, while the rudder will guide us BY His truth. By neglecting to have Christ run our life, the natural response is for our faith to drift away, causing us to continuously backslide to where we eventually lose our eternal salvation. The consequences are then hell and the eternal lake of fire forevermore.

⁴ God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will?

Jesus, acting in God's stead, performed signs and wonders, with various miracles - all according to the will of His Father. He then gave that same authority to those who would believe and follow after Him. In the name of Jesus, by the will of the Father, we too can perform signs and wonders with various miracles.

Mark 16:17 And these signs will follow those who believe: 
In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues;

Jesus said miraculous signs would follow those who believe in Him. If then you don't see signs of the miraculous surrounding your life, you are either not looking for them, being ignorant of God’s power in and around you, or you may want to question your own faith. We can’t ignore the miraculous because they should be following us. Our very lives MUST give God something to confirm. Not that we conjure up miracles at will, because they can't be done by human effort or emotion, but when we live our lives according to God's Word, we WILL see signs and miracles, because we are living out the will of God in our lives. We expect it, but we don't evoke it.

Angels have no authority

5. For He has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels. 6. But one testified in a certain place, saying: “What is man that You are mindful of him, Or the son of man that You take care of him? 7. You have made him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, And set him over the works of Your hands. 8. You have put all things in subjection under his feet.” 

God never gave angels authority over the earth or over mankind. They were created as servants of the Living God to minister unto God's people. Instead, God gave mankind authority over the earth. The author, quoting from Psalm 8:4-6)  emphasized that God never gave angels the kind of dominion that He originally gave mankind over the earth in the Garden of Eden.

Gen 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

The apostle is pointing out that mankind, even in his human form was made a little lower than the angels, yet God crowned him with glory and honor, setting Him over the works of God's hands. Sadly, we know that man shortly thereafter handed that authority over to Satan, who had cunningly deceived them, establishing a sin nature within mankind. We all live with the consequences of a sin nature even today.

God, as an all-knowing God, already had a plan. To bring mankind back into right relationship with Himself, God send His Son Jesus to earth as a man. He purposely left His divinity to become human, like you and me, to be our example of how we must live. Jesus chose to leave His divinity to become human, yet He was still 100% God while He became 100% human. In other words, Jesus came being fully God and fully man. His human nature was His divine nature and both natures existed in one Person - Jesus Christ.

Heretical beliefs that entered into the Church

As early as the writings of this epistle, there was a group within the Church who tried to deny the humanity of Jesus, spreading rumors that Jesus did not come in human form, but only in the Spirit. Their metaphoric claim was that Jesus only looked to be human, but was actually only a spirit. The figure of Jesus seen then, was simply a figment of one's imagination. This kind of thinking was known as Docetism. This heretical belief even went into writings by false teachers claiming to be an authority figure in the Church. Over many decades, this heretical belief grew into what became known as Gnosticism - an even worse heretical belief having many facets of false doctrines to it.

For more details on Docetism, please click here for separate articles
Early Christian Cults / Single Articles / Believers Bible School

 The Apostle Paul was strongly warning God's people in the Messianic Jewish community of this heretical rumor and to avoid it. The Apostle John also knew of it - for He warned the Gentile believers in the Gospel of John earlier in his ministry, followed by writing in his smaller epistles at the end of his life that these false teachers were heretical.

The danger of this kind of thinking is IF Jesus did not have a physical body like us human beings, but coming only in the Spirit, the miracles He performed would only have been spiritual - not coming from Jesus' humanity. If Jesus did not suffer and die on the cross as a ;hysical human, that would totally nullify our eternal salvation. Scripture is explicit to tell us that Jesus came as a man to identify with us, He was obedient to His Father God to perform miracles as a physical man, and He suffered the pangs of death on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins as a physical man - who was fully human, yet fully God.

1 John 4:1-3 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God' Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. 3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flelsh is not of God.

• If Christ only came to earth simply as a Spirit, He could not relate to us and we could not relate to Him. His reason for coming would be of no value to us.
• If Christ did not suffer and die for us in His physical body as a sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins,, our eternal salvation would have no basis to it.
• Therefore, our Christianity would be null and void.

Christ had to have a physical body to suffer for our sins. God had to raise His physical body, so we too can be raised from our physical body to eternal salvation with Christ forever. Therefore, Christ was fully God and fully human when He came to earth to pay the penalty for our sins.

John 1:1 & 14  1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. 

We can be assured that God saw to it that none of these heretical writings became part of our Canonized (approved) New Covenant Scriptures. Just as the Old Testament Scriptures had to go through a scrutiny of examinations as to its validity (canonized by God's prophets), God would not allow heretical beliefs to come to distort His Truth. That is why we have to rely on Scripture and not the mind of man.

Jesus has all authority

8b. For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him.

Because of the sin of mankind, and to bring mankind back to God, He send a part of Himself through His Son down to earth fully as human, yet fully as God. Through His sufferings and death for the forgiveness of our sins, as being fully human, God raised Him from the dead, to again take His rightful place back on His throne in Heaven, reigning as God. Therefore, Jesus, as God, has put all things, including mankind, in subjection under Him. 

• We do not yet see all things put under Christ because believers have not come to recognize the authority they have in Christ.

⁹ But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.

Jesus was seen by many, being around 30 years since His life, crucifixion, death and resurrection. We, today, 2000 years later, whilel note having physically seen Jesus in kperson, have proof through the annals of history, as well as the Holy Spirit resonating in our hearts that He did exist, died and rose from the dead, and that He is the Son of God yet God, Who is everything He claimed to be. 

God's gift back to mankind was then to crown Jesus with glory and honor, so that through His death man could have renewed and continued fellowship back with God through Jesus Christ. 

Through His suffering, Jesus brought many sons to glory

10. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 

Jesus felt and experienced our pain – He understood with compassion what it meant to live as a human being, continuously being bombarded by temptations from Satan. Jesus, however, never succumbed to sin. 

As such, Jesus became the leader of our salvation as we are being continuously sanctified, meaning set apart by God to do a work of holiness in us as we are now One with Christ for the Kingdom of God. Because we were made in the image and likeness of God, and are One with Christ, our hearts desire is for God's intervention to rid ourselves from the pain that sin has trapped us into. 

There are times when sanctification can be painful as God is working in us to rid us of sin that has been designed to destroy us.

Sometimes, however, believers like to remain in their sin because it gives short-term pleasure, causing carnality to take over a believer’s life. Regrets will always follow – sooner or later.
This is dangerous because sin always begets sin,

11. For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, 12. saying: "I will declare Your name to My brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You." And again, "I will put My trust in Him," and again: "Her am I and the children whom God has given Me." 13. And again: “I will put My trust in Him.” And again: “Here am I and the children whom God has given Me.”

We are One with Christ – where we all have the same Father as God. God always wants to do a work of holiness within His people. Again, depending on the condition of the heart, the Holy Spirit is purposing to do a work of continuously sanctifying to receiving God’s truth. The obstacle would be rebellion by wanting to remain in certain sins.

Jesus declared to God that He will spread God’s name to those who believe in Him. In the midst of them, Jesus declares, He will sing praises to God. I put my trust in You, oh God, to these, Your children whom You have given to me. He again repeats that declaration.

Shouldn’t we be doing the same thing? Declaring Jesus to others, and while in the midst of other believers sing praises to God – telling Him  “I trust in You oh God.”

¹⁴ Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵ and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. 

Because Jesus partook of our humanity and shed His blood for our sins, through death Jesus broke Satan’s grip over the power of death. As such, we, as Jesus’ followers are no longer slaves to the fear of death and subject to a lifetime of bondage to sin.

As Christians, we no longer have to fear death, even though the dying process may bring on some fear. God has given us His promises in His Word of our future eternity as long as we have faith and trust in Jesus. Jesus paid the penalty for our sins and He destroyed the power of over death - power over Satan. We are no longer in bondage to our sin nature, for in death comes peace and joy, and an eternity living with Christ.

Jesus became our High Priest

¹⁶ For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham. ¹⁷ Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. ¹⁸ For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.

We have learned that Jesus did not come as a human person to earth to help angels, but to help mankind - those are the seeds of Abraham.

Gentile believers in Christ have been grafted in as the spiritual seed of Abraham. (Gal 3:7, 9 & Gal 3:29)

God does not give aid to angels, for they are ministers of God to the seed of Abraham. It was necessary that Jesus become like us in every detail so that He could relate and have compassion on us in every respect. As our leader to lead the way, He became our High Priest in things pertaining to God.

As our High Priest: Jesus was able to offer the sacrifice that would take away the sins of those who would receive. Since He Himself has gone through the suffering and testing as a physical human being, He was then able to help us when we are being tested.  As our High Priest, Jesus was still tempted with sin, but because He was fully God, He did not sin. Because He could now relate to our sin, He was able to help us in our temptation. He then was able to stand before God on behalf of his people.

Just as under the Old Covenant, a high priest was a leader amongst his people, being fully human in his sins. He could relate to his people as he interceded to God on behalf of his people.

Knowing Jesus is our High Priest, already having had suffered the pangs of our humanity, paying the penalty for our sins, we can have eternal life with Him. That encourages us when we are tempted to look to Jesus, who already knew our temptation and is able to deliver us out of our temptation. How thankful we are!

Remain faithful!

Next week, we will look at Jesus as our High Priest.