Hebrews 2:1-18

DON’T JUST HEAR GOD’S WORD… APPLY IT!

2:1-3 | Give the more earnest head means to diligently apply one’s mind and pay detailed attention to the message of Christ. Using nautical expressions, the writer urges readers to take Christ’s teaching seriously rather than drift away from its truth liek a sailing vessel that has broken free of its moorings.

2:2 | For those raised in Judaism, the expression word spoken through angels would immediately bring to mind the OT law because angels were present at the giving of the law to Moses (Deut. 33:2; Acts 7:38; Gal. 3:19).

2:3 | Though the author of Hebrews cannot claim to have actually heard Christ preach, he knows and believes the testimony of the eye witnesses who heard the words of Christ during His earthly ministry.

2:4 | The phrase signs and wonders, found 11 times in the NT, here refers to the divine confirmation that bore witness to the Word of God and assured it as true. Today, there is no need for signs and wonders to testify to the truth of God’s Word; God now bears witness through His Spirit and His Word (Mark 16:20; Acts 2:22; 1 Cor. 1:22).

2:7 | Humans are a little lower than the angels in servaral ways. Humans are physical beings, and angels are spirit beings; humans are subject to death, but angels are not; humans are bound by time and space, but angles are not; and in this age, humans are bound to the earth, but angles are not. In God’s original plan, human beings were second only to the angels in God’s creative hierarchy.

2:9 | In order for humanity to be restored to God’s original intention, God had to intervene. God’s own Son had to become a man (a little lower than the angels) and taste (fully experience) death for every individual (Rom. 5:17).

2:10 | Union with God - shattered by the sin of the first Adam - could not be restored without suffering. The sufferings of Jesus the captain (prince, chief, hero, pioneer, or author) of salvation were fitting because they completed the work of bringing many sons to glory (5:8-9).

2:11 | Believers are declared holy at the moment of salvation, but God also progressively santifies them through the Holy Spirit as they grow in their faith. Although Christians participate in this process of sanctification by reading and obeying the Bible, ultimately they increase in holiness through the work of God (10:10; 13:12; John 17:17; Rom. 8:29; Phil. 2:12-13).

2:17 | Theologian Charles Ryrie defined propitiation as “the turning away of wrath by an offering.” Christ’s sacrificial death in our place turned away God’s righteous anger toward our sin, satisfying His holy requirements. Propitiation has two parts: 1) it maks guilty sinners favorable before God by satisfying the wrath of the offended party; and 2) it leads to reconciliation. Both were accomplished through Christ’s death (Rom. 3:25-26; 1 John 2:2).