Hebrews 2:5-18
The Captain of Our Salvation!

It is your destiny, my son. Together we can rule the galaxy!  While the movie hero is hanging on for dear life, the Evil One entices him to join, and then he suddenly lets go of false hope, falls out into free space and into the hands of… cut to reality!  Ok, wake up – whew!  The movie really is just a fantasy and you don’t need a magic sword in order to know the Savior, so you can relax.  Christianity isn’t a fantasy, it is the greatest reality, and we get to reign with Christ for eternity – so, what is your destiny in that reality?  There are many competing agendas swirling around in our world (Eph. 2:2-3), all of them attempting to take lead position in our life decisions.  Satan seems to do that purposely in order to distract us from our True Leader, and today’s technologies have multiplied that distraction factor by incredible orders of magnitude.

However, we have the Captain of Our Salvation at our side, as declared in Heb. 2:10.  He holds us close and will never let us perish.  We know from God’s Word that He created you and me in His image and declared that we should have dominion over His creation (Gen. 1:26).  Sin ruined our ability to accomplish that destiny, but God has in His plan for Man to finally realize that destiny through Christ.  He is the Captain of our Salvation and we will reign with Him for all eternity.  Talk about a happy ending!  And we don’t even need a fancy sword to get there!  Our Great Savior is the Captain, the One Who leads the charge, the leader or originator, founder, author, and Prince, all of these words capable of describing the superiority of Jesus Christ.

The writer has introduced the first of several important distinctions about Jesus Christ, noting that He is superior to angels.  The Jews were distracted by their fixation on angels and this was causing the Jewish Christians to be tempted to lose their moorings in their faith in the Risen Savior.  Today we have a thousand different distractions vying for our loyalty, attempting to pull us away from Christ.  As Hebrews 2 continues, first considering the lower place held by angels in God’s domain, but a more strategic theme also rises up.  We are beginning to see a depiction of the person and character of Jesus Christ, beginning here with His taking on human flesh for a season in order to “bring many sons to glory” (Heb. 2:10).  This significant passage has a clear link to Phil. 2:5-11 which is the key Bible  passage about the Son of God taking on the form of a man, the  incarnation or “hypostatic union” of God and man (see also Col. 1:15-22 and Jn. 1:1-14).  Hebrews 2:5-18 is a regal declaration the Lord Jesus as our King and Captain.  There are rich truths in this passage about His taking on flesh and blood in order to provide the way for our salvation that establish is superiority as our Messiah and High Priest.

Heb. 2: 5-9, But We See Jesus

Heb. 2:9, “But we see Jesus”, raising up the Lord Jesus to His rightful place as our Lord and King.  Heb. 2:5-9 underscores the importance of Jesus being established as our Great High Priest.  Great truths around this theme will be emphasized and elaborated repeatedly as we move forward in Hebrews.  The writer is headed for Chapter 3, which is a new step forward in his thoughts about how Jesus is superior in all ways to be our Great High Priest.  But first, he finishes Hebrews 2 with this special passage elaborating on the great work our Savior did by coming down to earth and becoming a man.

It has been said that Jesus Christ was God’s promised Messiah Who was “born to die”, and it is true that He was on earth with a clear mission.  Many of the “Messianic” Psalms speak of the promised Messiah’s sufferings, and Isaiah 53 is a dramatic picture of how the Messiah would suffer to pay for our sins.  Many times in the Gospels, especially in John, Jesus speaks of His mission to do the will of the Father. The writer makes a clear effort to align with genuine Jewish faith as he quotes Psa. 8:4-6, but it is notable how these verses in Psalms are brought up to introduce how Jesus stands in contrast to man as the God-Man.

With the quote from Psalm 8:4 “…what is man?”, the writer makes it clear that we are nothing without God.  He made us, He gave us our life, He enables us to accomplish good things – it’s all about God, but we are His crowning achievement in Creation.  He has priviledged us with being the benefactors of His salvation, which He accomplished by allowing His Son to die on the Cross.  As a result, God has the joy of “bringing many sons to glory”, unworthy as we are of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us.  Quoting from Psa. 22 and Isaiah 8, the writer declares Christ’s victory in delivering many saints into glory.  Stay alert as we proceed through Hebrews.  We will encounter further elaboration of Jesus Christ’s great work as our Savior and the many accomplishments and provisions we have as a result.

Heb. 2:10-18, The Captain Leads us to Victory 

These verses serve to conclude the first major portion of this great letter.  The marvelous reference to Jesus Christ as the Captain of our faith uses a great term meaning author, leader in confrontation – He is the Captain, the One Who leads the charge, the leader or originator, founder, author, and Prince of Peace.  The writer now seeks to underscore the destiny God has intended for man from the beginning with its accomplishment through Christ.  We are no longer subject to Satan’s bondage because we have placed our faith in the Captain of our Salvation.  Instead of cowering in fear of the roaring lion (1 Pet. 5:8-10), we will be raised up in glory with Christ.

Christ accomplished a great work in His human suffering. Here, Heb. 2:14 reminds us that it was by His suffering that He conquered  death for us.  He was able to understand our human weaknesses (Heb. 4:15) and amazingly sympathize with our human temptations (Heb. 5:7.   He carried our human suffering all the way to the Garden (Heb. 5:8-9) and the Cross (Matt. 27:46).  The OT quotes  (Psa. 22 and Isa. 8) express the treasure He has in the chosen ones for whom He died.

Heb. 2:17 is the author’s first of at 12 times through the rest of Hebrews where Christ is declared to be our “Great” High Priest.  The ministry of the High Priest had been established by God as He instructed Moses to established the redemptive works and ministries surrounding the Tabernacle (and later the Jerusalem Temple).  The High Priest represented the people to God. On the Day of Atonement each year, he went into the the Holy of Holies , placing the sacrificed goat’s blood on the Mercy Seat on the top of the Ark of the Covenant.  He led the peoples’ sacrifices and worship, was responsible for all the administration and functions of the Temple, and spoke for to the people.  The High Priest was expected to be superior to all the other priests in wisdom, leading the people in humility and power.  Since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70AD by Rome, there has not been a High Priest for the Jews.  On into eternity, however, every believer who has been redeemed by placing his faith in Christ’s death and resurrection, has a High Priest in the Lord Jesus.

Bible Study Journal

• • • • Dwight Pentecost noted that Heb. 2:5-18 provides us with Eight Reasons for the Incarnation.  For each of the texts below, complete the statement:  “Jesus came to earth as a man so that…”
        1. Heb. 2:8
        2. Heb. 2:9
        3. Heb. 2:10
        4. Heb. 2:14
        5. Heb. 2:15   (also see Jn. 14:19; Eph. 2:1-7; Rom. 5:15-17, 21; 6:4-7)
        6. Heb. 2:17   (also see Heb. 4:14-16; 5:5-10; 9:12)
        7. Heb. 2:17b  (also see Rom. 3:24-25; Eph. 1:7; 1 Jn. 2:2; 4:10)
        8. Heb. 2:18   (also see 1 Cor. 10:13; James 1:3)
      • From Jn. 1:1-14 and Phil. 2:5-8, why was it necessary for the His Son Who is the radiance of His glory to also take on the form of a lowly man?
      • From your perspective, was it necessary for God to seek you out and convict you of your sin and the need for a Savior?