Letter to the Hebrews Volume 15

Jesus Christ' Suffering for Humanities Sin has brought and continues to Bring many sons/daughters to Glory Part 3


Hebrews 2:13-15 And again, I will put my trust in Him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given Me. Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Hebrews 2:13-15) (KJV)


Our Lord, Master and Savior Jesus Christ has fellowship or communion with us (His brethren and sisteren) as we continue in our sojourn or pilgrimage here on the earth away from our heavenly home. He (Christ) shares in all our feelings of joy, gladness, or ecstacy, likewise He shares in our feelings of sadness, pain, and sufferings, therefore, the writer of Hebrews declares that He presents us to God the Father as His children, "And again, I will put my trust in Him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given Me." (Hebrews 2:13) (KJV). Our Lord Jesus Christ so identifies Himself with us that He decrees, declares, and even designates Himself as puting His trust in God the Father just as we adopted sons and daughters do daily through our personal relationship with Him. This statement put down for us here by the writer of Hebrews 'I will put my trust in Him' is so remarkable in the sense that Christ Jesus and God the Father are One (1 John 5:7), yet it shows the selfless, sacrificial, and submissive way in which our Lord Jesus Christ humbled Himself below the angels (He created) and made Himself man (also whom He created) out of love for humanity in order to give everyone who would come to Him redeemption, rebirth, and reconciliation with God for time (right now) and for eternity (after the death of the body). I know this sounds very narrow (Matthew 7:14), but remember it is very narrow in the way one becomes a member of the human race, it only happens through the womb of a woman, no other way, likewise, "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me. If ye had known Me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him. Philip saith unto Him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works." (John 14:6-10) (KJV).


Here is what Alexander MacLaren had to say of this verse, "A perfect manhood must needs be a dependent manhood. A reasonable creature who does not live by faith is either God or devil: Jesus Christ's perfect manhood, sinless, stainless, did not absolve Him from, but obliged Him to, a life of continual dependence upon God; His divinity did not, in the smallest measure, interfere with the reality of the faith which, as man, He exercised, and which was the same in kind as ours. So, dear friends, it all comes to this; there is one way to know God and only one. 'He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.' All else is darkness. There is one life, noble, pure, worthy of humanity, and only one: the life of trust in Christ, who is at once the object and pattern of our faith; and believing in whom we believe in the Father also. There is but one fountain of life opened in the graveyard of this world, and that is in the Son, drinking of whom there shall be in us a fountain springing up to life everlasting. There is but one way by which we can become sons of God, through the elder Brother, who grudges the prodigal neither the ring nor the feast, but Himself has provided them both. So listen to Him declaring the name; say, 'I will put my trust in Him'; for you trust God when you have faith in Christ; and then be sure that He will give you of His own life; that He will invest you with the spirit of adoption and the standing of sons, that He will keep His hand about you, and never lose you. 'Them whom Thou hast given Me, I have kept,' He will say at last, pointing to us; and there we shall stand, 'no wanderer lost, a family in Heaven,' whilst our brother presents us to His Father and ours, with the triumphant words -'Behold I and all the children whom Thou hast given Me.'"


Because the first created man Adam (who was flesh and blood like each of us) gave over dominion to the devil, that dominion had to be regained by a man back from the devil, that man was and is the God/Man Jesus Christ, whose death, burial, and resurrection from the dead defeated the devil for mankind for time and eternity, therefore, we read these next two verses by the writer of Hebrews, "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;" (Hebrews 2:14) (KJV) and "And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." (Hebrews 2:15) (KJV). Jesus Christ is our Elder Brother, for He is the first One of us to be resurrected from the dead with a new Glorified Human Body. Did you know that Jesus Christ right now in heaven has a Glorified Human body. That is just what we will have when He returns for each one of us (His adopted sons and daughters), as it is written, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." (1 John 3:1-2) (KJV).


By virtue of Christ taking on man's sin on the Cross and suffering for man's sin by shedding His very own blood and dying to pay man's sin debt, the power of death (given to Satan by God's permission) was broken and more importantly for those of us who are redeemed sons and daughters the fear of death is broken because we know and understand and firmly believe these words written by the Apostle Paul, "Knowing that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:14-18) (KJV) and also these words written by the same Apostle Paul, "Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." (2 Corinthians 5:6-10) (KJV).


Here is what Matthew Henry had to say of these two verses, "For no higher nor lower nature than man's that had sinned could so suffer for the sin of man as to satisfy the justice of God, and raise man up to a state of hope, and make believers the children of God, and so brethren to Christ. He became man that He might die; as God He could not die, and therefore He assumed another nature and state. Here the wonderful love of God appeared, that, when Christ knew what He must suffer in our nature, and how He must die in it, yet He so readily took it upon Him. The legal sacrifices and offerings God could not accept as propitiation. A body was prepared for Christ, and He said, Lo! I come, I delight to do Thy will. The devil was the first sinner, and the first tempter to sin, and sin was the procuring cause of death; and he may be said to have the power of death, as he draws men into sin, the ways whereof are death, as he is often permitted to terrify the consciences of men with the fear of death, and as he is the executioner of divine justice, haling their souls from their bodies to the tribunal of God, there to receive their doom, and then being their tormentor, as he was before their tempter. In these respects he may be said to have had the power of death. But now Christ has so far destroyed him who had the power of death that he can keep none under the power of spiritual death; nor can he draw any into sin (the procuring cause of death), nor require the soul of any from the body, nor execute the sentence upon any but those who choose and continue to be his willing slaves, and persist in their enmity to God. That He might deliver His own people from the slavish fear of death to which they are often subject. This may refer to the Old Testament saints, who were more under a spirit of bondage, because life and immortality were not so fully brought to light as now they are by the Gospel. Or it may refer to all the people of God, whether under the Old Testament or the New, whose minds are often in perplexing fears about death and eternity. Christ became man, and died, to deliver them from those perplexities of soul, by letting them know that death is not only a conquered enemy, but a reconciled friend, not sent to hurt the soul, or separate it from the love of God, but to put an end to all their grievances and complaints, and to give them a passage to eternal life and blessedness; so that to them death is not now in the hand of Satan, but in the hand of Christ - not Satan's servant, but Christ's servant - has not hell following it, but heaven to all who are in Christ."


If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...


Sincerely in Christ,


Clifford D. Tate, Sr.


Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…