The Pioneer of Our Salvation

Hebrews 2:9–10 and the Pioneer of Our Salvation

We continue our study from the book of Hebrews. Last time we were together, we began looking at Hebrews chapter 2, and we will continue that study at Hebrews chapter 2, verse 9. So turn with me please to Hebrews, the second chapter, beginning at verse 9.

There we read, But we see Jesus made for a little while lower than the angels because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor so that by the grace of God he might experience death in behalf of everyone.

For it was appropriate for him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory to perfect the pioneer of their salvation by means of suffering, for both the one sanctifying and those who are sanctified are from one source, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, I will proclaim your name to my brothers in the midst of the church, I will sing your praise, and again I will put my trust in him, and again behold I and the children God has given me.

Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself partook of the same, in order that he might destroy the one having the power of death, namely the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were enslaved their entire lives.

For surely he does not take hold of angels, but he takes hold of the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers, in order that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest regarding the things of God, so that he might make propitiation for the sins of the people.

For since he himself was tempted in that which he has suffered, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Amen. Now we are, as you may recall, unless you were not with us the last time, working through the book of Hebrews when I am preaching.

And so we have this morning, this evening, and the next Lord's Day to continue that study. It has been a little while. It was May 31st, the last time that we had an opportunity to be working in Hebrews.

But I am sure that everyone is right up to speed with exactly what was said the last time. And I do realize that we are once again demonstrating that we are an odd group. That is, to work verse by verse through a book like Hebrews is not easy.

I recognize that these studies are not the easiest studies to follow. But I am absolutely convinced that we are dealing here with a book that is one of the most precious treasures in all of the New Testament.

And it is in some ways an undiscovered treasure for a large portion of the church today, for the simple reason that one of the difficulties is we have to keep going back to the Old Testament. We have to keep going back to looking at the context of Old Testament passages.

And it is not easy to do that in an entertaining fashion. And in a church where entertainment is the big deal, then you can understand why Hebrews might be lightly touched upon, a few texts looked at, but not working through it to any depth.

And I really believe that the glory of this book comes out when we go through that work. And it is work. I recognize that. I thank you that most of you at least make a very strong effort to not fall asleep and to make that very obvious as we are attempting to work through these things.

I truly believe especially that when it comes to the issue of the atonement, that it is the book of Hebrews that gives us the clearest dogmatic teaching on the purpose, mechanism, nature, meaning of the atonement of Christ.

And when we look at the sticky sentimentality that parades itself as a theology of the cross in many places today, I truly believe that one of the reasons is because of the neglect of this book of Hebrews.

Now, we had worked through the 8th verse the last time we were together. And unfortunately, the 8th verse actually ends halfway through a sentence specifically. At present, we do not yet see all things under his control, but then where we began in verse 9, we see Jesus made for a little while lower than the angels.

And one of the issues that I mentioned the last time we were together is that verse 9 not only contains a very important, at least in our day, textual variant that we need to look at, but it is also one of the most commonly cited texts in opposition to our own belief as a Reformed body that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ was specifically intended to redeem the elect.

That is the doctrine of particular redemption. Specifically the phrase at the end of verse 9 that he might experience, literally it's the word taste, death on behalf of everyone. Now, as is the case in the vast majority of instances in my experience, and due to the fact that I have been rather active in promoting Reformed theology over the years, I get to listen to a lot of folks preaching about how wrong I am.

It is my experience that in the vast majority of these instances, you simply have the verse quoted and then you move on. The assumption being, well, it's just so plain in and of itself. No one could possibly miss what is being said.

But the problem is that when you simply quote a verse and move on, you are assuming things that may or may not be true. In the vast majority of instances, they are not true at all. But what about it? It does say that he experienced death, tasted death, huperpontos, on behalf of all.

Does that mean every single individual? Indeed, some point out that the term that is used here is frequently used of all things. So is there some sort of cosmic redemption here on behalf of all angels and demonic beings and everything else?

There have been some who have gone there. Well, I think if we simply work through the text and then come back to this verse and say, what was actually being spoken of here, the truth will be very, very clearly proclaimed.

But there is much that we want to see in this text. Many statements made here that we dare not zoom by in a concern to be prepared to answer that particular verse. And so let's try to handle the text as carefully as we can.

And so, as you recall, the discussion was about the son of man and the son of man being exalted to this lofty status. And yet we do not yet see all things under his control. But we do see Jesus, verse nine, made for a little while lower than the angels because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor so that by the grace of God, he might experience death on behalf of everyone.

Now, there's a lot of discussion in the commentaries as to how to string together these various phrases and to exactly what time periods they are making reference. I'm not going to go into a lot of depth on that, but I just want to make sure that you notice something.

Made for a little while lower than the angels. Now, we obviously tend to think of the idea of being lower than the angels. Well, that means angels are above us in some sort of rank of being. Well, maybe in the sense that they have a particular capacities and abilities that we do not in this current life have, maybe.

But I don't know that's really what the idea of being made lower than is really all is what this is about. What is important to notice is that one of the things that's going to be emphasized in this text is the reality of the incarnation.

The reality of the incarnation. Notice a little farther down. Since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself partook of the same flesh and blood. He is made a little lower than the angels. He truly entered into human experience.

I cannot emphasize this enough. In the history of the church, there have been so many errors that have been propounded that have partaken of a denial of the incarnation. Either on the one side saying that Jesus truly wasn't God made man, or on the other side, he truly wasn't man at all.

He was just simply a divine creature. The balance is always provided in the pages of scripture. And we need to recognize that Jesus was not just some being who sort of flitted about from here and there that didn't really have a human experience.

Those Jewish leaders who saw him knew that there was a man standing in front of him. He walked on dusty roads. He ate food. He drank water. He became tired. He slept in the bow of the ship when the storm had to wake him up.

He was so tired from the ministry that was his. There are so many important lessons to be drawn from that. But I think one thing we're going to see clearly from this text is that if you do not have a true view of the incarnation, you have no basis for redemption at all.

None. The whole point that the author is going to be driving home is that he must partake of flesh and blood. And it was interesting to me. I had not seen this before. It's another reason why you go verse by verse through things.

But when you look at that first phrase, we see Jesus made for a little while lower. In our thinking, when we hear this made for a little while, we think, oh, well, he was just only for a little while lower than the angels.

And so many Christians, so many Christians, when you ask them, who is Jesus today? Well, he's God. Yeah, OK. But is he still the God man? What about that physical body? It was his so many Christians. They have never even never even given it a thought.

And they just sort of see Jesus as as as he was before the incarnation now, as if that union, that incarnation has ceased to exist. But the form of the word that is used here in verse nine does not say that he just was made for for a little while, the sense of was made and then stopped existing in that way.

He continues to exist in that way. That human nature he took on, he continues to have. It wasn't just a temporary thing. The God man remains the God man. And that is vitally important, for it is he, as our faithful high priest, as the rest of the text will say, who stands in the presence of the Father.

You're going to see how important all this is, but it's important to emphasize it right at the beginning. So he goes on to say, verse nine, he was made for a little while or in the angels. Now he has been crowned with glory and honor.

Because of the suffering of death, I would put those together, even though in the in the language you could you could render it because the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor. You need to see that the crowning with the glory and honor is due to the suffering of death.

One of the key proclamations of the early church is always that before glorification, before that exaltation comes what? Comes suffering. The church has always understood this. Well, the true church has always understood this.

And you can almost always see where the true church has gotten off the track in history when glorification comes without the suffering. If we follow him who in my rendering, I called him the pioneer of our salvation, the founder of our salvation, the leader of our salvation.

If you follow him, his path was through humiliation and suffering prior to the exaltation. Remember the Carmen Christi Philippians chapter two? Therefore God has highly exalted him. What was the therefore?

He had humbled himself. He had made himself of no reputation and became obedient to the point of death, even the death on the cross. And so here you have Jesus. We see him crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death.

What does the world see? The world sees a defeated, self-proclaimed Messiah. The world doesn't see him crowned with glory and honor, but we do with spiritual eyes. And notice it is important, verse eight, we do not yet see all things under his feet.

We see there's all sorts of people in this world that do not bow to Jesus Christ. We see all sorts of evil in this world, but we see Jesus. We see him crowned with glory and honor. Who is this we? It's interesting to me that Hebrews 2 .9 is referring to the redeemed, those with a spiritual insight into the gospel itself.

He has been crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might experience death on behalf of everyone. Now, again, there's all sorts of discussions. Some have said that this crowning with glory and honor actually takes place before the cross, possibly in the transfiguration, something like that, because they see a chronological order here.

I don't know that he's really arguing chronologically, however. But two things we must emphasize in this last phrase. The first is the textual variant that I mentioned to you before. That is, by the grace of God.

By the grace of God. Now, the vast majority of Greek manuscripts, all of them that we have that would go to the period prior to the 5th century, all say, by the grace of God. So why do I even bring this up?

I bring this up because of the fact that we live in a day where people want to disbelieve. And they want reasons to disbelieve. And there are lots of people out there cashing in on helping people to not believe.

One of those people is a man by the name of Dr. Bart Ehrman. And Dr. Ehrman is the distinguished professor of religion, the head of the Department of Religion at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

And Dr. Ehrman is an apostate. He is a former Christian by his own profession. And he always brings that up himself. It's part of his testimony, shall we say, of being a, as he calls himself, a happy agnostic.

I'm not really certain how happy Dr. Ehrman is. But bid as it may, he is a happy agnostic. And his books against Christianity are always at the top of the New York Times bestseller list. And Dr. Ehrman likes to emphasize the fact that there is a textual variant right here.

In fact, he says that it changes the entire message of the book of Hebrews. Well, I disagree with that. But be that as it may, there are some manuscripts, specifically the most important manuscript is a manuscript number 1739.

Now, why should you care about manuscript 1739? Well, 1739 is an important manuscript. It's from the 10th century. 10th century. Yeah, that's a long time down the road. Well, it is. But we can tell that it is a copy of an earlier manuscript, a much earlier manuscript.

OK, so it's important. Well, what does 1739 and a few others say? It says so that apart from God, he might taste death for everyone. Now, the two words in Greek look very much alike. They don't sound alike in our language, obviously, but that's not really relevant at this point.

Apart from God, same term that's used over in John chapter one, where it says apart from him was nothing made that was made. Well, what would that mean if that were actually the original reading? Well, I think it would simply refer to the fact that Christ dies upon the cross.

And there are no angels that come to minister to him during that time. He is surrounded by his enemies. He is beaten by the Gentiles, mocked by the Jews. His own disciples run away from him. People stand at the foot of the cross mocking him.

And so from the world's perspective, God's gone away. In fact, if you think about the citation from the 22nd Psalm, Eloi, Eli, lama sabachthanai, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Many people have read that to think that there is some sort of a separation between the Father and the Son.

I don't think that that is the case. I think Psalm 22, as we will see here maybe this morning, is understood to be a Messianic psalm. And the psalmist who begins saying, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

By the end of the psalm is speaking of his own vindication. But be that as it may, from the world's perspective, it looks like Jesus dies alone as a complete failure. And indeed, even the disciples themselves, remember in Luke chapter 24, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, what do they say?

When Jesus himself joins himself with them and their eyes are supernaturally kept from recognizing him, what do they say to him? Well, we thought he was going to be the one to deliver Israel. We hoped, but now they are downcast because, well, the one to deliver Israel would never be dying upon a tree.

And so that's what the meaning of the text would be. Now, like I said, I guess Dr. Ehrman's argument is, well, this would be the only place in Hebrews where it says that by the grace of God, Jesus died.

Well, that's assuming that the book of Hebrews is supposed to exist all into itself. We don't have the rest of the New Testament and that somehow that changes the message of Hebrews, which it clearly does not.

But because it's put into print by a scholar, not only does Dr. Ehrman repeat this, but much lesser scholars who simply go by what they've read in books like that, repeat this with great confidence before their college classrooms and just simply demonstrate that they haven't thought things through very well themselves in the process.

So there is the textual variant. You are now up to speed on it. And unlike what is often said, one of the accusations that Dr. Ehrman makes all the time is, well, we sweep these things under the rug. We don't want to tell anybody about things like this.

Well, that's not how we operate around here. Certainly, those of you who attend regularly the adult Sunday school class know that we've run into many issues like this and we try as best we can to take them on head on, because I think that is the context in which to do those things.

So having said that then, so going with the grace of God, I think there's reasons to stick with that so that by the grace of God, he might experience death in behalf of Pantas, everyone. Everyone of who?

Well, obviously, there are those who would say that that means every person on the planet Earth. Is that how a Hebrew Christian would have understood that word when he or she first read this epistle or heard it read out?

I don't believe so. I think a Hebrew Christian would have understood that to mean, oh, Jews and Gentiles, everyone around the world, same thing in the book of Revelation, men from every tribe, tongue, people and nation.

And I do point out that it is we see Jesus. We don't yet see all things subjected. Who's the we? Would not the everyone be the we? Possibly. But let's leave that to the side for the moment. Let's ask ourselves, does the context answer this particular question?

I believe as we work through the rest of the second chapter, we will see without question that it does. But what he does, what Jesus does, is that he tastes death, not just simply in the sense of to just taste something for a moment, but to experience.

He experiences death substitutionarily. In behalf, huper is the Greek word that is used there, a very important word of substitution. Whatever you're going to do with this all, Jesus experiences death in behalf of that all.

And if his death is propitiatory, and it removes the wrath of God against sin for all, and you make that all people, then there's only one consistent conclusion you can come to. You need to become a universalist.

You need to believe that everyone's going to be saved. Because the wrath of God against sin has been removed for every single person. In light of that, just be consistent. I don't find very many people who are consistent, but I think that's something important to point out.

So, he doesn't just feign death, he experiences death. His is a true death. On the basis of that, we go on. For it was appropriate for him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the pioneer of their salvation by means of suffering.

So, who is this him at the beginning of the verse? It was appropriate for him. Now, we have in other texts of Scripture, in Colossians chapter 1, all things are through and for Jesus. But you'll notice that the one here described, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, is the one bringing many sons to glory and he is the one perfecting the pioneer of their salvation by means of suffering.

So, it would seem that we have the Father in view here. It is the Father who, let me remind us once again, is the fountainhead of all of salvation. The danger that many Christians, I think, face is they see Jesus as the nice, kind, warm, accepting guy.

And the Father as the stern, mean judge. And he's way off in the distance and he's angry. And Jesus comes between and protects us from the mean, terrible, horrible judge. That unfortunately is an understanding that many people have.

But if we've listened at all to Ephesians chapter 1, if we've listened at all to Paul's real theology, what is the fountainhead, the source of all of the grace seen in the Gospel, but the Father Himself.

And so, speaking of the Father for whom are all things and through whom are all things, He is bringing many sons to glory? Didn't it just say all? Sounds like, in the very next sentence, there is a recognition, not of universalism, but of a specific group.

And if you remember as we read through this, that happens more than once. A little bit farther down the text, what do we have? Makes propitiation for whom? The sins of the people. Not every person, but the people.

And of course, the Jewish reader of this knows exactly what that's referring to. He brings many sons to glory. Can He do that? Does God have the capacity in and of Himself to bring many sons to glory?

I know I'm preaching to the choir. Well, we don't really have room for a choir anyways. Some of you may not realize this was originally a Church of Christ building. That's why we've had to stick those instruments out there.

And they did not stick the choir in the baptistery. We don't have room for that because they didn't have instruments or choirs before we got this building. But I am preaching to the choir in the sense that you all know the answer to the rhetorical question.

Yes, God has the ability to do that. But what does that mean? Think about what it means to describe God the Father as the one bringing many sons to glory. Is that just simply saying He's made it possible for many sons to be brought to glory?

That's a radically different message. It's a radically different message to say that God makes it possible for us to bring ourselves to glory. God will help us. God gives grace. God puts a plan together.

But ultimately, it's up to us as to whether we get to glory. That's a different statement than to describe God as the one bringing many sons to glory. To bring them to glory means the whole process. Not just to get it started.

Not just to get them on the road. But to complete it. Bring them all the way. And every form of synergism, every form of presentation of the gospel where you take the power of God and the power of man and you blend them together.

In every form of synergism, the result is it is man that controls the ultimate destiny of himself. Oh, he may confess that I can't do it apart from God and I need God's grace and all the rest of that stuff.

But what he won't confess is that God has the power to save men in and of Himself. And I would suggest to you the book of Hebrews has been grossly misrepresented over the centuries. I remember doing it.

I happened to be watching the video of this because I was really unrelated to this particular topic. But I did a debate in 1999 on Long Island with another apostate, now a man who became a Roman Catholic.

And he just kept pounding away. 51 of the time the book of Hebrews says we can fall away. How do you take the text and go, that's 51%. You only got 49%. I win. That's not really a meaningful presentation as to the text itself.

But his point was, look, the book of Hebrews says you can fall away. The book of Hebrews says you can be a true Christian. You can fall away. Now there's no question, we already worked through one of the warning passages back a few sessions ago as we were working through the very beginning of Hebrews chapter 2.

There's no question the book of Hebrews talks a lot about falling away. It's a work of exhortation written to the gathered people of God. And there were people who were in danger of going back to the old ways.

No question about any of that. But what gets missed, because mankind is so focused upon his own abilities and himself, and it's all about me, me, me, me, me, is how often this book emphasizes the power of God to save to the uttermost.

Those passages just get read into oblivion. But we dare not do so. God is bringing many sons to glory. That's why in eternity to come we will glorify him, not ourselves. We won't look to ourselves and say, oh, I was so good.

Look at all those people in hell. I was just a little better than them because I got the same grace. You know, God just lathers that grace out there, you know. And I accepted it. I was more sensitive.

I was smarter, something, I don't know. No. We will not stand there rejoicing in ourselves. We will glorify God's grace because God's grace actually is powerful. And it accomplishes something. We will confess that if we've been brought to glory, it is because of the power of God alone.

Not because we enabled his power to somehow do so. So, in bringing many sons to glory. And I doubt I'm going to get past this next phrase because we've got, I know it's warm. I'm not sure how, it's actually, we're doing better today than we did last week.

Actually, come to think of it, not quite as many bodies in here to warm things up. I know it's a little warm. And right about now is when, normally it's not happening for me right now, thankfully. But the tummy starts grumbling.

And it's really easy to get distracted. And, but I think we may be looking at one of the most important phrases we've looked at so far. So I would invite you to tune back in for just a little while. I think it will be spiritually worthwhile.

In bringing many sons to glory, to do what? To perfect the pioneer of their salvation by means of suffering. Let me give you some facts and then we'll step back and try to figure this out. I translated the term pioneer.

It can mean origin or source. It can also mean the one who blazes the trail. That's what the pioneers were. They're the ones going out there into the west, remember, when there weren't any roads to follow.

I mean, you can drive from St. Louis to California today, no one's going to call you a pioneer. Because it's pretty easy to do. Somebody did it before you did. And so the idea is that He is one who is leading.

No one went there before Him. He's the one blazing the trail. And so these sons who are being brought to glory, someone leads the way. And it is the Son of God, the unique Son of God. He is called the pioneer of their salvation.

He is the one who leads them on that path of salvation. He is the one who shows the way. Not that He needs salvation. He is the one providing that way. But what on earth does it mean for Him to be perfected by means of suffering?

Through suffering, to be perfected. What did Jesus need perfecting from or of? Well, there are some, obviously, who have read into such a text some pretty heretical ideas that Jesus has to learn to be a Savior, that He has to get better at it, something along those lines.

But having read the first chapter about who Jesus is, the eternal Creator of all things, Yahweh in human flesh, probably not what the writer is actually saying. But there is something to perfect through suffering to pioneer their salvation.

Perfect through suffering. Well, what sufferings? And you see, it is really easy for us to automatically hear the term suffering and say, oh, well, that is the cross. And most of the time, most of the time, that is a pretty safe guess.

Certainly, we would not dismiss the sufferings of the cross as being a part of this. But did you notice something at the very end of the chapter? For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to help those who are being tempted.

There is suffering again. But here, there is a suffering related to temptation. Well, was there temptation in the cross? Yeah, we see it in the garden. But there is temptation all through the life and ministry of Jesus.

You have the temptation at the very beginning of His ministry. Satan is showing Him the kingdoms of the world. Take the shortcut. Take the easy way. But Jesus remains faithful. And so the writer seems to be identifying not just the suffering of death upon the cross, but the sufferings that were those of the man of sorrows as the Incarnate One, living amongst sinners, facing the temptations.

That is why He is able to help those who are being tempted. None of us have ever been tempted to take the easy road out of being the Savior of the world. So that is obviously not what is in view there.

He is able to help those who are being tempted because He has been tempted and He has experienced the suffering of temptation. So why do I emphasize that? Because it is the only way I can see to understand this idea of how He was perfected.

How was Jesus perfected through suffering? This is the only way I can understand this. There was nothing lacking in the Incarnate One when He was born in Bethlehem. He was the perfect God-man. Now we know that as man, He grew and matured.

Man has to. If He is going to be a man, that has to happen. That is why Luke says what he does about Jesus. But what is it in Christ's life that comes about as a result of His steadfast obedience to the Father in all things?

Why do we need a perfect, sinless Savior? Well, on the one hand, all of us can answer that one. I imagine all of our young people can answer. Why did Jesus need to be sinless? Well, because if He was a sinner, then He couldn't have died in our place because He is already under the cursed law.

You have to have a spotless, non-blemished sacrifice. Quite true. But see, this is where we miss the other aspect. And this is where there is a lot of controversy today. There are a lot of people who say, This just isn't biblical, what I'm about to say.

Our confession says it, by the way, so you don't have to get nervous. I believe what we have in sight here is that in Jesus' perfect obedience to the Father in His life, not just in not sinning, but in fulfilling all righteousness, He loved God perfectly.

He fulfilled the greatest commandment perfectly. You see, if all we had in the righteousness of Jesus Christ was forgiveness for our trespasses, all that would do would bring us back to a moral neutral point.

The problem is, God's law requires obedience. What's the greatest commandment? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Anybody here done that? Of course not. And so how can you ever stand before a holy and just God when you have not fulfilled the positive command of the law?

But Jesus did. Through His entire life of obedience, a life of obedience that would have brought about suffering, you live for God. You positively fulfill the commands of God when you live in a world filled with nothing but sinners, and you're going to suffer.

He, by His positive righteousness, His fulfillment of the commandments of God, provides us with a righteousness that when it is imputed to us, yes, all of our sins nailed to His cross, but His perfect righteousness imputed to us.

His active and passive obedience, as our confession puts it, is credited to us so that when we stand before Him, we do not stand before a holy judge clothed partially in the righteousness of Christ and partially in our own righteousnesses.

He was perfected through suffering as the pioneer of our salvation so that when we stand before God, we stand before Him. Aren't you glad I didn't just jump over these texts? Here is the foundation. Here is the foundation for any believer.

God is bringing many sons to glory. How can we be certain of that final glorification? How can Paul say what he said in Romans 8? For new, predestined, called, justified, glorified. God does all that.

Why? Because who can bring a charge against God's elect? God has justified. Christ has died on their behalf. How will He not with Him freely give us all things? Here is the same message. He brings many sons to glory, having perfected the pioneer of their salvation through suffering.

He is perfected in that He has fulfilled the commands of God so that the righteousness that we receive from Him is full, complete. Lacking is why we have real peace with God. Of course, those words are directed to those who have fled to Christ.

If you have not confessed Him, these words do not apply to you. Do not think that all this means everyone is fine. No. He is talking to those who believe in Christ. For the believer, perfection of righteousness.

What a tremendous truth to hold on to. What a precious possession. Let us thank the Lord for His revelation of it to us. Indeed, our Heavenly Father, we are thankful for these wonderful words. We often confess that we stand before You clothed only in the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ.

And this is true. But now we've come to understand through these words once again the glory, the completion, the perfection of that righteousness which is ours. Oh, help us to live in light of these truths.