WWUTT 1811 Perfected Through Suffering (Hebrews 2:10)

Perfecting the Author of Salvation Through Sufferings

Jesus did not just die for our sins and rise again from the dead, although he certainly did that. He also suffered for us, and when we suffer and draw all the more near to Christ, we are sanctified when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, studying God's Word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Thank you for subscribing, and if this has ministered to you, please let others know about our program.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the book of Hebrews. This week we're in the second half of chapter two, so I'm going to start off here reading verses 10 through 18 out of the Legacy Standard Bible.

This is the word of the Lord. For it was fitting for him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.

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 brothers, saying, I will recount your name to my brothers in the midst of the assembly, I will sing your praise.

And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, behold, I and the children whom God has given me. Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

For assuredly he does not give help to angels, but he gives help to the seed of Abraham. Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in all things, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

For since he himself was tempted in that which he has suffered, he is able to come to help those who are tempted. What we're talking about here in this passage of Scripture is God's plan for bringing many sons to glory.

That's the statement that we have there in verse 10. In fact, you might consider verse 10 to be the heading of this passage, and then verses 11 through 18 expound on what we read in verse 10. So for today, I'm really only going to get as far as verse 10, and then over the next couple of days, we'll finish up through the rest of the section.

But this first verse, once again, this is God's plan for bringing many sons to glory, and then the rest of the section pointing out how that plan necessitated Jesus' incarnation, that he put on flesh and dwelt among us, his suffering, and his death, so that he could be a faithful and merciful high priest, the statement that we have in verse 17.

So we start off with Christ, through suffering, became the author of our salvation. That's what we're looking at today in verse 10. Then in verses 11 through 13, it's Jesus, through the incarnation, became our brother.

In verses 14 to 15, Jesus, through his death, became our deliverer. And then in verses 16 to 18, Jesus, through his suffering, became our merciful and faithful high priest. So we have a statement about him suffering even here in verse 10.

So we read about suffering in verse 18, we read about it in verse 10, that's kind of the bookends on this particular section, as we read about God's plan of salvation. Now notice here, we start in verse 10, it was fitting for him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, to bring about salvation in this way.

It was fitting for God. There's really only one person's approval that God needs, and that's his own. He doesn't need to confer with anybody on anything that he does. It doesn't go to committee, he doesn't pass it through some other people, hey, I got this idea for this plan of salvation, what do you think of this?

It was fitting for him. Who are we to question the way that God does things? Now there are certainly things about salvation, about God's plan, about what we call soteriology, which is the study of salvation.

There are certainly things in this that are mysterious to us, that we don't understand, that we'll ask questions about. But we can't challenge God on that. We can't say, God, I think you could have done this a little bit better.

No, our opinion doesn't matter here. We're idiots in this plan. It is God who knows all, and he who has done this to bring many sons to glory. So who are we to question that? We have come to salvation through what Christ has accomplished in the gospel that was proclaimed to us.

So praise the Lord for that. It was fitting for him, through whom are all things, and am I reading that right? For whom are all things, and then through whom are all things. By the way, both of those are descriptors of Christ in Colossians 1.

It's in verse 16 there where it says,. For in him, talking about Jesus, in him all things were created, both in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.

All things have been created through him and for him. Same statement we have here. But the him that's being referred to in verse 10 is God. Now, it might be the Father, or it could be the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

When Paul uses that statement to refer to Christ in Colossians 1 .16, all things have been created through him and for him. He is showing the Colossians that Jesus is every bit as much God as the Father.

And he is the one who has created all things. So the entire Godhead was involved in creation. The Father, the Son, and we even see the Holy Spirit mentioned there in Genesis 1. So it certainly doesn't mean Christ exclusively.

This statement here in verse 10 is that the whole Godhead is involved. For whom are all things and through whom are all things. And it is fitting for him in bringing many sons to glory to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.

I find it fascinating that the preacher here chooses to mention that God is the one who has created all things. Everything belongs to him, and it's through him that all things were made. Lest we challenge him on this plan of salvation.

He is the one who made everything, so he can choose the way that he has decided to bring many sons to glory. And this is the plan of salvation that we have through his son Jesus Christ. And God chose, in this process of salvation, to perfect the author of salvation through sufferings.

Jesus suffered. Now I'm sure you're there going, well, no duh, Gabe. He died on the cross. And even when he was arrested, he was beaten. He was scourged. He was persecuted. He was already bloodied at the moment they put a cross on his back, told him to carry it up to the place of his crucifixion.

Then he had to hang there on the cross for three hours as he died, which was literally excruciating. So we know that Jesus suffered. But I'm not talking about in his death. Even in his life, he suffered.

Consider that the beginning of his earthly ministry was fasting in the wilderness for 40 days. That's suffering. I don't know if you've ever tried to fast for three days, let alone for 40 days. But he was suffering in the desert where the Israelites, when the spies went into the land of Canaan to come back with a report, they were in the land of Canaan for 40 days.

They came back with a report. The people grumbled. They were like, oh, we will never be able to take this land. There's giants in the land. They did not trust God, even though God promised that they would take this land.

They did not believe the Lord. So they grumbled when the report came back from the spies and they're thinking, hey, we're better off going back to Egypt. And so what was the punishment that God gave to them?

They were going to have to wander in the desert a year for every day that the spies were in Canaan. So that was 40 years for that entire generation to die. And then it would be their children that would receive the promise land.

Joshua and Kayla being the only two from that previous generation that would get to see the promise land. Not even Moses and Aaron got to enter the promise land. So Israel grumbled in the desert. They perished in the desert, but Christ fasted in the desert and he resisted temptation.

The tempter came to him, the devil, and Jesus resisted every one of the devil's temptations, responding to him with scripture. And then at the end of that 40 days in the desert, angels came and were ministering to him.

So whereas the Israelites failed in the desert or in the wilderness and they're wandering, Jesus was perfectly submissive to the will of God. Everything that Jesus did was perfectly fulfilled. He, he obeyed God, whereas no one else in the history of mankind had ever lived a perfect life.

Jesus did sinless, never did anything wrong. And so through that suffering that he did in his body, even in his earthly ministry, he suffered and was being perfected to become that perfect spotless sacrifice.

The lamb of God on our behalf, he who would die in our place as our perfect substitute, so that all who believe in him will not perish, but we have everlasting life. Our sins were on Christ as he died for us.

His righteousness is imputed to us. The doctrine that we refer to is double imputation. And so by faith in Jesus, we are forgiven our sins and we are given his righteousness. This savior was perfected for us through suffering and God saw that it was good to perfect the author of our salvation through suffering.

So understand that as Jesus suffered in his earthly life, he sanctifies suffering for us. He doesn't just die. He suffers and dies. God could have chosen any way he wanted to bring us to salvation, to bring many sons to glory, could have done this any way that he wanted, but he sent his son to suffer and die.

And whatever Jesus went through, that was sanctified. Even life in the womb is sanctified because Jesus went through life in the womb. From the moment of conception to his death, everything in a man's life in between there has been sanctified because Christ went through it.

And so when we go through those things, in giving glory to God in the midst of those things, we are being sanctified, grown in holiness and in Christ likeness. Now when it comes to suffering, I think we can put suffering in one of three categories.

The kinds of suffering that we go through would probably fit in one of three categories. And when I say what we go through, I'm talking specifically about the Christian. This is not what every single person goes through, but the kinds of suffering that we as Christians endure, and so therefore give glory to God in the midst of that suffering so that we might be sanctified.

The first category of suffering is the suffering that we endure because we live in a fallen world. And so we know that all of creation is under the curse because of mankind's sin against God. And we feel that in our bodies every day.

The fact that you woke up this morning and your bones were creaking, that's a result of the curse upon creation. It's a result of the fall. Or as it's put in Romans chapter 8, all things were subjected to futility.

And so because of the futility of the creation of the world in which we live, we feel that decay. We feel that corruption in our bodies, just in the natural sense of things, that all things are coming to decay.

Everything is wasting away. The world is getting old and perishing, and our bodies ride along with it because it's part of this fallen world. Our physical body is still subject to the curse. Though our souls are improving, right?

If we are followers of Jesus Christ, our souls are being renewed day by day. We are growing in sanctification and holiness and anticipating that day when we get to be with the Lord in glory. So our souls are maturing and growing, but our bodies are, well, they're growing too, but just growing older and falling apart.

We feel the effects of the curse in our bodies, the effects of sin, so we endure sufferings in that way. When we get sick, it's that same sort of a thing because sickness is a result of the fall. When we get depressed, even when we experience emotional struggles, those things are also a result of the fall.

It's not wrong to feel depressed. Now, we can certainly get to a point in our anxiety that that becomes sin when we doubt God. We shouldn't let it get to that point, but sadness is not sin. In fact, Jesus said, blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Jesus was described by Isaiah as a man of sorrows. Jeremiah was the weeping prophet. The apostle Paul talked about the anxiety that he feels for all of the churches as he struggles for them in his prayers so that they would not lose the gospel that was proclaimed to them, but they would endure in that.

And Paul felt it even in his own body as he would pray on their behalf that they would continue to hold fast to the gospel. None of these kinds of stresses are wrong, but we will experience and feel these things as a result of the fact that we live in a fallen world.

Even when we look around and we see sin in the world, that might cause us grief. The election that just happened last week here in the United States of America, if things did not go the way that you were hoping that they would go, you probably felt some kind of anxiety in your body as a result of that.

Just a general sense of mourning. God, I hate that evil is prevailing in the world. Even David prayed such prayers. God, let your justice be known so we can feel kind of a certain weight when we see those things happening in the world, desiring to be delivered from that.

When injustice, we see injustice in the world and we feel that in our flesh, that's the suffering that we go through as a result of the fall. So sickness, emotional struggles, just observing sin, or even feeling the results of sin because somebody betrayed you or somebody has ridiculed you or treated you poorly or something like that.

Again, all of that, the general sense of suffering that we will go through as a result of the fall. Now, everybody does go through that. Everybody on earth will go through that kind of suffering as a result of all of creation being subject to futility.

But those who do not know Christ, all of that suffering is meaningless. There's no point to that. It's just really, really inconvenient. But for us who go through that kind of suffering, there's a purpose for that.

And we who are in Christ know that. As the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 1 .9, we thought that we had received a sentence of death, but this was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.

So as we go through this kind of suffering, it causes us to draw all the more near to Christ and cling to Him and His promises and long all the more for His kingdom. So through that suffering, we're being sanctified.

As we mourn the loss of loved ones, we have friends or family members that die. Again, that's suffering, but all of that is a result of the fall. So that's the first category. A second category of suffering, and this one more exclusive to the Christian, is suffering through temptation.

We are tempted, but we resist that temptation. Just as it's talked about here in this section, in chapter 2, verse 17, he had to be made like his brothers in all things so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

For since he himself was tempted in that which he has suffered, he is able to come to help those who are tempted. We read about this in chapter 4 as well. Chapter 4, verse 15, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things like we are, yet without sin.

Whenever we suffer through temptation, but we resist that temptation, we're being sanctified. We're drawing all the more near to Christ. We flee the devil, we draw near to God, as it says in James 4. And in so doing, we grow in Christlikeness because he resisted temptation.

So when we suffer and struggle through that, we don't give in to the passion of our flesh, that's certainly not helpful. That's the wrong direction. But when we resist temptation, temptation from the world, temptation in our flesh, temptation from the devil, just different ways that temptation will come at us, when we resist those things and draw near to Christ, we're being sanctified.

We're being made more and more like him. Now, there are people in this world that certainly suffer or struggle with temptation, but a lot of times in the world, they're going to give into it. And they give into it more and more until it becomes worse and worse sin.

But we who are Christians, we recognize that's wrong. I'm not going to do that. It does not please God. And so you resist the temptation for the purpose of pleasing God. If a person who is an unbeliever resists temptation, well, it's probably because, you know, it's just better for me to not do that.

I can see the consequences for that, so I'm just going to avoid that temptation. But they don't do it to glorify God. They just do it because, logically, it's smarter for me to not give into that temptation.

But we resist to draw near to Christ. And in that, we're being sanctified. A third category of suffering that we go through, now this one is certainly more exclusive to the Christian, is the suffering that we will go through for the sake of Christ.

You are persecuted for his name. People hate you. They will revile you for his name. Now, whenever we talk about persecution, there's generally somebody that might say, well, yeah, but real persecution is you're getting beaten up, or the government tries to tear you away from your family, or you get thrown in prison for your faith, or somebody kills you for your faith.

That happens in other parts of the world. We don't go through that here in the United States of America. Oh, yes, we do. I guarantee you, in whatever town or city you live in, if you go downtown, whatever your downtown looks like, and you start proclaiming the gospel, there are people who will hate you for that.

You have the freedom of speech to go proclaim the gospel. Well, they have the freedom of speech to hate you for what it is that you're proclaiming. But what did Jesus say in Matthew 5, verses 10 through 12?

Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And as Jesus goes on to explain that, he's not just talking about being torn away from your family or thrown in prison or put to death.

Verse 11, blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. They say evil things about you. They ridicule you. That's persecution. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

And as we go through that persecution, and yet we're not persuaded to leave this faith. It just causes us to draw all the more near to Christ, knowing that we're going through something that he went through.

He was put to death because of the gospel that he proclaimed. And so as we continue to draw near to Christ and give glory to him, even in the midst of that suffering, we are being sanctified. Consider 1 Peter 4 .12, Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though something strange were happening to you.

But to the degree that you are sharing the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of his glory, you may rejoice with exaltation. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

So God, who has created all things, in bringing many sons to glory, he thought it fitting to perfect the author of our salvation through sufferings. And because Christ has endured suffering, don't think of suffering as just something inconvenient.

It is an opportunity for us to draw near to him and cling to him and long for his kingdom. And in these things we are being sanctified, grown in holiness and righteousness, and made more and more like Jesus.

Consider Romans 8, you know, verse 28. We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. And in verse 29, we read about the good that is happening for us.

Because those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And tomorrow we'll talk about how it is through Christ's suffering, through his incarnation, that we have even been made brothers of our Savior.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read here today, and may it be something encouraging to us as we go through suffering in this world, as we struggle with different things, in our bodies, in our minds, in this world, in our relationships, in our uncertainties of the future, in the persecutions that we may go through, the ridicule we may receive because we have become followers of Jesus Christ.

May we not despair in any of these things, but it draws us nearer to you, and we cling to you, and desire to be more like our Savior and more with our Savior. For we know, as it says in Philippians 1 -6, I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it at the day of Christ.

So grow this in us, Lord, as we suffer in the midst of this life. Draw us all the more near to you. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.

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