Hebrews 2:13-15

¹³ And again: I will put My trust in Him. And again: Here am I and the children whom God has given Me.” ¹⁴ Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵ and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage

BRINGING MANY SONS TO GLORY (PART 3)
HEBREWS 2:13-15

Vs. 13 And again: I will put My trust in Him. And again: Here am I and the children whom God has given Me                                                                                                                                       

Here The Apostle intends to prove that the Lord Jesus Christ was one with the sons to be brought to glory. The Apostle reveals how His humanity was made and brought into this situation where it was necessary for Him to trust in God. This was to reveal to man the absolute necessity of trusting in God when exposed to troubles. In all His troubles and difficulties, I will put My trust in Him, because He was one of the children, His brethren and it was His duty no less than theirs to trust in God in troubles and distresses. And again: Here am I and the children whom God has given Me. The Apostle still further confirms his testimony as the Holy Spirit leads him in recording God’s Word, we are all one in Crist Jesus (Galatians 3:28). Being of the same nature with them, and so fit to be a common parent to them all, God by an act of sovereign grace gave them unto Him for His children. From these things we may observe:

1. That God the Father gave all the sons that are to be brought to glory to Christ Jesus. He says, Thine they were and Thou gave them to Me.
2. The Father gave them to Him as the children to be provided for, and to have an inheritance purchased for them, that they would become heirs of God and so co-heirs with Himself.
3. That the Lord Christ is satisfied with and rejoices in the portion given Him by His Father His portion is His children, His brethren, such was His love, such was His grace for we ourselves are a people not to be desired (2 Corinthians 6:16).
4. That the Lord Christ assumes the children given Him by His Father to the same condition with Himself, both as to time and eternity—I and the children which Thou has given Me. As He is, so they are; His lot is their lot, His God is their God, His Father is their Father, and His glory shall be their glory.

Vs.14 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil

The Apostle expresses the natural condition of the children whom God purposed to bring to glory, the children have partaken of flesh and blood, those given to Christ were common partakers of flesh and blood. It is as if he had said the children were subject to death, as this was the condition of all the children—liable to sufferings, sorrow, and death—He was so also, He Himself likewise shared in the same. But being subject to death, this brought fear into the children’s lives, and brought them into bondage during all their lives. Death is punitive for sins during their lives and to be feared before the sinner is delivered from sin by the death of the Lord Christ. When the Lord shared in flesh and blood and died under the curse of their sin, He delivered the children from their condition. Now let us observe:

1. The Lord Jesus Christ out of His inexpressible love, willingly submitted Himself to every condition of the children to be saved by Him and to everything in every condition of them, only sin was excepted. Though He was in the form of God, equal to Him, yet that mind, that love, that affection towards us was in Him, that to be like us and thereby save us, He emptied Himself and took upon Himself the form of a servant, our form and became like us. He would be like us that He might make us like Himself.  He took our flesh that He might give us His Spirit. He would join Himself unto us and become one flesh with us that we might be joined to Him and become one spirit with Him.
2. It was only in flesh and blood, the substance and essence of human nature and not our personal infirmities that the Lord was made like unto us. He took the nature of all men to Himself and not the person of any man. Each one of us has our own particular infirmities and weakness, following our common human nature as existing in sinful persons. Such are the sicknesses and pains of our bodies from inward disorders and passions of our minds. Of these the Lord Christ did not partake. It was not needful, it was not possible that He should do so, not needful because He could provide for their cure withoutassuming everyone’s individual problem. He took our nature by a miraculous conception in a virgin whereby He truly had our nature, yet not subject on its own account to any of these evils which we are subject to from Adam in the ordinary course. Though the Lord Christ was joined to our nature, yet He was holy, harmless, and undefiled in that nature, He was separate from sinners. Although our nature suffered more in His Person than it was capable of in the person of any mere man, yet not being debased by any sinful imperfection, it was always excellent, beautiful, and glorious.
3. That the Son of God should take part in human nature with the children is the greatest and the and most admirable effect of Divine love, wisdom, and grace. This is the mystery that atheists sneer at, and nominal Christians deny, but angels adore it, the Church professes it, and all true believers find comfort and benefit in it. In assuming human nature into personal union with Himself, the most brilliant beams of light enter the Son giving out the manifestation of His most glorious excellencies far above all other things; surely this was done for the greatest end that can be conceived, and this is the salvation of sinners.

Vs. 15 And release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. All sinners that are outside of the Lord Jesus Christ are under the power of Satan. They belong to that kingdom where the Devil is the ruler. Men may flatter themselves that they are free, as the Jews of old did, yet if they have not been set free by an interest in the death of Christ, they are in bondage to the prince of the power of air, the one with the power of death. But the Lord Christ has destroyed him who had the power of death, that is, the devil. Now is the judgment of this world, now the prince of this world is destroyed, by this destruction of him his kingdom of darkness and power of death no longer exists. It was through death that Jesus Christ destroyed the devil. The death of Christ is here put as the end of one thing and the means or cause of another—the end of His own incarnation and the means of His children’s deliverance. The first and principal end of the Lord Christ’s assumption of human nature was not to reign in it, instead it was to suffer and die in it. He was from old designed into a kingdom; but He was to suffer and so enter His glory. His kingdom was to follow, His glory was to follow, but suffering and dying were the principle work He came to earth about. He did not need flesh and blood to be a King, for He was the eternal, immortal, invisible, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, the only Potentiate from everlasting; but He could not have died if He had not been made a partaker of our nature.

The means whereby Satan was destroyed was by His death. The power of Satan in reference to death was all founded in sin. The obligation of the sinner to death was that which gave Satan all his power; the taking away of that obligation was the dissolution of his power. Now in reference unto the children for whom Christ died, it was done in His death—virtually in His death itself, actually in the application of His death to the children. The first branch of the Devil’s power consisted in bringing sin into the world. This is dissolved by Christ’s taking away the sin of the world, which He did as the Lamb of God by the sacrifice of Himself in His death. When contending with Christ for the continuance of his sovereignty, he was conquered, the ground where on he stood, even the guilt of sin, being taken away from him and his title defeated, believers are translated from under his rule, from the powers of darkness into the kingdom of light and of the Son of God.

The final execution of the sentence of death is utterly taken out of the hands of the devil by the death of Christ since they for whom He died shall never undergo death penalty. Thus was Satan, as to his power over death, fully destroyed by the death of Christ.  By this dissolution of the power of Satan, deliverance was procured for the children. The fear of death being taken away, the bondage that follows vanishes also. And these things, as they are done virtually and legally in the death of Christ, are accomplished in the children upon the application of the death of Christ unto them when they believe. From all which we may learn that the death of Christ, through the wise and righteous disposal of God, is victorious, all-conquering, and prevalent. Men and Devils were ignorant of the great work God was accomplishing while they thought they were destroying the Christ of God; God was in and by Him destroying them and their power. While His heel was bruised, He broke their head (Genesis 3:15). Faith in the death of Christ is the only way and means of obtaining conquest over Satan. At the sight of the cross the Devil flees.