Our Perfect Savior
Hebrews 2:9-18
Turn in your Bibles to the 2nd Chapter of Hebrews. For our study we're going to be looking at verses 9 to 18. The title of the message is our perfect Savior, Hebrews 2:9-18. Now we're continuing in our study of the book of Hebrews. We find ourselves at this point right here in Chapter 2 and verses 9 through 18 are a beautiful description of Jesus Christ as the perfect Savior.
And I trust and pray tonight as we study these verses and we'll not take the time to delve totally into every concept obviously, but as we study them, those of you who as me are believers will find yourselves drawn again to the perfections of your Savior. Those of you who may not have received Jesus Christ might find yourselves irresistibly drawn to Him tonight because you see Him in all of His beauty.
A recent newspaper article hailed the arrival of the Son of God in the world. According to the article the Savior of the world, the Son of God is a 13 year old Indian Guru whose name escapes me, which is perhaps not such a great tragedy. He is being called by his followers the Son of God. He is really nothing new, because he merely takes his place in a long line of would be saviors of the world. Of would be son of Gods, would be Messiahs going back to men like Theudas who tried to split the waters of the Jordan River and didn't make. Simon Magus who tried to prove himself the Son of God by flying from a building. The flying was okay. The landing was miserable.
Right on down to a more modern day men like Hitler, father divine, and some day finally an ultimate individual to make that claim known in the scripture as the antichrist. But unfortunately for them and fortunately for us, none of them has ever made it. There is only one Savior. There is only one perfect Savior, that is Jesus Christ. And thus did Peter say "neither is there salvation in any other for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." Jesus Christ alone is the Savior.
Now how is it that we know that Jesus Christ is, in fact, the perfect Savior? Why should we believe that? What qualifies Him? Well, the answer to that is given very beautifully in verses 9 to 18 of Hebrews Chapter 2. A very complete answer that tells us why it is that Jesus Christ claimed to be the perfect Savior is valid.
Now just to give you a brief summary of what we've studied in Hebrews, let me remind you that the Holy Spirit is writing, we do not know the human author. The Holy Spirit is writing this letter to Jews primarily. That does not mean that it isn't for all of us. But primarily in His mind is the Jewish frame of reference. He's writing to a congregation of Jews located outside the land of Israel very likely. Second generation Christians in that they did not know Christ, but were witnessed to by apostolic missionaries. Some of them were saved, some of them were not. Some of them were intellectually convinced, but had not accepted Jesus Christ as yet, because they were hanging on to their Judaistic heritage and weren't willing to make the necessary sacrifice of excommunication.
And so to them He writes to prove to them that Jesus Christ is, in fact, the Son of God. That He is the mediator of a new and better covenant than the old covenant and to the Christian Jew, He is saying let go of all of the ritual of all of the trappings of the old covenant for the new totally supplants it and replaces it. To the unconverted Jew, He is saying accept Christ because He is the mediator of a new and better covenant through His blood.
Now in order for the Holy Spirit to prove to the Jew that Christ is the mediator of a better covenant, He must then prove to the Jew that Christ is better than all of the issues that go along with the old covenant. And we've learned already that the old covenant was mediated to men by whom? Angels. Therefore, the Holy Spirit must prove to the Jewish mind that Christ is superior to angels, which He proceeds to do as we have already seen in the opening Chapter and also in the beginning of Chapter 2.
He says that Christ is better than angels. And since the angels mediated the old covenant, Christ is therefore a better mediator and His covenant, therefore, a better covenant. And there is no reason at all to hang on to the trappings and the ritual of Judaism when one has come mediating a new and better covenant. That's His message to the Jews. But even after the presentation as its come already in Chapter 1 and into Chapter 2 there are some lingering questions, because throughout this passage He has been attempting to prove that Jesus is better than angels.
And the problem that is hanging in the brain of the Jew is this problem. How could Jesus be better angels if, in fact, Jesus was a man and on top of that, He died, for angels never die and are certainly higher than men. So the theological problem that they face is the kind of the relating of the humanity of Christ and the death of Christ to the superiority of Christ over angels who do not die, according to Luke Chapter 20, verse 36.
And, of course, as we saw in Chapter 2, verse 9 last week where we began our study, where we'll pick it up tonight, it says, but we see Jesus who was made a little lower and we determined from the Greek that little lower is a time connotation. That what it is saying is that He was made or that he became or was made less, not created apotelo, but made less. He was made less for a little time. So that His nature was not lower than angels, but incarnation for a little period of time, He became less than angels. And that's, of course, the answer.
Christ is by nature greater than angels only for a little time to accomplish a specific purpose, He became less than angels. But that answer is expanded in this particular passage as we'll go through it tonight, because it really doesn't...just that verse alone doesn't answer the whole question. The second question that the Jews always were stumbling over was the problem of the death of Christ. Not only that if He was superior to angels, how could He die, but if He was the anointed of God and the Messiah, how could He be the victim of death? And this is why whenever the word of God was preached to Jews, as in Acts 17, it was needful that they tell them why Christ had to suffer, Acts 17:2-3.
That's the whole point of the message. Because as Paul said to the Corinthians, "the cross to the Jews is," what, "a stumbling block." So they were still hanging on these two questions that found real problems in this particular view. How could Jesus be greater than angels if angels never die? How could He be this perfect Savior if He Himself was killed? And this was the lingering question. And so it is in the passage, verse 9-18 that the Holy Spirit defends the incarnation. That He tells us why it is that Jesus did for a little time become lower than angels and what He accomplished in doing that.
And this is so very, very important. And He also tells us this, that in fact, He was made lower than angels in order to die. Did you get that? In other words, His death was the reason that He was made lower than angels for what it accomplished. Those soft baby hands fashioned by the Holy Spirit in Mary's womb were made to take two great nails. Those chubby feet, pink and white, without step were to walk a hill and be nailed to a cross. That sacred head with sparkling eyes and eager mouth was made to wear a crown. That tender body wrapped in swaddling clothes would be ripped opened by a spear to reveal a broken heart and for that reason did He come.
As we saw this morning, the death of Christ was no accident, was it? It was God's destiny. Jesus was born to die. And so it is not that Jesus loses His dignity by being lower than angels. It is that He becomes lower than angels for a very distinct and definite purpose, which He accomplishes. And we saw last week what it was, didn't we?
You remember, I told you there were three phases to man's relationship to God and to angels and to the world. When God created man in innocence, He gave him dominion over the earth, did He not? Man sinned and what happened to him? He immediately lost his dominion, and Jesus Christ came to die to remove the curse so that man could regain His dominion.
So there was a very definite purpose in Jesus coming to die. He came to restore the crown. And if He was going to restore the crown to men, He had to come as a man. And if He was going to remove the curse that was on men, He had to take the place of men. So He had to be a man. And even though He was lower than angels, He accomplished something that no angel could ever accomplished. He accomplished the restoring of the crown to men.
Now in our text as we see this unfold, I want you to see five particulars. Five perfections that His humanness and His death brought about. Through Jesus becoming less for a little time, He became our substitute, our salvation captain, our sanctifier, our Satan conqueror, and our sympathizer. What a perfect Savior. And do you see the genius of the Holy Spirit at this point? To show that not only is the death of Christ not hard to explain, if He's greater than angels, but it's the purpose for His incarnation.
First of all, because Jesus was incarnate, because for a little time He was made lower than the angels, He became our substitute. That's verse 9. "But we see Jesus who was made for a little time lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor that he by the grace of God should taste death for," whom, "every man." That is the substitutionary death of Christ. He died in your place and in my place. This is basic to the gospel.
Here is the first and foremost reason for the incarnation. The first and foremost reason for He who is better than angels becoming for a little time less than angels, that He might taste death on the behalf of every man. He came to die in my place to be my substitute. The Old Testament prophet Ezekiel said "the soul that sinneth it shall," what, "die." The Bible lays down that principle again in the New Testament. "The wages of sin is death." Sin brings death. Death is inevitable where there is sin. And God as He views man has an option. Either He lets man die and pay for His own sin or He allows a substitute to take the punishment of man and die in his place. And in fact, that was His design in sending the second person of the Trinity. God humbled Himself, came to earth to die in my place, a substitutionary death.
And this is so important, because this is just the doctrine that modern day liberalism and modern day theology will not adhere to. They say Jesus died as an example of dying for a cause. That He died as an example of a martyr. This, that, and the other thing. He died as a substitute for your death and my death. Now this has many, many ramifications and you're familiar with its significance.
But let me just take this verse apart for just a minute and show you the key clauses. First of all, we see in verse 9 is humiliation when it says "He was made or became less for a little time lower than the angels." Now man was originally created for a time lower than angels. So if man was created originally lower than angels, then Jesus Christ, if He's going to come and die a death for man, must become what man is, right?
That's the whole story of the incarnation. It is God becoming what man is in order to substitute for man's death and therefore free man to life with God. That's the simplicity of the gospel. The whole concept though is stunning. It's staggering. To realize that the creator of angels, the head of angels, the Lord of hosts, the one worshipped by angels should for our sakes for a little time become lower than angels. That's humility. And after having done that, notice in verse 9 "He was lifted up to glory and honor."
And so first of all, we see that He was humiliated for our sakes. Secondly, we see the extent of His humiliation when it says in verse 9, "He became a little lower than the angels for the suffering of," what, "of death." He came to do precisely what no angel could ever do. Angels cannot die. But Jesus came to die. He went so far beneath angels that He did something they could never do. Now you'll notice that it also says there "for the suffering of death." His death was not only dying, but it was a suffering kind of dying.
And this term suffering indicates that Christ's exist from the land of the living will not be calm and peaceful. But it will be accompanied with outward torcher and inward agony. The third thing we see here is the purpose of His humiliation. The purpose of it was that "He should taste death for every man." And I love the idea of tasting there, because as you well know the Bible tells us that He tasted it and drank the bitter cup to the complete bottom. Every bit of it He bore for us. And the death that He tasted was the curse of sin.
As I told you this morning, what Jesus felt dying on the cross would be the total agony of every soul in Hell for all eternity put together and suffered in a few hours. All the punishment for all the sin of all time. That was the depths of His death. He was guilty of nothing. He suffered for everything, because He was our substitute.
In Galatians 4:4, Paul says, "But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son made of a woman, made under the law." Why? "To redeem them that were under the law." God sent His Son, God incarnate to redeem men. This to the depths of death to be accomplished. In verse 15 of 2 Corinthians 5 it says, "And that He died for all." Did you hear that? "That they who live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them and rose again."
And so Jesus Christ in His death purposed to die as a substitute for every man. And it is only by the Son tasting death as a man that I am free from death. You might make an analogist to the king's taster. Historically, kings have always had somebody who tasted their food before it ever got to them. And the cup of poison that belonged to us was drained to the dredge by Jesus Christ before we could ever touch our lips to it. He substituted His own death for ours and released us to live with God.
Not only do we see those things, but see not only the extent and purpose of His humiliation, we see the motive of His humiliation. And my what a statement it is. Again, we see it in verse 9 "that He by the grace of God." You know what moved Jesus Christ to suffer for us? What did? What's the one word? Grace, grace, the greatest word there is. Grace. You know what grace is? It's free loving kindness. When we didn't deserve anything. When we deserved...let's say this, when we didn't deserve what we got, but deserve what we didn't get. We got what we didn't deserve and didn't get what we did deserve.
You can untangle that later. That's grace. You say what prompts grace? Love, God's great unbounded love prompted a gracious deed on our behalf. And solely on the basis of His own good pleasure and solely on the basis of His sovereign will did Jesus die. Not by the hands of men alone, not by the deed of Satan alone, but by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God He died for our sins.
Jesus made the statement, "No man takes my life from me." John 10, "I lay it down of myself." The Bible says "Here in His love not that we loved Him, but that," what, "He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation or the satisfaction for our sins." He was the substitute. Then we see one other thing in this verse, and that's the results of His humiliation. He was crowned with glory and honor.
Oh what a fantastic thing it is to realize that after Jesus had accomplished this task of substitutionary death, He was exalted to the right hand of the Father and there He sits on a throne from which He reigns and will reign forever and ever and ever. In Hebrews Chapter 5, it talks about verse 4, "And no man taketh this honor unto himself, but He that is called of God as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made in high priest, but that He said unto Him, thou art my Son. Today have I begotten thee."
In other words, Christ didn't glorify Himself. God glorified Him. And so Jesus was crowned by the Father with glory and honor. Philippians 2 says, "That He was highly exalted and God has given Him a name which is above every name that the name of Jesus every knee should bow." Ephesians Chapter 1, verse 21 tells us that Jesus Christ "has been set overall principalities and powers. He's been set over all might and dominion and everything that is and is to come."
And so the result of His humiliation was His exaltation. And so the writer says to the Jewish reader we do not apologize for the cross. We do not shove it under the rug. For the cross magnifies the Lord. And the fact that He was a man, and the fact that He died is no problem for that was not the natural thing for Him to do. He condescended to do that. So far from Christ's humiliation and death being something of which we are ashamed, it is something for which we glory.
And so Jesus is a worthy substitute, and He became that perfect substitute by becoming a man. If He had not become a man and died for us, we would die in our sins. The second thing that Jesus Christ became in perfection because He was humiliated and came into the world was our salvation captain. Not only our substitute, but our salvation captain. Verse 10, "For it became Him," that means it agreed with His nature, "for it agreed with His nature for whom are all things and by whom are all things," that'll tell you who He is in His own nature. That's before His humiliation. It agreed with Him though, even though He was by whom..."for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing man sons unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings."
In other words, Jesus had to come. He had to be a man and He had to die to be a perfect salvation captain. Now let me just give you a look at this verse. "For it became Him," and evidently this is a reference to God, although certainly it would refer to Christ as well, "for whom are all things and by whom are all things." This means God not only made it all, but He made it all for himself. That's because He wants glory, remember that?
All right, "It became Him for whom are all things and by whom are all things, that is God in bringing many sons to glory," God's design in the world was to bring men to Himself, right? "Was to bring sons into His glory." In order to do that, He had to make the captain of their salvation perfect. And in order to make Him perfect, He had to suffer. So Jesus needed to be incarnated. He needed to die in order to be a fitting salvation captain.
All right, now let me just look at this word, it became Him. It means it agreed with His character. It's a beautiful thought. For example, God is wisdom, right? And it agreed with God's character as wisdom to do what He did. The cross was a masterpiece of wisdom. God solved the problem, which no finite brain could hope to solve, nor could angels ever solve it, but God in His wisdom did it. Became God's wisdom. It agreed with God's wisdom to do what He did.
Secondly, it agreed with His holiness. God showed on the cross His hatred for sin. Thirdly, it agreed with His power. It was the greatest power display that was ever given. Christ endured in a few hours what it's going to take an eternity to expend on sinners. Then it agreed with His love. It agreed with His grace, because it was substitutionary. It agreed with His nature to do this.
And God's desire was to bring many sons to glory. Now if He's going to bring many sons to glory, He's got to tell us how to get there, right? But more than that, He's got to have somebody to take us. I mean, it wouldn't have done a bit of good, think about this, if Jesus had arrived here and left a map to heaven. It wouldn't any good. Got to be more than that. Let me show this.
The word for captain here, it's a fantastic word, archegos. It literally means a pioneer or a leader. In Acts 3:15 and Acts Chapter 5, I think it's about verse 30 or 31, it's used to refer to a prince. It's used in many references archegos, translated captain, but it always means somebody who does something that somebody else enters into. For example, it's used of a man who founds a family and others are born into it. Or it's used of a man who founds a city in which others come to live. And commonly it was used of a pioneer who blazed a trail for others to follow.
The archegos never stood at the rear giving orders. He was always out front blazing the trail. And Christ is not standing at the rear giving orders. He is out in front blazing the trail. He has gone before us, hasn't He? For example, He showed us the pattern of obedience, didn't He? What does Hebrews 5:8 say? It says this, "Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered and being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him."
In other words, by His own obedience He blazed a trail of obedience that set the pattern for us. Not only that He blazed the trail of love. He blazed the trail in suffering. Peter says, "Here unto You we're also called to suffer as Christ has suffered for you." He blazed a trail through death and resurrection and He said, "Because I live," what, "ye shall live also. Whosoever believeth me shall never die," He said.
So Jesus is the archegos of salvation. He blazed the trail to God. He didn't just get at the rear and tell us how to get there. He got out in front and all we had to do was take His hand and He led us into the presence of God. And so it is that God made Christ for a little time lower than the angels so He could come down to us, take our hands and the perfect leader, the perfect trailblazer, the perfect pioneer could walk us into the presence of the Father.
Else we would never have found it. It's only when you, by faith, put your hand in that nail-scarred hand of Jesus Christ that you'll ever enter the presence of God. No other way. You'll never find it on your own. Men have tried too long and failed. And so through death He became the perfect leader. Because you see the trail...where the trail got tough was at the point of death, right? That's where we couldn't make it. And that's why when He says, "because I live, ye shall live also," that solves the problem.
G. B. Harding in his little book Countdown says, "that's the ultimate question in the world." Number one, has anybody ever cheated death. Number two, if he did, did he leave the way open for me. Yes, somebody did cheat death. Jesus Christ. Yes, number two, He did leave the way open. All you've got to do is place your hand in His hand by faith and He'll lead you one... inside one side of death and right outside the other end. And you'll say with the apostle Paul, "oh death where's thy victory?" Where's the sting of death? Where's the victory of the grave? There is none. Christ has given us the victory. And so He became the perfect archegos. Not only telling us what to do, but taking our hand and blazing the trail to God. And He had to be a man to come into our world and lead us out didn't He. He couldn't stand on a cloud and yell at us.
He had to be what we are. Most of all conquer the barrier between us and God which was sin, and He conquered it by bearing the punishment of death and thus leaving the way open to life with God. The third thing that He became was our sanctifier. Verse 11 to 13, verse 11 and this is fantastic. "For both he that sanctifieth," that's Christ, "and they who are sanctified," that's us, "are all of one." Listen to this one, "For which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren."
Boy that is an overwhelming concept. Overwhelming, He is the one who makes us holy. Notice it there. "For both He that sanctifieth," or makes holy, "and they who are sanctified are all of one." You say well, does that mean Christians are holy? That's exactly what it means. You say well, that's...I'm not holy. Yes, you are. You're absolutely, totally holy. You say that's just what I try to make you think. No. No, I'm not talking about your practice. I'm talking about what? Your position before God you're holy. You may not act holy, but you are.
Just like a child is the son of his father and may not always like it. He is. You're holy in the sense that before God the righteousness of Christ has been placed in your behalf. You see the two truths in the New Testament are practical truths and positional truths. What you are and what you act like. Positionally you're holy. You're perfect.
Colossians 2, "And ye are complete in Him." Positionally perfection. Practically we've got a long way to go, but here He says "He that sanctifieth and they who are made holy," we're separate unto God positionally, "are all one." Did you know that? Did you know we're one with Christ? Do you know that Paul calls us joint heirs with Christ? We literally become one. Why? Because the holiness that Christ has is our holiness. You got that? It's ours. I do not stand in my own righteousness. No way. Paul says in Romans that "the righteousness that is ours is the righteousness of Christ that has been given to us." Therefore, we're one with Him, because His righteousness is our righteousness.
And as a result of being one with Him, He's not ashamed to call us what? Brethren. I'll tell you that's a humbling thought to have the Son of God call me brethren and not to be ashamed of it. I could imagine if He said brother, you know. But to say brother without any shame through His death, conquering sin, through His death bearing sin, He eliminated the sin possibility and He placed His righteousness on us in an eternal positional sense and thus we became holy. He could never have done that had He not come and died and paid the penalty for sin. So He had to come and He had to die to be our sanctifier.
Now the word sanctified is hagiaso, it simply means to make holy from what the word...which the word saints comes. And so it is that Jesus Christ alone can make one holy and only through His death. Now listen to this verse. Hebrews 10:10, "By which will we are made holy," listen to this, "through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." We were made holy through His sacrifice. Verse 14. "For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." He has removed the possibility of positional sinfulness.
You are therefore as pure as God is pure positionally. You are as righteous as Christ is righteous positionally. Then you are entitled to be called a brother of Jesus Christ in the sense of a common righteousness. Now that must give you a little idea of what God's grace must be like. That would stoop to pick us up and give us that kind of righteous equality with Jesus Christ and do it all out of love.
So the person who receives Christ is made holy and it would never have been possible had not Christ paid the penalty for sin and it is death then given us His righteousness. The Bible says, "He became sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made," what, "the righteousness of God." The righteousness of whom? Of God, in Him. Whose righteousness do I bear? Little old John MacA