II.
(continued) The Excellence of the Christ (1:5–3:6)
4.
(continued) () In our "great salvation" God Himself has also "testified" to it …
a.
(continued) The disciples of Jesus saw the miraculous way God attested the Gospel. Miracles were not pointless displays of power, but they pointed beyond themselves to the message of salvation. "Wonders" emphasizes the marvelous aspect of the signs. They were such that no mere person could produce them, nor were they explicable on merely human premises. It is this wonder-producing aspect that comes spontaneously to mind when we think of miracles. "Miracles" are properly "mighty works" and are the term usually employed in the Synoptic Gospels (synoptic means “seeing with”; you are recommended to study or review all the synoptic gospels [Matthew, Mark, and Luke]. You see each gospel as a part of the whole account of Christ’s ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection). “Mighty work” brings out the truth that in Christ's miracles there is superhuman power. They prove something about the Gospel because they are not of human origin and thus show that the Gospel they attest is not human either.
(1)
"Gifts of the Holy Spirit" refers to gifts that the Holy Spirit gives (cf. ) and the gift of the Holy Spirit Himself (cf. ). There were manifestations of the Holy Spirit in believers, and the divine author sees these as confirming the Gospel. The divine author is speaking about God as giving people both the gift and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
5.
() Having looked at "so great a salvation" that Christ won for His own, the divine author goes on to the further point that the subjection of the world to the human race spoken of in is to be seen in Christ, not in humanity at large. "Not … to angels" implies that the subjection was made to someone other than the angels. "The world" (Greek oikós) is a term that normally denotes the inhabited earth (a term used by both Greeks and Romans for the spheres of their earthly influence. Kosmós is commonly used for “world” in a general sense.
6.
() A quotation from (already read) is introduced by the unusual verb "testified". Only here in the New Testament does it introduce a quotation from Scripture. More often the word means to "testify solemnly" and shows that the words following it are to be taken with full seriousness. The divine author tells us neither the place where the words are found nor who said them. Consistently, he regards all that is in his Bible as coming from God and puts no emphasis on the human author. He quotes the passage exactly, and his whole letter shows that he was very familiar with the Psalms. His quotation is from the LXX Greek of Psalm .
a.
The psalmist is concerned with both the insignificance and the greatness of the human race. There is, of course, little difference in meaning between “man” in "man" and "son of man" in this verse. The parallelism of Hebrew poetry requires that the two be taken in much the same sense. So "son of man" means one who has the quality of being a human being (this is similar to Jesus' self-title in the Gospels, "Son of Man" [cf. ]). Jesus’ title means “anointed to bring salvation to people” or “Messiah.”
b.
God is said to be "concerned" and to "remember" people. "Concerned" has the sense of remembering with a view to helping. It includes total dedication to God, concern for the brethren, and true self-judgment (cf. ). (; ) The psalmist goes on to ask what there is about humankind that the great God should stoop to help them.
7.
() Having asked the rhetorical questions that pinpoint human insignificance, the psalmist goes on to the greatness of human beings. God has given them an outstanding position, one but a little lower than that of the angels. The divine author follows the LXX here again (the Hebrew can mean "lower than God"). Human dignity, then, is such that human beings are placed in God's order of creation only a short way below the angels, and this seems to set them above all else in creation, an impression that the rest of the passage confirms. God "crowned Him with glory and honor." "Glory" denotes brightness or splendor and is used of the splendor of God as well as of the glory of earthly potentates. "Honor" is frequently linked with "glory," and the combination stresses the supreme place of humankind in creation.
8.
() The dignity of a human being is further brought out by the fact that God has "put all things in subjection under His feet." The human race is supreme among the beings of this created world. "Under His feet" shows that humans, under their Creator, have supremacy over the created world they occupy.
a.
After completing the quotation, the writer goes on to draw out an important implication. In putting all things in subjection to humankind, God left nothing not subjected. It is a picture of a divinely instituted order in which humanity is sovereign over all creation. The passage is describing the place of humankind in God's order, and we do not come to Christ's place until verse . While in one sense everything is subject to Christ, there is another sense in which human beings have their rightful place of supremacy over the created order.
b.
From this ideal picture, the writer turns his attention to current reality. As things are now, we do not see the subjection of all things to human beings, but one day this subjection will be fully realized. While the human race has power and dignity, there are many limitations. It is part of the frustration of life that in every part of it there are the equivalents of the "thorns and thistles" () that make life so hard for the tiller of the soil. We all know what it is like to chafe under limitations while we glimpse the vision of what will someday be realized.
9.
() We see this verse fulfilled in Jesus. He has gone through the experience of living out this earthly life, and He is now "crowned with glory and honor" (the very words of the psalm) because of His saving work for humanity. The writer calls the Savior by His human name, Jesus — a usage we find nine times in this book (; ; ; ; ; ; ; ); on each occasion he seems to place emphasis on the humanity of our Lord. That Jesus was true Man meant a good deal to the writer of Hebrews. We do not see the psalm fulfilled in the human race at large, but we do see it fulfilled in the Man Jesus. He had a genuine incarnation because He "was made a little lower than the angels." But we do not now see Him in this lowly place, for He is now crowned with glory and honor. He is in the place of supremacy that the psalmist envisaged. And He is there because of his saving work, "because of the suffering of death.”
a.
"So that" looks back to the reference to suffering rather than to "crowned"; the clause it introduces shows the purpose of the death of Jesus. This is one of several places in the New Testament where someone is said to "taste" death (also ; ; ; ). The verb means "to taste with the mouth," from which the metaphorical sense "come to know" develops. It means here that Jesus died, with all that that entails. By God's "grace", Christ's saving work was accomplished. Grace (undeserved favor) is one of the great Christian words, and it is not surprising to find it connected with the doctrine of the atonement here. “Everyone” here is “everyone chosen as a vessel of blessing in eternity past.”
C.
True Man ()
1.
The divine author has argued that Jesus was greater than the angels and that His greatness is to be seen in the salvation He obtained for us. But He lived on earth as a man (the God-Man). There was nothing about the Teacher from Nazareth to show that He was greater than the angels. Indeed, the reverse was true, for He had undergone humiliating sufferings, culminating in a felon's death. The divine author proceeds to show, however, that, far from this being an objection to His greatness, this was part of it. This was the way He would save us. He would be made like those He saves.
2.
() Usually we do not speak of things as being "fitting" for God, but here the word is appropriate. The way of salvation is not arbitrary but befitting the character of the God we know, the God "for whom are all things and through whom are all things " (i.e., He is the Goal and the Creator of all that is). The words show that the sufferings of Jesus did not take place by chance; they had their place in God's great eternal purpose. "Many sons" is an unusual expression for the total number of the saved. But sonship is important and so is the fact that the number of the saved will not be few. "Glory" points to the grand splendor of salvation.
a.
Christ is "the author of their salvation." "Author" can denote a leader, a ruler, or the originator or founder. Here the thought of origination is stressed, but the choice of word enables the writer to see Jesus as One who walked this earthly way before us as He established the way of salvation. The idea of being made "perfect" is at first sight a startling one to apply to Jesus, but it is one the divine author repeats (he uses this verb “perfect” nine times). He suggests that there is a perfection that results from actually having suffered and that this is different from the perfection of being ready to suffer. The bud may be perfect, but there is a difference between its perfection and that of the flower. There is, of course, no thought of perfecting what was morally imperfect; no imperfection is implied (cf. ).
3.
() The writer now emphasizes the link between Jesus and those whom He sanctifies. () He "who sanctifies" (vs. ) is, of course, Jesus. He makes them into God's people by His offering of Himself. The passive, "those who are sanctified" (coming from the same verb), puts some emphasis on the unity of Christ and His own. But the writer does not say they are one; he says they are "from one Father" (lit., "of one"). Since the thrust of the passage refers to earthly descent, this "one" is most likely Adam (as in ). The thought, then, is that Jesus is qualified to be our Priest and Savior because He shares our nature. He shares with us a descent from Adam; this enables Him to call us brethren.”
a.
Those who follow Christ are often called "brothers"; rarely, however, are they called His brothers in the New Testament. Indeed, sometimes the two are differentiated, as when Jesus says, "You have only one Master and you are all brothers" (). Mostly Jesus' "brothers" refers to those in His immediate family (e.g., ; ; ), though occasionally the word is used in a spiritual sense when linking people to Christ (; ; ; ). Thus, this passage in Hebrews is not unparalleled. There is a sense in which Jesus is brother to all who call God, "Father." That is why it is important to identify the "them" in Jesus that "[He] is not ashamed to call them brethren." It is not all people He calls brethren but only those who are sanctified (members of the family of God). Brethren means a close relationship of saved people.
4.
() The writer clarifies the point of spiritual brotherhood with an appeal to , a psalm that was regarded as messianic in the early church. As He hung on the cross, Jesus quoted its opening words: "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (). And the words about dividing garments () are seen as fulfilled in what the soldiers did as they crucified Jesus (). It was thus the most natural thing in the world for the writer of Hebrews to see Jesus as the speaker in this psalm.