Excerpts from the CNT:

Hebrews 1 reveals Christ as the Son of God being much better than the angels, whereas chapter 2 reveals Christ as the Son of Man becoming better than the angels. Our wonderful Jesus has two natures, divine and human. He has divinity and humanity. He is God, and He is man. Since He is God, He is the Son of God. Since He is man, He is the Son of Man. According to biblical usage, man and Son of Man are interchangeable terms. This is proved by Psalm 8:4 which says, “What is mortal man, that You remember him, / And the son of man, that You visit him?” Hence, the Son of Man simply means “man.” In the same principle, the Son of God means “God.” According to John 5:17-18, for Jesus to be the Son of God means that He is God. When the Pharisees heard that the Lord Jesus called Himself the Son of God, they accused Him of blasphemy because, in their understanding, He made Himself equal with God. Thus, to say that Jesus is the Son of God means that He is God. Christ is both God and man. Hebrews 1 covers His divinity and chapter 2 covers His humanity. With respect to both His divinity and humanity, He is superior to the angels. Even as the Son of Man, He is superior to the angels.

Although it is easy to realize that God is absolutely superior to the angels, it is difficult for us to realize that man is also superior to them. According to 1:14, as the heirs of salvation, we are much superior to the angels, for the angels are [3718] our servants, and we are their masters. We are the partners of Christ, and the angels are the servants, ministering to the heirs of salvation. We are the house of God, in which the heavenly ladder joins us to God and brings God to us, while the angels are ministering spirits ascending and descending upon this ladder as they render their service to us. Hence, they are much inferior to us. Matthew 18:10 reveals that every one of us has an angel. Psalm 34:7 says, “The angel of Jehovah encamps / Around those who fear Him, and He delivers them.” An angel appeared to Cornelius (Acts 10:3), telling him where to contact the one who preached the gospel. Moreover, Acts 12:7-11 tells us how an angel opened the door of the prison that Peter might escape.

Hebrews 2:5 says, “It was not to angels that He subjected the coming inhabited earth, concerning which we speak.” The “coming inhabited earth” will be this earth in the coming age with God’s kingdom. Psalm 2:8 says that God has given to Christ the nations to be His inheritance and the limits of the earth as His possession. Revelation 11:15 says, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever.” The day is coming when the nations, the kingdoms, of the earth will become the kingdom of Christ.

This “coming inhabited earth” in the coming age is not subjected to angels. In other words, God never ordained the angels, but instead ordained man, to rule over the earth in the coming age. Based upon this fact, the writer of Hebrews shows us that man is superior to the angels.

In His economy, God intended from the beginning that man should rule over the earth. From eternity past, God determined to have man ruling over the earth. According to the Bible, at the time of creation God determined that man should exercise His authority over the earth. This is clearly mentioned in Genesis 1:26-28.

There are three chapters in the Bible that belong together—Genesis 1, Psalm 8, and Hebrews 2. All of these chapters share one main point—that God has ordained man to rule over His created earth. God has ordained man to rule over the earth because God needs a realm, a sphere, a dominion, in which He [3719] can exercise His authority. Without such a dominion in which He can exercise His authority, it would be difficult for God to express His glory. The expression of His glory needs a dominion. If God has no authority on earth, He cannot express His glory. We should consider the conclusion of the Lord’s prayer: “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory” (Matt. 6:13). Once there is the kingdom, there is the authority. Then God is able to express His glory. The kingdom is for the authority, and the authority is for the glory. If God has no kingdom, there can be no exercise of His authority and no expression of His glory. The Lord’s prayer was for the kingdom. In that kingdom there would be the exercise of authority and the expression of glory.

God’s purpose is constant and eternal. God’s purpose is from eternity to eternity. God has never changed His purpose of having man exercise His authority on earth that He might have a dominion as a sphere in which He can express His glory.

Hebrews 2 reveals that Christ as man is superior to the angels. The writer of Hebrews argues in this way: “It was not to angels that He subjected the coming inhabited earth, concerning which we speak” (v. 5). However, God did say in Psalm 8 that the time would come when He would subject all creation to man. This man is Jesus (vv. 6-9), the One who brought God into man to uplift man’s standard. By His incarnation, He brought the divine nature into man, and by His resurrection, ascension, and glorification, He brought the human nature into God. Therefore, this man is much more excellent than the angels. The angels are nothing more than servants who minister to all the members of this man, to all those who inherit salvation through this man, that is, who inherit this wonderful man as their salvation.

Christ Himself is God, the Son of God; He is the effulgence of God’s glory and the impress of His substance. He is even called God Himself (1:8). In Him there is the reality of God. As such, He is much superior to the angels. He is also a glorified man with God’s divine nature, crowned with glory and honor. As such a man, He is superior to the angels. The angels are merely servants of those who inherit Christ as their salvation. [3720]

a. God Having Set Him over the Works of God’s Hands and Having Subjected All Things under His Feet

Hebrews 2:7-8, which is addressed to God, says, “You…have set Him over the works of Your hands; You have subjected all things under His feet.” These verses refer to Genesis 1, which tells us that God set Adam, the man created by God, over the works of God’s hands (vv. 26-28). This indicates that Adam, as the head of God’s creation, was a prefigure of Christ (Rom. 5:14). God’s subjecting all things under the feet of Adam typifies God’s subjecting all things under the feet of Christ, the reality of Adam as the head of God’s creation.

In His exaltation, Christ was made Head over all things (Heb 2:8; Eph. 1:22). God has subjected all things under His feet. Now He is waiting for only one thing—for the subtle Satan and all His enemies to be made His footstool.

b. God Making Him a Little Inferior to the Angels because of the Suffering of Death So That by the Grace of God He Might Taste Death on Behalf of Everything

According to Hebrews 2:9, God made Christ a little inferior to the angels because of the suffering of death “so that by the grace of God He might taste death on behalf of everything.” Man is inferior to the angels in that whereas man is limited and bound in the matter of time and space, the angels are not limited to the same extent but enjoy greater freedom. Christ is the unlimited, eternal, omnipresent Creator; as such, He is not bound by time and space. But when Christ became a man, He was limited in the matter of time. For instance, while He was in Galilee, He could not simultaneously be in Jerusalem; rather, to go to Jerusalem, He had to walk a long distance. While He was with Martha and Mary in Martha’s home, He could not be with others who were staying elsewhere at that time. In this sense, even Christ in the days of His flesh was inferior to the angels.

In eternity Christ was the Creator, unlimited omnipresent, but when He became a man in time, He was limited so that one day He could go to the cross to deal with the universal [3721] problem—death. Death is a problem not only to man but also to the entire universe. Death is the last enemy of Christ to be abolished (1 Cor. 15:26). In order to suffer death and thus destroy and nullify death, Christ had to become a man and lose His freedom temporarily, for thirty-three and a half years. In that sense, He was inferior to the angels during that period. However, three days after His death He resurrected out of that inferiority and is now much superior to all the angels. He is now omnipresent; He can be simultaneously in the heavens and on the earth.

The man Jesus, in the fulfillment of the prophecy in Psalm 8, was made a little inferior to the angels because of the suffering of death (Heb. 2:9). According to our physical make-up, we are inferior to the angels. The make-up of the angels is somewhat superior to ours. When Jesus came as a man, His physical make-up was also inferior to that of the angels. He became a man, taking on man’s flesh, blood, and nature. He took on a physical make-up that was inferior to that of the angels for the purpose of suffering death for us. In order to suffer death, He needed a physical body. Without such a physical body, there would have been no way for Him to die for our sins. This was the reason that He was made a little inferior to the angels.

Christ was made a little inferior to the angels because of the suffering of death so that by the grace of God He might taste death on behalf of everything. This means that He died for everything. Christ tasted death not only for human beings but for everything, every creature. The Lord Jesus’ redemption was accomplished not only for people but for everything created by God. Thus, God can reconcile all things to Himself through Christ (Col. 1:20). This is clearly typified by the redemption accomplished through Noah’s ark, in which not only eight persons but all living things created by God were saved (Gen. 7:13-23). This is a profound revelation. We should be impressed that Christ not only tasted death for man but also for all other things. This is the reason we say that Christ’s death was an all-inclusive death.

Romans 8:21 says, “In hope that the creation itself will also be freed from the slavery of corruption into the freedom [3722] of the glory of the children of God.” The whole creation needs to be freed from the slavery of corruption, so the whole creation needs Christ’s redemption. Everything in the old creation is corrupting, decaying, and dying. In this universe everything, including human beings, animals, and plants, is decaying. Everything created in the whole universe needs redemption. Eventually, the millennium will be a time of the restoration of all things. Restoration implies degradation, and degradation comes from sin.

In the universe two rebellions brought in death, corruption, and degradation to the entire creation. One was the satanic rebellion, and the other was man’s rebellion. Before man’s rebellion there was a satanic rebellion, which contaminated the heavens. Satan’s rebellion contaminated, made filthy, all the heavenly things. Such a contaminated, degraded universe can be restored only through Christ’s redemption. Before the creation can be restored, it must be redeemed. Christ died on the cross for all the items of the creation so that He could reconcile all these items back to God. Christ’s redemption is a foundation laid for the upcoming restoration. When the restoration comes, the slavery of corruption will be over. The day is coming when decay and corruption will be over and death will be swallowed up. Today the entire creation is under the slavery of corruption; hence, the entire creation is groaning. Everything is groaning because everything is under the slavery of corruption.

The man Jesus was made a little inferior to the angels because of the suffering of death, yet this inferiority was only for a certain period of time. Through His death and resurrection, this one man was not only made superior to the angels but also has become a corporate man, the new man, composed of all the believers in Christ (Eph. 2:14-15).

c. Having Destroyed through Death in the Flesh Him Who Has the Might of Death, the Devil, and Released Those Who because of the Fear of Death through All Their Life Were Held in Slavery

Hebrews 2:14-15 tells us that through death in the flesh Christ destroyed him who has the might of death, that is, the [3723] devil, and released those who because of the fear of death through all their life were held in slavery. Our body is becoming increasingly old because it is under the slavery of death. In fact, man, since the day of his birth, is not living but dying every day. All human beings, whether young or old, are dying. Likewise, all beautiful flowers are not living but dying. Although they may be beautiful now, sooner or later they will fade and lose their beauty. Everything in the universe is decaying, dying, because it is held in the slavery of death. The grass is dying, yet it is not afraid of death because it has no feeling, no consciousness. On the contrary, because we human beings are sensitive and have strong feelings, we are very concerned about and threatened by death. Throughout our lifetime, we are held in the slavery of death. Yet Christ annulled this slavery, for He destroyed death at its root. The destruction of this enslaving death will not be fully carried out until the end of the millennium, at which time death, the last enemy, will be cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14).

The Greek word translated “destroy” in Hebrews 2:14 may also be rendered “bring to nought, make of none effect, do away with, abolish, annul, discard.” After the devil, the serpent, seduced man into the fall, God promised that the seed of woman would come to bruise the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). In the fullness of the time the Son of God came to become flesh (John 1:14; Rom. 8:3) by being born of a virgin (Gal. 4:4), that He might destroy the devil in man’s flesh through His death in the flesh on the cross. This was to abolish Satan, to bring him to nought. Satan has been abolished and done away with. Christ destroyed him, annulled him, brought him to nought, and rendered him powerless.

Perhaps we may ask, “How could the devil have been destroyed when he is still so prevailing?” It is a lie to say that the devil is prevailing. The Bible never says this. We should not believe in this lie. The Bible says that the devil has been bruised, destroyed. His head has been crushed. Will we believe our feelings or God’s Word? God’s Word tells us that through His death on the cross Christ destroyed the devil. This is an accomplished fact, a fact that is included in the holy Word as [3724] the testament bequeathed to us. We need to take this bequest by faith according to the holy Word.

Christ destroyed Satan. He partook of our nature in order to destroy the devil who has the might of death (Heb. 2:14-15). The best way to defeat Satan is to shame him, telling him that he has been defeated and destroyed and that he should go back to his place and keep his position. If we shame Satan in this way, he will go. By partaking of our nature and destroying Satan, Christ has released us from slavery. Death has been abolished; Satan, who holds the power of death, has been destroyed; and we have been released from slavery.

Christ’s death also released us from the slavery under the fear of death (v. 15). Since through His death Christ tasted death for us and destroyed the devil who has the might of death, His death released us from the slavery in which we were held because of the fear of death. We have been released from this slavery. Because of the all-inclusive crucifixion of Christ, there is no more death, no more sin, no more devil, no more fear of death, and no more slavery. By His mercy, the Lord has opened our eyes and has shown us the all-inclusiveness of His death. Now through experience we realize that death, sin, the devil, the fear of death, and slavery were all truly crossed out in Christ’s crucifixion.

d. God Having Crowned Him with Glory and Honor

Verse 9 tells us that God crowned Christ with glory and honor. Glory is the splendor related to Jesus’ person; honor is the preciousness related to Jesus’ worth, value, and dignity, which is related to His position (2 Pet. 1:17; cf. 1 Pet. 2:17; Rom. 13:7). Glory refers to Christ’s expression of God, whereas honor refers to the highest position in the universe, which the resurrected and ascended Christ occupies. In 1 Peter 2:7 the Greek word for preciousness is the same as that for honor in Hebrews 2:9.

The prophecy in Psalm 8 says that God has “crowned” man, who is lower than the angels, “with glory and honor” (v. 5). This was not fulfilled in any man until the man Jesus ascended to the heavens. Hence, this prophecy concerns the Lord as a man, and it is fulfilled in Him. [3725]

After resurrection Christ was glorified, not only in the manifestation of His divine nature but also in the ascension into God’s glory. Christ not only entered into glory but was also crowned with glory and honor (Heb. 2:9). Man crowned Him with thorns to shame Him (John 19:2), but God crowned Him with glory and honor to glorify Him. We saw Him on the cross on earth with the crown of thorns, but now we see Him on the throne in heaven crowned with glory and honor.

After He accomplished redemption by suffering death, Jesus was glorified in His resurrection (Luke 24:26) and was crowned with glory and honor in His ascension to the heavens (Heb. 2:9). Although the Lord Jesus is both the Son of God and the Son of Man, when we come to the matter of His being crowned with glory and honor, we must pay special attention to His humanity, to His being the Son of Man. It is in His humanity that He is crowned with glory and honor. As a man in His ascension to the heavens, He was crowned in this way.

Jesus is crowned with glory and honor in the third heaven. The little Jesus who was born in the manger, who was raised in a poor home in Nazareth, and who had no beauty or comeliness, in His ascension to the heavens was crowned with glory and honor.

Christ’s ascension, which followed His resurrection, was an exaltation. From the earthly viewpoint, it was an ascension from man, but from the heavenly viewpoint, it was an exaltation by God. After Christ had been crowned with glory and honor in His ascension, God gave Him the dominion over all things in His exaltation (v. 7). This is similar to what God did with Adam. Adam lost the dominion that God gave to him, but according to the prophecy of Psalm 8, Christ recovered what Adam lost. Now the same dominion has been given to the second man. We all must declare that we were born in the first man, but we were reborn in the second man. We were born in the first man and lost everything with him, but since we have been reborn in the second man, we have regained everything. The second man has been glorified, crowned with glory and honor, and entrusted with the divine dominion that was lost by the first man.

Jesus was crowned with glory and honor to be the Lord [3726] and Christ (Acts 2:36; 10:36b). Before His incarnation, He was the Lord. However, as a man, He was not the Lord. Now, in His ascension, He, as a man, has been crowned to be the Lord. This is a great matter. On the one hand, He already was the Lord because He was God; on the other hand, in His humanity He was crowned to be the Lord of all. He is also the Christ, that is, the anointed One. The Lord means that He is the Lord ruling over all, and Christ means that He is the anointed One who has been appointed to accomplish everything for God’s plan. The anointed One is the appointed One, and the appointed One is the One who runs God’s universal corporation, Christ and the church.

Christ was exalted as Leader and Savior (5:31). The Greek word for Leader, translated “Prince” in the King James Version, is the same Greek word that is rendered “Author” in Hebrews 2:10. The Greek word may also be rendered “Captain, Originator, Inaugurator, or Pioneer.” Christ was crowned with glory and honor so that He might be our Captain. As the Greek word indicates, He is also our Leader, Prince, Pioneer, and Forerunner. Jesus is the One who fights, takes the lead, moves ahead, being the first to reach His destination. He has cut the way into glory, and we are now taking the way that He has cut. Hence, He is not only the Savior who saved us from our fallen estate and from all the negative things; He is also the Captain who, as the Pioneer, has entered into glory that we might be brought into the same estate. The Lord Jesus today is the Lord, the Christ, the Captain, and the Savior.

Hebrews 2 tells us that one day the man Jesus, who for a time was made a little inferior to the angels, resurrected and ascended to the third heaven and was crowned with glory and honor (v. 7). A man is now in heaven, crowned with glory and honor. Although the angels are in heaven, they are not crowned. Yet there is now a man crowned in heaven. We should not prefer to be angels. We should be fully satisfied to be a man, having Christ within us and being in Christ. In Him we also are crowned with glory and honor.

e. God Having Made Him, the Author of Salvation, Perfect through Sufferings

According to Hebrews 2:10, God made Christ “the Author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” The Greek word translated “Author” means “Captain, Originator, Inaugurator, Leader, and Pioneer.” The salvation mentioned in this verse and referred to in verse 3 and 1:14 saves us from our fallen state into glory. Jesus, as the Pioneer, the Forerunner (6:20), took the lead to enter into glory, and we, His followers, are taking the same way to be brought into the same glory, which was ordained by God for us (1 Cor. 2:7; 1 Thes. 2:12). He cut the way, and we are now taking the way. Hence, He is not only the Savior who saved us from our fallen state but also the Author who, as the Pioneer, entered into glory that we may be brought into the same estate.

Christ is the Captain of salvation. This expression indicates that all the saved believers are an army with Christ the Forerunner as their Captain. He was also made perfect through sufferings. This refers to His humanity. He was not only perfect in His humanity; He was also perfected through many sufferings as a man.

In order to be saved merely from hell, we do not need a captain, but if we are to enter into glory, into the good land of [3728] rest, we need the Captain. God’s salvation is not merely to rescue us from hell and to put us into heaven. His salvation is to save us from every negative thing and to bring us into glory, into a glorious rest. This kind of salvation is not an overnight matter; it is a lifelong process. We need to follow our Captain throughout our entire life.

The children of Israel came out of Egypt in one night. That was truly an overnight matter. However, in order for them to enter the good land of rest, they needed to follow their captain. At the beginning they followed Moses, and later they followed Joshua. They had a captain for their salvation. After they crossed the Red Sea, they surely were saved, but they were saved to a very small degree. They had gone only a small part of the way and needed to follow their captain the entire rest of the way. They had such a captain of salvation.

In order to accomplish His purpose of bringing many sons into glory, God had to have an example, a model. Such a one could be the qualified captain taking the lead to bring the many sons into glory. Jesus is this Captain. Before Jesus became the Captain, however, He had to be perfected through sufferings (Heb. 2:10). To make Jesus perfect was to make Him perfect in terms of qualification. It does not imply that there was any imperfection of virtue or attribute in Jesus but only that the completing of His experience of human sufferings was needed to make Him fit to become the Author, the Leader, of His followers’ salvation.

As the self-existing and ever-existing God, the Lord Jesus is complete from eternity to eternity. But He needed to be perfected through the processes of incarnation, the partaking of human nature, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension so that He might be qualified to be God’s Christ and our Savior.

Without passing through sufferings, the Lord Jesus as a man could not be in the glory, and if He were not in the glory, He would not be perfected or qualified. But by passing through the sufferings, He entered into glory. He is now fully qualified, fully perfected, to fulfill His office of Captain.

The writer of Hebrews mentions suffering because at the time this Epistle was written the Hebrew Christians were [3729] suffering (10:32-35). They were being persecuted. In a sense, their suffering was not good, for they were very troubled by it. In another sense, however, that suffering was the process which was helping them to enter into glory. The Lord Jesus, as the Captain of salvation, passed through all the sufferings and entered into glory. He is our Pioneer, our Forerunner. He has gone before us to cut the way into glory. The way has been paved, and all we need to do is follow Him. We should not be troubled by our sufferings. We should be comforted. All the sufferings are helping us along the highways to Zion (Psa. 84:5).

The more we follow Christ in His way, the more we must be prepared to experience sufferings. Sufferings are good; they are a great help. We need to thank the Lord for our sufferings because all the sufferings are our helpers. The more we Christians pray and love the Lord, the more problems we may have. According to our experiences, we can realize that many problems are precisely measured out. They are neither too long nor too short, and they all seem to come at just the right time. As we look back upon our experiences, we see how good it was that certain things happened when they did. We should not be bothered by our problems. Whatever happens to us, we should praise the Lord, declaring that this is the process of entering into glory. He is leading us into the glory, which has been sown into our inner being. The glory that has been sown into us as a seed will be developed into the glory which we will enter.

The glory into which we will enter is the glory of the divine element that has been sown into us, the blossoming of the divine element within us. We are not entering into this glory on our own but with the Captain who pioneered the way, who entered into glory, and who is now leading us into glory.

When Paul was suffering because of a thorn in the flesh, he asked the Lord three times to remove it (2 Cor. 12:7-8). But the Lord answered Paul, saying, “My grace is sufficient for you” (v. 9). Instead of taking away the thorn, the Lord afforded Paul His sufficient grace, ministering Himself to the apostle as the supply, the grace, to sustain and support him as he passed through all the sufferings. Hence, these sufferings produced glory in him. [3730]

f. The Sanctifier and the Sanctified Being All of One Father; Hence, He Calling Them Brothers and Declaring the Father’s Name to Them, and in Their Midst Singing Hymns unto God the Father

Hebrews 2:11-12 says, “For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of One, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, ‘I will declare Your name to My brothers; in the midst of the church I will sing hymns of praise to You.’” Christ the Sanctifier is of the Father, and the believers as those being sanctified are also of the Father. For this reason, He called them brothers, declared the Father’s name to them, and sang hymns of praise unto God the Father. This took place after His resurrection. According to John 20, the resurrected Christ as the firstborn Son of God came to meet with the disciples as His brothers.

He who sanctifies is Christ as the firstborn Son of God, and those who are being sanctified are the believers of Christ as the many sons of God. Both the firstborn Son and the many sons of God are born of the same Father God in resurrection (Acts 13:33; 1 Pet. 1:3) and have the same divine life and nature. Hence, He is not ashamed to call them brothers.

(1) The Sanctifier and the Sanctified Being All of One Father

According to Hebrews 2:11, “Both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of One.” He who sanctifies is Christ, and those who are being sanctified are the believers. Hence, Christ and we the believers are all of One. The Greek word translated “of” actually means “out of.” This means that Christ and we, the Sanctifier and the sanctified, are all out of one source, one Father. The source surely does not refer to position but to nature, to disposition. The Sanctifier and the sanctified are all out of one source, one Father. The Father is the source of the Sanctifier, and He is the source of all the sanctified.

He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all out of One. Because of this, He is not ashamed to call us [3731] brothers. Rather, it is glorious for Him to call us brothers because He and we are of the same source. He has come from the Father, and we also have come out of the Father.

The Sanctifier is the Son of God. In His original state and before His incarnation, the Son of God could not sanctify us. However, the Sanctifier today is not only the Son of God but the Son of God incarnated. If He had never been incarnated, He would be unable to sanctify us.

As the incarnated One, Christ is the Son of Man. This Son of Man could not sanctify us until He was crucified, resurrected, glorified, and exalted. These are His qualifications for Him to be our Sanctifier. The incarnated Son of God needed to pass through death and resurrection so that His humanity might be born of God and that He might be glorified and exalted into the position of His being Sanctifier.

In order to be the Sanctifier, Christ had to be produced as the firstborn Son of God (1:6). The Firstborn can sanctify us because He, like us, has two natures and because we have the same natures that He has. Our Sanctifier is not the only begotten Son of God; He is the firstborn Son of God, the One who has the human nature as well as the divine nature. Because He and we are of the same two natures, He can sanctify us. Only when the firstborn Son was produced could the Sanctifier come into His office to do His sanctifying work. This means that He had to pass through the process of incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, glorification, and exaltation. After passing through this process, He became the firstborn Son of God. In other words, the firstborn Son of God was produced. This is our Sanctifier. He is qualified to be our Sanctifier, and we are qualified to be the sanctified.

He is qualified to be the Sanctifier because He is the firstborn Son of God, and we are qualified to be the sanctified because we are the many sons of God. He was qualified through His incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, glorification, and exaltation. After passing through this process, He became the firstborn Son of God. Our qualifications to be the sanctified are that we have the propitiation for our sins (2:17), that we have been released from the slavery of death (vv. 14-15), and that we have been brought forth to be the many sons of God [3732] (v. 10). Now both He and we are qualified. He is the qualified Sanctifier, and we are the qualified sanctified. We are fully qualified through the propitiation and resurrection of Christ.

We have seen that the Sanctifier and the sanctified are all out of One. This means that they are all out of one Father. Both the Sanctifier and the sanctified are sons born of the same Father. Since He and we are born of the same Father, we are His brothers. We and He have all come out of the same source, and we share with Him the same life and nature. In this life and nature we are now under His sanctifying work to transform us from being natural and to conform us to His image so that we may be glorified with the glory of God. Sanctification is to separate the reborn sons of God unto God, to transform them metabolically and organically with the element of the divine life, to conform them to His image, and to glorify them with His glory. The meaning of God’s sanctifying work is that the firstborn Son of God is working on the many sons of God.

(2) Declaring the Father’s Name to the Brothers

Verse 12 goes on to say, “I will declare Your name to My brothers; in the midst of the church I will sing hymns of praise to You.” The firstborn Son declared the Father’s name to His brothers after He resurrected from the dead, when He met with the Father’s many sons (John 20:17, 19-23). The church mentioned in Hebrews 2:12 is referred to as a corporate composition of the many brothers of the firstborn Son of God.

Hebrews 2:11-12 indicates that in resurrection Christ has brought forth many brothers. Through His resurrection we were regenerated (1 Pet. 1:3). His death released the divine life from within Him, and His resurrection imparted the life of God into us in order that we might become the many sons of God and His many brothers. He was the one grain of wheat falling into the ground, dying, and growing up to bring forth many grains, which we are (John 12:24). He was the one grain, and we are now the many grains, His many brothers, brought forth by Him in His resurrection. Hence, immediately after His resurrection He called us His brothers (John 20:17). [3733]

In His resurrection Christ not only brought forth many brothers but also came to His brothers and declared to them the Father’s name (Heb. 2:12). The Father’s name is simply the Father. The Father is His name. The Father means the source of life and the source of being. We are all out of Him. The Sanctifier, the firstborn Son, and all the sanctified ones, the many sons, are all out of the one Father. On the day of His resurrection, the Lord declared the Father’s name to the disciples. From that day on Peter came to realize that he had the divine nature. Thus, in his second Epistle, Peter says that we are “partakers of the divine nature,” having received “all things which relate to life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:4, 3). We have received the divine nature, and all things pertaining to life have been given to us because we were all born of the Father.

In the church the firstborn Son of God declares the Father’s name to His brothers. Because the Father is the source of the divine life and nature, to declare the name of the Father is to show the many brothers the source of this life and nature. Although the Jewish people in ancient times knew God, they did not know the Father. They knew God as the Creator but not as the Father who begets. They knew God’s creating power, but they did not know the Father’s begetting ability. They knew God’s power, but they did not realize the Father’s life. Before the resurrection, not even the disciples of Jesus knew the Father’s life and begetting ability. Before the day of resurrection, they knew only as much as the Jewish people did. However, on the day of resurrection the Lord came to them to declare the Father to make them know the Father as the source of life.

According to John 20, Jesus visited His disciples in the evening on the day of His resurrection. But John does not explicitly say that He declared the Father to the disciples. This is mentioned prophetically in Psalm 22:22. According to that prophecy, after His resurrection Christ came mainly to His disciples to make the Father known to them. The Father’s life and nature had become theirs. The Father’s being had been transferred into their being. This is what it means to declare the Father’s name to the disciples. That declaration was not merely a matter of mentioning the name; it was an [3734] impartation of all that the Father is—the Father’s life, nature, and being—into the disciples. We, the sons of God, have all become partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). To us, God is no longer only the creating God but also the begetting Father. He has begotten us; He has imparted His life, His nature, and even His being into our being. This is what it means to declare the Father’s name.

(3) Praising the Father in the Church

In resurrection Christ not only declared the Father’s name to His brothers but also praised the Father in the church (Heb. 2:11-12). When the Lord declared the Father’s name to His brothers, He praised the Father’s name in the church. The brothers are the church. Individually speaking, they are His brothers, and collectively speaking, they are the church brought forth in His resurrection. In the evening of the day of His resurrection His brothers gathered together, and He came to meet with them. That was the first church meeting. In the church meeting the Lord not only declared the Father’s name to His brothers, but He also praised the Father in the midst of the church.

This is the firstborn Son’s praising of the Father within the Father’s many sons in the church meetings. When we, the many sons of God, meet as the church and praise the Father, the firstborn Son praises the Father in our praising. It is not that He praises the Father apart from us and alone; rather, He praises within us and with us through our praising. In our singing He sings hymns of praise to the Father. If then we do not sing, how can He sing? The more we sing to the Father, the more we enjoy His presence, His moving, His anointing, and His life-imparting within us. Thus we will grow in Him and be brought into His glorification above all.

Today in the proper church meeting, the resurrected Christ is in our midst, although He is invisible. As Matthew 18:20 tells us, where there are two or three gathered into the Lord’s name, there He is in their midst. In the church meetings, He meets with us and sings hymns of praise to the Father. In fact, He sings in us; He sings in our singing. Because Christ is within us, if we are silent, He has no way to [3735] sing. Likewise, if we do not speak, He cannot speak. When we sing, He sings; when we speak, He speaks. Since He is not only in our midst but also within us, we need to take the initiative to speak and sing so that He can speak and sing hymns of praise to the Father in our speaking and singing.

Throughout all the centuries the firstborn Son has been continually singing hymns of praise unto the Father in the church. He does this in all of His brothers. When we sing hymns to the Father from our spirit, He sings with us in our spirit. This is wonderful. The church on earth today is one corporate Body with the firstborn Son of God. In the meetings of the church, the firstborn Son of God sings praise to the Father. Whenever we come to the meetings, we must open our mouths to praise the Father. If we do this, immediately we cooperate with the indwelling firstborn Son of God. To gain more of the firstborn Son, we need to praise the Father. The more we praise the Father, the more we gain the firstborn Son. The more we sing, the more He sings in our singing. The best way to have Christ work together with us is by singing praises to the Father.

Christ has made the Father known to us as the source of life. Now in the church meetings He is waiting for us to cooperate with Him in singing praises to the Father. The best way for us to give Him this cooperation is to open our spirit and sing praise to the Father. The more we sing, the more we will enjoy His singing. When we praise the Father, we enjoy Christ. We are one with Christ in praising the Father in the church meetings. The more we praise the Father in the church meetings, the more He praises the Father in our praising, and the more we enjoy Him and gain Him.

g. He Being Made Like His Brothers in All Things That He Might Become a Merciful and Faithful High Priest in the Things Pertaining to God, to Make Propitiation for Their Sins

Hebrews 2:17 says, “Hence He should have been made like His brothers in all things that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in the things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” The Son of God [3736] was made like us, His brothers, in that He partook of blood and flesh (v. 14). This was done for two purposes, one negative and the other positive. The negative purpose was to destroy for us the devil, who is in the flesh. The positive purpose is to be our merciful and faithful High Priest who has the human nature, that He may sympathize with us in all things.

(1) Being Made like His Brothers in All Things

The Lord was made like His brothers in all things in order that He might sympathize with them. It is a matter of sympathy that Christ shared in our nature, partaking of blood and flesh. He is the firstborn Son of God, and we are His many brothers. Yet we all are weak and fragile in the flesh, so He became a man in the flesh, the same as we are. Because we are weak and fragile, we need Him to sympathize with us. The Lord’s sympathizing with us is an aspect of His incarnation.

(2) Being a Merciful and Faithful High Priest

As the High Priest, Christ ministers God Himself and the riches of the divine life to us. As the God-man, He is fully qualified to be our High Priest. The first two chapters of Hebrews mainly cover two points—that Christ is the Son of God, God Himself, and the Son of Man, man Himself. Merciful corresponds with His being a man, and faithful corresponds with His being God.

Being merciful corresponds with the matter of Christ’s being a man. He became a man and lived on earth as a man passing through all the human sufferings. As a result, He is fully qualified to be merciful to us. He knows how to be merciful to man. He is a man with the experiences of human life, with the experiences of human suffering.

He was incarnated to be like us (vv. 14, 17). We may even say that He is more than like us, for He suffered in His human life some things that we have not suffered. In order to be qualified to be a merciful High Priest, He became like us, sympathizing with all of our weaknesses.

If we would be faithful, we not only need virtue but also the ability to keep our word. Christ as the High Priest is the [3737] faithful God. God is faithful (10:23). He is able to fulfill whatever He says. God never lies (6:18). Whatever He has spoken He is able to fulfill; He has every means to fulfill what He has spoken. Only God can be fully faithful. None of us can be completely faithful. In contrast, nothing can frustrate God from fulfilling His word. Jesus can be a faithful High Priest because He is the almighty God. Since He, as the Son of God, is God Himself, He is able to be faithful. Although, as the many sons of God and as the many brothers of the Firstborn, we are divine as well as human, we are not almighty. We are human in our human nature and divine in His divine nature, but we are not almighty in His deity. Since He is the almighty God, He can be faithful to us.

Christ can be a merciful and faithful High Priest because He is the Son of Man with the human nature and the Son of God with the divine nature. He is fully qualified. Our High Priest, Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Man, is both merciful and faithful because He is both God and man.

(3) To Make Propitiation for Their Sins

In His death Christ made propitiation for the sins of God’s people (2:17). The Greek word for propitiation here is hilaskomai which means to appease, to reconcile one by satisfying the other’s demand, that is, to propitiate. The Lord Jesus made propitiation for our sins to reconcile us to God by satisfying God’s righteous demands on us. Thus, He has appeased God for us.

Jesus made propitiation for our sins, thereby satisfying the demand of God’s righteousness and appeasing the relationship between God and us, that God may be peacefully gracious to us. He has settled every problem between us and God. Since we create problems between us and God, all of which need to be solved, every day we need to enjoy Christ as the propitiatory sacrifice, which appeases God for our situation.

He has made purification of sins (1:3). Thus, we should be at peace. Our sins have been purified. Although we must hate our sins, we need not be bothered by them. Christ has purified us of our sins once for all (7:27).

The first two chapters of Hebrews reveal that Christ as [3738] the Son of God, God Himself, through His incarnation, ascension, and glorification made Himself the same as we are and made us the same as He is. We are human, and He made Himself human. He is divine, and He made us to have the divine life and nature. Since He is such a man, and at the same time God Himself, He is superior to the angels. In chapter 1 Christ is God, and in chapter 2 He is man. He is the God-man, the mingling of God and man.

Chapter 1 of Hebrews reveals that Christ is the Son of God coming to speak, declare, and express God. As such a One He is superior to the angels. In chapter 2 He is the Son of Man going to be the Lord, the Christ, the Captain, and the Savior. His being our Lord, Christ, Captain, and Savior is not based mainly upon His divinity but upon His humanity. This is a very practical matter. It is because He is a man that He is the Lord, Christ, Captain, and Savior. Angels, who do not have humanity, can never be our Lord, Christ, Captain, and Savior. Only Christ in His humanity can be such a One to us. Furthermore, this humanity is not a natural humanity; it is a resurrected, uplifted, and ascended humanity, a humanity that is crowned with God’s glory and honor.

At this point it would be helpful to consider certain contrasts between Hebrews 1 and 2 in the way they reveal Christ for our experience and enjoyment. In chapter 1 Christ is the Son of God, but in chapter 2 He is the Son of Man (1:2, 5; 2:6). Chapter 1 also tells us that Christ is in the heavens, but chapter 2 says that He is on the earth (1:3, 13; 2:9, 14). In chapter 1 Christ is on the throne, but in chapter 2 He is in the church (1:3; 2:12). Chapter 1 says that Christ is at the right hand of God, but chapter 2 says that Christ is with the children whom God has given to Him (1:3; 2:13). In chapter 1 Christ is the One whom the angels of God worship, but in chapter 2 He is the One who praises God (1:6; 2:12). Finally, in chapter 1 Christ is the One in whom people trust, but in chapter 2 He is the One who is trusting (1:10-12; 2:13).