Introduction

Good morning again to you all!  Go ahead and open up to Hebrews, chapter 2, we will be covering verses 14-18 this morning.  We talked a little last week about a balanced view of Christ as both our Lord and our brother, our King and our friend, and how that view impacts our salvation and sanctification.  Fundamental to that balanced view is at least some understanding of the dual natures of Christ.  I say some understanding because I don’t think we can ever really grasp the concept of Christ as both fully God and fully man.  

Many in the past have tried, and failed, to reconcile the paradox of Christ’s nature by saying that Christ is less than the eternal God, even if ever so slightly.  This view, held by the Arians, was deemed heresy be the council of Nicaea in 325 and it was from that council that the church confessed of Christ that he was and is, “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father.” At the same time there were the Docetists who claimed that Jesus only appeared to be man (flesh) but was actually just God looking like man.  

In either case, these aren’t just theological squabbles about spiritual matters that don’t mean anything to us.  There certainly are theological squabbles not worth engaging but this isn’t one of them.  These are salvific matters and they have massive implications for our view of Christ and his nature.  In order for Christ to be worthy to help us he has to be the self-existent, perfect God.  In order for him to stand in our place though, he had to also be human, like us.  So when our text tells us this morning that “he himself likewise partook of the same things” we have to balance that against other passages that we have already covered in Hebrews that claim Jesus as Lord and God.  

This balanced view of Christ as both God and man is a necessary component of our salvation.  Sorry, not sorry for over emphasizing this, but faith in a Christ that is not fully God and fully man is not saving faith.  It’s not saving faith because that’s not who the bible says Jesus is and the word gives us very specific reasons why this is important.  Some of those will be covered in our text this morning and I will circle back around to this a few more times.  In the effort I will do my best at guiding us through 3 main topics as presented to us in the passage.  The first will be the work of Christ to defeat death and defeat the one who has power over death.  Secondly we will look at the work of Christ in atoning for or making propitiation for our sins.  Lastly, we will consider the present work of Christ as our help in times of temptation.  As always, I pray it pleases the Lord to teach us and comfort us this morning.  Stand with me once more as we read Hebrews 2: 14-18. 

14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Death Destroyed

I obviously wasn’t alive for this nor have I gone back and watched any of his shows or appearances but as I am told, in the 1960’s, a comedian rose to fame named Flip Wilson.  One of Mr. Wilson’s catchphrases was “The devil made me do it.”  As I understand, Wilson’s character would confess or get caught in all manner of things and deflect responsibility in a playful and humorous way saying, “the devil made me do it.”  This was obviously done in jest but such an attitude is unjokingly prevalent in our culture.  Not just deflecting responsibility because we see that all time, but even more subtly blaming sin and satan.  Whether or not we ever say it out loud comedicly on stage, most Christians, when we fall, whisper subconsciously in our hearts, the devil made me do it.  

The reason I know this to be true is because I see this attitude play out in friendly or peer to peer counseling and relationships all the time.  One confesses to another that they had a stressful day and snapped angrily at their kids and the response is always the same.  “Don’t beat yourself up about it, you are doing the best you can.” I do this same thing all the time but in this way we minimize the sin and maximize its power over us.  This is our way of saying that too often we are powerless to resist the temptation to sin and despite our efforts our wills aren’t stronger than the devils.  “Don’t beat yourself up, the devil made you do it.” The question is, is that true? 

14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil. 

What the word tells us this morning is that not only did Christ defeat death, a point we have often labored, but that he also defeated the one who has the power over death, that is the devil.  Not only was sin dealt with on the cross, which we will get to, not only was death dealt with on the cross but the devil was dealt with on the cross.  The strongman was bound, his power was vanquished, his head was crushed, he has nothing on you any longer.  

13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. 1 Corinthians 10:13

The context of that verse is in regards to idolatry, licentiousness, and grumbling against God.  More often than not we fail and we fall not because of the strength of the indwelling sin but because we subconsciously assume that we don’t possess the power to escape it.  We assume that a sinner is who I am so I will try but, you know, I am still a sinner.  

But that’s not really what we teach is it? I have had the great privilege of baptizing a number of you and what do we confess in baptism? I have been buried with Christ, that is dead to my former self and former sin, and am now raised to walk in new life, that is rebirth in him.   Death has been destroyed, amen and amen, but with that Christ has also destroyed the power of the thing and the one that brought death in the first place.  Why wouldn’t he do that? What fairy tale have you ever read or watched and when the curse is broken everything stays cloudy, dark, and gloomy. That sounds silly right? Of course when the curse is broken the fields turn green again and the flowers bloom and the birds come out of hiding and the blue sky opens up.  Then why do we still live under the shadow of what once was? 

I think one of those reasons is we don’t understand who Christ really was and what he came to do.  We think that we can make people’s lives better when we emphasize that Christ came to Earth and was just like you and me and he came to serve as the perfect moral standard for us to live by.  Or that Christ came to make our lives better or to heal us from all our ailments.  He certainly can do those things for us but only when we see him for who he really was.  He was and is God and in Christ, God took upon himself the same flesh and blood, that is our nature, so that through his death, he might destroy the enemy.  God died to break the curse and to free us from the result of sin, that is death and also the bondage of sin.  

This is why Christ came to us.  He came to die and in dying, coupled with his subsequent resurrection, he defeated death, he defeated satan and he freed us from lifelong slavery.  Can a man who is less than God do that? Can a God who only appears to be man do that? No, we needed a God and we needed a brother and Christ was both for us and because he was, you are, or can be, free.  Because of the curse breaking, death destroying God-man, you don’t have to sin anymore.  The question of will you is another one altogether and we certainly still will because our wills are weak from their slavery and we have yet to be perfected so in that respect, don’t beat yourself up, but we have been freed.  You can, by the power of the spirit, resist sin and temptation.  You can be transformed into the likeness of Christ starting today.  You can walk joyfully in the glorious light, under the blue sky and blooming flowers of our blessed savior. In that respect, I reject Flip Wilson’s comedic sentiments, for the Christian, the devil can’t make you do anything.  We have been freed from his slavery and now walk according to the spirit of Christ. To the praise, honor and glory of our gracious Savior, Brother and King. 

Atoned for Sins

The second thing we need to pull from our text this morning is the reality that Christ has atoned for our sins.  The word used by our text is a word not often in our vocabulary but an important word none-the-less.  This word is propitiation.  Let’s define this.  Propitiation is the act of appeasing the anger or wrath of another by some action or gesture.  In biblical terms it is much more than just calming an angry God down, it is satisfying that anger and wrath and bringing about reconciliation between the two parties.  

Man in general and each man and woman specifically had built up a sin debt with a holy God to such a degree that this debt could never be paid.  As large as the US debt is today, it is tiny compared to the debt we owed God.  This massive, unpayable sin debt, brought the anger and wrath of God upon us and these debts had to be paid.  How would it ever be possible to pay these debts and appease the wrath of God against us? Here is what Anselm says about it, written sometime before the year 1100. 

“It could not have been done unless man paid what was owing to God for sin. But the debt was so great that, while man alone owed it, only God could pay it, so that the same person must be both man and God. Thus it was necessary for God to take manhood into the unity of his person, so that he who in his own nature ought to pay and could not should be in a person who could.”

Going back again to what I said at the beginning, saving faith requires a belief in a savior who is fully God and fully man because only God can pay our debts but it was only man who owed them.  

So to say that Christ atoned for our sins, what we mean is that God took on manhood, that he became like us in every respect, so that he could pay our debts and propitiate the father’s wrath.  To use the high priestly language that our passage uses, Christ, standing as a priestly mediator for us, offered himself on the altar as a sufficient payment for our sins and in doing so paid the eternal debt to the father that we owed.  God became like us, to pay the debt for us, and free us from sin forever.  To quote Dr. Phillips again, 

This is why Jesus was born into this world, so that by his death as both God and man he might break the hold of death and set us free, while making propitiation to the holy wrath of God against our sins. As one of our great Christmas carols puts it: “Good Christian men, rejoice with heart and soul and voice; now ye need not fear the grave: Jesus Christ was born to save.”

I would be remiss If I passed on the opportunity to call us again to repentance in light of this wonderful work of Christ.  I am not sure how that makes you feel to hear of Christ’s work of propitiation.  Perhaps relief or joy that you have been saved by such a difficult situation.  Can I push you towards an emotion that you may try to avoid? 

Behold the man upon a cross,

My sin upon His shoulders;

Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice

Call out among the scoffers.

It was my sin that held Him there

Until it was accomplished;

His dying breath has brought me life –

I know that it is finished.

We sent the prince of glory to a rugged cross.  You didn’t drive the nails but your sin pierced his hands and his side.  Sin is personal and often we talk about sin as though it is some abstract, third party who has come in and caused a mess.  No, our brother and our Lord, in a state grief and sorrow beyond our imagination, sweated blood under the stress of the torture he was to endure on account of you and me.  This is personal and it should be because Christ didn’t atone for abstract, third party sins, he atoned for the sins of the people.  He went to the cross for you, because of you.  Repent then and receive his grace.  Feel the Godly sorrow for the debts you incurred and cry out “my Lord, what have I done to you?”  To which his reply is, “come to me all who are weary and heavy ladened and I will give you rest.” I feel quite certain that because of the great love with which he loved us our Lord would go to cross 1,000 times if he had to but because of the infinite value of his sacrifice he only had to go once.  It is finished.  The debt has been paid. Freedom from that sorrow and sin has been won.  Won’t we receive this morning the blessed forgiveness and peace offered to us by our faithful high priest? That is why the word became flesh and is perhaps the greatest of his many wonderful works for us.  

Our High Priest

The final point I want to touch on in our text is his ability and promise to help us in our temptation.  This is, of course, his continued role as our high priest forever.  Jesus is a great help to us because he has been tempted so greatly.  His temptation was far beyond anything we will ever experience and yet he endured.  

This brings up the question how could God really be tempted if he could not sin. This connects with the doctrine of impeccability we talked about a couple weeks ago.  One need not give in to temptation nor even have the ability to give into temptation to be greatly tempted from without.  This is the argument that B.F. Westcott makes when he says, 

Sympathy with the sinner in his trial does not depend on the experience of sin but on the experience of the strength of the temptation to sin, which only the sinless can know in its full intensity. He who falls yields before the last strain.

That is to say that when one gives in to temptation the strain of temptation necessarily goes away.  So to say that one must be greatly tempted because they keep failing is actually backwards.  Those temptations are not great because they are given in to before they have a chance to be great temptations.  But Christ, having never given in to a lifelong of temptation, in his human nature would have been under an unimaginable strain.  

Quite literally the weight of humanity was on his shoulders. So to say that he can sympathize with our temptations and that he is able to help us is a true statement. It doesn’t necessarily matter whether he could have given in to the temptations or not, he was clearly under the unrelenting strain of temptation and as a result, is able to sympathize with us in ours.  

We have further evidence to this in the fact that Christ sympathized with us emotionally while he was on the Earth.  He wept when Lazarath was in the grave, he got angry when God was mocked or when sin was blatant.  He often showed compassion for and defended the helpless, the lame, the blind, and the weak.  He was tender and merciful and also blunt and direct.  We see all of these things in Christ that demonstrate to us that he truly was like us in every respect.  God really took on humanity. 

Because he was like you and also still God he is the great and final high priest who is worthy to help you and able to help you unlike any other.  

Conclusion

As always, a few more bits of application as we close.  First, the text shows us that in Christ, the shadow of the fear of death has been lifted.  How much of our lives is spent trying to avoid death? How much of our brain space is spent fearing death or considering all the ways you will further try to avoid it.  I am not saying be foolish and stop trying to avoid death altogether.  Please, take care of yourself but just like with sin, Christ accomplished work really has given us freedom from the fear of death.  Again, I am not saying it’s ever going to fully leave your mind but be assured this morning that your life is in the hands of Christ.  

Walk freely and joyfully today that Satan doesn’t have the power over death for you. Professor Greg Nicholas said that such a truth should give us the strength to walk invincibly today knowing that your life is completely in the hands of our wonderful savior.  Again, let me stress, don’t take that to the extreme, be wise but trust in Christ. 

Secondly, The text teaches by way of implication, to learn from our temptations, failures, and sufferings that we may be an extension of Christ’s help to others.  The Westminster Confession of Faith says this, 

The most wise, righteous, and gracious God doth oftentimes leave for a season his own children to manifold temptations and the corruption of their own hearts, to chastise them for their former sins, or to discover unto them the hidden strength of corruption and deceitfulness of their hearts, that they be humbled;a and to raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their support unto himself, and to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin, and for sundry other just and holy ends.

Certainly much of what we go through in life is for the purpose of our own sanctification and continued dependence on God.  Along with that though, our text shows that the endurance of and passing through various temptations enable us to be a better help to those going through similar trials.  If Christ is able to help us because he has walked where we walked then we too, are able to help those who are presently walking where we have walked.  This is a reframing of our temptations and trials as required education and sympathy to further serve our brothers and sisters in Christ.  This Christianity business is a selfless affair.  

Finally, the text calls us to faith in his work and unending joy on account of what he has done for us. One more quote, this from Phillip Ryken,

People are saying all the time today, lamenting in this world of woe, “Where is God? Why doesn’t he do something?” Meanwhile, he has done everything, indeed, more than ever we could ask or imagine. God has entered into our world. He has walked through the dust of this earth. He who is life has wept before the grave, and he who is the Bread of Life has felt the aching of hunger in his belly. Is there anything more lovely in all of Scripture than the scenes of Jesus supping with the weak and the weary, the sinners and the publicans? He has taken the thorns that afflict this sin-scarred world and woven them into a crown to be pressed upon his head. And he has stretched open his arms in love, that the hands that wove creation might be nailed to a wooden cross. Then he rose from the dead, conquering all that would conquer us, setting us free to live in peace and joy before the face of God.

We have so much to be thankful and joyful for.  This is the wonderful work of Christ, that he became like you in every respect to save you from your sins and to give you peace and everlasting joy.  Won’t you receive his work this morning? As a preview to next week, hear the words of the great advent song..

Come, thou long-expected Jesus, born to set thy people free; from our fears and sins release us; let us find our rest in thee.… 

Come to earth to taste our sadness, he whose glories knew no end; by his life he brings us gladness, our Redeemer, Shepherd, Friend.

Amen.

Bibliography

Phillips, Richard D. 2006. Hebrews. Edited by Richard D. Phillips, Philip Graham Ryken, and Daniel M. Doriani. Reformed Expository Commentary. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016)