The Great Sacrificial Work of Christ Hebrews 2:14-18

In our great study of the book of Hebrews thus far, we have seen that Jesus Christ is superior to the Prophets in Hebrews 1:1-3 because the Prophets’ ministry was partial and fragmentary, however, Christ is superior to the Prophets because He is God’s final revelation.  Now, the author will prove unmistakably that Jesus is superior to the Angels in Hebrews 1:4-2:18.  He has proven that Angels were created and were servants who worshipped Christ, whereas Christ is the Creator, and the Son of God who will rule in the Millennium Kingdom.

Beginning in Hebrews 2:14-15, the author will discuss the fact that as the Son of Man, Christ accomplished a great sacrificial work for man.  First of all, as Son of Man, Christ delivered mankind from the fear of death (Hebrews 2:14-15).  In accomplishing this work of redemption for us, it was essential that God would become man in the person of Jesus Christ in order to taste death for us (Hebrews 2:9).  The only reason Jesus Christ was even for a little time lower than the Angels, was so He could pursue His loving mission in dying for sinful mankind.  The magnitude of Christ’s sacrifice for us is priceless and beyond our mental comprehension.  He died “for all humanity,” meaning that He took upon Himself the penalty due to fallen humanity, for II Corinthians 5:21 states: “For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”

By identifying with mankind in becoming human, and dying for mankind, Christ broke the power of sin and death.  Because Christ paid the ultimate penalty for our sins when He died and rose again from the dead, we should not allow our lives to be controlled and governed by the fear of death.  In His victory over sin, death, and the grave, not only did Christ deliver us from the fear of death, but He also deprived Satan of the power he had over us.  We have been delivered from Satan’s enslavement and have been given eternal life in Christ.  Speaking of the deliverance that we now have, the Apostle Paul writes: “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.  In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14).

In verses 16-18, another great accomplishment of Christ’s sacrificial work is that now He serves as our High Priest (Hebrews 2:16-18).  His great redemptive love toward mankind is revealed in that Christ came through the “seed of Abraham, and not through the nature of Angels” (v. 16).  In order to meet the need of mankind, Christ became one of the “seed of Abraham.”  In Genesis 12:3, God had promised that through Abraham “all families of the earth would be blessed.”  Christ was the offspring of Abraham who would bring that blessing.  Everyone who has faith in Christ, whether Jew or Gentile, is likewise a son of Abraham (Galatians 3:7, 27).  In becoming man, being victorious over death, Christ acts as our High Priest.  That He would even bother to come to earth as a man shows that He is “merciful” (Hebrews 2:17).  And because of what He experienced, He could identify with and understand the struggles that we face!

Yes, Christ knows about our struggles, our pains, sorrows and disappointments.  He is not unaware of the temptation that we encounter, for Hebrews 4:15 says: “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all pointed tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”   In Christ’s Priestly role, presently, He intercedes for us, but He also gave His life in the past for us.  He died on Calvary, was buried, but rose triumphantly from the grave.  He paid completely for our salvation, as the hymn writer records:

I hear the Savior say,
“Thy strength indeed is small;
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all.”

Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

May God Bless!