Hebrews 2:5-18 - The Exaltation of Christ for Us

This is our third video in our study with Tim Nichols on the book of Hebrews. We study Hebrews 2:5-18, including reflections on Psalm 8 and Isaiah 8. Mankind, and Christ in particular, was made lower than the angels. As Christ will be exalted above them, so to will we. How does knowing this help us today?
Link to full playlist: • Hebrews: A Verse by Ve...
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Chapter times:
0:00 - Introduction and context
1:55 - Verses 5-8 (Including reflection on Psalm 8)
7:42 - Verse 9
14:58 - Verse 10
16:20 - Verse 11-12
20:06 - Verse 13 (Including reflection on Isaiah 8)
27:12 - Verse 14-15
28:32 - Verse 16
29:43 - Verse 17
29:43 - Verse 18
33:52 - Additional thoughts on the suffering and humanity of Christ
39:36 - Additional thoughts on the purpose of theology and on knowing God
47:42 - Concluding thoughts
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Moderation policy: We try to approve all comments, even those that disagree with our arguments, as I think that spurs honest discussion. Posts containing profanity or unsolicited sales, however, whether for or against the positions presented in the videos will be immediately removed.

[@k.c.klarner5713]

His Be the Victors Name His be the Victor’s Name Who fought the fight alone; Triumphant saints no honor claim; Their conquest was His own. 2. By weakness and defeat He won the glorious crown; Trod all His foes beneath His feet By being trodden down. Just my thought when I listened. Christ won us…

[@GulfsideMinistries]

I don't hear enough preaching on Christus Invictus today. We sing some sings that mention His victory over death or over the grave, but it would do the church some real good to meditate on this theme much more deeply than we do.

[@user-mn8gk2jf8h]

Love what you guys are doing. I have two questions: 1. When Jesus as our Captain presents his children (paidia) to God (2:13), what is the setting of this "presentation"? He has already said he is "bringing many sons (huious) to glory"; is this the Hebrews equivalent of Jn 17:6-17 about the "men" (anthropoi) the Father had given Jesus, now on the eve of his glorification, that they too might be perfected like Jesus by accepting his "help" (Heb 2:14-18)? If so, might this suggest that not only are they sanctified in the stative sense of 2:11, as Tim pointed out, but they are also "being sanctified" as in Jn 17:17, since the paidia are not yet "one" as Jesus and the Father are already One? (Indeed, in the case of the Hebrews audience, they are at risk of moving in the opposite direction of "forsaking their assembling.") 2. Related to this, Tim didn't unpack the thrust of propitiation in 2:17, though Chris teed it up as a "done deal" that should reassure the reader. I'm wondering if the author is planting the seed here of "cleansing the conscience" through Jesus' blood as "ongoingly" available in the process of being perfected through suffering, just like Jesus was, though in his case without sin. Could we invoke a parallel in 1 Jn 1:5-2:2 where we also see Jesus' blood "helping" to sustain fellowship with the Father and His Son Jesus as a propitiation for "ongoing" sin in order to perfect them in becoming more like "Jesus, the Righteous One" (2:1-2, cf. 3:3)? If so, might this suggest that the category of perfection at stake, and in which ongoing propitiation would "help" them, would be in their reciprocal love (2:5; 4:9-12)? (Again, such would be precluded by abandoning fellowship, cf. 1:3, 7, 9.)

[@user-mn8gk2jf8h]

To expand on my first question, I listened again to Tim's comment on the Isaianic context of judgment and the Hebrews setting of the impending judgment of Jerusalem in AD 70. So, how does this transfer to the contemporary context? Does this temporal judgment of those first century believers who returned to Jewish worship have some eschatological parallel in the loss of shared glory to be faced at the Judgment Seat of Christ for present faithlessness/apostasy, as the author will go on to describe in 6:4-8?

[@3DTheopoetics]

@@user-mn8gk2jf8h This is a great question, but I wonder why we rush to find an eschatological application? Isaiah isn’t speaking about the end of days, and the author of Hebrews isn’t either, quite. There are eschatological implications, to be sure, and he’s begun to hint at them, but let’s not skip this world in our zeal to understand the next. Continued association with God’s people gets us what God gives His people in this life, and forsaking God’s people to re-associate with the wicked world gets us what God visits upon the wicked world in this life. Today, defectors don’t have to worry about the promised judgment on Jerusalem, but it’s not as if we live in a society that has nothing to fear from divine judgment. What’s immediately at stake for readers today depends on who and where they are. If it’s one of my guys on the streets, it may be the perils of exposure and addiction followed by death by OD in a Burger King bathroom (not making that example up, by the way). Part of the problem contemporary North American Christians have reading Hebrews is that they can’t see the temporal consequences of abandoning fellowship with the saints, and the reason they can’t see the consequences is that they’re already paying them. Most American Christians are so far from obeying what Hebrews says to do that they can’t wrap their minds around what obedience would even look like - about which much more to come. Stay tuned!

[@3DTheopoetics]

As to the setting of the presentation in 2:13, look back to 2:11 - He IS not ashamed. It’s happening now. Come boldly to the Lord for help; He is not ashamed of you. He presents you NOW before the throne of grace, so that you can receive help NOW in order to grow into the inheritor you should become. As to ongoing propitiation, that’s not a thing, but the author hasn’t gotten to that yet. At the moment he’s focused on foregrounding Jesus as High Priest; a detailed discussion of how that works is yet to come. But it’s coming - it’s the main point of the book, in fact! (8:1-2)