Hebrews 2:11

(11) For both he that sanctifieth . . .—The special meaning of “sanctify” in this Epistle (Heb_9:13; Heb_10:10; Heb_10:14; Heb_10:29; Heb_13:12) seems to be, bringing into fellowship with God, the Holy One. “They who are sanctified”—literally, are being sanctified (comp. Act_2:47; 1Co_1:18)—are those whom the Captain of their salvation, in fulfilment of the Father’s purpose (Heb_2:10), is leading unto glory. The thoughts of the last verse, therefore, are repeated here, with a change of figure; and again (as in Heb_2:9) we note the brief reference to a subject which will be prominent in later chapters; see especially Heb_13:12.

Are all of one.—Of one Father. This is the connecting link between Heb_2:11 and Heb_2:10, which speaks of the “many sons” and their Saviour. Though His sonship is unique and infinitely exalted, He is not ashamed to own them as brethren.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Heb_2:11-13

He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one.

The unity of Christ and His people

1. A description of the work which Christ has come to accomplish for His people. He is described as He that sanctifieth, and His people as they who are sanctified. Jesus sanctifies both Himself and His people with His own blood, expiating and purging away their sins, and fitting them, and Himself as their Surety, for coming with acceptance into the presence of the holy God. This is the great end of the Saviours mighty undertaking, to bring His people near to God. To a creature with a moral nature like man, distance from God is misery--it is death. Thus He is in our text most comprehensively, as well as appropriately, described as He that sanctifieth. We say, most comprehensively; for this is the sum of all that He accomplishes as the Saviour of His people--most appropriately, for the word as here used carries us back to the shedding of blood needful for sanctification under the law, and suggests the necessity of the fact which the apostle is expounding, that Jesus, in sanctifying Himself and His people, should in common with them both suffer and die.

2. The declaration of the reason why the Son of God, in sanctifying His people, must Himself of necessity be a sufferer. The ordinance of consecration for the priesthood under the law suggests this necessity; yet the question remains, whence the necessity of the shedding of blood? Our text answers this question--He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one. Here is the essence of the Divine scheme for sinners redemption.

I. WHATSOEVER IS THEIRS IS MADE HIS.

1. Their sin. One man may spontaneously make himself liable for his neighbours debt but a husband is necessarily liable for the debts of his wife, because they are all of one. This is only a shadow of Christs hability for the sin of His people. Like the husband, Christ may be regarded as having spontaneously assumed the relation of unity with His spouse, but having become one flesh with her, He is, voluntarily indeed, yet necessarily, liable for her debts.

2. Jesus having thus become chargeable with the guilt of His peoples sin, became subject to its penal effects. With their sin their suffering also is made His.

3. With their sin their death also is made His. Death was from the beginning the appointed penalty of sin.

II. WHAT IS CHRISTS IS TRANSFERRED TO HIS PEOPLE.

1. His righteousness is made theirs (2Co_5:21). Thus the holy God can look with complacency on the ungodly believing in Jesus. Not that He esteems less hateful their sin. Not that He esteems less honourable His own law, but He accepts them in the beloved, and He is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

2. His death is made theirs. He had obeyed as His peoples surety and head. In the same capacity He died. Thus, when He died on the Cross, His people died in Him. If one died for all, then were all dead, or then have all died. This is the glorious security of His people, that having died in their surety, their salvation, in the most important some of the word, is already accomplished.

3. Christs resurrection, as well as His death, is made theirs. In the person of their Head they have already risen and taken possession of their inheritance. (Alex. Anderson.)

Sanctification

I. SANCTIFICATION CONSISTS OF TWO ACTIONS.

1. Separation.

2. Renovation.

II. SANCTIFICATION IS CARRIED ON BY TWO AGENTS.

1. He that sanctifieth. The Holy Spirit works in man to will and to do.

2. They who are sanctified. There must be acquiescence on our part. The Spirit influences: we act. He teaches: we believe. (Homilist.)

Mans Redeemer--His humanity, function, and fraternalness

I. THE HUMANITY OF CHRIST. All of one--one nature. His humanity serves to

1. Enlist our sympathies.

2. Encourage our hopes.

II. THE FUNCTION OF CHRIST. TO make man holy. He that sanctifieth. This work of His

1. He has undertaken in sovereign love.

2. Is indispensable to our well-being.

III. THE FRATERNALNESS OF CHRIST. Not ashamed to call us brethren. Then

1. Let us not be afraid to approach Him.

2. Let us not be ashamed of His followers, however humble. (Homilist.)

Christ and His brethren

This word for noteth a cause of that which was said before; and he had said this. He that leadeth other into the glory of God by the same way he must enter also himself. He addeth now the cause and ground of that saying, because they must be of one nature, both He that leadeth and they that are led into this salvation. A proof and declaration that it is so is added by the apostle in the residue of the verse, And for this cause He is not ashamed to call us brethren: whereunto is straight addled the testimony of Psa_22:1-31., out of which he proveth it, I will show forth Thy name unto My brethren: in the midst of the congregation I will praise Thee. Now where it is said here, He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one, we have to consider that even in the manhood of our Saviour Christ is virtue and grace, in which He doth sanctify us. For not only as He is God He sanctifieth us, but also in His human nature He hath this virtue and power to make us holy; not taking His nature such from the Virgin Mary, but making it such by pouring into it the fulness of His Spirit. The holiness which the apostles had in their calling they had it from Jesus Christ, made man, and walking in that vacation before them. Even so it is with us. All that is good in us, and all the righteousness that can be in us, we have it neither out of the east, nor west, but from the body of Jesus Christ, neither is there in the world any other sanctification. Even as our hands and arms and other members are not nourished but only by the meat received of the head, so our spiritual meat of righteousness and life is not given us but from our Head, Jesus Christ. And as the veins are moans by which nourishment is conveyed to every part, so faith is the means by which we receive from Christ all that is healthful unto us. And as by joints and sinews our members are really knit and made a body unto the head, so really, by one Spirit we be knit unto Christ as perfectly one with Him as our members are one with our head. And where it is said here, He that doth sanctify, showing the present time and the work still doing, it teacheth us that our sanctification hath a daily increase, and when it is fully accomplished, then God calleth and our days are at an end. And let us note this well, if we be Christians we are still sanctified by the Spirit of Christ, for so it was in Him. He grew still in grace before God and men. If thou be grafted into His body thou hast His Spirit, and it will have His work in thee. Thou shalt not be weary of well-doing, nor cease to rejoice in God thy Saviour, but still increase in spiritual grace till thou come to the age of the fulness of Christ. It followeth, For this cause He is not ashamed to call us brethren. Upon good cause the apostle saith, He is not ashamed, for if He humbled not Himself in great love of us, how justly might He account it shame to be as we are? He that made heaven and earth, He that is the immortal and glorious God, one with His Father, before whom all angels do obey and all princes ate earth and ashes; ought we not to say, seeing it pleaseth Him to acknowledge us, that are but poor ,creatures, that He is not ashamed of us? And if His highness abased itself to our low estate, and was not ashamed, let us learn to be wise and know what the Lord requireth of us for all the good which He hath done unto us. He saith in the gospel, He that is ashamed of Me and My words before men, I will be ashamed of him before My Father which is in heaven. Pride, or flattery, or covetousness, or vanity, or fear, or what you will, may make us now ashamed to confess him, or to dissemble that ever we know Him; but when all this corruption is taken from us, and the grave and death shall take their own, our former foolishness will make us so afraid that we will pray unto the hills to hide us, but vows and wishes shall be but foolish thoughts. It followeth, I will declare Thy name unto My brethren. We are called the brethren of Christ, not in society of flesh and blood, for that the wicked have with Him as well as we, who are yet no brethren, but strangers even from the womb. But as they are natural brethren, which are born of the same parents, so we are brethren with Christ, that are burn of God, through the same Spirit, by which we cry, Abba, Father, the fruit whereof is in glorifying His name, even as our Saviour Christ saith, He that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven, he is My brother (Mat_12:48). And when it is further said, In the midst of the congregation I will praise Thee. First, here we must needs confess what duty is among men, even that they edify one another; for as many as are of Christ are called in this covenant: I will declare Thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will praise Thee. The graces of God are not such that they can be looked up in our hearts or kept secret, but they will burn within like fire, and make us speak with our tongues, that we may make, many brethren partakers of our joy. And tell me, I beseech you, what man excelleth in anything, and hath not a delight to speak of his cunning? Doth not the shipman talk of the winds, the ploughman of his oxen? Will not the soldier be reckoning up his wounds, and the shepherd telling of his sheep? So it is with us if we be the brethren of Christ. The covenant of our kindred is, I will declare Thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will praise Thee. Let them know this, all to whom it is spoken, and let them discern between hypocrites and true Christians. Some think it a praise to be close men, secret to themselves, that by their words you shall never know them, of what religion they be. Those men, where they think they hide themselves most, there they lay widest open their shame, and while they think to keep it secret of what religion they are, this their dissimulation proclaimeth it louder than the blast of a trumpet that they be of no religion at all; at all, I say, touching any religion of God; for if it were of Him it would show forth His praise, and what their heart believed their mouth would confess it. We are ashamed to exhort men to do well; we are not ashamed to provoke them to sin. We are ashamed to minister talk of faith and religion; we are not ashamed of rotten and unclean works of wantonness. We are ashamed to speak to the praise of God; we are not ashamed to blaspheme His name. We are ashamed of Christ; we are not ashamed of the devil. The prophet David was a good scholar in this doctrine. When he opened his mouth unto God and vowed, I will speak of Thy name before kings, and will not be ashamed (Psa_145:21; Psa_119:46). Pray, dearly beloved, that we may be partakers of the same grace. It followeth now in the 13th verse, And again, I will put my trust in Him. This psalm the prophet made when he was delivered from the layings of wait of Saul and from all his enemies; wherein, as he was a figure of Christ, so it is most properly and truly verified in Christ that he said of himself. Now, because the apostle allegeth this to prove our Saviour Christ to be man like unto us, mark how the argument followeth. Christ saith, I will put My trust in God; but it were a very improper speech, and such as the Scripture never useth to say, God will trust in God. Therefore there must be a nature in our Saviour Christ inferior to His Godhead, in which he speaketh thus: I will trust in Him, and that was His perfect humanity like unto ours, in which we saw Him subject to peril, and how, according to His trust, God His Father delivered Him. And here the apostle allegeth such Scripture for proof of the manhood of Christ, as also proveth that He is our King; for where he saith, I will trust in Him, it noteth that Christ was not weak in faith, but assuredly trusted in the power of God His Father, that He should overcome the devil. And let us here learn for our instruction when we have had experience of Gods benefits, as the prophet had, let us vow as he did--we will pat our trust in Him. When David remembered how God had delivered him from a lion and a bear, he was not afraid of the uncircumcised Philistine. When St. Paul had reckoned so many calamities out of which God had delivered him, he boasted of a holy hope, and said he was sure that ever God would deliver him. Another testimony yet followeth to prove the humanity of our Saviour Christ, and it is this: Behold Me, and the children which Thou hast given Me. This is written in the eighth of Isaiah, in which chapter the prophet foretelleth the captivity of the Israelites by the king of Ashur, how it is determined of God that the people, for all their rebellions, should surely perish; but yet so that God, for His Churchs sake, would bridle their rage, and save some who might praise His name. These threatenings and promises both, while the people contemptuously reject, the Lord biddeth the prophet cease, and bind up these promises for another people that should believe; and then the prophet answering again to God, in acknowledging all His truth and goodness, saith thus: Behold, I and the children that God hath given me. Now, here we must learn as the apostle teacheth. Was the prophet Isaiah a man like unto his children, that is, like unto those which obeyed his word? Then was our Saviour Christ perfect man, like unto us, whom He hath delivered from sin and death. And if He have saved us He hath saved those whom God hath given Him, flesh of His flesh, and bone of His bone; for this is His intercession unto His Father, Behold Me and My children One other thing we must learn in this. There was an apostasy of all men, so that they which believed were made as signs and wonders; yet howsoever the world was the prophet saith, Behold me and my children. Such shall be the days of Christ, many shall fall away, religion and faith shall be persecuted, iniquity shall abound. What, then? Our Saviour Christ saith, Lo, I and My children. If the whole world fall away, we would not regard their multitude to follow them to do evil, but we would alone stand with the Lord our God. We must further mark in these words that the prophet saith, Behold the children which Thou hast given me. In that it is said, God hath given us to His Son Christ, it teacheth us to acknowledge His free gift and grace; and let none of us think there was any wisdom in ourselves why we would choose Him, nor any constancy in us, by which we could cleave unto Him; but God in His grace drew us, that we might come unto Him, and with His power He strengthened us, that we should abide with Him. (E. Deering, B. D.)

Unity of Sanctifier and sanctified

The assertion that the Sanctifier and the sanctified are all of one may be conceived of as answering two questions naturally arising out of Heb_2:10, to which it furnishes no explicit answer. First, Christ is called the Captain or Loader of salvation: how does He contribute to salvation? Is He simply the first of a series who pass through suffering to glory? or does He influence all the sons whom God brings to glory so as to contribute very materially to the great end in view, their reaching the promised land? Second, what is the condition of His influence? what is the nexus between Him and them, the Leader and the led, that enables Him to exert over them this power? The answer to the former question is, Christ saves by sanctifying; the answer to the latter, that He and the sanctified are one. The answer in the first case is given indirectly by the substitution of one title for another, the Leader of salvation being replaced by the Sanctifier; the answer in the second ease is given directly, and forms the doctrine of the text: the Sanctifier and the sanctified are all of one. This statement I regard as the enunciation of a principle; by which is meant that the unity asserted is involved in the relation of Sanctifier to sanctified. Whether there be only one or many exemplifications of the relation is immaterial. Though only one Sanctifier were in view or possible, the proposition would still continue to be of the nature of a principle. The point is, that Christ, as Sanctifier, must be one with those whom e sanctifies, could not otherwise perform for them that function. The Sanctifier is holy, the sanctified when He takes them in hand are unholy. That being so, it needs to be said that, notwithstanding the separation between the parties, there is a unity between them surmounting the difference. And that can be said with truth, for otherwise the two parties could not stand in the relation of Sanctifier to sanctified; they could only stand permanently apart as holy and unholy. Unity is involved in the nature of the case. That is precisely what the writer means to say. He states the truth as an axiom, which he expects even his dull-minded readers to accept immediately as true; and he means to use it as a key to the cardinal facts of Christs human experience. Unity to some extent or in some sense is involved, that is clear. But in what sense, to what extent? This is not plainly indicated. The style at this point becomes noticeably laconic; the sentence lacks a verb, and is worn down to the fewest words possible, after the manner of a proverb, For the Sanctifier and the sanctified of one all. Does it not look as if his purpose were to lay stress, not on descent from one God, one Divine Father, bat rather on the result, the brotherhood or comradeship existing between the two parties? Is not his idea that Sanctifier and sanctified are all of one piece, one whole, two parties welded into one, having everything in common except character? From whatever point of view, the ritual or the ethical, we regard the Sanctifiers function, this becomes apparent on reflection. Conceive Christ first as Sanctifier in the ethical sense, as Captain or Leader of salvation; it is evident that in that capacity it behoved Him to be in all possible respects one with those He took in hand to sanctify. For in this case the sanctifying power of Jesus lies in His example, His character, His history as a man. Be makes men beloving in Him holy by reproducing in His own life the lost ideal of human character, and bringing that ideal to bear on their minds; by living a true, godly life amid the same conditions of trial as those by which they are surrounded, and helping them to be faithful by inspiration and sympathy. The more genuinely human He is, and the more closely the conditions of His human life resemble ours, the greater His influence over us. His power to sanctify depends on likeness in nature, position, and experience. Conceive Christ next as Sanctifier in the ritual sense, as a Priest, consecrating us for the service of God by the sacrifice of Himself; and the same need for a pervading, many-sided unity is apparent. The Priest must be one with His clients in Gods sight, their accepted representative; so that what He does is done in their name and avails for their benefit. He must be one with them in death, for it is by His death in sacrifice that He makes propitiation for their sins. He must be one with them in the possession of humanity, for unless He become partaker of human nature He cannot die. Finally, He must be one with them in experience of trial and temptation, for thereby is demonstrated the sympathy which wins trust, and unless the Priest be trusted it is in vain that He transacts. (A. B. Bruce, D. D.)

All men are brethren in Christ

If Christ and we are all of one, much more are we among ourselves. A king and a beggar are of one; a rich man and a poor man are of one; a fair and beautiful man or woman and they that want beauty are of one. We descended all of Adam, and were taken out of the dust of the ground; therefore let us not insult one over another. The wax that hath the print of the kings seal on it is the same in substance with the wax that hath the point of the seal of a mean man; yet it is honoured in that the kings seal is set on it. So we are all of one weak and waxy nature, save that it pleaseth God to set a more honourable print upon one than on another. Therefore, let us not think highly of ourselves, and condemn our brethren, but submit to them of low degree, using the greatness that God hath given us, to the glory of the Giver. (W. Jones, D. D.)

Christ not ashamed to call us brethren

1. As Christ is not ashamed to call us brethren, so let us do nothing so near as we can that may shame this our Brother. Is it not a shame that the kings brother should be a common drunkard, whoremaster, or such like? Doth not the king take himself disgraced by it? And shall we that are brethren to the King of kings take such courses as that great ignominy should redound to Christ by it? As He is not ashamed to call us brethren, so let us do nothing that may pull a shame on Him and His gospel.

2. Can a brother that is a wealthy man, of fair revenues, and ample possessions, see any of his brethren go begging? Will he not rather receive him to his own house, and set him at his table? Christ, which is the Lord of heaven and earth, is our brother; therefore let us fear no want so long as we fear Him. This may be a comfort to us in all our calamities, that Christ and we are brethren. (W. Jones, D. D.)

Christ the Restorer of the Divine ideal of humanity

As some noble ruin can be best restored by one who possesses the original model or some other key to the builders design, so the Saviours fitness for His office is partly found in the fact that He has in Himself the perfect type of regenerated humanity. The presentation of His life at once shows men what they ought to become, and summons and incites them to its attainment. (W. Landels, D. D.)

Not ashamed to call them brethren

Christ not ashamed to call us brethren

I. CHRIST OUR BROTHER. In all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren. Human nature was divided by the ancients into body, soul, and spirit. Take this tripartite nature of man and see how like He is to us in all things.

1. The body. He was an hungered. All the pains and anguish of intense hunger were felt by Him--Brother then to all the poor and hungry! He thirsted. On the Cross He said, I thirst--Brother then to all who in any way thirst! He knew what the pleasures of life were. He was a guest at feasts--Brother then of these who know the dangers of plenty! He was weary. He was asleep in the boat after His long toil. He sat weary with travel and heat by the well--Brother then to all who are weary! He suffered bodily pain--Brother then of every sufferer! He died--Brother then to each of us in that He died!

2. The soul. He was our Brother in experiencing a shrinking from death in manifesting human benevolence, compassion, and sympathy; in associating with humanity; in displaying love for children; in having private and special friendship for a few; in knowing the anguish of unrequited affection; and in manifesting human self-respect.

3. The spirit. There was that wonderful depression that came upon Him at different times. We have the agony of spirit in Gethsemane and on the

Cross. He felt what it is to seem to be forsaken of God and all we can comprehend by being apprehensive of spiritual gloom, and the fear of being deserted by God. Again, He was tempted, and He had all the faculties and capacities to which temptations are applied and adapted. Once more, He was made perfect through sufferings. For both He that sanctifieth--Jesus--and they who are sanctified--the followers of Jesus--are all of one. He was a sharer with us in discipline by the salve Father, and in sanctification by the same Spirit, journeying to the same heavenly glory. Thus in all points He was made like unto His brethren.

II. CHRIST IS NOT ASHAMED OF THE RELATIONSHIP.

Two brothers may be born in the same cottage, fed from the same breast and trencher, trained at the same school, and one of them may rise in social position, but with seeming greatness unite real littleness and be ashamed of his brother who continues a humble cottager. Or one may live a life of sensuality and bring disgrace on the family name, and the other be distinguished for virtue and benevolence, and the virtuous man may be ashamed of his brother. Or, one may have shown kindness continually to his brother and the other have repelled it by constant hostility and ingratitude, so that at last the other may be ashamed of him. Judging after the manner of men might not Christ be ashamed of us? But He is not.

1. Because of His mighty disinterested love. He loved us when we were unlovely and had no love to Him. Human love, when deep and true, is never ashamed of the lowliness of its object. A truly noble nature recognises a friend the more he needs help

2. Because He knows us thoroughly. Nothing is hidden from Him. He knows all our imperfections, and is not ashamed of us.

3. Because He knows what good is in us, for He put it there. He knows that at the bottom of our hearts, in spite of infirmities and shortcomings, we do love Him. Beneath the faded exterior and withered blossom and leaf He sees the living germ that shall bud and blossom and bear fruit. He sees the first homeward step of the prodigal, the first fear, and hears the first stammering prayer. And is this the Jesus that some of you are rejecting? Is this the Christ that some of you are ashamed to own? Surely you do not know who it is you thus treat with neglect. He is mans best friend, our true Brother. Accept His salvation and rejoice in His love. What an honour it is to have such a Brother! We may be obscure in the world, but we may look up and say, The King of kings upon the throne of the heavenly Majesty is one who is not ashamed of me; He calls me His brother. How safe we are! What harm can come to us when He who rules the universe is our Brother? (Newman Hall, LL. B.)

Christians joint-heirs with Christ

Jesus, the elder Brother, gets nothing apart from those whom He is not ashamed to call His brethren. The law of primogeniture does not appear in the statute-book of heaven. We, the rightful heirs of wrath, are made heirs in common with Jesus. He will have nothing that He will not share with us. We are even now highly exalted with Him, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come; for we are the Church, which is His body. (T. W. Medhust.)

The Brother born for adversity

One main work of the gospel is to give men the right to claim the sympathy, the care, and the help of God. A right. God has brought Himself by His own act within the region of rights and obligations. The relation of Creator and creature is superseded; that of Father and child, Saviour and saved, is substituted in its room. And into these relations new obligations enter, based upon purposes, promises, and hopes which God has announced or inspired. It now becomes Him to do that which, under no conception of His rectoral duty as Creator, could be claimed from Him. God has set forth Christ as the Man with whom He treats; the perfect Man, who explains the manward thoughts and hopes of God. It is the Son of His love who is concerned in the fulfilment of our hope. The Son of His love has interests profounder even than our own in our forgiveness, renewal, and growth to perfection. Realising what we are in Christ, we dare to use great boldness of access, we dare to plead rights and claims, which yet are not ours, save through a love which humbles while it exalts us, and chastens while it inspires.

I. THE RELATION OF A BROTHER. There is a oneness which precludes the idea of separate interests.

II. IT IS PRECISELY THIS RELATIONSHIP WHICH BY HIS INCARNATION AND PASSION THE SAVIOUR CLAIMS. He seeks to give us a relation that we can rest upon; which will draw us by the bands of fraternal sympathy to His strength when we are weak, to His bosom when we are weary and long for rest.

III. It is said in a passage of the Book of Proverbs that A BROTHER IS BORN FOR ADVERSITIES. That He might know our souls in adversities surely, the elder Brother of the great human family was born in the human home, tasted all pure human experiences, and made Himself familiar with all forms of human pain. God is born unto us, a Saviour. We are of His kindred, the brethren of His Christ. It is no pity that moves Him to us; it is pure and perfect love. God is pleading His own cause in pleading against our sins; He is striving against His own enemies in striving against our tempters and lusts. (T. B. Brown, B. A.)

Brotherhood with Christ

I. There are three particulars which require to be stated; the first of which is, THAT THEY WHO ARE BRETHREN PARTAKE OF ONE NATURE. Thus then, it is said of Christ. Forasmuch, then, as the children--that is, Gods children, the family in heaven and earth--are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death--or through dying--He might destroy him that had the power of death, &c. It is also said of Christ, that He was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross. And further: What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, &c. Thus, then, we have the fact clearly revealed to us, that Christ laid the foundation of brotherhood by actually assuming the nature of those whom He now condescends to call brethren. The next particular to be mentioned is, that they who are brethren are so by natural birth, or they become so by adoption into a family. Now, no sinful descendant of Adam can, by virtue of his birth in the flesh, become a member of Gods family; it is utterly impossible. Nor can he be adopted into Gods family unless born again--born of water and of the Spirit. He partakes of the spirituality of Christ, as Christ possesses his human flesh. The next particular is, that between those who are brethren in heart, as well as in fact, there is a family likeness and sympathy. Hence believers are enjoined to let this mind be in them which was also in Christ Jesus; and are said also to have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him who created him. Thus, also, Christ is revealed to us as One who can have compassion on us, and as One touched with the feeling of our infirmities.

II. From these three particulars we may infer that Christ, becoming our Brother, by taking on Him our nature, and linking that nature on to His deity, HAD POWER OVER TREAT NATURE, first, to redeem, and then, by His Spirit, to infuse life--His own spiritual life--into it. Next, that, as the Elder Brother, He had the disposition, as well as the power, to put aside every obstacle in the way of our full and tree adoption into His Fathers family; so that, knowing Him as their Brother, they might exercise the spirit of adoption when received, and at once look up and call God Father. And lastly that, as a sympathising Brother, communicating His likeness to all the members of the household of faith, He must be the great object of our faith and the foundation of all our hopes as members of the family of God. Thus, then, is Christ set before us, under this symbol, in that very aspect which is most attractive; but when we see all His offices proceeding out of this central fact of brotherhood--when we spiritually know that the great Prophet of the Church is our Brother, that the great High Priest of our profession is our Brother, that the King of an unspeakably glorious kingdom is our Brother--when we are assured that the teaching of the Prophet is the teaching of our Brother, that the sacrifice offered by the Priest was the Brother Himself, that the blood which is shed for us was the blood of our Brother, that the grave wherein death became powerless, and from which emerged life and immorality, was the grave of our Brother; oh I what a ground do we then stand on for the realisation and enjoyment of the blessings of salvation, and for looking forward to the coming of the glorious King, who, with all the tenderness of a brothers faithful love, shall gather together the whole family of heaven in manifested union with Himself. (G. Fisk, LL. B.)

Some reasons why the Word because flesh

Ashamed to call them brethren. Why should He be? It is no condescension to acknowledge the fact of brotherhood with humanity, any more than it is humiliation to be born. But there was a Man who emptied, and humbled Himself by being found in fashion as a man, and for whom it was infinite condescension to call us His brethren. We can say of a prince that he is not ashamed to call his subjects friends, and to sit down to eat with them; but it would be absurd to say so of one of the subjects in reference to his fellows. The full, lofty truth of Heb_1:1-14. underlies that word ashamed, which is meaningless unless Jesus was the effulgence of the Fathers glory, and the very image of His substance. The writer quotes three Old Testament passages which he regards as prophetic of our Lords identifying Himself with humanity. These three cited sayings deal with three different aspects of Christs manhood and of the purpose of His incarnation; and they unitedly give, if not a complete, yet a comprehensive answer to the question, Why did God become Man?

I. JESUS IS MAN, THAT HE MAY DECLARE GOD TO MEN. All other sources of knowledge of God fail in certainty. They yield only assertions which may or may not be true. At the best, we are relegated to peradventures and theories if we turn away from Jesus Christ. Men said that there was land away across the Atlantic for centuries before Columbus went and brought back its products. He discovers who proves. Christ has not merely spoken to us beautiful and sacred things about God, as saint, philosopher, or poet might do, but He has shown us God; and henceforward, to those who receive Him, the Unknown Root of all being is not a hypothesis, a great Perhaps, a dread or a hope, as the case may be, but the most certain of all facts, of whom and of whose love we may be surer than we can be of aught besides but our own being.

II. JESUS IS MAN, THAT HE MAY SHOW TO MEN THE LIFE OF DEVOUT TRUST. Perfect manhood is dependent manhood. A reasonable creature who does not live by faith is a monster arrogating the prerogative of God. Christs perfect manhood did not release Him from, but bound Him to, the exercise of faith. Nor did His true deity make faith impossible to His manhood. Christs perfect manhood perfected His faith, and in some aspects modified it. His trust had no relation to the consciousness of sin, and no element either of repentance or of longing for pardon. But it had relation to the consciousness of need, and was in Him, as in us, the condition of continual derivation of life and power from the Father. Christs perfect faith brought forth perfect fruits in His life, issuing, as it did, in obedience which was perfect in purity of motive, in gladness of submission, and in completeness of the resulting deeds as well as in its continuity through His life. Out of His example we may take both shame and encouragement: shame, when we measure our poor, purblind, feeble, and interrupted faith against His; and encouragement when we raise our hopes to the height of the revelation in it of what ours may become.

III. JESUS IS MAN, THAT HE MAY BITING MEN INTO THE FAMILY OF SONS OF GOD.

1. That through Him men may receive a new life which is His own. He can only impart His life on condition of His death. The alabaster box must be broken, though so precious, and though the light of the pure spirit within shone lustrous and softened through it, in order that the house may be filled with the odour of the ointment.

2. That men may, by the communication of His life, become sons of God. They are Gods children, being Christs brethren. They are brought into a new unity, and, being members of one family, are one by a sacreder oneness than the possession of a common humanity.

3. That men may become sharers in His prerogatives and offices. He becomes like us in our lowliness and flesh of sin, that we may become like Him in His glory and perfection.

4. That He may present His family at last to God. If we love and trust Him, He will hold us in His strong and tender grasp, and never part from us till He presents us at last, faultless and joyful, before the presence of His and our Father. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

The graciousness of Christ

In the verses immediately preceding, the writer had set forth the incarnation, suffering, and death of Christ Jesus, as an indispensable condition of the great work of lifting the race of man into the Divine nature. Then he identifies and unites the two parties. Those for whom Christ suffered, for whom he became perfect through suffering, are lifted into His household, and are become one with Him. This idea runs through the whole New Testament. Men are adopted, we are told. They are of Gods household. And that meant more in those days than it now means, by a difference of social arrangements in life. They are sons; they are heirs; they are Christs brethren; they are united to Him as the branch to the vine. Now, the absolute inferiority of the human soul and mind to the Divine would lead one, in his meditations, to suppose that God could not well other than be ashamed. Adult companionship does not demand equality. It demands, however, some moral proportion. The Divine nature is illustrated here in this--that the feeling of God toward men, in their inferiority, is apparently feeling without regard to the coming character. God sustains toward the whole human race, we may believe, just the feeling which a true parent sustains toward a new-born child, while it is as yet neither good or bad, but is certainly feeble, weak, infinitely out of proportion to the parent. The feeble, the ignorant, the low--God loves them, and has infinite compassion for them, and is not ashamed of them.

But quite beyond and different from this, are presumptive reasons why God should be ashamed--namely, in moral delinquency. The child, when it knows it has done unworthily, imputes to the parent a sense of shame in its behalf. And every Christian has times of despondency, not only, but of sober conviction that he has dishonoured himself, and that he has brought scandal upon the name of his Master. And in these hours one goes to Christ with the feeling that He must be ashamed too. We are ashamed to pray, and afraid to commune. And yet it is of just such that Christ says He is not ashamed. He is not ashamed to call them brethren, as we shall see. The shame spoken of is not simply a generous feeling. It is to be interpreted by its relation to the idea of personal communion. Christ is not ashamed to call men even brethren. Conceive of the most advanced and noble Christians that ever have lived in this world--of Martyn and Brainerd, as missionary martyrs; of Fenelon and Pascal, as contemplative Christians--and compare these, not with their own kind, but with the character and condition of the just made perfect. Compare the most peerless saint that walks among men with your ideal of the just and the perfect before God. Hardly, one would say, would God be willing to identify Himself with any human being--with even the highest and best. Yet so it is. He is not ashamed to call them brethren. If you consider, now, how far below these ordinary Christians live; how little there is that enters into the Christian experience; how the Divine life is, as it were, but in the germ; if you reflect how far from that ideal which Christ set before us the ordinary, average Christian experience is, men might well express surprise that Christ should be willing to call such Christians brethren. And yet He points to those that stand in the ordinary lot of life, the ordinary Christian experience, and says, I am not ashamed to call them brethren. Far below this level there is a throng who can scarcely be thought to have even a beginning; and yet there is a single spark. There are occasional impulses as if their souls would turn toward God. Bold are they for the world, but timid for righteousness, and hardly daring to say to their fellow-men, I am a Christian. Ah! can it be that Christ is not ashamed to call them brethren? He is not. He has been made in the likeness of men, and has entered into the full temptation of men, that He might know to the uttermost, and to the very bottom, what man suffers. The lowest, poorest, meanest of Christian attainments find in Christ Jesus a spirit that is not ashamed. Banish from your minds an oriental monarchy. Banish the conception of such glory as lies in external appearances and external adjuncts. Consider what it is for God to be glorious. It is the glory of pity unfathomable. He considers glory to lie in long-suffering love. It is because He knows how to work for men that are ungrateful, that His heart swells with consciousness of its power. Look, then, upon the work to be done in this world. We can understand, if we consider it in its entirety, that this world is a school; that it is a healing hospital; that it is a training ground; that the Divine problem is, how to take the germ of life and bring it steadily up through all its transmutations, from age to age, until it becomes Divine; and to do it through suffering, through long-suffering, and through patience; to do it by inspiration; to do it by pain and by joy, by sorrow and by gladness, by all means. So to teach the human soul, and lit t upon it time light of Divine glory, that it shall become like God--that is the work to he done in this world. Christ is not ashamed of this work. He is not ashamed of His scholars, neither of those in the lowest, the intermediate, or the highest form. He is not ashamed to call them brethren. Not because there is not much that is repulsive to a pure and high nature; but for His own reasons (Eph_5:25-27). Without further unfolding this great, this wonderful truth, I ask whether any one need fear to begin a new Christian life with such a Saviour. If, when his prayers go up, they go into the hands of such an One; if all the invitations to a Christian life are those that come from a Brothers lips--from the lips of One who is not ashamed of our poorness, our vileness, our dullness, or our remissness--then any man can be a Christian. Need any one be discouraged who has begun to live a Christian life, because so often he has failed and fallen into backsliding? Is a true pupil discouraged because so many of his lessons are imperfect? There is encouragement, since we have One that is not ashamed of us, in spite of our many defections and inferiorities. Why should we not, therefore, gird up our loins, and take a fresh hold, with new consecration, on the Christian life? Will not every days experience give reason and argument for gratitude to such a Lord as this? I think I have learned more of the nature of my Master from my bad than from my good. We learn both ways. But it is the sense of Gods graciousness that impresses me. (H. W. Beecher.)

In the midst of the Church win I sing praise

Christ singing

We have the record of Christs use of some words of this psalm on the Cross; the author of this Epistle affirms that these words were also adapted by the Saviour. They illustrate

I. CHRISTS ENGAGEMENT IN GODS SERVICE. In all ages, Christ is serving God in the midst of the Church, by His precepts, example, spirit.

II. CHRISTS SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT IN GODS SERVICE. In fellowship with the whole assembly of the good, whom He is not ashamed to call brethren, Christ serves God. But if their brother, He is their Leader in this praise.

III. CHRISTS VOLUNTARY ENGAGEMENT IN GODS SERVICE. Singing is no slavish act; real singing is not even perfunctory; probably, ideal song is spontaneous. Such is Christs service.

IV. CHRISTS JOYOUS ENGAGEMENT IN GODS SERVICE. AS soon as ever we can sing of our sadness, even the sadness is sweetened, and song is the very symbol of joy. Lessons:

1. The highest engagement of our life is serving God.

2. The true method of serving God is socially, willingly, joyfully. (U. R. Thomas.)

The children which God hath given Me

Children to be brought to heaven

There was a mother lay dying some time ago, and she requested her children to be brought to her bedside. The eldest one came in first, and putting her loving bands on his head, she gave him a mothers parting message. Then came another, and then another. To all of them she gave her parting message, until the last--the seventh one, an inlay,--was brought in. She was so young she could not understand the message of love; so the weather gave it to her husband for her; and then she took the child to her bosom, and kissed it, and caressed it, until her time was almost up. Then, turning to her husband, she said: I charge you to bring all these children home to heaven with you. (D. L. Moody.)

Children a life.work

I was in the company of a talented Christian lady, when a friend said to her, Why have you never written a book? I am writing two, was the quiet reply. Have been engaged on one for ten years, the other five. You surprise me, cried the friend; what profound works they must be! It doth not appear yet what we shall be, was her reply; but when He makes up His jewels, my great ambition is to find them there. Your children? I said. Yes, my two children; they are my life work. (Christian Age.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Heb 2:11-13. For — As if he had said, And it appears that it was meet that Christ should suffer, because, having the same nature with us, it was necessary he should thus be made like us, who must suffer before we can reign; both he that sanctifieth — That washes men from their sins in his blood, renews them in the spirit of their minds, and consecrates them unto God; and they who are sanctified — Who are renewed and dedicated to God; are all of one — Of one nature, from one parent, Adam; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them — Whom he thus sanctifies and saves; brethren — He reckons it no disparagement to him, though in respect of his divine nature he is infinitely above them, to acknowledge and deal with them as his brethren; saying, (Psa 22:22,) to his Father, When I appear in the human nature on the earth, I will declare thy name — Thy perfections, and especially thy grace and mercy in sending me into the world; unto my brethren — Of mankind; in the midst of the church — Publicly among the people of God; will I sing praise unto thee — As the precentor of the choir. This he did literally in the midst of his apostles, on the night before his passion. And in a more general sense, as the expression means setting forth the praise of God, he has done it in the church by his word and Spirit in all ages; and he still does, and will do it throughout all generations. It is well known that the 22d Psalm, from which this passage is cited, is a prophetic description of the sufferings of Christ, the apostles and evangelists having applied many passages of it to him. Also by repeating the first words of it from the cross, our Lord appropriated the whole of it to himself. The ancient Jewish doctors likewise interpreted this Psalm of the Messiah. And again — (Psa 18:2,) as one that has communion with his brethren in sufferings, as well as in nature, he says; I will put my trust in him — To support me under, and carry me through them all. Hereby the apostle proves that Christ had the same affections, and consequently the same nature with believers. For had he been God only, or the Son merely in his original state, he could not have been brought into such a condition as required dependance upon another; neither is the nature of angels exposed to such dangers or troubles, as render it necessary for them to have recourse to God for support, protection, and consolation. And again — Isa 8:18, (where see the note,) when he says; Behold I and the children which God hath given me — He makes a like acknowledgment of his near relation to them, and of his being of the same nature with them, parents being of the same nature with their children. The opposers of Christianity affirm, that the prophecy from which this is taken doth not relate to the Messiah, and that in applying it to Jesus, the writer of this epistle hath erred; and from this they infer that he was not inspired. But, in answer, be it observed, that the application of this prophecy to Christ doth not rest on this writer’s testimony alone. The 14th verse of the prophecy is applied to him both by Paul, (Rom 9:33,) and by Peter, (1Pe 2:6; 1Pe 2:8,) and by Simeon, (Luk 2:34;) nay, our Lord has applied the 15th verse to himself, Mat 21:44. So that if the writer of this epistle hath erred in the application of that prophecy, all the others have erred in the same manner. But that they have not, is sufficiently shown in the notes on the passages referred to.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Hebrews

THE BROTHERHOOD OF CHRIST

Heb 2:11-13.

NOT ashamed to call them brethren. Why should He be? It is no condescension to acknowledge the fact of brotherhood, any more than it is humility to be born. And yet there is One who had to empty and humble Himself in becoming man; and for whom to call men His brethren is a depth of unimaginable condescension. We would say that a prince was not ashamed to call his subjects his friends, and to eat and drink with them, but we should not say it of a subject. This word ‘ashamed’ is meaningless in the present connection unless there underlies it the lofty conception of Christ’s person which is enfolded in the first chapter of this epistle. If He be, and only if He is, the ‘brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of His person,’ is it condescension in Him to enroll Himself amongst our fraternity.

The writer selects three Old Testament passages which he thinks exhibit in prophetic outline the Messiah as claiming brotherhood with men. If the writer had known the gospels, he could have found other words that would have been even more weighty, such as ‘Behold My mother and My brethren’; but probably he was ignorant of them; or possibly, writing to Jews, he may have felt that to use their own manner of exposition was the best way of reaching them.

It would lead us into discussions altogether unsuited to the pulpit to examine the relevance of these three prophetic quotations. My object is a different one. The three citations from the Old Testament, which are adduced in my text as proofs that the Messiah identifies Himself with His brethren, deal with three different aspects of our Lord’s manhood; and if we take them altogether, they afford, if not a complete, yet a very comprehensive answer to the question why God became man. It is from that point of view that I desire to consider them here.

There are, then, three points here; {1} Christ’s assumption of manhood in order to show God to men {2} Christ’s assumption of manhood in order to show the pattern of a godly life to men; and {3} Christ’s assumption of manhood in order to bring men into the family of sons.

I. First, then, here we have the declaration or manifestation of God as the great object of Christ’s brotherhood with us, ‘Saying, I will declare Thy name unto My brethren.’

Where do these words come from? They come from that psalm, the first words of which rang out from His lips amidst the darkness of eclipse upon the Cross, ‘My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?’ The psalm, springing directly from the heart of David, and expressing to his consciousness, I suppose, solely his own feelings in the midst of his own trials and humiliations, has yet been so moulded into language a world too wide for the writer’s sorrows, and so corresponding in minute and singular details, with the historical facts of Christ’s passion and death, that we cannot fail to perceive shimmering through the words of the earthly King who won His throne through persecutions and trials, the august figure of the loftier and true King, of whom the sovereign of Israel was, ex-officio, a type and a prophecy. Just as David felt that he, as monarch, must be the brother of his subjects, and that the meaning of his reign and of his deliverance was the declaration of the name of God to his brethren, so our King can only be King if He be brother; and the inmost purpose of His brotherhood and of His monarchy is that He may manifest to men the name of the Father.

What is that ‘name’? The syllables by which men call Him? Surely not. But the name of the Lord is the manifest character of God; and therefore the only possible way of declaring Him is not by words but by acts. A person can only be revealed by a person. God can only be shown to men by a life. Words will never do it; they may represent men’s thinkings, but they never can certify God’s fact. Words will never do it, they may suggest hopes, fears, peradventures; but unless we have a living Person whose deeds on the plain level of human history, and in this solid world of ours, are the manifestation of God, our thoughts of Him will neither be solid with certainty nor sweet with comfort. It must be a human life which is more than a human life, but yet is thoroughly and altogether man, that to men can manifest God. Our highest conceptions of the divine nature must be in the form Of man. Between the little sphere of the dewdrop and the great sphere of the sun that is reflected prismatically in it, there is absolute identity in the laws that shape their round. So limited humanity has such an analogy with unlimited divinity as that, in the mirror of manhood, the brilliancy and ineffable brightness of the Godhead can be manifested. That life, the life of Jesus Christ, is the making visible for men of the glory of the invisible God.

And what is the substance of the declaration? Men point us to His miracles, to the omniscience, to the power, to the other attributes of majesty, unlike to, and contradictory, of the attributes of finite humanity, and they say that these are the glory of God. Not so! That is a vulgar conception: high above all such as these towers the moral perfectness which is manifested in the purity of Jesus Christ. But when we have passed through what I may call the physical attributes revealed in the miracles which are the outer court, and the moral attributes of righteousness and stainlessness, which are the holy place, there is yet a veil to be lifted, and an inner sanctuary; and in it, there is nothing but a Mercy-seat, and a Shekinah above it. Which, being translated into plain English, is just this, the new-thing in Christ’s declaration of the name of the Father is the love of God therein manifested. Other means of knowing Him give us fragmentary syllables of His name, and men do with the witness of nature, and the ambiguous witness of history, and the witness of our own intuitions, what antiquarians do with the broken, inscribed blocks which they find in ruins, piece them together, and try to make a sentence out of them. But the whole name is in Christ. God ‘ who hath spoken in divers manners’ elsewhere, hath spoken the whole syllables of His manifest character in His Son. And this is the shining apex of all; the last utterances of Scripture, the culmination of all the long procession of self-manifestation - ‘God is love.’ You can only learn that when you look on your brother Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Dear brethren, more and more is it becoming certain, as the tendencies of modern thought unfold themselves, that we are brought to this fork in the road -Christ or nothing! Either God manifest in Him, or no manifestation of God at all Theism or Deism has not substance enough to sustain the assaults of the modern scientific spirit. Unless ‘the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father He hath declared Him,’ no man hath seen God at any time, or can see Him. It is Christ or darkness. Either the Father revealed in Him, or a God spelled with a little ‘g,’ who is an unverifiable and unnecessary hypothesis, or ‘a stream of tendency not ourselves that makes for righteousness’; or a vague somewhat concerning whom we only know that He cannot be known. The cultivated mind of England has to make its choice this day between these two. And when we come back to Christ, declaring the name of the Father unto His brethren, the nebulous, doleful grey that veiled the sky disappears, and we feel the sun again, and regain a God whom we can love because He has an ear and a heart and a hand; a God of whom we can be sure, a God concerning whom we have not to say ‘I think’; ‘I hope’; ‘I fear’; ‘ perhaps’; but a God whom we can know, and to know whom is life eternal.’

II. So much, then, for the first of the thoughts here. Secondly, we have Christ’s brotherhood represented as intended to show to men the pattern of the religious life. ‘I will put my trust in Him.’

These words came probably from the eighth chapter of the book of Isaiah, where the prophet, like the king in the former narrative, speaking altogether his own feelings, and with no consciousness of any prophetic or typical reference, expresses his personal dependence upon God. Our writer sees in Isaiah, as the chief of the prophetic order, which order in its totality was a prophecy or type of Jesus Christ, a dim shadow of Jesus, in so far as the prophet, though filled with the consciousness of a divine inspiration, and knowing that he stood before his brethren to make known to them the name of God, did not yet thereby feel himself absolved from the necessity of personal dependence and reliance on Him. And, says our writer, as it was with that foremost of the prophets, so is it with Him who is the Prophet by eminence. He, too, in His manhood and in His office of declaring the name of the Father, feels that for Him personally there must be the same faith in God which others exercise.

Now that is the point to which I want to turn for m moment. Jesus Christ is the object of our faith. Yes! but Jesus Christ is the example of our faith too. You orthodox people, who believe in the divinity of our Lord and Saviour, are far too much afraid of fronting such thoughts as this. They are not so familiar to us as they ought to be. We do not believe in His thorough manhood, some of us, nor in His real divinity, but in strange amalgam of the two, each destroying, to s certain extent, the quality of the other. And so the men who do know their own mind, and who know His simple manhood, will make wild work of the beliefs of some of those who call themselves orthodox believers.

A perfect manhood must needs be a dependent manhood. A reasonable creature who does not live by faith is either God or devil: Jesus Christ’s perfect manhood, sinless, stainless, did not absolve Him from, but obliged Him to, a life of continual dependence upon God; His divinity did not, in the smallest measure, interfere with the reality of the faith which, as man, He exercised, and which was the same in kind as ours.

His perfect manhood modifies and perfects His faith. In Him dependence had no relation to a consciousness of sinfulness, as it must have in us, but in Him it had relation to a consciousness of need of a continual derivation of life and power from the Father; His faith being the faith of a perfect manhood, was a perfect faith. Our hands tremble as they hold the telescope that looks into the far-off unseen. His hand was steady. Our faith wavers and is interrupted, an intermittent fountain. His was a perennial flow. His perfect faith issued in perfect results in His life; in a perfect obedience, ‘I do always the things that please Him,’ and in a perfect communion. Like two metal plates of which the surfaces are so true that when you bring them into contact they adhere, that perfect nature of Jesus Christ’s, by the exercise of its perfect faith, clung in unbroken fellowship to the Father - ‘He hath not left me alone, because I do always the things that please Him.’

And thus, dear brethren, our brother does not stand above us only to show us God, but comes down amongst us to show us men. Out of His example of faith we may take both shame and encouragement - shame when we Consider the awful disparity between our wavering and His fixed faith; encouragement when in Him we see what humanity has in it to become, and what by the path of faith it may become. The staff that He leaned on He has bequeathed to us. The shield that He carried in the conflict in the wilderness, when He said, ‘Man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God,’ and which He bore undinted by all the fiery darts through His earthly course, He has bequeathed to us His followers. The Captain, the Emperor, was once in the arena, and there He struggled. He, the Captain of the faith, the Leader of the hosts of believers, conquered because He said ‘I will put my trust in Him’; and He has left us the same weapon for ours, that we, too, may conquer. ‘This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.’ III. Lastly, we have our Lord’s manhood represented here as the means by which He brings us into a family of sons. ‘And again, behold, I and the children which God hath given Me.’

These words come from the immediate neighbourhood of the last quotation. In their original application the prophet regards his own family, and the little knot of disciples who had been drawn to him, as being associated with him in his prophetic office, set for ‘signs and wonders,’ and the salt of the nation, which without them was rotting to dissolution. So our writer sees in the prophet’s humility, which associates in his office, and admits to its prerogatives, the children to whom he had given natural life, and the little ones who through him had received spiritual life, the dim foreshadowing of that great Saviour who by His becoming our Brother, makes us God’s children.

For it is to be noticed that the unity referred to in the word ‘children,’ in this last quotation, does, not apply to the same sphere as the unity referred to in the former word ‘brethren’ ‘Brethren’ referred to the kindred which consisted of the common possession of humanity; ‘children’ refers to the kindred, consisting in the common possession of spiritual life. Thus, in this last quotation of our text we have presented the other side of Christ’s Incarnation and its effects. Here we have to deal, not so much with His becoming us, as with our becoming like Him.

The words open out into thoughts which I can only specify without attempting to enlarge upon them. Jesus Christ has become our Brother, that from Him we may each of us draw a life, stored in Him, though having its source in God, which will make us His brethren, and God’s children. The central blessing of the gospel is the communication to every trustful heart of an actual divine life which comes from Christ. Do not be satisfied with any more superficial conception of what God gives us in His Son than this, that He gives us a spark of Himself, that He comes into us through Christ, and bestows upon our deadness a real, mystical, spiritual life, which will unfold itself in forms worthy of its kindred, and like unto its source. For that gift of the life there is more than Incarnation needed. There is Crucifixion needed. The death of Death by death gives Death his death; and then, and then only, can He give us who were dead His life. The box must be broken, though it be alabaster very precious, that through its lustrous surface there may shine lambent the light of the indwelling spirit; the body must be broken, that the house may be filled with the odor of the ointment. Christ dies and life escapes from Him as it were, and passes into the world.

That life is a life of sonship. The children are God’s children, being Christ’s brethren. They are brought into a new unity; and the one foundation of true brotherhood amongst men is the common possession of a common relation to the One Divine Father.

And that life which leads thus to sonship leads likewise to a marvellous participation in the offices, functions and relations of the Christ who bestows it. Just as the prophet gathered his children and disciples into a family, and gave them to partake in his prophetic office, in his relation to God, and to the world, so Christ gathers us into oneness with Himself; having become like us, He makes us like Him and invests us with a similar relationship to the Father. Being the Son, He gives us the adoption of sons, and lays upon our shoulders the responsibilities and the honours of a similar relation to the world, making us kindled ‘lights’ derived from Himself the fontal source, making us, in our measure and degree, sons of God and Messiahs for the world.

This oneness of life - which thus leads to a participation in sonship, an identity of function, and of interest - remains for ever. If we love and trust Christ, He will never leave us until He ‘presents us faultless before the presence of His glory, with exceeding joy.’

So, dear friends, it all comes to this; there is one way to know God and only one. ‘He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.’ All else is darkness. There is one life, noble, pure, worthy of humanity, and only one: the life of trust in Christ, who is at once the object and pattern of our faith; and believing in whom we believe in the Father also. There is but one fountain of life opened in the graveyard of this world, and that is in the Son, drinking of whom there shall be in us a fountain springing up to life everlasting. There is but one way by which we can become sons of God, through the elder Brother, who grudges the prodigal neither the ring nor the feast, but Himself has provided them both. So listen to Him declaring the name; say, ‘I will put my trust in Him’; for you trust God when you have faith in Christ; and then be sure that He will give you of His own life; that He will invest you with the spirit of adoption and the standing of sons, that He will keep His hand about you, and never lose you. ‘Them whom Thou hast given Me, I have kept,’ He will say at last, pointing to us; and there we shall stand, ‘no wanderer lost, a family in Heaven,’ whilst our brother presents us to His Father and ours, with the triumphant words -

‘Behold I and all the children whom Thou hast given Me.’

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2:11 have the same Father (literally are all out of one): Based on the family terminology in the context, the phrase can be understood as referring to God. However, the author might have been thinking of Abraham as a common ancestor (see 2:16) or of human nature as a common experience (out of one nature). • brothers and sisters: Greek adelphoi, a generic term that refers to members of the same family, both male and female.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Heb 2:11. Γὰρ, for) The closest relationship was the reason why it was becoming that Jesus should not be made perfect (consummated) without us.—ὁ ἁγιάζων, He that sanctifieth) Christ, ch. Heb 13:12. Christ is called He that sanctifieth, on account of that whole benefit, viz. that He by Himself makes us holy, i.e. divine [belonging to God].—οἱ ἁγιαζόμενοι, they who are sanctified) the people, ch. Heb 10:10; Heb 10:14; Heb 10:29. To sanctify, to bring to God, to be sanctified, to be brought to GOD, to draw near, to have access, are synonymous. He who sanctifies was begotten by the Father, and appointed the Sanctifier; they who are sanctified, are those created by God and appointed to receive sanctification; comp. ἔδωκεν, “The children whom God hath given me,” Heb 2:13. This is the origin of His brotherhood (with us), and of His communion with flesh and blood (Heb 2:14).—ἐξ ἑνὸς, of one) that εἷς, one, is Abraham, as Mal 2:15; Isa 51:2; Eze 33:24. All men are of one, Adam; all the descendants of Abraham are of one, Abraham. In this whole passage, Paul, writing to the descendants of Abraham, accommodates his discourse to them apart, Heb 2:16-17, Heb 8:12; as also in Psalms 22, which is here quoted, ver. 12, the writer is speaking of Israel, ver. 22, etc., but of the Gentiles, ver. 25–31; and the whole of the subsequent discussion respecting the priesthood and sacrifices is chiefly suited to the comprehension of the Hebrews. Wherefore, this epistle will at some time contribute much to the salvation of Israel. If this one meant God, the angels should be included, who are put away at Heb 2:16.—πάντες, all) This is construed with ἁγιαζομένοι, who are sanctified; for he says πάντες, all; he would have said both, if he intended to include Him that sanctifies in the πάντες, all.—οὐκ ἐπαισχύνεται) He is not ashamed, whereas, but for this cause (that they are of Abraham, who is considered not as a sinner, as in need of salvation, but as the common ancestor, as he who had received the promise), there might have been many things for which he might be ashamed [to call them brethren]; for, far from being holy, we had been exceedingly guilty, Heb 2:14-15: yet He is not ashamed; nay, He accounts it a glorious thing to Himself, because of the holiness and glory unto which He has brought us. It becomes God to have such sons restored to Him. Christ is not ashamed of such brethren; comp. “God is not ashamed,” ch. Heb 11:16, note.—καλεῖν) to call, to declare by calling.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Heb_2:11-13. Elucidatory justification, in passing, of the expression πολλοὺς υἱούς, employed Heb_2:10; in proof of the brotherly relation existing between Christ and believers, already indicated by that expression. That this view as to the aim and signification of Heb_2:11-13 is the true one, is contested indeed by Riehm, Lehrbegr. des Hebräerbr. p. 366 f. (comp. also Kurtz, and Hofmann ad loc.). According to Riehm, Heb_2:11-13 are to be regarded not as mere accessory remarks, but as the first link in the proof for Heb_2:10, to which then Heb_2:14 f. attaches as second link; in such wise that only in the two thoughts together (Heb_2:11-13 and Heb_2:14 f.), not in Heb_2:14 by itself (see on the verses) alone, is a confirmation of Heb_2:10 to be found; and accordingly the (argumentative, not explicative) γάρ, Heb_2:11, belongs not merely to Heb_2:11. The following chain of reasoning, namely, is supposed to shape the course of thought: it became God, etc. For(1) Christ is brother to the Christians; it is thus not unbecoming that He should have been made like them; and (2) He must be made like them, because His suffering and death were necessary, if they were to be saved. The untenable character of this statement of the connection of thought, as made by Riehm, is, however, sufficiently apparent from the factapart from the consideration that the contents of Heb_2:11-13 manifestly point back to the expression πολλοὺς υἱούς, Heb_2:10that if the proof for the main thought of Heb_2:10 was designed in reality already to begin with Heb_2:11-13, it would surely not be the proposition: it is not unbecoming that Christ should be made like unto the Christians (of which there was no express mention so early as Heb_2:10), which must have been proved, but solely and simply the proposition: it is not unbecoming that God should have led Christ through suffering to perfection, in which the true central thought of Heb_2:10 is contained. But such proof is not given.

ὅ τε γὰρ ἁγιάζων … πάντες] Now He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified (through Him, i.e. through His atoning sacrificial death,[48] comp. Heb_10:10; Heb_10:14, Heb_9:13 f., Heb_13:12) all have their origin in One,is a special statement concerning Christ and Christians. To take the words as a proposition of universal validity, the application of which to Christ and the Christians was left to the readers, wherein there is specially an underlying allusion to the O. T. high priest and those whose cleansing from sins he accomplished (Schlichting, Gerhard, Schöttgen, al.), is forbidden by the connection with that which precedes and that which follows.

The present participles ὁ ἁγιάζων καὶ οἱ ἁγιαζόμενοι are used substantively. Comp. Winer, Gramm., 7 Aufl. p. 331 f.

ἐξ ἑνὸς πάντες] sc. εἰσίν. ἑνός is masculine. Wrongly is it by others taken as a neuter, in that they either supplement in thought: σπέρματος, or ΑἽΜΑΤΟς, or ΓΈΝΟΥς (so Carpzov, Abresch, al.), or else explain: ex communi massa (Jac. Cappellus, Akersloot), or of one and the same nature (Calvin, Cameron: ejusdem naturae et conditionis spiritualis; Cornelius a Lapide, Owen, Whitby, Moses Stuart); for neither is the supplying of a substantive admissible, nor can ἐκ, expressive as it is of the origin, be transformed into a declaration of nature and constitution. We have, however, to understand by ἙΝΌς, not Adam (Erasmus, Paraphr.; Beza, Estius, Justinian, Hunnius, Baumgarten, Zachariae, Bisping, Wieseler in the Publications of the University of Kiel, 1867, p. 26; Hofmann, Woerner) or Abraham (Drusius, Peirce, Bengel), but God. Yet the notion of fatherhood, which is in this way assigned to God, is not to be expounded in the universal sense, in such wise that God would be called Creator and Father in relation to Christians also, only in the same manner in which He is the Creator of every creature (so Chrysostom and the majority), but is to be referred specially to the fact that Christians are His spiritual children (Piscator, Grotius, Limborch, Paulus, Bleek, Delitzsch, Alford, Moll). Comp. Joh_8:47; 1Jn_3:10; 1Jn_4:6; 1Jn_5:19; 3Jn_1:11.

πάντες] Peirce and Bengel would have taken with ΟἹ ἉΓΙΑΖΌΜΕΝΟΙ alone. The position of the word, however, renders this impossible. Rather does ΠΆΝΤΕς, after the close connection between the ἉΓΙΆΖΩΝ and the ἉΓΙΑΖΌΜΕΝΟΙ has already been accentuated by means of the ΤΈ … ΚΑΊ, still further lay stress upon the fact that they all, the Christians not less than Christ, are ἐξ ἑνός.

διʼ ἣν αἰτίαν] Wherefore. Comp. 2Ti_1:6; 2Ti_1:12; Tit_1:13. The same formula also not rarely with Philo.

οὐκ ἐπαισχύνεται] He (sc. ὁ ἁγιάζων) is not ashamed. For Christ is the higher one. Comp. Heb_11:16.

αὐτούς] sc. τοὺς ἁγιαζομένους.

[48] Delitzsch arbitrarily takes ἁγιάζειν, ver. 11, as synonymous with τελειοῦν, ver. 10 : In order to be crowned with δόξα καὶ τιμή Jesus must first be sanctified, or, as the author says, ver. 10, be made perfect through sufferings, inasmuch as the sufferings melted away that about Him which was not capable of exaltation, that He, Himself sanctified before, might be able to sanctify us, and so to raise us to like δόξα. Of a being sanctified, on the part of Christ, there is no mention made either here or anywhere else in the epistle.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Heb 2:11 . In the eleventh verse the writer proceeds to explain wherein consisted the fittingness ( τὸ πρέπον ) of perfecting the ἀρχηγόν through sufferings. It lies in the fact that He and those He leads are brothers. In Heb 2:11-13 it is shown that this is so, and in the succeeding verses the writer points out what is involved in this brotherhood. ὁ ἁγιάζων and οἱ ἁγιαζόμενοι are to be taken as present participles, so usually are, in the timeless substantive sense. ἁγιάζειν means (1) to set apart as belonging to God, in contradistinction to κοινός , belonging to every one. So in Gen 2:3 , of the seventh day, and in Exodus of the mountain, the tent, the altar. It is especially used of persons set apart to the priesthood or to any special work (Exo 30:30 ; Jer 1:5 ; Joh 10:36 ). Through the O.T. ceremonial the whole people were thus ἡγιασμένοι , set apart to God, admitted to His worship. In this Epistle the word is used with much of the O.T. idea cleaving to it, and is often rather equivalent to what we understand by “justify” than to “sanctify”. Cf. Heb 10:10 . It signifies that which enables men to approach God. But (2) it is in N.T. more and more felt that it is only by purification of character men can be set apart for God, so that this higher meaning also attaches to the word. In the present verse ἁγιάζων introduces the priestly idea, enlarged upon in Heb 2:17 . ἐξ ἑνὸς πάντες “all of one”. There is much to be said for Calvin’s interpretation “of one nature,” or Cappellus’ “of one common mass”. Certainly Bleek’s reason for rejecting such renderings that ἐξ can only signify origin , is incorrect. “Greek often uses the prepositions of origin ( ἐκ , ἀπό ) when we prefer those of position or direction, as in ἐξ ἀπροσδοκήτου , on a sudden, ἐξ ἀφανοῦς , in a doubt, ἐκ μιᾶς χειρός , with one hand” (Verrall on Choeph. , line 70). In N.T. ἐκ frequently expresses the party or class to which one belongs (Joh 3:31 ). And cf. 1Co 10:17 . It might be urged from Heb 11:12 that this writer had he meant parentage would have said ἀφʼ ἑνός . Nevertheless the meaning seems to be “of one father”. The πολλοὺς υἱοὺς of Heb 2:10 , and the διʼ ἣν αἰτίαν which follows make for this sense. And the argument of Heb 2:14 , that because Christ was brother to men He therefore took flesh, proves that ἐξ ἑνὸς cannot mean “of one nature’. The fact that He and they are ἐξ ἑνὸς is the ground of His incarnation. He was Son and Brother before appearing on earth. The words then can only mean that the “many sons” who are to be brought to glory and the “Son” who leads them are of one parentage. The sonship in both cases looks to the same Father, and depends on Him and is subject to the same laws of obedience and development. But what Father is meant? Not Adam (Beza, Hofmann, etc.); Weiss argues strongly for Abraham, appealing to Heb 2:16 and other considerations; but the fact that in Heb 2:14 the incarnation is treated as a result of the brotherhood, seems to involve that we must understand that God is meant; that before the incarnation Christ recognised His brotherhood. “On this account,” because His parentage is the same, “He is not ashamed to call them brothers”. He might have been expected to shrink from those who had so belied their high origin, or at the best to move among them with the kindly superior professionalism of a surgeon who enters the ward of an hospital solely to heal, not to live there; but He claims men as his kin and on this bases His action ( cf. Heb 11:16 ).

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

One, of one selfsame nature of man.

He useth the time that now is, to show us that we are yet still going on, and increasing in this sanctification, and by sanctification he meaneth our separation from the rest of the world, our cleansing from sin, and our dedication wholly unto God, all which Christ alone worketh in us.

The ground of both the former arguments: for neither should we be sons through him, neither could he be consecrated through afflictions, unless he hath been made man like unto us. But because this Sonhood dependeth not upon nature only, for no man is accompted the son of God, unless that besides that he is a son of a man, he be also Christ’s brother, (which is by sanctification, that is, by becoming one with Christ, who sanctifieth us through faith) therefore the Apostle maketh mention of the sanctifier, to wit, of Christ, and of them that are sanctified, to wit, of all the faithful, whom therefore Christ vouchsafeth to call brethren.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

he that sanctifieth--Christ who once for all consecrates His people to God (Jde 1:1, bringing them nigh to Him as the consequence) and everlasting glory, by having consecrated Himself for them in His being made "perfect (as their expiatory sacrifice) through sufferings" (Heb 2:10; Heb 10:10, Heb 10:14, Heb 10:29; Joh 17:17, Joh 17:19). God in His electing love, by Christ's finished work, perfectly sanctifies them to God's service and to heaven once for all: then they are progressively sanctified by the transforming Spirit "Sanctification is glory working in embryo; glory is sanctification come to the birth, and manifested" [ALFORD].

they who are sanctified--Greek, "they that are being sanctified" (compare the use of "sanctified," Co1 7:14).

of one--Father, God: not in the sense wherein He is Father of all beings, as angels; for these are excluded by the argument (Heb 2:16); but as He is Father of His spiritual human sons, Christ the Head and elder Brother, and His believing people, the members of the body and family. Thus, this and the following verses are meant to justify his having said, "many sons" (Heb 2:10). "Of one" is not "of one father Adam," or "Abraham," as BENGEL and others suppose. For the Saviour's participation in the lowness of our humanity is not mentioned till Heb 2:14, and then as a consequence of what precedes. Moreover, "Sons of God" is, in Scripture usage, the dignity obtained by our union with Christ; and our brotherhood with Him flows from God being His and our Father. Christ's Sonship (by generation) in relation to God is reflected in the sonship (by adoption) of His brethren.

he is not ashamed--though being the Son of God, since they have now by adoption obtained a like dignity, so that His majesty is not compromised by brotherhood with them (compare Heb 11:16). It is a striking feature in Christianity that it unites such amazing contrasts as "our brother and our God" [THOLUCK]. "God makes of sons of men sons of God, because God hath made of the Son of God the Son of man" [ST. AUGUSTINE on Psalm 2].

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 11. For both he that sanctifieth] The word ο αγιαζων does not merely signify one who sanctifies or makes holy, but one who makes atonement or reconciliation to God; and answers to the Hebrew כפר caphar, to expiate. See Ex 29:33-36. He that sanctifies is he that makes atonement; and they who are sanctified are they who receive that atonement, and, being reconciled unto God, become his children by adoption, through grace.

In this sense our Lord uses the word, Joh 17:19: For their sakes I sanctify myself; ὑπερ αυτων εγω ἁγιαζω εμαυτον, on their account I consecrate myself to be a sacrifice. This is the sense in which this word is used generally through this epistle.

Are all of one] εξ ενος παντες. What this one means has given rise to various conjectures; father, family, blood, seed, race, nature, have all been substituted; nature seems to be that intended, see Joh 17:14; and the conclusion of this verse confirms it. Both the Sanctifier and the sanctified-both Christ and his followers, are all of the same nature; for as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, i.e. of human nature, he partook of the same, and thus he was qualified to become a sacrifice for man.

He is not ashamed to call them brethren] Though, as to his Godhead, he is infinitely raised above men and angels; yet as he has become incarnate, notwithstanding his dignity, he blushes not to acknowledge all his true followers as his brethren.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11. For both he that sanctifieth, etc. He proves that it was necessary that what he had said should be fulfilled in the person of Christ on account of his connection with his members; and he also teaches that it was a remarkable evidence of the divine goodness that he put on our flesh. hence he says, that they are all of one, that is, that the author of holiness and we are made partakers of it, are all of one nature, as I understated the expression. It is commonly understood of one Adam; and some refer it to God, and not without reasons; but I rather think that one nature is meant, and one I consider to be in the neuter gender, as though he had said, that they are made out of the same mass.

It avails not, indeed, a little to increase our confidence, that we are united to the Son of God by a bond so close, that we can find in our nature that holiness of which we are in want; for he not only as God sanctifies us, but there is also the power of sanctifying in his human nature, not that it has it from itself, but that God had poured upon it a perfect fullness of holiness, so that from it we may all draw. And to this point this sentence refers, “For their sakes I sanctify myself.” (John 17:19.) If, then we are sinful and unclean, we have not to go far to seek a remedy; for it is offered to us in our own flesh. If any one prefers to regard as intended here that spiritual unity which the godly have with the Son of God, and which differs much from that which men commonly have among themselves, I offer no objection, though I am disposed to follow what is more commonly received, as it is not inconsistent with reason.

He is not ashamed to call them brethren. This passage is taken from Psalm 22:22. That Christ is the speaker there, or David in his name, the evangelists do especially testify, for they quote from it many verses, such as the following, — “They parted my garments,” — “They gave gall for my meat,” — “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” And further, the other parts of the chapter prove the same; for we may see in the history of the passion a delineation of what is there related. The end of the Psalm, which speaks of the calling of the Gentiles, can be applied to none but to Christ alone, “Turn to the Lord shall all the ends of the world; adore before him shall all the families of the nations,” — “The Lord’s is the kingdom, and he will reign over the nations.” These things are found accomplished only in Christ, who enlarged the kingdom of God not over a small space, as David did, but extended it over the whole world; it was before confined as it were within narrow limits. There is, then, no doubt but that his voice is what is referred to in this passage; and appropriately and suitably does he say that he is not ashamed; for how great is the distance between us and him? Much, then, does he let down himself, when he dignifies us with the name of brethren; for we are unworthy that he should deem us his servants. And this so great an honor conferred on us is amplified by this circumstance — Christ does not speak here as a mortal man while in the form of a servant, but when elevated after the resurrection into immortal glory. Hence this title is the same, as though he had raised us into heaven with himself. And let us remember, whenever we hear that we are called brethren by Christ, that he has clothed us, so to speak, with this honor, that together with this fraternal name we may lay hold on eternal life and every celestial blessing.

We must further notice the office which Christ assumes, which is that of proclaiming the name of God; and this began to be done when the gospel was first promulgated and is now done daily by the ministry of pastors. We hence learn, that the gospel has been presented to us for this end, that we may be brought to the knowledge of God, in order that his goodness may be celebrated by us, and that Christ is the author of the gospel in whatever manner it may be offered to us. And this is what Paul says, for he declares that he and others were ambassadors for Christ; and he exhorted men as it were in the name of Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:20.) And this ought to add no small reverence to the gospel, since we ought not so much to consider men as speaking to us, as Christ by his own mouth; for at the time when he promised to publish God’s name to men, he had ceased to be in the world; it was not however to no purpose that he claimed this office as his own; for he really performs it by his disciples.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

11. For] The next three verses are an illustration of the moral fitness, and therefore of the Divine necessity, that there should be perfect unity and sympathy between the Saviour and the saved.

both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified] The idea would perhaps be better, though less literally, expressed by “both the sanctifier and the sanctified,” for the idea of sanctification is here not so much that of progressive holiness as that of cleansing (Heb_13:12). This writer seems to make but little difference between the words “to sanctify” and “to purify,” because in the sphere of the Jewish Ceremonial Law, from which his analogies are largely drawn, “sanctification” meant the setting apart for service by various means of purification. See Heb_9:13-14, Heb_10:10; Heb_10:14, Heb_13:12, and comp. Joh_17:17-19; 1Jn_1:7. The progressive sanctification is viewed in its ideal result, and in this result the whole Church of Christ shares, so that, like Israel of old, it is ideally “holy.”

are all of one] That is, they alike derive their origin from God; in other words the relation in which they stand to each other is due to one and the same divine purpose (Joh_17:17-19). This seems a better view than to refer the “one” to Abraham (Isa_51:2; Eze_33:24, &c.) or to Adam.

he is not ashamed to call them brethren] If the Gospels had been commonly known at the time when this Epistle was written, the author would doubtless have referred not to the Old Testament, but to such direct and tender illustrations as Mat_12:49-50, “Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother:” or to Joh_20:17, “Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God:” Mat_28:10, “go unto my brethren.” Or are we to suppose that this application of Messianic Psalms would have come with even greater argumentative force to his Judaising readers?

to call] i.e. to declare them to be His brethren by calling them so.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren,.... These words, with the following clause, are cited from Psa 22:22 as a proof of what the apostle had before asserted; and that this psalm is to be understood, not of the Jewish nation, or people of Israel, nor of Esther, nor of David, but of the Messiah, appears from the title of it, "Aijeleth, Shahar", which signifies "the morning hind"; from the particular account of Christ's sufferings in it; from his several offices herein pointed to; from the conversion of the Gentiles it prophesies of; and from several passages cited from hence, and applied to Christ; see Mat 27:35. And these are the words of Christ addressed to his Father; whose name he promises to declare to his brethren; meaning not the Jews, in general, his brethren according to the flesh; but his disciples and followers, particularly the twelve apostles, and the five hundred brethren to whom he appeared after his resurrection; and indeed all the saints and people of God may be included: and by his name he would declare to them, is not meant any particular name of his, as Elohim, El-shaddai, Jehovah, or the like; but rather he himself, and the perfections of his nature, which he, the only begotten Son, lying in his bosom, has declared; though the Gospel seems chiefly to be designed; see Joh 17:6 and this Christ declared with great exactness and accuracy, with clearness and perspicuity, and with all integrity and fidelity: he spoke it out plainly, and concealed no part of it; as he received it from his Father, he faithfully made it known to his people; this is expressive of Christ's prophetic office, of his preaching of the Gospel, both in his own person, and by his ministers:

in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee; or "a hymn"; this is to be understood not of the church above, but of the church below; and not of the synagogue of the Jews, but of the disciples of Christ, and of his singing an hymn to God, with and among them, as he did at the institution of the supper, Mat 26:30 for though the number of the apostles was but small, yet they made a congregation or church, and which was a pure and glorious one. With the Jews (h), ten men made a congregation.

(h) Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 1. sect. 6.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

11 For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,

Ver. 11. Are all of one] viz. of Adam; only with this difference; that we are of Adam, and by Adam, but Christ was of Adam, not by Adam, for he was not begotten, but made, and so original sin was avoided.

He is not ashamed] Christ was not ashamed of us, when we had never a rag to our backs; should we be ashamed of him and his service?

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For both he that sanctifieth - This refers, evidently, to the Lord Jesus. The object is to show that there was such a union between him and those for whom he died, as to make it necessary that he should partake of the same nature, or that he should be a suffering man; HEB 2:14. He undertook to redeem and sanctify them. He called them brethren. He identified them with himself. There was, in the great work of redemption, a oneness between him and them, and hence, it was necessary that he should assume their nature - and the fact, therefore, that he appeared as a suffering “man,” does not at all militate with the doctrine that he had a more exalted nature, and was even above the angels. Prof. Stuart endeavors to prove that the word “sanctify” here is used in the sense of, “to make expiation” or “atonement,” and that the meaning is, “he who maketh expiation, and they for whom expiation is made.”

Bloomfield gives the same sense to the word, as also does Rosenmuller. That the word may have such a signification it would be presumptuous in anyone to doubt, after the view which such people have taken of it; but it may be doubted whether this idea is necessary here. The word “sanctify” is a general term, meaning to make holy or pure; to consecrate, set apart, devote to God; to regard as holy, or to hallow. Applied to the Saviour here, it may be used in this general sense - that he consecrated, or devoted himself to God - as eminently “the consecrated” or “holy one” - the Messiah (compare the note at Joh 17:19); applied to his people, it may mean that they in like manner were the consecrated, the holy, the pure, on earth. There is a richness and fulness in the word when so understood which there is not when it is limited to the idea of expiation; and it seems to me that it is to be taken in its richest and fullest sense, and that the meaning is, “the great consecrated Messiah - the Holy One of God - and his consecrated and holy followers, are all of one.” “All of one.”

Of one family; spirit; Father; nature. Either of these significations will suit the connection, and some such idea must be understood. The meaning is, that they were united, or partook of something in common, so as to constitute a oneness, or a brotherhood; and that since this was the case, there was a propriety in his taking their nature. It does not mean that they were originally of one nature or family; but that it was understood in the writings of the prophets that the Messiah should partake of the nature of his people, and that, “therefore,” though he was more exalted than the angels, there was a propriety that he should appear in the human form; compare Joh 17:21.

For which cause - That is, because he is thus united with them, or has undertaken their redemption.

He is not ashamed - As it might be supposed that one so exalted and pure would be. It might have been anticipated that the Son of God would refuse to give the name “brethren” to those who were so humble, and sunken and degraded as those whom he came to redeem. But he is willing to be ranked with them, and to be regarded as one of their family.

To call them brethren - To acknowledge himself as of the same family, and to speak of them as his brothers. That is, “he is so represented as speaking of them in the prophecies respecting the Messiah” - for this interpretation the argument of the apostle demands. It was material for him to show that he was so represented in the Old Testament. This he does in the following verses.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

For both he who sanctified, (i.e. our Redeemer, who sanctifieth, or has obtained sanctification for all, by sacrificing himself on the cross) and they who are sanctified, are all of one; have the same human nature, and are from the same first parent Adam, whose Son, (Christ) as man, was; on which account he calls men his brethren. See John xx. 17. and Psalm xxi. 23. in which is a clear prediction of Christ’s sufferings, where it is said: I will declare thy name to my brethren, &c. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

For both he that sanctifieth: for shows the reason of the Son’s incarnation, viz. the necessity of union in nature between the sanctifying Mediator and the sanctified sinner. The great gospel Minister was to bring many sons to glory by suffering, which he was not capable of, but by being united to one and the same nature with them to whom the penalty was due, and so he must be Head of them. This God-man is separating and consecrating of penitent believing sinners from the common mass to God, meriting by his death for them remission of their sins, and sanctifying their persons by his Spirit from their pollutions by them, 1Co 6:11; Tit 3:4-7; Heb 9:14; 10:10,14.

And they who are sanctified; penitent believing sinners, justified by his blood, and sanctified by his Spirit, Eph 5:25-27.

Are all of one: this is an attribute of the unity of the principle of both these; such an one as is proper to man with himself, whom he sanctifieth, and not competent to angels; it must therefore be the principle of humanity. He took a human soul and body united to his person, and so became of one nature with us, {compare Heb 2:14} of one human mass, alluding to the first-fruits offered at the Passover, or the loaves at Pentecost, whereby all the rest were sanctified: so Christ assumed the same human nature, that he might be the Head and leading Representative of a body of mankind, differenced from them by his being holy, and they sinful, and personally united to the Word.

For which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren; the unity of him and them in the human nature, is the cause why he calls them brethren, therefore they must be one: considering him in the holiness of his Deity, and them in the filthiness of sin, he might have been ashamed of such a brotherhood; but by his effectual word he adopted them into a state of childship and heirship to God with himself; and in the flesh to give them that glory, that they might be one with God, as he and the Father are one, Joh 17:22.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11. For—Reason for this becomingness of Jesus sufferings; based upon the need of his identification with his brethren.

They who are sanctified—Are being sanctified; the present tense of the Greek participle implying a now continuous process, carried on unto the final glorification. Hence Christians are all, more or less perfectly, “saints.” According to Heb_10:10; Heb_10:14, this is wrought through the efficacy of Christ’s death. But the Greek word for sanctify, here, should not therefore be rendered (as by Stuart and others) expiate.

All of one—The English, here, would suggest race, or nature, to be added; but the Greek word for one is masculine, and requires father, or God. This brings us to the same essential meaning as lineage, or race. Jesus is a true man, in order that as man brought sin and death, so a man should bring holiness and life. And still more, by being man he is brother with us, enabled by his humanity to sympathize with us, and by his divinity to so rise as that we may be raised as one with him to the heights of glory.

Not ashamed—For it is by a most wonderful and divine condescension that the divine Son becomes with us a human son.

Brethren—Thereby we become brother to the God-man.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For both he that sanctifieth (i.e. Christ, the archgov) and they that are sanctified (i.e. the "many sons" who are brought unto glory) are all of one (ex enov , i.e. of God). The idea expressed here by the verb agiazw , to sanctify, may be determined by comparison with Heb_9:13, 14 10:14, 29; and 13:12 (ina agiash dia tou idiou aimatov ton); cf. Joh_17:9. It is not the idea, to us most familiar, of moral sanctification through the Holy Spirit, but that of the redeemed being brought into a new relation to God, hallowed for glory," through redemption; whence all Christians are called agoi. Agiazein is the equivalent in the LXX of the Hebrew cdq, which is applied to the hallowing of both the sacrifices and the people to God"s service. As an atoning sacrifice, Christ thus hallowed himself, (Joh_17:19) that thus he might hallow the "many sons." Ex enov must certainly be taken as referring to God, not (as some take it) to Abraham or Adam. For the necessity of the SON taking part of flesh and blood in order to accomplish the redemption is not introduced till ver. 14. So far the common fatherhood spoken of has been that of him "for whom are all things and by whom are all things," who, "in bringing many sons to glory," has perfected "the Captain of their salvation." The idea is that it was meet that the Captain should be perfected through human sufferings, since both he and the "many sons" are of one Divine Father; in their relation of sonship (with whatever difference of manner and degree) they are associated together. Be it observed, however, that it is not the original relation to God of the "Sanctifier" and the "sanctified," but their relation to him in the redemption, that is denoted by ex enov . The common sonship does not consist in this, that he is Son by eternal generation and they by creation. It has been seen above that the term uiov is net applied to Christ in this Epistle with reference to his eternal Being, but to his incarnation; and the human "sons" are not regarded as such till made so by redemption. O agiazwn , and oi agiazomenoi rule the sense of ex enov . The view is that the one Father sent the SON into the world to be the Firstborn of many sons. The expression, frequent in the Pentateuch, "I am he that sanctifieth," may be cited in illustration of the moaning of the passage. For which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren; i.e. in the Messianic utterances of the Old Testament, to which, in accordance with the plan and purpose of the Epistle, reference is again made for proof. The point of the quotations that follow (vers. 12, 13) is that the Messiah, notwithstanding the position above the angels, shown above to be assigned to him, is represented also as associating himself with men as brethren, in dependence on one heavenly Father.

Vers. 11-18. Jesus our Brother. Here the writer expands the statement of ver. 10, and confirms it by suitable arguments. This closing paragraph of the first section of the Epistle emphasizes the fact that Jesus, the Son of God and the King of angels, (Heb 1) is also as Mediator our brother Man.

I THE BROTHERHOOD OF CHRIST. First, stated abstractly (ver. 11). Next, illustrated from Old Testament Scripture (vers. 12, 13), the Messianic passages quoted being Psa_22:22 Psa_18:2 Isa_8:18. Then, verified from the facts and events of the Savior"s earthly life (vers. 14-18). This endearing brotherhood is:

1. A brotherhood of nature. "All of one" (ver. 11); of one nature, of one race, of one Father. He partook of flesh and blood" (ver. 14); i.e. he became man. He took his place as one of "the children" by being born. He had a human body, Subject, like ours, to pleasure and pain, to hunger and thirst, to suffering and death. And he had a human soul, which thought and felt, loved and hated, was joyful and sad, and which acknowledged its dependence upon the Father of spirits.

2. A brotherhood of condition. "In like manner" (ver. 14); i.e. in a manner almost similar. Jesus had no nimbus round his head, such as the painters give him. God sent him "in the likeness of sinful flesh;" for, though his human nature was perfectly pure, it was exposed to those infirmities and sufferings which in all other sons of Adam result from sin.

3. A brotherhood of experience. "It behooved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren" (ver. 17). So he actually passed through a complete course of pain and trial and temptation, which ended only with his death. He traveled over the entire range, and fathomed all the depths, of human suffering. "He himself hath suffered, being tempted" (ver. 18). He went through every human experience of poverty, toil, pain, disappointment, insult, persecution; through every sorrow which arises in a pure mind from constant contact with sinners; and through every form of Satanic temptation.

4. A brotherhood of love. "Not of angels doth he take hold" (ver. 16), to help and save them: then what a wonder of grace it is that he became the Redeemer of mortal man! It was from love to us that he "partook" so readily of "flesh and blood," that by this means he might raise humanity to a higher pinnacle of glory than any on which the loftiest angel can set foot. It is because of this love "beyond a brother"s" that even now he does not disdain "to call us brethren" (ver. 11).

II THE PURPOSES ACCOMPLISHED BY CHRIST"S BROTHERHOOD. Some expressions in the passage state these generally.

(1) "He taketh hold of the seed of Abraham" (ver. 16), to pluck them from sin and Satan.

(2) "That he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest" (ver. 17): here we meet this famous title of Christ, "High Priest," for the first time a title which strikes the key-note of the Epistle, and which is not given to him in any other book of the New Testament.

(3) "He that sanctifieth" (ver. 11). Christ became incarnate that he might consecrate his people by delivering them from sin. Or, more in detail, he became our brother:

1. To expiate sins. (Ver. 17.) By his death in our nature he has offered to God a perfect satisfaction for the sin of the world. The perfection of his sacrifice is due to the fact that he who suffered is the same glorious personage who is described in Hebrews 1. as the Son of God, the eternal Jehovah, the Creator and Possessor of the universe.

2. To deliver/rein death and Satan. (Vers. 14, 15.) "The sting of death is sin;" but death is powerless to harm the new life of those who are cleansed with the atoning blood. Sin was introduced at first by the devil, and death through sin, and so death is associated with the devil"s usurpation; but Jesus has "bruised the serpent"s head," rendering him impotent in relation to "the children" who are to be brought to glory. They are emancipated by their elder Brother from death"s power and fear.

3. To enable him to sympathize with his people. (Vers. 17, 18.) He passed, as our Brother-Man, through every variety of trial and sorrow, that we may learn to have confidence in him, as being fully able to sustain and cheer us amid the darkest experiences of affliction. (Heb_4:15, Heb_4:16)

4. To bring many sons unto glory. " (Ver. 10.) Jesus is our Moses and Joshua. He became our Brother that he might be our Leader through the wilderness of this world up to the heavenly Canaan. Had he not "partaken of flesh and blood," there would have been no inheritance for us. "The humanization of God is the divinization of man.

LESSONS.

1. The native value of human nature, as seen in the fact that Christ has assumed it, to redeem it.

2. "Thanks be to God for his unspeakable Gift?

3. How great the madness of the man who rejects Christ"s offered brotherhood!

4. The necessity of union with Christ by faith, if we would have him claim us as his brethren.

5. The comfort of knowing, in our days of trouble, that the God-Man cherishes for us the love of a brother.

6. The duty of loving our brethren in Christ. (Heb_13:1)

Vers. 11, 12. The oneness of the Sanctifier and the sanctified. "For both he that sanctifieth and they who are," etc.

I THE ONENESS OF OUR LORD WITH MAN. "Both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one.

1. Our Lord is of one nature with man. This is what many take to be the meaning of the writer in this place. The Savior was truly human. As a man, he hungered and thirsted, ate and drank, was wearied and slept, sorrowed and wept, suffered and died. His humanity was a real thing.

2. But unity of spiritual relation seems to be set forth here. The text certainly points to something higher than the mere physical oneness of Christ with all men. It is not his relation to all men that is here expressed, but his relation as Sanctifier to all who are being sanctified through him. It is this union of spiritual relationship which is here meant. The Sanctifier and the sanctified are all of one God and Father. They "are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus;" they "have received the Spirit of adoption," etc. Our Lord not only stooped down to our nature, but he lifts our nature into fellowship and oneness with God. Thus the Sanctifier and they who are being sanctified are all of one "God, the spiritual Father as of Christ, so also of those who are descended from Christ". (cf. Joh_20:17)

II THE WORK OF OUR LORD FOR MAN. He is here represented as the Sanctifier of his people. The word used in the text suggests the ideas of:

1. Expiation. It does not seem to us that we are warranted in making this interpretation exclusive of others (as M. Stuart does, who translates "both he who maketh expiation and they for whom expiation is made"). But agiazw may point to the atoning death of Christ. "While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son." "God reconciled us to himself through Christ." Sanctification is impossible apart from reconciliation to God, and that reconciliation is effected by means of the death of Christ. "We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ". (Heb_10:10)

2. Consecration. They who are sanctified have consecrated themselves to God. They are devoted to him; they do not live with common aims or for common cuds; but at all times, and even in commonest duties, they live for God and for his glory. They have presented themselves "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God," etc.

3. Transformation. "They who are sanctified;" literally, "they who are being sanctified," are being made true and right in word and deed, in thought and feeling. They are not sinless or perfect. Their sanctification is not yet complete, but it is in progress. They are being transformed into the image of their Lord and Savior. But how can our Lord be said to be the Sanctifier? The Holy Spirit is the great Agent in the transforming process; but the expiation or atonement was made by Christ. And while consecration, or dedication to God, is the act of the Christian, the mighty impulse from which that act springs comes from the Christ. And in the transforming work Christ sends "the sanctifying Spirit; he is the Head of all sanctifying influences. The Spirit sanctifieth as the Spirit of Christ.

III THE CONDESCENSION OF OUR LORD TOWARDS MAN. For which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy Name unto my brethren," etc. Though he is "Lord of men as well as angels," he calls his people his brethren. Notwithstanding the lowliness of their condition and the crudeness and imperfection of their character, he graciously acknowledges them as his brethren. (cf. Mat_28:10 Joh_20:17)

CONCLUSION.

1. Here is encouragement to address our Lord in our tithes of need.

"Though now ascended up on high... He bends on earth a Brother"s eye;" and he has a brother"s heart towards us.

2. Here is reason why we should confess him, as our Lord and Savior.

Since he acknowledges us as his brethren, let us humbly and heartily acknowledge him as our Savior and Sovereign.

3. Here is reason for acknowledging the lowliest Christian as our brother.

Shall we refuse to recognize as our spiritual kindred those whom our Lord calls his brethren?

4. Here is incitement to the cultivation of holiness. Since Christ is engaged in our sanctification, "let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit," etc.. W.J. (2Co_7:1)

Vers. 11-16. The Incarnation a necessity of the redeeming work of Christ. A third argument to justify the Incarnation. The writer has already shown, first, that the Incarnation was not degrading; and second, that it was actually becoming; he here goes on to say that it was necessary. Subject The Incarnation a necessity of the redeeming work of Christ.

I OUR LORD ON EARTH WAS A MAN AMONGST MEN. (Ver. 11.) "Partook of the same" (ver. 14). As usual, the writer appeals to the Jewish Scriptures; they assert, he says, the humanity of the Messiah.

1. The doctrine of the Incarnation is bused on the entire revelation of God. It does not depend on "proof-texts," but underlies the whole Book; it is the truth which gives unity to the whole, so that if it be removed the Scriptures fall to pieces and are inexplicable. How delicately it is woven into the web of Scripture and pervades the whole fabric, is seen in the particular texts the apostle quotes here. They are not the texts we should have chosen indeed, we should hardly have applied them to Christ; but he who, like the writer, is taught by the Spirit, and has deepest spiritual insight into these pages, discerns Christ where others do not, as Jesus did when "beginning at Moses and all," etc. The Old Testament begins with the promise, "The seed of the woman," etc., goes on to state that he should be of the stock of Abraham, tribe of Judah, family of David, born of a virgin in Bethlehem, be a Man of sorrows, bear the chastisement of sins, and pour out his soul unto death; and then it closes with the declaration that he is about to come, and that his coming should be preceded by his forerunner. Then the Gospels come in as the counterpart and fulfill-merit of all that, and there is not an Epistle which follows which is not based on the fact with which Paul opens his Epistle to the Romans. (Rom_1:3) This doctrine is the key to the Bible; and no wonder, for this is the great mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh.

2. This doctrine involves that Christ was at the same time possessed of two distinct natures. That is hinted at here, in "not ashamed to call men brethren," which intimates an act of condescension which could not be fulfilled by one who was merely man. You cannot imagine, it affirmed, e.g. of Moses, or Elijah, or Paul, or John, that they were "not ashamed," etc.; the bond of brotherhood in their case existed of necessity, and there could be no humility in admitting it, as is implied with regard to Jesus. The words are meaningless, unless he was by nature far exalted above man, and assumed man"s nature voluntarily. Thus the writer who declares Christ"s manhood plainly implies that Christ was more than man. He who walked the earth in human nature was at the same time the most high God. It is not that he laid aside his Godhead. He could not do that; God cannot undeify himself. Being God before the Incarnation (as he said, "Before Abraham was, I am"), he was God on earth as he must be forever. How it could be we know not, but our ignorance of the mode does not prove impossibility. He who "in the beginning was God... was made flesh.

3. The doctrine of the Incarnation asserts that, notwithstanding Christ"s Godhead, he was a real man. In opposition to the later theories that his body was a phantom, or that his soul was not human, the writer asserts here that Christ was man in every respect save sin. Are not the particular texts quoted here chosen to prove this exhaustively? Man is a trinity body, soul, and spirit; if Christ was man, he was human in these respects. "Behold I and the children which thou hast given me. Forasmuch as the children are sharers in flesh and blood." In the Old Testament the Messiah calls men his children; that points to likeness in physical nature. Christ was born, grew, needed food and rest, sweat drops of blood, was nailed to the cross, lay in the tomb, bore nail and spear marks. Christ had a human body. Again, "I will declare thy Name unto my brethren." Does not that brethren point to what we call soul, the seat of affection, emotion, thought, conscience, etc.? He increased in wisdom, was moved with compassion. "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus;" "Jesus wept." Christ had a human soul Again, "In the midst of the congregation will I sing thy praise," and again, "I will put my trust in him." Christ worshipping God, and trusting God! Doesn"t that refer to what we call spirit, that part of our nature by which we are brought into fellowship with the Most High? Christ"s spiritual life was wrought by the Holy Ghost as ours is, tempted by our tempter, cherished by the same Divine Word, needed communion with the Father, prayed and worshipped and trusted as ours do. Christ had a human spirit. Body, soul, and spirit, he was Man amongst men. Beware of supposing that, because he was God at the same time, his Godhead in any way lessened the infirmities and necessities of his humanity; he would not have been true man had it been so, and could have been no example to men. As God, there was the hiding of his power in his humanity. Christ entered on his work, and fulfilled it in the position in which Adam stood before he fell.

II ONLY AS MAN COULD HE DELIVER MEN FROM BONDAGE. (Vers. 14, 15.) A confessedly difficult verse.

1. Death is curse. This text is made difficult of comprehension, because it is read as though it referred to the fear which Christians often have of dying. We must remove that idea from the text. The writer is dealing with what is much more fundamental than that. Observe, the text does not speak of bondage to the fear of death, but of bondage to Satan through the fear of death. The death here spoken of is death in its main idea. Death as curse; death as witnessing to man"s sinful condition; death as the declaration that he is under condemnation. Man"s fear of death is but another name for his sense of guilt, his knowledge that he is under the curse of the Almighty.

2. The curse being removed, man is set free to holiness. Holiness is the end of Christ"s work. The passage begins with, "He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified." To sanctify us was his aim. But holiness is impossible where the "fear of death," i.e. a sense of being under the curse, is. There is only one principle from which holiness can spring love to God (that is the difference between morality and holiness). But we can never love him till we know that he loves us know, i.e., that the curse is removed. Holiness, however, is possible then; then obedience is voluntary, service joyous, surrender easy, resemblance to him certain.

3. Being set free to holiness, Satan"s power is gone. He is here said to have "the power of death a remarkable expression, to which we must not attach the wrong meaning. Satan cannot inflict death, has no dominion over death. Christ says, "I have the keys," etc. But "fear of death," i.e. sense of being under the curse, is the power Satan wields to keep men in bondage. He blinds them to Divine love, tells them God is angry with them, is a hard Master, has no claim on them, and the result is that men continue in sin. But when their eyes are open to see he is a liar, that the curse is removed, that God is love, that God in Christ is able to extend mercy, then the soul breaks away from his bonds into that holiness which is liberty, and Satan"s power ends.

4. This could only be accomplished by Christs humanity. Only by Christ becoming man could the sense of curse be taken away. Its removal required that the curse should be endured by a substitute; but no substitute could be accepted in man"s stead who was not of man"s kind, and the Law must be obeyed by the nature to which it was given, and its penalty endured by the nature to which it was due. Moreover, if Christ is to suffer and die, he must have a nature capable of suffering and death. So the holiness of men is based on the humanity of Jesus.

III AS IT WAS MEN CHRIST SOUGHT TO REDEEM, HIS MANHOOD WAS THEREFORE A NECESSITY. (Ver. 16.) The Old Version, owing to the words in italics, greatly mystifies this verse; as it stands in the Revised Version it is the natural completion of the writer"s argument. The "taking bold" (or, "laying hold") is the laying bold to save. Christ assumed human nature, not angelic, because he is the Savior, not of angels, but of men.

1. Christ passed by the necessities of fallen angels. Here is a great mystery. Why did not Christ save fallen angels? We cannot tell. There may be a wide difference between the sins of devils and the sins of men. It has been suggested that the one love evil for its own sake, as when the tempter in the garden would wreck the world; and that the other love it for some fancied good it brings, as when the woman thought she saw a good, and therefore put forth her band and sinned. There may ha some such radical difference which makes salvation possible only in the one case, but we are not told; all we know is "the angels which kept not their first estate, he hath reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day." "He took not bold of angels.

2. Christ stretched out his redeeming hand to man. He "laid hold of the seed of Abraham;" as a shepherd overtakes a sheep that is running away, lays hold of it, lays it on his shoulders rejoicing, and declares, "My sheep shall never perish, neither," etc. Mark the condescension of the Savior, and the exaltation of the human race. We are lost in astonishment as we see Christ pass by the myriads of celestial beings that had fallen, and set his heart on laying hold of us, that he might raise us as much higher than they, as the children of the king are higher than his servants. This involved the necessity of the Incarnation. But more it reveals an unutterable desire on Christ"s part that man should be saved, and the fact that man may be saved if he will. C.N.

Christ and his brethren. In the eleventh verse there is brought in a new idea. The Author of salvation is now described in relation to his followers as the Sanctifier, and these followers as the sanctified. Jesus it is who sets us apart for God, and sets us apart by making a real difference between us and those who do not believe in him. In other words, if there is no real difference between us and the unbeliever, then we cannot reckon ourselves among the sanctified. Sanctification cannot consist in taking so many, irrespective of character or of any change which may be working in them. Jesus and all mankind are of one so far as a common humanity is concerned, and this is a condition for the further unity; but something more is needed. He who sanctifies is first of all sanctified himself sanctified by the mystery of his birth, and by the Divine testimony at his baptism, and so on by everything that lifted him to a unique eminence among men. And all human beings who have the same Spirit of God working in them are thus reckoned for brethren of Jesus; and "he is not ashamed to call them brethren. " Though they be far below him in elevation of character and perception of truth, yet the relation is there, and the very way to make things better is to recognize the relation and found an appeal upon it. Our sanctifying Brother looks upon us in our imperfections, and cheers us with the thought that we shall become like him. He is not ashamed to call us brethren, but how ashamed we ought to be that we are so unworthy of him! Christ is far more intent on working out the possibilities of our life than we are ourselves. Y.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For - They are nearly related to each other. He that sanctifieth - Christ, chap. xiii, 12. And all they that are sanctified - That are brought to God; that draw near or come to him, which are synonymous terms. Are all of one - Partakers of one nature, from one parent, Adam.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

In these words, the union of Christ and us, by his participation of the same nature with us, is declared: he and we are all of one; that is, of one and the same nature, of one stock and original; it was the product of the wise, merciful, and righteous counsel of God, that the Saviour of men should have communion with them in their nature, that he might have to redeem them by his propinquity and alliance with them; Both he that sanctifieth, and they that are sanctified, are all of one.

Learn hence, 1. That the Lord Jesus Christ was, and ought to be of the same nature and stock with those whom he did redeem, and sanctify unto God. Divine justice required, that the same nature which had sinned should suffer for sin. The wisdom of God was pleased to redeem man: man must be redeemed by man: God as God could not die, therefore God becomes man, that he might be in a capacity to die; he that as man will redeem man, must be of the same nature with man. This Christ was, both by divine institution, and by a voluntary susception: He that sanctifieth, and they that are sanctified, are all of one.

Learn, 2. That Christ having taken our nature upon him, accounts it no disgrace to acknowledge and own us for his brethren; Christ will be ashamed of none of his brethren, but such are a shame unto him.

Learn, 3. That not withstanding the union of nature which is betwixt Christ and us, yet, in respect of our persons, ther is an inconceivable distance between him and us: so that it is a marvellous condescension in him to call us brethren.

Here note, That though Christ calls us brethren, yet it becomes us to call him Lord; and as such to adore and worship him, to glorify and serve him, to honour and obey him.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11. “For He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one.” This is God’s infallible definition of sanctification, i.e., oneness with God. Hence, we see that sanctification unifies us with God, that is, gives us the divine nature. Holiness is the divine nature. It is original in God, but imparted to us by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Ghost is called “holy,” not because He is more holy than the Father or the Son, but because it is His office to make us holy. Hence, all true religion is the direct work of the Holy Ghost. Anti-holiness preachers, Roman Catholic priests, Moslems, and all sorts of heathens, preach holiness to the people, but all they mean by holiness is loyalty to the church and obedience to their leaders. All this is Satan’s counterfeit holiness. All of this buncombe twaddle about loyalty to the church belongs to the dogmata of counterfeit holiness, as true holiness makes you loyal to God. When you are loyal to God you are always loyal to God’s Church. Christ is the Head and the Church is His body. Therefore, they are identical and there is no such a thin as being loyal to the one and disloyal to the other Here we see the reason why the popular clergy and secular ecclesiasticism in all ages have fought sanctification. It is because it makes the people loyal to God instead of themselves. Liquori, a distinguished Roman Catholic commentator, furiously denounces the doctrine of perfection as the worst of all heresies, certifying that it has given them more trouble than all other heresies combined. This problem explains itself when the preachers are not in harmony with God, as none can be till they are sanctified wholly; they are unwilling for the people to get sanctified, because they know it will take them out of their hands and put them where they can no longer rely on them as conservators of their carnal policy. The worldly churches heap mountains of labor on their members to conserve their financial and ecclesiastical enterprises, crowding God out and actually causing their members to backslide. The true church is not a social and financial organization, but the children of God united in prayer and labor to save souls. “For which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren.” This follows as a logical sequence from God’s definition of sanctification, i.e., that it is oneness with God, i.e., unification with the divine nature. When the Holy Ghost imparts to the very nature of God, He is no longer ashamed to call us brethren.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11. Both he that sanctifieth. He who makes men holy by purging them of their sins, and those who are made holy are all of one. Are made of one nature because he took our nature and suffered. Hence he is not ashamed to call all the saved, though they are mortals, by the name of brethren. This is done in the Hebrew Scriptures (Ps. 22:22). The language quoted from the Psalm is ascribed to Christ, but is addressed to God. The point is that the speaker calls the worshipers brethren.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

General Information:

This prophetic quotation comes from a Psalm of King David.

the one who sanctifies

"the one who makes others holy" or "the one who makes others pure from sin"

those who are sanctified

This can be stated in active form. AT: "those whom he makes holy" or "those whom he makes pure from sin" (See: Active or Passive)

have one source

Who that source is can be stated clearly. AT: "have one source, God himself" or "have the same Father" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

he is not ashamed

"Jesus is not ashamed"

is not ashamed to call them brothers

This double negative means that he will claim them as his brothers. AT: "is pleased to call them his brothers" (See: Double Negatives)

brothers

Here this refers to all who have believed in Jesus, including both men and women. (See: When Masculine Words Include Women)

I will proclaim your name to my brothers

Here "name" refers to the person's reputation and what they have done. AT: "I will proclaim to my brothers the great things you have done" (See: Metonymy)

from inside the assembly

"when believers come together to worship God"

translationWords

sanctify

shame

brother

preach

assembly

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

11. γάρ. The next three verses are an illustration of the moral fitness, and therefore of the Divine necessity, that there should be perfect unity and sympathy between the Saviour and the saved.

ὅ τε ἁγιάζων καὶ οἱ ἁγιαζόμενοι. The idea would perhaps be well, though not literally, expressed by “both the sanctifier and the sanctified,” for the idea of sanctification is here not so much that of progressive holiness as that of cleansing (Heb 13:12). This writer seems to make but little difference between the words “to sanctify” and “to purify,” because in the sphere of the Jewish Ceremonial Law from which his analogies are largely drawn, “sanctification meant the setting apart for service by various means of purification.” See Heb 9:13-14, Heb 10:10; Heb 10:14, Heb 13:12, and comp. Joh 17:17-19; 1Jn 1:7. The progressive sanctification is viewed in its ideal result, and in this result the whole Church of Christ shares, so that, like Israel of old, it is ideally “holy.”

ἐξ ἑνὸς πάντες. Sub. πατρός. The ἐξ implies descent; they alike derive their origin from God; in other words the relation in which they stand to each other is due to one and the same Divine purpose (Joh 17:17-19). This seems a better view than to refer the “one” to Abraham (Isa 51:2; Eze 33:24, &c.) or to Adam.

οὐκ ἐπαισχύνεται. Sc. ὁ ἁγιάζων.

ἀδελφοὺς αὐτοὺς καλεῖν. αὐτοὺς sc. τοὺς ἁγιαζομένους. If the Gospels had been commonly known at the time when this Epistle was written, the author would doubtless have referred not to the Old Testament, but to such direct and tender illustrations as Mat 12:49-50, “Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother”: or to Joh 20:17, “Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God”: Mat 28:10, “go unto my brethren.” Or are we to suppose that this application of Messianic Psalms would have come with even greater argumentative force to his Judaising readers?

καλεῖν, i.e. to declare them to be His brethren by calling them so.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11-13.] The connexion with the foregoing cannot be made plain, till we have discussed the meaning of ἐξ ἑνός below. It may suffice to say, that the assertion, and the quotations, are subordinate to the πολλοὺς υἱούς in ver. 10.

For both the Sanctifier and (notice the τε—καί, which bind closely together in one category) the sanctified (both the participles are in their official substantival sense, as ὁ πειράζων, and the like. The imperfection of our passive in English prevents our accurately expressing a present passive participle: ‘they that are being sanctified’ is perhaps, though we are obliged sometimes to use it, hardly allowable English. The word ἁγιάζω (see reff.) signifies in LXX and N. T. usage the selecting out and adopting for God’s service. It is not here, as Bleek infers, = σώζω, but as every where, when used in allusion to Christ’s work on His people, involves that transforming and consecrating process, of which His Spirit is the actual agent. Hence, believers are ordinarily not ἡγιασμένοι, but ἁγιαζόμενοι, as here: the difference being, as may be traced in reff., that where their present state is spoken of, the participle is present: where God’s purpose respecting them, and Christ’s finished work, the perfect. Sanctification is glory working in embryo: glory is sanctification come to the birth and manifested.

It is disputed whether the reference of these words is to be considered as general, applying to every case of sanctifier and sanctified, as, e. g., the priest and the people under the old law (so Schlichting, Schöttgen, al.), the firstfruits and the remaining harvest (so Cappellus): or is to be restricted to Christ and His people alone. Certainly the latter seems to be required by the context, and most of all by the assumption of the subject in the next clause tacitly as contained in ὁ ἁγιάζων. The ground on which Christ is our Sanctifier has also been variously alleged. Grotius leaves the connexion very loose, when he says, “Christus nos sanctos facit doctrina sua et exemplo. Ille ex Spiritu sancto conceptus est, et nos per Spiritum sanctum novam adipiscimur naturam; ita communem habemus originem.” But this obviously does not reach the depth of the following argument, see especially ver. 17: and we must believe that there is a reference to the expiatory death of Christ: see also ch. 10:10, 14, and more in the note there) (are) of one (ἑνός, as will be seen by the usage in reff., must be taken as masculine; not with Carpzov, Abresch, al., supplied by σπέρματος or αἵματος, nor understood “ex communi massa,” with Cappellus, al.,—“ex una natura,” Calv.,—nor “puritatem conditionis spiritalis,” as Cameron, similarly Corn.-a-lapide. And if masculine, what are we to supply? Erasm. (par.), Beza, Estius (as an altern.), Hofmann, al. say, Adam: Bengel (whose note is well worth consulting), Peirce, al., Abraham. But it seems far better and simpler here, on account of the πολλοὺς υἱούς above, and as satisfying fully the force of ἐκ, to understand God to be meant. So all the patristic Commentators, and almost all the recent ones, including Delitzsch: most of them however giving it the very wide sense of ref. 1 Cor. ἡμῖν εἱς θεὸς ὁ πατήρ, ἐξ οὗ τὰ πάντα, which is referred to here by Chrys.,—(and so Thdrt., καὶ τοῦτο κατὰ τὸ ἀνθρώπινον λέγεται, κτιστὴ γὰρ ἡ ληφθεῖσα φύσις· εἷς δέ γε καὶ ἡμῶν καὶ αὐτῆς ποιητής). But this can hardly be. For the argument in this particular place is not to shew by what means, viz. by becoming man, Christ made men into sons,—but, that sonship of Himself and them towards the Father having been predicated, to justify the use of the common term. And thus we are driven to a sense of υἱοί commensurate with ἁγιαζόμενοι, by which word the Writer takes it up again. So that it is not here the mere physical unity of all men with Christ which is treated, but the further and higher spiritual unity of the ἁγιάζων and the ἁγιαζόμενοι, as evinced by his speaking of them. The same is plain from ver. 14 below: see there. So that it is the higher Sonship of God, common to the Lord and those whom the Father by Him is leading to glory, which must be understood. See Joh 8:47: 1Jn 3:10; 1Jn 4:6; 1Jn 5:19: 3Jn 1:11.

Note, that the point brought out here is not that the holiness of our Lord’s human nature, and our holiness, are both of one, viz. the Father (Joh 10:36): which, however true, would be introducing a matter not belonging to the argument here), all (of them) (after the τε—καί, πάντες forms a sort of pleonastic repetition; but comes with considerable force. On account of the τε—καί, it is quite impossible, with Bengel, al., to confine the πάντες to the ἁγιαζόμενοι only: and his argument,—“utrosque, dicturus, si sanctificantem τῷ πάντες, omnes, includeret,”—goes for nothing: the ἁγιαζόμενοι being not set over against the ἁγιάζων as a second class, but thought of in their multitudinous distinctness as individuals. The connexion with ver. 10 will now be plain: ‘πολλοὺς υἱούς was the right expression to use of those who are brought to glory, for they are of the same divine stock—have the same heavenly Father as their ἀρχηγός, the one proper Son of God.’ And this will be now illustrated by His own words: on which account (reff. especially 2 Tim., Tit.: viz. because they are all of one) He (Christ: see above) is not ashamed (see ref. ὁρᾷς πῶς πάλιν δείκνυσι τὴν ὑπεροχήν; τῷ γὰρ εἰπεῖν οὐκ ἐπαισχύνεται, δείκνυσιν οὐ τῆς τοῦ πράγματος φύσεως, ἀλλὰ τῆς φιλοστοργίας τοῦ μὴ ἐπαισχυνομένου τὸ πᾶν ὄν, καὶ τῆς ταπεινοφροσύνης τῆς πολλῆς, Chrys.) to call them (τοὺς ἁγιαζομένους) brethren (the Commentators quote from Philo de Septenario, § 8, vol. ii. p. 284, τοὺς μὲν (scil. τοὺς ὁμοεθνεῖς) καλέσας εὐθυβόλως ἀδελφούς, ἵνα μηδεὶς φθονῇ τῶν ἰδίων ὡς ἂν ἐκ φύσεως συγκληρονόμοις ἀδελφοῖς), saying, I will declare (LXX, διηγήσομαι) thy name to my brethren, in the midst of the assembly will I sing of thee (it will be sufficient to refer, respecting the general sense and prophetic import of Psa_22, to what has been before said, on Psa_8 (above, ver. 6), and on similar citations elsewhere. The Psalm was originally the expression of a suffering saint, in all probability David, communing with his God: laying forth to Him his anguish, and finally triumphing in confidence of His gracious help and deliverance. But by the mouth of such servants of God did the prophetic Spirit speak forth His intimations respecting the Redeemer to come. No word prompted by the Holy Ghost had reference to the utterer only. All Israel was a type: all spiritual Israel set forth the second Man, the quickening spirit: all the groanings of God’s suffering people prefigured, and found their fullest meaning in, His groans, who was the chief in suffering. The maxim cannot be too firmly held, nor too widely applied, that all the O. T. utterances of the Spirit anticipate Christ, just as all His N. T. utterances set forth and expand Christ: that Christ is every where involved in the O. T., as He is every where evolved in the N. T. And this Psalm holds an illustrious place among those which thus point onward to Christ. Its opening cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” was uttered by the Lord Himself in His last agony. The most minute particulars detailed in it are by the Evangelists adduced as exemplified in the history of His Passion: see e. g. (Mat 27:35 rec.) Joh 19:24. And, as Bleek well observes, the particulars chosen out of that history by St. Matthew seem to have been selected with an especial view to the illustration and fulfilment of this Psalm. Ebrard, in his note here, insists on the authorship of the Psalm by David, and on its date, as belonging to the time of his persecution by Saul. Then he maintains the exact parallelism of the circumstances with those of the second and greater David, and refers the ἀδελφούς here to the countrymen of David, who were hereafter to be his subjects. I have no positive objection to this view. Subordinately to the deeper and wider one, it might be applicable in individual instances: but that other seems to me both safer and nearer the truth. See especially on the Psalm, Delitzsch, h. l.

The particular verse here chosen, the 22nd, forms the transition-point from the suffering to the triumphant portion of the Psalm: and consequently the resolution expressed in it by the Messiah has reference to His triumphant state, in which he is still not ashamed to call his people brethren. It is characteristic of the object of this Epistle with reference to its intended readers, that whereas the Writer might have cited two instances as matters of fact, in which our Lord did call His disciples brethren after His resurrection (see Joh 20:17: Mat 28:10), yet he has not done so, but has preferred to establish his point by O. T. citations).

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

In order to bring many sons unto glory, Christ assumes to them the relation of brother.

He that sanctifieth [ο αγιαζων] . Sanctification is the path to glorification. Comp. Heb 10:14.

Of one [εξ ενος] . Probably God, although the phrase may signify of one piece, or of one whole. Jesus and his people alike have God for their father. Therefore they are brethren, and Christ, notwithstanding his superior dignity, is not ashamed to call them by that name.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11. ὅ ve yap ἁγιάζων The disci-

12, 13. The quotations in these verses develope the main idea of the section, that of Christ fulfilling the destiny of men through suffering, by recalling typical utterancos of representative men: (1) of the suffering, innocont king ; (2) of tho roprosontative propliet.

The ground of the application in the first case lies in the fact that the language used gocs beyond the actual experience of David, or of any righteous sufferer.

In the second case the prophet

xii. 2; 2 Sam. xxii. 3. The referenco is certainly, as it appears, to Is. viii. 17, whore tho words immediately procedo the following quotation. The two sentences of Isaiah are separated because they represent two aspects of the typical prophet in his relation to Christ. In the first the prophet declares his personal faith on God in tho midst of judgments. In the second he stands forth with his children as ropresenting ‘the remnant,’ the seed of the Church, in Israel. The representative of God rests in his heavenly Father, and he is not alone: his children are already with him to continue the divine relation.

καὶ πάλιν ᾿Ιδοὺ ¢dyd...] Isaiah with his children were ‘signs’ to the unbelieving people. In them was seen the pledge of the fulfilment of God's

deliver all them, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

Brooke Foss Westcott (1825–1901), The Epistle to the Hebrews (1889) and The Epistles of St John (1883) — public domain (pre-1929). Text recovered from Internet Archive / Google Books OCR scans. Westcott’s Gospel of John commentary is not included (its OCR lost the chapter running-heads required for reliable verse-keying). Some Greek quoted in the Hebrews volume is imperfectly rendered by the OCR.