The Warning:
How Shall We Escape if We Neglect so
Great Salvation? 2:1–4
How Shall We Escape if We Neglect so
Great Salvation? 2:1–4
1) The writer lets the facts concerning the incomparable greatness of the Son (chapter 1) merge into a strong warning for his readers. This is a warning and not merely an admonition. His word grips the hearts with the same firmness with which he grips the facts. The warning is only somewhat softened by the inclusion of himself, for the readers and not he are showing signs of defection.
Lenski, R. C. H.: The Interpretation of the Epistle to the Hebrews and of the Epistle of James. Columbus, O. : Lutheran book concern, 1938, S. 63.
Much has already been said about “the angels,” their high position and office (1:7), to show how infinitely higher are the position and the royal rule of the incarnate Son. This presentation was concluded with the statement that all the angels are only officiating spirits for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation (1:14). “For” connects with this statement and means: “to explain still further,” yet this explanation is not with reference to the incarnate Son as it was in chapter 1 but with reference to us who are to inherit the world to come with its salvation, who are to be joint heirs (Rom. 8:17) together with “the (supreme) heir of all things” (1:2).
The great fact is that “not to angels did God subject the inhabited earth which is about to come,” the new earth (Rev. 21:1). Angels are not joint heirs with the supreme heir; angels are not to sit on the throne with this heir and to reign with him in the new heaven and earth (Rev. 3:21; Matt. 19:28; 2 Tim. 2:12); not with angels did the Son become associated but only with the seed of Abraham by assuming, not the nature of angels, but the human nature of Abraham’s seed.
Although angels seem to be so far above us, we have already been told that they are only officiating spirits who are commissioned to service for our sake (1:14). We are the royal heirs of the world to come and not they; to us and not to them has God subjected (literally, ranged in order under) “the inhabited earth, the one about to come” for us. “Concerning which,” the writer says, “we are speaking,” namely you, my readers, and I, in the discussion of this letter (this is not a majestic or an editorial plural). Have we not said , in 1:14, “the ones coming to inherit,” just as we are now saying , “the inhabited earth, the one coming”? What we shall then be, and what it shall then be, is our real subject.
Lenski, R. C. H.: The Interpretation of the Epistle to the Hebrews and of the Epistle of James. Columbus, O. : Lutheran book concern, 1938, S. 71.
How did this man Jesus come to be crowned thus? “Because of the suffering of the death,” the articles to indicate “the particular suffering” and “the particular death” he underwent, a sacrificial, expiatory, substitutionary death which is known as such to the readers. Jesus did not suffer and die in a general way, merely die some kind of a death as all sinners suffer more or less and finally die. Of such suffering and death it could not be said that “because of it” a person is crowned with glory and honor. The soul that sinneth it shall die. It is sin that produces death. Jesus’ death was a sweet-smelling savor to God, who therefore crowned him.
The weight of the statement lies in the purpose clause which, however, does not modify the participle “crowned” but the phrase, the reference to Jesus’ death. The construction is ad sensum: made lower than angels so as to suffer and to die had the purpose for Jesus that thereby he not only achieved crowning with glory and honor for himself but also the purpose “that by God’s grace he should taste death (genitive after a verb of tasting) for everyone.” The implication is that by virtue of this death of Jesus’ everyone might attain glory and honor; this implication is reserved for actual statement in v. 10: “getting to bring many sons to glory.”
Lenski, R. C. H.: The Interpretation of the Epistle to the Hebrews and of the Epistle of James. Columbus, O. : Lutheran book concern, 1938, S. 76.
The emphasis is on the phrase “in all respects,” which, of course, has nothing to do with becoming a sinner like either the Gentile or the Jewish sinners. The phrase refers to the purpose clause: the likeness to the brothers had to extend far enough to enable Jesus to be the High Priest and to expiate the sins of the people of Israel. An incarnation in blood and flesh that did not take care of this essential purpose would have been in vain.
It was not necessary to explain either expiation or high priesthood to former Jews or to state what these are and what necessity there is for them. They knew all about the Old Testament Great Day of Atonement when the high priest killed the bullock and then the goat and brought their blood within the veil and sprinkled it upon the mercy seat to remove the sins, not of this or of that individual, but of the whole people; for despite all the individual sacrifices throughout the year so many sins remained that this comprehensive, annual expiation by the high priest had been arranged of God. Much more will be said in the following. All of it prefigured the great and final expiation of Jesus.
It is here connected with Jesus. For this he became incarnate, was “made a little lower than angels” (v. 9), was “not ashamed to call us brothers” (v. 11–13), he and we being “from one” (v. 11), he sharing our “blood and flesh” (v. 14). This explains how “he tasted death for everyone” (v. 9), was made a complete Savior “by means of suffering” (v. 10), “by means of the death” freed us from death (v. 14, 15). Thus he became “the Author of our salvation” (v. 10), “the one sanctifying” those who are truly sanctified, our “faithful High Priest” (v. 17)—these three terms are cumulative.
A wonderful developing and unfolding runs through this section; we are now at its climax. We also see why “it was fitting for God” to make Jesus what he is “by means of suffering” (v. 10), and why Jesus “was obliged to be like his brothers in all respects,” also in his descent from “the seed of Abraham,” because he took hold helpfully of this seed in the expiation of sins. Were not the Jews the only people to whom God had given the Old Testament high priesthood and the Great Day of Atonement, which prefigured the final expiation of the sins of the whole world? How can Jewish Christians think of disowning this their final High Priest? Some interpreters think that the term “High Priest” is introduced unexpectedly and without preparation on the part of the readers. Not at all. The whole of v. 9, etc., is the most adequate preparation. When the author called him “the Author of our salvation,” “the one sanctifying,” this demands that “High Priest” should now be added, which thus floods all that precedes with light.
Our versions have but one predicate: “in order that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest” yet “merciful” is placed before the verb and is thus made emphatic so that we evidently have two predications: “made merciful (toward his brothers) and a faithful High Priest” (toward God). Yet the two predications are not independent, for the one has no noun. This appears the more certain because the adverbial accusative belongs only to πιστός: “faithful as to the things pertaining to God.” As our High Priest Jesus was like the Old Testament high priests, and yet in one respect he was not like them, for these high priests only killed the sacrifice for the expiation while Jesus himself suffered the death. In this there was manifested his mercy toward us all: his own suffering and death freed us from the fear of the devil and of death. Ἔλεος, the adjective of which is used, is the feeling of pity for the wretched, their wretchedness being described in v. 15. On the other hand and joined with this is the faithfulness in regard to the things pertaining to God; for in order to rescue the wretched from their terrible state Jesus had to expiate their sins and omit nothing in restoring them to God.
