Chapter 2

This chapter as a whole is a phenomenal chapter. You must remember that angels have a relationship to Jesus Christ and therefore function in the plan of grace. You must also remember that members of the human race who are born again have a relationship to Jesus Christ, to God the Father, and therefore have a purpose in this life. Fallen angels have rejected God’s grace and are going to spend eternity in the lake of fire. Unbelievers have rejected Jesus Christ as saviour and are also going to spend eternity in the lake of fire.

Outline of chapter two: four paragraphs

1. The prologue: The angelic conflict is a warning to the human race — verses 1-5.

2. We have the two Adams and the angelic conflict — verses 6-9.

3. We have the bride and the angelic conflict — verse 10-13.

4. Epilogue: Since mankind was created to resolve the angelic conflict Christ became a man — verses 14-18.

Verse 1 — “Therefore,” Dia, the preposition, touto, the accusative singular. Dia plus the accusative should be translated, “Because of this.” Because of what?

1. Because Jesus Christ as the God-Man is the victor in the angelic conflict — Hebrews 1:1-4.

2. Because of the Old Testament documentation as to the superiority of Christ over angels — Hebrews 1:5-13.

3. Because the angels have been subordinated to believers in time — Hebrews 1:14.

4. Therefore, because of the angelic conflict the human race is warned, Do not reject Jesus Christ.

5. Jesus Christ as a member of the human race is the victor of the angelic conflict. Furthermore, any member of the human race who rejects Christ as saviour will share the ultimate destiny of all fallen angels which is the eternal lake of fire.

This prepositional phrase not only begins the second chapter of Hebrews but relates it to the first chapter. Our next word is a personal pronoun which is a special warning to Jewish unbelievers residing in Jerusalem in 67 AD, three years before the fall of Jerusalem. “We” is used in a very interesting way here. The writer is a believer; the passage coming up is a challenge to unbelievers. He uses the personal pronoun “we” — the accusative plural of e)gw — to warn to beware of missing the port of eternal life, because if you refuse to believe in Jesus Christ you are going to be overtaken by a national catastrophe. Believing in Christ not only means your personal salvation but believing in Christ means your personal safety in the coming Jewish war with Rome. So he identifies himself with his people. Whoever the writer is, he is a Jew. He is a believer and he has written one of the most unique of all of the books of the Bible. He is a fantastic person in that as a believer in Jesus Christ he feels the desperate need of the hour, and he identifies himself with unbelievers to bring them this message. He isn’t an unbeliever but at this moment he is speaking to unbelievers, he is identifying himself with them, and he is exercising a function of his priesthood which indicates his maturity. He is willing to take responsibility for his own nation.

“ought” — this is a very strange form. It is taken from a verb which is never used as such — dei, which is what is called an impersonal form to indicate logical necessity. The logical necessity is for religious types, and of course religious types are the most difficult ones to reach with the Gospel. The worst people in the world to whom to witness are religious people. They have too many theories and ideas on how they are going to get to heaven. They have built a hundred back doors into heaven through legalism. They all have their own little pet ideas and they will hang on to them if for no other reason than they don’t like the set of your jib and they want to argue with you; they want to put you down. The Jews who lived in Jerusalem were generally very religious people.

“For this cause we ought...” religious people always have some big thing going for them, at least in their own opinion. They all have this thing they feel is important. The Jews at this time, in a state of unbelief and in a state of religion, had clung tenaciously to the Levitical priesthood. When people are often uncertain as to their destiny they try to find some tradition on which to anchor it. Therefore they had a temple in which they used animal sacrifices. They had a priesthood. Even though many of the priests were not even related to the tribe of Levi they still functioned. They had lots of ceremonies and religious activities, lots of religious days they had added to the feasts of the Levitical code, and they dabbled in these things and they clung to these things. All through this great epistle we are going to find the writer showing that these things had a purpose in the past, that that purpose is now gone, that there is a new purpose for believers, there is a new purpose in life. And the new purpose in life is related to the fact that the priesthood to which they cling, and the ceremonies and the functions of that priesthood, are all shadows, they’re gone, they’re out; and that there is now a super priesthood, an eternal priesthood. And as religious types functioning under the temple activities they are very far from these things, and that in the function of their priesthood and going through all of their sacrifices they are actually in the worst possible shape; they are on the way to hell with these things. The Jews had their ritual and it pulled them together. It gave them national consciousness at a time when Rome was about to bury them again. They related it to their nation, to their freedom, and unfortunately they related it to God. But you can’t take the shadows of ritual and get any reality with God. In the past that ritual had reality because Christ had not yet come in the flesh. But once Jesus Christ came and died on the cross for our sins, and was raised again and ascended, now that ritual still used has no reality. It is shadow worship. Tragically the shadow worshippers were going to hell, they had not believed in Jesus Christ. There were also reversionistic believers who joined them, and by joining them encouraged them to think that they had some reality. But in the year 67 AD the offering of the animal sacrifices had no reality. The man who wrote this book was a Jew. His heart was broken because all of these rituals when they pointed to Christ before He came were wonderful, but now that Christ has come and these people have rejected Him they are left with an empty shell called religion, and they are left with a ritual that has no meaning. This is what this writer sees as he begins with such phrases as Dia touto, “Because of this we ought.” And why does he say “we”? Because he is a Jew, a born again Jew, and therefore really not a Jew any more but a member of the body of Christ. He can understand the tragedy of the religious Jew in 67 AD And not only does he understand the tragedy but he has under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit the most fantastic compassion you will ever see in writing.

The word “ought” really should be translated “it is necessary,” and it introduces logical necessity for religious people dabbling in shadows of the law and fooling around with the function of an obsolete priesthood when Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, and has come and established Himself as the high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And the high priest is seated at the right hand of the Father, and the reality that He has left behind is no longer in ritual in the temple or animal sacrifices or observing the ritual of a holy day, but in taking in the Word — the daily function of GAP. The Jews should have understood this, they had manna every day. God still provides manna but it is in written form — the Word of God. Once manna is put in writing, ritual is unnecessary.

“For this cause it is necessary for us” — to make it personal the writer now identifies himself with the unbelievers of Jerusalem. While the writer has heeded these things the unbelievers of Jerusalem have not. He is saved; they are not. His compassion is overflowing to them.

“to give” — actually we have to words here. The word “to give” isn’t to give at all, it is a present active infinitive — prosexw. E)xw means to have and to hold; “give” is the word didomi. Proj plus the accusative means face to face with. We have proj plus e)xw in the infinitive — to have and to hold face to face. Prosexw means as real as anything will ever be. A tame translation would be, “For this cause we ought to pay much more attention.” This means to have something in your soul, so much so that it is a reality to you. Therefore it connotes everything from concentration on what is communicated to giving undivided attention. The word “give” here means to embrace; it is an infinitive of reality. It is category #1 love, present tense, linear aktionsart, active voice. The believer priest has a face to face reality thing but why does he use it here for unbelievers who are about to depart from this life without Christ. He used it for them because every day they faced the altar of the temple, the faced animal sacrifices, they faced the high priest and the priests in their function in the ritual. And they think that is reality but it isn’t .The reality is with the high priest, Jesus Christ.

The phrase “more earnest” is really one word, a comparative adverb, perisotorwj. The word actually means much, much more than we are doing, and in effect the writer is demanding that Jewish unbelievers stop this ritual for a minute and listen. The tremendous moving ritual is a pageantry of emptiness; it is going to hell in style. There is no reality in it any longer. The reality lies in who and what Jesus Christ is: what He has done for you on the cross and what happened to the angelic conflict when God the Father said, Sit down on my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

The phrase “to the things” is one word. It is a dative plural, tioj, and it is a dative of advantage. It is to your advantage, unbelieving Jews, to listen to the Gospel — “which we have heard” — the Jews have heard the Gospel all of their lives. They have the Torah, the Old Testament Scripture. It is an aorist passive participle of a)kouw. They have been hearing the Gospel in many different ways. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb, and the main verb is prosexw — face to face, have and hold. You have to hear before you can hold face to face. I n other words, prosexw as addressed to unbeliever Jews is the moment they believe in Jesus Christ. But you can’t hear while you are running around going through all this ritual. They are so involved in ritual that they have lost touch with reality completely.

So we have, “For this cause it is necessary for us to pay more attention to the things having been heard” — aorist passive participle. The passive voice indicates that in the past these people have really received a lot of Gospel.

“lest” — the negative mh, which denies subjectivity. The negative mh is a little different from the others like o)uk and o)u, and so on. It is a negative which is designed to deny subjectivity. When you use this type of a negative in the Greek and you follow it up with an enclitic particle you develop a negative temporal clause out of it. We have the enclitic particle pote, so we have two words: mhpote, and it should be translated literally, “lest at any time.” But what does it mean? It means the time is short. He now relates the reality of the situation. All of this ritual is meaningless, the time is short, this ritual is about to be wiped out. This ritual which is blinding you is going to be removed, the Romans are going to destroy the temple.

“lest we should let them slip” — the word “them” is not there in the Greek. What we have is a verb, an aorist active subjunctive of the verb pararrew. This is a compound. Para means “past” or “by” here. Para is the preposition of immediate source with some tenses, but para means past or by. Rew means to flow; sometimes it means to drift. Para plus rew means to flow past or to drift past or to slip past something. Here it is used in a nautical sense of a ship facing the possibility of a great storm and not able to tack back and forth to enter the harbour. This is the place of safety, this is the place of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. And these Jews are drifting past, and once they drift past and pass the headland the storm is going to hit them. The headland is 70 AD and this is 67 AD And going on in the habit of ritual they are drifting past the point of salvation and are going around the headland, and the storm is going to destroy them. The Jews are facing national catastrophe. They are warned not to drift past the only reality, Jesus Christ.

Translation: “For this cause it is necessary for us to pay more attention to the things having been heard [the doctrine, not the ritual], lest at any time we might drift past them.”

Ritual, religion, makes you drift past reality.

Hebrews chapter 2 is one of the more difficult passages in the Word of God for interpretation as well as application because this passage finds us right in the middle of the angelic conflict at a desperate time in the history of the southern kingdom of Judah.

Verse 2 — we begin with the particle gar, translated “for.” We have to watch these particles in the Greek very carefully. Gar can be used in three general ways in the Greek. First of all, to express a basis or a reason for something. This is called the illitive use and it is translated under these conditions, “for.” That is the type of particle we have here at the beginning of verse 2. However, gar is also used to provide an explanation, and when it is, it is translated “that is.” It is also used to express a confirmation or an assurance of something, and then it is translated “indeed” or “certainly” .Here we find an illitive use of gar to express or introduce a reason. Here is the reason why unsaved Jews should pay more attention to the Gospel than they ever have before — because the time is short, they are about to face great national disaster. In that national disaster, while there are a million Jews living in Jerusalem at this time, 900,000 of them will die horribly, some 90,000 will go into slavery, and the only way to avoid these things is to respond to the Gospel, believe in Christ, and get out of Jerusalem as a result of understanding doctrine.

Our second word is a particle e)i which introduces a first class condition — “For if,” and whatever follows the word “if” is true, this is a bona fide first class condition. (There is also a debater’s first class condition in which something is assumed to be true for the sake of setting up an argument for debate) Both the believer and the unbeliever in reversionism are dabbling in shadows. With the believer: crucifying the Son of God afresh; putting Him to open shame — Hebrews 6:6; with the unbeliever: drifting by the port of eternal salvation — Hebrews 2:1. The shadows were administered by angels. Now that man is superior to angels and now that the born again believer is positionally superior to angels — though not physically at the present time — how does he get the Word of God today? Not through ritual, not through shadows, you get it through teaching — the pastor-teacher. Human beings are provided a spiritual gift and in the provision of that spiritual gift members of the human race in a body of corruption can communicate things that the elect angels didn’t even know of. Remember that the Church Age doctrine is a mystery doctrine, and not only did the people not know about it but neither did the angels. The angels could communicate the Mosaic law, they knew the Mosaic law; but Church Age doctrine they did not know. Therefore it is fitting that in God’s plan of grace that men, starting with the apostles and continuing in every generation with pastor-teachers, should communicate things that angels did not even know of. In Ephesians 3:10 we have this fact, that the angels listen in on sermons so they can learn it too. The angels learn from the Church the wonderful things of God. That means that even the function of a Bible class breaks Satan’s back in the angelic conflict because Satan always thought he had a chance as long as elect angels were communicating doctrine to believers in the Old Testament. But that is all wiped out now. Now it is strictly mankind. The Word of God is completed, no angels have anything to do with communication. And the power to communicate isn’t even angelic power, the power is God the third person, the Holy Spirit. The power to receive in the power of the Spirit.

“the word spoken” — aorist active participle of lalew. Lalew means two things. it means to gossip and it means to communicate in a conversational type situation. Here it means to communicate. It is an aorist active participle, therefore it should be translated “for if the doctrine (o( logoj) having been communicated through angels” .Not “by angels” — dia plus the genitive means a channel. Dia plus aggeloj in the genitive should be translated “through the channel [or agency] of angels.” Angels were the channel by which God communicated doctrine to the Jews.

Next is “was” — aorist active indicative of ginomai — “became.” The word “was” means to become something that was not in existence before. This is an aorist tense, a constative aorist to cover the whole area of the Old Testament. And the word “steadfast” is the noun which goes with ginomai, the word bebaioj. Bebaioj means dependable, reliable, inviolable, permanent. The word “permanent” indicates that not only did the angels teach these things but human writers eventually recorded them. And everything that human writers recorded in the Old Testament angels were involved.

So far, putting it all together, this is what we have: “For if the doctrine having been communicated through the channel of angels became permanent [and it did]...” That is the first half of the protasis. There is a second part which is necessary to make the illustration. It has to do with the fact that when there was a violation of the law it was punished. So we have next, “and every transgression” — kai pasa parabasij. Parabasij is the noun that we need. It means “stepping by the side of.” It comes to means deviation, transgression, violation of the law — “and every transgression [or violation] of the law” — “and disobedience” — parakoh which does not really mean disobedience, it means refusal to hear doctrine, disobedience or unwillingness to hear. Disobedience means negative volition toward doctrine, unwillingness to hear Bible teaching. And so there were two kinds of violations. First of all there was the direct violation of the law, deviation from it, and secondly there was a violation called unwillingness to hear.

And these “received” — aorist active indicative of lambanw. Lambanw is used here in the sense of receiving punishment, receiving discipline — “a just recompense of reward.” The word “just” is the accusative of e)ndikoj which means just or fair. The word “recompense of reward” is not correct. Whatever that word meant 300 years ago it is certainly not correct here. It is a compound noun misqapodosia. It means punishment. Misqoj, the first part of the noun means wages. A)podidomi is a verb from which the last part of the noun is taken and it means to receive back. So it is literally to receive back wages but it was also used in the unfavourable sense of receiving punishment, and that is what we have here — “received a just punishment.”

Translation: “For if the doctrine having been communicated through angels became permanent [and it did], and every violation of the law and negative volition received a just punishment [and it did].”

Summary

1. The victory of Christ in the angelic conflict becomes the spearhead to driving home the importance of Jewish unbelievers in 67 AD receiving Christ. The victory of Christ in the angelic conflict is His session and it becomes a spearhead for driving home to these Jews the importance of getting away from shadows. The shadows are no longer bona fide. Angels administered shadows but in the angelic conflict the angels have been defeated and man is superior to angels. Christ is a resurrection body is seated at the right hand of the Father, He is superior to all angels. Some day we, too, will have a resurrection body like His and physically we will be superior to angels. But in the meantime we have something that no other believer ever had before the Church Age began. We are in union with Christ seated at the right hand of the Father.

2. These Jews are enmeshed in the Mosaic law which originated by communication through angels.

3. But something more important is here: salvation administered by Jesus Christ, the son of David and our high priest forever. And they are missing it, they are drifting past the port of salvation. Salvation is a reality, all they have to do is believe in Jesus Christ. And all of that stuff in the temple is no good, it is a shadow. The fact that they are dabbling in the shadows at this point makes them apostate.

4. The Jews are dabbling in shadows while the reality is being presented to them.

5. The angels administer shadow doctrine but Christ administers substance doctrine, reality doctrine.

6. If there was punishment for violation of the Mosaic law, and if that punishment was just and severe, how much more the rejection of Jesus Christ as saviour?

Verse 3 — “How shall we” — “how” is an interrogative adverb, pwj, and it should be really translated “By what means” — “shall we” — there is a pronoun here in the emphatic position, an editorial pronoun. The writer, though a saved Jew, identifies himself with unsaved Jews in order to make the issue clear. With the interrogative adverb we have a rhetorical question which expresses a denial — “How shall we escape,” future middle indicative of e)kfugw. This means to make a clean escape, to get completely away. Fugw means to escape; e)kfugw means to escape out, away from. The future tense envisions both eternity and the catastrophe of the fall of Jerusalem. It is possible to believe in Jesus Christ in 67 AD and not only to be saved immediately to escape the horrible second death but, at the same time, to escape one of the greatest catastrophes in history. All believers who had studied any doctrine, including Luke 21:20-24, got out. The middle voice is reflexive: every individual must make a decision for himself. The indicative mood: since this is a rhetorical question it expresses a denial, and there is no escape for unbeliever from either the catastrophe of the lake of fire or the catastrophe of the fifth cycle of discipline. Again, a rhetorical question expresses a denial when the rhetorical question is begun with an interrogative adverb rather than an interrogative pronoun. Therefore there is no escape.

“if we neglect” — an incorrect translation. Many of the translators, and some still do it, take a participle and translate it like an “if” clause. There is no “if” here, the “if” was back in the previous verse. This is an aorist active participle of a)melew. A)melew actually means to disregard, and in that sense to neglect, to be totally unconcerned about something, to pay no attention to something. But it should be translated here, “having disregarded.”

“so great” is an ablative singular from thlikoutoj. The ablative case has the same morphology as the genitive case in the Greek. However, it has a different meaning. It has the concept of source. The ablative case connotes both source and separation. Here we have what is called an ablative of comparison in which there is nothing which can be compared to salvation. “So great” in the ablative means there never was, there never will be, there never can be anything to compare with salvation. “So great” is all right as a translation but it misses the whole concept of the ablative. Here we have a rhetorical question followed by an ablative of comparison and it says, Look, you have something that is greater than anything anyone will ever have, ever could have. Angels could envy you for what you have. There is nothing that will ever compare with it and, that isn’t all, while salvation is eternal life it is the beginning of something so great in time, if you will just get with doctrine it is absolutely fantastic again. The ablative of comparison says this: Look, so you’re saved, and you know you’re saved. But what is this salvation to you? Is it real to you? Is it absolutely unique? How can you ever fail to faith-rest or doubt God on anything when you already have the greatest thing in the world — “so great a salvation.”

With this ablative of comparison we have swthria, also in the ablative. The very word for salvation here is in the ablative. The way to translate it: “so great a salvation.” Why is he putting it in the ablative? Why does he have a rhetorical question followed by an ablative of comparison? Because while this is an appeal to Jewish unbelievers Jewish believers are reading this too and they are a bunch of knuckleheads at this point because they are not getting with doctrine.

“By what means shall we escape having disregarded so great a salvation.” There is no escape in eternity for those who reject Christ as saviour. There is no escape for unsaved Jews when divine judgement in time takes the form of the fifth cycle of discipline.

Now we go to a qualitative relative pronoun, a nominative feminine singular, o(stij. It means “which kind” .The antecedent for this pronoun is “salvation” — which kind of salvation?” Next we have “at the first” which is a)rxh and it means “a beginning.” Then, “began,” and there is no such word here as “began.” Instead we have the aorist active participle of lambanw which means to receive — “which was at first communicated” .("Having received a beginning” is the literal translation) — “spoken” is the present middle infinitive lalew. Lalew is used for angelic communication of doctrine; now lalew is used in the present middle infinitive for Jesus Christ speaking doctrine, but before He went to the cross. Why? Because Jesus Christ taught doctrine as the last Adam. He was born without a sin nature, without imputed sin. He lived a perfect life — the impeccability of Christ. So he even communicated in His perfection before His resurrection body which made Him superior to angels. And lalew is used here as it was used for angels in the previous verse, to indicate Christ communicated something as a man that no angels ever had the privilege of communicating. They communicated shadows; He communicated substance.

“having received a beginning to be spoken” — which should be translated “which was at first communicated” — dramatic present tense. Middle voice: Christ Himself did it as a man. The infinitive: it was God’s purpose that man should take over the communicating in this age. This is a reference to the spoken ministry of Jesus Christ in which the Jews were warned of the temporal judgement of the fifth cycle of discipline and the eternal judgement of the lake of fire for disregarding so great a salvation.

“By which means shall we escape having disregarded so great a salvation; which was at first communicated through the Lord.” We have the same structure as in the previous verse — dia plus the genitive — where we have “through the angels”; now we have “through the Lord”.

“and was confirmed” — the aorist passive indicative of bebaiow which means to make a firm stand, to establish, to verify, to ratify. Here it means to verify. Aorist tense: was verified. Passive voice: received verification. Indicative mood: the reality of such verification — “to us” — e)ij plus the accusative of e)gw. E)ij is directional, and Jesus Christ put it in our direction and started something. He started something that has never stopped to this moment. Jesus Christ communicated to the apostles, the apostles communicated to the Church, the Church had spiritual gifts where men communicated to people, and men have been communicating to the Church ever since. Not only do we have the miracle of the preservation of the Word of God but we also have the miracle that in every generation there is communication. That is grace; that is provision; that is something none of us could ever do.

“by them that heard” is a preposition u(po plus an aorist active participle as the object — U(po plus a)kouw.

U(po means “under the authority of,” and a)kouw means to hear and recognise authority, to hear and to concentrate.

Translation: “By what means shall we escape having disregarded so great a salvation; which was at first communicated through the Lord, and was verified under the authoritative teaching of those having heard.”

“Those having heard” means that the apostles took this up from the Lord and perpetuated it.

Summary

1. Those having heard refers to the apostles.

2. This passage infers that there was one generation between the writer of Hebrews and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. The unknown writer of Hebrews could not be Paul who received this message direct from the Lord — Galatians 1:11.

4. The unknown writer of Hebrews received his message from the apostles who received it from the Lord.

5. Therefore this passage in its syntax makes a good case for either Clement of Rome, Barnabas, or Apollos being the human writer.

Verse 4 — we have a grace warning to the Jews as they face the fifth cycle of discipline. Remember, there is a principle here. Because doctrine is neglected by a nation a nation which has a doctrinal heritage — the Jews in that day — the laws of divine establishment are neglected. And when the two of them are neglected there is first of all loss of freedom in the inter relationship of the nation, and secondly, loss of freedom and slavery by outside conquest. The Jews had a great heritage of Bible doctrine, a heritage of the laws of divine establishment. As a nation they had been blessed of God as few nations have ever been blessed. And yet, there came a generation of negative volition toward doctrine among believers, and therefore reversionism, the rejection of the laws of divine establishment and therefore confusion. When the laws of establishment are rejected the first thing to go is the military and law enforcement. After this there is nothing left and it is simply a matter of conquest. That is exactly what is about to happen. But before it happens, a special warning. This warning is given, beginning now in verse 4. God warned the Jews in a special way through Bible doctrine.

The first word in verse 4 is the genitive of qeoj plus the definite article — “The God.” We have what is a part of a genitive absolute with a present active participle. In a genitive absolute — which includes a noun in the genitive case in the present active participle — it is legitimately translated “The God.” “The God” is a reference to God the Father, the author of the divine plan — operation grace. The next word “also” is not found in the original.

“bearing them witness” — also a part of the genitive absolute. It is present active participle from a triple compound verb sunepimarturew. Sun is a preposition which means “with”; e)pi is a preposition which means here “in addition to”; marturew means to testify in court, to witness. When you put it all together it means to jointly testify or to testify at the same time, or to confirm by additional testimony — “The God confirming by additional testimony” .

“both with signs” — instrumental plural of shmeion, which actually means “miracles,” and the instrumental should be translated “both by means of miracles.” The word shmeion doesn’t mean just an ordinary miracle, it means a miracle designed to alert a nation. It is not a miracle, for example, to a small group of people. Many of the miracles which were performed during the time of the Lord Jesus were observed by a few thousand people in one locale. But this is not the type of miracle meant here. Shmeion means a miracle which comes to the attention of the entire nation and is designed awaken a nation to a special need. There were three such miracles [shmeion], that is why it is translated “signs.” The three of them were given in the past and are found in the book of Isaiah. They were prophetical signs, warnings which team up with the book of Hebrews and with the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ to warn Israel of coming disaster, the catastrophe of the fifth cycle of discipline. The first of these three signs or miracles was the virgin birth prophesied in Isaiah 7:14. The second one was the sign of the two deaths of Christ in Isaiah 53:9. The third was the sign of the gift of tongues in Isaiah 28:11. Immediately we notice something about the word shmeion. It is not a miracle like when a person is blind and now he sees; it is not some man who has never walked and now he walks normally; it is not even like the one about Lazarus brought back from the dead. It is a miracle in the sense of a national warning. The first of these signs was the virgin birth. There is only one time in all of history when anyone ever came into the world through the virgin birth, and that was the Lord Jesus Christ. The virgin birth made it possible for the humanity of Christ to come into the world without a sin nature, without the imputation of Adam’s sin. In order to go to the cross where the second warning occurred Jesus Christ had to be free from any personal sin, which He was. Therefore He arrived at the cross in the status quo of impeccability. As the God-Man, undiminished deity could not sin; humanity was temptable but impeccable. So the Lord Jesus Christ came to the cross without any sin. And there, because He had no sin of His own, he was made sin for us, or He bore our sins on His own body on the tree. That is spiritual death. After he accomplished our salvation then physical death, He died physically. The virgin birth was a warning to the nation. Thirty-three years later Jesus Christ went to the cross and that was the second warning to the nation. At around 33 AD Jesus Christ was hanging on that cross, and while literally millions of people had been crucified during the course of the history of SPQR, only one of them died twice on the cross — spiritual death for our salvation; physical death because His work was accomplished. Fifty days after the resurrection of Christ we have the third sign, the gift of tongues whereby the Gospel was presented to the Jews in a foreign language. The Jews were responsible in the Old Testament times for giving out the Gospel. Their failure to do so meant that they would be evangelised in foreign (Gentile) languages, and on the Day of Pentecost Jews in Jerusalem were evangelised in many different Gentile languages. In each case this is a sign. The first sign probably occurred around 2 or 3 BC. The second sign occurred in 30 AD The third sign occurred between 30 and 70 AD Over a period of forty years the gift of tongues occurred only to warn the nation Israel of the coming disaster and to show them the only solution which is to believe in Jesus Christ. These are the signs. The signs are a special warning to a nation, a unique event, something that warns the nation of coming disaster.

There is a second category here called “wonders.” This is also in the instrumental plural of the noun teraj. Teraj is a special miracle to focus attention on the person of Christ rather than, for example, signs which are unique miracles to warn a nation of coming catastrophe. The word “signs” is the warning to the entire nation; the word “wonders” is a special miracle designed to evangelise, to focus attention upon who and what Christ is, designed to come at a time when national disaster is impending, and to evangelise those who are facing disaster. The seven credit cards of Jesus Christ found in the Gospel of John come under the category of teraj. The function of the apostles in performing many miracles focus attention upon who and what Christ is, focus attention upon the Gospel. These miracles, however, only occurred when unbelievers with positive volition at the point of God consciousness could observe them and there could be a response to the message. The response to the miracle message was always the same: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”

Next we have a third one — “and divers miracles” .We have a conjunction kai which separates this from the first two. The word “divers” is the instrumental plural of poikiloj which means a variety. Then we have the word dunamij which means “powers” — “and by means of a variety of powers.” These powers are actually the apostolic use of grace dynamics. In addition to that, God provided at the beginning of the Church Age, and continues to provide at the point of every believer’s salvation, at least one spiritual gift. And so we have next the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Again, we have the instrumental plural for “gifts,” merismoj which means the impartation of gifts. Then we have “of the Holy Spirit,” an ablative of source. So literally, “by the distribution of spiritual gifts from the source of the Holy Spirit.” Pneuma in the ablative means “spirit,” not “ghost” .

“according to his will” — according to the Holy Spirit’s will. “According to” is kata with the accusative, the accusative singular of qelhsij which is an act of sovereign will. The sovereign will of the Holy Spirit determines your spiritual gift.

The doctrine of spiritual gifts

1. For the Church Age spiritual gifts are the Father’s organised witness to the plan of salvation as well as national warning — Hebrews 2:4. This plan anticipates the intensification of the angelic conflict during the Church Age.

2. At the point of salvation, and accompanying his priesthood, every believer receives at least one gift from the Holy Spirit — 1 Corinthians 12:11. This gift does not depend upon merit, talent, or human ability; it is a sovereign decision of the Holy Spirit as seen in Hebrews 2:4.

3. At any point in the Church Age each spiritual gift is necessary for the function of the body of Christ on earth — 1 Corinthians 12:27-31.

4. All spiritual gifts function through the filling of the Spirit — Acts 2:4; 1 Corinthians 13 amplified.

5. The proper mental attitude toward spiritual gifts is recorded in Romans 12:3.

6. All spiritual gifts were presented after the resurrection of Christ — Ephesians 4:8.

7. There are two kinds of spiritual gifts: temporary and permanent. Temporary gifts were necessary to take up the slack until the canon of scripture was completed. Once the Bible was completed, about 96 AD, all temporary gifts were removed — 1 Corinthians 13:8-10; Acts 19:11,12 cf. Philippians 2:27; 2 Timothy 4:20. Temporary gifts include apostleship, tongues, interpreting tongues, miracles, healing. Permanent gifts function after the completion of the canon of scripture and throughout the entire Church Age — Romans 12:6-8; 1 Corinthians 12:31.

8. Communication gifts carry both authority and maximum purpose as declared in Ephesians 4:11-13; Hebrews 13:7,17. Communication gifts are limited to males only.

9. Apostasy and reversionism seek to perpetuate temporary gifts — apostleship, healing, miracles, tongues — beyond the closing of the canon of scripture.

Translation of verse 4: “And the God confirming their witness, both by means of signs and wonders, also by means of a variety of powers, and by distribution of spiritual gifts from the source of the Holy Spirit according to his will.”

Verse 5 — the ultimate triumph of man in the angelic conflict. This verse has some exegesis and three major doctrines: the doctrine of civilisations, the doctrine of the Millennium, and doctrine of the angelic conflict.

“For unto the angels” — O)u gar a)ggeloij. O)u is a negative, and you will notice immediately there is no negative in the King James version. There is no negative until you get to “hath not put in subjection.” That “not” is out of place, it goes with gar and a)ggeloij. It should be translated, “For [gar, an illitive particle] not to the angels” — dative of dignity — “hath he put in subjection” — the aorist active indicative of u(potassw. Tassw means to be in ranks, under authority; u(po — under the authority of, a military word. “For he has not put under the authority of angels the coming civilisation” is what it really says.

“the world to come” — the word “world” is not world. O)ijkoumenh refers to a civilisation; it means inhabited earth or a civilisation. Then we have a present active participle of mellw. Mellw means to be about to come — “the coming civilisation”.

Translation: “For he has not put under the authority of angels the coming civilisation.”

There are only four civilisations and the next one is the Millennium. This is a reference to the Millennium. The Millennium is not the next dispensation, the Tribulation [the end of the Jewish Age] is. Jesus Christ will rule throughout the civilisation of the Millennium. The Millennial reign of Christ is both a dispensation and a civilisation.

The doctrine of civilisations

1. A civilisation begins a period of human history with believers only, or with innocent persons only, and terminates with a cataclysmic judgement. In the cataclysmic judgement the entire population of the world is destroyed, except for believers, and believers begin the next civilisation. So a civilisation is like a dispensation in that it is a period of history, but it has different termini with the exception of the Millennium.

2. Each civilisation has its own climate, its own environment and characteristics within the species — that is, man has a different life span in each civilisation, weather is different in each civilisation, animals are different; but each species remains, there is no transmutation. We have the pre-diluvian civilisation — the civilisation before the flood. It started with two people, man and woman in innocence; it terminates with a cataclysm, the flood. The second civilisation is called the post-diluvian civilisation. It begins with eight believers — Noah plus seven. It includes the Age of Israel, the Church Age, the Rapture of the Church, the Tribulation and the second advent. So it begins with believers only and it ends with the baptism of fire by which all unbelievers are removed from the world and cast into fire. Then the third civilisation is the Millennium, the reign of Jesus Christ for a thousand years. it begins with believers only. These are the “wheat”; the tares are removed. This is perfect environment at the end of which there is another great cataclysm, the destruction of the universe, the removal of the unbelieving population of the Millennium which is cast into the lake of fire with the devil and his angels. The final civilisation is the eternal one — believers only.

3. The first civilisation is called antediluvian or pre-diluvian. It began with Adam in innocence and concludes with the universal flood which destroyed all the population of the earth but eight people.

4. The second civilisation is post-diluvian. It began with Noah’s family — all believers — and concludes with the second advent judgement of the baptism of fire. In this manner all of the unbelievers on the earth are removed at one time. That is the fulfilment of Matthew 25 — “Two shall be in the field; one shall be taken, the other left.” The earth will be repopulated by the believers who remain.

5. The third civilisation is the Millennium which begins with Tribulational saints who survive the Tribulation — they are alive at the second advent — and it concludes with a rebellion led by Satan personally: the Gog and Magog revolution, at the end of which is the last judgement and the earth is destroyed by fire.

6. The fourth civilisation is eternal in nature, it has no end. Therefore it is believers only in resurrection bodies. It begins with the new heavens, the new earth and the new Jerusalem. It has no termination, there will never again be unbelievers in a civilisation.

7. Each civilisation begins with a divine blessing and terminates with a divine judgement, except the past which has no termination and there is no end to divine blessing for believers in resurrection bodies.

“For he has not put under the authority of angels the coming civilisation [the Millennium].” This is the son of David ruling in the future, the Millennium. This will be the next civilisation.

Translation of verse 5 — “For he has not put under the authority of angels the coming civilisation, concerning which we communicate.”

Verses 6-9, the two Adam’s and the angelic conflict.

Verse 6 — we begin with documentation. “But” is the particle de used as a post positive conjunction, used here in the transitional sense. In other words, this little particle de should be translated “Moreover.” The word “one” is tij, and it means “someone,” referring to the human author of Psalm 8 which was David. When David wrote Psalm 8 he was totally occupied with the person of Jesus Christ and living the supergrace life. David not only lived the supergrace life but he gave a tremendous expression of occupation with the person of Jesus Christ in Psalm 8.

“in a certain place” is an enclitic indefinite particle pou which is used to specify a definite or a specific passage of scripture — Psalm 8:4-6. This is documentation to the fact that the second advent will bring radical changes to this world. The ruler of this world at the present time is Satan. Satan will be superseded by the Lord Jesus Christ as the son of David and as the last Adam. Two created beings have ruled this world. The first Adam ruled during the period before his fall. At his fall he was superseded by Satan. Satan rules from the fall of man to the second advent of Jesus Christ, at which time the last Adam supersedes Satan. Satan as the ruler of this world is established by 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2; John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11. During Satan’s rule Christ is absent from the earth, until He leaves that throne at the right hand of the Father and returns to take over. The second advent includes not only operation footstool, resulting in Satan’s overthrow, but it also confirms the fact that of a coup de tat which will change civilisation.

Civilisations and dispensations are not the same. There is some overlap between them, but a civilisation always begins with believers only and ends with a great catastrophe which eliminates unbelievers from the world. In the antediluvian civilisation the great catastrophe which terminated it was the flood. Only believers survived. We are in the post-diluvian civilisation at the present time and will remain in this civilisation until the second advent, at which time unbelievers are eliminated from the scene and we begin a new civilisation, the Millennial civilisation, with believers only. The baptism of fire is the great catastrophe which eliminates.

There will be a coup de tat in the future. Satan will be removed. In the meantime one of the functions of the priesthood, by way of application, is to avoid trying to whitewash the devil’s world. This is the devil’s world. As believers we have a bona fide function in this world, but it deals with the laws of divine establishment. For example, we have the responsibility of patriotism, of military service, of functioning as believers in this area because it is the military that provides the freedom by which a nation operates. There can be no freedom in our civilisation apart from military victory, and the slaughter of the enemy on the battlefield is the guarantee of the freedom of a national entity. Freedom is divine institution #1 under the laws of divine establishment. Capacity for freedom comes through Bible doctrine, through the observation of the laws of divine establishment. This freedom also includes the principle of right-man, right-woman. We as believers have a responsibility to our nation. We have responsibility within the framework of family and in the field of freedom. But we do not have any responsibility in trying to whitewash the devil’s world. When a nation starts to go mad or disintegrate one of the first things it does is to try to clean up the devil’s world. This is where we get the welfare state, all of the platforms for political liberalism, all the antiestablishment concepts. This is where we get the bad music, the decadent culture, and all this type of thing. You can’t whitewash the devil’s world. That’s why the believer doesn’t get involved in social action, and that is why he doesn’t try to “get a television” for every minority person within the country. The business of race is ridiculous. The believer’s responsibility is not to whitewash the devil’s world, and social action is definitely not a part of his responsibility.

These things are clarified as you begin to understand the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, both now and in the Millennium. In the Millennium He will overthrow Satan, there will be a coup de tat, and the Lord Jesus Christ will reign forever. Until then it is the devil’s world, and the only protection that you have in the devil’s world apart from the spiritual assets of grace are in the area of the laws of divine establishment.

“testified” — should be “has testified” — aorist middle indicative of diamarturomai. Marturomai is the middle voice form for witnessing, marturew; dia means because of or through. Here, when you put it together, it means an intense testimony, even an ecstatic testimony. David gave an intense testimony as to who and what Jesus Christ is. Reason: Because he had tremendous Bible doctrine, he had moved beyond the ECS into the supergrace life.

“saying” is a present active participle of legw, and at this point the quotation begins. Legw is nothing more really than quotation marks. The present active participle indicates that the Word of God liveth and abideth forever. This is linear aktionsart.

“What” — an interrogative pronoun ti. It is followed by the present active indicative of e)imi, the absolute status quo verb, to be. Correctly translated “What is.”

Next we have the word for “man,” a predicate nominative, the noun is a)nqrwpoj, a generic term for mankind, male and female. The Hebrew which is used here, by the way, is enosh which refers to man in his frailty, in his weakness, in contrast to ish which means man in his nobility. So here we have a)nqrwpoj which is used for the entire human race as being totally depraved. It refers to the fact that you and I, and all members of the human race, are born into this world spiritually dead. The moment we are physically alive, that moment is the moment we are spiritually dead to God. We are born with an old sin nature, we do not acquire a sin nature, we do not become sinners by a personal act of sin. The only person who ever became a sinner by a personal act of sin was Adam. Adam went negative toward the prohibition of God and partook of the forbidden fruit, and at that point he became a sinner, and he acquired a sin nature. Adam did not previously have a sin nature, he was not created with a sin nature. God is not the author of sin. God has nothing to do with sin, He doesn’t sponsor sin, He doesn’t do anything but condemn it. Adam became a sinner by an act of his own volition. Adam acquired a sin nature by sinning; you and I acquired a sin nature by being born. Since all of us are born into this world spiritually dead, possessing an old sin nature, we are all under a concept called total depravity. Personal sin of any category is merely a manifestation of the possession of the old sin nature.

“that thou art mindful” — literally, “that you yourself remember him.” We have the present middle indicative of mimnhskomai which means to remember or call to memory. So here we have, “who is mankind that you yourself remember him.” Man has failed, has done nothing right. Adam was in perfect environment and had everything going for him when he failed.

“or the son of man” — h( u(ioj a)nqropou, a reference to the progeny of Adam. God could have forgotten the whole deal when Adam sinned but He didn’t .And in the progeny of Adam He remembers each one of us. He remembered us when we were spiritually dead. It is actually, “a son of man,” there is no definite article. The absence of the definite article in the Greek calls attention to the condition of the human race in spiritual death. There is great emphasis here, the whole progeny of Adam is spiritually dead. That is why Christ on the cross paid in spiritual death.

“that thou visitest him?” — the word “visit” is the present middle indicative of e)piskeptomai which means to help someone, to come to someone’s aid — “or son of man that you yourself come to his aid.” God actually came to the aid of all members of the human race. This is a present middle indicative, He keeps on doing it, there never was a time when He didn’t.

Verse 7 — the first Adam and his failure. “Thou madest him a little lower” is not correct. It is the aorist active indicative of the verb e)lattow which means to be made inferior. The verb occurs in an idiom here. The idiom includes a prepositional phrase, para plus the accusative. Also the object of this verb is a straight accusative. Para plus the accusative sets up a comparison in which the object of the preposition is inferior to the object of the verb. This is a very strong idiom. The object of the verb is the accusative of the demonstrative pronoun a)utoj. We also have an accusative form of an adjective braxuj which isn’t even translated. Braxuj means “for a brief time.” Altogether it is: “For a brief time you have made him inferior to the angels.”

Summary

1. The angelic creation is superior by creation to mankind.

2. Only at the point of salvation does man begin to become superior to angels, and that is positional.

3. While angels are superior to mankind by creation they have one area in common with man, and that is in the area of free will or volition.

4. It is the free will of mankind which plays a non-meritorious part in resolving the angelic conflict.

5. The free will of the humanity of Christ took Him to the cross and that is where Satan’s back was broken. The cross is the basis of the coup de tat which begins the Millennial civilisation.

6. The free will of man expresses in a non-meritorious manner what Satan cannot stand — doing the will of God, responding to the grace of God from one’s own free will. This is especially true because of the priesthood which is the subject Hebrews.

7. In the future mankind has a resurrection body, and at that point he will be physically superior to angels.

“thou crownedst” — the aorist active indicative of stefanow. It means to crown a victor at one of the games. There is another word for crown — diadhma, which means a king’s crown. This is a victor’s crown here.

“him” is, again, a)utoj and it refers to Adam. When Adam was created he was crowned the ruler of the world. How do we know? The last phrase: “and did set him over the works of thy hands” is not found in the original. We know because of an idiom which follows: “glory and honour” are both datives of possession. The word “glory” is doca, and “honour” is timh. What is a dative of possession? It is a technical grammatical term and it means a dative used in which personal interest particularises the point of ownership. In other words, the glory belongs to God; He crowned Adam with it. Adam was given both the honour of God and the glory of God when he was created. He was not only created man on this earth, he was also created ruler of this earth. Adam lost all these things; he lost his crown of glory and honour. He lost these through his first sin and his fall, and the result was that Satan became the ruler of this world in his place.

So literally we have” “For a brief time you made him [the first Adam] inferior to angels]; you have crowned him with glory and honour [which belongs to you].” Adam lost the sovereignty of the world to Satan, but Jesus Christ, the last Adam, will regain it again. There will only be in all of history two men who ruled the world, the first Adam during the period of innocence and then the last Adam at the second advent.

“thou” refers to God the Father under operation grace; “hast put in subjection” — the aorist active indicative of u(potassw which means to subordinate; “all things” — accusative plural of paj, but paj is in the emphatic position here in this sentence, therefore it should be translated “[emphatically] all things you have subordinated.” The word “under” which is usually u(po is not found here. Instead we have a compound adverb used as a preposition — u(pokatw. U(po means under; katw means down — down under, and translated “underneath.” “Emphatically all things you have subordinated underneath his feet.”

“For in that” — e)n to gar. Gar is the illitive particle. The illitive particle is used with a preposition, e)n in the locative here, to be translated “For in.” With this phrase you must have an infinitive. We call this an articular infinitive, and we actually have the aorist active articular infinitive of u(potassw. And u(potassw must now be translated like a preposition. Instead of “in that” it is translated “For in subjecting” or “For in subordinating.” Now “all things” come up, but this time with the definite article. Ta panta is the accusative plural plus the definite article paj — “the all things.” So literally, “For in subordinating the all things to him [Jesus Christ].”

“he left nothing” — aorist active indicative of a)fiemi, which means “he omitted,” plus o)udiej which means “not one thing.” And then we have “not put under” which is not a good translation — a)nupotaktoj, which should be translated insubordinate — “he [the Father] omitted not one thing insubordinate to him.”

Translation: “All things you have subordinated underneath his feet. For insubordinating the all things to him [Christ] he [God the Father] omitted not one thing insubordinate to him.”

This is the Millennial application. In the Millennium everything is going to be perfect, there will be no revolutions of any kind — until the very end when Satan is loosened, and then there will be a revolution because Satan is the author of religion and he is the author of revolution.

Now we get to Church application. “But now” — Nun de. This is the Church Age, in contrast to the Millennium; “we see” — o(raw, present active indicative. This generally means a panoramic view or perception.

“not yet” — this is not a negative, it is a negative adverb o)upw — “the all things,” and then we have u(potassw in the perfect passive participle. “But now we see not yet the all things having been subordinated to him.” This means three things:

1) During the Church Age the angelic conflict continues and reaches its intensified stage.

2) During the Church Age and the Tribulation there will be war both in the angelic and human realms.

3) Peace will not occur in either realm until the second advent of Christ and His Millennial reign.

Translation of this verse: “All things you [the Father] have subordinated underneath his feet. For in subordinating the all things to Christ he [the Father] omitted not one thing insubordinate to him. But now [Church Age] we see not yet the all things having been subordinated to him.”

There will be no insubordination in the Millennium. That is why you have perfect freedom and perfect environment, because authority is recognised and capacity for life is at a maximum. But now in the Church Age things are different. Now we have rebellion, now we have insubordination.

Verse 9 — what do we do in this terrible age in which the devil rules? Answer: “But” — here is a particle used as an explanatory conjunction. The particle is de. “But we see” — but it is a different word, we don’t have o(raw this time. This time we have blepw, present active indicative. Blepw emphasises the glance of the eye, causing someone to see something of importance. It doesn’t mean just to glance, it means to see something of importance in the glance. The verb we have just used in the previous sentence, o(raw, means to have perception as a result of seeing. You see something, you analyse it, you understand it. In the previous verse you see the difference between Christ ruling in the Millennium and the devil ruling in the Church Age. Blepw is used in verse 9 because something important is Jesus Christ. He is the only celebrity for the believer. He is not only the only celebrity in the Church Age but for the believer he is the high priest. We are a kingdom of priests. O(raw was used in the previous verse for “not yet all things having been subordinated to him.” We understand the system. We perceive through GAP that all things are not subordinated to Jesus Christ at the present time. However, even though we live in the time of rebellion, the time of kosmoj diabolikuj, we do see Jesus — “Jesus” is in the emphatic position: Jesus and Jesus only. There is only one problem with this verb blepw, it is out of place in the English word order. It doesn’t come up just yet. We see Jesus, and only Jesus, is the concept but it doesn’t really come up at this stage.

“Jesus” is used for the humanity of Christ. It is the Hellenised form of the word “Joshua” which means saviour. Why? because “neither is their salvation in any other, there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.”

“having been made inferior to angels” — “who was made” is the perfect passive participle of e)lattow which means to be made inferior. “Having been made inferior” would be the perfect passive participle. Then we have that idiom again, para with its object of the verb, and when you put it altogether it means “having been made inferior to angels for a brief time [the period of the incarnation].” And again, braxuj is nor even brought into the translation. Actually, in the Greek word order we do not have as yet, “we see Jesus.” It starts out, “But having been made inferior to angels for a brief time.” It is referring to the virgin birth and all of the way to the resurrection. That is braxuj, a brief period of time in which Jesus Christ in His human body is inferior to angels. Once in His resurrection body, of course, He is superior.

Next we have “for the suffering of death” mistranslated in the King James version — dia plus the accusative of paqhma should be translated “because of” the suffering of death. Qanatoj here is referring to the spiritual death of Christ on the cross. It has a definite article — “because of the suffering of the death.” Here is where we get the phrase “we see Jesus.” “Because of the suffering of the death, we see Jesus crowned.” He isn’t crowned yet, but we see Him crowned. We see it coming. We know enough doctrine to know it is coming. So “we see,” blepw, goes after “death” and before “crowned.” “We see Jesus crowned,” perfect passive participle again of stefanow which means “having been crowned.”

Jesus is crowned as a man; as God He has always been sovereign. We have the dative of possession of doca, the dative of possession of timh, and you put the two together, God the Father gives His glory and His honour to one person in the future, Jesus Christ when He is crowned. He is our celebrity now, He is the world’s celebrity in the future.

“But having become inferior to angels for a brief period of time because of the suffering of the death, we see Jesus having been crowned with glory and honour.”

Principle: The cross must come before the crown. The high priesthood of Christ began at the cross. There would be no high priesthood of Christ if He had taken the crown first — as well as no salvation, of course. So the metamorphosis of the humanity of Christ describes the whole victory of the angelic conflict and our ultimate triumph in union with Christ. We have the virgin birth, we have the impeccability of the humanity of Christ, we have His death, burial, resurrection, ascension and session. And in this panorama we find Jesus Christ going from lower than angels to higher than angels. When the humanity of Christ in resurrection body was seated at the right hand of the Father He was higher than angels.

That brings us to an adverb used to introduce a purpose clause, therefore this purpose clause gets fantastic emphasis. Ordinarily you have i(na plus the subjunctive for a purpose clause. Here we have o(pwj plus the subjunctive mood. Why? because this is a most emphatic and most unusual. This we see as very special emphasis — “that,” and then we have “by the grace of God” — the instrumental singular of xarij, “grace,” but we have with it qeoj [God] in the ablative of source — “by means of the grace from God.” This is what we emphasise here as we get ready to anticipate our priesthood in the angelic conflict. There is no definite article in front of “grace”; there is no definite article in front of God. Why? The absence of the definite article in the Greek is the opposite of the definite in English, it calls attention to the noun involved and gives it great emphasis.

“he should taste” — aorist active subjunctive of geuomai. Aorist tense: the point of the cross; the active voice: He did it; subjunctive mood: purpose clause. God’s purpose in sending Jesus Christ is directly related to our happiness and blessing in time and in eternity.

Then we have an objective genitive. Instead of putting this in the accusative qanatoj is put in the objective genitive. Why? To emphasise the importance of the cross in breaking the back of Satan so that a coup de tat will occur in the future and Satan will be superseded, and at the same time blessing you right now in the devil’s world. The cross not only breaks the back of Satan in the future but the cross is the basis for entering into the plan of God and living in the devil’s world and living in great blessing from God.

“for every man” — or literally, “on behalf of all,” u(po plus the genitive of paj. U(po is a preposition of substitution with the genitive of paj, and it should be translated “on behalf of all” — unlimited atonement.

Translation: “But having been made inferior to angels for a brief time because of the suffering of death, we see Jesus having been crowned with glory and honour, that by means of grace from God he should taste death on behalf of all.”

This is what we have now. This is the application in the Church Age. We are not going to have world peace in the Church Age. The only way to have any peace at all is to have a strong military and, when necessary, to clobber the enemy. “Brotherhood of man” is the fallacy of Satan.

Verses 10-13 is a new paragraph: the bride and the angelic conflict. Here is the completion of the last Adam.

Verse 10 — “For” is the illitive use of gar to express a ground or a reason for something. Here God assigns a reason for the previous verse. We see Jesus crowned because He is the groom; we are the bride — Church Age believers. He is the high priest; we are a kingdom of priests. He is the crown prince waiting to become the King at the right hand of the Father; we are His ambassadors on the earth.

“For it became” — it is very difficult to communicate the idiom of an impersonal verb. This is the imperfect active indicative of an impersonal verb prepei. Prepei connotes fitness. The essence of God qualifies Him to do this. The imperfect tense means there never was a time when it wasn’t — when God wasn’t qualified to handle His plan. The plan of God is always complicated to us but it is simple to Him. So in order to bring this out there is no Greek verb that will do it, you have to go to an idiom. When you go to an idiom you have to go to an impersonal verb, and impersonal verbs are designed to establish qualifications of the one who is acting in the verb. The one who is acting in the verb is God the Father. God the Father knows how His plan is operating at all times, he never loses track of it, and it is all going to come out fine. So therefore, probably the best translation with this illitive gar — “For it was fitting for him” .

“him” is the instrumental of cause, a very unusual use of the instrumental case — a)utoj, a reflexive pronoun. This use of the instrumental rejects the intermediary means by which a result is produced and goes to the original factor producing it. In other words, “him” follows an impersonal pronoun which indicates the fitness of God to handle His plan. God is capable and qualified for handling His plan. This verb is followed by an instrumental of cause. When you get an instrumental of cause it is saying in effect that we just skip all the intermediaries and we go right back to the source of everything. God the Father is the source of everything and He has it well under control. So this is a reference to God the Father as the author of the divine plan, rather than Jesus Christ who is the means of executing phase one of the plan. “Him” refers to God the Father. Translation so far: “For it was fitting for him.”

“for whom” — the preposition dia plus the accusative of the relative pronoun o(j, and dia plus the accusative means “because of whom.” Then we have ta panta — “the all things.” God the Father who is holding this plan together right now also started it. God the Father is the author of the divine plan and therefore is the original cause of everything.

“and by whom” — now we have dia plus the genitive of o(j — “to whom”, and then the accusative plural of paj again — “the all things.” The Father is both the cause and the agent by whom the universe came into existence. The Father is the originator of all things. He used the Son as the means of creation — Colossians 1:16; and as the means of salvation — Acts 4:12. But the Father in the plan is the originating source. As such God the Father keeps control by never becoming incarnate. God the Father never appeared in the Old Testament as the angel of Jehovah; He did not take upon Himself true humanity. God the Father keeps control of the whole situation at all times, he does not have any humanity or any angelic relationship. These two prepositional phrases indicate that He never loses control.

“in bringing many sons.” “In bringing” is an aorist active participle from a)gw which means to lead. God the Father has control of things, He is still the leader. It should be translated “having led” .Then we have pollouj u(iouj — masculine accusative plural referring to believers in the Church Age only — “having led many sons”, referring to the bride only, members of the body of Christ, members of the priesthood, and after the resurrection, the bride of Christ.

At this point there are three analogies to the Church to complete the doctrinal picture here. First, Christ is the head, believers are members of the body — Ephesians 1:22,23; 2:16; 4:4,5; 5:23; Colossians 1:18, 24. Secondly, Christ is the high priest and we are a kingdom of priests — Hebrews 7:25; 10:10-14; 1 Peter 2:5,9; Revelation 1:6. Thirdly, Christ is the groom and we are the bride under the analogy of right man/ right woman — 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:25-32; Revelation 19:6-8.

“unto glory” — prepositional phrase, e)ij plus the accusative of doca. This brings us to the principle of glory — “many sons to glory.”

This sentence is so long that it gets a little involved at this point. But in the Greek it is very simple because to make sure that you keep track of the thought we go from this point into an aorist active infinitive of teleiow — “to make perfect” is a bad translation. Teleiow means to accomplish an objective, to cross a goal line. It doesn’t mean you are perfect when you cross the goal line either. The goal is operation footstool whereby the last Adam, Jesus Christ, overthrows Satan and supersedes him as the ruler of this world. The aorist tense here is a culminative, it emphasises operation footstool. Christ is already wearing the crown but He wont have the kingdom until all the citizens are lined up. The active voice: the Father produces the action as a part of His perfect plan. The infinitive expresses the Father’s purpose and plan — “to bring to the objective” is the best translation. Here is the Father bringing to the objective. You can’t get the cart before the horse. You have to bring the crown prince to the objective first, and the objective of the crown prince is to go to the cross so He will have a kingdom.

So we have next the word “captain” which can be used in many ways. It is used for a company commander in an infantry battalion, for any naval officer who commands a vessel. But this word is an a)rxhgoj, a high, high ranking person, the highest next to the king. It means here the one who is going to be the King. A)rkhgoj is made up of a)rxh and a)gw and it means “prince-leader.” A)rxh means “prince”; a)gw means to lead — “to bring to the objective the prince leader of their salvation.”

“of their salvation” — thj swthria a)utwn. This includes the genitive singular of swthria, an objective genitive, which means “salvation” .It is followed by a possessive genitive, a)utoj. Jesus Christ is the crown prince. He is a man; as a man He is the crown prince. The crown prince means that He is going to rule. He is going to rule as a man; He is going to supersede an angel.

“through sufferings” — dia plus the genitive of paqhma which refers to all the pressures and sufferings of Christ getting to the cross. This is in contrast to the previous suffering on the cross bearing our sins.

Translation: “For it was proper for him [God the Father], because of whom the all things, and through whom the all things, having led to glory many sons, to bring to the objective through sufferings the prince leader of their salvation.”

Notice some contrasting structures. We have a contrast of prepositional phrases. “To glory” (ours) through sufferings (Christ’s).” That is grace. We receive glory through the sufferings of Christ. We go to glory (ours) through sufferings (Christ’s). That’s grace. Notice the contrasting verbs. That aorist active participle of a)gw — “having led”; the aorist active infinitive, “to bring to the objective.” We are led to the objective. That’s grace. Notice also the contrast in the persons who are the object of the verb. “Many sons” are the believers of the Church Age. Object of the believer: “prince leader of their salvation” who makes it possible. So we have in this verse the most beautiful set of contrasting structures you almost have to have every other word in emphasis. So you have an emphasis within an emphasis, you have a series of emphases, you have a series of contrasting structures in verbs, in prepositions, in objects of verbs, and you actually have one of the most phenomenal phrases in all of the Word of God.

Verse 11 — we have gar used as an explanatory particle. It indicates the reason why the prince leader, Jesus Christ, was brought to the objective through sufferings. The prince leader, Jesus Christ, in His accomplishing of salvation was alone on the cross as the last Adam. It was Jesus Christ Himself who said of the first Adam in Genesis 2:18, “Not good the man to be alone.” Having said that, He said “I will manufacture for him a help responding to him.” God the Father must have said something similar when the last Adam was alone on the cross bearing our sins and taking our place — “Not good that the last Adam should be alone.” So the Father, while judging Jesus Christ for our sins, was also planning for Him a bride, a right woman, which he would manufacture over the entire period of the Church Age. In this verse the body and the bride of Christ is mentioned as being sanctified.

“he that sanctifieth” is a present active participle of a(giazw. It refers to Jesus Christ, He is the sanctifier. The Holy Spirit is the agent of sanctification through the baptism of the Spirit — that is mechanics — but the sanctifier is the person into whom every believer is placed at the point of salvation. We enter into union with Jesus Christ, so he is the sanctifier. In other words, He is the right man, He is the groom, as well as being the head of the Church. A(giazw really means to set apart, and in this case we are set apart unto God by union with Christ. Positional truth is the means of providing a bride for the last Adam. When Jesus Christ was on the cross he said, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” He was forsaken because He was paying the penalty of sin. The penalty of sin is spiritual death. He was paying in full. Therefore He was made sin for us, therefore He was also separated from God even as the first Adam was at the point of his sin. So the one doing the sanctifying is the last Adam who is the one presented in the previous verse as the prince leader. Jesus Christ is the one who solved the problem that man created by his sin. When man, the first Adam, went negative and the fall occurred man entered into spiritual death — the penalty of sin. When he sent into spiritual death he created a kingdom for Satan and at this point Satan began to rule the world. This continued until Jesus Christ broke the back of Satan on the cross. By paying spiritual death, the penalty, for all members of the human race by bearing our sins. In this way Jesus Christ purchased a kingdom for Himself. First we have the cross and then we have the crown. In the first advent Jesus Christ provided a kingdom of regenerate people. He was also alone on the cross. God the Father couldn’t have anything to do with Him because He was judging Him; God the Holy Spirit could have nothing to do with Him because He was bearing our sins. Jesus Christ was all alone hanging on this cross. He was bearing our sins and taking our place. He was also forsaken by man, was totally and completely alone, and at some time the Father said, “Not could that the Son should be alone.” When Jesus Christ was resurrected and ascended He was the only member of the human race to have a resurrection body, so He, as it were, ascended alone. There is only one member of the human race right now who has a resurrection body, so He is still alone. The next group to get a resurrection body will be His bride, but the bride is not a bride until the resurrection occurs at the Rapture. In the meantime the bride is a body. Whenever a man is going to marry a woman he is marrying not only a soul but a body. She is a body when he meets her. But eventually she becomes his body, therefore bride. That is the whole concept of using body as a designation for the Church during the Church Age, but when the Church Age is over the body is going to do exactly what Christ did — resurrection and, as it were, ascension — going into heaven. Then, Christ as the last Adam will no longer be alone, He will now have His bride. Then He comes back with His bride to the earth to take the kingdom of this world away from Satan. So the one sanctifying is Jesus Christ, the one who makes it possible for members of the human race to be set apart. We are in union with Him and in the future we will have a resurrection body exactly like His. But being in union with Him makes us victorious right now in the angelic conflict. The one being sanctified, then, is the bride which is now the body, the Church Age believer. The only difference in a(giazw this time is that the first time we have the present active participle of a(giazw and then we have present passive participle of a(giazw. The active participle: Jesus Christ, right man, is the initiator; passive voice: believers are the responders. So the one sanctified is Jesus Christ; the ones being sanctified are Church Age believers only. This does not apply to Old Testament saints.

Next we have “all of one” — e)c e)noj pantej. E)c means “out from”, but with pantej it means “all from.” Pantej is the nominative masculine plural of paj. E)c is the preposition with the ablative of e)ij, which means “one.” So: “all from one” .Since it is ablative case: “all from the source of one.” The “one” is God the Father, the author of the plan. E)c plus the ablative singular, plus the nominative masculine plural of paj refers to believers of the Church Age only. God the Father is the author of the plan, the source of operation grace, the source of the bride or the right woman for Jesus Christ.

The principle is that in His humiliation of bearing our sins Jesus Christ was definitely said to be alone — prophetically, Psalm 22:1; historically, Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34. But His glorification demands that He has someone to share His glory. The first man had a glory, he was the ruler of this world. So as the ruler of this world it was not good for him to be alone, and he wasn’t .God the Son provided for the first Adam a bride. The last Adam is also going to rule, therefore God the Father provides for Jesus Christ what Jesus Christ provided for the first Adam — a bride. The bride in the first case was a woman, the bride in the second case is all believers of the Church Age.

“for which cause” — preposition dia plus the accusative feminine singular of o(j — “because of which.” The idiom is usually translated “for this reason” .

“he is not ashamed” — present passive indicative of a compound verb, e)paisxunomai. E)pi means upon or toward; e)isxunomai means to be ashamed, it is an intensified form of the verb to be ashamed. The subject is Jesus Christ. The passive voice means He does not blush, He is not ashamed of His bride. This is referring to ultimate sanctification. When the bride comes back with Jesus Christ he will not be ashamed. Why? Because the bride was formed as a body and at the Rapture we have a resurrection. Now the believer has a resurrection body exactly like that of Christ. Then over the period of the Tribulation, while the body is turned into a bride, all human good is removed and burned. Therefore, when the bride returns with Christ at the second advent He will not be ashamed of believers who comes with Him, and that will include every believer. “He is not ashamed” — present tense, linear aktionsart, it goes all the way into eternity. The passive voice: we receive this from Him — grace. The indicative mood: the reality of the fact that grace found a way not to be ashamed of any believer.

“to call” — kalew, present active infinitive, also means to introduce or present. In other words, to call out a name in presentation. He won’t be ashamed to introduce any of us. Kalew means He is not ashamed to introduce them “as brethren” — members of the family of God.

Translation: “For the one sanctifying [Jesus Christ] and the ones being sanctified [believers of the Church Age] all from the source of one [God the Father, author of the plan]: for this reason he is not ashamed to introduce them as members of the family.”

Verse 12 — “Saying” — present active participle of legw to introduce a quotation from Psalm 22:22. This is the same psalm in which we have prophetically, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” The quotation, Psalm 22:1 is followed by all of these verses, bringing us the Psalm 22:22 which is quoted here. The quotation anticipates the session of the Lord Jesus Christ, seated at the right hand of the Father, at which point God the Father provides a bride for the last Adam. He provides a bride first, then operation footstool. In Psalm 22:21a we have the death of Christ, in Psalm 22:1b we have the resurrection. In Psalm 22:22 we have the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me” that opens up Psalm 22 is prophetical of the cross which anticipates the resurrection, ascension and session of Jesus Christ.

1. After the ascension Christ is promised a bride and future rulership of the world.

2. At the Rapture Christ receives His bride; at the second advent Christ receives His kingdom.

3. The cross comes before the crown, the bride comes before the coronation.

4. The Father is perfect; His order is perfect.

5. In the Church Age a bride is being prepared for the last Adam.

6. In the Tribulation historical events are being prepared for the advent of the King.

7. The second advent of Christ will remove the angelic usurper, Satan, and place the rightful heir on the throne, the last Adam, the son of David. He is called in the previous verses the prince leader of salvation, He is called the groom of the Church, He is called the King of kings, the Lord of lords. Jesus Christ is therefore the only celebrity in the Church Age. The bride has one celebrity, the groom.

“I will declare” — aorist active indicative of a)paggelw which means to proclaim. A)po is the preposition of ultimate source; a)ggelw means to announce. It means to announce from ultimate source — “I will proclaim” .This is Jesus Christ, as it were, seated at the right hand of the Father. David wrote the Psalm. The subject is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, as it were, proclaims this in heaven. He must leave behind on the earth in the devil’s kingdom a message in permanent form for His right woman. The message is the content of Bible doctrine written in a permanent form — 1 Corinthians 2:16.

“your name” — the Father’s name — o)noma means the personality, the character. “I will proclaim your personality, your character, your plan.” God the Father is the author of operation grace. The Father’s plan is clearly proclaimed in the Word of God, it is reduced to writing, it is in permanent form. The content of scripture is the fulfilment of this verb.

“unto thy brethren” — the members of the family, dative of advantage. The believer has a response to this when he takes in doctrine, so we have the believer’s response:

“in the midst of the church” — when this was originally written in Psalm 22 it meant “in the midst of the assembly.” E)kklhsia means “church” today; it meant the assembly of Israel when David wrote it. When they were together David praised the Lord. So this was the original response of David as the writer of Psalm 22, in the middle of the congregation of Israel. But here, now that it has its prophetical significance fulfilled, and in the Church Age, we translate it “in the middle of the church.”

“I will sing praise” — future active indicative — “unto thee.” And that future tense means after the body becomes a bride. So this is the response when the bride identifies Christ, when the bride is in resurrection body.

Verse 13 — the documentation continues. We have a quotation from Isaiah 8:17,18. The second and third documentations are from the Old Testament presenting two sides of the angelic conflict and relating them. The quotation from Isaiah 8:17, which comes first, presents the human side. Isaiah 8:18 is the divine side of the same picture. When you have in this verse “And again,” this is a special way of introducing a quotation from the Old Testament — Kai palin, which occurs twice. It is correctly translated “And again.” It means “citation.” The first “and again” — Isaiah 8:17, we have a very rare periphrastic, a future perfect periphrastic. In other words, we have a future active indicative of e)imi. The periphrastic is made up of a verb followed by a participle. Then we have the perfect active participle of peiqw. The future perfect periphrastic indicates a permanent result in the Church Age of every believer being the bride. How do you become a bride? By believing in Jesus Christ. Isaiah 8:17 is quoted to indicate the permanence of the relationship. You are a part of the bride of Christ forever as of the moment you believed in Him.

“in him” is a prepositional phrase, e)pi plus the dative. The object of faith is Jesus Christ. You identify Him as the saviour. In so doing you are not aware of the fact. It is like a young lady meeting a young man, not aware of the fact that he is her right man. First of all she becomes acquainted with him; the realisation of this may come later. You don’t start out by saying Jesus Christ is my right man, you start out by believing in Him as saviour. Then as you learn doctrine you become aware of these things.

The divine side is quoted: Isaiah 8:18 — “And again, Behold.” The imperative of o(raw — “see this” ."I” refers to Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father; “and the children” — paidion, a term of endearment for “dear children” .

“whom God has given to me” — the word “God” is literally, “the God” — o( qeoj; “has given” — aorist active indicative of didomi. The moment you believed in Jesus Christ, that was the moment when God the Father gave you to Jesus Christ as a part of His bride; “me” is a dative singular of possession from the personal pronoun. The dative of possession is personal interest particularised to the point of ownership, and these believers now belong to God but are given to Christ, the last Adam, so that He should not be alone.

Translation: “And again, I will put my trust upon him. And again, Behold I [Jesus Christ] and the dear children [believers of the Church Age] whom the God has given to me [Jesus Christ] for a possession.”

The doctrine of the ascension and session

1. The resurrection body of Jesus Christ was capable of space travel. The humanity of Jesus Christ in a resurrection body travelled through all three heavens, John 20:17, and therefore demonstrated that in His resurrection body the humanity of Christ was greater than all the angelic forces put together.

2. The session of Christ confirms the acceptability of the humanity of Christ in heaven which guarantees the acceptability of the bride in heaven. Jesus Christ is acceptable — Psalm 110:1; Romans 8:34; Ephesians 1:20; Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 1:3, 13; 8:1; 10:12; 1 Peter 3:22. We are acceptable because Christ is acceptable; we are in union with Christ.

3. The ascension and session of Christ form the basis for victory in the angelic conflict. The fact that Jesus Christ could go through all of the hordes of angels opposed to Him and get into the third heaven indicates that His human resurrection body is greater than all angelic creatures — Hebrews 1:3-13.

4. The ascension and session of Christ began a new sphere of the angelic conflict — Ephesians 1:20-22; 4:7-10 — therefore the believer in the Church Age is involved in the intensification of the angelic conflict.

5. The ascension and session began operation footstool prophesied in Psalm 110:1 and quoted in Luke 20:42,43; Acts 2:33,34; Hebrews 1:13.

6. The second advent of Christ will conclude operation footstool — Daniel 7:13,14; Zechariah 13:2; Colossians 2:15; Revelation 20:1-3.

7. The ascension and session of Christ completes the glorification of Christ in hypostatic union. Christ was in hypostatic union, but up through the cross we have humiliation. There is no glorification until resurrection occurs three days after the cross. Acts 2:33; 5:31; 1 Peter 3:22.

8. The ascension and session of Christ explain the uniqueness of the Church Age — John 7:37-39.

9. The ascension and session of Christ is the key to victory in the angelic conflict — Hebrews 1:4.

The doctrine of glory

1. Glory is used in the scripture for the essence of God — Romans 3:23; Ephesians 1:17; Deuteronomy 5:24; Psalm 21:5. So glory has the concept of the perfect character of God, everything that God is.

2. Glory is used for the edification complex of the soul of the believer — Ephesians 3:21; Colossians 1:27; 1 Peter 1:8; 2 Thessalonians 2:14.

3. The right woman is the glory of the right man — 1 Corinthians 11:7, 15.

4. The grace of God is described as glory — Ephesians 1:6.

5. The provision of God’s grace is called “the riches of glory” [everything that comes from His perfect character] — Ephesians 3:16; 1:18; Philippians 4:19.

6. Heaven and eternal life are described as glory — 1 Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 2:10; 1 Peter 5:10; 2 Peter 1:3.

7. There are a few passages in the scripture where human glamour is described as glory [should be translated “glamour”] — 1 Peter 1:24; Philippians 3:19.

8. Glory is used to describe the wonders of the universe — 1 Corinthians 15:40,41.

9. Glory is used to describe the resurrection body of the believer — 1 Corinthians 15:43; 2 Thessalonians 2:14.

10. Glory is associated with operation footstool in the presentation of the Church as the bride of Christ at the second advent — Hebrews 2:10.

Verse 14 — “Forasmuch then” is two Greek words, E)pei o)un. O)un is an inferential particle, it demands a conclusion. “E)pei means “since.” The word “as” is not found in the original. We really have something that sounds like, “Since therefore.” “Since” is the adverb indicating that we are approaching a very important principle, one that needs great emphasis. The word “then” or literally, “therefore,” is the inferential particle. Generally it does not occur at the beginning of a sentence but somewhere in the sentence to indicate a conclusion is being reached in the process of developing the sentence.

“the children” — ta paidia is quoted from the previous verse. Paidia is the nominative plural of paidion and refers to believers both here and in the previous verse. The noun is a term of endearment for children and can very easily be translated “dear children.” The Greeks actually used words to distinguish children at their best and children at their worst. So paidion means children at their best. “Since therefore the children [born again believers].”

“are partakers” — (“Are” is usually used to translate a passive voice. Here is an active voice but the translation is bad) perfect active indicative of koinwnew. In the perfect tense this means to have a permanent partnership. Koinwnew means to share in common with one another. Here it means a permanent type partnership, a permanent sharing. The active voice means that all the “dear children” have this permanent sharing. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that all believers are human. The verb is set up in contrast to one which is used a little later on for Jesus Christ for His humanity. This anticipates a few words: metexw which also means to share. Metexw is used for Jesus Christ; koinwnew is used for the rest of the human race. This is because of the impeccability of the humanity of Christ.

“flesh and blood” is incorrect. It is a(imatoj kai sarkoj. A(imatoj is the genitive singular of a(ima, the word for “blood” .It comes first in the text — “blood and flesh” .We have the genitive singular of a(ima and the genitive singular of sarc. The blood represents the whole principle of the cardiovascular system. We, as members of the human race, are blood and then flesh. The blood is mentioned first because the blood is related to life. In the approach here we have the physiological approach rather than the soulish approach to man. Why don’t we mention the soul here? Because there is a distinction between the human soul of Jesus Christ and the human soul of all members of the human race. All members of the human race have an old sin nature; Jesus Christ is different. So this is brought out by blood and flesh as physiological terms for mankind and koinwnew as over against metexw. Koinwnew indicates our common physiological function. The statement of this passage in the original language eliminates any form of evolution. There never was a member of the human race from the very beginning that did not have blood and flesh. And no one has ever found a way to turn amoeba into blood. Blood comes before flesh and it is something we all have in common.

“Since therefore the dear children share blood and flesh” — “since” is the conjunctive adverb that indicates we haven’t really got to the point yet. But we will get there. And o)un is a secondary inferential particle which tells us the conclusion will come in the next breath. Now we have arrived in a very dramatic way — “He also himself.” Kai a)utoj refers to Jesus Christ. Kai translated “also”; a)utoj is a reflexive pronoun which has great emphasis. It is a reflexive pronoun used as a personal pronoun for great emphasis — “He himself.” And then instead of koinwneo we switch verbs to tell us that we are getting to our conclusion because when you have an adverb used as a conjunction followed by an inferential particle, second class — o)un, followed by a verb which sets up something common in the human race, and then you come to something that is a conclusion and is unique but still a part of the human race, then you get kai a)utoj — “he also himself.”

And now we are coming to holy ground because we are coming at this point to meet out high priest who has already been presented as our prince leader. He is the only celebrity in Christianity; He is our one and only celebrity. We start to meet Him first at the cross and then later on in this section, verse 17, as our high priest. Then we will see something He understands about us but we don’t understand about Him in verse 18. So we are moving in the direction of a conclusion and at the same time as we have a conclusion we have information that puts the Lord Jesus Christ in the spotlight and for the first time in our passage a direct reference to the subject of Hebrews: the high priesthood of Jesus Christ and the universal priesthood of the believer. And Jesus Christ the high priest demands our attention, and He demands that we move into the supergrace life. There is only one place for a priest to be and that is in supergrace, the normal function of the priesthood of the believer. In this dispensation, the Church Age, God has ordained as a part of His plan that all born again believers function as priests. So right now in this apostate generation very few are doing so. Every believer is a priest. It is one thing to be a priest, it is something else to function as a priest. Only in the function of the priesthood do we see the human entrance into the angelic conflict on the side of the Lord. The only believers who are on the side of the Lord in the angelic conflict are born again believers who have reached supergrace.

We are starting here with the celebrity of Christianity, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the fact that Jesus Christ became a member of the human race. But one thing was missing in, the one thing that kept Him out of the devil’s soul. To show that you have to have koinwnew. This is for members of the human race who are born spiritually dead and born into Satan’s kingdom and there has got to be a difference between koinwnew and what is coming up — metexw. Metexw is the humanity of Christ because the humanity of Christ is true but unique; koinwnew is the rest of humanity, we are all the same blood and flesh.

Next we have metexw, aorist active indicative. Meta is the preposition of association; exw means to have and to hold, hence to have an association with, to share in the sense of taking hold, but being unique. This verb is used instead of repeating koinwnew because while Christ shared blood and flesh there was something He did not share. Why won’t koinwnew work? What do we have in common, being born into the human race? We have in common and old sin nature, and that means we are born spiritually dead and it means we are born into the devil’s kingdom. That is why there is a whole chapter before hand on the angelic conflict. Why the angelic conflict here? Because the angelic conflict finds man behind the eight ball from the moment of birth. We are born into the devil’s kingdom. Our citizenship card is spiritual death or the old sin nature. Now here is that marvellous, impeccable, unique person, the prince leader, Jesus Christ. He came into the world virgin born, without a sin nature. Therefore we could not have koinwnew used for Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was not born with an old sin nature. The virgin birth puts Him into metexw instead of koinwnew. Metexw means He is blood and flesh, all of the things of the soul, but He doesn’t have a sin nature. So He doesn’t share everything in common with the human race because he doesn’t have a sin nature. That brings up a principle: It is impossible for there ever to be in physical birth equality in birth. In the first place the birth of Jesus Christ is so unique that He is born above us in that he does not have an old sin nature. Koinwnew means to share everything in common, and we do, we all have a sin nature. We were born into the devil’s kingdom, and our high priest did something in three hours that makes it possible for us to get on God’s side as members of the human race. Not only at the cross are we saved and become the beneficiaries of 36 things, including eternal life, but at that moment we enter the angelic conflict on God’s side. We have been delivered from the power of darkness. We are born again and being born again means we are born into a new kingdom. And that means something of great significance, it means that while we are spiritually immature at the point of being born again we can through the daily intake of Bible doctrine grow up. And since we were born again as priests we can actually function some day under the priesthood we receive at birth. At birth Jesus Christ was born a king but He doesn’t function under it yet. There is a lapse between what we receive by birth and the function of it. We were born again as priests but that doesn’t mean you will ever function as a priest. The function of the priesthood starts at the supergrace life. The basic operation of the priesthood in getting to function as a priest is Bible doctrine taken in every day.

“he also himself” … metexw” — aorist tense, the point of His birth; active voice: He was born but He was and is the only member of the human race born outside of the devil’s kingdom. The devil had no hold on Jesus Christ. Metexw means He shared in a unique manner.

Then we have the word “likewise” — the adverb paraplhsiwj which means “in the same manner” .In other words, He was just as much true humanity as we are, except He didn’t have a sin nature. Note: You don’t have to have a sin nature to be true humanity. There have been two Adam’s, the first and the last, without one.

Next we have “of the same,” the genitive singular of a)utoj. Because of the virgin birth Christ was born minus the old sin nature and is therefore unique.

Now we get to the purpose. “That” is i(na plus the subjunctive mood. This introduces a purpose clause — “that he death,” the preposition dia plus the genitive of qanatoj, literally, “through death.” This is a reference to His spiritual death on the cross. In the physical death of Christ we have a very clear statement in the scripture. In His spiritual death our sins were poured on Him and judged, and spiritual death is associated with the blood, not physical death. The blood of Christ refers to His spiritual death, not His physical death. In His physical death His soul went to paradise and His spirit went to the presence of the Father. But in His spiritual death He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. The blood never refers to the physical death of Christ, that is one reason He died with all of His blood in His body. “That through death” — Christ bearing our sins.

“might destroy” — aorist active subjunctive of katargew. Katargew means to render useless, to render powerless, to abrogate, to cancel, to render null and void, to neutralise. The best translation here is “that he might render powerless.”

“him that had” — present active participle of e)xw, “the one having and holding” — “the power” — kratoj means “ruling power” .So we have, “the one having the ruling power of the sovereignty of death.” And again we have qanatoj, referring to spiritual death.

Summary

1. Qanatoj, which occurs twice, refers to spiritual death, and the second time — the ruling power or the sovereignty of death — it refers to the dominion of those who are spiritually dead.

2. Members of the human race are born physically alive and at the same time spiritually dead.

3. Therefore through birth mankind enters into the kingdom of Satan, a kingdom of spiritual death.

4. Satan has and holds the ruling power of spiritual death. He has had this power from the fall of man and will have it until the second advent of Christ.

5. As part of the second phase of the angelic conflict Satan holds man in his power through spiritual death (from birth) just like jailer holds a prisoner until a true legal release is obtained.

6. Jesus Christ as our high priest provided the true legal release by His work on the cross, bearing our sins, paying the penalty of sin — spiritual death.

7. The death of Christ for our sins propitiates the justice of God the Father and reconciles man to God, taking him out of the kingdom of Satan and putting him into what is called literally from the Greek, the kingdom of the Son of his love.

“that is” — present active indicative of e)imi, “that keeps on being” — twn diabolwn, the accusative form — “the devil.” In other words, since the fall of man an angel has been the ruler of this world. An angel replaced man, Adam, as the ruler of the world. Satan will be the ruler of the world until he is replaced by the last Adam at the second advent.

Translation: “Since, therefore, the children share blood and flesh, he also himself in a unique manner and in the same manner took hold of the same [shares the same;] that he through death [spiritual] might render powerless the one having the ruling power of the death, that is, the devil.”

It is spiritual death that brings fear upon man. It is true that many people are afraid to die physically but spiritual death is the kingdom of Satan that brings fear into the hearts of men about every subject.

Verse 15 — the word “deliver” is an aorist active subjunctive of a)pallassw. This word really means to effect the release of someone, to set someone free. This is what we call a gnomic aorist. It is very difficult to distinguish between the gnomic and the culminative aorist. The culminative aorist emphasises the results of what has happened. If the results are absolute and dogmatic it becomes a gnomic aorist, and because this deliverance is axiomatic we actually have a gnomic aorist here. The active voice: Jesus Christ produced the action of this verb. The subjunctive mood indicates the continuation of the purpose clause from the previous verse. The devil rules the world by spiritual death, this is the part of doctrine you must know. A king always has a sceptre. The sceptre of the devil as the ruler of this world is spiritual death. The devil cannot rule anyone who is related to God. Spiritual death is no relationship with God, no fellowship with God. So the word “deliver,” the subjunctive mood, is a continuation of that purpose clause that began in the middle of verse 14.

“that he might deliver” — the believer is released or set free form the Satanic rule to become a member of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ and to become at the same time a servant of Jesus Christ — but a servant with most unusual dignity for he is a priest servant to Jesus Christ.

“them” — masculine accusative plural of the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. The demonstrative pronoun refers to all members of the human race who believe in Jesus Christ. God has provided a way of deliverance. The word “deliver” means to release, set free, effect the release of. On the cross Jesus Christ effected our release from Satan’s kingdom. So the translation so far: “And release from Satan’s kingdom ["them” is not correct. The demonstrative pronoun should be translated “those"] those [persons]” .

“who” — o(soj. The demonstrative pronoun is followed by a relative pronoun. This is called a correlative relative pronoun. An ordinary relative pronoun would be o(j. The correlative relative pronoun is used in four ways. it can be used of space and when it is it is translated “as great as” .It can be used of time and it translated “as long as” .It can be used of quantity — “as many as.” It can be used of measure — “as much as” .Here we have quantity and therefore we translate it: “those persons as many as.”

“through fear” — instrumental singular from foboj. In the instrumental foboj means “by fear,” or “by means of fear.” Then we have “of death” and this is nothing to do with physical death, this is fear of something greater. “Of death” is incorrect. This is the ablative singular of qanatoj, spiritual death which is Satan’s ruling power over the human race. So literally, “by means of fear from the source of death.” All fear in the human race has its source in the fact that people are cut off from God. That is what this phrase is saying. Why do people in the human race have fears about anything? Because they have no consciousness of an absolute relationship with God. Therefore the kingdom of Satan, spiritual death, is made up of frightened people. All people are frightened until they know their relationship with God. At some time, some fear creeps up on any member of the human race. fear is really used here in the sense of lack of security. How can you have any security in this life and in this world unless you know that you have a permanent relationship with God and you know that you are in His hands and He is taking care of you? That is what wipes out fear. When you are occupied with Christ, how can you be afraid of anything? That is why the Psalmist said, “What time I could be afraid, I will trust in thee.”

A spiritual moron is afraid because he has never learned any doctrine; a reversionistic believer is afraid because he has forgotten doctrine. He is like an unbeliever in that sense. Satan can only capture, as it were, the believer. He can’t take the believer out of God’s kingdom, but he can capture him and neutralise him through fear, by inducing fear. For babies getting started they faith-rest — claim a promise — but when a believer grows up he will be so occupied with Christ he won’t have to claim a promise. And how does a reversionist get out of the hole he has dug — faith-rest! Faith-rest is for reversion recovery; faith-rest is for babies; faith-rest is to get you going in the right direction. But once you have enough doctrine in the supergrace life you are going to be so occupied with Christ that you are going to forget all about claiming promises and will realise how great is His power and how great is grace, and you move right on without even thinking about claiming a promise.

“by means of fear from the source of death” — the ablative of source connotes the root idea of separation and it is accompanied by the implication that the original situation contributed in some way to the present state. Therefore, the present state is fear, the basis for it is spiritual death. Spiritual death has no relationship with God and therefore no absolute security.

Fear is not only a mental attitude sin, fear is a condition. The ablative says that fear is a state, a condition in life based upon no absolute security. We have absolute security whether we know it or not. The source of fear is spiritual death, not physical death.

“were” — imperfect active indicative of e)imi. “All of their lifetime” is incorrect. It is dia plus the genitive of paj plus the present active infinitive of zaw. This is an idiom which means through all the functions of life — “were through all the functions of life.” Then comes the verb, “kept on being subject to bondage.” “Subject to” in the nominative plural from the adjective e)noxoj, and it means to be liable to or held in. Then we have douleia which is the genitive singular for slavery.

Translation: “And released [from Satan’s kingdom] those persons as many as by means of fear from the source of death [spiritual] through all the functions of life were held in slavery.”

An unbeliever is in slavery in every function of life, no matter how great he is, no matter how he succeeds.

Summary

1. In other words, while they were alive physically in all the functions of the life they were in slavery spiritually — in slavery to spiritual death, they had absolutely no relationship with God.

2. Spiritual death is a set of chains that shackle all unbelievers in the slavery while continuing in every function of life.

3. Jesus Christ came into the world to break those chains and shackles and give relationship with God.

4. The result of the cross was breaking the shackles of slavery to fear and spiritual death.

5. In this way, through the cross, Jesus Christ has delivered us from the sovereignty of Satan while still living in the devil’s world.

6. The cross not only provides eternal salvation but freedom from the bondage of Satan’s kingdom.

Verse 16 — the choice of the incarnation. “For” — gar, is a particle used as a conjunction to express one of four things: cause, inference, continuation, or explanation. Here we have explanation, gar plus the adverb dhpou, which means “obviously” — “For obviously” .

“he took not on” — present middle indicative of e)pilambamw. E)pi means upon; lambanw to receive. When you put these together it means to assume. The present tense is the dramatic present. The middle voice is reflexive: He Himself [Christ] — “For obviously he did not assume the nature of angels” .

“but” — we have an adversative conjunction, al. The contrast is between angelic and human creation. Again we have e)pilambanw, “he did assume the seed of Abraham.”

Translation: “For obviously he did not assume the nature of angels; but he did assume the seed of Abraham.”

Summary

1. Since man was created to resolve the angelic conflict God stays with His plan. God does not change His plan midstream. If God creates man to resolve the angelic conflict, count on it, God is going to find a man to do it. That Man is the last Adam. Therefore Christ did not become an angel, He became a man.

2. Since the first Adam lost the victory through the fall the last Adam must win the victory at the cross.

3. Abraham is mentioned as the human being for the pattern because Abraham was born a Gentile and became a Jew. Jesus Christ is going to save Jews and Gentiles but Jesus Christ is born of the Jewish line.

4. Abraham is both the founder for the Jewish race and the pattern for Jewish regeneration. Jewish regeneration is described in Genesis 15:6, the hiphil perfect of amen. The hiphil is causative active voice; perfect tense: completed action. It should be translated, “Abraham had believed in the Lord and it was credited to his account for righteousness.” This is amplified in Romans 9:6-15.

5. Therefore Jesus Christ is born to the Jewish race to fulfil the unconditional covenants to born-again Jews.

The choice of Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ made a choice when he was still God, coequal with the Father and with the Holy Spirit. The sovereignty of Jesus Christ: he had to choose to become man. The choice was from His sovereignty. When Jesus Christ decided to become a man and not an angel He decided it on His own. Was His judgement good? He is perfect — essence box. After the cross Jesus was glorified through resurrection, ascension and session, and at that point — session — the humanity of Christ became superior to all angelic creatures.

So man inferior to angels by birth, by the new birth becomes superior to angels. Furthermore, it is God who receives the glorify by taking man, an inferior creature, and through grace making him ultimately and eternally superior to angels in every way. That is why we have only one celebrity in the Christian way of life: Jesus Christ.

Verse 17 — the celebrity. The celebrityship is found in the phrase “merciful and faithful high priest.” Do you realise that as the history of Israel developed the greatest celebrity in Israel was always the high priest, that it was never God’s intention for a king to be visible, that Jesus Christ Himself was the King of Israel until the people of Israel elected Saul king of Israel. They wanted to be like other nations. They were different from nations; they were a theocracy; they were ruled by the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God; God was invisible to them, but real through doctrine, through the great rituals which portrayed the doctrines of the superiority, the sovereignty of Jesus Christ in their midst. And until the day that Saul was elected king by the people the greatest celebrity in Israel, by design, was to be high priest — though he wasn’t always the greatest person. That was the design.

The high priests generally were flops, they failed. But in the history of Israel God’s design never worked out because doctrine never had its proper place. Therefore the high priest did not have the place of celebrityship, God had to raise up prophets because of Israel’s apostasy. The prophet was often the greatest man but he still wasn’t a celebrity either. Most of the prophets, like Isaiah, were persona non grata with most of Israel. But it was always God’s objective to have the high priest as the visible celebrity of Israel.

In this passage, introducing in verse 17 the primary subject of the book: the celebrity of Israel, the high priest, Jesus Christ who is also the son of David. Celebrityship changed in Israel from the high priest to the family of David when David became the ruler, and the line of David lasted all the way to 586 BC when the Jews went out under the fifth cycle of discipline. And even when there was no king descended from David sitting on David’s throne, when the Jews were in the 70 years of the Babylonian captivity, it was Zerubbabel who was their leader, and Zerubbabel was directly descended from David though not a king. And when they came back, never again did they have anyone sitting upon the throne of David, even though David’s son, Zerubbabel was their leader. Never again has Israel, from the time of the fifth cycle of discipline in 586 BC, had anyone sitting upon the throne because God has said to Israel by this, “My intention was always to have the high priest your celebrity. It didn’t work out because of apostasy. You selected a king. I set aside your king Saul when he got into reversionism and kicked him our under the sin unto death. I put my man on the throne. I brought David out of the sheepcote and I made him king. But, there again, apostasy led to failure. So you and I, Israel, are going to meet. You revered the king as your celebrity; I recognised the high priest as my celebrity. Now we will meet in the Millennium after the second advent of Christ, and your celebrity the king, the son of David, and my celebrity the high priest, will be the same person. And you will have a celebrity forever. In the meantime Israel, you have rejected the celebrity, but I will raise up the worst bunch of knuckleheads that ever lived — the goi [Gentile] — and a few of the choice ones, the Jews, and they will recognise my Son seated at the right hand as the only celebrity.” Only through Bible doctrine and the supergrace life do you recognise the celebrityship of Jesus Christ.

Verse 17 — the word “Wherefore” is a relative adverb, o(qen. It is used both here and at the beginning of next chapter. It has many concepts. It usually refers to circumstances or to time or origin. It can be translated “From which circumstance” or “For this reason,” as in Hebrews 3:1. It is a reference to the circumstances of the incarnation and the resultant hypostatic union. If Christ is to bypass the angelic creation in solving the angelic conflict He must become a man.

The next phrase is “in all things” — kata plus the accusative of paj. This prepositional phrase: “From which circumstances he was obligated according to the standard of all things” .We have it changed around in the English but the actual Greek word order is what we have just stated. “According to the standard of all things” refers to the fact that Jesus Christ had to become a man to be our saviour. Therefore He was obligated to be properly equipped to redeem mankind and at the same time to propitiate God the Father. So “it behoved him” is an imperfect active indicative of o)feilw which means He was obligated.

“to be made like” — the aorist passive infinitive of o(moiow. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, and Jesus Christ, when he took upon Himself true humanity, this settled it. The angelic conflict was not going to be resolved in the angelic realm, that’s to give Satan the victory. It was going to be resolved in the human realm and this gives the victory to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ began to be like true humanity at the virgin birth and He was just as much humanity in the cradle as He would ever be. This aorist actually indicates the completion of God’s plan at the point of the incarnation. When Jesus Christ was a baby in the cradle the plan of God was completed as far as the victory of the angelic conflict. Jesus Christ was true humanity, the Father would sustain Him all the way to the cross where He would break the devil’s back. In the angelic realm Satan could sin the angelic conflict but when man was created lower than angels to resolve the angelic conflict it looked even easier for Satan. The fall of man made Satan very confident that he could win. But he forgot one principle. At the time of the fall of man the incarnation of Jesus Christ was promised. It was promised that the celebrity of the universe would come into existence as a man and would go to the cross as the seed of the woman and die for the sins of the world, and not only save man but at the same time resolve the angelic conflict. In this way the Lord Jesus Christ is the only celebrity. So he was “to be made like.” The passive voice: Christ received humanity at the virgin birth, minus the old sin nature. The infinitive expresses the Father’s purpose in the incarnation to provide eternal salvation for the human race and at the same time to resolve the angelic conflict, and to give the universe in the form of the God-Man the only celebrity in existence. So in resolving the angelic conflict regenerate mankind will also be found placed above the angels forever. When Satan appealed in the court of heaven the case of the fallen angels God took it out of the angelic realm in order to win the victory and to resolve the angelic conflict. The angelic conflict could not be resolved by keeping it in the angelic realm. But if God had created a being superior to angels then Satan would have cried “unfair, unjust” .And since his attack and his defence was already the fact that God could not be fair and just and at the same time put angels in the lake of fire if man had been created superior to angels then they would have been no contest, Satan would have made an issue out of this immediately. But Satan could not make an issue out of creating a creature which was inferior to angels.

“unto the brethren” — this is a dative plural from a)delfoj and it has two connotations. First of all it refers to the human race. He was made a member of the human race rather than being an angel. But secondly, brethren refers to only one segment of the human race, the Jews. Jesus Christ was born in the tribe of Judah, the family of David, and is the fulfilment of the Davidic covenant. He is born a Jew. We have the definite article here to define “brethren” in a restrictive sense of the Jew. The word “that” is a conjunction, i(na, plus the subjunctive that introduces a purpose clause.

“he might become” — aorist middle subjunctive of ginomai. This means to become something that He was not before. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, in fact it becomes a gnomic aorist which means this is axiomatic — what Christ became can never be changed. The middle voice is reflexive indicating Christ Himself and only Himself; this introduces the concept of celebrityship. The subjunctive mood indicates a purpose clause.

Now we meet the only celebrity for the Church Age, the only celebrity in history, the supergrace celebrity, “a merciful and faithful high priest.” Celebrityship will be covered in this passage from the standpoint of the priesthood of Christ. Other passages cover it from the standpoint of His kingship, His sovereignty.

“merciful” is an adjective, e)lehmwn, and this means “compassionate.” Mercy is always grace in action, grace based on maximum love capacity of the supergrace life of the Lord Jesus. Remember, before Jesus Christ became the high priest He was first of all a supergrace believer. Jesus Christ was not born a priest, he was not born in the tribe of Levi. He was born in the Jewish Age and He was not born a priest. He became a priest on the cross through sacrifice rather than through birth. In the Old Testament the kings would sometimes try to offer a sacrifice, like Saul, and would be very severely disciplined for it. Only the priests of the tribe of Levi could offer sacrifice. But Jesus Christ, in offering Himself, was the exception. He is the unique person of the universe, He is the only celebrity, and by offering Himself he becomes a priest at that point. He is also a merciful priest in that He first of all was a supergrace person before He was a priest. The next word is “faithful,” the adjective pistoj, which refers to His consistency and His stability. “High priest” is the central subject of Hebrews, the basis from which the celebrityship of the Lord Jesus Christ will be studied. Since a priest must be a man, Jesus Christ had to become a man to be high priest. The only celebrity of the Christian life first of all became supergrace as a person and then He became the priest.

“in things pertaining to God” — ta proj twn qeon. This is the accusative of qoej, proj plus the accusative, “face to face with God.” ta is the pre-positive definite article — “the things face to face with God.” The high priest must be able to face God. This was the issue on the Day of Atonement when the Jewish high priest once a year, and only with blood, entered into the holy of holies representing face to face with God. He would go into the holy of holies to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat. The principle here, then: the high priest must be able to face God. Our high priest is literally in the presence of God the Father, so He is able to fulfil this principle; again, a facet of His celebrityship.

Why, and under what circumstances, did He become high priest? At the point of propitiation. The next phrase is not only mistranslated but it is a mistranslation which leads to devastating results as far as understanding the appointment of the high priesthood of Christ. Remember that in Israel the first high priest was appointed by God. After that it was a matter of progeny, the sons of Aaron became the high priest. Moses did not have any children in Israel, the only children that Moses ever had were among the Kenites by his first wife. Moses was not appointed high priest of Israel. Aaron his brother had that honour. The sons of Aaron and the grandsons of Aaron succeeded him as high priest. The eldest son was always the high priest. The high priesthood in Israel cane through physical birth, through the eldest son of the direct line of Aaron. Here is the Lord Jesus Christ not receiving His high priesthood by birth. He receives it by appointment from God. The question is: When was He appointed?

The answer is right here: “to make reconciliation”, which is an incorrect translation. This is the present middle infinitive of i(laskomai, which does not mean to make reconciliation, it means to make propitiation. There is a vast difference. The reason we have propitiation here is because this is the point at which the celebrityship of Jesus Christ was to be established. He was not a celebrity on the cross, He humbled Himself; but after the cross in resurrection, ascension and session He functions as the high priest. But He was appointed at the time of the cross, at the time when He made propitiation. This is a present middle infinitive of the verb to make propitiation. The present tense is dramatic. The most dramatic moment in the world was when Jesus Christ was appointed high priest. The middle voice indicates that this occurred when He Himself was propitiating God the Father. The infinitive is an infinitive of purpose. It was the purpose of God the Father to appoint Jesus Christ high priest at the point of propitiation, when He “made propitiation for the sins of the people.” The genitive plural of hamartia plus the genitive singular of laoj gives us what we call an objective genitive followed by a possessive genitive. “For the sins” is objective genitive; “of the people” is possessive genitive. The people possessed the sins, Christ had no sins of His own and was made sin for us. When Jesus Christ was hanging on the cross He had no sins. The sins of the people were poured out upon Him.

Jesus Christ is high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Melchizedek was not Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ was in the order of Melchizedek, but Melchizedek had to be a human being. And why Melchizedek? Because Melchizedek was a king as well as a priest. And the order: Jesus Christ was the son of David; Jesus Christ is a high priest. He combines in one person King-priest. He is legitimately the King of Israel; He is also legitimately the high priest forever. At this point, while He was bearing our sins, He was providing salvation or redemption for mankind, but at the same time He was propitiating the Father and this is the Father’s appointment of Jesus Christ as high priest. Why? because there were many, many sacrifices in Israel, many kinds of sacrifices, many principles of sacrifices, and they all are fulfilled at the cross. Every sacrifice of the Mosaic code is fulfilled at the cross, and every sacrifice of any kind in the Old Testament lead to the cross and there every one of them was saying in effect, I am a contribution to the celebrityship of Jesus Christ.

Isaiah talks about the celebrityship of Jesus Christ as King; the writer of Hebrews talks about the celebrityship of Jesus Christ as high priest. High priest is used here because Jesus Christ is King of Israel but not the King of the Church. Jesus Christ is the head of the Church, not the King. He is the groom; the Church is the bride. So kingship is a celebrityship concept reserved for Israel, and that is why Isaiah made such an issue out of that. But to the Church the rulership of Christ is presented through His high priesthood. Christ is the head of the Church and at the same time the high priest for a kingdom of priests. But the kingdom of priests is not Israel, the kingdom of priests is the Church only — after the cross. The Age of Israel had to stop with the cross because Christ not only had to have a bride but He had to have a kingdom of priests. Christ had no bride, He was all alone on the cross. Christ had no priesthood, He was appointed high priest on the cross but He didn’t have a priesthood. So there has to be the Church Age so that Christ can have a bride and have a priesthood. That is why in the Church Age Christ is the only celebrity because of His high priesthood and because he is the groom.

Translation: “From which circumstance he was obligated according to the standard of all things to be made like the brethren, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the things face to face with the God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”

Now, since the high priest was going to die physically after bearing our sins the only way that the appointment could be confirmed was by resurrection, ascension and session. That is exactly what we have, with this difference: the high priest carried the blood into the holy of holies after it was offered on the cross. Jesus Christ did not carry His blood to heaven. This is a new type of priesthood, not a blood carrying priesthood. Jesus Christ went to heaven in a resurrection body, not carrying the blood. The Father had already appointed Him at the point of propitiation on the cross, therefore it was not necessary for the reality to carry the blood to heaven. In the substance, in the shadow, that is portrayed on the Day of Atonement; in the reality it is not necessary.

Verse 18 — the grace provision of the incarnation. “For in that he himself hath suffered.” “For”is the explanatory use of gar; “in that” is the preposition e)n plus the locative neuter of the relative pronoun o(j. It should be translated, “For in that which.”

“he himself” — “himself” is a separate word not taken up as a middle voice. We have a reflexive pronoun of a)utoj referring to Jesus Christ accomplishing propitiation and becoming the unique celebrity to the Church.

“hath suffered” — perfect active indicative of pasxw which refers to the spiritual death of Christ on the cross. It was through spiritual death that He propitiated the Father. The justice of the Father is propitiated by spiritual death, not by physical death. At physical death He said “Finished” .It was completed, all over before He died physically. It is the spiritual death of Christ which propitiated God the Father. The perfect tense is permanent results of Christ’s suffering on the cross. This includes salvation of man and the resolving of the angelic conflict. The perfect tense can be portrayed as a point at which the action took place, the cross, and the results go on forever. The active voice: Christ offered Himself on the cross, which was His first function as priest. The indicative mood is the reality of the ministry of Christ as the high priest satisfying God the Father. So Jesus Christ suffered on the cross with permanent results. The permanent results: the appointment of Jesus Christ as the high priest.

However, He didn’t get to the cross without some problems — “having been tempted” is an aorist active participle of peirazw. Satan challenged Jesus Christ at every step He took toward the cross. Jesus Christ was tempted time and time again. Only three of the temptations, the great ones, are recorded. These are unique temptations. Not only is Jesus Christ our celebrity from every viewpoint of uniqueness, but especially when it comes to temptation. He faced three temptations that we would never face — Matthew chapter four. So “being tempted” indicates that Christ reached the cross in status quo impeccability. His person had to be perfect before He could bear our sins and before He could propitiate the Father and be appointed our high priest on the cross. So this verb actually connotes the qualification of Jesus Christ to suffer for our sins on the basis of His impeccability. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. The main verb: “he himself has suffered.” So first of all he was tempted, then he suffered. He was tempted and found perfect, not once did He succumb to temptation.

The rest of this says “he is able to succour them that are tempted.” He is not able to help us because He was tempted, He is able to help us because He was appointed high priest. Remember, the action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. “He was tempted,” that is the aorist participle; “He suffered” on the cross, that is the main verb. Now, on this side of the cross, He is high priest and as high priest He is able to help us.

“he is able” — present active indicative from dunamai. Jesus Christ as God is able to help us, He is omnipotent; Jesus Christ as Man is high priest, and as the combination of omnipotent high priest he is able to help man. This is present tense, linear aktionsart, He keeps on having the ability. Active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action. Indicative mood: the reality of the fact that the uniqueness of Christ leads to His unique ministry of “succouring” — the aorist active infinitive of bohqew which means to advance to the assistance of someone, to help, to furnish aid, to run to the aid of someone crying for help. The meaning that is involved here is to run to the aid of someone crying for help. When a person cries for help their volition is involved, they want to be helped. In the priesthood, Jesus Christ as high priest can help but He can only help where positive volition exists. “He keeps on being able” — gnomic aorist. It is an absolute fact that if your volition is involved positively, your high priest can help you.

“them that are tempted [tested]” — present passive participle of peirazw, and it should be translated “those being tested” or “those being tempted.” This refers to members of the human race who are tested and fail by entering into personal sin. How does the high priest help there? Rebound, which is a priestly function. The unbeliever can’t rebound and be forgiven, it is a function of the priesthood only.

Translation: “For in that which he himself has suffered, having been tempted [but remaining impeccable], he keeps on being able [He was appointed high priest at the cross] to help those being tempted [tested].”

Summary

1. Satan’s kingdom is the kingdom of spiritual death. We are born into Satan’s kingdom because we are born with an old sin nature and spiritual death.

2. Christ was born free, without a sin nature, through the virgin birth. The significance of the virgin birth cannot be overemphasised, it makes it possible for Christ to come into the world without being in Satan’s kingdom. If you are in Satan’s kingdom you are also in Satan’s slave market, and if you are then you can’t get anyone else out; you can’t redeem anyone else. Christ had to be born a free man in order to purchase the freedom of slaves. We are born into slavery, we are born into the devil’s kingdom, but Jesus Christ through the virgin birth was born outside of the devil’s kingdom.

3. Christ lived free from the slave market of sin by resisting temptation.

4. Therefore He went to the cross where He satisfied God the Father, was appointed high priest, and purchased our freedom from Satan’s kingdom.

5. Therefore, Christ as our high priest is able to help those being tempted and failing, tested and failing or not failing. In other words, Christ is the only one who can help us.

Summary translation of the first six verses of chapter three

Verse 1 — For which reason, holy members of the family of God, associates of the heavenly vocation, concentrate on the Apostle, even the High Priest of our acknowledgement, Jesus:

Verse 2 — Being faithful to the one having appointed him, as also Moses in his entire house,

Verse 3 — For example. this one has been permanently evaluated deserving of more glory than Moses, by so much as the one having constructed and furnished the house keeps having more honour than the house.

Verse 4 — For every house in constructed and furnished by the agency of someone; but the one [Christ] having constructed and furnished all things God.

Verse 5 — Now Moses, in fact, faithful [dependable, trustworthy] in all his house, as a noble servant, for evidence of things which are about to be communicated

Verse 6 — But Christ as an adult son over his house [the Church]; whose house are we, if we hold fast [if we have in full and secure possession of or if we steer and maintain our course of confidence] our confidence [in doctrine] and the object of boasting [Christ our only celebrity] of the expectation [phase three brideship] stabilised [by supergrace] until the end.