Hebrews 2:10 Christ: A Perfect Fit for You, Me, and the Father
INT: It has been the way for many centuries that religion has tried to do something about human sin and/or the anger of its gods. From animal to human sacrifice, peoples everywhere have recognized wrong and have "done something" about it. At the same time these religions have through their sacrifices tried to keep their gods at arm's length and out of their lives. Only Christianity recognizes that payment for sin cannot be accomplished by any person; only God Himself can pay the cost for the sin of all mankind, and that cost was the life of His Son on the cross.
10 it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, (Final Goal)
and through whom are all things, (First Cause)
in bringing many sons to glory,
to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.
NLT Through the suffering of Jesus, God made him a perfect leader, one fit to bring them into their salvation.
Williams: For it was appropriate for Him, who is the Final Goal and First Cause of the universe, in bringing many children to glory, to make the Leader in their salvation perfect through the process of sufferings.
- It is only fitting that God Himself should be the Founder of salvation.
EXP: "fitting" - befitting the character of the God we know
- Christ is the Founder of salvation. KJV captain; NRS pioneer; NIV author
- If He is the Founder of salvation, then He also assumes full responsibility for the remedy of the sin that causes salvation to be necessary.
If Christ is the Author of salvation, then He must be the perfecter of the penalty for sin that necessitated the need for salvation. God's plan meant the Son of God would pay that cost, that He would bear the burden of our sins. This was the only means possible ("fitting") to cure the problem of sin once for all.
- Jesus believed God's redemptive plan was necessary, so He willingly assumed leadership to carry out God's plan to perfection.
NLT Hebrews 2:10 a perfect leader, one fit to bring them into their salvation.
ILL: In the Parallel Lives the ancient historian Plutarch concludes that it is a soldier's place to fight and a general's place to lead, and bad things happen to armies where the general joins the fighting. In World War II CNO Admiral Ernest King was said to be so tough that he shaved with a blowtorch and that he liked everybody except people, but Admiral King stayed in Washington and did not personally join the fight. It may be true and sound practice in fighting war that the commander should stay above the conflict and direct his forces, but if Christ had not entered the battle against sin, we would be lost.
- We are the beneficiaries of Christ's loving sacrifice.
in bringing many sons to glory,
The less than perfect cannot restore the perfect. The standard of perfection is lacking so that we are not able to determine perfection any longer.
If we find ourselves in sin, then we have suffered the loss of what it means to be the human being God created. It is not human to sin; it is less than human to sin, for sin takes away from what God created. We can only look then to what is perfect, and that is only God.
CONC: 1 Peter 2:24 He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.
