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The Epistle to the Hebrews.
#17.
The Captain; Perfected.
pp. 28 - 30
"For it became Him, for Whom are all things, and by Whom are all things, in
leading many sons to glory, to perfect the captain of their salvation through sufferings"
(Heb. 2: 10).
Instead of simply saying "God" or "The Father" the apostle uses the title "Him, for
Whom are all things, and by Whom are all things". There is a reason for this which it is
important to observe, and it comes out again in chapter 11: There the statement is
simpler, and will enable us to perceive the underlying principle here in verse 10:--
"For it is necessary for him who comes near to God (a special term) to believe that He
is, and that He is a rewarder to those who diligently seek Him" (11: 6).
Three statements are here, which placed beside 2: 10 will illuminate that passage:--
"It is necessary."
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"It was becoming."
"He is."
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"Him, for Whom and by Whom are all things."
"Rewarder."
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"Perfecter."
The doctrine of reward is as primal and absolute as the very existence of God. "He
is." "He is a rewarder." The words of chapter 2: 10 are an expansion of this. He who
IS is the Creator whose creation has been arranged with a view to His own glory. He
who is a rewarder of the diligent seeker plans also the pathway to glory--"Perfect
through suffering". Instead of counting the idea of reward as strange and proudly saying,
"Virtue is its own reward", "We ought to do right for right's sake", which is perfectly
true, we should be more scriptural, and at bottom more true, if we saw in the framing and
enforcing of all law whatever, that reward is essential, and that suffering is of purpose.
So the words are introduced by eprepe, "It is becoming".
Prepõ is used again in 7: 26, when the essential suitability of Christ as High Priest
is spoken of; also in Matt. 3: 15 where it was fitting and proper that the Son of God
should fulfil all righteousness. It was therefore in the way of the nature of things that
God who had made all things for Himself, in leading many sons to glory, should perfect
their captain through sufferings. The idea of a suffering Messiah was repugnant to the
Jew by reason of the traditions of the elders, but the apostle shows that the "taste of death
for every son", was most fitting and proper. The path of suffering to glory must not be
counted as though some strange thing had happened, it is according to plan.
The last words of verse 9 are sometimes quoted to prove that Christ died for every
man and therefore is the Saviour of every man. The passage does not teach this. We saw
in our previous article that the "tasting" of death did not mean death itself, but the
sufferings which preceded it, and that this tasting of death did not have redemption in