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"Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a (the) name which is
above every name" (Phil. 2: 9).
"Who for the joy set before Him endured the (a) cross, despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Heb. 12: 2).
"Being made so much better than the angels, as He hath by inheritance obtained a
more excellent name than they" (Heb. 1: 4).
"Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh
in you both to will and to do (work on account) of His good pleasure" (Phil. 2: 12, 13).
"Make you perfect in every good work, in order to do His will, doing in you that
which is well pleasing in His sight" (Heb. 13: 21 not AV JP).
The third reference (Heb. 10: 5-7) we have already had occasion to examine when
dealing with the word "sanctified". There we read of the Lord laying aside His glory, the
moment of His kenosis or self-emptying (Phil. 2: 7); and just as He left the glory that
was His before the world was, to enter by human birth that path of suffering, we hear
Him say:
"Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a BODY HAST THOU PREPARED
ME . . . . . LO, I come to do Thy will, O God" (Heb. 10: 5-7).
We are allowed by wondrous grace to hear the words with which the Lord of life and
glory voluntarily partook of the same flesh and blood as the children of men, that in the
body thus prepared for Him He might learn obedience by the things He should suffer,
and, being made perfect through suffering, lead many sons to glory.
Before we attempt to explain our verse, we must examine another item. The Lord
submitted to death, not only that Adam's sons might live again (I Cor. 15: 22), but that
"He might render ineffective the one having the strength of death, that is the Devil".
What is this strength of death? Here we are not viewing atonement, for Christ offered
Himself in all aspects of His sacrifice "unto God". This is directed to the Devil. The
Devil possessed this strength, and we must seek from the Word the meaning of the
expression. Kratos is used in Eph. 1: 19 of resurrection, "according to the energy of the
strength of His might", and in 6: 10 of its practical application to the believer, "Finally,
my brethren, be empowered in the Lord and in the strength of His might", this
empowering being in view of the conflict with spiritual wickedness in heavenly places.
It will be remembered that (evidently) at the time when Moses was to appear with
Elijah on the mount of Transfiguration, "Michael the archangel, when contending with
the Devil he disputed about the body of Moses" (Jude 9). It will be remembered that the
Transfiguration came into prominence in our investigation into the meaning of the
expression "taste of death" of Heb. 2: 9, and Peter in his epistle of suffering in view of
glory introduces it in the first chapter. It is the vision of the overcomer. Death is spoken
of ten times in Hebrews. In 5: 7 we are taken to the garden of Gethsemane and there the
Lord:
"in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up both prayers and supplications with
strong crying and tears unto Him Who was able to save Him out of death, and was heard
for His piety" (not AV JP).