Hebrews 2:5-18 - Perfect through suffering

The more I have read and studied the book of Hebrews, the more I have found it to be one of the most complex books in the entire New Testament.

The Book of Revelation has its own unique challenges because Christians in the twenty-first century haven't really tapped into the imagery of Jewish/Christian apocalyptic literature of the first century.

Paul's letter to the Romans presents its own challenges, partly because Paul likes going off on tangents in various directions before getting back to his main point. But we can still follow his overall argument.

Hebrews, however, becomes complex for us because so much of it is keyed to those books of the Old Testament which Christians often ignore.

The last half of the book of Exodus with all of those rules, laws, instructions for the tabernacle, and sacrifices.
Leviticus, which is almost totally made up of rituals and sacrifices.
And Numbers, which, although it has a lot of very good stories, so much of it is simply lists, census data, laws, and with what someone once termed, "the boring bits".

But for the writer of Hebrews, as a good, Greek speaking educated Jew, who most probably only read the Bible, the Old Testament, in Greek; for this man, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers is where almost his entire understanding of the meaning of the death of Jesus Christ comes from.

While Paul, sought to explain his understanding of "righteousness", how we have "been made righteous", forgiven, and justified, from the legal system, the writer of Hebrews, writing to Jewish believers, explained his understanding of the death of Christ and our new relationship with Christ, from the sacrificial system in the Old Testament.

And that is why his illustrations and his discussion is all about priests, high priests, animal sacrifices, and the tabernacle. By the way, not once does he mention "the temple", the building constructed by Herod the Great standing in Jerusalem. Instead, eleven times he talks about the tabernacle;[1] the portable shrine built in Exodus by Moses, manned by Aaron and his sons in Leviticus, and carried through the desert by the Levites in Numbers.

And because he is so immersed in the sacrificial system in the Old Testament, he talks about the Passover, "cleansing", and being "sprinkled". This is why he talks about the "covenant", the "promises", the law, and Moses, more than any other writer in the New Testament.

And because he is so immersed in the Old Testament, far more than many Christians today, this is why he says some things that seem "strange", or maybe "confusing" to us, and Hebrews 2:10 is one of those passages. He says in Hebrews 2:10:

It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

And of the nineteen different English translations that I consulted, everything from the Tyndale New Testament of 1534 right on up to the Revised New International Version of 2011, seventeen out of those nineteen English versions translated this passage in pretty much the same way. Seventeen out of the nineteen translate this phrase as:

God made the author of our salvation perfect through suffering.

Now I don't know about you, but for me that statement raises an awful lot of questions.

My first question is, “in what sense did God make Jesus "perfect"?

And my second question is, “what does "perfect" mean?” Or, more correctly, what does the Greek word, teleiow, translated here in seventeen of the nineteen versions I looked at as "perfect", what does this Greek word mean?

Like every language, the meaning of words in Greek, as in English, changes depending on how they are used in a sentence. For example, the English word "hand" can be this part of the body at the end of our arms.

It can be a unit of measurement – equal to four inches – and is used to give the height of a horse.
A "hand" can be a round of applause after a concert.
A "hand" can be the cards that you are dealt in a game of poker.
I can "give you a hand", meaning I can help you when you are in trouble.
And we talk about a "factory hand" meaning a person who works there.

Each of these are different meanings of the one word "hand", and it is only how we use the word in a sentence that we properly understand the exact meaning. And it is the same here with our Greek word, teleiow, "perfect". Depending on how it is used, it refers to a variety of things.

And so today I ask you to bear with me for a while as we look at these different possibilities, and as we think carefully and clearly about what it means, and what it does not mean, for God to make Jesus "perfect" through suffering.

I own several commentaries on the book of Hebrews, and as I have read them I have found that each of them have had the same question about the meaning of "perfect" that I have, and each of them went through the same process of trying to understand its' precise meaning in Hebrews 2:10 that we are going to do today, and so we are in some good company.

Firstly, this Greek word can refer to "ethical or moral perfection". That is, it can refer to someone who is "perfect", sinless in their behaviour and conduct, and this is what the word meant in Greek philosophy. However, before we jump straight in and say, "yes, that refers to Jesus", we need to ask ourselves, "how could God make Christ 'morally and ethically perfect' through suffering"?

After all, that would imply that Jesus had been ethically and morally "imperfect", and it was only through suffering that he "became ethically and morally perfect", that is, it was only through suffering that Jesus became "sinless".

But is that correct? What does the Bible say about the life of Jesus. About his morals and his ethics? Hebrews 4:15 says:

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.

Or 2 Corinthians 5:21:

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Or 1 Peter 2:22:

He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.

Or 1 John 3:5:

You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.

And Jesus himself asked his accusers:

Which of you convicts me of sin?[2]

And the answer, of course, was "no one", and this is why at his trial they brought together "false witnesses” because they couldn't find any "true witness" who could show that Jesus had ever done anything morally or ethically wrong.

And so the Bible makes it clear that Jesus was always morally and ethically perfect, he was sinless throughout his entire earthly life, and so that is not the type of perfection that the writer is referring to here in Hebrews 2:10.

The second way that this word "perfect" was used was with the idea of being "mature", that is, being all grown up. It refers to "physical maturity", but that doesn't apply here because we know from Luke 3:23 that Jesus was "about thirty years old" when he began his public ministry, and so he was already physically mature. He was already a "grown up".

This word is sometimes used to refer to "emotional maturity". But would that apply to Jesus? Again, "no", because as we look at the life of Jesus, all that he did, everywhere he went.

The demands placed upon him by the crowds.
The pressures placed upon him by the opposition he received from others.
The pressures placed upon him by his disciples and their selfishness and power grabbing.
The pressures of trying to teach them, lead them, guide them, and prepare them for ministry when so often all that they wanted was to "be the greatest", the one who "sat at Jesus' right or left hand".

If Jesus wasn't already "perfect" emotionally, he could have quite easily punched someone in the face, gone off, and had a nervous breakdown. And so "emotional maturity" doesn't fit either.

This word is also sometimes used to speak about "spiritual maturity". Now we know from Luke 2:52 that:

Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour.

That is, through his childhood years and into his adult years Jesus had to mature in every aspect, just as we do. And we know from our own experience, as Paul said in Romans 5:3-4:

that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.

And because of this, without a doubt the struggles of life that Jesus faced, which we will look at more in a few weeks, but the struggles of life that Jesus faced must have played a part in his spiritual maturity.

But Hebrews 2:9 tells us that this "suffering" that Jesus endured, and the suffering that made him "perfect", was the suffering of death. But did his physical death make Jesus "spiritually mature"? No, because we see throughout his life and ministry that Jesus is one who is totally and completely in tune with God the Father.

Even as a twelve-year-old in the temple, he said to Joseph and Mary, "I must be about my Father's business".
His prayer was, "not my will but yours be done".
His life was going where God sent. Saying what God wanted. Doing what God commanded.
His prayer life was perfect.
His understanding of God was perfect.
His understanding of Scripture was perfect.

And although as a human being Jesus clearly matured spiritually, it was throughout his ministry, and not because of his death, that Jesus was already "perfect", mature.

And so, as we look at the Bible, none of these possible meanings of "perfect" seem to fit the understanding the writer of Hebrews is driving at. He is not talking about physical, emotional, or spiritual maturity. Nor is he talking about "moral and ethical perfection". What else could this word, "perfect", mean?

Another meaning of this word is that of "bringing something to a goal", or "finishing a project", as we read in 2 Chronicles 8:16:

Thus all the work of Solomon was accomplished from the day the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid until the house of the LORD was finished.

Or John 17:4:

I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do.

Or James 2:22:

You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was brought to completion by the works.

And if all we knew was the New Testament and secular Greek literature, this meaning would actually fit. But only one of the nineteen translations that I looked at translated this word in that way, “to complete,”[3] although many commentators suggest that this is the meaning because, in many ways, Jesus’ task was "completed" through his death:

Verse nine says that through his death, he received glory and honour.
Verse ten says that, through his death, he brought many sons and daughters to glory.
Verse eleven tells us that through the suffering and death of Jesus, he "makes human beings holy".
While verse fourteen tells us that through his death he "destroys him who has the power of death, that is, the devil". And in so doing, he sets us free.

And if all we knew was Greek literature, or if all we knew was the New Testament, we would have to say that this is what the writer was talking about. That through his sufferings, that is, through his death on the cross, paying the penalty of our sins, Jesus, the son of God reached his "goal", his purpose, his entire reason for becoming a human being.

It is finished![4]

Now, obviously, because of the way I am talking, you know that there is something else to come, and you are right.

Do you remember earlier where I said that seventeen out of the nineteen English translations that I consulted translated this phrase in Hebrews 2:10 as "God made him perfect through sufferings"? And while number eighteen translated this as “complete”, number nineteen, the Geneva Bible translated in 1599, translates Hebrews 2:10 as:

For it became him, for whom are all these things, and by whom are all these things, seeing that he brought many children unto glory, that he should consecrate the Prince of their salvation through afflictions.

Did you notice the difference? Here, in the 1599 Geneva Bible, they translated that word which almost every other English translation I found translated as "perfect", the Geneva Bible translated it as "consecrate". To set apart for God's service.

But why did they do this? Do you remember how I said that, for the writer of Hebrews, the place where he gained his greatest understanding of the meaning of the death of Jesus Christ was found in the Greek translations of the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers? Well, this Greek word teleiow, "perfect", is found in each of them,[5] and every time it occurs it means to "appoint", to "ordain" someone to the ministry of a "priest", or "high priest". We read especially in Leviticus 16:32:

The priest who is anointed and consecrated as priest in his father’s place shall make atonement, wearing the linen vestments, the holy vestments.

Now remember, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers is where our writer gained his greatest understanding about the meaning of the death of Jesus Christ, and Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers each use teleiow with the meaning of "to consecrate,” or “to ordain to the office of priest".

And what is it that Hebrews 2:17 says?

Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people.

This is what Jesus' "perfection" means. Not moral or ethical. Not physical, emotional, or spiritual. And not even with the idea of "reaching a goal", even though, to a certain extent, this last one does apply.

No. Jesus' "perfection", that perfection that God brought to Jesus through his suffering, was bringing him into his position, consecrating him to his position as our Great High Priest, the one who sits at the right hand of God, and the one who intercedes with God the Father on our behalf.

Now we will begin looking at the High Priesthood of Jesus in more detail starting another day, but what Hebrews says here is that Jesus’ "consecration", his “ordination” to the position of “high priest,” that role was the purpose of his "suffering".

The goal of Jesus' suffering wasn't simply to die, but to rise from the dead, to ascend into heaven, and to intercede for us at the right hand of God. The purpose of the death of Jesus was so that he might become our high priest with God, working on our behalf.

And we see part of this High Priestly work in Hebrews 2:11 when he talks about how Jesus “sanctifies us,” where he "makes us holy". And making holy, as Leviticus talks about, making someone holy involved cleansing them from all of the impurities that kept them separated from God so as to make them "clean", so that they could come into God's presence.

This was the duty of the priests, and in particular, the duty of the high priest on the Day of Atonement. And this "cleansing" was brought about for us through the death of Christ, as Hebrews 9:14 says:

How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!

How much more will the blood of Christ bring cleansing to us from all of those things that kept us separated from God, so that we may approach God in worship and in service.

And it is Jesus, our high priest, who has brought us this cleansing, this "holiness", this new life, this salvation, through his suffering and death on the cross. Or, as Hebrews 2:17 says, it is this Jesus, our great high priest, who has brought us "atonement".

And as we think of the death of Christ as his great and final suffering, this shows us something else that is unique about Jesus.

In Exodus and Leviticus the priests were also consecrated to their office through "suffering". But it wasn't their own suffering. Instead, they were consecrated to the office of priest through the suffering, the death, of a sacrificial animal.

But Jesus was consecrated to his office of priest through his own suffering, through his own death on the cross, which becomes for us that sacrifice of "cleansing", that sacrifice which brings us to God, that "sin offering". And as Hebrews will later talk about, Jesus is both the High Priest, the one who offers a sacrifice, as well as the sacrifice itself, which brings us salvation, forgiveness of sins, and new life.

And the suffering, and the consecration that the suffering brought, were necessary for bringing many children, to glory. Without the suffering and the consecration to his office as High Priest, the children could not be brought.

And I want us to notice this. Paul said in Romans 3:23 that:

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

But Hebrews 2:10 says that through Christ's sufferings, and the Greek word is in the plural, but it was through the sufferings of Christ that he was consecrated to his high priestly office, and through these sufferings "many children" were brought back to the glory of God that they had fallen short of.

And that word "glory" is used in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers to speak about the presence and the greatness of the Lord God who was with the people. And Jesus, through his death, brings us back to the "glory" of God. Back to the presence of God. In other words, the ministry of Jesus, changes everything.

Again, Hebrews 2:10 says:

It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

And the first phrase in this marvellous verse that I find so amazing is "it was fitting". That is, it was "proper and suitable" that Christ be brought to his High Priestly position through suffering. But why was it "fitting"? Why was it "right"?

Because Jesus, having become a human being like one of us, and having been made like us in every way, although he never sinned as we have done, it was proper, fitting, and appropriate that he face the same trials of faith and obedience that we face.

Will he be obedient in the face of temptation, as we have been disobedient?
Will he be faithful in the face of persecution, as we are often unfaithful?
Will he persevere in those situations, where we often "give up"?
Will he trust God, follow God, and obey God, no matter what?

It was fitting that he face all that we face, to see if he would do and be what we have not done or been.

Because human existence is filled with suffering, and because he was, as Hebrews 2:17 says, "he was made like us in every way", for him to be that High Priest who knows, understands, comforts, and intercedes on our behalf, he had to "suffer". For it is in and through suffering that true faith, true obedience, is shown, as Hebrews 5:8 says:

Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.

Although he was a son, he learned the reality that obedience to God is tough. And he learned the reality that obedience "costs".

And having been obedient to death, even death on a cross. Having suffered in every way, just as we have, although he never sinned:

Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

And there, at the right hand of God, where Jesus, having accomplished his task sat down; this same Jesus, who knows, who understands, who comforts, and who strengthens, this same Jesus intercedes constantly with God the Father as our Great High Priest, because through his sufferings God "consecrated" him, God set him apart, to that glorious, gracious, task, for our good.

This is the Jesus we proclaim.

This is the Jesus we trust.

This is the Jesus we follow.

Thanks be to God, for his indescribable gift.[6]

[1] σκηνή – NRSV “tent”. Hebrews 8:2, 5; 9:2, 3, 6, 8, 11, 21; 11:9; 13:10

[2] John 8:46

[3] The “Bible in Basic English”

[4] John 19:30

[5] Exodus 19:9; 28:29; Leviticus 4:5; 8:33; 16:32; 21:10; Numbers 3:3. In every verse except Leviticus 4:5 it translates some form of the phrase, “to fill the hand” -יָד מָלֵא.

[6] 2 Corinthians 9:15