Words for the Wise, Galatians 3, NASB Perfected by Faith

Galatians 3

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Faith Brings Righteousness

3 [a]You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? 2 This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of [b]the Law, or by [c]hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun [d]by the Spirit, are you now [e]being perfected by the flesh? 4 Did you [f]suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 5 So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works [g]miracles among you, do it by the works of [h]the Law, or by [i]hearing with faith?

6 [j]Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. 7 Therefore, [k]be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. 8 The Scripture, foreseeing that God [l]would justify the [m]Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.” 9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with [n]Abraham, the believer.

10 For as many as are of the works of [o]the Law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them.” 11 Now that no one is justified [p]by [q]the Law before God is evident; for, “[r]The righteous man shall live by faith.” 12 [s]However, the Law is not [t]of faith; on the contrary, “He who practices them shall live [u]by them.” 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a [v]tree”— 14 in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might [w]come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Intent of the Law

15 Brethren, I speak [x]in terms of human relations: even though it is only a man’s [y]covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds [z]conditions to it. 16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ. 17 What I am saying is this: the Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. 18 For if the inheritance is [aa]based on law, it is no longer [ab]based on a promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by means of a promise.

19 Why the Law then? It was added [ac]because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the [ad]agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made. 20 Now a mediator is not [ae]for one party only; whereas God is only one. 21 Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness [af]would indeed have been [ag]based on law. 22 But the Scripture has shut up [ah]everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

23 But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. 24 Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a [ai]tutor. 26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is [aj]neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you [ak]belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s [al]descendants, heirs according to promise.

The IVP New Testament Commentary Series

Progress Toward Maturity by the Spirit (3:3)

Not only was the beginning a gift, but progress is also a gift, as the question in verse 3 indicates. The contrast between beginning with the Spirit and trying to attain your goal by the flesh (remember that the NIV translates "flesh" as human effort) sets up the antithesis between spirit and flesh which recurs in 4:29, 5:16-23 and 6:8. In 4:23 and 29 the son born according to the flesh ("born in the ordinary way") is a reference to Jews who hold to the Sinai covenant (4:24) and to the present Jerusalem (4:25) as the basis of their identity. These are the same ones who desire to boast in circumcised flesh—in other words, in the proselytization of Gentile believers at Galatia (6:13). We need to keep this historical conflict in mind so that we do not slip into an interpretation derived from Greek dualism where the spirit is good and the body (flesh) is inherently evil. Paul's specific point is that the Galatians' alternative is between living by the Spirit, whom they received when they believed the message of Christ crucified, and seeking perfection by circumcision (and other rites such as food laws and sabbath observance), which would identify them as proselyte Jews. Trying to attain perfection by the flesh in that context meant the attempt to attain spiritual status by conforming to Jewish customs in order to become Jews.

Sincere Christian people have often felt that belonging to a specific cultural or religious group would enhance their spiritual status. They have sometimes conformed to extreme requirements just to gain acceptance. All such efforts to achieve spiritual progress are classified here by Paul as merely human effort (NIV), efforts of the flesh. Paul's question in verse 3 reminds us that our beginning in the Christian life was based on our response of faith to the message of Christ crucified and the consequent experience of the Spirit, and our progress in the Christian life must be on the same basis.

New Spiritual Relationships in Christ (3:26-27)

In the old set of relationships under the law, Jews were the children of God and Gentiles were sinners (see 2:15). But now Gentile Christians are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. This must have been a shocking declaration for a Jew to hear. In Jewish literature, sons of God was a title of highest honor, used only for "the members of righteous Israel, destined to inherit the eschatological blessings" (Byrne 1979:174). But now Gentiles—the rejected, the outsiders, the sinners, those who do not observe the law—are called sons of God. Indeed this is a "new creation" (6:15). How could a Gentile ever be called a child of God? Paul's answer is clear—through faith in Christ Jesus (v. 26). Since Christ Jesus is the "Son of God" (2:20), all who by faith are in Christ are also sons of God.

The next verse points to the basis for the new spiritual relationship depicted by this title, sons of God: they are children of God because they have been united with Christ in baptism and, as a result, clothed with Christ. In the light of his repeated emphasis on faith in this context, Paul cannot possibly mean that the ritual of baptism by itself, apart from faith, would accomplish union with Christ. Only when there is genuine faith in Christ is baptism a sign of union with Christ. Paul is reminding the Galatian Christians of their baptism in order to renew their sense of belonging to Christ. That ceremony of initiation into Christ and the Christian community points to the solid foundation for their new relationship as children of God. Moreover, their baptism has led to being clothed . . . with Christ. This metaphor, probably drawn from the ceremony of rerobing after baptism, pictures the reality of complete identification with Christ. In the Old Testament there are frequent references to being clothed with righteousness, salvation, strength and glory (2 Chron 6:41; Job 29:14; Ps 132:9, 16, 18; Prov 31:25; Is 51:9; 52:1; 61:10; Zech 3:3-5). And in other letters Paul uses this metaphor of putting on clothing to mean taking on the virtues of Christ (Col 3:12; 1 Thess 5:8). As baptism pictures the initial union with Christ by faith, being clothed with Christ portrays our participation in the moral perfection of Christ by faith. As the hymnwriter put it, Christians are "dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne." That is why Christians can be called the children of God: in Christ they truly are the members of righteous Israel.

The title sons of God and the two ceremonies of baptism and being clothed with Christ point to the reality of our new relationship with God in Christ.

The Bible Panorama

Galatians 3

V 1–9: FOOLISHNESS AND FAITH Paul now tells the Galatians that it is foolish to seek to be perfected in Christ by keeping Jewish legal observances. We are saved by faith and indwelt by the Holy Spirit because, like Abraham, we believe and trust in the promise of God.

 V 10–14: CHRIST WAS CURSED To attempt to be saved by keeping God’s law and then to fail would mean coming under the curse of God’s judgement on sin. But Christ has taken our sin and our curse when He died on the cross in our place. When we trust Him, we are forgiven, cleansed, and counted as righteous because He has been cursed in our place. God gives us His Spirit to confirm this. The principle is the same as that through which Abraham was blessed, namely receiving God’s promise through faith.

 V 15–18: PERMANENCE OF PROMISE Paul stresses that there is only one spiritual seed of Abraham. It is not to do with Jewish nationality or race, but with trusting God’s promise. In that sense, Abraham is the father of all who are justified by faith in God’s promise, whether Jew or Gentile. The arrival of the law, 430 years after the promise to Abraham, cannot annul that fact. In Christ we are saved through trusting God’s promise.

 V 19–25: LAW IS LEGITIMATE The law is not intended to make us righteous before God and cannot do so. It is not against the promises of God, but shows us our sin, so that it leads us to faith in Christ alone. Righteousness and salvation become ours only in Christ, as we trust Him, realising that we can do nothing to save ourselves. The law imprisons us, but faith in Christ sets us free. Just as a tutor would lead an infant to school for education, the law leads us to Christ for salvation. He is our mediator.

 V 26–29: SONS IN SALVATION Faith in Christ makes us sons of God and, as those who have believed Him, also Abraham’s spiritual seed. We inherit that ancient promise in our crucified and living Saviour. So does every other Christian, irrespective of background, social status or gender.

Yours by His Grace

Blair Humphreys

Southport,  Merseyside

January 13^th 2014 

3 Things I Wish I Knew Before We Got Married, Relevant Magazine

  

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I used to think I had my stuff together. Then I got married.

Marriage is great—but it rocked everything I knew. I quickly realized my basic goal in life, prior to getting married, was to simply remain undisturbed.

This “disruption” came suddenly and was disguised as a 5-foot-nothing Swedish-Filipino woman. When I decided I’d rather not live without her, I proceeded to ask her to marry me—that is, to officially invite someone who wasn’t me to be in my personal space for the rest of my life.

This decision introduced my most significant experiences and most challenging experiences—none of which I would trade for the world.

However, I wish I’d had a bit more insight on the front end of our marriage to help me navigate it all.

According to most research, more than 50 percent of people who say “I do” will not be sleeping in the same bed eight years from now. And though Scripture alludes to the fact that adultery and abuse may be reasons individuals might end a marriage, I’d be willing to bet that most challenges experienced in marriage are the result of unawareness. Most people—myself included—jump into marriage with suitcases full of misconceptions and bad theology, entirely unaware of the unique beauty and paradoxical intentions of marriage.

ALTHOUGH HAPPINESS IS OFTEN A VERY REAL BYPRODUCT OF A HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP, MARRIAGE HAS A FAR MORE SIGNIFICANT PURPOSE IN SIGHT.

The following are three thoughts on marriage that friends and mentors have shared with me. I remind myself of them often in hopes of keeping this anomaly called marriage both enjoyable and healthy.

1. Marriage is not about living happily ever after.

Here’s the truth: I get annoyed at my wife. But this is more a reflection of me than her.

I’m intensely certain that nothing in life has ever made me more angry, frustrated or annoyed than my wife. Inevitably, just when I think I’ve given all I can possibly give, she somehow finds a way to ask for more.

The worst part of it all is that her demands aren’t unreasonable. One day she expects me to stay emotionally engaged. The next, she's looking for me to validate the way that she feels. The list goes on—but never ventures far from things she perfectly well deserves as a wife.

Unfortunately for her, deserving or not, her needs often compete with my self-focus. I know it shouldn’t be this way, but I am selfish and stubborn and, overall, human.

I once read a book that alluded to the idea that marriage is the fire of life—that somehow it’s designed to refine all our dysfunction and spur us into progressive wholeness. In this light, contrary to popular opinion, the goal of marriage is not happiness. And although happiness is often a very real byproduct of a healthy relationship, marriage has a far more significant purpose in sight. It is designed to pull dysfunction to the surface of our lives, set it on fire and help us grow.

When we’re willing to see it this way, then the points of friction in our marriages quickly become gifts that consistently invite us into a more whole and fulfilling experience of life.

2. The more you give to marriage, the more it gives back.

Over the past year, a few friends and I have had an open conversation about the highs and lows of marriage—specifically how to make the most of the high times and avoid the low ones. Along the way, we happened upon a derailing hypothesis that goes something like this: If one makes their husband or wife priority number one, all other areas of life benefit.

WHEN WE RETURN MARRIAGE TO ITS RIGHTFUL PLACE IN OUR PRIORITIES, IT CAN QUICKLY TURN INTO THE GREATEST ASSET TO EVERY OTHER LAYER OF OUR LIVES.

It’s a disorienting claim. Disorienting, because it protests my deeper persuasion that success as an entrepreneur, or any professional, requires that career takes the throne of my priorities and remain there for, at the very least, a couple of years.

However, seeing that my recent pattern of caring about work over marriage had produced little more than paying bills and a miserable wife, I figured giving the philosophy a test drive couldn’t hurt.

For 31 days, I intentionally put my wife first over everything else, and then I tracked how it worked. I created a metric for these purposes, to mark our relationship as priority, and then my effectiveness in all other areas of my life on the same scale, including career productivity and general quality of life.

To my surprise, a month later, I had a chart of data and a handful of ironic experiences to prove that the more you give to marriage, the more it gives back.

Notably, on the days my wife genuinely felt valued, I observed her advocating for me to invest deeply in to my work. She no longer saw our relationship and my career pursuits as competitors for my attention, and as she partnered with me in my career, I have experienced the benefits of having the closest person in my life champion me.

Of course, marriage requires sacrifice. And sometimes it will feel as if it takes and takes. However, when we return marriage to its rightful place in our priorities, it can quickly turn from something we have to maintain and sacrifice for into the greatest asset to every other layer of our lives.

3. Marriage can change the world.

John Medina, the author of Brain Rules and a Christian biologist, is often approached by men looking for the silver bullet of fathering. In one way or another, they all come around to asking, “What’s the most important thing I can do as a father?”

Medina's answer alludes to a surprising truth.

In my previously mentioned experiment, I measured the effect that making my marriage priority number one had on different areas of my life. One of those areas was my 16-month-old son’s behavior.

What I found in simply charting my observations was that the majority of the time, my child’s behavior was directly affected by the level of intention I invested in my marriage.

Re-enter John Medina, the Christian biologist. After years of biological research and several books on parenting conclusions, what is his answer to the question, “What’s the most important thing I can do as a father”?

“Go home and love your wife.”

Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam, the authors of Babywise, say it this way: “A healthy marriage creates an infused stability within the family and a haven of security for a child in their development process.” They go on to sum up their years of research by saying, “In the end, great marriages produce great parents.”

The point is that marriage has a higher goal than to make two people happy or even whole. Yes, the investment we make into our marriage pays dividends for us. But, concluded by Medina and his colleagues, the same investment also has significant implications for our family, our community and eventually our culture.

So men, women, the next time you find yourself dreaming about living significantly or succeeding in your career or being a better parent than yours were to you, do the world a favor: Go home and love your wife. Go home and and love your husband.

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She fought on the Somme disguised as a Tommy, so why did Dorothy die unloved and unlauded in a lunatic asylum? Incredible story of the only British woman to fight in the trenches, Daily Mail

By SARAH OLIVER

PUBLISHED: 22:01, 11 January 2014 | UPDATED: 13:42, 12 January 2014

 
 
 

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Perfect cover: Dorothy in her military uniform

In Paris, in the high summer of 1915, Dorothy Lawrence – a young Englishwoman with more by way of courage and ambition than wealth or  connections – turned herself into a Tommy.

She flattened her hourglass curves with a home-made  corset stuffed with cotton-wool, hacked off her long, brown hair and darkened her complexion with Condy’s Fluid, a disinfectant made from potassium permanganate. She even razored the pale skin of her cheeks in the hope of giving herself a shaving rash.

In a borrowed military uniform she disguised the last vestiges of her female shape and found two British soldiers to teach her to walk like a man. She completed her transformation by forging her own bona fides and travel permits for  war-ravaged France and caught a train to Amiens.

And then Dorothy Lawrence, a cub reporter who hungered to be a war correspondent, cycled to Albert, the village known  as the front of the Front, and joined the ranks of 179 Tunnelling Company, 51st Division, Royal Engineers, as they dug beneath no-man’s-land and across to German lines.

They kept her presence a secret. ‘You don’t know what danger you are in,’ Sapper Tommy Dunn warned her, meaning from the battle-hardened, woman-starved men of her own side, not the enemy mortars.

What he could not have known was the terrible secret which had driven Dorothy to take such risks. Ten years later she would reveal she had been raped as a child by the ‘highly respected’ church guardian who had raised her after she was orphaned.

For almost two weeks in August 1915, Dorothy toiled in the sniper-infested trenches of the Somme – which a year later were to erupt in the bloody hell immortalised by the Sebastian Faulks novel Birdsong – until, weakened by contaminated water and exhaustion, she revealed herself to be a female civilian to her ‘superiors’.

She knew she had the scoop of her life, a story which would set Fleet Street alight.

Even when the British military locked her in a convent to keep her quiet in the final days before the Battle of Loos the following month, she was confident it would make her name.

 

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• Heroic ancestors of Blackadder stars who reveal truth about the Great War... And sorry, Baldrick, they prove Mr Gove was right

Emmeline Pankhurst, leader of the Suffragettes, agreed. After a chance encounter on the ferry home, she invited Dorothy to lecture the growing ranks of women desperate to contribute to Britain’s war effort. But Dorothy was banned by the War Office from telling her inspirational story either through newspaper articles or talks until after the Armistice in 1918. 

Dorothy braved dreadful conditions on the Front, joining British soldiers in trenches near Albert in 1916

By the time her book, Sapper Dorothy Lawrence, The Only English Woman Soldier, appeared in 1919 it was well received in England, America and Australia, but remaindered within a year as a world exhausted by war looked ahead to the glamour of the Roaring Twenties.

It left Dorothy with neither reputation nor income, and by 1925 she was living in rented rooms in Islington, North London, her behaviour increasingly erratic. With no family to look after her, she was taken into care, and committed first to the London County Mental Hospital and then Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum.

It was here she revealed the tragedy of her broken childhood to doctors – but there is no evidence her allegations were taken seriously and investigated as they would be today.

Dorothy was in hospital for a shocking 39 years until her lonely death in the asylum in 1964

It is even possible she was declared insane because she dared to air them publicly. A century ago the word of a man of the Church would have been believed over that of a woman capable of something The Spectator described in its September 1919 review of her book as a ‘girlish freak’.

Dorothy was in hospital for a shocking 39 years until her lonely death in the asylum in 1964. She was buried in a pauper’s grave in New Southgate Cemetery, where the site of her plot is no longer clear.

It was a tragic end to what could have been a brilliant life in the vanguard of women’s journalism. Today, however, as Britain prepares to mark the centenary of the First World War, her exploits are finally being applauded.

Military historian Simon Jones  stumbled across a copy of her long-forgotten book while working at  the Royal Engineers Museum in Chatham, Kent, ten years ago and is now writing her biography.

With his help, The Mail on Sunday has pieced together fragments of Dorothy’s personal and professional life – and can reveal for the first time that her rape allegations were sufficiently compelling to be included in her medical records, held in the London Metropolitan Archives.

‘At the time she was committed her account of the rape was seen as manic behaviour, delusional, but if it was true it might go some way to explaining why she did what she did,’ Simon says.

‘We know today that victims of sexual abuse do not value their own wellbeing – did Dorothy deliberately put herself in danger? If she understood the danger she was in, she did not seem to fear it. Albert in those days was somewhere soldiers tried to avoid – they would even deliberately injure themselves – yet she headed straight for it.’

Simon has, however, been frustrated by the mysteries of Dorothy’s early and later life.

Her adventures in 1915 are clearly told – although he believes they benefit from a bit of spin – but her early years remain an enigma and, as a mental patient, little is known about her from 1925 onwards.

Dorothy resolved to cover the fighting on the Western Front but was ridiculed by editors unable to secure access for seasoned foreign correspondents

He believes she was born in Hendon, North London, at the end of the 1880s to an unmarried mother who used several aliases.

When her mother died, Dorothy – then aged around 13 or 14 – was handed into the care of a churchman. Dorothy describes him as ‘highly respected’ and says she was raised in ‘one of England’s cathedral cities’. Simon has traced this to  South-West England.

By the outbreak of war she was scratching a living as a journalist in London.

She resolved to cover the fighting on the Western Front but was ridiculed by editors unable to secure access for seasoned foreign correspondents.

‘I’ll see what an ordinary English girl can accomplish,’ she wrote.

‘I’ll see whether I can go one better than these big men with their cars, credentials and money .  .  . I’ll be hanged if I don’t try.’

And so she did, befriending the soldiers in Paris – her ‘khaki accomplices’, as she nicknames them – who would enable her to pass herself off as a Tommy. 

After ten days on the front line Dorothy began to suffer fainting fits. She feared that if she were found unconscious her sex would immediately be revealed

Rebecca Nash, curator of the Royal Engineers Museum explains: ‘The sappers’ uniform would have given Dorothy some leeway to move around – tunnellers had a kind of right to roam. They were not subject to the same military strictures as infantry soldiers, for example, and would often turn up without the  commanding officer of an infantry regiment having been informed.  It was the perfect cover.’

What was also perfect was meeting Sapper Tommy Dunn on the road to Albert. Beguiled by Dorothy’s mad bravery, he resolved to protect her, hiding her in an abandoned cottage until 179 Company troop moved up and she was able to camouflage herself among his comrades. What happened next is open to academic debate. Simon Jones is Britain’s foremost expert on the Somme tunnels, and he is not convinced by Dorothy’s account. He reveals: ‘I am sceptical of the passages in the book in which Dorothy talks of tunnelling under the front line, but there is no doubt whatsoever that she was in the trenches and that she was disguised as a man.’

His conviction is backed by Rebecca Nash. It is further corroborated by letters in the Imperial War Museum archive from Sir Walter Kirke, of the British Expeditionary Force’s secret service, which speak of a young female journalist disguised as a man on the front line.

After ten days Dorothy began to suffer fainting  fits. She feared that if she were found unconscious her sex would immediately be revealed, compromising Sapper Dunn and  others harbouring her.

She gave herself up, only to have a fit of  the giggles while being interrogated by the colonel: ‘I really could not help it,’ she wrote. 

Dorothy, who hungered to be a war correspondent, cycled to Albert, the village known as the front of the Front, and joined the ranks of 179 Tunnelling Company, 51st Division, Royal Engineers

‘So utterly ludicrous appeared this betrousered little female, marshalled solemnly by three soldiers and deposited before 20 embarrassed men.’

She was sent down the line to Third Army headquarters and subject to  a quasi court martial by three generals, who had her locked in a local convent until she could be put on a ferry back across the Channel.

Correspondence held by the Harry Ransom Centre in the University of Texas in Austin includes a letter from Dorothy saying she had had to scrap her first book on the instructions of the War Office, which seems to have invoked the 1914 Defence of the Realm Act to silence her. The letter is on the headed notepaper of The Wide World Magazine, a London-based illustrated monthly where Dorothy appears to have worked.

But even with this journalistic break Dorothy was unable to  parlay her experiences and talent into a successful career.

Nor is there any record of her marrying, so when her mental health failed she was incarcerated without argument for the rest of  her life.

It’s only now, as Britain commemorates the centenary of the Great War, that her unique part in it is being officially recognised with a mention in the new gallery at the Imperial War Museum, which will open this summer.

Curator Laura Clouting said: ‘This was a time when there was no provision for women to join any branch of the Services and they weren’t even able to work in munitions factories. Mostly they were involved in charity fundraising or succumbed to knitting mania.

‘We’re including Dorothy Lawrence because she proved the exception to the rule.’

So although she left little trace – no family papers or albums of photographs, and of course, no descendants to celebrate her achievement – 100 years after Dorothy Lawrence became a Sapper on the Somme, her place in history is finally secured.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2537793/She-fought-Somme-disguised-Tommy-did-Dorothy-die-unloved-unlauded-lunatic-asylum-Incredible-story-British-woman-fight-trenches.html#ixzz2qCSFVR6n
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Robert Downey Jr Sings With Sting And Absolutely Kills It

Words for The Wise, Hebrews 2 New American Standard Bible (NASB) Give Heed to Salvation

2 For this reason we must pay much closer attention to ^[a]what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. ² For if the word spoken through angels proved^[b]unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just ^[c]penalty,³ how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? ^[d]After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, ⁴ God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various ^[e]miracles and by^[f]gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.

Earth Subject to Man

⁵ For He did not subject to angels ^[g]the world to come, concerning which we are speaking. ⁶ But one has testified somewhere, saying,

“What is man, that You remember him?
Or the son of man, that You are concerned about him?
⁷ “You have made him ^[h]for a little while lower than the angels;
You have crowned him with glory and honor,
^[i]And have appointed him over the works of Your hands;
⁸ You have put all things in subjection under his feet.”

For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him.

Jesus Briefly Humbled

⁹ But we do see Him who was made ^[j]for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.

¹⁰ For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the ^[k]author of their salvation through sufferings. ¹¹ For both He who sanctifies and those who are ^[l]sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren

, ¹² saying,

“I will proclaim Your name to My brethren,
In the midst of the congregation I will sing Your praise.”

¹³ And again,

“I will put My trust in Him.”

And again,

“Behold, I and the children whom God has given Me.”

¹⁴ Therefore, since the children share in ^[m]flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵ and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. ¹⁶ For assuredly He does not ^[n]give help to angels, but He gives help to the ^[o]descendant of Abraham. ¹⁷ Therefore, He ^[p]had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.¹⁸ For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.

Footnotes:

a.      Hebrews 2:1 Lit the things that have been heard

b.     Hebrews 2:2 Or steadfast

c.      Hebrews 2:2 Or recompense

d.     Hebrews 2:3 Lit Which was

e.     Hebrews 2:4 Or works of power

f.       Hebrews 2:4 Lit distributions

g.     Hebrews 2:5 Lit the inhabited earth

h.     Hebrews 2:7 Or ...him a little lower than...

i.       Hebrews 2:7 Two early mss do not contain And...hands

j.       Hebrews 2:9 Or a little lower

k.     Hebrews 2:10 Or leader

l.       Hebrews 2:11 Or being sanctified

m.  Hebrews 2:14 Lit blood and flesh

n.    Hebrews 2:16 Lit take hold of angels, but He takes hold of

o.    Hebrews 2:16 Lit seed

p.     Hebrews 2:17 Lit was obligated to be

1 Matthew Henry's Commentary

Verses 1-4

The apostle proceeds in the plain profitable method of doctrine, reason, and use, through this epistle. Here we have the application of the truths before asserted and proved; this is brought in by the illative particle therefore, with which this chapter begins, and which shows its connection with the former, where the apostle having proved Christ to be superior to the angels by whose ministry the law was given, and therefore that the gospel dispensation must be more excellent than the legal, he now comes to apply this doctrine both by way of exhortation and argument.

I. By way of exhortation: Therefore we ought to give the more diligent heed to the things which we have heard, Heb. 2:1. This is the first way by which we are to show our esteem of Christ and of the gospel. It is the great concern of every one under the gospel to give the most earnest heed to all gospel discoveries and directions, to prize them highly in his judgment as matters of the greatest importance, to hearken to them diligently in all the opportunities he has for that purpose, to read them frequently, to meditate on them closely, and to mix faith with them. We must embrace them in our hearts and affections, retain them in our memories, and finally regulate our words and actions according to them.

II. By way of argument, he adds strong motives to enforce the exhortation.

1.      From the great loss we shall sustain if we do not take this earnest heed to the things which we have heard: We shall let them slip. They will leak, and run out of our heads, lips, and lives, and we shall be great losers by our neglect. Learn, (1.) When we have received gospel truths into our minds, we are in danger of letting them slip. Our minds and memories are like a leaky vessel, they do not without much care retain what is poured into them; this proceeds from the corruption of our natures, the enmity and subtlety of Satan (he steals away the word), from the entanglements and snares of the world, the thorns that choke the good seed. (2.) Those meet with an inconceivable loss who let gospel truths, which they had received, slip out of their minds; they have lost a treasure far better than thousands of gold and silver; the seed is lost, their time and pains in hearing lost, and their hopes of a good harvest lost; all is lost, if the gospel be lost. (3.) This consideration should be a strong motive both to our attention to the gospel and our retention of it; and indeed, if we do not well attend, we shall not long retain the word of God; inattentive hearers will soon be forgetful hearers.

2.    Dictionary of Bible Themes

1444 revelation, in NT

The NT fulfils and completes the revelation of God which began in the OT. Jesus Christ is the central focus of this self-revelation of God.

The unity and progress of revelation

The unity of OT and NT Mt 5:17-18 See also Ro 3:21-22; 2Ti 3:14-15; 2Pe 3:15-16 The writings of Paul are presented as having equal status with the OT Scriptures; Rev 22:18-19 These sanctions have the same force as those of Dt 4:2; 12:32.

The progress of NT revelation Heb 1:1-2 See alsoHeb 2:1-4; Heb 12:22-27

The NT fulfils and completes God’s revelation of himself

Jesus Christ is the supreme revelation of God Col 1:25-27 See also Jn 1:9-18; Jn 14:6; Ac 4:12; Gal 4:4; Php 2:6-8; Heb 2:14

Jesus Christ is the image of God 2Co 4:4; Col 1:15

Jesus Christ has the nature of God Php 2:6

Jesus Christ is the exact representation of GodHeb 1:3

Jesus Christ is the incarnate Word of God Jn 1:14

The role of the Holy Spirit in revelation

He is the divine agent of revelation Jn 16:12-15 See also Jn 14:16-17; Jn 15:26; 1Jn 4:6; 1Jn 5:6; Rev 2:7,11,17,29; Rev 3:6,13,22

He is the source of revelatory manifestations 1Co 12:7-11 See also Ac 2:1-12; Ro 12:6; 1Co 12:28-30;1Co 13:8-12; 1Co 14:1-33; Eph 4:11

God’s purposes in revelation

To reveal himself in Jesus Christ Col 1:15-20 See also Jn 1:14; Jn 12:44-45; Jn 14:9; 2Co 4:4; Heb 1:3

To reveal his plan through Jesus Christ Eph 1:9-10See also Ro 16:25-27; 1Co 2:7-10; Eph 3:3-11; Col 1:19-20

Fanny J Crosby’s Great Hymn

Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it!
Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb;
Redeemed through His infinite mercy,
His child and forever I am.

Refrain

Redeemed, redeemed,
Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb;
Redeemed, redeemed,
His child and forever I am.

Redeemed, and so happy in Jesus,
No language my rapture can tell;
I know that the light of His presence
With me doth continually dwell.

Refrain

I think of my blessèd Redeemer,
I think of Him all the day long:
I sing, for I cannot be silent;
His love is the theme of my song.

Refrain

I know there’s a crown that is waiting,
In yonder bright mansion for me,
And soon, with the spirits made perfect,
At home with the Lord I shall be.

Refrain

Yours by His Grace

Blair Humphreys

Southport.Merseyside

January 12th 2014

Whom Shall I Fear [God of Angel Armies] [Lyrics]

The lions were not led by donkeys

The lions were not led by donkeys