Hebrews 2:17 says, “Hence He should have been made like His brothers in all things that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in the things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” The Son of God was made like us, His brothers, in that He partook of blood and flesh (v. 14). This was done for two purposes, one negative and the other positive. The negative purpose was to destroy for us the devil, who is in the flesh. The positive purpose is to be our merciful and faithful High Priest who has the human nature, that He may sympathize with us in all things.
The Lord was made like His brothers in all things in order that He might sympathize with them. It is a matter of sympathy that Christ shared in our nature, partaking of blood and flesh. He is the firstborn Son of God, and we are His many brothers. Yet we all are weak and fragile in the flesh, so He became a man in the flesh, the same as we are. Because we are weak and fragile, we need Him to sympathize with us. The Lord’s sympathizing with us is an aspect of His incarnation.
As the High Priest, Christ ministers God Himself and the riches of the divine life to us. As the God-man, He is fully qualified to be our High Priest. The first two chapters of Hebrews mainly cover two points—that Christ is the Son of God, God Himself, and the Son of Man, man Himself. Merciful corresponds with His being a man, and faithful corresponds with His being God.
Being merciful corresponds with the matter of Christ’s being a man. He became a man and lived on earth as a man passing through all the human sufferings. As a result, He is fully qualified to be merciful to us. He knows how to be merciful to man. He is a man with the experiences of human life, with the experiences of human suffering.
He was incarnated to be like us (vv. 14, 17). We may even say that He is more than like us, for He suffered in His human life some things that we have not suffered. In order to be qualified to be a merciful High Priest, He became like us, sympathizing with all of our weaknesses.
If we would be faithful, we not only need virtue but also the ability to keep our word. Christ as the High Priest is the faithful God. God is faithful (10:23). He is able to fulfill whatever He says. God never lies (6:18). Whatever He has spoken He is able to fulfill; He has every means to fulfill what He has spoken. Only God can be fully faithful. None of us can be completely faithful. In contrast, nothing can frustrate God from fulfilling His word. Jesus can be a faithful High Priest because He is the almighty God. Since He, as the Son of God, is God Himself, He is able to be faithful. Although, as the many sons of God and as the many brothers of the Firstborn, we are divine as well as human, we are not almighty. We are human in our human nature and divine in His divine nature, but we are not almighty in His deity. Since He is the almighty God, He can be faithful to us.
Christ can be a merciful and faithful High Priest because He is the Son of Man with the human nature and the Son of God with the divine nature. He is fully qualified. Our High Priest, Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Man, is both merciful and faithful because He is both God and man.
In His death Christ made propitiation for the sins of God’s people (2:17). The Greek word for propitiation here is hilaskomai which means to appease, to reconcile one by satisfying the other’s demand, that is, to propitiate. The Lord Jesus made propitiation for our sins to reconcile us to God by satisfying God’s righteous demands on us. Thus, He has appeased God for us.
Jesus made propitiation for our sins, thereby satisfying the demand of God’s righteousness and appeasing the relationship between God and us, that God may be peacefully gracious to us. He has settled every problem between us and God. Since we create problems between us and God, all of which need to be solved, every day we need to enjoy Christ as the propitiatory sacrifice, which appeases God for our situation.
He has made purification of sins (1:3). Thus, we should be at peace. Our sins have been purified. Although we must hate our sins, we need not be bothered by them. Christ has purified us of our sins once for all (7:27).
The first two chapters of Hebrews reveal that Christ as the Son of God, God Himself, through His incarnation, ascension, and glorification made Himself the same as we are and made us the same as He is. We are human, and He made Himself human. He is divine, and He made us to have the divine life and nature. Since He is such a man, and at the same time God Himself, He is superior to the angels. In chapter 1 Christ is God, and in chapter 2 He is man. He is the God-man, the mingling of God and man.
Chapter 1 of Hebrews reveals that Christ is the Son of God coming to speak, declare, and express God. As such a One He is superior to the angels. In chapter 2 He is the Son of Man going to be the Lord, the Christ, the Captain, and the Savior. His being our Lord, Christ, Captain, and Savior is not based mainly upon His divinity but upon His humanity. This is a very practical matter. It is because He is a man that He is the Lord, Christ, Captain, and Savior. Angels, who do not have humanity, can never be our Lord, Christ, Captain, and Savior. Only Christ in His humanity can be such a One to us. Furthermore, this humanity is not a natural humanity; it is a resurrected, uplifted, and ascended humanity, a humanity that is crowned with God’s glory and honor.
At this point it would be helpful to consider certain contrasts between Hebrews 1 and 2 in the way they reveal Christ for our experience and enjoyment. In chapter 1 Christ is the Son of God, but in chapter 2 He is the Son of Man (1:2, 5; 2:6). Chapter 1 also tells us that Christ is in the heavens, but chapter 2 says that He is on the earth (1:3, 13; 2:9, 14). In chapter 1 Christ is on the throne, but in chapter 2 He is in the church (1:3; 2:12). Chapter 1 says that Christ is at the right hand of God, but chapter 2 says that Christ is with the children whom God has given to Him (1:3; 2:13). In chapter 1 Christ is the One whom the angels of God worship, but in chapter 2 He is the One who praises God (1:6; 2:12). Finally, in chapter 1 Christ is the One in whom people trust, but in chapter 2 He is the One who is trusting (1:10-12; 2:13).