Firstly, before 2:3, where “so great a salvation” is mentioned, Hebrews reveals how Christ is the Son of God, even God Himself. Then after 2:3, in order to show us that the salvation we have in Christ is great, this book continues by showing us how He is also the Son of Man, a real man. The salvation we have in Christ is not merely some matters, such as forgiveness of sins, justification, reconciliation, redemption, regeneration, etc., but also a wonderful, unlimited Person who is both God in eternity and man in time. It is such a marvelous Person who makes His salvation “so great.”
Christ is the very God and He is also a real man (2:6). Although I was saved for years, I was not clear that my Savior was both God and man. I only knew that He was the Son of God. I was not even clear that He was God, much less that He was also man. Our Lord Jesus is both God and man.
Some Christians, even some Christian workers, have argued that Christ died as a man, but that after He was resurrected and ascended to the heavens He was no longer a man. They claim that the Jesus in the heavens is no longer a man. According to this concept, when Jesus was resurrected, He stripped off His humanity. Because such arguments were directed against me, I purposely wrote the hymn that contains the lines,
Lo! In heaven Jesus sitting,
Christ the Lord is there enthroned;
As the man by God exalted,
With God’s glory he is crowned.
In reply to these arguments, I asked, “If Jesus in the heavens is no longer the Son of Man, how could Stephen have seen Him as the Son of Man?” (Acts 7:56). Furthermore, Matthew 26:64 shows us that He is the Son of Man now sitting in the heavens and coming back in the future. Moreover, Revelation tells us that He is the Son of Man among the local churches (1:13) and that He will return as the Son of Man (14:14). Hence, 1 Timothy 2:5, written after His ascension, still calls Him “the man Christ Jesus.” Our Savior is a man. Although He is resurrected, Jesus is still a man, a resurrected man, an uplifted man, a man who, in ascension, is on the throne in the heavens. Jesus is qualified to be our Savior because He is both God and man. This is why His salvation is “so great”—great not only in the element of God but also in the element of man. All the divine attributes and all the human virtues are the ingredients of “so great a salvation.” In this “so great a salvation” we enjoy the fullness of the Godhead and the uplifted humanity of the man Jesus. In this “so great a salvation” we possess both the divine nature and the human nature of Christ. With what wonderful elements is this “so great a salvation” composed! No human words can utter it adequately. No wonder that the writer says that it is “so great”!
Now we come to the Captain of salvation (2:10). In order to be saved from hell, we do not need a captain, but if we are to enter into glory, into the good land of rest, we need the Captain. God’s salvation is not merely to rescue us from hell and to put us into heaven. His salvation is to save us from all negative things and to bring us into glory, into a glorious rest. As we shall see shortly, this kind of salvation is not an overnight matter; it is a lifelong process. We need to follow our Captain throughout our entire life.
The children of Israel came out of Egypt in one night. It was truly an overnight matter. However, in order for them to enter the good land of rest, they needed to follow their captain. At the beginning they followed Moses and later they followed Joshua. They had a captain for their salvation. After they crossed the Red Sea, they surely were saved, but they were saved to a very small degree. They had gone only a small part of the way and needed to follow their captain all the rest of the way. They had such a captain of salvation.
A captain not only denotes a leader but also a fighter. A captain is a leader who not only cuts the way and paves the way but who also fights the way. If you read your Bible carefully, you will see that from the time when the children of Israel left Egypt until the time when they entered the good land, they were fighting all the way. This is the reason that they were called the hosts (armies) of the Lord (Exo. 12:41). They fought their way into the good land. They needed a captain to lead them on by fighting on. Their going on was a matter of fighting on. Thus, they were formed and trained as a holy army. Wherever they went, they fought. Since there was no thoroughfare, they had to fight their way through.
Likewise, since the day we were saved, forgiven, justified, and reborn, a fight has been going on. In a sense, we in the Lord’s recovery are an army that is fighting its way through. There is no way for us to take but the way of fighting. We all must fight the battle under the Captain. Jesus our Savior is a fighting Captain. He is fighting and we must follow Him, fighting every inch of the way. Christ is the Captain of salvation. If we did not have such a Captain included in our salvation, our salvation would not be so great. The “so great a salvation” not only includes Christ as the Son of God, as God, and as the Son of Man, as man, but also as the Captain of salvation who takes the lead and fights on that we might follow Him into glory. The Captain of salvation is a factor that makes our salvation “so great.”