Our God has established a great corporation, a great business. The purpose of this corporation is to accomplish one thing: to lead many sons into glory (2:10). God’s corporation is a corporation of glory. It does not make money; it makes glory.
In order to lead many sons into glory, God had to have a suitable environment. So, He created the heavens, the earth, and all things. All things are for God to accomplish His glory business.
All things which God created for the accomplishing of His glory business are existing through God. It is God who maintains all things in the universe that they may serve the purpose of accomplishing His glory business.
All things are for and through God. Among the all things are the many sons of God who are the center of God’s creation. All things are for the many sons of God because God’s corporation is to bring His many sons into glory. This requires much fighting. This is why the Firstborn Son of God is the Captain of His many sons’ salvation.
God’s goal is to bring His many sons into glory. His Firstborn Son, the Lord Jesus, as the Pioneer, has fought into this glory. Now He is the Captain of God’s many sons’ salvation leading them into His glory by fighting. We, the many sons of God, are now on the way, fighting into the glory which God ordained for us.
In order to accomplish His purpose of bringing many sons into glory, God had to have an example, a model. Such a one could be the qualified Captain taking the lead to bring the many sons into glory. Jesus is this Captain. Before Jesus became the Captain, however, He had to be perfected through sufferings (2:10). When I read the Bible as a young man, I was bothered by the verse in Hebrews 2 which says that Jesus needed to be perfected. On the one hand, I knew that Jesus was perfect. On the other hand, 2:10 says that He had to be perfected. So it seemed to me that Jesus was not perfect. But He truly was perfect. Although He was perfect before His incarnation, He did not have the experience of human suffering. He had to be perfected through suffering before He could become the Captain of salvation. The word perfect in 2:10 means to carry to the end or consummation by completing or perfecting. To be perfect here actually means to be qualified. Before His incarnation, Jesus was not qualified to be the Captain of salvation. In order to be qualified for this office, He had to experience human suffering. Thus, to make Jesus perfect does not imply any imperfection of virtue or attribute in Jesus, but only the completing of His experience of human sufferings which makes Him fit to become the Captain, the Leader, of His followers’ salvation. Since Jesus had passed through all the human suffering, He has been perfected, qualified, to fill this office. He is qualified to bring the many sons of God into the region of glory which He has already entered as the Pioneer.
Why did the writer of Hebrews mention suffering? Because at the time this Epistle was written the Hebrew Christians were suffering (10:32-35). They were being persecuted. In a sense, their suffering was not good, for they were very troubled by it. In another sense, however, that suffering was the process which was helping them to enter into glory. The writer was telling them that the Lord Jesus, as the Captain of salvation, had gone ahead of them that He might help them cross the waters of suffering and enter into glory. This was the writer’s concept. This concept is deep. The writer seemed to be telling the Hebrew believers, “Hebrew brothers and sisters, you must realize that our Jesus is the real Joshua. He took the lead to cross the Jordan River. Don’t miss Him. Look unto Him and follow His steps. He has passed through all the sufferings and has entered into glory. He is our Pioneer, our Forerunner. He has gone before us to cut the way into glory. The way has been paved and all you need to do is follow Him. Do not be troubled by your sufferings. You should be comforted. All the sufferings are helping you along the highway of Zion.” Jesus truly was their Captain of salvation. Now we understand the meaning of this term.
Since Jesus has been perfected through His experience of human sufferings in the flesh, He is qualified to fulfill the office of the Captain of our salvation. He has become the Pioneer, the Leader, and the Captain. He has cut the way into glory, He has taken the lead to enter into glory, and He is now the Captain bringing His followers into glory.
Our salvation is “so great a salvation.” This salvation is very deep. It is not only a matter of saving us from our fallen state, but of bringing us into glory. We are not going to be kidnapped into glory; we shall be saved into glory through the way of suffering.
Let me say a word of comfort to you all. The more we follow Christ in His way, the more we must be prepared to experience sufferings. Sufferings are good. They are a great help. We need to kiss the sufferings and appreciate them. We need to thank the Lord for our sufferings because all the sufferings are our helpers. Sooner or later you will say, “Sufferings, you have been my dear helpers. I owe very much to you. When I was passing through you, I didn’t like you because then I didn’t know how great a help you really were to me. Thank you for what you have done.” The more we Christians pray and love the Lord, the more problems we may have. According to our experiences, we can realize that many problems are precisely measured out. They are neither too long nor too short. And they all seem to come at just the right time. As we look back upon our experiences, we see how good it was that certain things happened when they did. Do not be bothered by your problems. Whatever happens to you, just say, “Praise the Lord. This is the process of getting into glory.” Look at our Captain. He is pioneering; He is fighting. Let us follow Him. He is not leading us into some objective glory, but into that very glory which has been sown into our inner being. The glory that has been sown into us as a seed will be developed into the glory which we are going to enter. May the Spirit speak to us more about this matter of entering into glory.
If you compare what we have said about glory in this message with the definition of it found in Romans 8:17-18, 21, you will see that they are the same. To be glorified is not to be kidnapped into a region of shining brightness. The glory into which we shall enter is the glory of the divine element that has been sown into us. We are not entering into this glory on our own but with the Captain who has pioneered the way, who has entered into glory, and is now leading us into glory. Once again, we see that we are the real river crossers. We are crossing the river to enter into glory.