Continuing the discussion of salvation, the Messiah, and angels, the author of the letter draws attention to an essentially important point in this regard. He speaks of the Messiah as a Human Being who can help people precisely because...
Continuing the discussion of salvation, the Messiah, and angels, the author of the letter draws attention to an essentially important point in this regard. He speaks of the Messiah as a Human Being who can help people precisely because He Himself is human.
The world of angels is remarkable in its own way, and angels surpass people in their present condition because they did not fall, speaking, of course, about the angels who kept faithfulness to God and not about fallen spirits. Yet for all that, angels and people belong, in a certain sense, to different layers of reality. Angels and people were created differently from the beginning; their interaction was conceived by God from the very beginning as the interaction of beings that are spiritual, but each existing in its own way and in forms belonging only to it.
An angel can bring God's message to a person, for the Greek word "angel," like the corresponding Hebrew word, properly means "messenger." But he cannot help a person in the condition in which the person found himself after the fall. He cannot, in particular, because a person is a being at once spiritual and natural, in whom both components are united in a completely special way, unrepeatable either in the spiritual or in the natural world.
Of course, one cannot exclude in principle the appearance in the world of God's fullness contained within the bounds of angelic nature, insofar as one can speak of nature with regard to angels. All things are possible for God. But for a person such fullness would still remain inaccessible. It might perhaps be perceived by him somehow, but in any case it would remain separated from him in such a way that the person could never become at home in the Kingdom, could never become its true inhabitant. Only another Human Being could do this for a person: a Human Being who contained in Himself God's fullness and at the same time was absolutely "one of his own" by nature for every person.
So much "one of his own" that even the possibility of death was quite real for Him, whereas for an angel death in the human sense of the word is impossible in principle. And the Messiah became exactly such a "one of his own" for everyone, differing from fallen people only in the uncorruptedness of His human nature. But this "only" is precisely what made it possible for Him to contain God's fullness and unite it with His humanity. And therefore it made salvation possible as well, opening the road to the Kingdom for those who seek it.
2 In this and the two following chapters the apostle sub - joins an exhortation, answering each head of the preceding chapter.
2:17 Wherefore it behoved him - It was highly fit and proper, yea, necessary, in order to his design of redeeming them. To be made in all things - That essentially pertain to human nature, and in all sufferings and temptations. Like his brethren - This is a recapitulation of all that goes before: the sum of all that follows is added immediately. That he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest - Merciful toward sinners; faithful toward God. A priest or high priest is one who has a right of approaching God, and of bringing others to him.
In things pertaining to God, to expiate the sins of the people - Offering up their sacrifices and prayers to God; deriving God'sgrace, peace, and blessings upon them.