Heb 2:4-9 “We Ought to Give the More Earnest Heed” – Part 2

[Study Aired June 4, 2020}

Heb 2:4  God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will? 
Heb 2:5  For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. 
Heb 2:6  But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? 
Heb 2:7  Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands:
Heb 2:8  Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. 
Heb 2:9  But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

God is bearing witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles (1Co 12:4-27) and gifts of the Holy Ghost (1Pe 4:10-13, Rev 19:7), “according to his own will“, according to the counsel of His own will (Eph 1:11), giving those gifts to those who were predestined to overcome in this age.

Eph 1:4  According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

That overcoming in the life of the elect needed to be preceded  by Jesus who “by the grace of God should taste death for every man”, and now we are tasting death as He did (1Jn 4:17). We are “fill[ing] up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church” as we die daily together as the many-membered one body of Christ (Col 1:24). We are raised in earnest together today (Eph 2:6) and will be raised to the fullness of that glory as Christ was in a moment and in the twinkling of an eye (1Th 4:16-17).

It is because God is mindful of His elect today, the apple of His eye toward whom He is being rich in mercy today, for his great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, that we can be quickened together with Christ (Rom 5:5; by grace ye are saved – Eph 2:5, 8) as He has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph 2:4-6).

These divers “gifts…administrations” and “operations” from God spoken of in 1 Corinthians 12:4-10 are miraculous, and they detail for us how the manifold wisdom of God is made manifest and known through the church (Eph 3:10). These divers “gifts…administrations” and “operations” from God are given so we can learn to “give the more earnest heed” in this life as we ought!

1Co 12:4  Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
1Co 12:5  And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. [2Co 3:17, Jas 1:17]
1Co 12:6  And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
1Co 12:7  But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
1Co 12:8  For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
1Co 12:9  To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
1Co 12:10  To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:
1Co 12:11  But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will [Eph 1:11].

1Co 12:12  For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ [the Christ].
1Co 12:13  For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
1Co 12:14  For the body is not one member, but many.
1Co 12:15  If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
1Co 12:16  And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
1Co 12:17  If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
1Co 12:18  But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.
1Co 12:19  And if they were all one member, where were the body?
1Co 12:20  But now are they many members, yet but one body.
1Co 12:21  And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
1Co 12:22  Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary:
1Co 12:23  And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.
1Co 12:24  For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked:
1Co 12:25  That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.
1Co 12:26  And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.
1Co 12:27  Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

1Pe 4:10  As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God [Eph 3:10].
1Pe 4:11  If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen [“give honour to him“].
1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:13  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

Rev 19:7  Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

The context of rejoicing spoken of in 1 Peter 4:13 is this: “inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings” because it takes that communion of the body and blood of Christ (1Co 10:16), that trying of our faith, that suffering, along with all the gifts given being of the selfsame spirit to make us a unified and healthy body of Christ “from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love” (Eph 4:16).

1Co 10:16  The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?

We can overcome when God gives us the power to do so (Zec 4:6, 1Co 3:6), as we’re strengthened to continue to endure the suffering, the persecutions and the false accusations (Mat 5:11-13) we are experiencing with the people of God through a process more valuable than all the riches of this world (Heb 11:26-27, Php 3:8-9). With minds that are armed with the suffering of Christ (1Pe 4:1-2), and knowing there is nothing that can separate us from His love, and that there is nothing to be compared to what God has set before those who love him in this age (Rom 8:35-39, 1Co 2:9), we have every reason to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, trusting that God will finish what He has started in us through Christ as we look to the joy that has been set before us (Heb 12:1-2) so that we don’t grow weary in well doing. In due season, as God’s kind of first fruits who have their season, we will reap if we faint not (Php 1:6, Gal 6:9).Where no vision is, people perish, and so it is by looking to Christ in all things we will gain that vision so we don’t grow weary in well doing, and don’t forsake the assembling of ourselves together where God provides that vision through the body of Christ (Pro 29:18).

Mat 5:11  Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
Mat 5:12  Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
Mat 5:13  Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

Php 3:8  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, [Mat 19:27  Christ’s answer to Peter (Mat 19:28-30) is predicated on being “found in him, not having mine own righteousness” of Phillipians 3:9].
Php 3:9  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

Heb 11:26  Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward [Mat 19:28-30].
Heb 11:27  By faith [1Jn 5:4] he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

1Pe 4:1  Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; [Col 1:24]
1Pe 4:2  That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men [“which is of the law” (Php 3:9], but to the will of God [“which is through the faith of Christ” (Php 3:9)].

Rom 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? [No, these things actually approve us in the Lord and make it possible for His power to rest upon us. (2Co 12:9, Jas 4:6)]
Rom 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. [These are the very things God uses to bring about the dying daily, killed all the day long process “tribulation,  distress, persecution, famine,  nakedness,  peril, and sword”]
Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Php 1:6  Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

Gal 6:9  And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
Gal 6:10  As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

Last week we looked at how, “We ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.” This week we will focus on how that will be made possible through Jesus Christ and His body which is a living sacrifice for the very purpose of taking care of one another as we bear each other’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ, “till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”

Gal 6:2  Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

Eph 4:13  Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

Heb 2:4  God also bearing them witness^G4901, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will? 

This word “bearing them witness G4901″ is accompanied with “both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will” that is being accomplished through the church, through the witness of Christ in his body which is the church.

Luk 24:48  And ye are witnesses of these things.

Rev 11:3  And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

The manifold knowledge which produces faith for the hearer (Eph 3:10, Rom 10:17) is then tried in the fire as God gives this increase that matures His children (1Pe 1:7), the bride of Christ, through a process that the many joints are experiencing together and contributing together (1Pe 4:12-13, 1Co 12:26, Eph 4:16), as we grow in grace and in knowledge of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ (Eph 2:8-9, 2Pe 3:18). As we grow we are bearing one another’s burdens through this communion of the body and blood of Christ with the saints of God (1Co 10:16).

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you [happened unto you alone]:
1Pe 4:13  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

1Co 12:26  And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.

G4901 sunepimartureō soon-ep-ee-mar-too-reh’-o
From G4862 and G1957; to testify further jointly, that is, unite in adding evidence: – also bear witness.

G4862 sun soon
A primary preposition denoting union; with or together (but much closer than G3326 or G3844), that is, by association, companionship, process, resemblance, possession, instrumentality, addition, etc.: – beside, with. In compounds it has similar applications, including completeness.

G1957 epimartureō ep-ee-mar-too-reh’-o
From G1909 and G3140; to attest further, that is, corroborate: – testify.

Heb 2:5  For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. 
Heb 2:6  But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? 

The world to come is not put in subjection to the angels that minister (Heb 1:14) to those who are subject to one another as unto Christ (Eph 5:21). That blessing is first reserved for Christ and His Christ (1Co 15:23, 1Co 15:27-28). Christ was that first angel who was subject unto His Father in all things, and now we are learning through our high priest to be subject unto Christ and his body in all things, and that is being accomplished through the grace and faith that is ministered with the aforementioned, “signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost.”

Heb 1:14  Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?

Eph 5:21  Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

1Co 15:27  For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.
1Co 15:28  And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

We are as Christ (1Jn 4:17) and blessed and honoured and highly favored to receive these gifts today, the “signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost” that create the unity in the body of Christ and demonstrate who that manchild of God is (Mat 2:11). When God is mindful of man, He is mindful through the mind of Christ from whence comes every good and perfect gift from above “and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (Jas 1:17). The gifts given to the child of Matthew 2:11 were under the care of Mary and Joseph and represent the spiritual life this child of God is going to one day be able to give to the body of Christ, the “signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost.” It is those three gifts of “gold, and frankincense, and myrrh” that represent the process of judgment upon our old man and remind us why Mary, who represents the church, was so highly favored to have borne this savior for our sakes and to have been pierced in her heart, as we all are being, so that “the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” through the church of which Mary is a type that must be judged in this age (Luk 2:35, 1Pe 4:17).

When we are visited of God (“that thou visitest him“), we are being judged of Him (Luk 19:42) and healed by His word that is likened unto living waters (Joh 7:37). Visited of God in this age means being first to be dragged to Christ by the Father (Joh 6:44) and given this thirst for the living waters that spiritually quench us in this age (Joh 6:55), to the end that we can be sent forth as Christ was to bring those same living waters to a world that has no stay of bread or water in it (Joh 20:21, Isa 3:1).

Heb 2:7  Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: 
Heb 2:8  Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him.
Heb 2:9  But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

This section of Hebrews explains to us how God made His strength perfect through Christ in a weak body of carnal flesh that was subject to all the same pulls of the flesh that you and I are (Heb 4:15-16).

Heb 4:15  For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Heb 4:16  Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Before Christ was crowned “with glory and honour“, before He “didst set him over the works of thy hands” in the fullness of that event, which is an unfolding event, Christ, by God’s decree, was made “a little lower than the angels” for our sakes so He could identify with our lowly position in this same corruptible ‘dying you shall die’ flesh (Gen 2:17 LITV).

Ultimately God tells us in these verses of Hebrews 2:7-9 that there is a process through which Christ and His body have to experience in order to see all things brought into subjection onto him, and unto us (1Jn 4:17). Christ is establishing that reality through the church, through the “gifts” “administrations” and “operations” spoken of in 1 Corinthians 12:4-27 so that “the works of thy hands” God the Father has given Christ to rule over as His workmanship can one day be brought into subjection to God who will be “all in all”:  “But now we see not yet all things put under him” (1Co 15:28).

Again in verse nine it is repeated — “we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death” — to demonstrate this important point that witnesses to us all who Christ is for us today, and how Christ is doing this work within us both to will and to do of our Father’s good pleasure (Php 2:13), just as it was God’s good pleasure to do the works he did in Christ’s life when he was on the earth (Luk 12:32, Joh 5:30, Joh 15:5). The witness is simply this: that with Christ in us as our hope of glory, we can die daily and taste death for every man as Christ himself did (1Co 15:31).

We are God’s workmanship (Eph 2:10), and it is His good pleasure to give us the kingdom of God (Luk 12:32) both in the age to come as well as now in earnest, where we have this treasure in earthen vessels (2Co 4:7) even as we are saved by that hope of glory within us (Col 1:27, Rom 8:24) which bears witness within us (Rom 8:16) that God can and will finish what He has started in each and every one of us who was predestined to be His workmanship in this age (Php 1:6), all to the glory of our Great God as He accomplishes these things and gives the increase via the “gifts” “administrations” and “operations” of 1 Corinthians 12:4-27 through the church (Eph 3:10).

If we are granted to “taste death for every man” as Christ did by dying daily in this age, it will be by the gift of faith God gives us so we can believe. Through the strength of Christ, who is the author and finisher of that faith, we can endure until the end all the suffering that is also on behalf of this blessed and holy relationship we have with our Father, Jesus Christ and His body.

Php 4:13  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Php 1:29  For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;

Next week we will look at these next few verses of this rich section of Hebrews which looks more closely at the captain of our salvation who was made perfect through suffering and how He overcame the devil who had the power of death and is doing the same thing for us today as the body of Christ.

Heb 2:10  For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
Heb 2:11  For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
Heb 2:12  Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee.
Heb 2:13  And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me.
Heb 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 
Heb 2:15  And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.