Hebrews 2:10-18
For it became God . . . to make the Captain of our salvation perfect through sufferings (v. 10). "It pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief", Isaiah says in another place (Isaiah 53:10). And for what purpose? In order to bring many sons to glory! "When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin . . . he shall see of the travail of his soul", the prophet also adds. These children whom God has given to Christ to be His companions in glory are His dear redeemed ones. "He is not ashamed to call them brethren" (v. 11). But in order to be able to take up their cause, He had to be made like them, to become a true Man (v. 14). Our chapter gives us several priceless reasons for this great mystery: the Lord Jesus entered into our nature in order to glorify God and to allow Him to fulfil His purposes regarding man; He took a body to be able to die and so win the victory over the prince of death in his own fortress; finally, the Lord Jesus put on our humanity to enter more perfectly into our afflictions and to understand them with a human heart. His own experience of suffering enables Him to sympathise fully with our trials as a faithful and merciful High Priest. What comfort for all who are afflicted!