Hebrews 2:15

And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. FEAR OF DEATH - even before they experienced its power. ALL THEIR LIFETIME. Such a life can hardly be called life. SUBJECT TO BONDAGE, [ enochoi (G1777) douleias (G1397)] - 'subjects of bondage:' not merely liable to, but enthralled in it (cf. Romans 8:15; Galatians 5:1). Contrast the glory of the "sons" (Hebrews 2:10). Christ, by delivering us from God's curse against our sin, has taken from dea...

15._And deliver them who, etc. _This passage expresses in a striking manner how miserable is the life of those who fear death, as they must feel it to be dreadful, because they look on it apart from Christ; for then nothing but a curse appears in it: for whence is death but from God’s wrath against sin? Hence is that bondage throughout life, even perpetual anxiety, by which unhappy souls are tormented; for through a consciousness of sin the judgment of God is ever presented to the view. From this fear Christ has delivered us, who by undergoing our curse has taken away what is dreadful in death. For though we are not now freed from death, yet in life and in death we have peace and safety, when we have Christ going before us. (48) But it any one cannot pacify his mind by disregarding death, let him know that he has made as yet but very little proficiency in the faith of Christ; for as extr...

14-18 The angels fell, and remained without hope or help. Christ never designed to be the Saviour of the fallen angels, therefore he did not take their nature; and the nature of angels could not be an atoning sacrifice for the sin of man. Here is a price paid, enough for all, and suitable to all, for it was in our nature. Here the wonderful love of God appeared, that, when Christ knew what he must suffer in our nature, and how he must die in it, yet he readily took it upon him. And this atonement made way for his people's deliverance from Satan's bondage, and for the pardon of their sins through faith. Let those who dread death, and strive to get the better of their terrors, no longer attempt to outbrave or to stifle them, no longer grow careless or wicked through despair. Let them not expect help from the world, or human devices; but let them seek pardon, peace, grace, and a lively hop...

Verse 15. _AND DELIVER THEM WHO THROUGH FEAR OF DEATH_] It is very likely that the apostle has the Gentiles here principally in view. As _they_ had no _revelation_, and no certainty of _immortality,_ they were continually in bondage to the fear of death. They preferred _life_ in any state, with the most grievous evils, to _death_, because they had no hope beyond the grave. But it is also true that all men naturally fear death; even those that have the fullest persuasion and certainty of a future state dread it: genuine Christians, who know that, if the earthly house of their tabernacle were dissolved, they have a house not made with hands, a building framed of God, eternal in the heavens, only _they_ fear it not. In the assurance they have of God's love, the fear of death is removed; and by the purification of their hearts through faith, the sting of death is extracted. The people who k...

AND DELIVER THEM - Not all of them “in fact,” though the way is open for all. This deliverance relates: (1) To the dread of death. He came to free them from that. (2) From death itself - that is, ultimately to bring them to a world where death shall be unknown. The dread of death may be removed by the work of Christ, and they who had been subject to constant alarms on account of it may be brought to look on it with calmness and peace; and ultimately they will be brought to a world where it will be wholly unknown. The dread of death is taken away, or they are delivered from that, because: (a)The cause of that dread - to wit, sin, is removed; see the notes at 1 Corinthians 15:

EXPOSITION HEBREWS 2:1 INTERPOSED EXHORTATION as explained above. HEBREWS 2:1 ON THIS ACCOUNT (_i.e. _on account of what has been seen of the SON'S superiority to the angels) WE OUGHT (or, _we are bound_)_ _MORE ABUNDANTLY TO GIVE HEED TO THE THINGS THAT WE HAVE HEARD (_i.e. _the gospel that has been preached to us in the Son), LEST AT ANY TIME (or, _lest haply_)_ _WE LET THEM SLIP (rather, _float past them_)_. _The word παραρρυῶμεν (aorist subjunctive from παραρρέω)_ _denotes flowing or floating past anything. The allusion is to the danger, inci

AND DELIVER THEM, WHO THROUGH FEAR OF DEATH,.... This is another end of Christ's assuming human nature, and dying in it, and thereby destroying Satan, that he might save some out of his hands: [WHO] WERE ALL THEIR LIFETIME SUBJECT TO BONDAGE; meaning chiefly God's elect among the Jews; for though all men are in a state of bondage to the lusts of the flesh, and are Satan's captives; yet this describes more particularly the state of the Jews, under the law of Moses, which gendered unto bondage; which they being guilty of the breach of, and seeing the danger they were exposed to on that account, were subject, bound, and held fast in and under a spirit of bondage: and that "through fear of death"; through fear of a corporeal death; through fear of chastisements and afflictions, the forerunners of death, and what sometimes bring it on; and through fear of death itself, as a disunion of soul...

Hebrews 2:1. _Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip._ We have heard them; do not let us forget them. Let them not be like the driftwood which goes floating down the stream. Let us make a desperate effort to retain them in our memories; and, above all, to ponder them in our hearts. Hebrews 2:2. _For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation;_ They could not trifle with the angels' message without receiving just punishment from God. Much less, then, can we trifle with Christ's gospel. We have not an angelic saviour; but God himself, in the person of his So

II. CHRIST, SON OF MAN, HIS GLORY AND HIS SALVATION CHAPTER 2:5-18 _ 1. The Man crowned with glory and honor (Hebrews 2:5)_ 2. His humiliation, suffering and the results (Hebrews 2:10) Hebrews 2:5 Angels are once more mentioned and the fact is stated first of all that angels are not called of God to reign: “Unto the angels hath He not put in subjection, the world to come whereof we speak.” “The world to come” is not heaven or the eternal state. The literal translation is “the habitable world to come”; it is the existing earth, inhabited by human beings in the dispensation which will follow the present age. The world in the dispensation to come, called in Ephesians “the dispensation of the f

HEBREWS 1:5 TO HEBREWS 2:18. THE SON IS SUPERIOR TO THE ANGELS. For this theme the way has been prepared in the closing words of Hebrews 1:14. The section may possibly be directed against angel-worship, which in some churches, as we know from Colossians, was encroaching on the faith in Christ. More probably the writer's aim is simply to enforce the supremacy of Christ as compared with even the highest of created beings. In Hebrews 1:5 he collects a number of Scripture texts which illustrate the relative worth of Christ and the angels. These texts are interpreted by the allegorical method_ i.e._ they are taken not in their historical meaning