Hebrews 2:11, commentary and pictures

He who makes holy and those made holy share one common humanity and one family origin, for though divine He took flesh and blood and became like His brethren as children of one Father, and therefore He is not ashamed to call them brethren. This oneness required Him to be made a little lower than the angels to suffer death for every person, and to be made perfect as the Captain of salvation through suffering. Though one with God He bound Himself to redeemed humanity forever, remaining the Son of man in human form before the throne as Sacrifice, Advocate, and Elder Brother. Through Him those who receive Him are given power to become sons of God and partakers of the divine nature, adopted into God's family and made one with Christ as He is one with the Father. Because He suffered when tempted He has compassion for the tempted and weak and is able to help, sustain, and give them confidence and hope in God. He openly owns true-hearted, pure, obedient followers who reflect His character and overcome sin, but He is ashamed to own those who live selfishly in sin, criticize and scatter others, and deny Him by unchristlike words and actions.

Oneness of Sanctifier and Sanctified

The Sanctifier and the sanctified are all of one in sharing a common human nature, for though He was divine He took flesh and blood and became like His brethren. He took part in flesh and blood and suffered to redeem them, becoming lower than the angels so He could reach humanity. He experienced what human beings can experience and, with strength received from God, overcame Satan and fallen angels. His taking human nature and suffering makes salvation possible and reveals divine love, giving believers reason to love one another as He loved them.

All of one also means belonging to one family and origin as children of one common Father. Through Him the fallen sons of Adam become sons of God, and the One who makes holy and those made holy share family relationship so that He willingly owns them as brothers and sisters without shame. His kinship grounds sincere mutual love and brotherly affection, and His closeness to people who know weakness supports confidence in His love and care. In that sonship He restores people to the moral image of God and helps those who are tempted, so that cleansed they can approach God and live a life of faith, victory and joy rather than condemnation. His self-giving life makes Him precious, and His followers should not bring shame on Him by the character they show the world.

This oneness required that He be made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, to taste death for every man. As the Majesty of heaven and King of glory made complete through suffering, He became the Captain of salvation bringing many sons to glory. His solidarity is expressed in declaring the Father's name among them, singing praise in the midst of the church, putting His trust in God, and standing with the children God gave Him. He became like His human brethren in order to raise them from sin's degradation, redeem them from death, elevate human nature, and restore it to its original purity.

Christ's Humiliation and Enduring Brotherhood

Though one with God, He bound Himself to redeemed humanity forever by taking human nature, uniting humanity to God and joining it to heaven with a tie that will never be broken in order to lift people from ruin to reflect God's love and share holiness. He remains the Son of man bearing human form before the Father's throne through eternal ages as Sacrifice, Advocate, and Brother of the redeemed race, and through Him people may be raised from sin's ruin. He left His high command to come to earth and join the earthly family as the Son of man and the Son of Adam, becoming Elder Brother and a brother to every son and daughter of Adam so that human beings might be uplifted to become members of the heavenly family.

He was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death to taste death for every man, and was made perfect and complete through sufferings as the Captain of salvation bringing many sons to glory. His suffering expiates the sins of all who believe, and His life hides believers with Christ in God. He shared what people can experience, entering their trials and temptations yet living without sin, and with strength received from God He overcame Satan and fallen angels, showing that through God's power human beings can live sinless lives and giving deep interest and confidence to those He watches over.

Those united and joined to Him who share His suffering and reproach now will share His glory hereafter, His angels minister to them, and they remain continually before Him and will not be forgotten. At His second coming and second appearing as the Son of man He will still identify Himself with humanity even in His glory. By appointment He clothed Himself with human nature to be man's Advocate and Intercessor, introducing sinners to God as His sons and daughters and elevating them in moral worth with God by a life of humiliation and perfect obedience. He carries His adopted human nature to the throne of God and there presents His children to the Father to have conferred upon them an honor exceeding that conferred upon the angels.

Sanctification and Divine Sonship

Through the man Christ Jesus human nature is exalted, for He was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death to taste death for every man and to bring many sons to glory as the Captain of salvation made perfect through sufferings. Those who receive Him are given power to become sons of God, to become partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption in the world through lust, and to become one with Christ as He is one with the Father. This oneness comes through conformity to His character and image and through the power of His grace received by living faith, as branches receive nourishment from the vine. His suffering expiates the sins of all who believe, His life hides believers with Christ in God, their sins are placed to His account as Substitute and Surety, and they are accepted in the Beloved. Every advantage is given to those who earnestly study His will, believe in Him with heart, mind, and soul, and show faithfulness by entire and complete obedience to His Word, sinking self in Christ and yoking up with Him to learn His meekness and lowliness of heart and to show His gentleness. For such people great things are done, helping them meet the high purposes of God, giving them the richest experience, and bringing them up to His lofty ideal.

Through Jesus the fallen sons of Adam are brought back to God and become sons of God, for He who sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one family and origin. He willingly owns them without shame as His brothers and sisters, welcoming them as members of God's family and adopting them into it. Through this relationship sinners though alienated become heirs of grace and have a sacred relationship to God as His children, in which they may approach God as their Father with assurance of their divine relationship. This shared sonship cleanses them and grounds a life of faith, victory, and joy in God rather than condemnation or self-depreciation.

Through that oneness consecrated believers are drawn into a union with God closer than angels can enter, even closer and more sacred than that of angels who have never fallen. Having assumed human nature He has become mankind's Elder Brother and Redeemer, joined to people by the tie of human relationship, and through Him they are allied to God and to the angels and belong to the divine family as sons and daughters of God. By this He makes them God's property in a peculiar sense, so consecration to God is accepted as soon as it is made and must be kept sacred by keeping heart, mind, soul, and body free from contamination, pollution, and the leaven of evil.

Sanctification is close conformity to God's will and restoration to His moral image, wholly in soul, body, and spirit, so that believers shine as bright and shining lights. Oneness with Christ is shown by being partakers with Him of His sufferings, and all are urged to be sanctified and to act their part in perfecting the church. He makes common cause with and claims as His own family steadfast faithful Christians who do duty in the face of threats and peril and who exemplify sanctification without claiming honor for it, even comparatively obscure devoted believers. This rebukes the faint-hearted, vacillating, and cowardly while encouraging the faithful.

Those united to Him by living faith He will acknowledge and will not be ashamed to call His brethren, and those who share His suffering and reproach now will share His glory hereafter. United to Christ they are accepted in Him as He is one with the Father, He continually supplies them with grace and righteousness which they share with others, and heavenly beings work with them in serving Him. At infinite cost on Calvary He died to restore corrupted human beings and to restore God's moral image effaced by transgression, that He may discern His own image in face and character, and He desires them to look upon Him and live. Because of this sacrifice and kinship human nature is to be respected, man is not to be treated as a machine, and living workers and students are not to be crowded with burdens that overtax and break down the living machinery, but are to be cared for and guarded in health.

The verse is fulfilled in believers taught by Him whose faith produces zeal, devotion, and spiritual work, seen in the early church after Christ with its constant increase of members and divine working in the city. Stephen full of faith and power is the chief example, holding firm foundation, answering artful opponents with assurance and wisdom, and remaining unmoved under hatred and death.

Sympathy Help and Confidence

Because the Sanctifier and the sanctified are one in common humanity, He shared the human condition and suffered when tempted, and therefore has compassion for the tempted, the ignorant, the straying and the weak and is able to help them. His suffering and experience of temptation enable Him to sympathize with them, and His kinship assures suffering people that He can sustain them. That sustaining reaches both those who suffer and those who care for and comfort them, for His work and the work of His disciples are joined in caring for weary, tempted souls. His closeness to His people who know weakness is the ground of confidence in His love and care.

These words give God's children confidence in the Redeemer when perplexed or disappointed, leading them to hope and trust in Him. As Elder Brother identifying with humanity, He helps minds weakened by sin to grasp that God is love and gives confidence to approach Him as Father. Through Him fallen sons of Adam become sons of God, of one family and origin with Him who makes holy, and He willingly owns them as brethren, so that cleansed they may approach God and live a life of faith, victory and joy in God rather than condemnation or self-depreciation. Since He was made perfect through suffering, His followers should not expect growth in character without trials, and His kinship is ground for confidence and praise.

As Elder Brother He loves believers, understands their weaknesses, watches over them with deep interest, and gives tender sympathy that brings security. He joins their prayers with the incense of His righteousness and presents them to God, and His strength enables them to endure hardship and resist temptation, with His sacrifice at Calvary as the pledge of their victory. He strengthens, blesses, sustains and upholds them through trials, needs them as human co-laborers, and they are not alone because heavenly angels guard them. Having shared human nature, He met and conquered Satan and is not ashamed to stand with them.

Because He so humbled Himself, being the Majesty of heaven and King of glory made a little lower than the angels to suffer death and taste death for every man and made complete through suffering as Captain of salvation bringing many sons to glory, making known the Father's name, singing praise in the midst of the church, putting His trust in God and standing with the children God gave Him, His humility and self-denial are to characterize His followers. They are to meet the world's misrepresentation patiently and live humbly after His example, opposing the pride and self-glorification the enemy fosters. Leaders must not magnify man but magnify Christ, keeping self out of sight and hidden in Him, seeking a deep work of grace in the heart, practicing self-denial, guarding the example given to children in spending money, and keeping outlay as small as possible.

Because sanctifier and sanctified are one, His followers are part of the great web of humanity and are brothers to sinners as well as to saints, not detached from the perishing world around them. All can find something to do for Him in sympathy and compassion to lighten suffering, joining His work in caring for and comforting weary, tempted souls, for in connection with His suffering and temptation He restores people to God's moral image and helps those who are tempted. As the trusted Elder Brother He calls for calm, quiet, faithful labor amid racial antagonism in the South. Trusting Him means laboring calmly, quietly and faithfully to give the truth for this time and the light of the third angel's message to the thousands who need it in separate, distinct lines for white and colored people, without agitating the color-line question and arousing prejudice and without hastily defining the exact future course of relations, clearing the way of obstruction as far as possible so the truth comes before white men and women and a work is done in their families leading to the salvation of many souls.

Owned Without Shame or Disowned

He is not ashamed to own as brethren true-hearted followers who study Scripture, obey its plain requirements, do the truth with deeds wrought in God, follow the light faithfully even when duty brings trial, hardship or reproach, and serve and honor Him fearlessly, and such service is the most profitable course giving sanctified knowledge of the highest order and keen spiritual perception. Their hope of eternal life is centered in Him who gave His life to redeem them, and when they conform their lives to Him and represent Him in character by precept and example as light-bearers pointing the world to Him, they are called sons of God through the Father's love, sharing His rejection by the world that knew Him not, a divine favor worth more than all human praise. He openly owns pure, holy, wholly consecrated followers who lay aside sin and selfish aims, take the virtue of His life into their own, live wholly for God in thought and conduct, and do their work faithfully and carefully in partnership with Him as He works in partnership with the Father. Such honor the Redeemer who bought them with His blood, and when they live to please Him, faithful in little as well as large things, learning of Him, doing their best and trusting God to supply lack with His sufficiency in answer to prayer, He will own them without shame before the heavenly host and they will be ready in peace for the unexpected coming of the Son of man.

He will not be ashamed to call brethren those whose characters reflect Him in true virtue and godliness, turning from iniquity with minds and hearts filled with His Spirit so thoughts, actions and motives rise above earthly and sensual things and find happiness in Jesus and His love rather than forbidden selfish pleasures. They are recognized as His peculiar family through Christlike character and lives that bless others, bearing His likeness. This comes when a person sinks self in Christ, yokes with Him to learn meekness and lowliness of heart and show His gentleness, becoming a sharer of the divine nature having escaped corruption in the world through lust, having His mind and bearing His credentials, and for such the Lord does great things, helps meet the high purposes of God, gives richest experience and brings them up to His lofty ideal. He openly owns faithful overcomers determined to partake of the divine nature and develop Christlikeness even when the church is unfavorable, who when daily tested, tried and continually tempted watch and pray and lay hold by faith on Christ, strive for mastery over temptation and keep His commandments, and He counts them worthy to walk with Him in white.

He is unashamed to call sanctified people, spoken of as sons, His brethren when they live so He can approve them, accepting His discipline and lessons to become pure and undefiled, receiving from Christ as great Teacher and Restorer moral and intellectual strength for useful service and every duty. Those bought with His precious blood are not their own but belong to Him as instruments of righteousness, receiving strength from God to resist every temptation, pursuing a course He can approve, associating Him with all done and said, imitating Christ the true Pattern, faithful, sincere and upright in everything, thus qualified to be acknowledged without shame and to labor with Him and heavenly angels. The Majesty of Heaven willingly owns as family those who place themselves and all they have in God's hands and live only for His glory, refusing to selfishly seek earthly possessions or happiness in worldly pleasures, plainly seeking a better heavenly country and honoring Him before the world instead of disgracing Him.

Believers are to live so He will not be ashamed to call them brethren, as Elder Brother with whom sanctifier and sanctified are one, praising Him and lifting Him up among the church. He is preparing a city for them and will gather strangers and pilgrims to Himself, and they are to live in hope of being there by putting off the sinful nature and its deeds, putting on Christ as the new person renewed in God's image, with the privileges of truth and love calling them to maintain a high standard in purity and holiness. When the heart is cleansed and spiritually strengthened by feeding on God's Word He is not ashamed to call that person His child. The Sanctifier is revealed when pride, self, lofty ideas and consequential feelings are laid aside, God is walked with humbly, the heart closely examined, meekness and lowliness learned in imitation of the humble example of Jesus in simplicity of true godliness, and the Bible come to with prayer for light, opening to humble learners a new and living way with riches of glory and divine grace in methods of saving souls and making them living channels of light.

The verse urges the church to take up neglected duties in families and practice home religion, stirring backsliders and sinners, especially young men and young women, to confess pride, backsliding and partaking of the spirit of the world and determine to live a different life. He is ashamed to call brethren those who criticize and condemn one another instead of showing loving tenderness and helping others come to Him and become fit for service. Those who give place to discord and strife and speak evil scatter people from Christ and bring shame rather than reflecting brotherhood. Lack of confidence makes Him ashamed to own believers as brethren, so members must trust fellow workers instead of distrusting them with suspicion, demanding they be bound by agreements and restrictions that control movements and may be twisted to harm them.

He is ashamed to call professed children of God His brethren when they live in selfishness, neglect duties, watch for defects and pick at straws instead of fitting souls for service, fail to follow Jesus themselves while keeping others from His side, and descend to bickering, strife, criticizing and condemning one another. He will be dishonored and refuse to own them when transforming grace is not constantly and daily at work on the heart to change traits bringing objectionable elements into the church, when conduct is unworthy, business dealings not blameless, and faith not joined with works. He will be ashamed to own those living unchristian lives marked by selfish practices and wrong eating, cheapening the mind and abusing talents, transgressing holy law, with inconsistency becoming a byword that dishonors God, mars spirituality and erects barriers. Dishonoring body and soul through cheap ideas, mean or degrading practices brings shame rather than honor, whereas those redeemed at heaven's infinite cost are to resist Satan's power, value themselves rightly, reverence God who gave Jesus to ransom them, and through Christ become consecrated workers restoring God's moral image in humanity, for a selfish unchristlike life shames the profession.

He is ashamed to call brethren those who merely claim to be Christians while living in sin, with only a form of godliness, claiming religion yet rejecting mercy and love in character and cultivating selfishness, sensuality, pride and earthliness instead of becoming like God. Unsanctified words and deportment make Him ashamed of those bearing His name, for harshness, severity, coarseness, unkindness and selfish disregard burden hearts, dishonor God and drive people away rather than building on the Rock by living His words. Wrong actions and spirit following false paths make Him ashamed, and heaven's light must expose sins to be confessed to God before too late, now while called today in hours of privilege with no second probation, overcoming such words and conduct in this life to be fitted for angels' society. To those loaded with burdens and struggling to overcome He stands by to help so Satan cannot have victory, even sending every angel from glory to aid, able because He who is called Son of God took human nature to come down to man in besetting temptation with sympathy for the weak knowing how to help every striving against sin, so those feeling sin's wound and sting should cry to Him as Saviour, while to those persisting in sin it makes every difference whether living righteously or in sin.

He loved each person so much He gave His own precious life for each individually just as though no other soul existed, making every person of infinite value, and without shame He acknowledges as brothers and sisters those He makes holy. Denial wounds, bruises and exposes Him to public disgrace, and that denial is not speaking words against Him but acting against Him, so when people deny Him by actions He is ashamed to acknowledge them and all should be consecrated to God. Consecration, humility and recognition of sin allow Him to shape a person into a vessel of honor bought by His blood who bridged the gulf to God, while self-righteousness with thoughts and feelings turned against fellow believers is unlike Him and leads to dishonor, calling for humble mutual respect and help to the downcast. God's claim of people as brethren is dishonored by rejecting the Holy Spirit and treating its work with ridicule and criticism as at Minneapolis, making Him ashamed to call them brethren, where sincere repentance brings forgiveness but return to the same spirit reaffirms earlier deeds and leaves repeaters accountable at judgment.