Jesus became lower than the angels to bring salvation for us. And in bringing salvation he made us his brothers and sisters. This is tightly connected to the Old Testament concepts of salvation and God’s deliverance as we will see. 

But this section focusing on the humanity of Jesus shows him as your brother. The comfort of having a big brother in your corner. On your side. A big brother who isn’t ashamed of you. Who protects you… and who brings you to where you need to be. 

Jesus is your big brother, spiritually speaking. And it so wonderful. 

The passage may be divided into an introduction, which speaks of the appropriateness of the Son’s suffering within the divine purposes (v. 10), the Son’s solidarity with the sons and daughters (vv. 11-13), the reasons for his incarnation (vv. 14-16), and a conclusion that speaks of Jesus becoming an effective high priest (vv. 17-18).1 

Hebrews 2 (ESV) 5 For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. 6 It has been testified somewhere, “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? 7 You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, 8 putting everything in subjection under his feet.” Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. 9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.  

10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, 12 saying, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.” 13 And again, “I will put my trust in him.” And again, “Behold, I and the children God has given me.”  

14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. 

10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.  

It was proper that He… the He from whom and by whom all things exist is the Father.  

1 Corinthians 8:6 (ESV) yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. 

It is proper that God the Father should make perfect… that’s the point of emphasis here 

God is the cause. The director. The one who designed the plan and implemented the plan… 

9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. 

Why was this a good plan to humiliate the Lord of glory and to make him suffer? We know it was to accomplish our salvation. It was to rescue us from the consequences of our sin. In this context, it is connected to what we saw last week, which is the restoration of creation. The idea that Jesus comes to make right all that went wrong in Adam. Jesus will restore mankind’s dignity and dominion over the creation. 

Our writer says here: 

in bringing many sons to glory 

This is why Jesus tasted death for everyone (v. 9)…  

This is your ultimate destiny. It’s what you were created for. Not the glory of creation, but the glory of the creator. The enjoyment and magnification of the creator. For the one who is before all things and in whom all things come together. 

God’s salvation work is in our behalf, but it is not anthropocentric (man-centered) by theocentric (God-centered). We share in his glory, but it is ultimately about him. 

Isaiah 60:19 (ESV) The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. 

Romans 2:7 (ESV) to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 

Romans 5:2 (ESV) Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 

You and I were created for glory—and expression of God’s glory in creation. And in the fall that glory was diminished and marred by sin. But God gets what he wants and he will get glory now through the redemption of sinners. It was fitting… it was only right and appropriate that what was originally designed would be recovered. 

Eternity, with God, forever and ever in glory. 

This is your orientation now in life… deferring hope to the life to come. 

many sons 

Some translations make this sons and daughters. Or people will say, “daughters of the king”—it kind of misses the point here. That’s true. 

2 Corinthians 6:18 (ESV) and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty. 

The analogous use of language.  

We are all sons—by that meaning that relationship between us and God is how a Father relates to a Son. It’s an analogy. God saves many men and many women and many boys and many girls. The focus here isn’t on age or gender, but on defining the relationship between us and God. 

Consider how God is a Father. God is our Father but he didn’t procreate us as an earthly Father. He doesn’t parent us identically to how an earthly father does. He isn’t married to a mother who is also God that brough us forth. God isn’t a male when we think of his biology as if he has a sexual expression. God isn’t analogous to a single-parent home where we are raised by our stay-at-home Father or absentee Father out in the workplace. 

Rather, we learn various characteristics about how God relates to us through the expression, through the analogy, of God as our Father. It is how God accommodates himself to our understanding. How do I want my people to view the way we relate to one another? We relate as a Father to a son. 

Likeness. Legal rights of the family inheritance. 

You were brought into sonship by the work of Jesus Christ, here designation as… 

founder of their salvation 

The founder. The originator. The initiator. The source. The author. Use three other times in the New Testament, always referring to Jesus.2 The best translation value for how this is being used is pioneer. 

He is the pioneer of their salvation. 

Trailblazers, pioneers—are the ones who go ahead into uncharted territory where there isn’t yet a path and way and makes it so that others can come along behind and reach the same destination. 

Pioneer provides implications beyond simply starting a process… a founder who gets the ball rolling. A pioneer is not only starting something, but starting something in behalf of and in relation to others. 

Richard Phillips writes: 

We follow a path blazed only by Jesus Christ, who leads us into the promised land of salvation and eternal life. He has gone where we could not go; by his own resources of righteousness and truth and an all-conquering life, he has opened up the way to heaven for us.3 

You couldn’t get to God on your own efforts. You couldn’t navigate this life in sinless perfection. You were born in Adam.  

Jesus didn’t merely come to show us the way to God. He did show us the way to God. But after as he provided the way to God. 

John 14:2–4 (ESV) In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” 

No alternative trail. No alternative path. You can’t make it on your own. You can’t find a method of gaining 

John 14:6 (ESV) Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 

This connection of the pioneer of salvation indicates the sovereign work of God in saving his people. That he and he alone gets the credit. Salvation has always been God’s work and Jesus as pioneer of our salvation in the New Covenant, looks back to the salvation of YHWH in the Old Covenant. 

The same Lord who led Israel in the exodus, freeing them from Egypt, is leading his people to glory through Jesus Christ.4 

Who led Israel out of Egypt?  

Moses certainly was the earthly leader. He was the head. He led the nation. He was replaced by Joshua. There was a clear leader, a clear chief over the nation. But who put Moses in that role? Who commissioned Moses from the flocks? Who equipped Moses with mighty wonders and signs? Who gave Moses the words on the teleprompter? Israel followed Moses, but who was Moses following? Moses was the deliverer, but he himself was only the earthly component. 

Exodus 3:7–10 (ESV) Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” 

Exodus 3:17 (ESV) and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.” ’ 

Exodus 6:6–7 (ESV) Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 

Exodus 20:2 (ESV) I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 

YHWH brought Israel up out of Egypt. YHWH authored and initiated and accomplished salvation for them. And now the writer of Hebrews picks up that theme, connecting it to Jesus. Israel was delivered by YHWH, we are delivered by Jesus. God led Israel out of a foreign land into the promised land of Canaan. Jesus leads us out of this cursed world and into the new heavens and the new earth, the ultimate promised land.5 

What he did there was amazing. He took a nation that was under the thumb of the greatest superpower in the world at that time. And he brought that superpower, Egypt to her knees. He made it so that the leader, Pharoah was begging them to leave. And the people were not only saying, “good riddance…” but “here take my most valuable stuff with you when you go…” There was no battle. No bloodshed. Israel received deliverance from YHWH her God. 

And that was the pattern. 

That was to show what it was going to look like when deliverance came for not only Jews, but for the whole world. 

That was YHWH through Moses for one ethnic group. Now is God through Jesus for every tribe and tongue and people in his church. The same pattern. Now expanded. Elevated. He passed through the heavens and then says, trust me and I’ll bring you with me. 

perfect through suffering. 

We hear perfection and we think moral perfection. Spotless. Without defect. Without lack. Not imperfect, but perfect. And perfection could be understood in that way. It is used in Scripture in that way. But not here in Hebrews… in Hebrews here the author is not indicating Jesus lacked something morally that was made up for in suffering. He didn’t have a sin nature. He didn’t have any moral defects or moral incompleteness that needed suffering to make up for. 

He is the lamb without blemish or spot. 

Rather, we must understand this in light of the connections to the Old Testament. See, where this author is going is the identification of Jesus as our great high priest. Much of the arguments of the central part of the book relate to his priesthood. 

So, Jesus, was made perfect not in terms of moral improvement. But in being shown or proved to be qualified to serve as priest. Perfect or complete in the Old Testament was used of priests in conjunction with their consecration for the office. 

Was fully equipped for his office. God qualified Jesus to come before him in priestly action. He perfected him as a priest of his people through his sufferings, which permitted him to accomplish his redemptive mission.6 

The writer of Hebrews here begins a theme that will dominate much of this book. Jesus, the true high priest to whom all the other pointed, offered his own life and gave his own blood to open the way for sinners to come to God.7 

Think of it by way of analogy like this: Jesus deity alone isn’t what qualifies him to be a our substitute. It wasn’t just Jesus showing up as God incarnate and then dying. A stillborn Jesus couldn’t accomplish redemption. An adult Jesus slowing up couldn’t accomplish redemption. 

He had to be born under the law. He had to be born as a Jew. His family line, and yes even his DNA was traced back to Abraham. And not only born under the law, but he then had to obey under the law. He had to be circumcised on the eighth day according to custom. He had to fulfill every dimension of the law not only in the letter, but in the intent behind it. All ______ regulations.  

And so, it was his life as a man, which demonstrates and in one sense even qualifies him to serve in that role. 

Under the Mosaic covenant a priest would be ordained. He would go from at some point being a man who was not a priest to become a man who was a priest. 

We see a similar example of qualifications in the apostle Paul—he is saved on the road to Damascus and instantly called as an apostle of Jesus Christ… regeneration. He has a divine calling. He is equipped by Jesus himself. Intrinsically qualified. Yet in terms of his qualification to serve as an apostle alongside the others he had to go to Jerusalem first and spend time with the apostles. He had to submit his doctrine to them. He had to the credentials. Paul would even say, no one added anything to me… He wasn’t lacking prior to that. Yet it was still a necessary part of the qualification process. 

Furthermore, it was qualifying in the sense that he could say, “I’ve actually been there and done that.” He isn’t a human priest because he is the all-knowing God who looked upon creation and merely said, “I get it.” He wasn’t like the person is an expert in something that they really haven’t experienced yet. 

From time to time go out in the field to show some respect for the role… go jackhammer in the trench for 8-10 hours in the mid-90’s. 

Jesus didn’t just play sympathetic high priest by proxy. He became a man and lived on this earth so that he might be qualified to serve in this role. He suffered. Not just at Calvary. Surely at Calvary. The cross was the apex of all of the suffering of Jesus. But he suffered far beyond the cross. 

• Slandered/misrepresented—good efforts called evil (loss of reputation… he does his miracles by Beelzebul) 

• Misunderstood—crowds and even disciples asking… who is this? 

• Ignored—stay awake and pray… don’t go tell anyone who healed you… 

• Hated—many plotting to kill him because of intense hatred 

• Disregarded—his own feeling 

• Loneliness—no one who truly understood him… weeping over Jerusalem… a burden and a mission that he bore alone (even in the Garden the disciples weren’t engaged) 

• Rejection—he came to his own and they did not receive him 

• Exhaustion—marathon weeks, early mornings, pressed continuously by the crowds 

• Sickness—not recorded, but happened to him… canceled plans, fever and chills and body aches 

• Fear—cup in the Garden, even the threats of those who hated him 

• Temptation—40 days without food… the temptation to have the glory without the cross 

• Humiliation—taking on flesh was humiliating, getting his diaper changed, submitting to flawed parents, with his ultimate humiliation being the cross 

• Separation from his Father—in his humanity he left heaven above 

• Forsaken—forsake by all his friends and ultimately by his Father, “Why have you forsaken me…” 

• Learning and acquiring knowledge— 

What did Isaiah say of him? Wonderful Counselor. When you meet the one who can identify with your struggle… Jesus was perfected through suffering  

And he comes through that equipped to meet our needs. The pioneer. Perfected in this role. Completed in this role. By his experience. Pre-requisite for being a priest is knowing God and knowing the human experience. Now he has both. He is able to help us and come to our aid in our suffering because he understands our constitution, our weakness. 

For it was fitting that he 

Entirely appropriate… this is the focus of this verse. The appropriateness. It is frontloaded in the original, the first position in the sentence. Of greatest significance and attention. 

Greco-Roman world this was incomprehensible… utterly shocking and inappropriate the idea that a deity, whom you worship experiences suffering—weakness and pain. 

The notion of a crucified Lord was a scandal to the first century world. Crucifixion was a public form of execution, and its cruelty was well known. For Jews, death by crucifixion meant a person was under the curse of God, while pagans protested that it was sheer madness.8 

To the human, it’s inappropriate. Stone of beauty? Stone of easy acceptance? Stone of sweetness? 

Stone of offense. 

What is so offensive about the stone of Jesus? It’s the reproach of the cross. The natural man finds Jesus offensive. And an object of ridicule and scorn… “on the contrary, perfectly appropriate.” 

11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source.  

Jesus is here the one who sanctifies. He doesn’t need to be sanctified, because he is the very essence of sanctity and the one to whom all the rest of us are to be set apart to. 

Jesus as the ever-obedient one didn’t need to be placed into the realm of the holy. He was always and ever the holy one and was dedicated to God throughout his life. 

Holiness is the defining characteristic of God’s people. He is holy, we are to be holy.  

How is it that we are made holy? Consecration and purification was a theme of the Old Testament. God is holy. You are not. Set apart what is common for special use. Consecration. Purification. 

How does this relate to perfection here? And the priesthood? 

A Christians unconcerned about personal holiness is a misnomer. Jesus is the savior and the sanctifier. One of the great goals of your sanctification. 

Ephesians 1:4 (ESV) even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 

Romans 8:29 (ESV) For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 

On the path to glory…  

We are called to trust and to obey. We are called to pursue sanctification by these means. Even commanded to be holy (be sanctified). Christian, be who you are. God tells you, who are his child to: 

1 Peter 1:16 (ESV) since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 

He set you apart when he saved you. Know you are to grab hold of that which is yours in Christ, by faith. 

Hebrews 12:14 (ESV) Strive … for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 

This is what the Christian life is about—growth in holiness.9 

Francis Schaeffer once defined the basic aspiration of people today, including evangelical Christians, as material affluence and enough personal peace to enjoy it. But what we see in this passage is something far greater, a higher and more wonderful destiny and calling. We are reborn in Christ as his fellow brothers and sisters for the glory that his in the heavenly realms, and the holiness that distinguishes God and his children.10 

Sanctification is always by faith. We don’t possess the ability to sanctify ourselves. God does that. You do it because God is at work in you.  

Beware of those who diminish or make muddy this very simple and plain doctrine in Scripture. There are those who use the grace of God as a license to excuse fleshly indulgences. They are crafty. They are deceptive. They use compelling, articulate arguments. And they appeal to the flesh. Christ has secured your justification and now you are passive in sanctification. Misunderstand the Scriptures and God’s design for the believer. The distinction between justification and sanctification. 

Others would speak of sanctification and imply that it is just learning to do the right thing. Learning better habits. Trying to stop the bad things you do and do more good things apart from the resources God supplies. 

Ephesians 6 is clear—God provides all of the weaponry and the armor and strength. But you are called to put it on. So, when your sanctification wanes you are not to blame God for his lack of sanctifying work in your life, and when you pursue sanctification it is through the grace which he supplies. 

This is such a help. When you are weak and when you are failing, you trust he will sanctify his people.  

1 Thessalonians 4:3 (ESV) For this is the will of God, your sanctification… 

And so, for Jesus here to be the sanctifier of his people is to connect him to YHWH in the Mosaic law. 

In the Old Testament sanctification is an activity regularly ascribed to God: so in the Pentateuch he identifies himself with the formula, ‘I am the Lord who sanctifies you’.134 Sometimes this sanctification of people is done through other agents, like Moses (Exod. 19:14; 29:1; Lev. 8:11-12).11 

Leviticus 20:8 (ESV) Keep my statutes and do them; I am the LORD who sanctifies you. 

Leviticus 21:8 (ESV) You shall sanctify him, [the priest] for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for I, the LORD, who sanctify you, am holy. 

Leviticus 21:15 (ESV) that he may not profane his offspring among his people, for I am the LORD who sanctifies him.” 

Leviticus 21:23 (ESV) but he shall not go through the veil or approach the altar, because he has a blemish, that he may not profane my sanctuaries, for I am the LORD who sanctifies them.” 

Leviticus 22:9 (ESV) They shall therefore keep my charge, lest they bear sin for it and die thereby when they profane it: I am the LORD who sanctifies them. 

Leviticus 22:16 (ESV) and so cause them to bear iniquity and guilt, by eating their holy things: for I am the LORD who sanctifies them.” 

Leviticus 22:32 (ESV) And you shall not profane my holy name, that I may be sanctified among the people of Israel. I am the LORD who sanctifies you, 

Here’s what you are to do… follow the plan, obey my commandments in faith, and trust that I am the one who makes your working effectual. 

11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source.  

There is a qualitative difference between us… and yet a solidarity. Difference—he is sanctified, we are being sanctified. Similarity or solidarity—we have the same Father. 

That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,  

The ones being sanctified, that’s the, “them…” If you are being sanctified, Jesus isn’t ashamed to call you his sibling. 

He isn’t ashamed of you. Are you ashamed of him? We’ve all been ashamed of Jesus. We are often ashamed of him, but he is never ashamed of us.12 

Hebrews 11:16 (ESV) But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. 

They experienced the temptation to be ashamed of him… 

Hebrews 10:32–34 (ESV) But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. 

Hebrews 13:13–14 (ESV) Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. 

12 saying, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.” 13 And again, “I will put my trust in him.” And again, “Behold, I and the children God has given me.”  

Psalm 22:22 (ESV) I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you: 

Psalm 22:1 (ESV) My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? 

Psalm 22:7–8 (ESV) All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; 8 “He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!” 

Psalm 22:16–18 (ESV) For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet—I can count all my bones— they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. 

Isaiah 8:14–18 (ESV) And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.” Bind up the testimony; seal the teaching among my disciples. I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him. Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion. 

12 saying, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”  

Literally: I will sing hymns in church. 

When did Jesus first call his disciples brothers? Notice that he doesn’t call them besties… or homies… he calls them brothers, but only after the cross. In fact, immediately after the cross he told the women who had just seen him in his resurrected body: 

Matthew 28:10 (ESV) Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” 

It isn’t our shared humanity that makes us siblings of Jesus. It isn’t that we are both human. But rather a spiritual connection by faith. We have the same righteousness. We have the same Father. We are united now to him as his brothers and sisters. 

The most important blessing we gain by having Jesus as our elder brother is entry into the family of God. He is not only the elder brother, but he is also the natural-born Son of God. By grace we adopted into the family to which Jesus belongs as the rightful Son. We are not his brothers and sisters because we are children of God; rather, we are children of God because we are his brothers and sisters.13 

13 And again, “I will put my trust in him.”  

Jesus in his suffering had to put his trust in the Father. He endured by entrusting himself to his faithful Father. It was an act of submission to the Father. It was dependence. It was how he endured suffering. 

When you are suffering, you have Jesus as your example of entrusting himself to God in the midst of a situation. He had to trust: the Father will raise me from the dead, the Father will recompense my enemies. 

And again, “Behold, I and the children God has given me.” 

God has given children to the Son. 

Oh, that he would want us. Beloved, let this sink in deeply to your thinking. 

Jesus isn’t ashamed of you. He isn’t embarrassed to be a human and he isn’t embarrassed that you are part of his family. He isn’t begrudgingly receiving you from his Father as a punishment. It’s not that his Father has paired Jesus with the bad ones to rehabilitate us. Or because he has displeased his Father in some way. Rather, it is regarded that we are a gift to him from his Father. 

John 6:37 (ESV) All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 

John 10:27–29 (ESV) My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 

John 17:6 (ESV) I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 

Sorry, Lord, you got the short end of the stick on that deal. You became a son of man that I could become a Son of God? Yes. Gladly. It was my intention and my very best plan from the beginning. 

Jesus became lower the angels. He took on flesh. He tasted of death on a cross. And it was so that he might bring us into God’s family, where we become little brothers and little sisters. We look to him as our pioneer who made a way for us and who ministers to us as a high priest who can sympathize with our weakness.