This message reviews the Hebrews writer's instruction through the first half of chapter three. This instruction follows his overall strategy to show that all of the aspects and structures of Israel's covenant life have found their fulfillment and ultimacy in Jesus the Messiah. To this point, that treatment has focused on Israel's prophets, God's mediating angels, and the man Moses, who was Israel's archetypal apostle and high priest.

Jesus is superior to Moses, but as fulfillment is superior to promise- He is the fulfillment of Moses as God's ultimate Apostle and great High Priest. Both were faithful in their calling within God's covenant house, but Jesus was -and is- faithful as the One appointed to build God's true and everlasting house, whereas Moses was simply a servant within the preparatory house that was the covenant house of Israel.

Chapter three begins a shift in focus, but one that builds on the writer's previous instruction. This next section introduces Moses, but as he represented the Old Covenant economy. The writer's main argument was that the Mosaic economy, including Moses himself, served a preparatory role in God's purposes, all of which have been fulfilled in Jesus the Messiah. He is greater than Moses in the way that fulfillment transcends promise.

The writer's emphasis throughout this context has been on Jesus' superiority over the angels as True Man. But He is Man unto mankind, so that His suffering unto exaltation had its goal in bringing many sons to glory. Jesus was doing the Father's work on behalf of the image-children, and thus His work was a priestly ministration. The writer introduced that topic in verse 2-17, and it is a central theme of the epistle from this point forward.

The Hebrews writer's primary argument in chapter two is that Jesus is superior to the angels as true man. But He is true man unto mankind, so that the supremacy He enjoys over the angels applies to all human beings who share in His life. Here, the writer addressed a particular aspect of Jesus' triumph as man, and that is His conquest of death and the satanic power that uses death as an instrument of enslavement.

The Hebrews writer recognized that incarnation and atonement are inseparable, and together highlight God's purpose for His human creature. Jesus was born a son of Adam in order to become the Last Adam - the beginning of a new human race that shares His image and likeness. He was born to bring many sons to glory, and so also to acquire an abundance of true brothers and sisters.

The writer has been demonstrating Jesus' supremacy over the angels, and in this second part of chapter two he emphasized Jesus' superiority as True Man. He is man as described and celebrated in Psalm 8, but not simply as an individual man, but as Man unto mankind. Psalm 8 presents a truthful depiction of the creature man, because it is firstly true of the man Jesus. He is the pioneer of salvation, the firstfruit of God's new and true human race.