God Made Him Pioneer
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10 For now he towers above all creation, for all things exist through him and for him. And that God made him, pioneer of our salvation, perfect through his sufferings, for this is how he brings many sons and daughters to share in his glory.
I love this phrase. He TOWERS above all creation. Why? Because ALL things exist through Him and for Him! Let’s break this down.
Paul is reaffirming that Jesus is God and God became Man in Jesus Christ for our behalf by stating that all things exist through and for Him. He really hones in on this concept in Colossians. And, of course, John 1:1-2 makes it plain.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
As God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, executed the audacious plan for God to become Man and rescue us. So the Father made Him, Jesus, the Pioneer of our salvation so that he could bring MANY sons and daughters to glory, which is restoring the glory lost in the Garden.
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
So God, in complete agreement and glory, decided that it was fitting to become Man and the author of our salvation. fitting means “to be eminent, distinguished, to excel.” It is often used in the NT as something that is “becoming, proper.”
Becoming means suitable, proper and appropriate at dictionary.com. It has the implication of possible moral judgment involved implying that the only fitting way to rescue us is by God becoming Man because He gave man the earth and man gave it to the enemy; therefore, the only moral thing to do is to become one of us and take it back. God won’t go against His word. I also can’t help but think that when He saw our inability to save ourselves, He recognized that we didn’t choose to be sinners. Adam and Eve chose that for us.
God became the pioneer, the author, the founder. That is from the word “arche” in the Greek that means “beginning or rule” and “ago,” which means “to lead.” It’s “originator, founder, leader, chief, first, prince, as distinguished from simply being the cause” because just because someone is the cause of something doesn’t mean they are the BEGINNING. He is “the beginning or the originator of God’s creation” and “this excludes Him from Himself being a product of that beginning. I.e. all things exist in and through and for Him! Jesus is the beginning, the originator, the founder, the leader, the chief, the first, the prince, and the pioneer of salvation, a reality that did NOT exist before Him. I.e. no one could go to heaven before Jesus Christ because sin was not removed. It was only covered with the blood of animals.
What exactly does it means “to make the founder…perfect through suffering?” We know that Jesus Christ was without fault. Perfect is “teleioo” in the greek and it was used to refer to a debt paid in full or a project or job that was completed and is akin to the word Jesus used when He said, “It is finished.” Listen to what I found at Columbia International University: “What makes this exclamation truly unique however, is the Greek tense that Jesus used. (Verb tenses are the most important and most communicative part of the Greek language.3 This also is sometimes necessarily lost in translation.) Jesus speaks in the perfect tense, which is very rare in the New Testament and has no English equivalent.4 The perfect tense is a combination of two Greek tenses: the Present tense, and the Aorist tense. The Aorist tense is punctiliar: meaning something that happens at a specific point in time; a moment. The Present tense is linear: meaning something that continues on into the future and has ongoing results/implications.
The combination of these two tenses in the perfect tense as used in John 19:30 is of overwhelming significance to the Christian. When Jesus says “It is finished” (or completed) what he is actually saying is “It is finished and will continue to be finished”.
Jesus Christ had to be morally perfect (the definition for this form of “complete” or “perfect” in the Greek). He couldn’t sin one time. He had to live in absolute obedience to the Father. Any “missing the mark” (the Greek idea of sin) would mean that He was no longer a spotless lamb. But if you think about it the other idea is that His act of salvation would not be complete without His suffering because He had to take what was due us as sinners to satisfy the perfect justice for God. I.e. for us to be truly saved, He had to pay our penalty on our behalf, which is astonishing.
32 And He said to them, “Go, tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.’
25 Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” 27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
His suffering is the road to our glory. Again, absolutely incredible, the price He was willing to pay! And those of who received this free gift of salvation are now “sons and daughters [that] share in his glory!” If I could put a bunch of heart emojis here, I would! Listen to the Passion commentary:
Or “bring many children into his glorious state.” Grace gives us the glory that Jesus has. Although it is true that God will not share his glory with another (Isa. 42:8), but in Christ, we are not “another,” we are one with him.
Jesus the Holy One Makes Us Holy
Jesus the Holy One Makes Us Holy
11 Jesus, the Holy One, makes us holy. And as sons and daughters, we now belong to his same Father, so he is not ashamed or embarrassed to introduce us as his brothers and sisters!
I love, love this!! JESUS THE HOLY ONE MAKES US HOLY. JESUS THE HOLY ONE MAKES US HOLY. Not rules and regulations, how long you pray each day, or any other activity you might do. It is an IMPARTATION OF NATURE!
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,
Sanctifies and sanctified in the Greek is “to cause someone to have the quality of holiness—to make holy.” And we all have one Source or we all belong to the SAME FATHER. Our origin is in the Father as born again people just like Jesus’ origin in Mary’s womb was the Father. There is only one source—the Father. And because we are BORN AGAIN from the Father, we are now CHILDREN OF GOD and the Lord’s siblings!! That’s why He’s not ashamed to call us His brothers.
Ashamed means “to experience or feel shame or disgrace because of some particular event or activity.” Now this is very important.
25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
After the fall, nakedness was a symbol and source of shame because it reminded mankind of the glory lost. Before the fall, mankind was clothed in the glory. Post fall mankind was naked. In Christ, we are once again clothed in the glory. Back up to “ashamed,” we can see that Jesus Christ removed the shame and disgrace of the fall from us!
12 For he has said,
“I will reveal who you really are to my brothers and sisters,
and I will glorify you with praises
in the midst of the congregation.”
I love the notes of this in the ESV Study Bible. It says, “The resurrected Messiah, his suffering completed, calls his brothers to join with him in worship.” HEART EMOJIS! But get the even deeper implication—He is saying that He will reveal THE FATHER to us by glorifying Him with praises in the midst of the congregation!!! When we are truly worshiping, Jesus reveals the Father to us! Congregation, here, is ekklesia.
This has always been the plan but it was hidden from the god of this world.
13 And,
“My confidence rests in God!”
And again he says,
“Here I am, one with the children Yahweh has given me.”
Jesus as a Man had to put His trust in Father. Jesus had to have faith! But He believed the promises, obeyed His Father, and He now has MANY children!
Annihilate the Effects of the Accuser
Annihilate the Effects of the Accuser
14 Since all his “children” have flesh and blood, so Jesus became human to fully identify with us. He did this, so that he could experience death and annihilate the effects of the intimidating accuser who holds against us the power of death. 15 By embracing death Jesus sets free those who live their entire lives in bondage to the tormenting dread of death. 16 For it is clear that he didn’t do this for the angels, but for all the sons and daughters of Abraham.
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,
He shared in our humanity so that He could share with us His glory! the word “partook” means “to be included in the membership of a group—to belong to.” God joined the membership group of humanity so that He could experience death, a condition introduced through the fall. By tasting or experiencing death and being resurrected, He DESTROYED THE ONE who has the power of death—the devil.
Destroy means “to render inactive, idle, useless, ineffective.” In this case, it goes even beyond that. Where it could be a cessation from outward activity like resting, here in the Hebrew with the Greek tense, it the opposite of “active” like “unfruitful land lying follow.” It’s “put an end to.” Jesus didn’t just render the devil ineffective in our lives, He brought an end to him in our lives. The devil no longer can intimidate us with accusation nor torment us with fear of death. Death used to be his dominion but now it’s the Lord’s and He overcame death!
So then the question must be asked: Why do so many Christians still LISTEN TO THE ACCUSER and why do so many FEAR DEATH or DIE FROM SICKNESS AND DISEASE?! We have listened to others, even pastors, who still teach sin as if it’s a normal thing in our lives that will never go away. We are not taught that we are the righteousness of God, are holy, and sin has no power over us. We are, instead, trained to manage sin and only one day in our resurrected bodies will we be free from sin. But this makes is very clear that Jesus Christ annihilated the effects of the accuser and his dominion of death.
16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Hades was the god of death to the Greeks and he held a staff that was called the “key of death.” And it’s at his gate that Jesus Christ tells the EKKLESIA that He will build HIS GOVERNMENT ON EARTH and the gates of hell will not prevail against it! He then gives us keys to the kingdom that trump any key of the devil!
17 Jesus replied, “You are favored and privileged Simeon, son of Jonah! For you didn’t discover this on your own, but my Father in heaven has supernaturally revealed it to you. 18 I give you the name Peter, a stone. And this truth of who I am will be the bedrock foundation on which I will build my church—my legislative assembly, and the power of death will not be able to overpower it! 19 I will give you the keys of heaven’s kingdom realm to forbid on earth that which is forbidden in heaven, and to release on earth that which is released in heaven.”
The Greek word for “church” is ekklesia and means “legislative assembly” or “selected ones.” This is not a religious term at all, but a political and governmental term that is used many times in classical Greek for a group of people who have been summoned and gathered together to govern the affairs of a city. For Jesus to use this term means he is giving the keys of governmental authority in his kingdom to the church. See R. Scott and H. G. Liddell, A Greek-English Lexicon, p. 206; J. H. Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, p. 196; and Oskar Seyffert, A Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, pp. 202–203.
Jesus didn’t do all of this for angels. He did it for the sons and daughters of Abraham. Of course, He was sent to the nation of Israel first. That was the Father’s commitment to His own nation. But the true sons and daughters of Abraham are those of faith!
Help for the Ordeals of Life
17 This is why he had to be a Man and take hold of our humanity in every way. He made us his brothers and sisters and became our merciful and faithful King-Priest before God; as the One who removed our sins to make us one with him. 18 He suffered and endured every test and temptation, so that he can help us every time we pass through the ordeals of life.
He removed our sins to make us one with Him. But He also suffered and endured every test and temptation so that He can help us when we experience difficult things.
18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
He is compassion and worthy of trust. He is our High Priest and as such sits on the heavenly Sanhedrin or Supreme Court (Rev. 4:1-5). He is continually “in the service of God to make propitiation” because as we learned earlier, salvation is a continuous process for us. THE BEST ANSWER WHEN TEMPTED TO SIN IS TO PULL ON JESUS’ VICTORY OF NOT SINNING WHEN TEMPTED AND THE FACT THAT HE REMOVED THE POWER OF SIN FROM US.