Hebrews Chapter Two, Bondage To Fear

 

Adam has begotten all of humanity. From one blood arose all nations on earth, Acts 17:26. Since we are physically born we are made in Adam’s image and receive his inheritance. This is what Jesus refers to as being born by water. The second birth, the spiritual birth, grants us what Paul describes as bearing the image of the heavenly Man. “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit,” John 3:5, 6. There are two types of births on this planet.

The first we are all acquainted with; even Jesus was born into the world this way. Our Lord calls it being born of water. The baby in the mother’s womb is immersed in water while awaiting birth. Verse 6 ensures that we don’t mistake what He means. He refers to water as flesh. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” We need to be born of water, or made alive physically. Then we need to be born of the Spirit, or made alive spiritually. We see that in the conclusion to verse 6 when our Lord says, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” The first birth is by human effort. The second birth is entirely providential, an act of God’s condescending grace.

 

Jesus took on flesh so that through His voluntary death on the cross to pay for our sins He could destroy Satan, and even the fear of death. A companion to this idea of destroying Satan through Christ’s accomplishment on the cross can be found in John’s Gospel. “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out,” John 12:31. God judged Christ when Jesus was lifted up from the earth, bearing our sins in His own body on the tree. He became sin for us, and God punished Him in our stead, fulfilling the demands of the Law regarding sin. We know that Satan is this world-system’s ruler, 1 John 5:19, 2 Corinthians 4:4. The accuser of our brethren now had no judicial ground to stand on. The redeemed were justified because Jesus, in the meekness of obedience, accomplished our salvation. Our sin was atoned for and put away. Our names are written in the book of life. He may come before the throne of God, but Lucifer had no legal complaint to lodge. Justice was satisfied, even as mercy and grace were magnified, all through the mighty agency of the Son’s sinless devotion to the Father. Our Lord triumphed over death, and over him who held its fear like a club over the heads of humanity.

 

Fear of death is very normal. We fear death because every human being perceived however dimly that death was not what we were designed for, Ecclesiastes 3:11. Part of the bondage that our race was subject to was the flight from death by imbibing the opiate of religion. Whether it is philosophy, nihilism, existentialism, traditional religion or “New Age” (which is simply reworked earth religions), our escape from death has met with 0% success. Religion gives something for humanity to do in a vain hope that enough doing will repel death’s approach. Vicarious sacrifice (including human sacrifice) was often times for the sake of appeasing the deity in question in the hopes of extending life a little longer. It was a desperate gambit to hold fast to “life under the sun.”  Or in light of the afterlife (a peculiar phrase) hope that enough doing would compel the higher power to think well of you and let you join him/her/it when death finally does find you. But certainty wasn’t a thing. We see this today in Roman Catholicism or Islam. Fear of death equates into the fear of the unknown. Am I really good enough? Have I really done enough? Is what I believe even true/real? The thoughts, worries, anxiety, fears, etc. go on ad infinitum.

 

Jesus quashed this notion and the devil’s playground by returning from the dead. He said, “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also,” John 14:19. Our hope and confidence are bound up in the person and accomplishment of Jesus Christ. As His time drew near He assured His people, “the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me,” John 14:30. There was nothing, no fear of the unknown, of Adam’s curse and how it warps and robs people of happiness. Christ’s fear was more clearly realized, knowing that being made sin would separate Him from the Father and He would endure the judgment God’s justice demanded. But in our Lord there was nothing for Satan to lay hold of or claim to. Nothing to entice, nothing to tempt or tarnish. Our Lord bore the cross, despising the shame and the suffering of death whose end was crowned with glory. In Christ Satan has no claim on fallen man. We are born again into the household of God through faith in Jesus. We are part of a long lineage of witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus. Twice Jesus uses the word “witnesses” to attest to the nature of the gospel and our testimony, Luke 24:48, Acts 1:8. The word “witness or witnesses” is used in this definition 11 times. Do not be afraid of the Watchtower’s misappropriation of the term “witness.” The true witnesses testify of the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and the assurance of life we have in His name, and His alone.

 

On a final note, we should pause at the word, “destroy.” It is the Greek, “katargeo,” and means to render inactive or make idle. When Jesus triumphed on the cross, He did not obliterate the devil; He rendered him ineffectual for his intended purposes. The devil would have the whole world in his thrall, but our Lord, by His triumphant sacrifice on the cross once for all, made him ineffective. He did this by ruining man’s fear of death. Jesus provided assurance of life in Him, by Himself rising from the dead to testify that all who would believe on Him would likewise partake in the resurrection of life. Like every other usage of the word “destroy” in Scripture, it does not mean cessation of being. Spiritual annihilation is a teaching in Jehovah’s Witnesses and it reaches far back in the annals of church history. Tatian (died 185 A.D.), Justin Martyr’s disciple until the latter’s death, taught cessation of the soul’s existence with physical death in the 2^nd Century church. He was believed to have founded the Encratitic sect of Christendom, and marred his witness further by his association and acceptance of gnostic beliefs. But Tatian, the Watchtower, and all who advocate Soul Sleep or cessation of existence upon death stand in error as far as what the Bible states concerning human consciousness after physical death.