THEREFORE
SINCE THE CHILDREN
SHARE IN FLESH AND BLOOD: epei oun ta paidia kekoinoneken (3SRAI) haimatos
kai sarkos:
Children (3813)
(paidion from diminutive of país = child) refers literally to
a child or children recently born. Here it is a figurative endearing
appellation for the followers of Christ, human beings who are the
subjects of the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Share (2841)
(koinoneo from koinos = common, shared by all) means to have a
share in common with someone else. The idea is to share one's possessions
with the implication of some kind of joint participation and mutual
interest. The human race has in common flesh and blood.
Spurgeon writes...
As you know to your cost, for perhaps you have aches and pains about you at
this very moment. Verily, you are “partakers of flesh and blood.”
Perhaps you are suffering from despondency and depression of spirit. If so,
that reminds you that, however much you may, in spirit, sometimes soar to
heaven, yet you are still “partakers of flesh and blood.”
Flesh and blood
-- The order in the Greek text is “blood and flesh.” In the rabbinical
writers, this was a technical phrase speaking of human nature in contrast
with God. Jesus set aside the outward display of His deity and veiled
His Godhead in a “robe of clay.” But He did not stop at Bethlehem. “All the
way to Calvary He went for me because He loved me so.”
Flesh (4561)
(sarx)
refers to the covering of a living creature. Note that "flesh" is one
of those words that one must be careful to interpret because it has a wide
range of meanings depending on the context (See
word study)
Blood (blood)
(haima) is the fluid with its constituents (red blood cells, etc)
that forms the basis for life by transporting oxygen from the lungs to all
the body parts. Without blood there is no life.
Regarding the spiritual significance of the blood Moses records that...
the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the
altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the
life that makes atonement...as for the life of all flesh, its blood is
identified with its life. Therefore I said to the sons of Israel, 'You are
not to eat the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood;
whoever eats it shall be cut off.' (Leviticus 17:11, 14)
The angels fell, and
remained without hope or help. Christ never designed to be the Saviour of
the fallen angels. Therefore He did not take their nature; and the nature of
angels could not be an atoning sacrifice for the sin of man. Here is a price
paid, enough for all, and suitable to all, for it was in our nature. Here
the wonderful love of God appeared, that, when Christ knew what he must
suffer in our nature, and how he must die in it, yet he readily took it upon
Himself.
This atonement made way for God's people's to be delivered from Satan's bondage,
and to provide the ransom payment for the pardon of their sins which became
effective through personal belief in these truths. In light of the truth in
this passage, believers who dread death,
and strive to get the better of their terrors, need no longer attempt to
outbrave or to stifle them.
HE HIMSELF LIKEWISE ALSO
PARTOOK OF THE SAME: kai autos paraplesios meteschen (3SAAI) ton auton:
Spurgeon writes...
Christ’s great mission was not to save angels, but to save men. Therefore he
came not in the nature of angels, but in the nature of men.
He so took upon his flesh and blood as to die in our nature, that thus he
might slay death, and might set us free from all fear of death. Do you not
see that, if the representative Man, Christ Jesus, died, he also rose again,
and that so also will all who are in him rise, too? If you are in him, you
shall rise again. Therefore, fear not to lie down in your last sleep, for
the trumpet shall awaken you, and your bodies shall be molded afresh like
unto his glorious body, and your soul and body together shall dwell in
infinite bliss for ever.
“Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
We know what it is to be partakers of flesh and blood; we often wish
that we did not. It is the flesh that drags us down; it is the flesh that
brings us a thousand sorrows. I have a converted soul, but an unconverted
body. Christ has healed my soul, but He has left my body still to a large
extent in bondage, and therefore it has still to suffer; but the Lord will
redeem even that. The redemption of the body is the adoption, and that is to
come at the day of the resurrection. But think of Christ, Who was a partaker
of the Eternal Godhead, condescending to make Himself a partaker of flesh
and blood; — the Godhead linked with materialism; the Infinite, an infant;
the Eternal prepared to die, and actually dying! Oh, wondrous mystery, this
union of Deity with humanity in the person of Christ Jesus our Lord!
Likewise
(3898)
(paraplesios from
para = close to or alongside + plesios --nearby, near - Greek
word for neighbor derived from plesios!) means in a manner near by,
similarly, likewise, coming near, nearly, resembling, in like manner.
Expressing general similarity. The Lord Jesus, in His incarnation,
took His place
alongside and nearby the human race in a somewhat similar manner. It was not
altogether in a like manner because Jesus, unlike men, was conceived and born not
in sin (Heb 4:15). Jesus was not a mere semblance of a
body, as the heresy of Docetism taught (they say He was a "phantom" and it
just looked like He had a body but it wasn't a real body - this is overt
heresy for it could never secure redemption through His blood).
Partook (3348)
(metecho from metá = with, denoting association + écho
= have) means literally to hold with and so share in the possession
of something or have a share of. It has to do with taking hold of something
that is not naturally one's own kind. Christ was not in His natural
existence flesh and blood. And yet He willingly "took hold" of something
which did not naturally belong to Him. One of the requirements of a
kinsman-redeemer (see discussion of
Goel = Kinsman Redeemer)
in the Old Testament was to be related to the one for which the redemption
was undertaken. Jesus our Goel, our nearest Kinsman-Redeemer took on Himself
our nature in order that He might die in our place, paying the price of
redemption, which in turn would liberate us take hold of the divine nature
that did not belong to us. Peter writes about this in his second letter...
For by these (His own glory and excellence) He has granted to us His
precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become
partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in
the world by lust. (See note
2 Peter 1:4)
Adam sinned and forfeited his right of dominion over this earth. The forfeited inheritance
(according to Jewish law) was ransomed by the nearest of kin and so Jesus
became our nearest of kin by taking on humanity, in order to become our Goel
or Kinsman-Redeemer.
Partook or "had a part in" is the
aorist tense
(past completed action)
which points to the historical event of His incarnation, when
He became Man and accordingly one with mankind!
It is notable that the writer did not use the same word he used for men
sharing life with men, the word
koinonia which marks the characteristic sharing of the common fleshly
nature
(including the sin of Adam)
as it pertains to the human race at large. On the other hand metecho (took part
of) speaks of the unique fact of the incarnation as a voluntary acceptance
of humanity. Thus, our Lord took hold of human nature without its
sin in the incarnation, and held it to Himself as an additional nature
(the perfect God-Man, fully God, fully Man, a truth not fully comprehensible
to finite man), thus associating Himself with the human race in its
possession of flesh and blood. He took to Himself, something with
which by nature He had nothing in common (metecho), flesh and blood.
Human beings possess human nature in common with one another (koinonia).
The Son of God united with Himself, something that was not natural to Him.
Vincent writes that koinonia marks...
the characteristic sharing of the common fleshly nature as it pertains to
the human race at large, and the former (metecho) signifying the unique fact
of the incarnation as a voluntary acceptance of humanity.
What light this throws upon the Bible’s attitude towards the
dual nature of our Lord, Very God and Very Man! And He did this all for us!
His birth didn’t save anyone but by His death He saves us. It was not His birth or His
life but His death which brought to us salvation and deliverance from spiritual and
eternal death. He could not have undergone death as God but only by becoming
man. Not by Almighty power but by His death He overcame death.
THAT THROUGH DEATH
HE MIGHT RENDER POWERLESS
HIM WHO HAD
THE POWER OF DEATH THAT IS THE DEVIL: hina dia tou thanatou katargese
(3SAAS) ton to kratos echonta (PAPMSA) tou thanatou tout estin (3SPAI) ton
diabolon:
That (hina = introduces a
purpose clause) - Here the purpose
of Jesus' incarnation is clearly given - to render powerless, idle,
inoperative or ineffective the devil's power of death.
Through
(1223)
(dia) is a preposition denoting instrumentality, the means by which
something is accomplished, in this case the de-fanging of the devil's power
over those who have been delivered from the kingdom of darkness and
transferred to the kingdom of light, of God's Beloved Son.
Death (2288)
(thanatos) is literally a physical separation of the soul from the
body. Every form of death in the NT is treated not as a natural process but
always as a destroying power related to sin and its consequences. This is
certainly true in the case of the sinless God Man...
He (God the Father) made Him (Jesus the
Son) Who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the
righteousness of God in Him. (2 Cor 5:21)
Spurgeon writes...
That, through dying, he might overthrow Satan’s power for all who trust him.
By his own death, Christ broke that evil power which brought death into the
world with its long trail of woe. He did this, not by his example, not even
by his life, but by his death. Therefore let those who speak slightingly of
his atoning sacrifice see their folly, for it is through death that Christ
destroys “him that had the power of death, that is, the devil“
Render powerless
(2673)
(katargeo
from kata =
intensifies meaning + argeo = be idle from argos =
ineffective, idle, inactive from a = without + érgon = work)
(Click
word study on
katargeo)
literally means to reduce
to inactivity. The idea is to make the power or force of something
ineffective and so to render powerless, reduce to inactivity. To do away
with. To put out of use. To cause to be idle or useless. To render entirely
idle, inoperative or ineffective. Cause something to come to an end or cause
it to cease to happen. To abolish or cause not to function. To free or
release from an earlier obligation or relationship. To no longer take place.
Katargeo always denotes a nonphysical destruction by means of a
superior force coming in to replace the force previously in effect, as e.g.
light destroys darkness.
Katargeo in his verse means the
loss of well-being rather than loss of being. It means to nullify or to
bring to nothing. Satan is still actively opposing the purposes of God in
the world, but he received a death wound at the cross. His time is short and
his doom is sure. He is a defeated foe.
Barnes writes that...
"The word “destroy” here is not used in the sense of “closing life,” or of
“killing,” but in the sense of bringing into subjection, or crushing his
power. This is the work which the Lord Jesus came to perform - to destroy
the kingdom of Satan in the world, and to set up another kingdom in its
place."
Vine explains
that katargeo...
never means “to annihilate.” (= to
destroy utterly and completely and thus cause to cease to exist) The general
idea in the word is that of depriving a thing of the use for which it is
intended. Thus it implies, not loss of being, but loss of well-being (Ed
note: although this latter idea cannot be easily applied to many the NT
occurrences which refer to inanimate things such as the Law, death, the
power of sin, etc). (Vine,
W. Collected writings of W. E. Vine. Nashville: Thomas Nelson
)
Power
(2904) (kratos)
(Click
word study on
kratos)
means strength or might, especially manifested power, the power to rule or
control or dominion (power to rule, supreme authority, sovereignty,
the right to govern or rule or determine).
Krátos
denotes the presence and
significance of force or strength rather than its exercise. It is the
ability to exhibit or express resident strength.
MacDonald explains the devil's "power of death" as follows...
In what sense does the devil have the power of death? Probably the chief
sense in which he has this power is in demanding death. It was through Satan
that sin first entered the world. God’s holiness decreed the death of all
who sinned. So in his role as adversary, the devil can demand that the
penalty be paid. In heathen lands his power is also seen in the
ability of his agents, the witch doctors, to pronounce a curse on a
person and for that person to die
without any natural cause. There is no suggestion in Scripture that
the devil can inflict death on a believer without the permission of God (Job
2:6), and therefore he cannot set the time of a believer’s death. Through
wicked men, he is sometimes permitted to kill the believer. But Jesus warned
His disciples not to fear those who could destroy the body, but rather to
fear God who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Matt. 10:28). In
the OT, Enoch and Elijah went to heaven without dying. No doubt this was
because, as believers, they were reckoned to have died in the still-future
death of Christ. When Christ comes at the Rapture, all living
believers will go to heaven without dying. But they too escape death because
God’s holiness was satisfied for them in the death of Christ. The risen
Christ now has “the keys of Hades and of Death” (Rev. 1:18), that is, He has
complete authority over them. (MacDonald,
W & Farstad, A. Believer's Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson)
Kenneth Wuest explains that...
Satan was not annihilated at the Cross. His power was broken. Spiritual
death cannot hold the person who puts his faith in the Saviour. Physical
death cannot keep his body in the grave. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus
provides the believer with eternal life, and his body with glorification at
the Rapture. Thus, Jesus conquered death, and brought to naught the Devil.
Satan had the power of death, not in the sense that he had power over death,
but that he had the sovereignty or dominion of death.
He had a sovereignty of which death is the realm. The word for “power” in
the Greek text here is
kratos,
which means “power in the sense of dominion.” His dominion over the human
race was in the form of death. That dominion is now broken.
(Wuest,
K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Eerdmans)
Devil
(1228) (diabolos
from diá = through,
between + ballo = to cast, throw)
(Click
word study on
diabolos)
means a false
accuser, slanderer (one who utters false charges or
misrepresentations which defame and damage another’s reputation),
backbiting (malicious comment about one not present), one given to
malicious gossip or a calumniator (one who utters maliciously
false statements, charges, or imputations about, this term imputes malice to
the speaker and falsity to the assertions).
Diabolos is the
noun form of the verb diaballō which describes not only those who
bring a false charge against one, but also those who disseminate the truth
concerning a man, and do so maliciously, insidiously and with hostility.
Notice how the root
words (diá = through + ballo = throw) picture what the devil
does. He constantly throws between seeking to divide whether it be between a
husband and wife, a child and parent, a church, etc. Resist his divisive,
condemnatory accusations firm in your faith. Wuest has an interesting
comment that the literal meaning of "to throw through" means “to riddle one
with accusations.” (Wuest's
Word Studies from the Greek New Testament:: Eerdmans)
Diabolos is applied some 34 times
to Satan, the god of this world, and in each case has the definite
article in the Greek ("the" = defining a specific entity) and is
never in the plural (the three uses below in the pastoral epistles are all
plural) as when applied to men. (See discussion of the prince of the power
of the air under whose authority we all "walked" or lived when we were still
spiritually dead in our transgressions and sins -
Ephesians
2:2)
By virtue of faith in Christ's
death and His blood, and His burial and His resurrection the devil's grip on
men was broken.
(Jesus told Paul that He delivered him)
from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you,
to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and
from the dominion of Satan to God, in order that they may receive
forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified
by faith in Me.' (Acts 26:17-18)
In a parallel passage we read that
Jesus...
delivered us from the domain of
darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in Whom
we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (See note
Colossians 1:13;
Colossians 1:14)
Spiritual death cannot hold the person who puts his faith in
the Saviour. Physical death cannot keep his body in the grave. The
resurrection of the Lord Jesus provides the believer with eternal life the
moment of salvation, and
provides him with his glorified imperishable, immortal body at the Rapture. Thus, Jesus conquered death, and
brought to naught the Devil.
Though Satan would seek to impose physical death on the whole human race if
he could, he can only bring about a particular death when God allows it for
some greater purpose (Job 2:4-6; 1 Co 5:5). Satan had the power of death
not in the sense that he had power over death but that he had the
sovereignty (kratos) of this present world which death is the realm. Kratos
means “power in the sense of dominion.” His dominion over the human race is
now broken for those who receive Messiah's sacrifice as atonement for their
sins.
Paul in discussing the believer's future glorified body says that...
when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will
have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written,
"DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in
victory. "O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?" The
sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to
God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1Corinthians
15:54-57)
Jesus took away the "sting of death" which is "sin" because it is by sin
that death gains authority over man, and the power of sin is the law because
the law stirs up sin (Ro 5:12; 7:8-11).
Paul explains this relationship to sin and death writing...
Therefore just as through one man sin entered into the world, and
death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all
sinned (See notes
Romans 5:12)
Writing to Timothy Paul explained that Jesus
now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who
abolished (katargeo
= made it ineffective for believers) death, and brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel (See note
2 Timothy 1:10)
(Comment: Christ abolished death by bearing the sins of men on the
cross. As a result, death has now lost its sting for the believer [see above
1 Cor. 15:55]. In the resurrection, Christ conquered death for all believers
[1 Cor. 15:20, 48]. For them, to die is gain because to die is to be with
Christ [see notes
Philippians 1:21,
1:23].
The believer whose body is in the grave will rise bodily when Christ returns
for His own [1 Thess. 4:14-17]. As with Christ, so for the believer, there
will be no more death [Rev. 20:6; 21:4])
Just to make sure we understand - how did Jesus render powerless the
devil who had the power of sin? First, note that implication is that death itself is a power
which, though originally foreign to human nature, now reigns over it
(See
notes
Romans 5:12).
The devil w