Hebrews 2 - "Jesus Was Tempted in Every Way Just Like We Are!"

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Warning to Pay Attention

2 We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. 2 For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, 3 how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. 4 God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

Most believe that the message spoken through the angels is the Old Testament revelation of God's Word given to Moses with the Ten Commandments. 

This describes the Mosaic Law, which was received…by the direction of angels (Acts 7:53). The idea is that the law was delivered in some way to Moses by the hands of angels. - Guzik

The idea that angels had a role in bringing the Law to Moses is found in Deuteronomy 33:2, Acts 7:53, and in Galatians 3:19. Josephus also repeated this idea in his ancient history (Antiquities, 15.53).

If this is the case with a message spoken by angels, how much more binding is the message Jesus, our Lord, has given to us. Importantly this is the message of salvation. The Law given to Moses was good and holy, but it had no power to save. But the message of salvation was announced by the Lord and then accomplished on the cross when he died for the sins of the world. 

Then, it says this salvation was "confirmed by us who heard him". This would lead us to believe that the writer of Hebrews was a second generation disciple, as they heard about Jesus from the first generation of apostles. The message was confirmed at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit distributed many gifts upon the apostles that allowed them to do signs, wonders, and miracles. When you realize these were fishermen and tax collectors it shows this was not of human origin. 

Jesus Made Fully Human

5 It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. 6 But there is a place where someone has testified: “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him? 7 You made them a little[a] lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor 8 and put everything under their feet.”[b][c] In putting everything under them,[d] God left nothing that is not subject to them.[e] Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them.[f] 9 But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

The author returns to the superiority of Jesus to angels. He again quotes the Psalms to speak of the relationship between men to angels and then to Jesus. When Jesus was a man, he was made subject to angels, but after his resurrection he was crowned with glory. Jesus went to the right hand of the Father, and when he returns every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, including angels. 

 It is Biblically wrong to think of Jesus as merely God or merely man. It is wrong to think of Him as half God and half man (or any other percentage split). It is wrong to think of Him as “man on the outside” and “God on the inside.” The Bible teaches Jesus is fully God and fully man, that a human nature was added to His divine nature, and both natures existed in one Person, Jesus Christ. - Guzik

Significantly, the first false teaching about Jesus in the days of the early church did not deny that He was God, but it denied that He was really human and said He only seemed to be human. The heresy was called Docetism, coming from the ancient Greek word “to seem,” and was taught by Cerinthus, who opposed the apostle John in the city of Ephesus and whose teaching is probably the focus of 1 John 4:2 and 1 John 5:6. - Guzik

10 In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. 11 Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.[g] 12 He says, “I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters; in the assembly I will sing your praises.”[h] 13 And again, “I will put my trust in him.”[i] And again he says, “Here am I, and the children God has given me.”[j]

One of the unique and amazing aspects of our Christian faith is that Jesus accomplished our salvation through his suffering as a human being. He became one of us, so that he could save us and bring him to glory with him. 

Conceivably, God could have engineered a way to save us that did not require the suffering of the Son of God. But it was fitting for Jesus to save us at the cost of His own agony. - Guzik

 “We know that had he only been God yet still he would not have been fitted for a perfect Savior, unless he had become man. Man had sinned; man must suffer. It was man in whom God’s purposes had been for a while defeated; it must be in man that God must triumph over his great enemy.” (Spurgeon)

14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like them,[k] fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Jesus' humanity also played a role in defeating our enemy the devil. Though the devil came to steal, kill, and destroy, Jesus defeated the power of death on the cross. Though we will all die, death is not the end of the story. As believers in Jesus, we will be raised from the dead, as He too was raised from the dead. 

Jesus defeated the power of sin, which is death, but also gave us freedom over the sinful nature through the Holy Spirit. Though we will struggle against the devil and our sinful nature until Jesus returns and we are released from this body of death, we still have a power through Jesus we never had before. If you are struggling with sin, realize that you have the power of Jesus living in you. The power of the resurrection. Live in this power. Sin no longer has dominion over you. 

Then the writer says something really important. 

For this reason he had to be made like them,[k] fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

This confronts the false teaching that Jesus only "appeared" to be human. The author makes it clear that Jesus was "fully human". He was tempted in "every way" as we were. Because Jesus was tempted in every way, there is never a situation you find yourself in that Jesus hasn't experienced. Jesus can and will intercede for you as a priest because he knows what we are going through. Though Jesus didn't sin, he was tempted to sin, and therefore he knows what it is like to endure it and overcome it. 

If you are struggling with sin realize that Jesus knows what you are going through. Jesus experienced our trials so that when he died on the cross, he would set us free from the times we gave into temptation. 

Some wonder if Jesus was really tempted. After all, since He was God (they reason), He could not sin – so His temptation could not be real. The writer to the Hebrews insists that not only was Jesus’ temptation real, but it was so real that He suffered under it. - Guzik

  We have two advantages – knowing the example of Jesus in temptation, but also having His active assistance from heaven, providing strength and a way of escape. With these we can find victory in the midst of temptation and come out better from being tempted. Jesus did not lose anything from being tempted – He only gained in glory and sympathy and ability to help His people. In the same way, we do not have to lose anything when we are tempted. - Guzik 

Jesus was a real person. He was really tempted in every way. He really died and really rose from the dead.  Christianity is real and you can count on Jesus to take you to heaven if you trust in Him!