Advent: Jesus Became Like Us to Save Us (Hebrews 2:14-18)

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Advent: Jesus Became Like Us to Save Us (Hebrews 2:14-18)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, December 21, 2025

Why did Jesus come?

Timothy Keller writes:

Hamlet was wrong. Where am I going next with that? Because Hamlet said, “… death, the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns, puzzles the will and makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all …” But he’s wrong. Someone has come back from death.

When I see Jesus Christ raised, when I see Jesus Christ having destroyed the power of death, when I see Jesus Christ having opened a cleft in the pitiless walls of the world, blown a hole through the back of death, and bids me come through, and says, “Believe in me, follow me, and I’ll take you through it,” I’m not a coward anymore. You don’t realize the degree to which you are enslaved to the fear of death until the faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ comes into your life and begins to release you from it.[1]

My theme today is:

Jesus became like us to save us.

  1. By His death, Jesus broke the power of satan (Hebrews 2:14-15).
    1. Hebrews 2:14–15 (ESV) 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, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
    2. Through death, Jesus was able to destroy the devil.
    3. Piper:
    4. This, I think, is my favorite Advent text because I don’t know any other that expresses so clearly the connection between the beginning and the end of Jesus’s earthly life — between the incarnation and crucifixion. These two verses make clear why Jesus came; namely, to die.[2]
    5. We are flesh and blood, so Jesus took on flesh.
    6. Jesus did this for us. It is all about God, and the reason He did this is all about us.
    7. Jesus is not helping the angels, but us (verses 15-16). We have a fear of death, or we should. Jesus is here to conquer that fear.
    8. We were subject to lifelong slavery to sin. Jesus conquered that.
  2. Having once suffered, Jesus is now able to sympathize with those suffering (Hebrews 2:16-18).
    1. Hebrews 2:16–18 (ESV)
    2. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
    3. In verse 16, the writer shares that Jesus did not die for the angels.
    4. No, He came for the offspring of Abraham.
    5. In Hebrews 1, the writer was sharing how Jesus is greater than the angels. So, now He writes that Jesus did not die for the angels.
    6. The offspring of Abraham would be us. Hebrews was a letter written to Jewish believers, but Romans and Galatians teach that Gentiles are grafted in (Romans 11:11-24; Galatians 3-4).
    7. Hebrews 2:17 continues the idea begun in verse 14 that Jesus had to be a human to be our high priest and to be a sacrifice for our sins.
    8. He is our merciful and faithful High Priest.
    9. He makes propitiation for our sins. This means that He appeases God’s wrath on our sin. His death appeases the wrath of God.
    10. This term means that He bore God’s wrath and curse that rested on “the people” who sinned (Rom. 3:25, 26).[3]
    11. Hebrews 2:18 (ESV)
    12. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
    13. As C.S. Lewis says, our great Captain has opened a cleft in the pitiless walls of the world and bids us come through.[4]
    14. John Piper writes:
    15. The Son of God, who existed before the incarnation as the eternal Word (John 1:1), took on flesh and blood, and clothed his deity with humanity. He became fully man and remained fully God.
    16. that through death . . .
    17. The reason Christ became human was to die. As preincarnate God, he could not die for sinners. But united to flesh and blood, he could. His aim was to die. Therefore, he had to be born human, mortal.
    18. In dying, Christ defanged the devil. How? By covering all our sin (Hebrews 10:12). This means that Satan has no legitimate grounds to accuse us before God. “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies” (Romans 8:33). On what grounds does he justify? Through the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 9:14; Romans 5:9).
    19. Satan’s ultimate weapon against us is our own sin. If the death of Jesus takes it away, the chief weapon the devil has is taken out of his hand. In that sense, he is rendered powerless.
    20. So, we are free from the fear of death. God has justified us. There is only future grace in front of us. Satan cannot overturn that decree. And God means for our ultimate safety to have an immediate effect on our lives. He means for the happy ending to take away the slavery and fear of the present.[5]

Timothy Keller brings this to life:

I knew a guy years ago in my former church who was an x-ray technician. He worked in a hospital, and he put people up on the table. I went in to see him because he was in the hospital himself because I think, if I remember correctly, he had a kidney stone. When I spoke to him, he was in the hospital. He was in a lot of pain, and he had just been put on the table by one of his x-ray technician colleagues.

He had just come back to his room, and I said, “How’s it going?” He said to me, “When I get out of here I am going to have a radically different bedside manner.” I said, “Why?” He said, “Well, I really never knew what it was like to be on the table myself. I will never be impatient with a client again. I will never treat them like a cipher. I will never treat them like cattle, because I know what it’s like. I will never unnecessarily be brusque with them, because I’ve been on the table myself. I’ve been changed. I’ve been on the table. Therefore, I will never treat people on the table the same way.”

Jesus Christ, we’re told, was really human. He suffered. Here’s someone who knows everything we know. Have you been betrayed this year? So has he. Have you been isolated or lonely this year? So has he. Have you been broke this year? So has he. Have you faced death this year? So has he. He has faced pain and rejection and homelessness and misunderstanding and isolation and grief and loss.

We’re told in the Bible in Hebrews 5:7, when he was on earth, what does it say? “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.” Not a little tear in the eye, but loud cries and tears. God not only came as a human being, but he refused to come as a human being with nerves of steel, somebody who was always crying, weeping over Jerusalem, weeping over his dead friend Lazarus, and sweating blood over his own doom.

What does this mean? It means if you have in your mind intellectually Jesus is fully human, but functionally you really think of him the way the Sunday school books used to picture him, tan, always beautifully tan, glowing, sort of porcelain-looking, his white clothes glistening, and always sort of hovering about six feet above the grass. He has been on the table, and he will never treat anybody else on the table in a way that’s inappropriate.[6]

[1] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

[2] Devotional excerpted from “Born to Die for Freedom”

Desiring God. Org; accessed on Nov. 10, 2025

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/why-jesus-came?utm_campaign=Daily%20Email&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=80359528&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9sEIZCPQrqeQ0_q29aMS6UHrKG655aaCzSsFb8m72uIksVzgwWUyuYREO3O-faz23RKVPSdWOZGJj4253X-MsJuYP7bw&_hsmi=80359528

[3] R. C. Sproul, ed., The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) (Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2015), 2200.

[4] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

[5] Devotional excerpted from Future Grace, pages 354–356; accessed on 11.10.2025 published on Desiring God August 2.

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/afraid-of-death-no-more?utm_campaign=Daily%20Email&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=92284673&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8_S2yKbJ7gHzlpvHMgCDC497DXRcW2ltwXYv2JVex7bo-KtioMpTkpzGlNM2-x0pIXooabJ1MkJTIudrRnCR50NvowOw&utm_content=92284673&utm_source=hs_email

[6] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

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