Heb 2:10–18 — The Captain of Our Salvation

The Captain of Our Salvation

The title of the sermon today is taken from verse 10 which is in the ESV, which says that he is the founder of their salvation, that Christ is the founder of their salvation. And I have taken the liberty of revising the ESV translation and using the King James translation of that word, “Founder.” And I have titled the sermon, “The Captain of Our Salvation.” That is how the King James translates that phrase.

And we will look at that in a minute. I do not know if this, but this past Thursday, May 14th, was Ascension Day. Did you know about that? Did you know that this past Thursday was the day in which we celebrate and commemorate the ascension of Christ into heaven? It is one of those days that we often neglect. We do not really talk about it that much. Often it falls on a weekday, so it is not easily celebrated in church.

But it is Ascension Day based upon the point that is given to us in Acts chapter one, very first paragraph of the book of Acts. Where the author of Acts, Luke, tells us that after the resurrection of Jesus, Jesus spent 40 days with his disciples, meeting with them, celebrating with them and talking to them about the kingdom of God. And then he ascended into heaven on the 40th day.

So if you look at your calendar, you go back to Easter day and you count 40 days. Actually you count Easter itself as the first day. That is an interesting thing. In our way of thinking, we would count the next day as day one, but the biblical reckoning uses what is called inclusive reckoning. Easter day itself is day one. You count 40 days beginning with Easter and you look at your calendar it takes you to May 14th which was this past Thursday.

Unfortunately, the church is so focused on Easter, and we have a whole Sunday celebrating Easter, and every Sunday, every Lord’s Day is a celebration of the resurrection of Christ, that we tend to downplay or forget or not really think too much about the ascension of Christ into heaven.

But what is interesting is that the author of Hebrews is massively focused on that. The author of Hebrews is laser-like focused on the ascension and exaltation of Christ far more than the resurrection of Christ. Now it does not mean that he denies the resurrection. Of course the resurrection is critical. But he does not talk about the resurrection as much. He does not talk about Christ was raised from the dead as much.

He does mention it one time explicitly at the very end of the letter in Hebrews chapter 13 verse 20 in that benediction. He talks about how the Lord has been raised, he says, the God of peace has raised again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep.

So he does mention the resurrection at the very end of the letter, but most of the focus in this letter, in the letter to the Hebrews, is on the ascension and exaltation of Christ. Even more than the ascension, the ascension pictures in our mind the actual moment when he lifted up into heaven. We are thinking of that moment of his ascension into heaven. But the author of Hebrews is focusing even more on the fact that he is presently at the right hand of God in his exalted state. That is the focus of the letter to the Hebrews.

Destroying Death and the Devil

Not denying the resurrection, in fact the resurrection is critical, In fact, even in our text, it is implied, it is not stated, but implied when he talks about how Christ died so that he might destroy the one who has the power of death. That is in verse 14. How could he destroy the one who has the power of death through death? Unless his death was also followed by resurrection. If his death was simply death and he remained in the grave, then he would not be able to destroy the one who has the power of death. The fact that he is able to deliver us from the power of death through his death implies through his death and resurrection. But he does not say it directly. Spell it out, he just implies it, because his focus, the author of Hebrews is focusing on the present reality of this risen Christ who is exalted at the right hand of God.

That is the focus of this entire letter. The entire letter is continually going back and back to that theme. I stated at the very beginning, remember the opening paragraph, that wonderful period, it is one long sentence in Greek. Where he says, long ago, and in many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.

But in these last days, he has spoken to us through his son. And then he describes who the son is. And what does he say? He says, the son is divine. He is the radiance of God’s glory. He upholds all things. God created all things through him, but he focuses upon his ascension.

He says, after making purification for sins, his death, He then sat down. He just skips over the resurrection. He implies it, but he just skips over it. It says, after his purification for sins, after offering the final sacrifice that purifies us from our sin, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

That is the ascension. That is the exaltation. That is the weight of this whole letter. Yes, he is going to talk a lot about the earthly life of Christ, how when he was on earth, he lived as a perfect man. He obeyed the Father. He persevered through temptation and testing. He does talk about the death of Christ and how he offered himself as the final sacrifice. But the main thrust of this letter, the main emphasis is on the ascension and exaltation of this glorious Lord Jesus Christ.

And all of that is implied, it is all packed into this one word that I said should be translated not as founder, but something along the lines of captain. So in verse 10 of our text, it says, for it was fitting that he, that is God, for whom and by whom all things exist, the creator God, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder, captain, other translations are possible, I am going with captain, the captain of our salvation, the captain of their salvation, perfect through suffering. How do we see the ascension of Christ in that statement there, that he is the captain of our salvation? We see it because this word, captain, is a rich word that includes a lot of different ideas within it. And perhaps the very fact that so many of our English translations have different translations of that word indicates that. There is two main clusters of translations, clustering around two different metaphors here.

And those two different metaphors are the idea of someone who begins or originates a process, or the metaphor of someone who leads a group of people from one place to another. So that first metaphor of someone who begins a process, an originator, who authors or initiates a process, that is the basis for translations like author, the author of their salvation. That is what the NASB, that is how the NASB translates it. The author of their salvation. It is also the explanation for the ESV’s translation, which is using that same cluster of ideas, the idea of someone who initiates or begins a process, and so the ESV goes with founder, the founder of their salvation. That metaphor would be more specifically like the founder of a city. Some important military hero who founded a new city.

And then that becomes the origination point of this new process that begins. And that is all legitimate. I think that first cluster of meanings and translations, whether author or founder or originator, are all legitimate. But there is another metaphor here as well. And that is the metaphor of someone who leads a group of people to a destination. The Septuagint often uses this word, this Greek word in this sense, in reference, for example, to the tribal leaders of the sons of Israel who led the people.

They were the ones, remember, they sent out the spies or the scouts into the land to investigate the land. Of course, two of them were Joshua and Caleb. And they came back with a good report and said, yes, let us go in. The Lord’s going to give us this land as he promised. The other 10 were negative and critical and were not properly exercising the leadership role that God had given them. But nevertheless, they were leaders. They were leading. They were supposed to lead the people. They were supposed to come back with a good report and lead them and say, let us do this like Joshua and Caleb did.

This second metaphor, the second meaning of the word, gives rise to another set of possible translations, including the one that I am recommending, which is captain. The idea, right, of the captain of the team who is part of the team, right, he is not like some distant CEO, he is part of the team who is there rallying the troops and encouraging them to go forward.

Another possible translation would be pioneer. That is what the NIV goes with. Pioneer fits in with that same second group of translations, like captain. Or possibly even trailblazer. That is also an idea behind this word. The trailblazer, the one who forges the path. Who clears the weeds, who says, OK, let us go. And then we come in behind him, and we follow.

That is the point that this metaphor, this term, is trying to communicate. It is such a rich word in Greek that it is hard to pick one translation in English that captures all of these thoughts. And I think even that first group of meanings, such as author and founder, are also implied here.

Because Christ is our pioneer who is the first one who has made it to heaven through his ascension into heaven. He is the first one who has entered into the promised land, but he is doing so as our leader, as our captain, and calling us to follow him into that heavenly place. According to the author of Hebrews, the ascension and exaltation of Christ is the key moment. It is the most important moment in the history of redemption because it is then that the Son as incarnate, not the pre-existent Son with the Father at creation, but the Son as a man, the Son having taken upon Himself our nature, the Son as incarnate, has passed through the suffering time, has passed through the time of struggle, and hacking through the weeds and through the bushes. And who has made it to that heavenly destination.

And he has done so as a leader, as a captain, as a pioneer who is calling us to follow him, calling us to persevere as well and to enter into that glorious reality. Is it not amazing to think about this idea? This idea that Christ is not merely a man. He is a man. But he is a man who has achieved God’s purpose for humanity. He is a man who has achieved that final goal of being crowned with glory and honor as was originally destined for Adam.

That is why the author of Hebrews has that whole section that we looked at last week quoting from Psalm 8. Which says what is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you care for him you made him for a little while lower than the angels but now you have crowned him with glory and honor having put everything that is all creation in subjection under his feet.

And we saw how those words are very full of meaning because on the one hand they refer to Christ but they also refer to David and the Davidic kings but they also refer to David and the Davidic kings as Adamic figures describing the royal authority of the Davidic king in Adam-like terminology as having authority over all creation. Going all the way back to Genesis 1, the very beginning of the Bible, when it says that God made man in his own image and he gave him dominion over all of creation. That was God’s purpose for mankind at the beginning, is that he would be crowned with glory and honor, having dominion over the entire created world. David and the Davidic Kings that came after him were a little picture of that, but it was not yet fully fulfilled until Christ came. Now Christ is the true Adam, the true David.

He is the one who has achieved it. And in this sense then, he is the pioneer, the captain, the one who has achieved that final state of being crowned with glory and honor at his ascension into heaven. And he has done so not just for himself, because he is the divine son of God, and therefore he is worthy of divine honor. He has done so as our representative. He has done so as our captain. He has done so as our leader who is there to bring us along with him. To bring many sons to glory. That word glory, which is used in verse 10, is linking back to the statement that Christ is crowned with glory and honor in verse 9, which links back to Psalm 8, verse 5, that Adam was crowned with glory and honor as well.

Who Is This Captain?

The point of this passage then is that having clearly established the deity of Christ, that he was with the Father before creation, he was the one through whom God created all things. He is the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Trinity. The point of this passage is that this divine Son became a man. In the fullness of time, the Son took our human nature into union with himself and became the God-man. And therefore he is the incarnate son. But he is not only incarnate, he is the incarnate son who is now exalted and who has achieved that purpose for mankind that was given to man at the very beginning. He is not an ordinary man. He is the Son of God, very God of very God, who for us and for our salvation became man, as we confess in the Nicene Creed.

But He not only became man, He also suffered, and He not only suffered, He also was exalted. He ascended into heaven. He is exalted and he is there in heaven as the captain of our salvation, bringing many sons to glory. Why is he called the captain or the pioneer of our salvation? Because of this Christology.

Because of this fact that he is God and man in two natures and one person forever. Because he is God, the Son of God, but he is God the Son in his incarnate reality as one who has become one of us. And having become one of us, he has then advanced our nature to that heavenly reality.

He has taken his place on the human side of the covenant relationship. There is the covenant relationship between God and his people. And the amazing thing is that the second person of the Trinity, who is God himself, has stepped into the human side of that covenant. He has become one of the people. He has become one of us. He has taken our side in that relationship so that he might represent us before God.

Our Brother and Representative

Notice how our text makes a big point of that in verses 11 and following. After saying that he is the captain of our salvation who has been made perfect through suffering, it then explains what that means by focusing on the true humanity of Christ and how he is not only just, not only is it the fact that he has become a man, but he has become One of us, he has participated in our side of the covenant relationship. Notice verse 11. Verse 11 says, for he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source.

This is a complicated sentence to understand. And the commentators have different interpretations of this. The first thing to understand is that the word sanctify is being used here in an Old Testament sense that means to consecrate, to set apart as holy unto God.

It is not being used in the sense that we often use it in our ordinary conversations where we talk about our sanctification, our progressive sanctification. It is not referring to that explicitly, although that might be part of it. But the point here is that it is more focusing upon this objective reality of being set apart as holy unto God. It includes sanctification, progressive sanctification, but even more so, it focuses upon justification.

The Sanctifier and the Sanctified

It focuses upon the fact that our sins have been atoned for so that we are now set apart as holy before God. What does it mean when it says, he who sanctifies, or he who sets apart as holy, and those who are sanctified, those who are set apart as holy, all have one source.

What does that mean? They all have one source. That phrase, they have one source, is confusing. Some say it means that we have the same father. The father of Christ is also our father. That is a possibility. Another possibility is that it means that they are from the same stock.

So the idea here is that there is a general truth about priests in the Old Covenant. That priests were called to be consecrators. They were called to be those who offer the sacrifice and make the people holy. But the priests were called from among the people. Look at Hebrews 5. Hebrews 5. Verse 1 tells us that. Hebrews 5. Verse 1.

For every priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men. In relation to God. So a priest is like a mediator, a priest in the Old Testament, like Aaron. He is a man just like the people, he is chosen from the people, but he is elevated to a position so that he might represent the people on behalf of God in relation to God and to offer sacrifices for sins. I think that is what Hebrews 2 verse 11 is referring to. Both the sanctifying priest and those who are the people being sanctified by the priest’s work, they all have the same stock. They come from the same group. He comes from the people so that he could stand in the presence of God and represent them.

Remember how in the Old Testament, the high priest would go into the inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies. Of course, that was only once a year on the Day of Atonement. But when he went in there, he went in there wearing a breastplate with the 12 tribes written upon the breastplate, the 12 stones representing each of the 12 tribes. And the purpose of that was to say that he is going in there to represent the people.

So if he goes into the inner sanctuary and then he is rejected, let us say God strikes him dead because God’s unhappy with the people, that means that the people are now being discarded and rejected. But if, on the other hand, the priest goes in there and is accepted, his sacrifice is accepted, and he is able to enter into the very holy presence of God, the inner sanctuary, without being killed, being accepted before him, that means that the people are accepted. The people are being represented by him, and therefore their acceptance is representatively guaranteed through his The point is that in the old covenant then, both the priest and the people that the priest represented are men. They are from the same stock. They come from the people. In fact, the priests came from one of the 12 tribes, the tribe of Levi. And so the priests represent the people and are taken from the people. Of course, our great high priest is different from those priests because those priests were mere men. But our priest is the eternal divine son of God. He is much stronger and much more able to atone for sin and to truly give us that acceptance before God. Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that he is distinct from the human priests of the old covenant, he is also one of us.

He follows that same pattern. He who sanctifies, the priest who sanctifies and sets apart as holy, and those, the people who are being sanctified by his work, they all have the same source. They are from the same stock. And that is why, we go on to read at the end of verse 11, that is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers. That is the point.

Because he became a man, because he is one of us, he comes from the same stock as the people whom he represents. He is not ashamed to call us brothers. He does not say, look, I am the divine son of God. I am the eternal son of God. I do not need to worry about these people down here. Maybe we will come and do something to help them out.

A Merciful and Faithful High Priest

No, he becomes one of us so that he is not ashamed to call us brothers. He participates in our life. He becomes a man just like us. And he lives in this fallen world just as we do. That is why the author of Hebrews is going to emphasize the priestly work of Christ as our great high priest who is sympathetic, our sympathetic high priest. He talks about that at the end there in verse 18. He himself has suffered when tempted. And so he is able to help those who are being tempted. We were kind of getting ahead of ourselves by looking at that last verse.

But let us continue on in our text here because now the author of Hebrews quotes from two passages in the Old Testament to bring out this idea, to bring out this idea of the captain and the people that he represents and how he is bringing them to glory. The first quotation is from Psalm 22. I will tell of your name to my brothers. In the midst of the congregation, I will praise you.” This is the part in Psalm 22 where the whole narrative shifts. The first part of Psalm 22 from verses 1 all the way down to verse 21 is the lament part.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? David is lamenting because he is crying out to God for help in the midst of his distress, being persecuted. And the sufferings of David, of course, are a type, a picture of the sufferings of Christ. As we know, the Gospels all pick up on that. And that very first statement of the lament part of the psalm, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me, is taken up on the lips of Jesus himself when he is hanging upon the cross. But the part that the author of Hebrews is quoting is where everything shifts, the mood shifts.

Because now, beginning in Psalm 22, verse 22, now David has been delivered. And now he is rejoicing in the temple. He has come back to, well, the temple has not been built yet, but the tabernacle. He has come back to the presence of God in the sanctuary to thank the Lord for his deliverance.

David’s sufferings, especially when he was being persecuted by the likes of King Saul, were not the sufferings of a private individual. The lament part is not simply an individual Israelite who is suffering and crying out to God for help. The lament part of Psalm 22 is the lament of God’s anointed. And so when he is crying out for deliverance, he is crying out for deliverance, not only for himself, but for those whom he represents. The captain, right, who is going through suffering is calling out for deliverance on behalf not only of himself, but of his people, of his team, of those who are coming with him, of his brothers.

So when David’s pleas for deliverance have been answered, In the Old Testament that would be in an earthly deliverance, maybe a literal victory in battle or being acclaimed as king at Hebron. Of course, in the typology, in the fulfillment, this is referring to the resurrection and ascension of Christ.

But when David’s pleas for deliverance are answered, then all of the godly who look to him as their captain rejoice with him. All the offspring of Israel glorified God, for God had not despised or abhorred the affliction of his afflicted servant. And so the godly in Israel who looked to David as the true heir to the throne felt that they themselves were now vindicated through the vindication of their captain. And so that is why the author of Hebrews here is quoting from this second part of the psalm where the mood shifts.

It is the resurrection phase, the vindication phase, to bring out this thought to show us this reality that Christ is not simply a man in the sense that he became a man, but he is a man in the sense of having solidarity with us. He is a man in the sense of being the captain of his people. He is the elder brother of his brothers. There are so many different metaphors that the author of Hebrews uses to communicate this glorious thought of the captain and his team, the elder brother and his brothers, the high priest and the people whom he represents. These are all just different ways of trying to communicate this glorious reality that we have a savior, we have a representative, we have a king, we have our champion, just like with the way the Israelites looked to David as their champion. He went out to fight Goliath on his own, but when he got the victory over Goliath, the whole army of Israel was now joining in on the victory because the champion got the victory for them. All of this idea of the head and the body, the leader and the people who are being led by him. The author of Hebrews is drawing from all of these different passages in the Old Testament, whether it is Psalm 22, and David and his people, or whether it is from Isaiah.

The one from Isaiah is in verse 13. Verse 13, and again, I will put my trust in him. Who is the I who is speaking there? It is Isaiah the prophet. Now we are talking about a completely different episode in redemptive history. This is several hundred years after David, but we see the same principle. The same principle is that Isaiah the prophet was like a captain. He was like David.

He had this authority, this privilege that God had called him to be a prophet, to represent the people. And he was, by and large, rejected by the majority of the nation. Most of the nation of Israel at this time was completely apostate, and God was sending them into exile for their sin.

But there was a remnant, and the remnant began with his own family, his wife and his children. Read about it in Isaiah 8. It even mentions the names of the children. God said, you name this one, this particular name, and it is a big fancy name in Hebrew, You name this other one this other name, but these are specifically given to symbolize the idea that here is the remnant, the remnant, the godly remnant that believes in the message of Isaiah, that believes that God is going to restore Israel in the future through the Messiah. So here you have this idea, the same concept of the elder brother and his brothers, the high priest and the people, or Isaiah and his immediate family. I will put my trust in him and behold, I and the children that God has given me. Those two statements there.

It looks like the way it is written in Hebrews 2:13, it looks like it is completely two separate quotations from different parts of the Bible. But if you look it up, it is actually the same verse. It is Isaiah 8, verses 17 and 18. And he quotes verse 17 in verse 13, I will put my trust in him. And then he quotes verse 18 in the next part, behold, I and the children God has given me.

Isaiah and his wife and children, as well as Isaiah’s disciples, it mentions the disciples of Isaiah who believed in Isaiah’s message, the godly remnant, they are trusting in God and waiting for God to vindicate Isaiah’s message and to bring about the fulfillment of his promises to the remnant.

The nation as a whole has failed to trust and to obey God. But Isaiah and the circle that is immediately surrounding him, a small little church plant the rest of the nation rejects God but there is a little church plant, a little remnant that is clinging to Isaiah’s message. They are a picture of Christ and his people, of Christ and his church. The prophet Isaiah is a type of Christ, and Isaiah’s children and his disciples are a type of the church.

Christ then is entering into solidarity with the people of God, and he becomes their chief spokesman and representative before God. And therefore, when Isaiah says, I, I, Isaiah, will put my trust in him, he is speaking the same language of the Messiah himself.

Trusting in God in the midst of trouble, in the midst of they are about to go into exile, trusting God is one of the chief requirements of the human side of that covenant. The people of God are supposed to trust in God. That is one of the main things. That is the first commandment, to trust God.

The people of Israel, of course, do not trust God. They are continually looking to idols or looking to Assyria or to Egypt to help them out. Foreign powers to deliver them rather than trusting in God. But Isaiah, as a type of Christ, trusts and obeys God where the human covenant partner has failed. And he does so, Isaiah does so, as the Messiah does, that is surrounded by his covenant family, by his brothers, or by his children whom he represents.

Do not get confused by this, which is from brothers to children. You think, well, how can that be. How can we be both the brothers of Christ and the children of Christ? These are just different metaphors to try to communicate this idea of the head of the family with his children, or the captain with his team, or the elder brother with his brothers, but the same idea of the representative nature of the work of Christ.

Let us conclude with this one thought here. Do you not love that statement there in verse 11b, that he is not ashamed to call us brothers? Do you not love that? Is that not wonderful to think about it? He has every right to be ashamed of us. Does he not?

We have sinned. Even as those that believe in the Lord, we have sinned. We have sinned this week. We have sinned today. And yet He is not ashamed to call us brothers. The incarnate Son is not distant from us and far from us. He is our brother and He brings us nigh to God. He became flesh and entered into our experience and our reality. He suffered what we suffer. And interestingly, He also was tempted like we are.

The author of Hebrews mentions that at the end in verse 18. That is a difficult concept to grasp because he was not tempted in the same way that we are because the way we are tempted is we are tempted because of our own sinful desires. And he never had any sinful desires. So that is a mysterious aspect that we are going to have to talk about more because Hebrews will flesh this out more as we get into the book of Hebrews, especially in chapter four. So I do not want to explain all the niceties of that theological conundrum, but just reflect upon that. Reflect upon that truth, even though it is hard for us to figure that out.

Yet he is one of us, and he suffered like we suffer, and he was tempted somehow in a way that is similar to the way that we are tempted. He is on our side. He is not simply like a distant king who is commanding us and saying, be obedient and stop sinning. He is one of us. He has become our brother. He has become our captain on the team.

He has entered into our experience and our struggles and our temptations. And the wonderful thing is, is that he has made it through all of those. With us, with our temptations, we continually fall. We continually fail to pass the test. But with Christ, he made it through. He made it through all of those temptations without sinning. He made it through even the most horrific reality of our humanity as those who are post-fall living under the effects of Adam’s sin and the curse, which is death.

The physical reality of death itself, which is a pretty scary thing. Just think about how death for us is not something that we are thrilled to think about. Death is, yes, we know we have this hope that we will be with the Lord forever and it is all going to be good in the end. But at the same time, there is a part of us that kind of goes, I do not really want to die, ?

And we struggle with that. There is a part of our flesh that kind of rebels against that. That is another temptation. That is another struggle. That is another part of our humanity. As fallen, that we can thank the Lord that Christ himself has endured for us, but he has endured it perfectly.

He went through death and then he has gone beyond death, been raised from the dead and ascended into heaven, entering into that perfect place with the Lord forever as our captain, as our leader. Knowing that we have a captain, knowing that we have a forerunner, a trailblazer, in heaven, who has already been through all the suffering part and all the struggle part and death and everything. And he has already made it through into the promised land. He has already made it through into heaven itself.

And he is there for us. He is not just there distant. He is not like, he is like, okay, I did all that. Now I do not have to worry about that anymore. I do not need to care about the people down here. No, he is there in heaven for us. Just like the high priest is there in the inner sanctuary for us.

He still has our names written upon his breastplate. He is there for us. Knowing that, knowing that we have a captain, a forerunner, a trailblazer, one who is the captain of our salvation, bringing many sons to glory, knowing that, that is the number one key to persevering in the Christian life here in this phase of it, the wilderness phase, the struggle phase, the suffering time. Knowing that, knowing that He is there in heaven and He is not ashamed to call us brothers, and He is still not ashamed to call us brothers, and He is there in heaven leading us into that same place where He has gone before us. As our anchor. He is already there. It is like he is, the author of Hebrews is going to talk about this later in Hebrews 6.

It is like he is the anchor that has already been lodged into heaven. And then we are like connected to him by faith, by the spirit. And he is reeling us in. He is reeling us into heaven because he is the anchor that is already hooked there. He is already lodged there in that heavenly place for us.

The author of Hebrews is saying to us this basic idea, which is that this is the whole key to the Christian life. So many things to think about in the Christian life about how we should have personal devotions, how we should pray, how we should read the Bible, how we should fight against our sins and temptations. All that is true, but the author of Hebrews says the most important thing, the number one thing you need to know to live the Christian life is to just know this fact, to know this reality, that the captain of our salvation is already there.

And that is what gives us strength. That is what encourages us. That is what gives us the strength to continue to take up our cross and follow the Lord. That is what gives us the strength to fight against our sins and temptations. That is what gives us the courage to know that it is going to be OK in the end, no matter how bleak and difficult and hard things seem right now.

He is not ashamed to call his brothers. And he, as the author of Hebrews will say, he is there in heaven interceding for us, praying for us, that our strength, that our faith would not fail. And He will see to it. He will see to it. He is going to bring us there. He is going to bring us to heaven.

And that is what helps us then to live the Christian life and to persevere in faith. When we sin, to confess our sin and to ask the Lord’s help to do better. To continue to come to church and to receive the means of grace, to continue to trust in Him, even when things seem difficult and hard, and to trust Him that it is going to be okay, that He has our best interests at heart. And just trusting Him, that is one of the key things in our text, right, is that He says, I will put my trust in Him. Just trusting the Lord, that is one of the hardest things to do. One of the hardest things to do in the Christian life is to just trust the Lord. But He gives us the courage to do that. And he gives us the confidence to do that because he has already blazed the way and he has already done it for us.