Hebrews 2:10-18 (Morning Prayer)

We have a body. And when it is cut, it bleeds. This sense of being “flesh and blood” is an intuitive experience right from childhood. In the New Testament, it suggests above all the mortal frailty of our human condition.

Jesus took on this same physical existence (Heb 2:14). He identified with us at the deepest level: he became human. The author of salvation is deeply connected to the ones He is saving.

And he is also made like us in every respect (Heb 2:17a). Beyond just having an appearance of man, he is to participate in the weaknesses and sensibilities of being a human. He is to live and experience the human life.

Being human qualified Him to represent us before God. He became like us to save us.

This He did “dia thanatou” - through death (Heb 2:14) Fully human, he experienced the darkness of death that He may free us from the lifelong "terror of non-being.” (Heb 2:15)

This verse is not talking about acute fear arising from a moment of crisis, where you have to summon courage to overcome the fear of not living. But rather it is chronic fear: a slaving life-long fear that stays with us and therefore more fundamentally affects the way we live and the choices we make.

Jesus came to deliver us from this. This is the good news we have. It can fundamentally change your outlook of life as it did for me since I gave my life to Him.

I know my life will end one day. Instead of silence and darkness, I will see and meet the light and warming love of Jesus on that day. This assurance changes fundamentally the way I live.

I pray you will have this assurance too.