Hebrews 2: 5-18 - Set Free

I love watching good magicians; they are fascinating. Seeing Harry Houdini escape from death-defying situations is awesome! Netflix has an original series called Magic for Humans, where Justin Willman will blow your mind with his street magic. So much fun to watch. 

There is something about these passages of text from the writer of Hebrews that got me thinking about magicians. The ability to escape just about anything, the ability to become free, and get out of certain death. The train barreling down the tracks headed right for the magician that was chained up in a straight jacket and locked in a wooden box and somehow escaped right at the last second before the train plows through the box. The great magicians escape death and live another day. Now, we know this is sleight of hand, tricks, escape hatches, and even camera editing to make it all look a certain way. Magic is, well...not really that magical. Sorry to burst your bubble. 

Here in Hebrews, we read about something that is out of this world; it’s genuinely the death-defying escape. For this to all come together and make sense, the author of Hebrews must continue to press into the Fully Human nature of Jesus. 

“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.” - ‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭2:9‬ ‭NIV‬‬

If you recall, in Hebrews 1, we heard over and over that Jesus was greater than the angels. But here we read that Jesus was made lower than the angels. This text goes on and says for a little while...just while he suffered death, death for EVERYONE! Jesus, who was fully human, fully man, died to set a new path, set a way for us to experience God. You see, Jesus' death on the cross gave us freedom, we have been given the escape hatch, the universal key, the ability to exit the death trap of our lives. 

“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— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” - ‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭2:14-15‬ ‭NIV‬‬

We read here, we are the children with the flesh and blood. Jesus shared in our humanity, Jesus walked though everything we could ever experience. Jesus walked through the worst of the worst, suffered significant loss, torture, persecution, hunger, shame, anything you or I have ever experienced, Jesus walked through it - and did not sin. Why is this important? Check out the next part of the verse, by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

This is the gospel, and this is the good news. Yes, because of Jesus, we get to live eternally in heaven, but there is SO MUCH MORE to following Christ than a get into heaven punch card. By Jesus' death, we have been set free from our bondage, free from our slavery to sin that is caused by the devil. I love how the ESV puts this:

“...through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,” - Hebrews‬ ‭2:14‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Now we need to understand the destroy the devil here does not mean killed, and eliminated. NO, destroy here means that Jesus took away the devil's power over us. Jesus rendered the devil's schemes useless and powerless, and this is the freedom this side of heaven we have access to. Our sins are forgiven; they have been nailed to a cross, Jesus took all of them and died for them, disarming the devil. 

We have been set free! We have freedom from our bondage today. The sin we have been a slave too is no more in the name of Jesus. Are we tapped into this freedom? Are we living this life of freedom? 

“You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.” - ‭‭Colossians‬ ‭2:13-14‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Jesus set us free! The devil has been destroyed, disarmed, rendered useless by the power of Jesus. This freedom is ours today to claim, ours to step into, or an even better way to think about it, this freedom is something we live from. The devil’s tricks and schemes are real, he would like to trick us into thinking we do not have this freedom, that we have something to fear, that we should fear death we should live in bondage. But friends, this is a lie from the pit of hell. We are free, and we have been set free. Lord, I ask in Jesus' name that we live today from this freedom we already have, that we claim this freedom in Jesus' name and walk free. Amen.