“Only Trust Him” – Hebrews 2:10-18

When I was in college, I worked for my dad for a time. I worked in his office. He had a secretary named Sue. Sue and I would talk during work hours, and there would be a number of times she would make some comment or ask a question, and I would end our discussion with, “Trust me.”

One day, Sue brought me a shirt she found that reminded her of me. On the front of the shirt was a little goblin-like creature with green skin, long fingers and fingernails. His hands were folded over a cane held in front of him, and he was dressed in a hooded robe and had an impish grin that suggested there was something sinister in him. The caption under the goblin was a simple two-word statement: “Trust me.”

I loved that shirt, and I understood where it came from. While I never tried to mislead Sue, I’m sure there were times she thought I was pulling her leg.

We live in a world where all sorts of people call upon us to trust them. The trouble with people is that we always let each other down. We may not mean to, but we all fall short.

There is one Man who walked this world who is the exception to this. He lived among us, teaching us and showing us what it means to walk with God. This man is Jesus, and of all people, He is the only one we can truly trust and know that His words are true.

Background

The hymn was written by John Stockton. Mr. Stockton suffered from ill health most of his life. For this reason, he came to the ministry at the age of 44. Even then, his health hindered him in his ministry. When he was recuperating, he would write hymns. One of his hymns is the familiar, “Glory to His Name,” which we sing on occasion.

This particular song, “Only Trust Him,” was written by Mr. Stockton and was offered to Ira Sankey. Sankey was the soloist for the Dwight Moody evangelistic crusades. He had a lot of hymns that were available to him, often sent in like this one. It was while the team was traveling to England in 1873 that Sankey was looking through the hymns available to him. Sankey liked the hymn, but decided the original chorus needed to be changed. Originally, Stockton had written, “Come to Jesus, Come to Jesus.” Sankey changed the chorus to what we know today: “Only trust Him, Only trust Him.”

Sankey used the hymn throughout the crusade in England. When the team returned to Philadelphia, Sankey invited Stockton to join him in introducing the hymn to American audiences.

The writer of Hebrews wrote his letter to demonstrate that the New Testament is superior to the Old Testament. He uses various things familiar to the Jewish community and argues how Jesus is superior in every way to those people and things held in great reverence by the Jewish community.

His introduction states that Jesus is the “radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being” (Hebrews 1:3a). The writer then begins to state that Jesus is superior to the angels. He asks two questions at the end of Chapter 1: “To which of the angels did God ever say, ‘Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” He then asks, “Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?”

The writer then argues that Jesus took on human form in order to relate to us and for us to relate to Him. Today’s passage completes his argument that it was always God’s plan that Jesus should be fully human—without losing His divine nature—in order to provide the means of salvation for all people. Similar to the message of last week, it’s our faith—which is a gift of God—that leads us to trust in Jesus. As we look at today’s passage, we want to keep in mind this truth:

Central Truth: We trust in Jesus for salvation, for freedom and for help with temptation.

We trust in Jesus because:

1. He is the author of our salvation and our brother (10-13)

“In bringing many sons to glory, it is fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. He says, ‘I will declare Your name to My brothers; in the presence of the congregation I will sing Your praises.’ And again, ‘I will put my trust in Him.’ And again He says, ‘Here am I, and the children God has given Me.’”

If you study military history, it’s not long before the terms “strategic” and “tactical” are discussed. The strategy encompasses the overall plan of the military operation, while the tactical is putting the strategy into practice. For instance, Operation Overlord—the official name for what we call D-Day—had a strategic objective of breaking German resistance and liberating Paris and France. The tactical objectives were to reach certain points on the French coast at the end of D-Day, then other objectives at the end of D-Day +1, and so on.

When we read these verses, we see that God had a strategy for bringing salvation to the world. The strategy was to make salvation possible through Jesus Christ. The tactics were to make Jesus into a man who could relate to us through His suffering. In so doing, God planned to make the One who saves and those being saved to be the same. That is, both Jesus—“the One who makes men holy”—and the lost—“those who are made holy”—are human.

The writer reminds us of Jesus’ humanity and His mission by quoting from Psalms and Isaiah, showing that Jesus fully identified with those He had come to save.

The significance of these verbs is not just that they remind us that Jesus was a man who walked on earth at a specific time in history, but that Jesus was and is fully God as well. It was God’s plan to have the divine intercede into our world in a very real and concrete way in order to make a relationship with Him possible for every person who only trusts Him.

2. He frees us from fear of death (14-16)

“Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy 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. For surely it is not angels He helps, but Abraham’s descendants.”

It wasn’t enough that Jesus took on a human presence while on earth. If that was all He had done, then we could still say that God better understands us through Jesus, but there would still be the issue that we are dead in our sins. The significance of Jesus becoming human was for the specific task of going to Calvary to die for our sins and vanquish the power of death over us. Yes, Jesus used His time on earth to teach us the way to live in Him. He revealed God’s love and He demonstrated what it means to walk in obedience to the Father. But all of that would have been meaningless without the cross and the empty tomb.

By dying on the cross, Jesus redeems us. Think back to the trading stamps we used to get at the grocery store. We could take those stamps to the redemption center and there swap the stamps we had earned for goods. The stamps took the place of money and paid the full price of the items we redeemed. Jesus’ death at Calvary redeems us from Satan’s grip and sets us free to walk in eternal life.

So, as the writer tells us, Jesus used His humanity to die for us and so destroy the devil and free us from the slavery of the fear of death. It isn’t that Jesus frees us from death—the writer of Hebrews tells us that, “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27)—but that He frees us from the fear of death by giving us eternal life and victory over Satan and death.

This truth is something that we can and must believe in. We can trust that Jesus frees us from the fear of death.

3. He atones for our sins and helps us (17-18)

“For this reason He had to be made like His brothers 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. Because He himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.”

Jesus’ role as redeemer isn’t His only ministry. Yes, He came to our world to teach us about God and to die for our sins. Yes, He came to destroy the devil and set us free from the fear of death. But, the writer of Hebrews also reminds us that Jesus has another ministry, and that ministry is to act as our High Priest before God.

“For this reason He had to be made like His brothers in every way.” Jesus had to walk in our ways and experience life as you and I experience life in order to become a more effective high priest, or as the writer says, a “merciful and faithful high priest.” Jesus understands what it is to be tempted, because He was tempted in every way possible, though He never yielded to temptation and sinned. He had compassion on those who struggled and looked for something better. He patiently led men and women to faith in Him. And, most importantly, Jesus had a deep love for all people and is committed to us. His love for the Father is demonstrated in His love for us. Now, as He sits at the right hand of the Father, He intervenes on our behalf, acting as our advocate. Why does Jesus do this? “Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.”

Jesus the man understands us and intervenes for us. We can trust Him to fulfill His priestly duties on behalf of us.

Conclusion

“Trust me.” When spoken by a used car salesman or a politician, we have a hard time doing that.

Jesus tells us to trust Him. Trust Him for our salvation, for our relationship with the Father and for the promise of eternal life. We can trust Jesus. As the hymn reminds us, “He will save you, He will save you, He will save you now.”

Trust Jesus. Walk in peace and in freedom. Walk with the Father, the Son and the Spirit today.