Lesson 4 - Reason for Jesus becoming a man
Read Hebrews 2 - www.bible.com/bible/59/heb.2.esv

The idea that God would come to earth for the purpose of dying is so hard for many of us to understand that we are sometimes offended by that thought. How can God die? He is eternal and a Spirit!

But in verse 9 of our chapter, God says this was exactly why Jesus came – to die. In 1 Corinthians 1:18 God also told us this idea was one people who did not believe would find uncomfortable – it’s foolishness to the unbeliever. But to those of us who have accepted Him and understand what He did for us, to us it is the power of God!

Let’s look at the reasons given in these verses for why God would send Jesus to die. First, it says that Jesus came to “taste death for everyone.” Other places in the Bible tell us the price for sin is always death (Romans 6:23). Someone who has even one sin in their life cannot come into God’s presence with it, because God’s holiness will simply destroy that person – just like the presence of the sun destroys all darkness.


Jesus took this step of His own choice. He had, as we saw in the first lesson, created everything. Here it says in verse 10 that all things exist by Him and for Him. Though He created the angels, He now made Himself a little lower than the angels so He could do what He needed to do – die.

The words in verse 10, that this was “fitting for Him,” mean that this decision and action were consistent with God’s character and wisdom. We might say of our mother, “It’s just like her to love us so much.” That’s what these words tell us about God – it’s just like Him to think of such a plan to give us salvation. Jesus doing something God as Eternal Spirit could not do – die – is still completely in His character.

Verse 11 tells us Jesus is the one who sanctifies us. That means Jesus makes us holy. We can’t do that ourselves, but He does it for us because He is holy, just as God is holy. And because He makes us holy too, He calls us “brothers.”

In verse 13 we read an amazing thing – we who are believers in Jesus, who are now children of God, have been given to Jesus so that He will walk with us in our faith in Him. He became flesh so we would be able to see and understand Him. And the next verses continue this – He became flesh like us, so He could be the victory over the power of death and evil for us.

Jesus didn’t do this for the angels, He only did this for humans. And because He became human like us, He can now help us through our trials and temptations – because He knows exactly what we’re going through. He’s been there, He’s tasted it all for us, He’s already won the victory. All we have to do is accept Him.