Text: Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same… (Hebrews 2:14)
Catechism:
Question: Why must the mediator be a true and righteous man?
Answer: Because God’s justice requires that human nature, which has sinned, must pay for its sin; but a sinner could never pay for others.
Intro: Jewish-Christians and Gentile-Christians in the early church
The situation in their church
Heb 10:25
The answer: Jesus is better
The same issue we are up against in our Catechism
I. The Jewish objection
II. The objection answered
v9 …with glory and honor
v10 God’s plan
v11 all one Father
v14 the obstacle
v17 Propitiation
For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. (Hebrews 7:26-27)
III. Summing up:
Application 1: What sort of a Mediator do we need?
The spirit of antichrist
Application 2: What sin is
And this [what sin is] appears most eminently in the cross of Christ; for God gave in Him an instance of His righteousness and of the desert of sin. Sin being imputed unto the only Son of God, He could not be spared. If He be made sin, He must be made a curse; if He will take away our iniquities, He must make His soul an offering for sins, and bear the punishment due unto them. Obedience in all duties will not do it; intercession and prayers will not do it; sin required another manner of expiation. Nothing but undergoing the wrath of God and the curse of the law, and therein answering what the eternal justice of God required, will effect that end. --Owen
Application 3: What death is
The devil’s powerful weapon