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ep 21 - Hebrews 2:10-13 | Jesus Is the Founder of Our Salvation and He Is Not Ashamed to Call You Sister

8/28/202610 min read

SHOW NOTES

EPISODE TITLE:
Hebrews 2:10-13 | Jesus Is the Founder of Our Salvation and He Is Not Ashamed to Call You Sister

Series: A Study Through the Book of Hebrews | Episode 7

EPISODE OVERVIEW

We are picking up in Hebrews chapter 2 at verse 10 and working through verse 13. I have been sitting on these verses for a while trying to get my thoughts together because there is just so much here. We are talking about what it means that God saw it as fitting for Jesus to be made perfect through suffering, what the founder of our salvation actually did to earn that title, and the line that I do not want any of us to rush past: He is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters.

This is also the episode where I share a real conversation I had at a birthday party two Saturdays ago that reminded me exactly why studying Hebrews is not just academic. It is apologetic. It is relational. And it is practical in ways I did not expect.

BEFORE WE JUMP IN: A REAL CONVERSATION

Two Saturdays ago, I was at a birthday party and ended up in a conversation with the dad of the birthday girl. My husband was talking to someone else in the yard and somehow this man and I got into this really deep theological conversation. He started asking me questions and one thing led to another.

He turned out to be a messianic Jew. Not Jewish by blood from what I understood, but he believes that Jesus is the priority and in order to please God, we have to do our best to keep the law. . . all 613. Even when I asked him directly if he keeps all of them, he said he does his best, he knows he fails, but he keeps trying.

Y’all, this is the kind of conversation that Hebrews was written for. The whole book is essentially a response to people who are wrestling with the relationship between the old covenant and the new. And because I have been studying Hebrews deeply for five months, I had grounding to really engage this conversation in a meaningful way.

The bottom line is this: if the old covenant was good enough, we would not need the one we have right now. The one that Jesus brought to us through His sinless, perfect life, His death, His resurrection, and His soon return.

This is why we study. Be prepared in season and out of season to offer a defense for the faith you believe.

"But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you."
1 Peter 3:15 ESV

THE PASSAGE

Hebrews 2:10-13 ESV

"For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, 'I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.' And again, 'I will put my trust in him.' And again, 'Behold, I and the children God has given me.'"

UNPACKING THE PASSAGE

"For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist..." — Hebrews 2:10

We are back to that same truth we saw earlier in Hebrews and in Colossians 1:16-17. All things exist for Christ and through Christ and by Him. He holds all things together. The author of Hebrews is reminding us of this before making the next point because the next point requires us to understand exactly who we are talking about.

This is not just any founder. This is the one by whom everything exists. And He chose to do this.

"It was fitting."

I want to sit here for a moment because I think this phrase gets skipped over.

God could have created another route. Another opportunity. Another way for us to find salvation. He is God. We cannot put Him in a box or assume that Jesus going to the cross was the only possible plan in all of existence. He is sovereign and He is creative and He could have done whatever He wanted.

But He saw that this was fitting.

Why? Because this was how the founder of our salvation would be made perfect through suffering. And when we understand what “made perfect” actually means, the whole thing opens up.

The word "perfect" — teleiosai in the ancient Greek

To make perfect here does not mean that Jesus was morally imperfect and needed to be fixed. He was morally perfect. His standard of holiness sets the bar for all of holiness, full stop.

The word used here is teleiosai, a verb form in the ancient Greek meaning to finish, to complete, or to make perfect in the sense of reaching the end of something. Not perfect as in fixing a flaw. Perfect as in completing a mission.

So when Hebrews says God should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering, what it is saying is that the suffering was the path to completion. It was the path to finishing the mission. It was how He became everything we needed Him to be in order to lead us to salvation.

As M.R. Vincent wrote in his Word Studies in the New Testament (1887): "To make perfect does not mean moral imperfection in Jesus, but only the consummation of that human experience of sorrow and pain through which he must pass in order to become the leader of his people's salvation."

He had to travel through it. So He could lead us through it.

WHAT DOES A FOUNDER ACTUALLY DO?

This is where it gets really good. What does it mean that Jesus is the founder of our salvation?

Think about a founder of a company, a nonprofit, a nation. A founder wears so many hats. They have the idea. They voluntarily lay aside other responsibilities to bring that idea into reality. And they have to understand everything about what they are building, including the cost, the leadership, and the product itself.

Let me tie that directly to salvation.

The financial side of it: the cost

Jesus voluntarily laid down the responsibilities He had in heaven in order to come to earth, take on human flesh, and ultimately pay the price that only His perfect, sinless blood could pay. He understood the budget before He showed up. He knew the budget was His own life. He knew the tax of our salvation was the cross. And He came anyway.

The leadership side of it: setting the example

As a founder, Jesus led by example. He fulfilled the law, bringing it to completion and revealing its ultimate purpose . . . showing us how all 613 laws are fulfilled in two commandments: love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

When you love God with everything you have, there are things you will simply not do because you know they offend our holy God. When you love your neighbor as yourself, there are things you will not do because you would not do them to yourself. And because your neighbor is made in the image of the God you love, they become sacred to you too.

Jesus modeled this. He trailblazed this path for us. As women who are raising children, serving in leadership, managing homes, building relationships, and navigating workplaces, we have a model. The founder of our salvation showed us how to do this.

The product side of it: eternal life

The product a founder offers has to solve a real problem. Jesus understood our pain points. And here is where the Incarnation becomes so poetic.

God in essence, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, had not experienced physical suffering the way humans experience it. Maybe there was a form of suffering in being betrayed by Lucifer, or in being rejected by His own creation time and time again. But actual physical suffering, the kind that lives in the body and the mind and the soul, that was something God had not experienced until Jesus took on human flesh.

And so when it says God saw it as fitting to make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering, part of what that means is that Jesus had to enter our experience in order to fully understand it. Not because He lacked omniscience, but because understanding our pain points required Him to actually feel them.

He understands what it is like to lose someone. He understands physical brutality and abuse and crucifixion. He understands death. He understands temptation. He has been here. He has felt this. And because He traveled through all of it and came out victorious, He now leads us through it as someone who has already been there.

That is not a distant God. That is a founder who came into the mess so His people would not have to face the thicket alone.

"For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source." — Hebrews 2:11

He who sanctifies is the Holy Spirit. And those who are sanctified, that is you and me, in our craziness and our chaos and our just trying to get our stuff together. We cannot sanctify ourselves because we are broken and fallen and human. But the Holy Spirit living inside of us because of our faith in Jesus Christ means we are now under that sanctification process. And it all comes from the same source.

Which leads directly into the next line.

"That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers." — Hebrews 2:11

Because we share that source of sanctification, Jesus is not afraid to call us His brothers and sisters. We are family not because we earned it but because we share His source.

And I want you to really sit with this. Jesus is not ashamed of you. He is not ashamed of your mess, your inconsistency, your dry season, your wandering, your doubting, your empty cup, your spiritual amnesia.

He is not ashamed to call you sister.

So the question the author leaves us with is: are we ashamed of Him?

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes."
Romans 1:16 ESV

VERSE 12: FROM PSALM 22

"I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise."

This is a quote from Psalm 22:22, which is also the psalm that opens with the words "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" — the very words Jesus cried from the cross. The author of Hebrews is drawing a direct line between Jesus's suffering and His praise. The same psalm that holds the anguish of the cross holds the declaration of praise that follows it.

He suffered. He was raised. And now He stands in the midst of the congregation and sings the Father's praise alongside us.

VERSE 13: FROM JOHN 17

"Behold, I and the children God has given me."

This points back to John 17, where Jesus prays for unity among His followers so that the world would see us and know that God sent Him. He refers to us as the children God has given to Him. We are not an afterthought. We are the inheritance He was sent to reclaim.

3 IN CASE I FORGET MOMENTS

1. Jesus is the founder of our salvation and He completed the mission.
He wore every hat, paid every cost, and traveled every path required to bring us to glory. Not because He had to. Because He saw that it was fitting. And that changes everything about how we see our suffering.

2. He is not ashamed to call you sister.
In the middle of everything you are carrying, everything you feel like you are failing at, everything you have not been able to get right yet. He is not ashamed of you. Let that settle.

3. Jesus is our model leader.
As women who lead homes and raise children and serve in whatever capacity God has placed us in, we have an example. The founder of our salvation showed us what faithful, sacrificial, complete leadership looks like. We follow Him.

APPLICATION FOR ANCHORED WOMEN

You are being sanctified. That process is hard. It involves pruning and discipline and seasons that do not make sense in the moment. But the founder of your salvation has already traveled through every one of those paths ahead of you. He knows what this costs. He paid it Himself.

And when you feel like you are too far gone or too messy or too inconsistent to be called His, remember: He is not ashamed of you. He is not embarrassed by you. He is not keeping you at arm's length because of where you are right now.

He’s given you His Spirit to empower you to choose Him in the middle of it all.

SCRIPTURES REFERENCED

  • Hebrews 2:10-13 ESV — the main passage

  • Colossians 1:16-17 — for Christ and through Christ and by Him all things exist and hold together

  • 1 Peter 3:15 — always be prepared to make a defense for the hope that is in you

  • Psalm 22:22 — I will tell of your name to my brothers, in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise

  • Psalm 22:1 — My God, my God, why have you forsaken me

  • John 17 — Jesus prays for unity; refers to believers as the children God has given Him

  • Romans 1:16 — I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation

  • Matthew 22:37-39 — love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself

  • John 15:13 — there is no greater love than to lay down your life for a friend

RESOURCES MENTIONED

JOIN THE 7 LETTERS CLUB 🌸

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LET'S KEEP THE CONVERSATION GOING

If this episode blessed you, please stop right now and leave a review on whatever platform you are listening on. And share it with one woman who needs to hear that Jesus is not ashamed of her. That is all I am asking.

Have a testimony you want to share on the podcast? Reach out at mcgarrypodcasts@gmail.com and let's connect. 🤍

A NOTE ON HOW THESE SHOW NOTES ARE MADE

Every recorded episode is purely the Holy Spirit, studied through Logos Bible Software and brought to you as faithfully as I know how. I do not use AI to build the studies or the teaching. The show notes are drafted with the help of AI directly from my transcripts, then reviewed to make sure everything reflects me and this community. Full transparency always. 🤍

If you are anything like me, it does not take much to forget God's faithfulness and His goodness. Between social media distractions and life's everyday dose of hardships, I am fighting for my life trying to hold on tight to the hem of Jesus. Don't think I've got it all together. I don't. But that's why I'm inviting you into this space with me for on-point and on-time biblical truths to help us anchor when life would have us burn out and drift. This is in case i forget. I am your host Miki. I will catch you on the next one. ✌

🌐 theologyandtestimony.com | 📧 mcgarrypodcasts@gmail.com

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