Having come in human form, Jesus was the founder of our salvation, which was achieved through His suffering and death on the cross. One of the glorious benefits we receive in knowing Jesus is that He is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters (v. 11); as concurrently we become children of God (v. 13). The benefits of such blessings are immeasurable. As the author of Hebrews continues this line of thinking in verses 14-18, we discover another benefit; Jesus destroyed the power of death, delivering us from its fear (v. 14-15). Furthermore, as Jesus was tempted in His humanity, we again benefit from His help when we are tempted (v. 18). In the climax of this text the author reveals that all of these wonderful blessings are the work of Jesus, in His role as our great High Priest (v. 17) – a theme that is going to dominate much of the rest of the epistle…
