Jesus: the Perfect Author of Salvation

October 6th, 2025
by Lance Waldie

Hebrews 2:10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.

The epistle of Hebrews was written to Jewish believers in Christ. Though professing believers, some had begun to drift from their faith. Having relegated Jesus to an angelic being, they were neglecting their salvation. They found it difficult to defend the idea that Jesus, being God, had died (1 Cor. 1:23). To the Jewish mind (to any mind), this was absurd. As a result, their weak faith caused them to drift from their profession of Christ and move back into the greater comfort of the more tangible Levitical sacrifices. The author sensed the drifting of these Jews because many of them could not conceive of a suffering Messiah, so he began in v. 13 with an explanation as to why it was so appropriate that the Messiah indeed suffer as Jesus did.

Verse 10 says that it was “fitting” for Christ to suffer. Fitting means “seemly; suitable.” Suffering was simply an suitable way for God to act on man’s behalf. God the Father decided that His Son would die on a wooden cross (cf. Gal. 3:13) to grant salvation to believers by taking man’s curse of sin upon Himself. In so doing, the Son would be the “author” of man’s salvation. Since the very constitution of the nature of God is holy and righteous, and since a holy God cannot look upon sin with any degree of tolerance, that same righteous God must require that the demands of the violated law be satisfied. Now since that same God is a loving God, well-knowing that sinful man cannot save himself, He Himself provided the very payment of the punishment that His holy law demands—death. So, in saying that it is “fitting” for the Christ to suffer, the writer shows the rationality of the bloody cross upon which Jesus of Nazareth died. God had to satisfy His own demands, so He became flesh, sending His own Son Jesus to provide the sacrifice on the cross, paying man’s sin debt (Rom. 6:23). This act of God was thus “fitting.”

Verse 10 has two subordinate clauses that speak volumes of theology. The subject of the sentence is “Him” (God), and it is said that all things are for God, and all things come through God. In the context of the passage, it is an incredible thought that one of the “all things” that are unto God and from God is His Son. After all, God brought “many sons to glory” for Himself by offering His Son as a blood atonement on the cross. He did not do this primarily for those who would inherit salvation (i.e., believers); He did it chiefly for Himself, for through Him are all things, and from Him are all things. God thus glorified Himself by providing salvation for us.

Jesus is called “the author of their salvation” in v. 10. The “their” is referring to v. 9 and speaks of the “everyone” Jesus died for. He was made “perfect” through sufferings. This does not mean that Jesus was once imperfect; it simply means “to carry to the goal.” It speaks of the consummation of Christ’s human experience of suffering the death of the cross—a trial He had to endure in order to become the “author” of man’s salvation—the pioneer of deliverance.

Food For Thought
Christianity could never have been concocted by the human mind, especially in the plurality of Jewish minds. Jews would never have written an account of a Triune God sending the second member of the Godhead (Jesus the Son), who was made temporarily lower than the angels, who would die—especially on a Roman cross reserved for the worst of criminals. It would be a silly story for any Jew to write, let alone a multiplicity of Jews. But the story has teeth because the first-century Jews witnessed Jesus’ life and saw their Messiah (i.e., Christ) die on the cross and come back from the grave fully alive three days later. Yes, it was indeed “fitting” for God to do as He did in allowing His Son, our Christ, to suffer. His suffering proved Him in His humanity perfect. Let us recall that when we suffer. As suffering completed Christ, it also completes us.