A Little Lower than the Angels

A Sermon Delivered by Pastor Jim Scott Orrick

December 24, 2000

Hebrews, chapter 2. The title of this morning's message is “A Little Lower than the Angels.”

Now and again in literature, a theme recurs, a theme of a very great man, a king or someone who is highly admired by the people, humbling himself and becoming like one of his people. Maybe he disguises himself and goes among the people doing good works, and for all they know, he is a peasant. Then later on, they find out that this person among them that they thought was only a peasant was actually their king. And they love him all the more because of his condescension, because he came down to be one of the people. This is one of the keys to the great popularity of King David, and why he was so loved by the people. He was actually out there on the front lines with them, wielding a sword himself, hacking away at the Philistines. This, too, is the reason for the popularity of some of the other great generals in history. The historians will always be sure to say that Lee or Jackson or some other greatly loved general was right there in the front lines, fighting along with the other men. But all of those stories of condescension by great men do not begin to capture the great condescension that our Lord Jesus Christ evidenced when the Eternal Lord of Glory became a man.

Alas, and did my Savior bleed, and did my sovereign die?

Would He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?

Was it for crimes that I had done, He groaned upon the tree?

Amazing pity, grace unknown, and love beyond degree!

Well might the sun in darkness hide and shut His glories in

When Christ the Mighty Maker died for man, the creature's, sin.

Look at Hebrews, chapter 2 and verse 9. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.

John Milton's magnificent epic poem, Paradise Lost, begins by giving us a view of Satan and his fallen angels the moment after they have been cast out of heaven. At first they are so stunned and shocked at what has happened to them that they are barely able to do anything but groan. But in that first book of Paradise Lost they begin to regain some of their senses, and as they recover from the shock of what has happened to them, they scheme how they might mount another assault against God. They know, from painful experience, that there is no point in making a frontal attack against heaven itself. It is rather humorous as they remember the pain they experienced when God’s Son cast them out of heaven. Satan and his minions turn their attention to a new world that God has created: earth. Perhaps in this new world, they can gain a foothold and subvert the creatures that God has created to inhabit earth.

So Satan makes the long journey from hell to earth. When, for the first time, he sees Adam and Eve, here is what he says:

O Hell! What doe mine eyes with grief behold,

Into our room of bliss thus high advanc’t

Creatures of other mould, earth-born perhaps,

Not Spirits, yet to heav’nly Spirits bright

Little inferior; whom my thoughts pursue

With wonder, and could love, so lively shines

In them Divine resemblance, and such grace

The hand that formd them on their shape hath poured. (PL 4.359-365).

Now if you need a bit of a translation of that, here it is. When he first sees Adam and Eve, he says, “Oh, it makes me so sad to see these wonderful creatures that are now advanced into the place that I and my fellow fallen angels will no longer ever be able to occupy. They have replaced us. I could almost love them; they look so much like God, and God has formed them so wonderfully.” But instead of loving the image of God in them, of course, Satan and his fallen estate hates them all the more, and Satan's rage against God is increased by the lofty position God accorded human beings. God had indeed created a new race of beings, and it was God's intention to raise them to a position higher than the angels and to make the angels subject to them.

I don't know what amount of time, as we reckon time, elapsed between God's creation of the angels and His creation of human beings. I suppose the only real biblical reason we have for thinking that any time elapsed at all is that obscure passage in Job which says that the morning stars sang together at creation. Many commentators say that the morning stars there are not celestial bodies, but are, instead, angelic beings, and that when God created the heavens and the earth that human beings inhabit, the angels saw and marveled and rejoiced at His creative work. And frankly, we don't exactly know how it is that Satan came to be Satan. There are a couple of Old Testament passages of Scripture that lead us to surmise that he was once Lucifer, the brightest of the angelic beings, next to God Himself, and that he in his pride wanted to ascend and become equal with God. But candidly, most of that is assumption drawn from scriptures that are really talking about earthly monarchs. It may be true though. There are some hints in the New Testament. We are told not to lay hands too hastily on a young man, a young convert in the ministry and ordain him into the ministry, lest he fall into temptation and a trap and into the snare of the Devil. He must be someone of good report, lest he fall into the same condemnation as the Devil. The implication there is if you too hastily appoint an immature Christian to a position of authority, he will be puffed up with pride and then will fall into the same condemnation as the Devil. So that lends some credence to the theory that Satan, in aspiring to be like God, was cast down to hell. Then from the book of Jude, there are also some hints that the commonly accepted theory of the origin of Satan may indeed be true. If it is true, then it is logical to think, logical to speculate, I admit, that when Satan found out that there were going to be some other beings created who were going to eventually become superior to angels, that was the last straw for him. He mounted his rebellion against heaven and was cast out.

It is plain from Scripture that in the new creation God did intend, and still does intend, to elevate a race of beings—human beings—to a position of authority over angels, and in this new world, angels will be subject to human beings. The good angels cheerfully submit to God's plan, knowing that God is good in all He does. The bad angels rebel against God and His plan for human beings. Satan was successful in the journey that Milton has him make. Whether Milton is right or not, the scriptures teach us that Satan was successful in his attempt to subvert humans. He successfully tempted man into sin, and man was separated from God, and man became mortal. Mortal means capable of dying. Prior to the entrance of sin into the world, human beings were immortal, but God said, In the day you disobey Me, you'll surely die.

Prior to the fall, mankind had been at least equal to the angels in their immortality. Angels are immortal, and human beings were immortal. But now, with the entrance of sin, human beings fell from that lofty estate and were made, for a little while, lower than the angels. But while Satan was successful in tempting humans to sin, and thus gained the power of death (that's a mysterious phrase, but it's what the Bible says, that Satan has the power of death), while Satan was successful in tempting men to sin and thus gained the power of death, he was not successful in thwarting God's plan to elevate humans to the highest position in the world to come.

The text that I have just read to you unfolds the glorious mystery of how God began the task of redeeming humans out of sin and is accomplishing His purpose to raise human beings to a position second only to Himself. "We see Jesus who, for a little while, was made lower than the angels. For the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone." In preparation for Jesus' being made a little lower than the angels, God had revealed Himself in various ways. To a remarkable degree He had used His good angels to reveal Himself to humans. He had used Moses and Aaron and the laws and rituals of the Old Testament. The Hebrew people were emotionally attached to these means of revelation: angels, Moses, Aaron, and the rituals of the Old Testament. They had a reverence for Moses and Aaron and angels and for the sacrificial system. And understandably so, but the sacrificial system and the revelation of God that came through angels and Moses and Aaron were nothing more than faint pictures and vague shadows of the reality that has now come and has done His work.

The entire book of Hebrews may be summarized in this one sentence: In these last days, God has spoken to us by His Son, and the Son is far superior to angels, the Son is superior to Moses, the Son is superior to Aaron and all the Old Testament laws and rituals. The first part of the book of Hebrews is broken up into sections. Chapter one shows that Jesus is superior to the angels. The next section shows that Jesus is superior to Moses. The following section shows that Jesus is superior to Aaron and to the Old Testament sacrificial system. That's a brief but good outline of the book of Hebrews. And then the book concludes with some practical observations: Since this is true, then how ought we to live?

There are really only two points to my message this morning. That was a lengthy introduction, but a very important introduction. If you snoozed through it, let me summarize it for you. God originally planned that man would attain a position higher than the angels. Through sin, man has a position lower than the angels, and that lowerness consists primarily in his mortality. He is going to die. But God has not given up on His plan that in the Kingdom of God, humans will be next to God Himself in authority and other beings, angels included, will be made subject to human beings. God is accomplishing this through Jesus Christ.

The first of my main points in the sermon this morning is this: Jesus, superior to the angels. And then the second main point is: Jesus, made lower than the angels. Those two points will be interrupted by a powerful parenthesis, and I'll just spend a few minutes looking at that powerful parenthesis that we see in the Word of God. This is my Christmas message: Jesus made Lower than the Angels.

But Jesus is not now lower than the angels, and He was not always lower than the angels. When the Bible says that He was made a little lower than the angels, it doesn't mean a little in degree; it means for a little time. For a little while, Jesus was made lower than the angels. The word in both Hebrew and in Greek means that. So for a little while, Jesus was made lower than the angels. But the same word is used to refer to human beings in both Hebrew and in Greek. For a little while, human beings have been made lower than the angels. We're subject to mortality. We're subject to death now. It's not always going to be like that. Well, with Jesus Christ, it was not always that He was lower than the angels.

Turn to chapter 1, and let's see this first main point that is brought out so clearly in chapter 1: Jesus, superior to the angels. And the first thing that we'll see here in chapter 1 is that Jesus is superior to the angels because He is the Son of God. Angels are not the sons of God in the same way that Jesus is. Hebrews 1:1: God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For to which of the angels did He ever say: 'You are My Son, Today I have begotten You?’ And again: 'I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son?’

Now in this first chapter of Hebrews, most of the chapter is devoted to examining the eminence that Jesus has attained as a result of the work that He did while He was on earth. So most of it considers the superiority of Jesus as a result of having been exalted after His period of humiliation. But here in these first five verses, we get a few glimpses of the superiority of Jesus prior to His period of humiliation, prior to the little while that He was made lower than the angels. And we see that Jesus Christ is the everlasting, eternal Son of God, that He is the brightness of His glory, not just the picture of His glory, but the brightness of God's glory. He is the express image of His person. He is the One through whom God made all things. He is, as John says, the One through whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made that has been made. Not only did He make it all, but He upholds it all. In Him all things consist; all things hold together. It's this One who is going to be made lower than the angels, and when you consider how high He was, then it is a distance that heaven itself is not fit to measure. The distance from heaven to earth is not fit to measure the condescension that this bright, everlasting, creating, sustaining God endured when He was made a little lower than the angels. He was superior to the angels before ever He came into the world, but after He came into the world, He was made even more superior to the angels than He had been before. Why? Because now, not only is bright, uncreated essence of God superior to the angels, but bright, uncreated essence of God is joined to a human being. The God-man is now exalted on high and made immeasurably higher than the angels. He has been given a name that is above every name, a name that He didn't have before as fully as He has it now. The God-man is exalted to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords. God didn't say to any of the angels, "You are my Son." Jesus is superior to the angels because He is the Son of God.

Then, notice in verse 6, Jesus is superior to the angels because all of the angels are commanded to worship Him, and you know that the lesser worships the greater. But when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says: 'Let all the angels of God worship Him.’ Jesus Christ is greater than the angels because the angels are commanded to worship Him, and that is unspoken truth of His superiority over them.

A third reason why Jesus is superior to the angels begins in verse 7, and here's the summary of it: The angels are servants, but Jesus reigns. Verse 7 again, And of the angels He says: 'Who makes His angels spirits and His ministers a flame of fire.’ Ministers just means servants, and He is referring to angels here. This entire chapter is to show that Jesus is superior to the angels. But in contrast to this lowly task that has been assigned to the angels, verse 8 says: But to the Son He says: 'Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.’ So Jesus reigns; the angels serve. Not only does Jesus reign, but Jesus has attained a position of superiority because He withstood all temptation, whereas many thousands, and we might even say many millions, of the angels did not withstand temptation, but they revolted against God. But Jesus, verse 9 says: "You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness;" He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. And not all the angels did that, but Jesus did. Jesus reigns forever.

I neglected to mention in verse 8 another reason why Jesus is superior to the angels. He is God. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. This is God, the Father, speaking to God, the Son. "Your throne, O God,” God the Father says to Jesus Christ. He calls Him God, which would be blasphemous if Jesus were not God. Your throne is forever and ever. So Jesus is God. He reigns forever. He has withstood temptation and conquered in righteousness. He is superior to the angels.

But let's go on. Verse 9 says, Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions. I like God's kingdom. In God's kingdom, the person with the most power is the gladdest person. And you might even say the gladdest person gets to have the most power. God wants people in His kingdom to be full of gladness. Jesus is superior to the angels because He has been anointed with the oil of gladness, Jesus is gladder than all of them. The most happy, full of joy, giddy angel among them all is not nearly so glad as Jesus Christ is. He has been anointed with the oil of gladness, more than your companions. And Jesus knew this anointing with joy was coming for him.

The book of Hebrews will later on say that Jesus endured the cross, despising the shame for the joy that was set before Him. He knew that this great shower of anointing from God, this anointing of gladness was going to come when He had endured the bitter night of suffering. And so He looked at the cross, and He set His face like a flint to go to Jerusalem, and for the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross, despising the shame. Now that phrase, despising the shame, doesn't mean that He grit His teeth and said, “I hate you shame.” But instead it means that He thought that the shame was nothing in comparison to the joy that was set before Him. Now Jesus had come from the realms of glory. He had been an unspeakably glorious being Himself, and on the evening that He was betrayed, He prayed to the Father, and He says, Father I have completed the work that you have given me to do on earth. And now glorify Me in Your presence, with the glory I had with You before the world was created. And near the conclusion of John, chapter 17, Jesus says, “And I want these that have suffered with Me, I want these that I have revealed You to, I want them to be with Me, and to see my glory too.” And the writer of Hebrews says, “Oh, they will.” And God the Father says, “Oh, You will, Jesus. You will. You'll get that glory and a whole lot more. And those that you're suffering for, they also will receive glory.” Now if that anticipation of glory could so nerve Jesus and so give Him courage that He could face the cross and count the shame of it just a very small thing in comparison to the joy that was set before Him, ought not the glory that is set before us also enable us to endure the sufferings of this life? Whatever shame we may endure for Jesus' sake is only a very small thing in comparison to the joy that is set before us. Jesus is exalted high above the angels because He has been anointed with the oil of gladness above all of His companions. So Jesus is superior to the angels for that reason.

Look again in verse 10. Jesus is superior to the angels because He created the angels. He created all things. This is God, the Father, talking to God, the Son. The writer is quoting an Old Testament passage here where God the Father says to God the Son, “You, Yahweh.” Yes, if you want to turn to the Old Testament, you will see that is the very passage of Scripture, that's the very word that is used to describe Jesus Christ. The New World Translation of the Scripture of the Jehovah's Witnesses has Hebrews, chapter 1 in it. And if you're ever talking to a Jehovah's Witness, you might just turn to Hebrews, chapter 1 and ask him about this. Why is it that Jehovah calls Jesus Jehovah, if Jesus is not Jehovah? But He does. He says, “You, Yahweh” or “Jehovah.” “You, in the beginning, laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.” Jesus is superior to the angels because He created all that has been created.

Verse 11 tells us that Jesus is superior to the angels because He is unchangeable.

'They will perish, but You remain; and they will all grow old like a garment; like a cloak You will fold them up, and they will be changed. But You are the same. So Jesus is immutable, which is another word for unchangeable. None of the angels are unchangeable, but Jesus is immutable.

And not only that, but the end of verse 12 tells us that Jesus is immortal. And Your years will not fail. Though for a little while, He was made mortal and subject to death, yet He is so no more. He is superior to the angels. Now none of this is true of the angels.

Verse 13 says, But to which of the angels has He ever said: ‘Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool’. Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation? Who are those who will inherit salvation? You and I, those whom Jesus Christ is making holy, those whom He has redeemed – we are the ones who will inherit salvation. And angels are all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation. Now that would likely raise an objection in the minds of the Hebrews. What? You mean, a mortal man has been exalted to be head over God's kingdom? And not just a mortal man, but a suffering, crucified, mortal man is exalted to be head over the world to come? In just a moment I will show you the answer that the writer of Hebrews gives to that objection. But between the statement of Christ's superiority to angels and the statement of Christ's being made a little lower than the angels, there is this powerful parenthesis that intervenes in the first few verses of chapter 2. Look at it with me.

Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will? The argument in this powerful parenthesis is this. It's an argument from the lesser to the greater. If, under the old system, God punished people who never listened to Him, then how much more will He punish people who do not listen to Him now that He has sent His only Son? Jesus has begun this message, but it has been further unfolded by those who heard Him. It has also been confirmed by signs and miracles and wonders and the gifts of the Holy Spirit that God has given out as He pleases to give them out. All of this is huge evidence, much more evidence of the truthfulness of the message than people under the Old Covenant had. And so if people under the Old Covenant with their meager revelation were held responsible to be obedient to the revelation that they had received, how much more are you and I going to be held responsible to obey the revelation that has been given to us? The writer of the Hebrews puts it negatively: “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” My unconverted friend, let that sentence sink into your heart, and I dare you to think about it tonight when you turn out the lights. How will you escape if you neglect so great a salvation? This world will not last. You will die one day. The ratio of births to deaths is one-to-one. Everybody that is born, dies. And one day you will die, and how will you escape if you neglect so great a salvation? I wanted to just mention that powerful parenthesis and now go on to the second main point of the sermon.

The second main point of the sermon is: Jesus made lower than the angels. Before I read verse 5, let me pick up the objection. Remember I said that the objection that would be raised in the minds of the Hebrews would be something like this: “It's incredible that a mortal man who suffered and who died the death of crucifixion would be exalted to be the head over the new world, over the world to come, over God's kingdom, over the reign of the kingdom of the Messiah. It's incredible to think that such a man would attain such a position.” Now the answer to that objection begins in verse 5, and it goes like this: It is entirely consistent with the teaching of the scriptures that a man would be exalted to be head over God's kingdom. And not only a man, but a suffering man. The scriptures predict that it would be a suffering man who would be exalted to this place. We could turn to Isaiah chapter 53 and see this borne out at length, especially in the concluding verses of Isaiah chapter 53. You will see that Jesus' exaltation is indissolubly connected with His humiliation. And then we could see the same truth taught in Philippians chapter 2, that because Jesus humbled Himself, therefore, God has exalted Him to the highest place. And His exaltation is connected with His humiliation. So that's the answer to the objection, and it is unpacked, beginning in verse 5. For He has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels. So angels have not been appointed the rulers of the world to come. Who has? The answer is not stated in one word. Instead, the writer cites a passage of Scripture, but the answer is: humans! Angels have not been appointed to be the superior beings in the world to come; human beings have.

Now before we go on to the Old Testament passage that is quoted, let's take a closer look at verse 5. It begins with for, and I believe that the for skips back over the parenthesis and goes back to the end of chapter 1, verse 14. They are all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation. For He has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels. But, instead, He has put it in subjection to human beings. Again, you've already picked this up, I think, but the world to come is just a Jewish way of talking about the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of Jesus Christ, or the reign of the Messiah. It includes the future state of glory with the new heavens and the new earth, but it does not limit itself only to that future state. The world to come is the world that commenced with the work that Jesus Christ did through His being made a little lower than the angels. So, He has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels. But one testified in a certain place, saying: 'What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that You take care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor and set him over the works of Your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet’. For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him.

All right, there's an important but that follows there, but before we look at that important conjunction, let's go back and look at the passage of Scripture that He quotes from Psalms. He says it's in a certain place. It's Psalm number 8. Put a bookmarker here in Hebrews chapter 2, and let's turn back to Psalm chapter 8, and look at this prediction of man's exaltation, beginning a couple of verses earlier than the writer of the Hebrews does. We'll begin with verse 1. Psalm 8, verse 1. O, LORD, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, who have set Your glory above the heavens! Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, because of Your enemies, that You may silence the enemy and the avenger. Let's pause right there. The thrust of this Psalm is going to be that the psalmist will look at some of the wonderful created things that God has made and then make some reflections about mankind in relation to these wonderful creations that God has made. But before he does that, he says that God has chosen weak things to confound the wise. He has chosen something so insignificant as a little baby to overcome His enemies. Out of the mouths of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength. So we get a theme in our mind that this Psalm talks about God taking something that is very weak, uses it in a very exalted way, and in so doing, He shuts up the enemy. Now this is precisely what God is doing with human beings. Something that is very low and very ignominious and shameful because of sin, He raises up, in accordance with His plan. He exalts them to the highest place in the kingdom of God, sets them over angels, and in so doing, He shuts the mouth of Satan who wanted to mess up the whole thing by introducing sin into the world. Now look at verse 3 of Psalm 8. When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet.

Notice in verse 3 that the psalmist looks at the heavens, the moon, and the stars, and as he looks at the moon and the stars, he asks, “What is man that You are mindful of him and the son of man that you visit him? For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and you have crowned him with glory and honor.” Now is the psalmist here saying you have made man a very lofty being, or is he saying you have made man a very lowly being? Because there are some who will look at this Psalm and say, Oh, he's not saying that man is very lowly; he's saying that man is very exalted. He's made him only a little lower than the angels. He's higher than all the beasts. Well, this word that says you have made him a little lower is a Hebrew word, and of course this passage of Scripture is quoted in Hebrews chapter 2, the passage that I'm preaching from this morning, and so there it's a Greek word. Both the Hebrew word and the Greek word are words that refer to something that has been brought from a high position to a lower position. So when it says, You have made him a little lower than the angels or for a little while You have made him lower than the angels, the psalmist is filled with awe that God would be mindful of such a shameful creature as a human being. He has been made mortal. He has been made lower than the angels, whereas at one time he occupied a higher, loftier place of equality with the angels, at least in immortality. Now he has been lowered, and when I look at all that You have done: the heavens, the moon, and the stars that Thou hast created, what is man that thou art mindful of him?

Now to strengthen the point that I'm making here, that this language is used to describe man's very low estate, consider how the exact same words are used in Psalm 144:3-4. Let me turn there and read to you. This is Psalm 144:3. LORD, what is man, that You take knowledge of him? Or the son of man, that You are mindful of him? These are the exact words of Psalm 8. And then here is the answer: Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow. And so the exact same language is used by the exact same author later in the Psalms to demonstrate that man, far from being a high and lofty creature, is a very degraded creature because of sin. “What is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you visit him? You have made him to become lower than the angels.” And then in the middle of verse 5, there is a breaking point. “You have crowned him with glory and honor.” And I believe that crowning with glory and honor is prophetic of the position of authority and glory and honor that God accords man in the new creation in the world to come, in the kingdom of God, which has commenced even now. You might say, "Well, it's actually in a past tense here." It's not unusual for prophetic language to be couched in past tense language. Think of Isaiah, chapter 53. Isaiah, writing hundreds of years before Jesus, says, “He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was laid on Him, and by His stripes we are healed.” Almost all of Isaiah 53 is couched in past tense language, and yet it very clearly is a prophecy of Jesus Christ's coming and working in the future. And so it is with some of the language here in Psalm 8. It's past tense language, but it's used to prophesy what is going to happen in the future. That interpretation is bolstered if you go back to Hebrews chapter 2.

Now let's look at this quotation from Psalm 8 in its context here. He has not subjected the world to come to angels. Who has He subjected it to? He subjected it to human beings. In one place, Psalm 8, we know he says, “What is man that You are mindful of him? Or the son of man that You take care of him? You have made him to become for a little while lower than the angels.” A mortal. But then here is this other part. We understand that lower part, but what about this? You have crowned him with glory and honor and set him over the works of Your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet. Does it really mean that? Well, yes it means that. It just hasn't happened yet. Continue in verse 8. For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. So Psalm 8 clearly prophesies that man, this ignominious creature that has become shameful through sin and has become mortal and therefore lower than the angels because of sin, this creature is going to be highly exalted. Everything is going to be put under his feet, angels included. We don't see it yet. That's clear. The fact that you are susceptible to something so simple as a cold virus illustrates that all things have not yet been made subject to you. If it were, you could say to the virus, “Get out of my body,” and it would obey you. You could walk outside and say, “All right, I've had enough cold weather. Winds, blow from the south, and bring in some warm weather here.” All things would be subject to you, but obviously all things are not subject to you yet, but they will be. How? Man's exaltation has already begun in the person of Jesus Christ.

Verse 9. All right, keep this in mind. We do not yet see all things under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. We do not yet see all things subjected to human beings, but we've seen the beginning of it. We see Jesus. I'd like for the shock of this to hit us all in the heart. We see Jesus, in chapter 1, described as the brightness of God, the express image of His glory. We have seen Him called God. We have seen Him called Yahweh, the very holy name of God. We have seen the angels worshiping and adoring Him, and it is this Jesus that we see made mortal. For a little while made lower than the angels. Again, I emphasize that when it says He was made a little lower than the angels, it doesn't mean that He was just barely a step or two below them, but it means that for a little while, He was below them. It doesn't refer to the degree of His lowness; it refers to the time that He was low. It was for a little while that He was lower than the angels. And His being made lower than the angels is the means through which God will exalt lowly, shameful man to the position that He has always intended man to occupy in the world to come.

When the Bible says that Jesus was made a little lower than the angels, in verse 9, there follows a consequence and a purpose. Now logically, if you and I were talking about consequences and purposes, we would talk about the purpose first. This is why He came. He successfully did it, and now here is the consequence of His coming. That's the way we would put it, but that is not the way the writer of Hebrews puts it. He puts the consequence first, and then he puts the purpose of His being made lower than the angels second. Look at verse 9 again. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, (here is the consequence) for the suffering of death. Or because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor. (And then here's the purpose of His being made lower than the angels.) That He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. Well, let's take it in the order that we would logically. Let's, first of all, see the purpose for which Jesus was made lower than the angels, and then see the consequence of His being made lower than the angels. The purpose of His being made lower than the angels is at the end of verse 9. That He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. I believe the King James Version says, for every man, but the Greek text does not say, for every man. It says, for everyone. And I would prefer to have the two words separated: every (space) one. And then the question arises, who IS every one? Every one of what? Jesus was made a little lower than the angels, that He might, by the grace of God, taste death for every one. Every one what? Well, let's get back to the end of chapter 1, verse 14. Remember chapter 1 and chapter 2 are interrupted by this parenthesis that's in the first four verses of chapter 2. So, the flow of thought goes from chapter 1, verse 14, and here the every one is identified as those who will inherit salvation. Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?” Jesus died to taste death for every one of them, that is, every one that will inherit salvation. Or look at the immediately proceeding context, chapter 2, verse 10. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. He tasted death for every one of His sons. Or look at verse 11. For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren. He died for every one of His brethren, who are being sanctified. Or look at verse 13, the second half. And again: 'Here am I and the children whom God has given Me’. Jesus stands before God the Father with all of His children and He has tasted death for every one of them. Verse 14: Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. His children have been released. Why? Because He tasted death for every one of them. So I think that if you're going to be honest to the context, you can't extrapolate a universal atonement out of this verse of Scripture. You may be able to construct it somewhere else (I don't think so), but if you're going to, you're going to have to do it somewhere other than this passage of Scripture if you're going to be true to the context.

Jesus tasted death for every one, but let's don't let this get lost in theological fine points. Let's let it sink into our hearts, that if you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, He tasted death for you, every one. What does it mean that He tasted death? I think it's just the metaphor that He died. He died for, He died as a substitute in the place of every one of those who will inherit salvation. He died, He tasted death for every one of His children. It's just a metaphor, but let the strength of the metaphor hit you! Death has a taste? What does that mean? It's not the only place that it appears in the Scripture. The Jews protested to Jesus in John, chapter 8, "Abraham died, and so did his offspring, but you said that anyone who keeps your words will never taste death." And then it appears other places. It shows us that it is just the metaphor for dying, but why did they say that dying is tasting death? Well, I don't know, but there have been a couple of times when I thought I was going to die. And I remember one of those times as hitting me in the taste buds. No, it wasn't that I was eating some bad cooking. I fell from a great height, right on my head, on asphalt. It tore a big hole in the top of my head. There was hair all over the asphalt. As I lay there crumpled up on the pavement, I thought, this is it! I'm going to die! And I remember a taste in my mouth that reminded me of the smell of singed flesh. I did not taste death, but the very scent of it got my attention in a hurry.

I'll tell you this, apart from Jesus Christ, I'm scared of death. There have been a few times when I have experienced some kind of feeling that I thought, this must be what I'm going to feel when I'm about to die. Once, when I lived in West Virginia, I had spent the afternoon deer hunting from my canoe. It was one of those splendid days in late December when, after having been cold, the weather suddenly turned bright and warm. Throughout the afternoon I had seen many does, most of them resting near the creek, and although it was muzzle-loader season, and does were legal, I had decided not to shoot a doe. All afternoon I hadn't seen another human being, and besides the rustling made by the squirrels as they took advantage of the sunshine, about the only sound I had heard was the drip of the water from my paddle as I quietly made my way through the wooded creek bottoms. At the end of the day, as darkness was falling and I was nearing the end of my journey, I paddled out of the creek onto the Kanawaha River. The river looked huge and forboding compared to the peaceful little creek I had been on. It made me think of death in terms of leaving a familiar little creek and embarking into the vast river of eternity. I remembered Tennyson's poem:

Sunset and evening star,

And one clear call for me!

And may there be no moaning of the bar

When I put out to sea.

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,

Too full for sound and foam,

When that which drew from out the boundless deep

Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,

And after that the dark!

And may there be no sadness of farewell,

When I embark;

For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place

The flood may bear me far,

I hope to see my Pilot fact to face

When I have crost the bar.

I prayed, “Oh God, when I leave this earth, may my pilot guide me safely across the river of death.”

“ He was made a little lower than the angels, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for every one.” It wasn't because you were worth saving. It was by the grace of God that He tasted death for every one. That's the purpose.

Now what is the result of Jesus for a little while being made lower than the angels? It says, “For the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor.” Don't let that roll over your tongue too quickly. Death was not an easy thing for Him. It was a suffering death. He suffered deeply. He was made lower than the angels. It pleased the Lord to bruise Him. But the result is that for the suffering of death, He has been crowned with glory and honor.

Let's let the writer of Ephesians explain to us what means that Christ has been crowned with glory and honor. Turn in your Bibles to Ephesians, chapter 1. We could well read the entire first chapter, but we will begin with verse 15. Ephesians 1:15. I'm going to read down through verse 23, and it's especially the last four or five verses that teach us what it means that Jesus, because of His suffering of death, has been crowned with glory and honor. “Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”

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Scripture from The Holy Bible, New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by
Thomas Nelson, Inc.