HEBREWS 2:5-9
5 It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. 6 But there is a place where someone has testified:
“What is mankind that you are mindful of them,
a son of man that you care for him?
7 You made them a little lower than the angels;
you crowned them with glory and honor
8 and put everything under their feet.”
In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. 9 But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
LOST GLORY
When we begin to grasp the depth and meaning of this passage, it will bring such meaning and peace to the longings in our souls for purpose and worth. The author of Hebrews is quoting Psalm 8:4-6. If you take a look back at Psalm 8, the psalmist is referencing mankind. It sings of the glory that God gave to man. The focus is not on the Messiah here, but the glory of man.
This psalm is a cry to the glory of man as God meant it to be. It is reminiscent of the promise of God at creation in Genesis 1:28 when he said to man: “Have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” Hebrews 2:8 states, “God left NOTHING that is not subject to him.”
God has esteemed us highly. So highly that he would give us rule and reign over his creation. The glory of man is such that he has been made a little less than divine! What worth we have, that we were crowned at the beginning of creation with such honor and esteem to be made in the very image of God and to be given a role to play in his creation. A role of dominion and authority, to rule and reign over creation in a similar fashion as our Creator…to create, to steward, to have purpose in the work of our hands, to nurture, to care for, to build, to fashion, to grow and to live in harmony with the One who made us and gave us worth.
But, as the author of Hebrew notes, the situation with which we see in front of us today, is very different. “Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him” (Hebrews 2:8). Mankind was meant to have dominion over everything, but he has not. Instead, we are frustrated by our circumstances, defeated by our temptations, caught in our own weaknesses. Those who should be free, are bound. Those who should be ruling as kings and queens, are slaves. G.K. Chesterton said, “Whatever else is or is not true, this one thing is certain, man is not what he was meant to be.”
RECOVERED GLORY
Yet, into this situation came Jesus Christ. He suffered and he died, and because he suffered and he died, he entered into glory. The way back to glory for man, is through Jesus. The suffering, the death and the glory of Jesus are all for us, because Jesus died to make us what we ought to be. He died to remove the frustration and the bondage to sin and weakness and to give us the dominion we ought to have. He died to recreate us until we became what we were originally created to be.
Here are three basic truths from this passage:
- God created us, only a little less than himself, to have the mastery over all things. (This is the IDEAL of what man should be.)
- Man through his sin entered into defeat instead of mastery. (This is the ACTUAL state of man…failure instead of glory.)
- Into this state of defeat came Jesus Christ in order that by his life and death and glory he might make man what he was meant to be. (This is how the actual can be changed into the ideal through Christ!)
Christ is the ONE, who by his sufferings and his glory, can make man what he was meant to be and what, without him, he could never be!
