Hebrews 2:5-9 New American Standard Bible (NASB)^[1]

5 For He did not subject to angels the world to come, concerning which we are speaking.

6 But one has testified somewhere, saying,

“What is man, that You remember him?

Or the son of man, that You are concerned about him?

7 “You have made him for a little while lower than the angels;

You have crowned him with glory and honor,

And have appointed him over the works of Your hands;

8 You have put all things in subjection under his feet.”

For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him.

9 But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.

Before we start I just want to say I am amazed at how God has knit the Scriptures together.

Hebrews 2:8 says “You have put all things in subjection under his feet.”  It may look like this is quoting verse 13, but this is not the case.

Instead this is a quotation from Psalm 8.  

So the preacher is using Psalm 110 in chapter 1 to show Christ’s exaltation.  Then in verse 8 he uses Psalm 8 to show how the Father sent His Son in His incarnation.

By using this precise quote in this passage the preacher is making verses 1 to 4 a transition and tying these 2 Psalms together.  So when the preacher is saying we must pay attention to what was said in chapter 1 he is also saying “Listen up I have more to say on the subject.”  

Hebrews 2:5-18 continues the theme of God speaking to us in His son by discussing His incarnation.

The first section Hebrews 2:5-9 tell of His incarnation by telling us why The Father sent the Son to us as a human.

Hebrews 2:10-18 tells of His incarnation by telling us why The Son came to us as a human.  We will look at Hebrews 2:10-18 next time.

Hebrews 2:5 starts out by saying this.

5 For He did not subject to angels the world to come, concerning which we are speaking.

Here’s the thing:

God never designed the world to be ruled by angels so why is it that we now see such passages in the Bible like Daniel 10:12-13, and Ephesians 6:12?

Daniel 10:12-13 New American Standard Bible (NASB)^[2]

12 Then he said to me, “Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words. 13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for twenty-one days; then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia.

Ephesians 6:12 New American Standard Bible (NASB)^[3]

12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Genesis 1:28 shows us God’s intention was for man to rule the earth from the beginning.

Genesis 1:28 New American Standard Bible (NASB)^[4]

28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

God wanted us to be the custodians of the earth but when we get to Genesis 3 we see that Adam sinned and as a result man became slaves to sin.  The big lie satan told Adam that day was make your own choice and you will be your own man.  

Adam was already his own man.  When he sinned he became sin’s slave.  So now as satan rules the natural man’s heart he rules the kingdoms of this earth.

Is it any wonder we see pollution, famine, and war?  The natural man is corrupted at the root.  Everything he does is corrupted.  Everything he builds has the seed of destruction built into it.

Hebrews 2:6 continues

6 But one has testified somewhere, saying,

“What is man, that You remember him?

Or the son of man, that You are concerned about him?

I am so thankful that God includes but in the Bible.  I am a sinner, BUT GOD.  I am totally without hope, BUT GOD.  

So here the preacher says BUT GOD then looks back at Psalm 8.

I am going to start a little before he begins his quote to add a little context.

I want us to understand the wonder in David’s heart as he wrote this Psalm.

Psalm 8:3-4 New American Standard Bible (NASB)^[5]

3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,

The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;

David was looking at the stars in the sky and was overwhelmed with a sense of awe and just how big God is and how insignificant man is and he asks.

4 What is man that You take thought of him,

And the son of man that You care for him?

Have you ever been overwhelmed with a sense of why would God love me?

In spite of all I have done to provoke God’s anger, He still loves me.

There can be no doubt God loves each and every one of us.  He loves us to a depth we cannot begin to comprehend.

When David wrote this he was writing about God’s love for mankind in general, and himself in particular.

God used this sense of awe in David to inspire him to write this Psalm about how in The Father’s vast love for mankind He would send Jesus to become a man to rescue us from our sin.

The way this passage is quoted in Hebrews makes it very clear that we must look at it Christologically.  This passage has 2 parallel understandings.  

First: David was overwhelmed with a sense of God’s love for mankind.  

Second: David was writing prophecy about Christ’s incarnation.

The point of Christ’s incarnation is that it was necessary for Jesus to become a man so He could rescue us from our sins.

In verses 7 and 8 we see a list of  four things the Father did in sending the Son.

1:  “You have made him for a little while lower than the angels;

For a short period of time Jesus humbled Himself and became a servant.

Philippians 2:6-8 New American Standard Bible (NASB)^[6]

6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Jesus came to  earth as a human and lived as a servant completely obedient to the father.  It is important to understand that Jesus the human was also Jesus the divine.

We need to be careful looking at Philippians 2:2 where it says Jesus emptied Himself.  I have heard it said that somehow Jesus set aside His divine attributes when He came to the earth.  

In other words when Jesus was on the earth He did not have His divine attributes.  This could not be further from the truth. Jesus was 100% man and 100% God with ALL of His divine attributes.

The original word translated emptied means He abased himself.  This can be seen in the context of the verse.  It says He abased Himself and took on the form of a slave.

In His incarnation Jesus never stopped being The Divine Holy Infinite God.

When Jesus abased Himself and became a slave He subjected His divine prerogative to be obedient to the Father.

Jesus chose to do only what The Father gave Him permission to do.

We see Jesus exercising His prerogative when He turned water into wine, and not doing so when He refused to turn stones into bread.  In both cases His actions were in obedience to The Father.

John 1:14 says “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”.^[7]

The word dwelt in this verse means to pitch a tent or tabernacle.

Remember Israel wandering in the wilderness?  Everywhere they went they took the tabernacle with them.  That was because the tabernacle was where God manifest His presence.  Could that tent hold all of an infinite God?  No, but the tent was where they could go and know they were in God’s presence.

Jesus the Son Of Man is the one who came down to live among us so we could have a meaningful understanding and relationship with an infinite God.

 1:  “You have made him for a little while lower than the angels;

2:  You have crowned him with glory and honor,

This crown mentioned here and in verse 9 is not a king’s crown but a victor’s crown.

The specific word for crown in this passage is used only in one other place.

2 Timothy 2:5 New American Standard Bible (NASB)^[8]

5 Also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules.

The word for prize in 2 Timothy 2:5 is the same word translated crown in Hebrews 2: 7 and 9.

So Jesus has been crowned with the victor’s crown of glory and honor.

The greek word for glory is doxa which is where the word doxology from.

I am sure we all remember the doxology.

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;

Praise him, all creatures here below;

Praise him above, ye heavenly host;

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

In hebrew the word for glory is kabod which means heaviness.  In other words glory is that which has preeminent substance.  

This crown of glory means that Jesus has been crowned with a weight of importance that is uniquely His.

This crown is a crown of glory and honor.  The word for honor carries with it the idea of price, or value.  

The secular world would like to hide the importance of Christ’s incarnation by changing our calendars from AD {Anno Domini} In the year of our Lord  to CE common era.  This is laughable because the the common era starts at the time of Christ’s incarnation.

So every time someone makes an appointment, celebrates a birthday, or writes a check; the date they use acknowledges just how important Jesus is in the history of mankind.

1:  “You have made him for a little while lower than the angels;

2:  You have crowned him with glory and honor,

3:  And have appointed him over the works of Your hands;

Here we see Jesus is restoring the world to it’s rightful order.  

Remember in Genesis 1:28 God created man to rule the earth and man’s enslavement to sin put that in satan’s hands.

Now Jesus by His victory on the cross has taken back this responsibility.

1:  “You have made him for a little while lower than the angels;

2:  You have crowned him with glory and honor,

3:  And have appointed him over the works of Your hands;

8 You have put all things in subjection under his feet.”

In Ephesians 1:20-23 Paul prays that we might understand God’s power: “20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”^[9]

When the preacher quotes Psalm 110:1 “Sit at My right hand Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”^[10] we see that this subjugation is to happen in the future.

Then he quotes Psalm 8:8 “and have put all things in subjection under His feet. This says this is an accomplished fact.  

This brings up the question is this victory something that happened or something for the future.  The preacher answers by saying both are true.

In Hebrews 2:8-9 he clarifies this conundrum by saying; “For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him. 9 But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.”

When Jesus tasted death for us He won the victory over sin.

When we see the risen savior we know that we need no longer fear death.

Jesus is the promise of our hope for the final victory where there will be no suffering and sin, and He is the victory that frees us from the slavery of sin.

Why did the Father send the Son?  The answer is to win complete victory over sin.

The preacher wrote the book of Hebrews to encourage us to perseverance.

As we behold Jesus with the victor’s crown we should be encouraged to persevere.

Paul wrote this to the Thessalonians about their perseverance.

Pay careful attention to the prayer at the end.

2 Thessalonians 1:3-12 New American Standard Bible (NASB)^[11]

3 We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater; 4 therefore, we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure. 5 This is a plain indication of God’s righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering. 6 For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, 8 dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, 10 when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed—for our testimony to you was believed. 11 To this end also we pray for you always, that our God will count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power, 12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.